Chapter 33 Chapter 25 World War II: Global Impact (Part 1)

When signing the pact with Stalin, Hitler's goal was to secure the neutrality of the Soviet Union while he wiped out Poland.He could then marshal troops to attack England and France, which he did.At that time, he declared privately: "Let us regard this treaty as securing our rear." As for the Soviet Union, this country was also on his list of future victims. "The Soviet Union is not dangerous at the moment," he said. "We can only oppose the Soviet Union when we have freedom of action in Western Europe. In the next year or two, the current situation will continue."Hitler thus had his plans for conquest drawn out from the beginning: first Poland, then Western Europe, and finally the Soviet Union.He acted on this plan and by it determined the course of World War II until the Soviet Union and Western Europe were strong enough to hold the initiative.

The Second World War, like the First World War, began as a conflict among European countries sparked by ethnic disputes in Eastern Europe.During the first two years, the campaigns were fought only on the European battlefield.Then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, turning World War II into a global war, just as the entry of the United States in 1917 changed the nature of World War I.But at this point, the parallels between the two world wars no longer exist.With Japan's lightning-fast occupation of all of East and Southeast Asia, World War II encompassed far more territory than the previous one.The strategies and weapons used in the two wars were also fundamentally different.In World War I, defense based on trenches and machine gun groups proved superior to offense; in World War II, offense based on tanks and aircraft proved superior to defense.This explains the great fluidity of the front that characterized the Second World War.Entire countries and entire continents changed hands back and forth, in stark contrast to the bloody stalemate on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918.

In Poland, the Germans showed for the first time the deadly effectiveness of their new "blitzkrieg".First, batches of dive bombers bombed communication lines, expanding the atmosphere of terror and chaos.The armored divisions then opened gaps in the enemy's defenses, penetrating deep into the rear, destroying transport and communications facilities, and cutting resisting units to pieces.Finally, the lighter motorized and infantry divisions struck out, with the assistance of aircraft and artillery if necessary, to "clean up" the battered enemy. Unfortunately Poland is exactly the right "institution" for this kind of war.The country is almost entirely the Great Plains, with few natural obstacles to stop the tanks.The Polish army, hopelessly obsolete, had twelve cavalry brigades armed with horses, boots and spurs, but only one armored brigade.In addition, the Polish High Command had spread its troops sparsely across the border in a vain attempt to defend the country's territory.German panzer divisions broke through to selected targets with little effort, cut off supply lines, and surrounded Polish infantry divisions, while the Luftwaffe bombarded targets with only feeble and ineffective resistance from Poland's small air force.The resulting chaos saw only two-thirds of Poland's 1.7 million troops mobilized, and less than half of those troops reached their concentrations.

Within 10 days, the battle was virtually decided.Battalions of German tanks and planes raced through the Polish countryside against fading resistance.The speed of the German advance forced Stalin to take over the territory he had insisted on in his treaty with Hitler. On September 17, the Red Army crossed the border into East Poland, and two days later established contact with the victorious Germans. On September 27, Warsaw fell, and the leaders of the Polish government fled to Romania and from there to France.Two days later, their country was partitioned, with the Germans occupying 37,000 square miles with a population of 22 million and the Soviets occupying 77,000 square miles with a population of 13 million.In less than a month, one of Europe's largest countries has been completely wiped off the map.

The Soviet government was now using the secret protocol of the Moscow Treaty to strengthen its strategic position in the Baltic region. In September and October 1939, it forced Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to agree to establish Soviet military bases on their soil.In compensation, Lithuania received the long-desired city of Vilnius and its environs, which had been part of Poland in the past.The Soviets then offered Finland the cession of certain territories around the Karelian Isthmus and Pesamo on the coast of the Arctic Ocean.Although the Soviets offered large amounts of territory elsewhere as compensation, the Finns refused, as that would have meant losing one of their fortified systems in the Karelian region, the Mannering Line.Since these fortifications were within range of Leningrad's artillery, the Soviets insisted on their demands, and finally the Red Army launched an offensive against Finland on November 30.

