Daniel Orr's Blog, page 49

September 25, 1964 –Mozambican War of Independence: Rebels launch attacks in Cabo Delgado Province, starting the war of independence

In September 1964, the nationalist organization FRELIMOlaunched small guerilla attacks from bases in Tanzaniainto Cabo DelgadoProvince, located in northern Mozambique.  FRELIMO, or the Mozambique Liberation Front(Portuguese: Frente de Libertação de Moçambique)was formed in June 1962 from the merger of three ethnic-based independencemovements.

Initially, because of limited combat strength, FRELIMOplanned to undertake a prolonged guerilla war instead of launching one powerfulattack on Lourenço Marques, Mozambique’scapital, in the hope of quickly ousting the colonial government, as proposed byother rebel leaders.  Initially, FRELIMOwas handicapped by a shortage of recruits, weapons, and combat capability, andas a result, rebel operations did not seriously disrupt the government’scapacity to operate normally.

(Taken from Mozambican War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background Duringthe 17th and 18th centuries, Mozambique, then known officially as the State ofEast Africa, served little more than as a transit stop for Portuguese and otherEuropean ships bound for Asia, as Portugal was focused on supporting itslucrative trade with India and China, and more important, developing Brazil,its prized possession in the New World.

In 1822, however, Brazilgained its independence, and with other European powers actively seeking theirshare of Africa during the last quarter of the 1800s, Portugal now looked to hold ontoand protect its African colonies. Through an Anglo-Portuguese treaty signed in 1891, Mozambique’s borders were delineated, and by theearly twentieth century, Portugalhad established full administrative control over its East African colony.

Some thirty years earlier, in 1878, in order to developMozambique’s largely untapped northern frontier region, the Portuguesegovernment leased out large tracts of territories to chartered corporations(mostly British), which greatly expanded the colony’s mining and agriculturalindustries, as well as build these industries’ associated infrastructures, suchas roads, bridges, railways, and communication lines.  Black Africans were used as manpower, andutilized under a repressive forced labor system – slavery had officially beenoutlawed in 1842, although clandestine slave trading continued until the earlytwentieth century.  When the charteredcorporations’ leases expired in 1932, the Portuguese government did not renewthe contracts, and thenceforth began direct rule of Mozambiquefrom Lisbon, Portugal’s national capital.

After World War II ended in 1945, nationalist aspirationssprung up and spread rapidly across Africa.  By the 1960s, most of the continent’scolonies had become independent countries. Portugal,however, was determined to maintain its empire. In 1951, Portugalceased to regard its African (and Asian) possessions as “colonies”, butintegrated them into the motherland as “overseas provinces”.  Tens of thousands of Portuguese citizensmigrated to Mozambique, aswell as to Angolaand Portuguese Guinea under the prodding of the national government to lead thedevelopment of the new “provinces”.

Because of the immigration, racial tensions, which alreadywere prevalent, escalated in Portugal’sAfrican territories.  Portugal took great pride in itsofficial policy of racial inclusiveness, and upheld in its constitution the“democratic, social, and multi-racial” features of Portuguese society.  However, the Portuguese Overseas Charter alsorecognized distinct socio-ethnic classes: citizens – European Portuguese whohad full political rights; “assimilados” – black Africans who had assimilatedthe Portuguese way of life, could read and write, and were eligible to run forlocal and provincial elected office; and natives – the great majority of blackAfricans who retained their traditional ways of life. 

The Portuguese monopolized the political and economicsystems of the colony, while the general population had limited access toeducation and upward social and economic mobility.  By the early 1960s, less than 1% of black Africanshad attained “assimilado” status.  Thecolonial government repressed political dissent, forcing many Mozambicannationalists into exile abroad, and used PIDE (Policia Internacional e deDefesa do Estado), Portugal’ssecurity service, to turn Mozambiqueinto a police state.

In June 1962, exiled Mozambican nationalists met in Dar esSalaam, Tanganyika, and merged three ethnic-based independence movements intoone nationalist organization, FRELIMO or Mozambique Liberation Front(Portuguese: Frente de Libertação de Moçambique).  Led by Eduardo Mondlane, FRELIMO initiallysought to gain Mozambique’sindependence by negotiating with the Portuguese government.  FRELIMO regarded the Portuguese as foreignerswho were exploiting Mozambique’shuman and natural resources, and were unconcerned with the development andwell-being of the indigenous black population.

By 1964, Portugal’sintransigence and the Mozambican colonial government’s repressive acts,including the so-called Mueda Massacre, where security forces opened fire on acrowd of demonstrators, had radicalized FRELIMO into believing that Mozambique’sindependence could only be gained through armed struggle.  Further motivating FRELIMO into starting arevolution was that Mozambique’sneighbors recently had achieved their independences, i.e. Tanzania in 1961, and Malawiand Zambia in 1964, andthese countries’ black-ruled governments would be expected to support Mozambique’sstruggle for independence as well.

September 24, 1973 – Guinea-Bissau declares independence from Portugal

On September 24, 1973, Guinea-Bissaudeclared its independence in the town of Madinado Boe during its ongoing revolution against Portugal (Guinea-Bissau War ofIndependence) that had begun in January 1963. The infant state was wasimmediately recognized by many African and communist countries.

Guinea’s independence struggle was led by the African Partyfor the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde or PAIGC (Portuguese: Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné eCabo Verde), established in 1956 with the aim of ending Portuguese rule andgaining independence for Guinea and Cape Verde. Initially, the PAIGC wanted to achieve its aims through dialogue and anegotiated settlement with the Portuguese. By the late 1950s, however, the Guinean nationalists had become moremilitant.

The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence forms part of thePortuguese Colonial War.

(Taken from Guinea-Bissau War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Portuguese ColonialWar During the colonial era, Portugal’sterritorial possessions in Africa consisted of Angola,Mozambique, PortugueseGuinea, Cape Verde,and São Tomé and Príncipe (Map 24).  WhenWorld War II ended in 1945, a surge of nationalism swept across the variousAfrican colonies as independence groups emerged and demanded the end ofEuropean colonial rule.  As these demandssoon intensified into greater agitation and violence, most of the Europeancolonizers relented, and by the 1960s, most of the African colonies had becomeindependent countries.

Bucking the trend, Portugal was determined to holdonto its colonial possessions and went so far as to declare them “overseas provinces”,thereby formally incorporating them into the national territories of themotherland.  Nearly all the black Africanliberation movements in these Portuguese “provinces” turned their attentionfrom trying to gain independence through negotiated settlement to launchinginsurgencies, thereby starting revolutionary wars.  These wars took place through the early 1960sto the first half of the 1970s, and were known collectively as the PortugueseColonial War, and pitted the Portuguese Armed Forces against the Africanguerilla militias in Angola,Mozambique,and Portuguese Guinea.  At the war’speak, some 150,000 Portuguese soldiers were deployed in Africa.

