Daniel Orr's Blog, page 84

September 29, 1932 – Paraguayan forces recapture Fortin Boqueron during the Chaco War

On September 29, 1932, Paraguayan forces recaptured Fortin Boqueron and other small garrisons nearby from the Bolivian Army. In December 1932, Bolivia sent many troops and weapons to the North Chaco for a full-scale offensive aimed at taking the whole region and then advancing right up to Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital.  From January to March 1933, Bolivian offensives overran several Paraguayan fortifications.  Then in a major battle at Fortin Nanawa, which was the Paraguayan Army’s headquarters in the North Chaco, the Bolivians were stopped.

Background of the
Chaco War During the 1930s, Paraguay
and Bolivia went to war for
possession of the North Chaco, a dry,
forbidding expanse of scrub and forest that lay between the two countrie).  The North Chaco forms a part of the larger
Gran Chaco Plains, a vast region that extends into northern Argentina, western Paraguay,
eastern Bolivia, and a small
section in western Brazil.

During the colonial era, the Gran Chaco Plains was
administered by the Spanish government as a separate territory.  In the early 1800s, the Gran Chaco Plains
became disputed territory when the South American countries surrounding it gained
their independences.  The delineation of
the borders around the Gran Chaco Plains was not pursued actively, however,
because of the region’s harsh climate and the mistaken belief that it contained
few natural resources.

Through conquest from wars later in the 1800s, many areas of
the Gran Chaco Plains were annexed by the victorious countries.  Eventually, what remained undecided was the
North Chaco, the region straddling Paraguay
and Bolivia and located west
of the Paraguay River and north of the Pilcomayo River.

War Fighting
broke out in June 1932 with the Paraguayan forces soon taking the initiative.
But by March 1935, their offensive had sputtered. Thereafter, the Paraguayan
Army realized that while it had achieved its military objectives in the North
Chaco, it could not go any further into Bolivia without incurring heavy
losses.

While some politicians on both sides demanded for the
continuation of the war, the governments of Paraguay
and Bolivia
were alarmed that the huge human and economic tolls were bringing their
countries to ruin.  War casualties had
reached 100,000 dead, with nearly 60% of that figure suffered by Bolivia.  On June 10, 1935, in a truce mediated by the
Argentinean government, Paraguay
and Bolivia
agreed to end the war.

Aftermath The territorial issue of the North Chaco was brought before an arbitration panel consisting of members from South American countries.  In its decision, the arbitration panel awarded 75% of the North Chaco to Paraguay, and the rest (25%) to Bolivia.  The panel’s decision also stipulated that Paraguay must grant Bolivia access to the Paraguay River, as well as to specified ports and rail facilities inside Paraguay. (Excerpts taken from Chaco War – Wars of the 20th Century: Volume 1.)

September 28, 1939 – Germany and the Soviet Union partition Poland

On September 28, 1939, as their joint invasion of Poland was winding down, Germany and the Soviet
Union, acting on Stalin’s proposal, agreed to make changes to
their respective spheres of influence as set forth in the Molotov-Ribbentrop
pact.  In the revised treaty, Germany relinquished to the Soviet Union its
claim to a sphere of influence on Lithuania
in exchange for the Soviet Union relinquishing to Germany
its sphere of influence to sections of central Poland,
including Warsaw and Lublin. 
On October 8, 1939, Germany
annexed western Poland,
including Danzig, the Polish Corridor, and Silesia,
and established the German-run General Governorate in the rest of the German-assigned
territory in Poland.

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

In German-controlled Poland, which was extended to include
all of Poland after German forces captured the Soviet section of Poland in the
early stages of Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union)
in June 1941, Nazi Germany implemented policies aimed at achieving Lebensraum,
where ethnic Germans would settle in the former Polish 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
series of programs of depopulating, resettling, or otherwise eliminating the
Polish population from lands that were destined to become fully German.  Central to Nazi doctrine was the concept of
German racial superiority, and that German ethnic purity was to be maintained
and not tainted by the blood of races which the Nazis classified as inferior
(Untermensch, or sub-human), which included Poles and other Slavic peoples,
Jews, and Roma (gypsies), among others.