Finland appealed to the League of Nations, and the League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union from the League of Nations, arguably the only country to have been treated in this way.The Finns' resistance to the Soviet onslaught was surprisingly successful, repelling Soviet attack after attack at the Mannering Line.Western public opinion also overwhelmingly supports Finland.Volunteers, especially from Sweden, joined the battle-ready Finns, and by February 1940 the British and French governments were also seriously considering sending expeditions to Finland's aid.But at this time, the Soviets, who had seriously underestimated the strength of Finland, were launching a large-scale attack on Finland with regular troops instead of local troops.With a barrage of artillery, they destroyed the Mannering Line and by mid-March had forced the Finns to sue for peace.The ensuing treaty gave the Soviets more territory than they had originally claimed, including the Pesamo area, the port of Vyborg, several islands in the Gulf of Finland, and the Hanko naval base.

Perhaps the main significance of these Soviet actions against Finland and the rest of the Baltics was that they reflected the rivalry and mistrust that existed behind the guise of Soviet-German cooperation.The Baltic Germans, who for centuries had dominated urban centers such as Memel and Riga, retreated to Germany at the insistence of the Soviet Union—and this is amply demonstrated. At the time, there was an uneasy calm on the western front.Britain and France stood helplessly as Poland was partitioned.They could not enter the Baltic Sea, which the Germans had tightly sealed off; their air force could not fly over German airspace;Therefore, the French had to hold firmly on the Maginot Line, and the Germans on the other side of the Siegfried Line did not take any action.Hitler took advantage of this stalemate to express his willingness to make peace to the Western powers.He was immediately rebuffed, but the stalemate continued, and the conflict became colloquially known as the "empty" war, the strange war, the stalemate.

This apparent calm proved unreliable. In a sudden move on April 9, 1940, German troops swept across Denmark and onto the coast of Norway.Their main purpose was to control the fjords off the Norwegian coast, which provided invaluable bases for German submarines and protected ships carrying Swedish iron ore along the coast to Germany.The Danes failed to resist, but the Norwegians, backed by Britain, put up a tough fight.In the end, German control of the skies proved decisive.By the end of April, the Allies had to withdraw from the southern and central parts of Norway.In the north, around the port of Narvik, resistance continued for another month.But by early June, France itself was in life-or-death danger, and the Allied Expeditionary Force sailed away from Norway, taking refuge in London with the Norwegian government.The Germans established their own government in Norway, led by the traitor Quisling; Quisling's name became synonymous with self-interested traitors.

The Allied setback in Norway was soon dwarfed by a stunning blitzkrieg that swept across France and the Low Countries in seven weeks. On May 10, the Germans attacked Holland and Belgium, and France two days later.The Dutch defense collapsed within 5 days.The Belgians held out a little longer, but on May 28, King Leopold surrendered and the Belgian army stopped resisting.By then, the Germans had rounded the northernmost end of the Maginot Line—a line that never reached the sea—and had driven through the Ardennes Forest, opening a 50-mile breach in the French line at Sedan. .The Armored Division now moved rapidly west through Amiens towards the town of Abbeville on the English Channel coast, arriving there on 21 May.

The German breakthrough cut off the British, French and Belgian forces in northern France from the main French forces.The French high command attempted to counterattack, cutting through the ribbon-like protrusions formed by German tanks as they moved across northern France.But general confusion and stupor prevented effective action, and German mechanized forces continued to fan out along the coast of the English Channel.Confederate forces in Flanders, mainly British troops, retreated to Dunkirk, the only port that remained invincible.With half of the harbor destroyed and only miles of empty beaches remaining, the prospect of retreat seemed hopeless.It was hoped that perhaps 45,000 might be saved; in fact, 336,000 were evacuated across the English Channel by boat to England.This "Miracle of Dunkirk" was partly due to Hitler's decision to reorganize his army and head south for a decisive war against France rather than to pursue the full extent of what had become a peripheral operation. victory.Equally important was the courage of the British Admiralty, which mobilized 850 vessels of all ages and classes, including river tugboats, motor boats, fishing boats and seaside paddle steamers, in a motley rescue effort. fleet.The RAF covered the retreat, achieving its first victory against the Luftwaffe.However, in addition to 13,000 dead and 40,000 captured, the British were forced to discard all valuable equipment.