By the 1970s, these colonial wars had become extremelyunpopular in Portugal,because of the mounting deaths in Portuguese soldiers, the irresolvable natureof the wars through military force, and the fact that the Portuguese governmentwas using up to 40% of the national budget to the wars and thus impinging onthe social and economic development of Portuguese society.  Furthermore, the wars had isolated Portugal diplomatically, with the United Nationsconstantly putting pressure on the Portuguese government to decolonize, andmost of the international community imposing a weapons embargo and other restrictionson Portugal.  In April 1974, dissatisfied officers of themilitary carried out a coup that deposed the authoritarian regime of PrimeMinister Marcelo Caetano.  The coup,known as the Carnation Revolution, produced a sudden and dramatic shift in thecourse of the colonial wars.

September 23, 1938 – Sudetenland Crisis: Czechoslovakia mobilizes for war against Nazi Germany

Under great pressure from Britain and France,on September 21, 1938, the Czechoslovak government relented, and agreed to cedethe Sudetenland.  But the next day, Hitler made new demands,which Czechoslovakiarejected and again mobilized for war.  Ina frantic move to avert war, the Prime Ministers of Britainand France, NevilleChamberlain and Edouard Daladier, respectively, togetherwith Mussolini, met with Hitler, and on September 29, 1938, the four men signedthe Munich Pact,where the Sudetenland was formally ceded to Germany.  Two days later, Czechoslovakiaaccepted the fait accompli, knowingit would not be supported by Britainand France in a war with Germany.  In succeeding months, Czechoslovakia disintegrated as a sovereignstate: the Slovak region separated, aligning with Germanyas a puppet state; other regions were annexed by Hungaryand Poland; and in March1939, the rest of the Czech portion of the country was occupied by Germany.

(Taken from Events Leading up to World War II in Europe – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)

Hitlerand Nazis in Power In early August 1934, with the deathof President Hindenburg, Hitler gained absolute power, as his Cabinet passed alaw that abolished the presidency, and its powers were merged with those of thechancellor.  Hitler thus became both German head of state and headof government, with the dual roles of Fuhrer (leader) and Chancellor.  As head of state, he also was SupremeCommander of the armed forces, making him absolute ruler and dictator of Germany.

In domestic matters, the Nazigovernment made great gains, improving the economy and industrial production,reducing unemployment, embarking on ambitious infrastructure projects, andrestoring political and social order.  Asa result, the Nazis became extremely popular, and party membership grewenormously.  This success was broughtabout from sound policies as well as through threat and intimidation, e.g.labor unions and job actions were suppressed.

Hitler also began to impose Nazi racialpolicies, which saw ethnic Germans as the “master race” comprising “super-humans”(Ubermensch),while certain races such as Slavs, Jews, and Roma (gypsies) were considered“sub-humans” (Untermenschen);also lumped with the latter were non-ethnic-based groups, i.e. communists,liberals, and other political enemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah’sWitnesses, etc.  Nazi lebensraum (“livingspace”) expansionism into Eastern Europe and Russia called for eliminating theSlavic and other populations there and replacing them with German farm settlersto help realize Hitler’s dream of a 1,000-year German Empire.

In Germanyitself, starting in April 1933 until the passing of the Nuremberg Laws inSeptember 1935 and beyond, Nazi racial policy was directed against the localJews, stripping them of civil rights, banning them from employment andeducation, revoking their citizenship, excluding them from political and sociallife, disallowing inter-marriages with Germans, and essentially declaring themundesirables in Germany.  As a result, tens of thousands of Jews left Germany.  Hitler blamed the Jews (and communists) forthe civilian and workers’ unrest and revolution near the end of World War I,ostensibly that had led to Germany’sdefeat, and for the many social and economic problems currently afflicting thenation.  Following anti-Nazi boycotts inthe United States, Britain, and other countries, Hitler retaliatedwith a call to boycott Jewish businesses in Germany, which degenerated intoviolent riots by SA mobs that attacked and killed, and jailed hundreds of Jews,looted and destroyed Jewish properties, and seized Jewish assets.  The most notorious of these attacks occurredin November 1938 in “Kristallnacht”(Crystal Night), where in response to the assassination of a German diplomat bya Polish Jew in Paris, the Nazi SA and civilian mobs in Germany went on aviolent rampage, killing hundreds of Jews, jailing tens of thousands of others,and looting and destroying Jewish homes, schools, synagogues, hospitals, andother buildings.  Some 1,000 synagogueswere burned, and 7,000 businesses destroyed. 

In foreign affairs, Hitler, like mostGermans, denounced the Versaillestreaty, and wanted it rescinded.  In1933, Hitler withdrew Germanyfrom the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva,and in October of that year, from the League of Nations, in both casesdenouncing why Germanywas not allowed to re-arm to the level of the other major powers.

In March 1935, Hitler announced thatGerman military strength would be increased to 550,000 troops, militaryconscription would be introduced, and an air force built, which essentiallymeant repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles and the start of full-scalerearmament.  In response, Britain, France,and Italyformed the Stresa Front meant to stop further German violations, but thisalliance quickly broke down because the three parties disagreed on how to dealwith Hitler.

Italy,after being denounced by the League of Nations and slapped with economic sanctions after itsinvasion of Ethiopia,switched sides to Germany.  Mussolini and Hitler signed a series ofagreements that soon led to a military alliance.  Meanwhile, Britainand France continued theirindecisive foreign policies toward Germany.  In March 1936, in a bold move, Hitler senttroops to the Rhineland, remilitarizing the region in another violation of the Versailles treaty, but metno hostile response from the other powers. Hitler justified this move as a defensive response to the recentlyconcluded French-Soviet mutual assistance pact, which he accused the twocountries of encircling Germany,a statement that drew sympathy from some British politicians.

Nazi ideology called for unification ofall Germanic peoples into a Greater German Reich.  In this context, Hitler had long sought toannex Austria, whose indigenouspopulation was German, into Germany.  An annexation attempt in 1934 was foiled byItalian intervention, with Mussolini determined to go to war if Germany invaded Austria.  But by 1938, German-Italian relations hadwarmed and were moving toward a military alliance.  With Britainand France watching by, inMarch 1938, Hitler put political pressure on Austria, and with the threat ofinvasion, forced the Austrian government to resign, and cede power to theAustrian Nazi Party.  Within days, thelatter relinquished Austrian independence to Germany,and German troops occupied Austria.  In a Nazi-controlled plebiscite held in April1938, an improbable 99.7% of Austrians voted for “Anschluss”(political union) with Germany.

In late March 1938, while Germany wasyet in the process of annexing Austria, another conflict, the “SudetenlandCrisis” occurred,where ethnic Germans, who formed the majority population in the Sudeten regionof Czechoslovakia, demanded autonomy and the right to join the Nazi Party.  Hitler supported these demands, citing theSudeten Germans’ right to self-determination. The Czechoslovak government refused, and in May 1938, mobilized for war.In response, Hitler secretly asked the German High Command to prepare for war,to be launched in October 1938.  Britain and France,anxious to avoid war at all costs by not antagonizing Hitler (a policy calledappeasement), pressed Czechoslovakiato yield, with the British even stating that the Sudeten Germans’ demand forautonomy was reasonable.  In earlySeptember 1938, the Czechoslovak government agreed to the demands.  Then when civilian unrest broke out in theSudetenland which the Czechoslovakian police quelled, in mid-September 1938, afurious Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany in order to stop thesupposed slaughter of Sudeten Germans. Under great pressure from Britainand France, on September 21,1938, the Czechoslovak government relented, and agreed to cede the Sudetenland.  Butthe next day, Hitler made new demands, which Czechoslovakia rejected and againmobilized for war.  In a frantic move toavert war, the Prime Ministers of Britainand France, NevilleChamberlain and Edouard Daladier, respectively, togetherwith Mussolini, met with Hitler, and on September 29, 1938, the four men signedthe Munich Pact,where the Sudetenland was formally ceded to Germany.  Two days later, Czechoslovakiaaccepted the fait accompli, knowingit would not be supported by Britainand France in a war with Germany.  In succeeding months, Czechoslovakia disintegrated as a sovereignstate: the Slovak region separated, aligning with Germanyas a puppet state; other regions were annexed by Hungaryand Poland; and in March1939, the rest of the Czech portion of the country was occupied by Germany.

