ROMILA THAPAR- A GREAT INDIAN HISTORIAN

 Romila Thapar had to write a book to answer her detractors who criticized her as a leftist historian. I knew that was a very unfair judgment on her. Recently I bought her latest book " Our History, Their History, Whose History."  

Romila Thapar is denigrated as a Marxist Historian by the BJP and its supporters. But why did they label her thus? Is that because she wrote a history not in tune with its ideas? But History cannot be written according to some agenda. It flows as per corroborative evidence. No doubt each historian has their own bias but ultimately whatever they write is based on corroborative evidence and is not like fiction without any evidence.

Let us examine what is the background of Romila Thapar. She was born in 1931 and is the daughter of Lieutenant General Dayaram Thapar who served as the Director General of the British Indian Armed Forces Medical Services. General P.N.Thapar, her uncle was the Chief of Army Staff during the 1962 India-China war.

She did her schooling in Pune and also did her Intermediate at Pune. She then graduated from the Punjab University in English Literature. She then obtained a 2^nd honours bachelor’s degree in History at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London and went on to take her Doctorate from London University guided by no less than A.L.Basham, the author of ‘The Wonder that was India”.

Romila Thapar was a Reader in Ancient History at Kurukshetra University in 1961-62 and in Delhi University between 1963-70. She wrote the History of India Volume I which narrates Indian History from ancient times till the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth century.

She holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Chicago, the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburg. She holds many more honorary positions apart from these.

Both in 1992 & 2005 she declined the Padma Bhushan. To President Abdul Kalam she explained that she only accepts awards from academic institutions or with those associated with her work and not state awards.            

She never married and seems to have dedicated her life to Indian History. Romesh Thapar, the TV Journalist is her cousin.

In the year 2002 itself the then BJP Government changed the CBSE school textbook for Class VI and deleted some passages which she wrote without even informing her. She protested to the Government and therefore has become a Marxist to some people.

Romila Thapar is a visiting Professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania and the College de France in Paris. She was elected the General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983.      

ROMILA THAPAR-“OUR HISTORY, THEIR HISTORY, WHOSE HISTORY?

Romila Thapar says there is a difference between a trained Historian and one who professes to know history.

The former researches in depth for a happening and tries to find corroborative evidence. Only when events are matched with a number of sources, it becomes established history.

For a person who professes to know history no such proof is needed. They have a narrative for buttressing their narration which they conveniently call history.

What the latter quote is not history. History does not come in from a social media post on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Whatsapp. It comes from painstaking research on the subject and even then it can still be imperfect and can be challenged by other Historians. (This para is mine and not Thapars)  

To claim that it is history when there is a narrative without any corroborative evidence is not at all in tune with the modern methods. This narration is no better than a mere viewpoint and cannot be called history.

She gives an example for this. India claims it knew about Democracy before everyone else.

Athens in Greece was known as a cradle of Democracy for the West. But what type of Government did Athens have? All its citizens did not have a vote. Only the freemen had vote. Their slaves whose number was numerous did not have any voting rights and neither did their women. So their democracy is not the Democracy the West practices today. Yes a rudimentary type of Democracy did exist in Greece then, but the Modern Democracy we practice today is totally different from what was practiced then in Greece. 

Some people claim that the Indian tradition in the ancient times practiced Democracy (Example are the tribal republic of the Licchavis of which Buddha’s clan Sakyas was a part). The Indian sources do maintain the centrality of “Gana Sanghas” & “Gana Rajyas”. These are more prominent in the Buddhist texts than in the Brahmanical texts.

These tribes actually represent clan based societies where a particular clan would be dominant. These Republics did not mean that everyone was held equal and everyone had a right to decide what to do. In these Sanghas or Sabhas seniority is more of a qualifying factor than merely being a member of the clan. Also it should be noted that it is the Kshatriya families who more frequently sat in these assemblies. The Shudras and the Dasas despite being in a majority were not considered in these bodies. The Panchayat’s of the medieval times and the village assemblies had a selected membership more based on caste with the higher castes occupying maximum numbers.

So we too had a rudimentary form of Democracy like Athens did, but the comparison of a modern Democracy with the either the Athenian or Indian context at that time is meaningless. But some people say everything is invented only in India. No doubt India has given some fundamental ideas to the world but to say that we invented everything is foolishness. (This again is my own comment and not Thapars)  

END OF WORLD WAR II-DEFEAT OF JAPAN.

 Japan captured the entire Pacific and grabbed all the territories like Guam, Philippines, Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia, and Burma.

But it was checked by the British on the borders of India by the British Indian army and by Australia and New Zealand in Guinea.

It wanted to make another attack on Pearl Harbour but as there was already one attack it was too well defended now. Therefore it preferred to hit Midway.

It assumed that the US would never think that Japan would attack Midway. But this information got leaked to American intelligence beforehand. With that the American navy was on a high alert at Midway.

The code name for the attack was AF. Not only had the US intelligence broke the code, it knew on which day and at what time the attack would commence. The US had an aircraft carrier by the name of Yorktown got damaged in a Japanese attack. Japan felt happy it was out of action. But the Americans got it repaired in 2 days’ time itself and brought in Yorktown again into action.

Japan aircraft carriers  Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu which played a main role in the Pearl Harbour attack. Japan attacked Midway in full flow and the battle went on tight.

The US carriers Hornet and Enterprise counter-attacked the Japanese. But the Japanese zero fighters neutralized their attack. After that Japan relaxed and sent its planes for refueling and for reloading of weapons.

Exactly at that time the American navy attacked the Japanese ships. The time difference between the two attacks was just 1 hour. Japan never imagined that the American navy would attack in just 1 hour and was taken by surprise.