With the completion of the Dunkirk evacuation on June 4, French suffering began.The next day, German troops continued to advance south.By June 13, undefended, government-abandoned Paris was occupied.Two days later, the Germans reached Verdun, where they had suffered a crushing defeat in 1916.By this time, Paul Renault, the French prime minister (who had succeeded Daladier at the end of March), was completely deflated and under the influence of the appeasers in his cabinet.Originally, he had intended to move his government to North Africa, but on June 16 he wearily handed over the premiership to Marshal Petain.Ironically, it was this "hero of Verdun" who was now suing Germany for peace. On June 22, at Compiègne, where the German armistice was signed in 1918, France accepted the harsh terms of the armistice, which included the release of all German prisoners of war, the demobilization of French troops, and the surrender of French warships to German occupation including the main A little more than half of France's territory, including the industrial and grain-producing areas, and the entire French coastline up to the Spanish border. The astonishing impact of the German Blitz was reflected in the unbelievably low casualty figures.Throughout the campaign, France lost about 100,000 men, the other Allies 20,000, and Germany 45,000.These losses were less than half of those suffered by an offensive during World War I.The rapid collapse of France, considered the most powerful country in the West, was naturally a most painful blow.Treason and cowardice were charged with causing this colossal disaster.While these accusations are not entirely unfounded, other factors appear to be more decisive.One factor was the influence of the Soviet-German pact, which allowed Hitler to concentrate his forces on a single front. In 1914, France had received considerable assistance from the Tsarist Russian army fighting on the Eastern Front; now, France had to fight Germany alone, with only meager support from Britain.Perhaps most important was Germany's superiority in several respects, notably the number of aircraft and tanks and the development of new blitzkrieg technologies.The French High Command was at a disadvantage not only because it was inadequately equipped, but more importantly because it could not make effective use of the manpower and material resources at its disposal. After the evacuation of Dunkirk and the fall of France, Hitler naturally took it for granted that Britain would understand and submit.However, he failed to take into account the British people and Winston Churchill.Churchill, a descendant of the Duke of Marlborough, son of Lord Randolph Churchill and Jeanne Jerome, daughter of the former owner of The New York Times, was a born warrior and dissident.Before he was 26, Churchill had fought in Cuba, India's northwest frontier, Sudan and South Africa, where he had been captured and escaped in the Boer War.He was almost discredited by the defeat of the Gallipoli Expedition in World War I, as he had been its main supporter. In the late 1930s he almost single-handedly presided over rearmament, even though rearmament was an unpopular cause at the time.He is characterized by an unwillingness to gain fame by avoiding difficult issues or compromises.Therefore, during the years of Chamberlain's appeasement policy, he took the lead in demanding a firm stand against Axis aggression. Such consistent bravery and outspokenness made him the natural successor to Chamberlain, who was forced to resign on May 10, 1940 for hasty aid to Norway and failure to mobilize the nation for a survival war.Churchill formed an all-party cabinet that included Conservative leader Anthony Eden, who had protested the appeasement of the time, and Labor leaders Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevan policy and resigned as Foreign Secretary in 1938.From the very beginning, Churchill proved himself to be an unrivaled military leader.With characteristic boldness and decisiveness he told his people -- to the world: "We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the mountains; we shall never Surrender." His fellow citizens responded in kind, gritty and confident in their efforts to undertake the difficult work before them. At that time, Hitler was hesitating, not sure what to do next.The unexpectedly rapid fall of France took him by surprise.At first he tried to come to an agreement with the British, whom he always respected very much.When his proposals were ignored, he issued the order to invade the British Isles, "Project Sea Lion", on 16 July 1940.For amphibious operations, however, the German high command had neither the proper equipment nor the necessary experience