Hitler then turned to Poland, and proposed to renew their ten-yearnon-aggression pact (signed in 1934) in exchange for revising their commonborder, specifically returning to Germanysome territories that were ceded to Poland after World War I.  The Polish government refused, causing Hitlerto rescind the pact in April 1939.  Bythen, Britain and France had abandoned appeasement in favor ofassertive diplomacy, and promised military support to Poland if Germany invaded.  In the period May-August 1939, as war loomed,frantic efforts were made by Britainand France jointly, and by Germany, to win over to their side the lastremaining undecided major European power, the Soviet Union.  The Germans prevailed, and a non-aggressionpact was signed with the Soviets on August 23, 1939, which prompted Hitler tobegin hostilities with Polandunder the mistaken belief that Britainand Francewould not react militarily.

September 22, 1980 – Iran-Iraq War: Iraq invades Iran

An escalation of hostilities, including artillery exchangesand air attacks, took place in the period preceding the outbreak of war.  On September 22, 1980, Iraq opened a full-scale offensive into Iran with its air force launching strikes on tenkey Iranian airbases, a move aimed at duplicating Israel’s devastating and decisiveair attacks at the start of the Six-Day War in 1967.  However, the Iraqi air attacks failed todestroy the Iranian air force on the ground as intended, as Iranian planes wereprotected by reinforced hangars.  Inresponse, Iranian planes took to the air and carried out retaliatory attacks onIraq’svital military and public infrastructures.

Throughout the war, the two sides launched many air attackson the other’s economic infrastructures, in particular oil refineries anddepots, as well as oil transport facilities and systems, in an attempt todestroy the other side’s economic capacity. Both Iran and Iraqwere totally dependent on their oil industries, which constituted their mainsource of revenues.  The oilinfrastructures were nearly totally destroyed by the end of the war, leading tothe near collapse of both countries’ economies. Iraq was much morevulnerable, because of its limited outlet to the sea via the Persian Gulf, which served as its only maritime oil export route.

(Taken from Iran-Iraq War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)

Background InJanuary 1979, anti-royalist elements (Islamists, nationalists, liberals,communists, etc.) in Iranforced the reigning Shah (king) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to leave for exileabroad, and this event, known as the Iranian Revolution, effectively ended Iran’smonarchy.  The following month, February1979, Ayatollah (Shiite Muslim religious leader) Ruhollah Khomeini, theinspirational and spiritual leader of the revolution, returned from exile in Franceand set up a provisional government led by Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan.  After a brief period of armed resistance putup by royalist supporters, the revolution prevailed and Ayatollah Khomeiniconsolidated political power.

Then in a national referendum held in March 1979, Iraniansoverwhelmingly voted to abolish the monarchy (ending 2,500 years of monarchicalrule) and allow the formation of an Islamic government.  Then in November 1979, the Iranian people, inanother referendum, adopted a new constitution that turned the country into anIslamic republic and raised Ayatollah Khomeini to the position of Iran’sSupreme Leader, i.e. head of state and the government’s highest rankingpolitical, military, and religious authority. Prime Minister Bazargan, whose liberal democratic and moderategovernment had held only little power, resigned in November 1979.  By February 1980, Iran had fully transitioned to atheocracy under Ayatollah Khomeini, with executive functions run by asubordinate civilian government led by President Abolhassan Banisadr.

The political unrest in Iranhad been watched closely by Iraq,Iran’sneighbor to the west, and particularly by Saddam Hussein, the Iraqidictator.  In the period following theIranian Revolution, relations between the two countries appeared normal, with Iraq even offering an invitation to new IranianPrime Minister Bazargan to visit Iraq.  But with Iran’stransition to a hard-line theocratic regime, relations between the twocountries deteriorated, as Iran’sIslamist fundamentalism contrasted sharply with Iraq’s secular, socialist, Arabnationalist agenda.

This breakdown in relations was only the latest in a longhistory of Arab-Persian hostility that resulted from a complex combination ofethnic, sectarian, political, and territorial factors.  During the period when the Ottoman Empireruled over the Middle East (16th – 19th centuries, to early 20th century), theOttoman Empire and Persian Empire fought for possession of sections ofMesopotamia, (present-day Iraq), including the Shatt el-Arab, the 200-kilometerlong river that separates present-day southern Iraq and western Iran.  In 1847, the Ottomans and Persians agreed tomake the Shatt al-Arab their common border; the Persian Empire also was givencontrol of Khoramshahr and Abadan,areas on its western shore of the river that had large Arab populations.

Then in 1937, the now independent monarchies of Iraq andIran signed an agreement that stipulated that their common border on the Shattal-Arab was located at the low water mark on the eastern (i.e. Iranian) sideall across the river’s length, except in the cities of Khoramshahr and Abadan,where the border was located at the river’s mid-point.  In 1958, the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown ina military coup.  Iraq then formed a republic and the newgovernment made territorial claims to the western section of the Iranian borderprovince of Khuzestan, which had a large populationof ethnic Arabs.

In Iraq,Arabs comprise some 70% of the population, while in Iran,Persians make up perhaps 65% of the population (an estimate since Iran’spopulation censuses do not indicate ethnicity). Iran’s demographicsalso include many non-Persian ethnicities: Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchs, andothers, while Iraq’ssignificant minority group comprises the Kurds, who make up 20% of thepopulation.  In both countries, ethnicminorities have pushed for greater political autonomy, generating unrest and apotential weakness in each government of one country that has been exploited bythe other country.

The source of sectarian tension in Iran-Iraq relationsstemmed from the Sunni-Shiite dichotomy. Both countries had Islam as their primary religion, with Muslimsconstituting upwards of 95% of their total populations.  In Iran, Shiites made up 90% of all Muslims(Sunnis at 9%) and held political power, while in Iraq, Shiites also held amajority (66% of all Muslims), but the minority Sunnis (33%) led by Saddam andhis Baath Party held absolute power.

In the 1960s, Iran, which was still ruled by amonarchy, embarked on a large military buildup, expanding the size and strengthof its armed forces.  Then in 1969, Iran ended its recognition of the 1937 borderagreement with Iraq,declaring that the two countries’ border at the Shatt al-Arab was at theriver’s mid-point.  The presence of thenow powerful Iranian Navy on the Shatt al-Arab deterred Iraq from taking action, andtensions rose.

