Originally published at: http://timeghost.tv/the-german-breakthrough-in-the-west-ww2-038-may-18-1940/
The German invasion of Western Europe has been going for over a week now, and the Neutral and Allied countries are in disarray. The Netherlands, despite putting up fierce resistance on some occasions, faces overwhelming powers while Belgium, France and the British feel the pressure from an organised and armoured assault from the Ardennes. And…
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Typo error in Churchill’s speech
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Sides at present:
World War Two
Allies: Australia+, Bahrain-, Belgium+, Canada, Czechoslovakia^, Danish resistance, France+, Iceland~*, Luxembourg^, Nepal, Netherlands^+, New Zealand+, Norway+, Oman-, Poland^, South Africa, United Kingdom+
Axis: Germany+, Slovakia~, USSR**
3rd Parties: Denmark***
Insurgencies in the Italian Empire’
Italian: Italy+
Rebels: Albanian resistance, Ethiopian Arbegnoch
2nd Sino-Japanese War’
Sino: China’’
Japanese: Japan+, Manchukuo~, Mengkukuo~, Ngolok Tibetans’’’, Reorganized ROC~
~puppet
^occupied with resistance movement.
+Includes the country’s colonies, overseas territories, or reichskommissariats
-self-governing protectorate or territory
*Although the Icelandic government issued a formal protest, the British invasion was not contested because Iceland lacked a military to fight back with & so told its people to treat the occupiers as guests. Even to this day, the "Lovely War" is controversial. Many Icelanders view the Allied occupation very negatively for the loss of their country’s sovereignty & for foreign troops fraternizing with local women. Others point to economic & infrastructural benefits the happened during the war. SPOILER WARNING: Iceland’s occupation is transferred to the Neutral USA on July 7th, 1941. At that point, I will take Iceland off the overview until Pearl Harbor.
**I have the USSR on the Axis side because both Germany & them are currently at war with Poland(The Soviets invaded on September 17, 1939), divided Poland between themselves pre-invasion, are working together to end the Polish resistance, & are trading war materials. This is all detailed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty, the German–Soviet Credit Agreement, & the German–Soviet Commercial Agreement. SPOILER WARNING: After Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, I will move them to the 3rd parties list(See my policy on country placement below) & then move them to the Allies after the signing of the Sikorski–Mayski agreement in July 1941 between the Polish government-in-exile & the USSR.
***In the 2nd week of April, both Germany & the United Kingdom invaded & occupied parts of Danish territory(Germany occupied Denmark proper & the United Kingdom occupied the Faroe Islands) to “guarantee their independence and neutrality.” Everyday life went on mostly as before with Local authorities in both areas cooperating with the occupiers. Hitler hoped that Denmark would be “a model protectorate” that would aide his larger goals. Despite this, the Danish national government resisted calls by Germany for legal discrimination against Jewish Danes, the death penalty, & German military courts to have jurisdiction over Danish citizens. The Danish colony of Greenland(being de facto independent at the time) asked the neutral USA to protect them from invasion by the warring powers. Throughout this time, Denmark remained officially neutral despite having Axis & Allied forces on its soil. SPOILER WARNING: On August 29, 1943, after refusing to submit to any further German demands, the Danish government was dissolved & the German military took direct control of the country. At that point, I’ll take Denmark off the 3rd parties list & replace the Danish resistance with Denmark(with an occupied disclaimer).
‘SPOILER WARNING: The Insurgencies in the Italian Empire & the 2nd Sino-Japanese War remain unconnected to World War II until June 1940(When Italy declares war on the Allies) & September 1940 (When Japan invades French Indochina & joins the Tripartite Pact). After these points, I’ll roll them into World War II.
’’The Kuomintang & Communist Parties have signed a truce to fight the Japanese as part of the Second United Front lead by Chiang Kai-shek, but coordination is minimal & both deeply mistrust the other.
‘’’The Ngolok rebellions were a brutal ethnic conflict fought in Qinghai/Amdo between Ngolok Tibetans & the Hui dominated Ma clique who were loyal to the Kuomintang government of China. Despite having a common enemy in the Kuomintang, the Ngolok Tibetans & Japan were only co-belligerents as they didn’t have a formal alliance & didn’t coordinate in military planning.
MY POLICY ON COUNTRY PLACEMENT: If a country declares war on or attacks another country & at least one of them is already involved in World War II, I’ll list the other as a part of the opposing faction. That is why the events of the Winter War are included in the main World War II list & the events of the War of ‘41(Ecuador vs. Peru) will not be. The countries listed in the factions above are comprised of both official members & co-belligerents. The terms “Allies” & “Axis” are used for both kinds of belligerents as a convenient way to distill the world war & it’s adjoining conflicts, with disclaimers used to elaborate on some of the more complicated situations. If a country or resistance movement is at war with at least one country form both factions, I’ll add them to the 3rd parties list with a disclaimer. I have to consolidate factions along co-belligerency or else the number of factions will balloon out of control. Finally, each post only represents the factions as they were 79 years ago to the day. Many countries will join, leave, or switch sides before the war ends for various reasons & I strongly encourage you to look into the situation of each country for yourself.