beyond the invasion of Norway, so it would take time to organize an amphibious operation.The heads of the German Armed Forces wasted a great deal of time in heated debate over the intractable technical problems of crossing the English Channel.However, they all agree that the "Sea Lion Project" cannot be carried out without air supremacy.Reichsmarshal Hermann Göring therefore mobilized his air force, convinced that Britain could be conquered only by air raids and not by dangerous sea crossings. The ensuing air raids developed into the major Battle of Britain, one of the greater turning points of World War II.In this massive air battle, the Luftwaffe had far more aircraft than the RAF - 2,670 to 1,475.However, the RAF Spitfire and Hurricane were more advanced, as the British mass-produced the aircraft a few years later than the Germans.The British also used radar, a new invention that allowed enemy aircraft to be "seen" when they were 50 to 100 miles away from their target.Even so, this near two-to-one numerical advantage would have proved decisive had the Luftwaffe devoted its full strength against the RAF bases and fighters.Goering, however, kept shifting his targets: first the ports on the southeast coast and ships in the English Channel, then RAF bases and radar stations, and finally, in September 1940, London, Coventry and other industrial center.The cities were bombed daily for a month, but the death toll was surprisingly low and industrial production was not seriously affected.According to the doctors, the morale of the people throughout the country, far from being lowered, was raised and strengthened through this ordeal.Moreover, Göring's targeting of the cities was an acquiescence that he could not destroy the combat power of the RAF. On September 17, Hitler ordered that the implementation of the "Sea Lion Project" be postponed until next spring.In fact, this plan to invade Britain has been put on hold forever.Thousands of British and Commonwealth pilots, along with a few scattered Polish, Czech, French and Belgian pilots, managed to repel the Luftwaffe.Churchill said at the height of the battle: "Never in the field of human conflict have so many been so grateful to so few (referring to RAF pilots)." On July 31, 1940, two weeks before the Battle of Britain, Hitler convened a meeting of the top commanders of the army and navy.At the meeting Hitler was advised that a successful invasion of Britain that autumn was highly unlikely.As a result, Hitler made the major decision to invade the Soviet Union the following spring.He arrives at his decision by the following inferences: In preparation for the planned invasion of the Soviet Union, in October 1940, Hitler sent troops to Romania.He informed Moscow that these troops were "training troops" sent to "instruct" the Romanian army.But at the same time, a secret German order stated that the "real task" of these troops was to prepare the Romanian army for the impending invasion of the Soviet Union. Just as Hitler was occupying Romania, Mussolini launched a clumsy invasion of Greece.The "leader", who had long regarded himself as the old-timer of the dictator, became jealous of the astonishingly successful "Führer".Although they were formally allied through the Axis Pact, Hitler never consulted with his Italian counterparts nor informed him as he went from victory to victory. "Hitler always makes me face a fait accompli," Mussolini complained to his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Count Ciano: "This time, I want to deal with him in the same way. He Will find out in the papers that I have occupied Greece." Mussolini thought it would be an easy occupation, but it turned out to be a humiliating failure. On October 28, 1940, Italian troops crossed the border from Albania into Greece, hoping to advance victoriously into Athens.But after advancing some distance across the Greek-Arab border, they were decisively defeated at the Battle of Mesovo on 11 November.Relying on their own tanks and air support, the elite Italian troops, the Alpine Caucasian "Iulia" divisions, advanced down the gorge towards Mesovo, not bothering to capture some of the high ground behind them.The Greek mountain regiments marched hastily through the night to occupy these high grounds overlooking the Italians in the gorge.At dawn they attacked suddenly, and after a fierce battle the Italians fled. The Battle of Mesovo became a model for the Greeks to win in the future.The Greeks often took advantage of the inconvenience of the Italians' cumbersome armored divisions in the Epirus Mountains to occupy high ground, from where they cut off and surrounded the enemy below.By mid-November, they had driven the Italians across the