Past and Present of Warfare
Category: World War 2
Not soon after the Kingdom of Yugoslavia joined the Axis, government was overthrown. Led by the Communist Party, on 27th March 1941. the people went to the streets, shouting paroles "Bolje grob nego rob! Bolje rat nego pakt!" ("Better grave than the slave! Better combat than the compact!"). But as usual in the Marxist historiography, … Continue reading Military Coup in Yugoslavia 27 March 1941
Bombing of Tokyo in 1945. is given far less attention than some objectively less deadly attacks (London Blitz, attack on Pearl Harbor, or bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki). Yet it is important to understand why it happened, how it was so deadly, and why the memory of the attack is so negligible. While conventional bombardment … Continue reading Firebombing of Tokyo 10th March 1945
Bleeding around Guadalcanal continued. Neither side could gather enough strength to push back the other. Attack was followed by counterattack, which was followed up by a counter-counterattack. While individual battles could be one-sided indeed, there was no real result, only mounting losses. Both sides created imaginative new surprises for the enemy, and the fate toyed … Continue reading Pacific War 17 – Japan’s Last Victory
Battle of the Eastern Solomons The Battle of the Savo Island had sent to the bottom a large number of ships. Yet it was but a beginning. For months the battles were fought in this area, the two sides being very evenly matched and unable to gain a decisive advantage. This fact made it all … Continue reading Pacific War 16 – The Ironbottom Sound
The German Zones Poland was partitioned by Russians and Germans on 28 September. Hitler considered the idea of setting up a small Polish satellite state, but gave it up after it became clear that Britain and France are not ready to accept the German fait accompli. He thus announced in two decrees of 8 and … Continue reading Attack on Poland – The Aftermath
17 – 30 September: Exodus of the Fortunate Few The Polish Government, the military GHQ, civil servants and foreign diplomats started to evacuate Warsaw on 5 September. The aim was to reach the apparently still safe south-eastern Poland, bordered by the neutral Russia and friendly Hungary and Romania. Thousands of people were moving there, and … Continue reading Attack on Poland – The Exodus
10 – 20 September: The Situation Elsewhere On 5 September, Rydz-Smigly had ordered the Polish armies to retire and regroup behind the Vistula, Bug and San rivers. This was an effort doomed to failure: German armored columns had already broken through, and were advancing faster than the Polish forces could withdraw. Vistula front was saved … Continue reading Attack on Poland – Soviet Invasion and The Fall of Poland
Preliminary Incidents Hitler had given top priority to engineering an incident that would provoke the Poland into retaliation and thus justify German invasion. On 5 August 1939 the head of the SD (the Security Service of the SS), Reinhard Heydrich, entrusted the 28-year-old Alfred Naujoks with the task of creating just such an incident. To … Continue reading Attack on Poland – 1 – 17 September
Introduction World War 2 in Yugoslavia was a case of constant war crimes of everyone against everyone else. Germans, Italians, Ustashi, Chetniks, Partisans were all busy murdering civilians, and even Allies got on into the act on occasion. Reason for this were multiple, but can be roughly divided into several categories: ideological, political, military and … Continue reading Operations and War Crimes of the 8th Dalmatian Corps
On this day 69 years ago, the partisans had murdered, according to incomplete list, 51 Croats and Germans from Tovarnik. They were killed by knife, beating and by throwing them from the church. Murder was carried out with the help of Serbs from Tovarnik, who had written down a list of people that should be … Continue reading Partisan Crimes in Tovarnik
History and War 