With this attack, the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga and Soryu were finished. The 4^th Japanese carrier Hiryu attacked Yorktown and damaged it. But the American navy attacked for the 3^rd time and finished off Hiryu as well.

With that big defeat, Japanese navy lost 4 carriers and became badly weakened. This gave an advantage to the Allies and they took the Japanese possessions in the pacific one by one.

But Japan said there is no question of surrender and they would fight to the last man. The nearer the Allied forces got to the main island of Japan the resistance increased fiercely.

One Japanese soldier was fighting equal to 10 allied soldiers for the sake of their country. America got frustrated with Japan and many Allied soldiers died. Military leaders estimated that to take Japan would have 1 million more casualties.

At that time the US got news that its Nuclear bomb experiment was a success and it opted for dropping a nuclear bomb on Japan to stop the war. It dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on 6t July 1945 and Hiroshima virtually ceased to exist but even then Japan did not agree to surrender. Then the US dropped another bomb on Nagasaki on 9^th July 1945. The Japanese soldiers were ready to die for their country but they were not ready to sacrifice innocent civilians for that and Japan finally surrendered on 2^nd September 1945.

WORLD WAR II—FALL OF HITLER.

 Hitler remembered the pincer movement by which he defeated the French army through the Ardennes forest. Again Hitler sent his army through the Ardennes forest to trap the American army. This is known as the battle of the Bulge. Hitler’s forces trapped the American army in Bastogne. Coming to know of that Patton’s 3^rd army attacked the Germans from the back and pushed back the Germans and the American forces in Bastogne were saved. With this defeat the German army lost its morale. Although they were fighting they did not have the fire they had earlier.

The allied powers from the west and the Russians from the East were slowly eating up the German empire of Hitler. They were competing as to who would reach Berlin first. The Russians became raving mad and started slaughtering everyone they encountered. They moved forward with lightning speed. The Soviet army reached Berlin first and was massacring everyone. Hitler could have easily escaped if he wanted but he did not want to be called a coward who ran away. On 18^th April 1945 325,000 German troops surrendered to the Americans. On 20^th April the Soviet forces bombed Berlin. That day was Hitler’s birthday. On 21^st April 1945 the Soviet army came up to the entrance of Berlin.

Hitler sent message to General Felix Steiner to stop the Soviet army. Next day Hitler came to know that Steiner said a counterattack was impossible. As it was Hitler was not well at that time. When he heard that news he fainted. After he got up he said that everything was over. He blamed his Generals responsible for the defeat. He then asked the SS physician Heyes as to what is the easiest mode of suicide. Heyes advised that bullets coated with cyanide is the best option. Earlier in 1941 Hitler stated the Herman Goering the chief of the Luftwaffe as his successor.

Goering came to know that Hitler was about to commit suicide. He then sent a telegram to Hitler requesting for his authorization to take over as Hitler’s successor. Hitler then stripped off all of Goering’s official title and medals and ordered him to be arrested.

On 27^th April 1945 the Soviet army surrounded Berlin from 4 sides. On 28^th April 1945 Hitler came to know the German army under Himmler sent a message to surrender to the allied forces which they refused.

Hitler was shocked he said you coward you have lost our prestige by such action and ordered him to be arrested. Hitler understood that the Allied powers may come anytime into his bunker.

He then called his girlfriend Eva Braun and asked her to flee so that she could survive. Eva said life or death it is with Hitler. There were tears in Hitler’s eyes and he embraced Eva. Hitler did not want Eva to die as an unknown person. He said the world has to recognize you as my wife. Then he called his Generals and told them tomorrow is our marriage, make arrangements. He named Carl Doenitz and Joseph Goebbels as his successors..

On 29^th April Hitler came to know that his friend Mussolini was lynched by a mob on the street. That midnight he married Eva Braun. First Hitler used the cyanide bullets on his favourite dog Blondie. It died in just 5 seconds. On 30^th April at midnight 1 AM. Hitler finally met all his generals and their family members and bid them farewell. Then he and his wife Eva went into their room.

At 3.30 AM there was a sound of a bullet being fired from Hitler’s room. The Generals found him lying dead on the sofa; He killed himself by firing the gun on his temple. Eva did not have any injuries on her body. She too used Cyanide and died. Then his generals burnt their bodies and cremated them.  The World’s most dangerous and most powerful dictator ultimately had to pay a price for his actions.

As a military commander, Hitler had amazing tactics but it was inevitable that he would fail. He was fighting the entire world all alone. Mussolini was useless in fighting and Hitler had to support him everywhere. The Japanese were in a far-off area and their actions did not help Hitler in any manner. He had to simultaneously fight the English, the US, and Russia as well. However brilliant he may be who can win such a war?

To see the magnitude of the difficulty Hitler had look at the following populations of the main powers engaged in the war rounded off to the nearest crore.

The British Empire including colonies                       55 crores

Soviet Union                                                             17 crores

United States                                                            15 crores

France including colonies                                         11 crores

TOTAL MAIN ALLIES                                               98 crores       

Germany                                                                   9 crores

Italy                                                                           6 crores

Japan including colonies                                        30 crores

TOTAL MAIN AXIS POWERS                                45 CRORES.

So the population of the main allies was double that of the Axis powers. On top of that Japan was as good as useless to Hitler as it fought its own war in South East Asia and could not help Japan in any manner militarily. On top of that it stupidly pulled the US into the war. As for Italy, it was a big liability and it bungled in whatever it did so Hitler had to support it all the time. Ultimately he had to takeover Italy with the aid of German forces.