Also by the early 1970s, the autonomy-seeking Iraqi Kurdswere holding talks with the Iraqi government after a decade-long war (the FirstIraqi-Kurdish War, separate article); negotiations collapsed and fighting brokeout in April 1974, with the Iraqi Kurds being supported militarily byIran.  In turn, Iraq incited Iran’s ethnic minorities to revolt,particularly the Arabs in Khuzestan, Iranian Kurds, and Baluchs.  Direct fighting between Iranian and Iraqiforces also broke out in 1974-1975, with the Iranians prevailing.  Hostilities ended when the two countriessigned the Algiers Accord in March 1975, where Iraqyielded to Iran’s demandthat the midpoint of the Shatt al-Arab was the common border; in exchange, Iranended its support to the Iraqi Kurds.

Iraq wasdispleased with the Shatt concessions and to combat Iran’s growing regional militarypower, embarked on its own large-scale weapons buildup (using its oil revenues)during the second half of the 1970s. Relations between the two countries remained stable, however, and evenenjoyed a period of rapprochement.  As aresult of Iran’s assistancein helping to foil a plot to overthrow the Iraqi government, Saddam expelledAyatollah Khomeini, who was living as an exile in Iraq and from where the Iraniancleric was inciting Iranians to overthrow the Iranian government.

September 21, 1953 – Korean War: A North Korean pilot defects to South Korea in his MiG-15 jet fighter

On September 21, 1953, North Korean pilot No Kum-sokdefected on his MiG-15 jet fighter into South Korea. His defection cameabout two months after the end of hostilities in the Korean War.  No sought asylum in the United Stateswhere he was subsequently granted citizenship. The U.S.government also awarded him a reward of U.S. $ 100,000 ($ 975,000 in 2021) forbeing the first pilot to defect with an operational aircraft.

(Taken from Korean War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia: Vol. 5)

Aftermath Meanwhile,armistice talks resumed, which culminated in an agreement on July 19,1953.  Eight days later, July 27, 1953,representatives of the UN Command, North Korean Army, and the Chinese People’sVolunteer Army signed the Korean Armistice Agreement, which ended the war.  A ceasefire came into effect 12 hours afterthe agreement was signed.  The Korean Warwas over.

War casualties included: UN forces – 450,000 soldierskilled, including over 400,000 South Korean and 33,000 American soldiers; NorthKorean and Chinese forces – 1 to 2 million soldiers killed (which includedChairman Mao Zedong’s son, Mao Anying). Civilian casualties were 2 million for South Korea and 3 million for North Korea.  Also killed were over 600,000 North Koreanrefugees who had moved to South Korea. Both the North Korean and South Korean governments and their forcesconducted large-scale massacres on civilians whom they suspected to besupporting their ideological rivals.  In South Korea,during the early stages of the war, government forces and right-wing militiasexecuted some 100,000 suspected communists in several massacres.  North Korean forces, during their occupationof South Korea,also massacred some 500,000 civilians, mainly “counter-revolutionaries”(politicians, businessmen, clerics, academics, etc.) as well as civilians whorefused to join the North Korean Army.

Under the armistice agreement, the frontline at the time ofthe ceasefire became the armistice line, which extended from coast to coastsome 40 miles north of the 38th parallel in the east, to 20 miles south of the38th parallel in the west, or a net territorial loss of 1,500 square miles toNorth Korea.  Three days after theagreement was signed, both sides withdrew to a distance of two kilometers fromthe ceasefire line, thus creating a four-kilometer demilitarized zone (DMZ)between the opposing forces.

The armistice agreement also stipulated the repatriation ofPOWs, a major point of contention during the talks, where both partiescompromised and agreed to the formation of an independent body, the NeutralNations Repatriation Commission (NNRC), to implement the exchange ofprisoners.  The NNRC, chaired by GeneralK.S. Thimayya from India, subsequently launched Operation Big Switch, where inAugust-December 1953, some 70,000 North Korean and 5,500 Chinese POWs, and12,700 UN POWs (including 7,800 South Koreans, 3,600 Americans, and 900British), were repatriated.  Some 22,000Chinese/North Korean POWs refused to be repatriated – the 14,000 Chineseprisoners who refused repatriation eventually moved to the Republic of China (Taiwan),where they were given civilian status. Much to the astonishment of U.S. and British authorities, 21 Americanand 1 British (together with 325 South Korean) POWs also refused to berepatriated, and chose to move to China. All POWs on both sides who refused to be repatriated were given 90 daysto change their minds, as required under the armistice agreement.

The armistice line was conceived only as a separation offorces, and not as an international border between the two Korean states.  The Korean Armistice Agreement called on thetwo rival Korean governments to negotiate a peaceful resolution to reunify the Korean Peninsula.  In the international Geneva Conference heldin April-July 1954, which aimed to achieve a political settlement to the recentwar in Korea (as well as in Indochina, see First Indochina War, separatearticle), North Korea and South Korea, backed by their major power sponsors,each proposed a political settlement, but which was unacceptable to the otherside.  As a result, by the end of theGeneva Conference on June 15, 1953, no resolution was adopted, leaving theKorean issue unresolved.

Since then, the KoreanPeninsula has remained divided alongthe 1953 armistice line, with the 248-kilometer long DMZ, which was originallymeant to be a military buffer zone, becoming the de facto border between North Korea and South Korea.  No peace treaty was signed, with thearmistice agreement being a ceasefire only. Thus, a state of war officially continues to exist between the two Koreas.  Also as stipulated by the Korean ArmisticeAgreement, the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) was established,comprising contingents from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland,tasked with ensuring that no new foreign military personnel and weapons arebrought into Korea.

Because of the constant state of high tension between thetwo Korean states, the DMZ has since remained heavily defended and is the mostmilitarily fortified place on Earth. Situated at the armistice line in Panmunjom is the Joint Security Area,a conference center where representatives from the two Koreas hold negotiationsperiodically.  Since the end of theKorean War, there exists the constant threat of a new war, which is exacerbatedby the many incidents initiated by North Koreaagainst South Korea.  Some of these incidents include: thehijacking by a North Korean agent of a South Korean commercial airliner inDecember 1969; the North Korean abductions of South Korean civilians; thefailed assassination attempt by North Korean commandos of South KoreanPresident Park Chung-hee in January 1968; the sinking of a South Korean navalvessel, the ROKS Cheonon, in March 2010, which the South Korean governmentblamed was caused by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine (North Koreadenied any involvement), and the discovery of a number of underground tunnelsalong the DMZ which South Korea has said were built by North Korea to be usedas an invasion route to the south.

Furthermore, in October 2006, North Korea announced that it haddetonated its first nuclear bomb, and has since stated that it possessesnuclear weapons.  With North Korea aggressively pursuingits nuclear weapons capability, as evidenced by a number of nuclear tests beingcarried out over the years, the peninsular crisis has threatened to expand toregional and even global dimensions. Western observers also believe that North Korea has since beendeveloping chemical and biological weapons.