The colonization and full Germanization of Polish
territories were to be accomplished in stages over many years.  But of more urgency to the Germans was the
fate of Polish Jews, whose eradication was determined in January 1942 through
the euphemistically called “Final Solution”. 
In the aftermath of the Polish campaign, German authorities segregated
the three million Polish Jews, who were then forced into the hundreds of Jewish
ghettos quickly set up across Poland.  In the ensuing period, Polish and other Jews
across Europe were transported by train to
specially constructed labor, concentration, and extermination camps where the
mass executions ultimately were carried out. 
Aside from Jews, Slavs, and Roma, Nazi extermination policies also
targeted the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, political
opponents, communists, prisoners of war, resistance fighters, and other groups.

In Poland, as a result of the German occupation, some six million Poles perished, or 20% of the total population.  Of this number, three million were Jews, of whom 90% were killed. (Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

September 27, 1940 – Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact

On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, a mutual assistance treaty where the signatories pledged to come to the aid “if one of the Contracting Powers is attacked by a Power at present not involved in the European War or in the Japanese-Chinese conflict.” At this time, Europe was already embroiled in World War II while in Asia, the Second-Japanese War was being fought. The Pact was directed at the United States, which was then the only neutral major power, to deter its being involved in the conflicts on the Allied side. The Pact also acknowledged the pre-eminence of Germany and Italy in Europe, and Japan in “Greater East Asia”. It was to be effective for ten years, with a provision for its renewal.

The Tripartite Pact was later joined by other countries: Hungary on November 20, 1940, Romania on November 23, 1940, Slovakia on November 24, 1940, Bulgaria on March 1, 1941, and Yugoslavia on March 25, 1941. The Axis invaded and then partitioned Yugoslavia; subsequently, the newly formed Independent State of Croatia joined the Pact on June 15, 1941.

The Soviet Union also entered into negotiations with Germany
to join the Tripartite Pact, even offering the latter substantial economic
concessions. However, Hitler was determined that the Soviet
Union would not be allowed to join, as preparations were already
underway for Operation Barbarossa.

In June 1941, after the start of the German-led invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany asked Finland, which had also participated in the attack, to join the Tripartite Pact. However, the Finnish government rebuffed the offer, as its military objectives differed from the Germans. Finland also wanted to maintain diplomatic relations with the United States and the Western Allies.

Japan attacked
Thailand on December 8, 1941
as a means to gain passage to invasion British Malaya and Burma. After a ceasefire was
signed, Japan invited Thailand
to join the Tripartite Pact, but the latter only agreed on military cooperation
with the Japanese.

(Taken from Italy before World War II – Wars of the 20th Century- World War II in Europe)

In World War I, Italy had joined the Allies under a secret agreement (the 1915 Treaty of London) in that it would be rewarded with the coastal regions of Austria-Hungary after victory was achieved.  But after the war, in the peace treaties with Austria-Hungary and Germany, the victorious Allies reneged on this treaty, and Italy was awarded much less territory than promised. Indignation swept across Italy, and the feeling of the so-called “mutilated victory” relating to Italy’s heavy losses in the war (1.2 million casualties and steep financial cost) led to the rise in popularity of ultra-nationalist, right-wing, and irredentist ideas.  Italian anger over the war paved the way for the coming to power of the Fascist Party, whose leader Benito Mussolini became Prime Minister in October 1922.  The Fascist government implemented major infrastructure and social programs that made Mussolini extremely popular.  In a few years, Mussolini ruled with near absolute powers in a virtual dictatorship, with the legislature abolished, political dissent suppressed, and his party the sole legal political party.  Mussolini also made gains in foreign affairs: in the Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923) that ended World War II between the Allies and Ottoman Empire, Italy gained Libya and the Dodecanese Islands.  In August 1923, Italian forces occupied Greece’s Corfu Island, but later withdrew after League of Nations mediation and the Greek government’s promise to pay reparations.

In the late 1920s onward, Mussolini advocated grandiose
expansionism to establish a modern-day Italian Empire, which would include
plans to annex Balkan territories that had formed part of the ancient Roman
Empire, gaining a sphere of influence in parts of Central and Eastern Europe,
achieving mastery over the Mediterranean Sea, and gaining control of North Africa
and the Middle East which would include territories stretching from the
Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east.