That means Germany with its population of 8 crores was fighting Russia, Britain & its colonies, the US and France whose combined population was 98 crores and they were also economically more powerful than him. If there had been any unequal battle in history, then this is the one.

Despite that Hitler gave them a big fright and had it not been for his blunder of attacking Russia, he would have won Europe comfortably and Britain would not have had a chance against him without the Eastern front from Russia. Even in Russia he almost won but for the terrible Russia winter that intervened. It was Russia that did the bulk of the fighting against the Germans in the 2nd World War and not Britain or the US as it appears from their films. It was also Russia that entered Berlin first much before the US or Britain could and after seizing the city raised their flag on the German Parliament.

Hitler was a brilliant commander and about that there is not a shred of doubt. It is unfortunate that his mind has gone astray and persecuted the Jewish race horribly for no fault of theirs. 

WORLD WAR II-SLOW REVERSAL OF TEH TIDE OF BATTLE

 

In the meanwhile after the battle of Stalingrad the Soviet army never stopped too take a breather. It marched ahead and wrested control of Kursk, Kharkov and Rostov lost to German armies earlier. The German morale was hurt by these losses and a fierce massed tank struggle started between the 2 forces. Hitler called his Field Marshal and rebuked him. Come on, when those  forces are attacking why are you taking it lying down? Go and mount a counter attack. All that anger Field Marshal Mannstein showed on his army and they counter attacked the red army. The red army was shocked at this counter attack. In that anger the German forces pushed back the Russian forces up to Kursk. If teh same momentum continued Hitler would have triumphed  but again nature went against Hitler. The rainy season set in and the tanks got bogged down in the soil and could not proceed.

15^th April Hitler ordered for Operation Citadel. By which Hitler wanted to pin down the red army in the same manner at Kursk like the way the German 6^th army was pinned and defeated. As planned the German army cornered the red army at Kursk. Here Hitler committed another blunder, instead of asking his armies to attack Kursk immediately he ordered his army to wait till further numbers of tanks arrived. In the meantime Stalin came to knew about the attack. He thought okay, you want to do that so now see my mastermind. He ordered his troops to wait till the Germans attack and not to start the attack under any circumstances. But what to do till then? Stalin asked them to make fortifications around Kursk, dig bunkers and lay minefields in the likely area the German army would progress. Thus Hitler gave precious time to Stalin to buttress his defences of Kursk. The red army also destroyed all rail and roadways leading to Kursk. By the time the Germans got theri additional tanks it was too late. The Germans had an army  780,000 around Kursk and 3000 tanks. The red army had  2,000,000 soldiers and 5000 tanks.

Ultimately Hitler gave the green signal to attack Kursk. The German soldiers who rested for a full 2 months fell on the red army with great vigour. But the mines laid by the red army hindered the movement of German tanks and 36 tanks who crossed them exploded. With great difficulty the German army pierced through the minefields. Thereafter the tank battle that was fought was unprecedented in the world. In the initial spurt Germany lost 80 tanks while the soviets lost 650 tanks. But the red army did not turn back and were fighting desperately. It is a like a life and death game for both the armies. This is the time when allied powers launched an attack on Sicily. Because of that thrust Germany which was on the offensive fell back into defence. Seeing the opportunity the red army took up the offence now and they managed to push back Germans from Kursk and won the battle by seizing Belgorav and Kharkov which were in the hands of the Germans. This battle raged from 5^th July 1943 o 23^rd August 1943. This is another setback for Hitler.

Now the British and the Americans planned to mount a sea attack on France. However, Hitler knew that this would come sometime and he got a wall of fortifications constructed all along the coast of France known as Atlantic wall. He kept the Panzer group west battalion in reserve in France.

Calais was the best place for a landing which Hitler also knew so he kept a lot of soldiers to defend it. The allied powers took a risky decision and selected the beach at Normandy for a landing. The Germans never imagined that an attack would come at this place because if an invasion has to be made it also has to be supported by a port nearby. But Normandy did not have any such port. For this the allied powers thought out a strategy. They made an artificial mulberry harbour in the sea. For supply of oil they laid a large pipeline all along the channel. They manufactured waterproof tanks for the attack. With this they became amphibious. All these inventions were made by one Percy Hobart of the US. He was a military engineer. There were also other technologically advanced powerful tanks heavy artillery and large ships were manufactured to carry the equipment.

 

WORLD WAR II-ALLIED LANDING ON FRENCH SOIL AT NORMANDY

 

June 1944 at Normandy in 5 beaches British forces at Gold, Juno and Sword and American forces at Omaha and Utah were planned for landing. The allied forces selected a full moon day for the attack. In darkness targeting the German defence would have been very difficult and that is why they selected a full moon day.

Two days before full moon a huge downpour started and the allied Supreme Commander Eisenhover wanted to delay the operation. However, if the operation is delayed it has to wait for the next full moon and if that happens Hitler may get intelligence on the operation in which case it would be impossible to defeat the Germans. However, the British meteorologist predicted that the rain would cease on 6^th. With that Eisenhover gave a green signal for the attack on the scheduled date. 6000 ships started their journey for the mission along with minesweepers in the front. For a few weeks before the invasion the allied airforce continued to attack the Luftwaffe with airstrikes. With that the strength of the Luftwaffe almost dwindled to zero and it had no means to counter any allied air attack.

The allies dropped para troopers one day before behind the beaches at Normandy to support the landing troops. The Normandy region too had bunkers and fortifications that can be used to attack the allied troops. Unless they are neutralized it would be impossible for the allied armies to progress. On the midnight of June 5^th 17000 paratroopers landed at Normandy. The para troopers had a tough fight neutralizing the German defences and they incurred heavy losses. Yet they accomplished their mission which is to destroy as much as German defence as possible. The paratroopers destroyed the communications and defences of the Germans so that the German reserves are prevented from coming to the help of German defences.