September 20, 1942 – World War II: German SS troops massacre 3,000 Jews in Letychiv in western Ukraine

On September 20, 1942, German SS troops massacred 3,000 Jewsin Letychiv town in western Ukraine.The Germans had captured Letychiv town in July 1941 and transferred the Jewishpopulation as prisoners in a ghetto and slave labor camp. The prisoners weremade to work building a road. Upon the road’s completion, the SS was called into execute the prisoners. Three mass executions by shooting took place: inSeptember 1942, where 3,000 Jews were killed (comprising about half of theghetto population), in November 1942, where 4,000 were killed (the rest of theghetto’s population), and in November 1943, where 200 Jews from the labor campwere killed (this time, carried out by the local police). Further executions ofthe remaining workers in the labor camp were later carried out.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)

Genocide and slavelabor Because of the failure of Operation Barbarossa and succeedingcampaigns, Germanywas unable to implement the planned mass-scale transfer of targeted populationsto the Russian interior.  Elimination ofthe undesired populations began almost immediately following the outbreak ofwar, with the conquest of Poland.  The killing of hundreds of thousands ofcivilians occurred in hundreds of incidents of massacres and mass shootings intowns and villages, reprisals against attacks on German troops, scorched earthoperations, civilians trapped in the cross-fire, concentration camps, etc.

By far, the most famous extermination program was theHolocaust, where six million Jews, or 60% of the nine million pre-war EuropeanJewish population, were killed in the period 1941-1945.  German anti-Jewish policies began in theNuremberg Laws of 1935, and violent repression of Jews increased at theoutbreak of war.  Jews were rounded upand confined to guarded ghettos, and then sent by freight trains toconcentration and labor camps.  Bymid-1942, under the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” decree, Jews weretransported to extermination camps, where they were killed in gaschambers.  Some 90% of Holocaust victimswere Jews.  Other similar exterminationsand repressions were carried out against ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Poles,and other Slavs and Romani (gypsies), as well as communists and other politicalenemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.  In Germany itself, a clandestineprogram implemented by German public health authorities under Hitler’s orders,killed tens of thousands of mentally and physically disabled patients,purportedly under euthanasia (“mercy killing”) procedures, which actuallyinvolved sending patients to gas chambers, applying lethal doses of medication,and through starvation.

Some 12-15 million slave laborers, mostly civilians fromcaptured territories in Eastern Europe, were rounded up to work in Germany,particularly in munitions factories and agriculture, to ease German laborshortage caused by the millions of German men fighting in the various frontsand also because Nazi policy discouraged German women from working in industry.  Some 5.7 million Soviet POWs also were usedas slave labor.  As well, two millionFrench Army prisoners were sent to labor camps in Germany,mainly to prevent the formation of organized resistance in France and for them to serve as hostages to ensurecontinued compliance by the Vichygovernment.  Some 600,000 Frenchcivilians also were conscripted or volunteered to work in German plants.  Living and working conditions for the slavelaborers were extremely dire, particularly for those from Eastern Europe.  Some 60% (3.6million of the 5.7 million) of Soviet POWs died in captivity from variouscauses: summary executions, physical abuse, diseases, starvation diets, extremework, etc.

September 19, 1944 – World War II: The start of the three-month Battle of Hurtgen Forest between U.S. and German forces

Starting in September 1944,the Allies launched a multi-prong offensive against the Siegfried Line, withelements of British 21st Army Group attacking north and southeastthrough the Peel Marshes, and to the south of the British, U.S. 9th and 1st Armiestowards Aachen and the Hurtgen Forest(Figure 42).  Further south, U.S. 3rd Army advanced toward theSaar region, while U.S. 7thArmy pushed for Strasbourg and Free Frenchforces for Belfort.

The fiercest fighting tookplace at Aachen and the Hurtgen Forest.  As Aachenwas the first German town to come under attack from the west, Hitler hadordered its defenders to fight to the death. The Hurtgen Forest also was heavilyfortified, as it lay directly along the Siegfried Line.  U.S.forces took Aachenon October 22, 1944, but fighting continued at the Battle of Hurtgen Forest well intomid-December 1944.  However, the Alliesbroke through the Siegfried Line at other points: U.S.3rd Army at Metz on November 18,1944, U.S. 7thArmy near Strasbourg on November 23, and FreeFrench forces at Belfort.

(Taken from Defeat of Germany in the West 1944-1945 – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)

Advance into Germany In early September 1944, the two Allied forces from Normandy advanced rapidly and practically unopposed pastthe Seine Riverto the east, with British 21st Army Group to the north headingtoward Belgium, the Netherlands, and northern Germany; and U.S.12th Army Group to the south fanning out and proceeding for eastern France, Luxembourg,and western Germany.  In mid-September 1944, U.S. 6thArmy Group from southern France, having linked up with the Normandy forces, wasincorporated and placed under the command of General Eisenhower and SHAEF.  Because of the sudden rapid advance, GeneralEisenhower and SHAEF believed that Germany was on the brink of defeatand that the war could be ended before the end of 1944.

In September 1944, the Alliesentered Luxembourg(September 10) and Belgium,with British forces liberating Brussels(September 3) and Antwerp(September 6).  The three Allied ArmyGroups now formed a long front facing the German border along the length ofGermany’s “West Wall”: in Belgium in the north was British 21st ArmyGroup comprising British 2nd Army and Canadian 1st Army;in the center was U.S. 12th Army Group comprising U.S. 9th,1st, and 3rd Armies; and to the south extending to theFrench-Swiss border was U.S. 6th Army Group comprising U.S. 7thArmy and French Army B.

The “West Wall” (Figure 38), which the Allies called the Siegfried Line,was a 390-mile (630 km) long German defense line extending from the Netherlandsin the north to the Swiss border in the south. It was weakly defended at the start of World War II, but in August 1944following the Allied breakout in Normandy, Hitler ordered its completion, andlarge numbers of forced laborers, German civilians, and soldiers rushed toerect the thousands of concrete bunkers, anti-tank ditches and obstacles,trenches, tunnels, mine fields and barbed-wire fences.  Even then, by the time of the Allied attack,the Siegfried Line was largely obsolete because of the enormous improvements inAllied firepower.

Because of the limitedresources reaching the Allied frontlines, General Eisenhower decided to attackon a narrow front.  His plan was for theBritish 21st Army Group to launch a flanking attack that wouldbypass the Siegfried Line via the Netherlandsand then enter northern Germany.  Thus far, Allied strategy called for asimultaneous attack by all three army groups along a broad front, since GeneralEisenhower was aware of the rivalries and personal animosity between Britishand American commanders, particularly that of British General Bernard Montgomery,and U.S. Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton.  But more than anything, General Eisenhowerwanted to win the war quickly, and saw that General Montgomery’s flankingmaneuver through the Netherlandswas the best way to achieve this objective.

On September 17, 1944, theAllies launched Operation Market Garden with a large-scaleairborne assault in three areas in the Netherlands,with American paratroopers landing at Eindhovenand Nijmegen, and British paratroopers air-droppedat Arnhem.  Their task was to seize the bridges acrossthe rivers Maas, Waal, Rhine, as well as othersmaller canal crossings.  This done,British XXX Corps would fight its way to the bridges, eventually reaching Arnhem where the British troops would cross the Rhine Riverinto northern Germany.  In the actual assault, the objectives at Eindhoven and Nijmegen wereachieved, but at Arnhem, the Britishparatroopers met fierce German resistance at the Rhinecrossing, and were soon beaten back with heavy casualties.  Operation Market Garden thus failed, and alsoended General Eisenhower’s hopes of winning the war by the end of 1944.