With the Nazis coming to power in Germany
in 1933, Hitler and Mussolini, with similar political ideologies, initially did
not get along well, and in July 1934, they came into conflict over Austria.  There, Austrian Nazis attempted a coup
d’état, assassinating Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss and demanding unification
with Germany.  Mussolini, who saw Austria
as falling inside his sphere of influence, sent troops, tanks, and planes to
the Austrian-Italian border, poised to enter Austria
if Germany
invaded.  Hitler, at this time still
unprepared for war, backed down from his plan to annex Austria.  Then in April 1935, Italy banded together
with Britain and France to form the Stresa Front (signed in Stresa, Italy),
aimed as a united stand against Germany’s violations of the Versailles and
Locarno treaties; one month earlier (March 1935), Hitler had announced his plan
to build an air force, raise German infantry strength to 550,000 troops, and
introduce military conscription, all violations of the Versailles treaty.

However, the Stresa Front quickly ended in fiasco, as the
three parties were far apart in their plans to deal with Hitler.  Mussolini pressed for aggressive action; the
British, swayed by anti-war public sentiments at home, preferred to negotiate
with Hitler; and France,
fearful of a resurgent Germany,
simply wanted an alliance with the others. 
Then in June 1935, just two months after the Stresa Front was formed,
Britain and Germany signed a naval treaty (the Anglo-German Naval Agreement),
which allowed Germany to build a navy 35% (by tonnage) the size of the British
navy.  Italy
(as well as France) was
outraged, as Britain was
openly allowing Hitler to ignore the Versailles
provision that restricted German naval size. 
Mussolini, whose quest for colonial expansion was only restrained by the
reactions from both the British and French, saw the naval agreement as British
betrayal to the Stresa Front.  To
Mussolini, it was a green light for him to launch his long desired conquest of Ethiopia 
(then also known as Abyssinia).  In October 1935, Italy
invaded Ethiopia,
overrunning the country by May 1936 and incorporating it into newly formed Italian East Africa. 
In November 1935, the League of Nations, acting on a motion by Britain that was reluctantly supported by France, imposed economic sanctions on Italy, which angered Mussolini, worsening Italy’s relations with its Stresa Front
partners, especially Britain.  At the same time, since Hitler gave his
support to Italy’s invasion
of Ethiopia, Mussolini was
drawn to the side of Germany.  In December 1937, Mussolini ended Italy’s membership in the League
of Nations, citing the sanctions, despite the League’s already
lifting the sanctions in July 1936.

In January 1936, Mussolini informed the German government
that he would not oppose Germany
extending its sphere of influence in Austria (Germany annexed Austria in
March 1938).  And in February 1936,
Mussolini assured Hitler that Italy
would not invoke the Versailles and Locarno treaties if Germany
remilitarized the Rhineland.  In March 1936, Hitler did just that,
eliciting no hostile response from Britain
or France.  Then in the Spanish Civil War, which started
in July 1936, Italy and Germany
provided weapons and troops to the right-wing Nationalist forces that rebelled
against the Soviet Union-backed leftist Republican government.  In April 1939, the Nationalists emerged
victorious, and their leader General Francisco Franco formed a fascist
dictatorship in Spain.

In October 1936, Italy
and Germany signed a
political agreement, and Mussolini announced that “all other European countries
would from then on rotate on the Rome-Berlin Axis”, with the term “Axis” later
denoting this alliance, which included Japan as well as other minor
powers.  In May 1939, German-Italian
relations solidified into a formal military alliance, the “Pact of Steel”.  In November 1937, Italy
joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Germany
and Japan signed one year
earlier (November 1936), ostensibly only directed against the Communist
International (Comintern), but really targeting communist ideology and by
extension, the Soviet Union.  In September 1940, the Axis Powers were
formed, with Germany, Italy, and Japan signing the Tripartite Pact.

In April 1939, Italy
invaded Albania (separate
article), gaining full control within a few days, and the country was joined
politically with Italy
as a separate kingdom in personal union with the Italian crown.  Six months later (September 1939), World War
II broke out in Europe, which took Italy completely by surprise.