After they received a green signal from the paratroopers the allied forces mounted a big air strike on Normandy with the allied ships too firing on them. June 6^th 1944 morning 6.30 AM the invasion began and thousands of American and British forces made landings on the Normandy beach.

Out of the 5 beaches in 4 beaches the defences were fully neutralized by the paratroopers but in 1 beach named Utah beach they failed. American forces died left and right on that beach from the German defence. The allied forces were being killed left and right when they attacked. But the American forces had been very fortunate because some soldiers by mistake has landed on another beach which was deserted. There was not a single German soldier on that beach. They understood that they have come to the wrong beach. Teddy Roosevelt Junior was among them and he was general on the verge of retirement. He shouted hey come and fight with guys but no one was there at all. Then one junior officer said sir let us go back as no one is there. Roosevelt smiled and said this is an opportunity we got man let us fight. The soldiers then put paid to the minor German defence in the area. Roosevelt then messaged Eisenhover who then messaged the troops fighting in the Utah area to divert their attack to the new beach. It seems even today one can find the statue of Roosevelt on that beach.

In Omaha beach too the American forces failed to neutralize the German defences and all the paratroopers were killed. When the Sherman DD tanks were landed on Omaha beach, of the 27 tanks only 2 managed to get ashore and the rest were waterlogged. In the Omaha beach alone 4000 American soldiers died. However, with the coordination of the British army the Omaha beach was finally captured. The allied troops then brought in lakhs of troops through the beaches to attack France and Hitler. Slowly the allied forces took control of entire France. Next target is Belgium. There the allied army and the Germans had a great fight which the allies finally won. The American forces were heavily attacking Netherlands when Hitler brought forth his master plan again.

 

WORLD WAR II-THE LIABILITY OF HAVING ITALY AS AN ALLY.

 

After the Stalingrad victory the Russian army became aggressive and drove out the German army from a swathe of Soviet territory.

Before this in 1942 itself the allied forces dealt a minor blow to the Axis powers in North Africa. In 1941 under the leadership of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel the majority allied areas in North Africa have been captured by the Axis powers. From 1941 to 1943 the Axis powers fought the allied forces led by Britain back and forth Rommel’s tactics are superb. The British defeated his forces and pushed them back. Rommel made a counter attack  in such a way that the allied forces not only lost the area they gained from the Axis powers but also lost some more territory of theirs as well. Rommel wanted the entire North Africa.

In the 1^st battle of El Alamein was fought between the Axis powers led by Rommel and the British and Commonwealth forces led by General Claude Auchinleck in July 1942. The allied forces managed to stop the advance of Rommel’s forces when they were dangerously close to Alexandria just 100 Km away. This is a moral victory for the allied forces. At that time even stopping Hitler looked impossible let alone defeat the German forces.

The 2^nd battle of El Alamein was fought between 23^rd October 1942 to November 11^th 1942. The allied forces were now led by General Montgomery as Claude Auchinleck was sacked. This time the allied powers changed their game plan. They felt defeating Hitler’s troops on a single front was impossible and adopted the the double front tactics of Hitler himself. In this battle the American forces from the west and the British forces from the east simultaneously attacked Rommel’s troops. Rommel had to divide his troops into two which weakened both of them and the allied plan became a grand success. Finally Rommel’s forces got defeated and the entire North Africa came back into allied hands. That was the first defeat for Hitler and thereafter it was one defeat after another for him. Next blow was the Stalingrad campaign described earlier.

The Russians then held a meeting with the British and the Americans. They said, we are doing all the fighting with Hitler and you are proceeding in a relaxed manner. This would not do. You open a 2^nd front on Hitler and fight his forces. Britain then wanted to conquer France first from the South and attack Hitler. But the Americans had a different view. If a direct fight is had with Hitler they felt the allies would have to take high losses in both men and material, so they opted for a surreptitious attack on Hitler. We shall send our forces through the sea from Northern France un announced they said. But Churchill is an obstinate character did not budge from his stand, so America finally agreed to his plan.

The allies had a low opinion of Mussolini and the considered him to be a buffoon who is only good at giving speeches. He is no good at war, but his comfort is Hitler is there to back him. So it is better to take this weak link first. On 3^rd July 1943, the allied powers then made a sudden attack on Sicily named Operation Husky and rained bombs on Rome at the same time. Sicily had many migrant Americans and on top of that many Italians were not interested to join the 2^nd World War. The anti feeling on Mussolini went on increasing each day in the army as well as the people.

The Italian forces instead of fighting the allies like the Germans simply ran away in great haste. So the allies could easily occupy Sicily. Since Mussolini lost peoples support his opponents in the Fascist party rebelled and kicked him out of the Fascist council. The Italian forces were not good at fighting and they hastily surrendered to the allies along with the Fascist council.

Hitler is very intelligent and knew that this is going to happen. He sent German forces to take possession of Italy under Operation Axis. With that entire Italy came into German hands. But the morale of the allied forces was lifted by a spate of allied victories over Hitler. But when they tried to land in Italy the monsoon had set in it became very difficult to land the tanks and other equipment as well as proceed. The USA now said; see we already told you that we should attack through Northern France to which Churchill was forced to agree.

Filed Marshal Rommel was a highly decorated officer in the 1^st World War and he wrote a book on military tactics known as ‘Infantry Attacks”. Rommel led Hitler’s armies in Africa and was highly successful before he was finally defeated. He was a clean general and did not employ slaughter as other German generals did. He finally commanded the German forces against the allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. He was later implicated in a plot to kill Hitler. Hitler did not want to do anything to him in public looking to his status as a national war hero. So Rommel was offered a death by suicide with a promise that his reputation would not be tarnished and his family looked after. He committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill.