In October 1944, in a seriesof operations conducted by Canadian-Polish and British forces, the Germans werepushed out of the long Scheldt Estuary, and the port of Antwerpwas opened to Allied shipping.  Alliedlogistics eased considerably because of the proximity of Antwerp to the Allied frontlines, and withlarge amounts of supplies soon reaching all three Allied army groups, GeneralEisenhower soon re-adopted the broad-front offensive strategy.

Thus, starting in September1944, the Allies launched a multi-prong offensive against the Siegfried Line,with elements of British 21st Army Group attacking north andsoutheast through the Peel Marshes, and to the south of the British, U.S. 9th and 1st Armiestowards Aachen and the Hurtgen Forest(Figure 42).  Further south, U.S. 3rd Army advanced toward theSaar region, while U.S. 7thArmy pushed for Strasbourg and Free Frenchforces for Belfort.

Operation Market Garden

The fiercest fighting tookplace at Aachen and the Hurtgen Forest.  As Aachenwas the first German town to come under attack from the west, Hitler hadordered its defenders to fight to the death. The Hurtgen Forest also was heavilyfortified, as it lay directly along the Siegfried Line.  U.S.forces took Aachenon October 22, 1944, but fighting continued at the Battle of Hurtgen Forest well intomid-December 1944.  However, the Allies brokethrough the Siegfried Line at other points: U.S.3rd Army at Metz on November 18,1944, U.S. 7thArmy near Strasbourg on November 23, and FreeFrench forces at Belfort.

By mid-December 1944, Hitlerwas ready to launch a major counter-attack with the grand aim of scoring adecisive victory in the Western Front in a single stroke.  Hitler’s plan was for German forces to strikethrough the densely wooded Ardennes Forest, and then blitz their way toward Antwerp, capturing thecity and splitting British and American forces, in the process destroying fourAllied armies.  The objective was torepeat the highly successful 1940 Ardennes Offensive that had defeated France and the Low Countries in six weeks. Hitler believed that his new offensive would result in anothercatastrophic defeat for the Allies, which would force them to negotiate an endto fighting in the Western Front, with peace terms wholly favorable to Germany.  With victory in the West, Hitler could thendirect his attention to finally defeating the Soviet Unionin the East.

On December 16, 1944, theWehrmacht launched its Ardennescounter-offensive, codenamed “Operation Watch on the Rhine” (German: Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein), which involved 400,000 troops, 12,000 tanks, and 4,200artillery pieces that had been brought up in utmost secrecy and had escapedAllied intelligence detection. Spearheaded by panzer units, the Germans advanced rapidly to a distanceof some 50 miles (80 km) to come within 10 miles (16 km) of the Meuse River.  The attack took the defending U.S. 1stArmy completely by surprise.  Overcast weatheralso greatly aided the German advance, as Allied planes, which controlled theskies over the battlefield, were unable to launch counter-attacks in the heavycloud cover.  The German penetrationproduced a salient, which the Allies called a “bulge” in their lines, leadingto the Ardennes fighting being popularly called by Allied historians as the “Battle of the Bulge”.

The Allies quickly ralliedand reorganized, and stopped the German advance in the north at Elsenborn Ridgeand in the south at Bastogne.  German attempts to flank Bastogne also were stopped by increasingnumbers of Allied forces being brought into the battle.  The German crossing of the Meuse River,which was the key to the advance to Antwerp,also failed, as the British held onto the bridges at Dinant, Givet, and Namur.  Aside from fierce Allied resistance, theGermans began encountering supply problems, and many of their tanks ground to ahalt because of fuel shortages.  Then onDecember 23, 1944, improved weather conditions allowed the Allies to launch airattacks on German units and supply columns. By December 24, the German offensive had effectively stalled.  Massing Allied armor bottled up the Germantanks, threatening the latter with encirclement.

On January 1, 1945, theGermans launched a new offensive, Operation North Wind, this time directed at the Alsace-Lorraine region to thesouth, and surprised U.S. 6th Army Group which had been stretchedthin in support of the Ardennes battle to the north.  The German attack, aimed at recapturing Strasbourg, initiallyachieved some success, inflicting heavy casualties on the American defenders,but soon sputtered from supply shortages, particularly fuel for the tanks.

On January 3, 1945, theAllies launched a counter-attack after a two-day delay, with U.S. 1st and 3rdArmies executing a pincers movement aimed at eliminating the salient andtrapping the Germans inside the pocket. The delay allowed most German units to escape, and on January 7, Hitlerfinally acquiesced to his commanders and ordered a general withdrawal.  Fighting continued until January 25, with theGermans conducting a fighting retreat, in the process also being forced toabandon most of their tanks after running out of fuel, and the Allies retakinglost territory and eliminating the salient. In February 1945, the Allies captured the Hurtgen Forest,finally breaching the Siegfried Line there. For Hitler, the Ardennes counter-offensive was a strategic and costlyfailure, as Germanylost most of its manpower reserves and armored resources in the West in anambitious gamble.  At the outset, theGerman High Command gave little chance for the Ardennesoffensive to succeed.  Its failure also severelyweakened German strength on the Western Front against the Allied offensive laterthat year.

September 18, 1931 – The Mukden Incident takes place, giving Japan a pretext to invade Manchuria

On the night of September 18, 1931, Kwantung Army LieutenantSuemori Kawamoto set off a small explosive on a small section of the SouthManchuria Railway line near Mukden.  The explosion caused only minor damage to therail track and a Mukden-bound train passed through it later without encounteringany difficulty.  Kwantung Armyconspirators, led by officers Itagaki and Ishiwara, initiated this action,which historically is called the Mukden Incident, in order to accuse theChinese of armed provocation and thereby justify a Japanese military reactionthat would lead to a full-scale conquest of Manchuria.

(Taken from Japanese Invasion of Manchuria – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia: Vol. 5)

Immediately following the Mukden Incident, on ColonelItakagi’s orders, Japanese forces attacked the Chinese Army garrison at Mukden.  The7,000-man garrison Chinese force did not resist the 500 Japanese attackers, butfled their garrison and Mukden.  Col. Itakagi also mobilized Japanese forcesall across the 1,100-km long South Manchuria Railway and as per thepre-arranged plan, moved to seize towns and cities throughout Manchuria.

In Ryojun (Port Arthur), Kwantung Army commander General Honjo wasinfuriated that junior officers had initiated military action without hisapproval.  But after being counseled byCol. Ishiwara and the other conspirators, General Honjo was won over, andimmediately requested more troops to be brought in from Korea.  A few hours after the start of hostilities,on September 19, 1931, General Honjo transferred the Kwantung Army headquartersto Mukden, which by now was under fullJapanese control.