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I am proud to see you guys perfectly balanced the telling of the story and the amount of dramatic tension needed. I have heard some of this information before and obviously most of us know the outcome of this particular engagement, but you were able to make it interesting and captivating without dumping the details into a fire like other documentaries I have seen. Proud to see you guys shouting out the French Army, who do not wholly deserve the negativity that is showered upon them by people who have a layman’s understanding of what happened here this week. I am proud that I support this team and this channel. I eagerly await the next episode.
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Agree, we should put those memers in their place and consign the “muh French surrender” tirades into the trash can of bad jokes.
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I agree as well. It gets a little tiring after a while. Fun, but a little too much.
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Remember Rotterdam!
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Five minutes man, five minutes earlier and it might have been prevented. That really sucks
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Hi Marcus,
It’s a great job your doing and just listing the different countries has served for me to look up some if the areas I wasn’t aware of before.
As a question / observation: I’m not sure if it’s going to get very complicated or if perhaps an unconscious bias might have crept in or can creep in? For instance, how do you determine “puppet” - e.g. Slovakia under the Hlinka Slovak People’s Party had a ruling government under a party created in 1938 that had fairly broad public support yet is listed as “puppet” (not simply an Axis power) whilst an Allied “puppet” is simply listed as a country - e.g. the Kingdom of Nepal which under the Rana Regime was an hereditary autocracy with staunch pro-British ties. Also, where there are pro-Axis resistance movements in Allied countries (e.g. Black Shirts in UK and goodness knows what to do with Latvia, USSR territories and Italy in later years!!) do you just mean Resistance is against an occupying / invading force? In which case what to do with the British and Russia invasion of Persia or what it the view that Vichy France was actually the authorised, legitimate government (a view that there are of course many sides to) etc etc!!!
Might it be possible to remove any bias and perhaps simplify things by just stating the different sides (e.g. Free French / Vichy) and their alignment with Germany or Japan as the leading or consistent Axis on one side and UK / Commonwealth as the other consistent element? I know that might still prove difficult with resistance against Soviet Union within USSR or Axis occupied territories etc!!
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Hi Rick! Sorry for not replying sooner—college, work, & visiting family have been taking a lot of my time lately. I’ve also learned much about parts of the war I didn’t know about before doing the overview & I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
This hobby of mine is already more complicated then I anticipated & from the research I’ve done into the future it will only get worse. I try to stay as unbiased as possible by using the rules I have on placement seen at the bottom of each post, but I’m only human & on some of the grayer cases such as Denmark; Iceland & Greenland; & the Baltic states I’ve started threads so I can hear 2nd opinions from others on the forum.
In my posts, the term “puppet” is meant to denote a country that is de jure independent but de facto controlled by another country for the most part. As this control is unofficial, it can be hard to quantify, but from all of the sources I’ve found, Tiso’s Slovak State is referred to as a client or puppet state & it was totally dependent on Germany for its survival. Also, it was forced to give part of its territory to Hungary by Hitler & faced opposition from partisans—particularly during the Slovak National Uprising. As for Nepal, I was under the impression that it was moving away from that kind of a relationship with the UK after the 1923 treaty, but I’ll freely admit that I’m not particularly well versed in Nepalese history. If you’re more knowledgeable about the topic, I’d love to know more!
Yes, I do mean to resistance movements as in irregular forces engaged in combat with an occupying / invading force. As far as I know the British Union of Fascists was only a political party that has at this point in the war already been dissolved by the British government. I do think that strictly speaking, the French State(Vichy France) was the legal successor to the 3rd Republic. I plan on splitting France into Free France” & “Vichy France” in the coming weeks. As for the other places you mentioned, I have general ideas for how I will tackle each of them & reminders for when I need to make a decision about their placement in the folders I have to keep my research organized. I’ll also probably start threads on most of them just to be on the safe side.
I decided to list all countries, resistance movements, & co-belligerents of a faction in alphabetical order because I didn’t want to give the appearance that I’m playing favorites with anyone & I think this is the most egalitarian way. I have disclaimers so I can elaborate on the messier situations.
I really do appreciate feedback & would like to hear your thoughts on the Baltic States thread. I’m try to decide what to do with Lithuania before Operation Barbarossa & I only have a week before It’s invaded by Soviets.
See you on the forum!
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