WORLD WAR II- FIRTS DEFEAT SUFFERED BY HITLER

 

Unfortunately in all the countries the Axis armies occupied the enemy soldiers were ruthlessly killed. POW’s have been sent to labour camps for work. Many women have been raped and used by the army and lakhs of them converted into prostitutes for the use of soldiers. Hitler too had been merciless with the Jews and also with the opposition party leaders and even the physically handicapped and they have all been killed mercilessly..In this way Germany in Europe and Japan in Asia committed many war crimes. People were praying god to save them from the Axis powers and god seems to have heard their cries.

The battle for Stalingrad was a critical turning point in the 2^nd world war. The winter neutralized the Axis troops and both Moscow and Stalingrad could not be taken and the Soviet army went on resisting them. Looking to the delay, Hitler now changed the war plan which was not to the liking of his Generals. Angered, Hitler dismissed them and took command.

What was Hitler’s new plan? To weaken the Soviet army he wanted to stop them from getting fresh arms and oil supplies. Stalingrad had many industries manufacturing arms and the oil fields were in the Caucasus mountains. The weapons are supplied through the Volga river. So Hitler felt if he could win Stalingrad, Volga river and Caucasus then it would be game over for the Soviets. He named this operation “Case Blue”. It went on from 28^th June 1942 to 24^th Nivember 1942. Hitler wanted to start this operation immediately after winter in May 1942 but due to the battle of Kharkov that too place between the German troops and Russia he had to shift the operation by 2 months. This turned out to be very costly for Hitler.

For Case Blue operation Hitler deployed 13,00,000 soldiers and 1500 aircraft. He divided it into group “A” and group “B”. Group “A” consisted of 17^th army and 1^st Panzer army commanded by Wilhelm List. This group has to penetrate deep and occupy the oil reserves at Baku. After taking hold of Caucasus they have to join Group “B”

Group “B’ consisted of 6^th German army, 4^th Panzer army, 2 armies from Romania, 1 army from Italy and 1 army from Hungary. Their target is to take the Olga river and Stalingrad. Field Marshal Fedor Von Bock was commanding this group.

 The was fierce, but by 20^th August 1942 the German army crossed the Don River and reached the outskirts of Stalingrad. Immediately Stalin ordered that all the foodstuffs as well as cows and goats are to be shifted out of the city. But he ordered that the 400,000 people of Stalingrad to stay put. The German army had 270,000 soldiers, 500 tanks and 600 aircraft and 3000 artillery pieces. The Soviet army 190,000 soldiers, 4000 tanks, 3000 aircraft and 2200 artillery pieces. Although the German troops had the numerical advantage in soldiers the Russian tanks and aircraft are far more in number.

The Luftwaffe bombed Stalingrad left and right heavily and thousands of people died. The 201 aircraft that came for counter attack were downed by teh Luftwaffe in just 8 days. By September the German forces closed in on Stalingrad. Here Hitler made another blunder in over confidence. He pulled back the 4^th Panzer army from Stalingrad and ordered them to join the group “A” that was attacking the Caucasus area as they could not progress fast enough. If that army stayed on Stalingrad would have fallen before the winter set in. The Soviet army nevertheless gave a very tough battle to the Germans partly because Stalin has brought an order called Order 227 as per which they cannot back down. The order says “Not a step back”. So it had to fight back or perish. As the Soviet soldiers died new soldiers joined them by transport by river Olga. Operation Barbarossa saw the death of 5 million Soviet soldiers and 1 million German soldiers.

The cruelty shown by the German soldiers in the operation was terrible. They have massacred many POW’s, gassed many Jews and raped the women.

In the seize of Stalingrad snipers played a key role. A sniper called Vasilli Zaitsev has killed over 200 soldiers including 10 snipers on the German side. He intelligently targeted the officers of higher ranks in the German army and troubled them very much. He also trained Soviet civilians and made over 3 dozen effective snipers.

Despite all this by the end of October 90% of Stalingrad fell into German hands. When the Germans were almost about to seize the city the Russian winter set in. Assuming that to be the appropriate time to defeat the Germans the Soviet Generals put in 800,000 fresh troops into defending Stalingrad. This is named “Operation Uranus” (19-23 Nov 1942). Commander General Nikolay Vatutin lead the attack. The Soviets then attacked the Germans from 2 sides and in just 4 days 265,000 German armies were caught in between. In the meantime the group “A” sent to Caucasus could not get hold of it in time to come and join this German group “B”. Even then the German 6^th army had the capacity to fall back through the pincer of both the Soviet armies. But Hitler said no fight back. We are sending you reinforcements through Luftwaffe. That is tantamount suicide but his troops had no choice. The Luftwaffe could not bring in any soldiers as the skies were well defended by the Soviet air force. In the meantime the soldiers of teh German 6^th army did not even have food to eat. There is no chance to escape now and only one option is left and that is surrender. But Hitler messaged do not surrender under any circumstances and fight till the end. Not only that he promoted the head of the 6^th Army General Friedrich Paulus to Field Marshal. The idea being that till that time not a single German Field Marshal ahs surrendered in battle, and so made it impossible for Paulus to surrender.

The conditions became very severe and soldiers were dying of starvation one after another. Some soldiers were freezing to death. Paulus could not bear it any longer, he thought let my name be tarnished but I cannot let my men die like this. and surrendered on 7^th Feb 1943 along with 110,000 soldiers of the 6^th army that were left  This is the first biggest defeat suffered by Germany in the 2^nd World War. This is the battle after which Hitler’s downfall started. Soviets released only 5000 soldiers of the 6^th army after the war which means they have killed the rest.