Despite its status as a major military power, Italy
was unprepared for war.  It had a
predominantly agricultural economy, and industrial production for
war-convertible commodities amounted to just 15% that of Britain and France.  As well, Italian capacity for war-important
items such as coal, crude oil, iron ore, and steel lagged far behind those of
other western powers.  In military
capability, Italian tanks, artillery, and aircraft were inferior and mostly
obsolete, although the Italian Navy was large, ably powerful, and possessed
several modern battleships.  Cognizant of
Italian military deficiencies, Mussolini placed great efforts to build up armed
strength, and by 1939, some 40% of the national budget was allocated to
national defense.  Even so, Italian
military planners had projected that full re-armament and building up of their
forces would be completed only in 1943; thus, the unexpected start of World War
II in September 1939 came as a shock to Mussolini and the Italian High Command.

September 26, 1950 – Korean War: United Nations (UN) forces recapture Seoul

United Nations (UN) forces at Inchon soon recaptured Kimpo airfield.  There, U.S.
planes began to conduct air strikes on North Korean positions in and around Seoul.  UN ground forces then launched a
three-pronged attack on the capital. 
They met heavy North Korean resistance at the perimeter but soon
captured the heights overlooking the city. 
On September 25, 1950, UN forces entered Seoul, and soon declared the city liberated.  Even then, house-to-house fighting continued
until September 27, when the city was brought under full UN control.    On September 29, 1950, UN forces formally
turned over the capital to President Syngman Rhee, who reestablished his
government there.  And by the end of
September 1950, with remnants of the decimated North Korean Army retreating in
disarray across the 38th parallel, South Korean and UN units gained control of
all pre-war South Korean territory.

Some key areas during the Korean War

On October 1, 1950, the South Korean Army crossed the 38th
parallel into North Korea along the eastern and central regions; UN forces,
however, waited for orders.  Four days
earlier, on September 27, 1950, President Truman sent a top-secret directive to
General MacArthur advising him that UN forces could cross the 38th parallel
only if the Soviet Union or China had not sent or did not intend to send forces
to North Korea.

Earlier, the Chinese government had stated that UN forces
crossing the 38th parallel would place China’s national security at risk,
and thus it would be forced to intervene in the war.  Chairman Mao Zedong also stated that if U.S. forces invaded North
Korea, China
must be ready for war with the United
States.

At this stage of the Cold War, the United States believed that its biggest threat
came from the Soviet Union, and that the Korean War may very well be a Soviet
plot to spark an armed conflict between the United
States and China.  This would force the U.S. military to divert troops and resources to
Asia, and leave Western Europe open to a
Soviet invasion.  But after much
deliberation, the Truman administration concluded that China was “bluffing” and would not really
intervene in Korea,
and that its threats merely were intended to undermine the UN.  Furthermore, General MacArthur also later
(after UN forces had crossed the 38th parallel) expressed full confidence in
the UN (i.e. U.S.)
forces’ military superiority – that Chinese forces would face the “greatest
slaughter” if they entered the war.

On October 7, 1950, the UNGA adopted Resolution 376 (V)
which declared support for the restoration of stability in the Korean Peninsula,
a tacit approval for the UN forces to take action in North Korea.  Two days later, October 9, UN forces, led by
the Eighth U.S. Army, crossed the 38th parallel in the west, with General
MacArthur some days earlier demanding the unconditional surrender of the North
Korean Army.  UN forces met only light
resistance during their advance north. 
On October 15, 1950, Namchonjam fell, followed two days later by
Hwangju.

In North Korea’s eastern coast, the U.S. X Corps made
unopposed amphibious landings at Wonsan on October 25, 1950 (with South Korean
forces having taken this port town days earlier) and at Iwon, further north, on
October 29.  On October 24, 1950, under
the “Thanksgiving Offensive” issued by General MacArthur who wanted the war
ended before the start of winter, UN forces made a rapid advance to the Yalu River,
which serves as the China-North Korea border.