border.Rush back to Albania.In the following weeks they took the major Albanian cities of Korca, Ajirokastron, and Edda.For a while, it seemed that Mussolini had to endure the rout of Dunkirk on the Adriatic. At this point, Mussolini's Axis allies intervened to rescue him from his current embarrassing situation.Hitler did not do so out of loyalty to his partners; in fact, he was annoyed that the war had extended to the Balkans.But he couldn't stand by and watch the Italians fumble, especially since the British were sending air units to Greece.Furthermore, on November 25, 1940, Molotov demanded that Germany recognize Soviet primacy in Bulgaria, the Bosphorus, and the Dardanelles.Hitler made no reply; instead, in December he issued orders to implement Operation Marieta and Operation Barbarossa—directives that would prove fateful for the entire world.Operation Marita's plan called for "occupying the coastal areas of the northern Aegean Sea via Bulgaria and, if necessary ... the whole of mainland Greece." Operation Barbarossa stipulated that "the German army must be prepared to conquer the Soviet Union in a swift campaign, which even It can be done before the end of the war with Britain. . . . The preparations should be completed by May 15, 1941." In preparation for the Marita operation plan, Hitler forced Bulgaria to allow German troops stationed on Romanian territory to cross the Danube into the country. When these forces appeared in Bulgaria in January 1941, Churchill countered by sending troops to Greece, although doing so weakened General Wavell's then-current offensive in North Africa.In the end, the Yugoslav government was forced by the force of the ultimatum to accept the treaty of joining the Axis powers (March 25).However, because the surrender treaty was so unpopular, the Yugoslav government was overthrown by a military coup the next night.Enthusiastic crowds marched through the streets of Belgrade, chanting "Better war than treaty". Less than two weeks later, on April 6, the war really came.As in Poland and France, Nazi Germany's panzer divisions and air forces advanced in unrelenting momentum.The mountainous terrain of the Balkans was not as effective an obstacle as had been hoped, and British land and air forces were too weak to hold back the flood of German troops.By April 13, the Germans had entered Belgrade, and 10 days later the British withdrew their forces from southern Greece to Crete.The Germans then launched an airborne assault on Crete, much to the surprise of the British, who had not expected an air attack from mainland Greece, 180 miles north of Crete.Despite heavy losses, the Germans finally gained full control of the island by early June. With every possibility of success, with the prospect of encroaching on the whole of the Middle East, Hitler now had an opportunity in the Mediterranean that he could have taken advantage of.In addition to victories in the Balkans, his armies achieved equally impressive victories in North Africa under the able and energetic General Erwin Rommel. Between December 1940 and August 1941, Wavell scored an initial victory in North Africa by driving the Italians back from the Egyptian border to Tripolitania.But immediately thereafter, the British army was weakened by withdrawing some troops to participate in the Greek campaign.Meanwhile, the Germans rushed to North Africa to support their Italian allies.British intelligence underestimated the strength of these reinforcements, so when Rommel launched his attack on March 31, 1941, he was able to break through.In less than a month, he captured the entire area of ​​Benghazi, Bardia, and Cyrenaica. Victories in the Balkans and North Africa provided Hitler with the opportunity to launch a massive pincer offensive on Suez through Libya and Egypt on the one hand, and Turkey and Syria on the other.But the Führer missed the opportunity because, as one German diplomat put it, Hitler was traveling along "an ideological one-way street against the Soviet Union."Instead of taking advantage of the favorable situation in the Middle East, he moved his various divisions from the Balkans to the Eastern Front. On June 22, 1941, the mighty German army finally crossed the Soviet border, five weeks later than planned due to the Balkan campaign. In August 1939, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler for a variety of reasons, including deep distrust of Western leaders and a desire to buy time to strengthen the military and industry.He also foresees that sooner or later Germany and the Western powers will clash in a war of attrition, with the Soviet Union free to avoid war because of its non-aggression pact until it is in its favor. "If war breaks out," he