 

WORLD WAR II- MASTER BLUNDER BY HITLER-ATTACK ON THE SOVIET UNION.

 

Now Stalin started making his moves. He did not trust Hitler and was trying to protect himself. He signed a Soviet-Japan neutrality pact in April 1941.As per this pact Soviet Russia and Japan cannot attack each other. This angered Hitler.

He turned towards the Soviet Union and envisioned “Operation Barbarosa” against it. This was a big blunder made by Hitler. Without taking care of Britain on one side, he is opening another front on the other that too with a very formidable opponent. Perhaps his inability to defeat Britain on account of his weak navy troubled him and he wanted to take out his frustration on the Soviet Union. 

On June 22^nd 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union despite the non aggression pact with them. Stalin did not trust Hitler but he never imagined that Hitler would violate the pact and attack him.

The army that Hitler moved on to take the Soviet Union was formidable and was the largest attack ever mounted by any country in the world. It consisted of 150 divisions with 38,00,000 troops, 3500 tanks, 3000 aircraft, 7000 artillery pieces. This army consisted of troops from Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia. To the initial attack with 150 divisions, another 30 divisions from Finland and Hungary joined the attack. The Army attacked a border stretching 2900 Km.

The attack was mounted on 3 fronts. One on to Leningrad, one on to Moscow and one onto Stalingrad. The Soviet army was not even prepared to face this onslaught and were roundly defeated everywhere. Before the Russian air force could take off the Luftwaffe attacked and finished them off. Everyone thought that Soviet Union was going to get defeated in a few days. Stalin strongly believed that they can defeat the Axis armies and extolled his soldiers to fight on with his speeches.

Stalin knew that attacking the Axis army would result in certain defeat for his country. Before the Axis army approached them villages were asked to remove everything from the villages including food. All the fields were asked to be torched so that the Axis armies could not get any food. All the roads, railway routes and bridges have been destroyed so that the Axis army could not progress. The season also favoured the Soviets the monsoon downpours have flooded its land so much that it became difficult for the tanks to move on. Soviet Union mostly had red soil that become slushy with rains. So the Axis army got bogged down and Stalin had some time to recoup.

The army that progressed towards Leningrad surrounded the city and Stalin thought Leningrad is gone from his hands. But the siege on Leningrad continued for over 2 years. The people of the city were starving. The 2^nd army neared Moscow and Hitler felt it had come into his reach. Unfortunately for Hitler and the Axis armies, the winter set in early that year. The German army did not even have sweaters to wear. The petrol in the vehicles froze. So the troop commanders asked Hitler whether they should stop the war for some time.             .

But Hitler refused saying, no go right ahead. Now, the German armies have never fought when it is snowing in such cold terrain and are unaware of the problems that would be faced while the Soviet troops are well experienced in that. That was another of Hitler’s blunders. The soviet army then stopped the German army on the outskirts of Moscow. This was a morale booster for the Soviet army. They now felt that if they fought well, defeating the German armies was possible.          

At this point in time Japan made a stupid move. The USA deliberately kept out of the war and had no intention of entering it. Japan made a crippling attack on Pearl Harbour that tilted the war in favor of the Allies.

Both the US and Japan were always at loggerheads trying to show the strength of their navies in the Pacific Ocean. Japan wanted to take Southeast Asia into its own hands. In 1941 Japan occupied French Indochina and with that, the USA guessed what was on Japan's mind. From then onwards the USA imposed a trade embargo on Japan, completely stopped the oil supplies, and place restrictions on it. For checking Japan, the US transferred its Navy to Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands. The large US Pacific fleet was stationed at Pearl Harbour. 7^th December 1941, in the morning 7.48 the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbour.

In one and half hours time Japan dealt a crippling blow to the American Navy at Pearl Harbour. 19 naval ships have been destroyed of which 8 are battleships. 177 airplanes too were destroyed. 2343 American soldiers died and 2000 more were injured. On December 8 1941 the USA entered World War II. Japan had a chance of destroying Pearl Harbour completely but did not do so. If Japan finished off all the American US carrier force and Submarines then things would have been different but Japan left in haste when the defences of the base were totally down. These two are the arms that troubled Japan later in the war. Within 6 months from this date Japan brought all the colonies in the Pacific into its hands. By October 1941 it was threatening India and Australia.

 

WORLD WAR II- BRITAIN ON THE MOVE- WAR IN AFRICA

 

Now only Britain remained but for that Germans had to cross the English channel. The German navy was no match for the Royal Navy, so Hitler devised a new strategy.

He thought if Germany mounted an attack on the Royal Air Force and destroyed it, then he would have full control of British skies and his landing craft would be able to land easily. He named this “Operation Sealion”.

The German air force had 3 times the number of planes England had. So, it expressed the confidence that it would be able to easily carry out the task. By September most of the RAF was destroyed but Churchill was not backing off.

In 1940 August 24^th some German planes erroneously dropped bombs on civilian targets and there were a big number of civilian deaths. In retaliation, the RAF bombed Berlin on the next day. This angered Hitler.

From 7^th September on wards, he asked the Luftwaffe to hit civilian targets. This continued for 9 months. This was the 2^nd blunder committed by Hitler. This targeting of civilians allowed the RAF to recoup as the Luftwaffe’s firepower on aircraft factories was reduced.

The pilots of the RAF who never slept peacefully for months took a full week off and rested. Aircraft factories started producing aircraft. The Luftwaffe went on bombing London but all the populace had already been transferred to bunkers and that resulted in a waste of effort for the Luftwaffe.