In late October 1950, UN forces clashed with the Chinese
Army, and a new phase of the war began. 
Earlier, in June 1950 in Beijing,
Chairman Mao had declared his intention to intervene in the Korean conflict,
which received strong reluctance from Chinese military leaders.  But with the support of Premier Zhou Enlai,
and General Peng Dehuai, (military commander of China’s northwest region, who
would be appointed to lead the Chinese forces in the Korean War), the plan for
the Chinese Army (officially called the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA) to
become involved in Korea was approved.

On October 8, 1950, the day that UN forces crossed the 38th
parallel into North Korea,
Chinese forces in Manchuria (the North East Frontier Force, or NEFF) were
ordered to deploy at the Yalu River in preparation to enter North Korea
from the north.  On October 19, 1950, the
day Pyongyang fell, on Chairman Mao’s order, the
NEFF crossed into North
Korea. 
Chinese authorities called this force the “People’s Volunteer Army”, the
“volunteer” designation conferring on it a non-official status in order that China would not
be directly involved in a war with the US/UN.

The Chinese deployment from Manchuria to Korea was
carried out under strict secrecy, and Chinese troops travelled only at night
and remained camouflaged during the day. 
So successful were the Chinese in using secrecy and concealment that U.S. surveillance planes, even with their full
control of the skies, were unable to detect the massive Chinese buildup at the Yalu River.  Chinese forces soon entered North Korea.

On October 25, 1950, using surprise and overwhelming
numerical force, the Chinese struck at the UN forces (led by the Eighth U.S.
Army), which was moving up the western region toward the Yalu River.  The Chinese particularly targeted the UN
right flank along the Taebaek
Mountains, which
consisted of South Korean forces.  In the
ensuing four-day encounter at Onjong (Battle of Onjong), the Chinese severely
crippled the South Korean forces and punched a hole in the UN lines.  Thousands of Chinese soldiers then poured through
the gap and advanced behind UN lines.  On
November 1, 1950 at Unsan, the Chinese attacked along three points at the UN
line at its center, inflicting heavy casualties on the American and South
Korean forces.  At this point, the U.S. high command ordered the Eighth U.S. Army
to retreat south of the Chongchon
River.

On November 6, 1950, the Chinese forces also broke contact
and withdrew north to the mountains. 
Unknown to UN forces, the Chinese had over-extended their supply lines,
which would be a problem that Chinese forces would face constantly during the
war.  Furthermore, in this early stage of
their involvement in the war, the Chinese relied on weapons supplied by the Soviet Union. 
Later on, the Chinese would also manufacture their own armaments, and
reduce their reliance on foreign imports.

The fighting in the north also saw the first air battles
between American and Soviet jet planes, leading to many intense dogfights
during the war.  Early on, the newly
released, powerful Soviet MiG-15 easily outclassed the U.S.
first-generation jet planes, the P-80 Shooting Star and the F9F Panther, and
posed a serious threat to the U.S. B-29 bombers.  But with the arrival of the U.S. F-86 Sabre,
parity was achieved in the sky in terms of jet fighter aircraft capability on
both sides.  Ultimately, U.S. planes
would continue to hold nearly full control of the sky for the duration of the
war.

The sudden Chinese withdrawal during the Battle of Onjong
perplexed the U.S.
military high command.  Weeks earlier,
General MacArthur stated his belief that China
had some 100,000-125,000 troops north of the Yalu
River, and that if half of this number
was sent to Korea,
his forces easily could meet this threat. 
In the ensuing lull (November 6–24, 1950), U.S. surveillance planes detected
no significant Chinese military buildup, and sightings of enemy troop strength
on the ground seemed to confirm General MacArthur’s estimates.  Convinced that China was not intending to
fully intervene in Korea, General Macarthur launched the “Home-by-Christmas”
Offensive, a cautious two-sector advance toward the Yalu River: UN forces in
the western sector led by the Eighth U.S. Army as the main attacking force, and
in the eastern sector led by the U.S. X Corps to support the attack and also
cut off enemy supply and communication lines.

September 25, 1964 – Start of Mozambique’s War of Independence against Portugal

In September 1964, the nationalist organization FRELIMO
launched small guerilla attacks from bases in Tanzania
into Cabo Delgado
Province, 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 independence
movements.