told his comrades, "we will never stand still. We will have to fight, but we must be the last to fight. We fight to put a decisive weight on the scales , this weight will tip the scales." The strategy was shrewd, yet it set the Soviet Union back on its own feet and nearly ruined the country.It was based on the assumption that German and Western armies were evenly matched and would kill each other, making the Red Army the dominant force on the European continent.On the contrary, the German army conquered all its opponents almost effortlessly, making Germany the master of the European continent and leaving the Soviet Union helpless and in danger. Stalin was by no means the only one surprised by Hitler's series of quick, decisive victories.What is difficult to understand is why Stalin was unprepared for the German attack on June 22.According to Khrushchev's later testimony, Stalin did not want to believe the increasingly obvious signs of the German army's preparations for war.He ignored repeated warnings from Churchill and his own intelligence agencies.Instead, he continued to supply Hitler's war machine with ever-increasing amounts of food and military supplies until the very last moment.The question of why Stalin, the ever-skeptical realist, was so unfortunate in his relationship to Hitler remains one of the great mysteries of World War II. At first it seemed that the Soviet Union would crumble in the same ignominious manner as Poland and France.The German armored divisions broke through the frontier defenses in the manner they were now familiar with, penetrated deep into the rear, surrounded the entire Soviet army, and took tens of thousands of prisoners.By the end of the year, German forces had invaded 600 miles east, capturing the most industrialized and densely populated areas of the Soviet Union. In addition to the important factor of surprise, the Germans won because they had a numerical advantage from the beginning.Hitler attacked the opponent's army of nearly 2 million with an army of about 3 million.Of course, the Soviets had plenty of reserves to draw on, but the bombing of the Luftwaffe made it difficult for the Soviets to use them quickly and effectively.Having fought in various environments in Poland, France, and the Balkans, the Germans also had the distinct advantage of combat experience.Moreover, recent Soviet publications have revealed previously unsuspected weaknesses in the Soviet Army.Most of the aircraft of the Soviet Red Army Air Force were concentrated at the small airfield near the border, and most of them were bombed the first day.The Red Army did not have enough anti-tank guns to deal with the massive, sometimes 100 tanks per kilometer attack of the German panzer divisions. In 1941, the German infantry mostly had submachine guns, while the Soviets only had rifles.Finally, we should remember that this is not a struggle between the Soviet Union and Germany, but a struggle between the Soviet Union and the European continent.In other words, the Soviet Red Army had to deal not only with the German army, but also with the large armies of Finland, Romania, and Hungary. In addition to competing with German arsenals, the Soviet arsenal also had to compete with French and Czechoslovakian arsenals.Thus, although the steel production of the Soviet Union in 1941 was almost equal to that of Germany, it was more than half that of Germany and the rest of the continent. Hitler's strategy was to advance along the 1,000-mile front from Finland to Romania, pushing eastward to the line from Leningrad to Moscow, Kharkov, and Rostov.The German Army intended to encircle and destroy the Red Army west of this line, so they did not need to extend their front to and beyond the Ural Mountains.Due to the above factors, the Germans achieved almost all their proposed territorial goals, they captured Kharkov and Rostov, and almost completely surrounded Moscow and Leningrad.In Leningrad, the daily ration of substitute bread was reduced to about 4 ounces; a third of the nearly 3 million city dwellers starved to death before the dreaded winter was over. Despite these impressive advances, the German campaign of 1941 fell short of basic strategic goals.Neither Moscow nor Leningrad was captured, and the Red Army was battered but intact.In fact, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive on December 10th that smashed the German pincer offensive on Moscow and Leningrad, and also recaptured Rostov - a city large and small that the Germans had captured and then had to abandon The first city in .So, despite heavy losses, the Red Army did a lot better than expected.The Red Army's survival was also not due to "universal winter" as is commonly believed.When the Germans launched their first and largest offensive against Moscow in October, the weather was unusually warm.The winter weather did not hamper the Germans until the second offensive after November 16, but it also hampered the Soviet counter-offensive, which would otherwise have been more successful than it actually was. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and World War II transformed from a European-wide conflict to a global one.When the war first began, almost all Americans were determined to remain neutral.Like President Woodrow Wilson, President Roosevelt made this determination public; on September 3, 1939, he declared to the nation: "Peace will not cease."But Hitler's surprise victory, and especially the fall of France, forced U.S. policymakers to question whether neutrality automatically provided protection from being drawn into war.If Hitler conquered Britain and then took control of the Atlantic Ocean—which at the time seemed by no means impossible—would the American continent be next on the list of conquests? These factors led Washington to conclude that the best way to avoid war was to provide all but war aid to those nations still at war with Germany.This explains why the United States signed the "Destroyer and Base Exchange Agreement" (September 2, 1940), gradually shifting from a neutral position to a non-belligerent position, and why the United States formulated the "Lend-Lease Act" (March 1, 1941) , signed the Atlantic Charter (August 12, 1941), and issued several orders (August-September 1941, which ordered the United States Navy to escort all belligerent and neutral merchant ships between Newfoundland and Iceland, and required the United States The Navy opened fire on Axis warships as soon as they saw them appearing in these waters), moving from a non-belligerent stance to a non-declared war stance. While President Roosevelt worked to limit Axis expansion in the West, he also tried to check Japanese aggression in the Pacific.Successive Tokyo governments, however, have become increasingly belligerent because of the supposed opportunities offered by developments in Europe.Hitler's victory left France, Britain, and the Netherlands virtually undefended in their fertile territories in East and Southeast Asia.Therefore, on September 27, 1940, Japan signed the "Triple Treaty" with Germany and Italy.This treaty recognized the hegemony of Germany and Italy in Europe and Japan in Asia, and required that each signatory should provide each other with sufficient assistance should any of the signatories be attacked by the United States. However, the Japanese were not directly interested in the war in Europe.Pursuing their interests, they signed a treaty with the Soviet Union on April 13, 1941, in which both sides pledged to remain neutral if one "became the target of an attack by one or several other countries." When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, he asked Japan to cooperate with him in attacking the Soviet Union from the east.The Japanese doubted the purpose of the Germans in Asia and refused to agree to this request.Plus, they see the more fascinating parts of Southeast Asia, which are in turmoil, offering obvious opportunities for them.By the summer of 1941, they had captured bases in French Indochina, had signed a treaty of alliance with Thailand, and were claiming oil and rubber products from the Dutch East Indies.At that time, the British were in a very difficult situation in Europe, so they withdrew from Shanghai and only kept some non-combat troops in Hong Kong and Singapore.Therefore, the time seemed ripe for the Japanese to occupy all of East and Southeast Asia, as long as the United States did not interfere. Japanese leaders are divided on the issue of relations with the United States.The army was ready to challenge Britain, France and the United States directly, but the navy, diplomats and industrialists mostly disagreed with this approach. 1941 年10月，赞成与美国和解的首相近卫又麿辞职，于是出现了转折点。 “剃刀脑袋”东条英机将军接替了近卫，组织了一个由陆、海军军官组成的内阁——据说这是一个“充满火药味的内阁”。东条决定，通过外交或武力手段，在这年年底之前跟美国算帐。日本驻华盛顿大使野村吉三郎海军上将和来栖三郎特使一起同美国国务卿科德尔·赫尔在这最后时刻举行了一系列会谈。双方的立场相差甚远，因此，达成和解根本不可能。 当时，东京政府每天的决定赫尔都知道，因为日本的电台密码已被破译。因此，一份份“注意戒备”的警告送到了珍珠港，送到了驻扎在菲律宾的美国远东军司令道格拉斯·麦克阿瑟将军的手中。12 月7日，参谋长乔治·C·马歇尔将军从华盛顿向珍珠港发出了最后一份警告。由于静电故障妨碍了美军电台的使用，因此，这一消息只得通过商业渠道传送。在火奴鲁鲁岛，这份电报交给了一位骑自行车的邮差。当他还在送信途中，即上午7点刚过，日本的炸弹已开始落在这座岛屿上。几小时之内，除三艘巡洋舰和三艘驱逐舰被炸毁外，珍珠港上的八艘战列舰中有五艘被击毁。与此同时，日本另一支特遣部队摧毁了美军在菲律宾的大部分飞机。 遵照《三国条约》的条款，德国和意大利向美国宣战。这样，美国不但在欧洲，而且在亚洲，完全卷入了这场战争。此时，在华盛顿围绕要战争还是要和平这一问题展开的激烈争论突然停止了。总统向这时已团结起来的全国人民发表了讲话，他宣布：“我们现在已处于战争之中。我们一直都在这场战争之中。每一个男人、女人和孩子都是我们美国历史上这一最巨大的事业的参与者。”美国作为参与者的作用就是成为“各民主国家的兵工厂”。1943年至1944年，这家“兵工厂”的最高生产纪录是每天生产一艘船，每五分钟制造一架飞机；6年的战争中，它生产了87，0O0辆坦克、296，000架飞机和5，300万吨位的船只。