Not only that, as the remaining planes of the RAF had been rested, the Luftwaffe was lulled into thinking that the RAF was finished and they had command of the skies. 

On September 15 the RAF fighters rose in strength into the British skies, targeted the Luftwaffe, and brought down several aircraft. That day 185 Luftwaffe aircraft were shot down while the RAF lost only 26 aircraft.

By the end of October Hitler understood that the RAF could not be defeated and he had to drop the plans for invasion of Britain. This is a moral victory for Britain. In the battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe lost 1800 aircraft while the RAF only lost 1000 aircraft.

Now let us turn to Hitler’s ally Mussolini. After sending his army into France after Germany finished them off, he wanted to attack the British and French colonies in Africa as Britain and France were in no position to defend them.  In the process, he attacked the British island colony of Malta in the Mediterranean on June 11, 1940. The battle to seize Malta continued for 2 years up till 1942.

What is the significance of Malta? If Germany or Italy proposed to attack North Africa their shipping had to go by Malta, if the British were entrenched there, then it would be a great threat to German and Italian navies. Malta again has become a fighting scene between the Luftwaffe and the RAF. Malta later played a crucial role in stopping Axis navies in 1942 and the British submarines from there sank 391000 tons of Axis shipping.

In 1940 August Italy attacked the British colony of Somaliland in Africa and occupied it. Mussolini felt he was no less than Hitler with that victory. In the same euphoria, the Italian forces went and attacked Egypt.

There was an initial success but after that, the 236000 Italian troops deployed were trounced by the 36000 British Commonwealth troops stationed there and made to retreat.

The Italian commander Graviani did not know about the number of British troops and used bad tactics by trying to defend rather than attack by building bunkers. Finally seeing that the Italians were not attacking, the British forces themselves attacked the Italian army on 9^th Dec 1940 through Operation Campus. The soft Italian troops were no match for the British troops and were roundly defeated in just 5 days.133000 POW’s have been captured by the Commonwealth troops. 420 Italian tanks have been destroyed. The British forces only had 1900 casualties.             

Mussolini seems to be bloated by his ego and along with Egypt he also opened a front on Greece on 28^th October 1940. Italy again got roundly defeated by Greece lost 14000 men and had 1.35 lakh casualties. Ten German and British forces had to intervene in the battle in early 1941.  

Having Italy as an ally seems to have been a liability rather than an asset. Each time Mussolini bungled, Hitler had to support him.

The US was neutral in the war but had been supplying weapons to Britain as well as China. Now Hitler wanted to cut off these arms and brought his U Boats (submarines) into operation.

Britain required more than 1 million tons of material per week to hold off Germany and the U-boats sank all the Allied shipping possible for them. A lot of this shipping was American, but after some time the American ships managed to evade the U-boats and continue their supplies. Incidentally, all these goods were supplied by the US with cash down policy and not as aid.         

Hitler realized that only 2 countries fighting the war against the Allies was a difficult proposition as Japan had not signed the treaty. So he persuaded Japan to sign the tripartite pact in September 1940 along with Italy.

Hitler had only his own country to supply him with men, money and arms while both Britain and France had their colonies to buttress their efforts. The Axis forces were later joined by Hungary and Romania in November 1940, Slovakia in November 1940 and Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in March 1941. But immediately after Yugoslavia signed the treaty there was unrest and the Government had been brought down. A pro-British government came to power there.

Germany also wanted Russia to sign to which Stalin put some unacceptable conditions. Britain also sent a telegram to the Soviet Union to join the Allied powers. Hitler hated communists and he felt that the Soviet Union would always be a threat to him while Stalin considered Hitler to be his friend.

Hitler also felt that he would get lots of arms and food as well as plenty of space (Lebensraum) for Germany if he could defeat Russia. So with this in mind, he asked his commanders to prepare a plan to invade the Soviet Union. This move cost Hitler everything later as the German army got bogged down in the Soviet winter.

Italy is the weakest among the Axis powers. So the Allies decided to attack the Italians first. The Allies then sent a maximum number of troops into Egypt and Greece to fight Italy. But Hitler is very shrewd and he understood their game plan. He then attacked Yugoslavia for defying him and also Greece and Egypt to buttress the Italian troops.

Headed by Field Marshal Rommel the combined German and Italian forces defeated and drove back the British forces to the port town of Tobruk. By the end of May 1941 Yugoslavia and Greece both fell into the hands of the Axis powers. The Allies were defeated miserably.        

WORLD WAR II BEGINS

This is the 3rd note on World War II I had written and is in continuation of my earlier 2 notes. 

Hitler attacked Poland on 1^st Sep 1939 morning at 4.45 AM with an army of 15 lac men. Hitler now unleashed a new method of warfare on Poland known as Blitzkrieg. In this, first the massed tanks attack the enemy army to be followed by heavy bombardment by the air force, and finally the infantry attack whatever is left of the Polish army.

The Polish army was simply no match for Hitler’s blitzkrieg despite being 10 lac strong. Specifically, the German air force known as the Luftwaffe created havoc among enemy soldiers by merciless attack. At that time the German air force was the number 1 in the world with 1180 fighters, 280 Stuka dive bombers, 2100 conventional bombers 550 transport planes, and 350 observation planes. By the time the Polish air force could offer any resistance, the Luftwaffe destroyed the Polish aircraft. They bombed out all the rail tracks and also power stations and other crucial areas in the cities.

The Polish tanks too were no match for Germany’s tanks. Ultimately Poland sent its mounted cavalry onto the German tanks and thousands of horses lay dead. Bereft of air cover their position became hopeless.