Within a few days, Japanese forces seized much of Liaoningand Kirin (Jilin) provinces, including virtually all regions, towns, and citiessuch as Anshan, Haicheng, Kaiyuan, Tieling, Fushun, Changchun, Yingkou, Antung,Changtu, Liaoyang, Kirin, Chiaoho, Huangkutun, and Hsin-min.  In Tokyo, thecentral government was stunned by this latest act of gekokujō (militaryinsubordination, which was widespread among junior officers), but gave itsconsent and sent more Japanese troops to Manchuriato support the Kwantung Army’s spectacular successes.

Thereafter, Japanese military authorities successfullyco-opted many Chinese military commanders (including Generals Xi Qia, ChangChing-hui, and Chang Hai-peng), warlords, and officials to form local andprovincial administrations in the various jurisdictions, replacing the deposedpro-KMT governments.  By October 1931,many such pro-Japanese local governments had been established in Kirin (Jilin) and Liaoningprovinces.  The Japanese conquest ofsouthern Manchuria was completed in early January 1932 with the capture ofChinchow (Jinzhou) and Shanhaiguan, with Chineseforces offering no resistance and withdrawing south of the Great Wall into Hebei Province.

Earlier in October 1931, pro-Japanese General Xu Jinglongled an army north to take HeilongjiangProvince, but met strong resistance atthe Nen River crossing near Jiangqiao.  But with the support of Japanese troops thatprotected work crews repairing the bridge, the attack soon broke through and byNovember 18, 1931, Tsitsihar (Qiqihar), theprovincial capital, was taken, with loyalist General Ma Zhanshan and his troopsescaping to the east of Heilongjiang Province.  Following the conquest of southern Manchuria, Japanese authorities tried to win over throughnegotiations Ma Zhanshan and the other defiant northern KMT commander, GeneralTing Chao, but failed.  Japanese forcesthen launched an offensive to take Harbin, thelast KMT stronghold in Manchuria, which fellin early February 1932.  In this battle,the Japanese came to the assistance of their collaborationist Chinese allieswhose attack earlier had been thrown back by loyalist Chinese forces.

To provide legitimacy to its conquest and occupation ofManchuria, on February 18, 1932, Japanestablished Manchukuo (“State of Manchuria”), purportedly an independent state, with itscapital at Hsinking (Changchun).  Puyi, the last and former emperor of China under the Qing dynasty, was named Manchukuo’s “head ofstate”.  In March 1934, he was named“Emperor” when Manchukuowas declared a constitutional monarchy.

Manchukuo was viewed bymuch of the international community as a puppet state of Japan, and received little foreignrecognition.  In fact, Manchukuo’sgovernment was controlled by Japanese military authorities, with Puyi being nomore than a figurehead and the national Cabinet providing the front forJapanese interests in Manchuria.

Beset by internal turmoil, Chang Kai-shek’s Nationalistgovernment in Nanjingwas unable to military oppose the Japanese invasion, for a number ofreasons.  First, in the period afterreunifying China in 1928,Chiang struggled to maintain control of the country, as large parts of Chinaremained de facto autonomous and were dominated by powerful warlords whopledged only nominal allegiance to the central government.  Second, even Chiang’s own government wasracked by power struggles, and political rivals tried to set up alternativeregimes in other parts of the country. Third, Chiang also faced a growing communist insurgency (under theCommunist Party of China), which in the years ahead, would become a majorthreat to his authority.  To confrontthese domestic problems and also deeming that China was yet military incapableof facing Japan in war, Chiang adopted the policy of “First internalpacification, then external resistance”, that is, first, defeat the communists,warlords, and political rivals, and then confront Japan.

Chinasought international diplomatic support. On September 19, 1931, one day after the start of hostilities, itappealed to the League of Nations to exert pressure on Japan.  On September 22, the League called on the twosides to resolve their disputes peacefully. But with Japancontinuing armed action, on October 24, 1931, the League passed a resolutiondemanding that Japanese forces withdraw from Manchuriaby November 16, which was rejected by the Japanese government.

The League then formed the investigative Lytton Commission(named after the British administrator Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl ofLytton), which arrived in Chinain January 1932, to determine the causes of the conflict.  In October 1932, the Lytton Commissionreleased a report, whose findings included the following: that Japan was the aggressor and its claim of actingin self-defense was untrue; and that China’s anti-Japanese policies andrhetoric, and refusal to compromise, aggravated the crisis.  No mention was made of the side responsiblefor causing the Mukden Incident.  TheCommission also refused to recognize Manchukuo,stating that it did not come from a “genuine and spontaneous independencemovement”.  In February 1933, the Leagueof Nations approved the Lytton Commission’s report; the following month, Japanrevoked its membership in the League and left.

September 17, 1939 – World War II: The Soviet Union joins Germany in the invasion of Poland

On September 17, 1939, the Soviet RedArmy consisting of 500,000 troops, 5,000 artillery pieces, 4,700 tanks, and 3,000planes invaded through Belarusand Ukraine into eastern Poland.  Previously, the Soviet Union had signed anumber of bilateral treaties with Poland, including a non-aggressionpact.  However, Soviet leader JosephStalin justified Soviet military action, stating thatsince by this time the Polish state had ceased to exist, the Soviet Union needed to intervene and tend to the welfare of ethnicUkrainians and Byelorussians in Polish territories.  In fact, Soviet entry in the war was made sothat the Red Army could occupy Polish territories that had been allocated tothe Soviet Union under the Soviet-Germannon-aggression pact signed just one month earlier (August 1939).  The Soviet invasion did not encounter anyserious resistance, as the eastern border was only weakly defended, and thePolish government, completely taken by surprise, initially did not know if theRussians had come as its friend or foe, and ordered its forces to standdown.  A few small battles took place,but the Soviet forces, with their overwhelming size, advanced virtuallyunopposed across eastern Poland.

(Taken from Invasion of Poland – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)

If the plight of Poland was not dire enough, its allies Britainand France had not carried out the military relief that was badly needed.  On September 2, 1939, one day after theGermans attacked, Britainand France issued a jointultimatum to Germanyto withdraw within 12 hours, and after receiving no response, they declared warthe following day.  The BritishCommonwealth countries Australiaand New Zealand alsodeclared war on Germany.  However, no significant military actionfollowed: British ships blockaded the German coastline and British planesdropped propaganda leaflets over German cities; while the French launched alackluster offensive on the German Saar region on September 7, capturing anumber of towns and villages without meeting any resistance, and thenwithdrawing most of their forces after a week. In mid-October 1939 and after the Polish campaign, German forces recapturedall the areas occupied by the French, who retreated behind the MaginotLine.  The failure of Britain and Franceto launch any significant military action (which likely could have changed thecourse of World War II) on Germany’sweak western border in 1939) in compliance with their treaty obligations to Poland,has been called the “Western Betrayal”.

By September 17, with Polish forcesdisintegrating, the Germans controlling large sections of western Poland, the Soviet Red Army rolling in from theeast, and the lack of substantial support from its western Allies, the Polishgovernment decided that further resistance was futile and rescinded theRomanian Bridgehead plan, and crossed into Romania.  Some 120,000 Polish soldiers also crossed theborder and were interned by the Romanian Army. Poland did notofficially surrender to Germanyor the Soviet Union, and during World War II, a Polish government-in-exilefunctioned in the West, first in Franceand then Britain.  A Polish army also was raised in the West insupport of the Allies, as well as in Russiaafter Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.