Initially, because of limited combat strength, FRELIMO
planned to undertake a prolonged guerilla war instead of launching one powerful
attack on Lourenço Marques, Mozambique’s
capital, in the hope of quickly ousting the colonial government, as proposed by
other rebel leaders.  Initially, FRELIMO
was handicapped by a shortage of recruits, weapons, and combat capability, and
as a result, rebel operations did not seriously disrupt the government’s capacity
to operate normally.

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

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

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

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

After World War II ended in 1945, nationalist aspirations
sprung up and spread rapidly across Africa.  By the 1960s, most of the continent’s
colonies had become independent countries. 
Portugal,
however, was determined to maintain its empire. 
In 1951, Portugal
ceased to regard its African (and Asian) possessions as “colonies”, but
integrated them into the motherland as “overseas provinces”.  Tens of thousands of Portuguese citizens
migrated to Mozambique, as
well as to Angola
and Portuguese Guinea under the prodding of the national government to lead the
development of the new “provinces”.

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

The Portuguese monopolized the political and economic
systems of the colony, while the general population had limited access to
education and upward social and economic mobility.  By the early 1960s, less than 1% of black
Africans had attained “assimilado” status. 
The colonial government repressed political dissent, forcing many
Mozambican nationalists into exile abroad, and used PIDE (Policia Internacional
e de Defesa do Estado), Portugal’s
security service, to turn Mozambique
into a police state.

In June 1962, exiled Mozambican nationalists met in Dar es
Salaam, Tanganyika, and merged three ethnic-based independence movements into
one nationalist organization, FRELIMO or Mozambique Liberation Front
(Portuguese: Frente de Libertação de Moçambique).  Led by Eduardo Mondlane, FRELIMO initially
sought to gain Mozambique’s
independence by negotiating with the Portuguese government.  FRELIMO regarded the Portuguese as foreigners
who were exploiting Mozambique’s
human and natural resources, and were unconcerned with the development and
well-being of the indigenous black population.

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

September 24, 1973 – Guinea-Bissau declares independence

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

Guinea’s independence struggle was led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde or PAIGC (Portuguese: Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde), established in 1956 with the aim of ending Portuguese colonial rule and gaining independence for Guinea and Cape Verde.  Initially, the PAIGC wanted to achieve its aims through dialogue and a negotiated settlement.  By the late 1950s, however, the Guinean nationalists had become more militant.

The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence forms part of the
Portuguese Colonial War.

(Taken from Portuguese Colonial Wars – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

Portugal’s African colonial possessions consisted of Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese-Guinea, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome & Principe.

During the colonial era, Portugal’s territorial possessions in Africa consisted of Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe (Map 24).  When World War II ended in 1945, a surge of nationalism swept across the various African colonies as independence groups emerged and demanded the end of European colonial rule.  As these demands soon intensified into greater agitation and violence, most of the European colonizers relented, and by the 1960s, most of the African colonies had become independent countries.

Bucking the trend, Portugal was determined to hold
onto its colonial possessions and went so far as to declare them “overseas
provinces”, thereby formally incorporating them into the national territories
of the motherland.  Nearly all the black
African liberation movements in these Portuguese “provinces” turned their
attention from trying to gain independence through negotiated settlement to
launching insurgencies, thereby starting revolutionary wars.  These wars took place through the early 1960s
to the first half of the 1970s, and were known collectively as the Portuguese
Colonial War, and pitted the Portuguese Armed Forces against the African
guerilla militias in Angola,
Mozambique,
and Portuguese Guinea.  At the war’s
peak, some 150,000 Portuguese soldiers were deployed in Africa.

By the 1970s, these colonial wars had become extremely
unpopular in Portugal,
because of the mounting deaths in Portuguese soldiers, the irresolvable nature
of the wars through military force, and the fact that the Portuguese government
was using up to 40% of the national budget to the wars and thus impinging on
the social and economic development of Portuguese society.  Furthermore, the wars had isolated Portugal diplomatically, with the United Nations
constantly putting pressure on the Portuguese government to decolonize, and
most of the international community imposing a weapons embargo and other
restrictions on Portugal.  In April 1974, dissatisfied officers of the
military carried out a coup that deposed the authoritarian regime of Prime
Minister Marcelo Caetano.  The coup,
known as the Carnation Revolution, produced a sudden and dramatic shift in the
course of the colonial wars.