Britain and France then gave an ultimatum to Hitler to take back his forces which Hitler ignored. Finally left with no other option they declared war on Germany on 3^rd September 1939 and World War II started. Poland felt very happy but before Britain or France can do anything Warsaw fell on 8^th September just in a week.

Hitler sent the bulk of his army at that time consisting of 15 lac men to Poland and kept only 23 divisions near the line dividing Germany and France while France had 100 divisions ready. If France pushed forward with all its might on Germany then things would have been different but France did not have the guts to do so. That is why it is said victory favors the brave.

The entire Polish army was obliterated in 3 weeks, but even then they kept on fighting till the last drop of blood. Now Soviet Union entered the scene on 17^th September 1939 and launched an attack on Poland from the Eastern front. This shocked Britain and France. By 28^th September 1939, everything was over and Poland was occupied by German and Soviet forces.

For 7 months after that, there was a phony war between Germany and French and British forces on the German border. Neither attacked the other and time went on. But this time was used by both Britain and France to build their armaments. Hitler too started building a modern army with new types of modern weapons. Britain and France felt threatened by that and thought that they should cut off the iron supplies to Germany. Germany was getting its iron from Sweden. Iron is supplied to Germany by Sweden through Norway and Denmark. The allies appealed to Sweden requesting them to stop the iron supplies to Germany but Sweden did not agree to that.

On 19^th October 1939, Soviet Russia sent its army and occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Finland however, did not agree to receive Soviet forces into its territory. So, the Soviet Union now declared war on Finland on 10^th November 1939. Finland hardly had an army of 200,000 men. The Soviets expected Finland to fall in 3 days but it took them 3 months instead. In the war, while Finland lost 70,000 soldiers, the Soviet Union lost 200,000 men. This made the Soviet army lose a lot of reputation. This made the Soviet Union easy to get in the eyes of Hitler. Stalin became raving mad and killed the generals who led the army into Finland with a pistol.

Because Sweden refused to stop the supply of Iron to Germany Britain planned to send the allied armies into Norway and Sweden. But Hitler came to know of this plan, and before they could do anything Hitler attacked Denmark on April 9^th, 1940, and seized it in a few hours. From there he sent his armies into Norway where a battle was fought between Hitler and the allied army for 3 months when Germany emerged victorious. In this Norway attack Hitler for the first time in warfare used paratroopers. This easy defeat in the hands of Hitler made the British PM Chamberlain relinquish his post and Winston Churchill took over.

Perhaps Hitler wanted to give an inaugural gift to Churchill. Immediately. On the same day when Churchill took over, German forces attacked Belgium, Netherlands & Luxemburg. These were actually neutral countries veering neither toward the Allies nor Hitler, so why did he have to attack these countries? There was a strategy behind that.

After the 1^st World War, France feared Germany and constructed fortifications on the French-German border known as the Maginot Line which took 10 years to build. Now these fortifications are made of concrete and are impregnable. First of all, it is impossible to breach the Maginot line, and even if it is breached, Germany has to take a lot of losses in the process. Hence Germany had to find a way to attack France from another way.  

France while building the Maginot line did a foolish thing. After the Maginot line, there is a forest (Ardennes) on the French-Belgian border. Assuming that tanks cannot travel through forests France stopped the Maginot fortifications to that area. Since Belgium objected to it, France did not build the Maginot line on the remaining northern border with Belgium.

Hitler first attacked the Low Countries with great speed. Now France thought it knew Hitler’s game because the same thing happened in the 1^st World War when Germany attacked France through Belgium. Therefore to stop Hitler France sent its troops into Belgium. The British Expeditionary force too followed the French army further to the North. In the meantime, the Belgian army was doing its best to stop the German forces.    

Now defeating the combined British and French forces is no mean task for Germany. They had more number of tanks than Germany and also other equipment. Hitler now split his army into two groups “A” & “B”. Hitler sent his “A” group through the supposedly impassable Ardennes while the “B” group carried on the war with Belgium. Amazingly enough, the German army crossed the Ardennes in a single day. Hitler’s brilliance as a tactical commander shines through here.   

The German “A” group now attacked the Maginot line from the French side and took control. To delay the advance of the Allied forces Hitler got ordinary citizens of the Low Countries sent in front of them. Now after taking control of the Maginot line the German army “A” group followed the tracks of the French army and the British forces that moved into Belgium for fighting the German army group “B”. The French and British forces were caught in a pincer with German group “B” in the front and group “A” in the back. To compound their ill luck the Belgian forces that were fighting the Germans surrendered freeing the group “B” completely. About 400,000 Allied soldiers got caught in the pincer.

The new British PM Churchill then took a clever decision. He ordered his troops to retreat through a point called Dunkirk opposite the English Channel and named it “ Operation Dynamo”. About 330,000 British and French troops were evacuated through Dunkirk. But why did Germany let them evacuate from Dunkirk ? Hitler’s Field Marshal advised that a direct fight with the forces may encumber Germany with big losses and they may be allowed to evacuate. Hitler listened to his Field marshal which was a tactical blunder, if he pressed ahead and attacked the Allied troops then, he would have delivered a big blow to Britain and the Allies. Hitler gave the job of stopping the evacuation to the Luftwaffe which failed to do so.

The German army now marched towards Paris snuffing out all armed opposition. After confirming that the field is secure Mussolini now declared war on Britain and France. He started off occupying Southern France. Soon entire France came under the Axis powers and Paris fell into German hands. When the French officials surrendered, Hitler got the train carriage in which the Versailles pact got forcibly signed by the German officials and made the French officials sign the surrender. The French general De Gaulle fled to Britain.