Meanwhile in Poland, the remaining Polish unitscontinued to engage in desperate fighting. On September 20, at Tomaszow Lubelski, the Germans annihilated twoPolish armies, the Krakow and LublinArmies.  On September 22, Lwow wastaken.  In Warsaw, on September 28, the Polish defenderswho had withstood relentless German air and artillery attacks, and Germanground assaults, finally capitulated after a 20-day siege, with 140,000 Polishsoldiers captured.  The next day, theModlin Fortress located north of the capital also fell after two weeks offighting.  Isolated Polish pockets heldoff until as late as the first week of October 1939, which were overrun, endingthe six-week war.

AftermathOn September 28, 1939, as the war was winding down, Germanyand the Soviet Union, acting on Stalin’sproposal, agreed to make changes to their respective spheres of influence asset forth in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. In the revised treaty, Germanyrelinquished to the Soviet Union its claim to a sphere of influence on Lithuania in exchange for the Soviet Unionrelinquishing to Germany itssphere of influence to sections of central Poland,including Warsaw and Lublin. On October 8, 1939, Germanyannexed western Poland,including Danzig, the Polish Corridor, and Silesia,and established the German-run General Governorate in the rest of theGerman-assigned territory in Poland.

The Soviet Union also annexed its shareof Polish territories, partitioning them among its subordinate states Belarus, Ukraineand Lithuania,and implementing Sovietization policies in ethnic Polish-majority regions.

In German-controlled Poland, which wasextended to include all of Poland after German forces captured the Sovietsection of Poland in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa (the Germaninvasion of the Soviet Union) in June 1941, Nazi Germany implemented policiesaimed at achieving Lebensraum, where ethnic Germans would settle in the formerPolish territories which then would be completely Germanized politically,economically, socially, and culturally. As Lebensraum entailed displacing the native populations, Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) was initiated in a seriesof programs of depopulating, resettling, or otherwise eliminating the Polishpopulation from lands that were destined to become fully German.  Central to Nazi doctrine was the concept ofGerman racial superiority, and that German ethnic purity was to be maintainedand not tainted by the blood of races which the Nazis classified as inferior (Untermensch, or sub-human), whichincluded Poles and other Slavic peoples, Jews, and Roma (gypsies), amongothers.

The colonization and full Germanizationof Polish territories were to be accomplished in stages over many years.  But of more urgency to the Germans was thefate of Polish Jews, whose eradication was determined in January 1942 throughthe euphemistically called “Final Solution”. In the aftermath of the Polish campaign, German authorities segregatedthe three million Polish Jews, who were then forced into the hundreds of Jewishghettos quickly set up across Poland.  In the ensuing period, Polish and other Jewsacross Europe were transported by train tospecially constructed labor, concentration, and extermination camps where themass executions ultimately were carried out. Aside from Jews, Slavs, and Roma, Nazi extermination policies alsotargeted the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, politicalopponents, communists, prisoners of war, resistance fighters, and other groups.

In Poland, as a result of the Germanoccupation, some six million Poles perished, or 20% of the totalpopulation.  Of this number, threemillion were Jews, of whom 90% were killed.

September 16, 1982 – 1982 Lebanon War: The Sabra and Shatila Massacre takes place

On September 16, Phalange militias carried out the Sabra and Shatila massacre, where between 500 and 3,500 mostly Palestinian and Muslim civilians were killed in the Sabra neighborhood and nearby Shatila refugee camp in Beirut Lebanon. The Phalange was a militia associated with the Kataeb Party, a mainly Christian Lebanese right-wing party. The massacre occurred during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) and the Israel military intervention in Lebanon (also known as the 1982 Lebanon War; 1982-1985).

The massacre occurred after the Palestinian LiberationOrganization (PLO) had been withdrawn from Lebanon under UN supervision.Israeli forces believed that more PLO fighters were in Sabra and Shatila, andinstructed their Phalange allies to clear these areas, leading to the masskillings. The massacre also occurred one day after the assassination of newlyelected Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel of the Kataeb Party, which Israeland Phalange believed had been perpetrated by the PLO.

Israel’sintervention in Lebanon, the1982 Lebanon War, was aimed at destroying the PLO camps in southern Lebanon.The Lebanese Civil War was a multi-faceted, multi-sectarian conflict thatinvolved Lebanon’sgovernment forces, many religious and ideological groups, complicated by thedirect military interventions of Israeland Syriaas well as being a proxy battleground in the Cold War.

(Taken from 1982 Lebanon War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Background Israel’s invasion of Lebanonin 1978 (previous article) failed to achieve peace in the region of northern Israel and South Lebanon.  After the war, the Palestine LiberationOrganization (PLO) returned to South Lebanon, where it re-established authorityand resumed its attacks on Israel.  In turn, Israel launched air strikes againstthe PLO.  The United Nations InterimForce in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which had arrived in South Lebanon after the war to enforce the ceasefire, was unable to stopthe upsurge of violence.  The Lebanesegovernment itself had lost authority in South Lebanon,as it was embroiled in a bitter civil war, where the state had become powerlessagainst the many rival sectarian militias that had carved up the country intoseparate zones of control.  Syria also had sent its armed forces to Lebanon(at the request of the Lebanese government), occupied sections of the country,and exerted great influence in the country’s security and political climate.

By 1982, cross-border and retaliatory attacks by the PLO andIsraelhad increased considerably.  Ariel Sharon,Israel’s defense minister, developed a plan to invade Lebanon with the following objectives: expel thePLO from South Lebanon, force out the Syrian Army from Lebanon, and install a pro-Israeligovernment consisting of Lebanese Maronite Christians.  The Israeli government rejected the plan,however, reasoning that such a large-scale operation could potentially costheavy casualties on the Israeli Army.

On June 3, 1982, Shlomo Argov,Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom,was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt carried out by the Abu NidalOrganization, a Palestinian militant movement that was a rival of the PLO.  Israelthen launched massive air and artillery attacks in South Lebanon.  The PLO, declaringthat it had nothing to do with the assassination attempt on the Israelidiplomat, retaliated with rocket attacks in northern Israeli villages near theborder.  On June 4, 1982, the Israeligovernment authorized its armed forces to invade South Lebanon.

War On June 4, 1982, Israeli forces crossed the Blue Line,the de facto Israel-Lebanon “border”.  Israel’s initially stated objective was to pushthe PLO twenty-five kilometers north of the Blue Line, a distance that wouldplace northern Israelout of reach of Palestinian artillery fire. Israeli forces hoped to complete the operation within 24 hours.  As the war progressed, however, Israelwould expand its military, as well as political, objectives.

The Israeli offensive was carried out along three fronts:from the Mediterranean coast to deny the PLO an escape route to the sea; fromcentral Lebanon in thedirection of the Beirut-Damascus Road; and along the Syria-Lebanon border to cutoff supply lines from Syria.  The Israelis also carried out amphibiouslandings of armored and infantry units north of Sidon to seal off a northward escape routefor the PLO.  Artillery from Israeliships shelled South Lebanon’s coastal roads todisrupt PLO logistical lines.