September 23, 1943 – Mussolini establishes the Italian Social Republic

On September 23, 1943, Benito Mussolini founded the Italian Social Republic (Italian: Repubblica Sociale Italiana, RSI), a fascist state centered on the small town of Salo in northern Italy (hence its more commonly known name, “Republic of Salo”). RSI claimed sovereignty over most Italy, but de facto exercised authority only in the northern region, since by this time, the Allies had captured territory in southern Italy and were fighting their way north, and the defending German forces controlled the non-liberated regions. RSI had an armed force of about 150,000 troops but was totally dependent on Germany. It had been set up just after Mussolini was freed by German commandos on September 12, 1943. Mussolini had been sacked as Prime Minister and imprisoned in July 1943 after the Allies captured Sicily. The new Italian government opened secret peace talks with the Allies, leading to the Armistice of Cassibile, where Italy surrendered to the Allies. Fearing German reprisal, King Victor Emmanuel II and the new government fled to Allied-controlled southern Italy, where they set up their headquarters. In October 13, 1943, Italy declared war on Germany. But as a consequence of the armistice, German forces took over power in Italy.

The RSI existed until May 1, 1945 when German forces in Italy surrendered. Mussolini and other RSI leaders were captured by Italian partisans four days earlier, on April 27, and executed the following day.

(Taken from Mussolini and his Quest for an Italian Empire – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

In the midst of political and social unrest in October 1922, Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party came to power in Italy, with Mussolini being appointed as Prime Minister by Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III.  Mussolini, who was popularly called “Il Duce” (“The Leader”), launched major infrastructure and social programs that made him extremely popular among his people.  By 1925-1927, the Fascist Party was the only legal political party, the Italian legislature had been abolished, and Mussolini wielded nearly absolute power, with his government a virtual dictatorship.

By the late 1920s through the 1930s, Mussolini pursued an
overtly expansionist foreign policy.  He
stressed the need for Italian domination of the Mediterranean region and
territorial acquisitions, including direct control of the Balkan states of Yugoslavia, Greece,
Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania,
and a sphere of influence in Austria
and Hungary, and colonies in
North Africa. 
Mussolini envisioned a modern Italian Empire in the likeness of the
ancient Roman Empire.  He explained that his empire would stretch
from the “Strait of Gibraltar [western tip of the Mediterranean Sea] to
the Strait of Hormuz [in modern-day Iran
and the Arabian Peninsula]”.  Although not openly stated, to achieve this
goal, Italy would need to
overcome British and French naval domination of the Mediterranean
Sea.

Furthermore, in the aftermath of World War I, a strong
sentiment regarding the so-called “mutilated victory” pervaded among many
Italians about what they believed was their country’s unacceptably small
territorial gains in the war, a sentiment that was exploited by the Fascist
government.  Mussolini saw his empire as
fulfilling the Italian aspiration for “spazio vitale” (“vital space”), where
the acquired territories would be settled by Italian colonists to ease the
overpopulation in the homeland. 
Mussolini’s government actively promoted programs that encouraged large
family sizes and higher birth rates.

Mussolini also spoke disparagingly about Italy’s
geographical location in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, about how it was
“imprisoned” by islands and territories controlled by other foreign powers
(i.e. France and Britain), and that his new empire would include territories
that would allow Italy direct access to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the
Indian Ocean in the east.

In October 1935, the Italian Army invaded independent Ethiopia,
conquering the African nation by May 1936 in a brutal campaign that included
the Italians using poison gas on civilians and soldiers alike.  Italy
then annexed Ethiopia into
the newly formed Italian East Africa, which included Eritrea
and Italian Somaliland.  Italy
also controlled Libya in North Africa as a colony.

The aftermath of Italy’s
conquest of Ethiopia saw a
rapprochement in Italian-Nazi German relations arising from Hitler’s support of
Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia.  In turn, Mussolini dropped his opposition to Germany’s annexation of Austria.  Throughout the 1920s-1930s, the major
European powers Britain, France, Italy, the Soviet Union and Germany, engaged
in a power struggle and formed various alliances and counter-alliances among
themselves, with each power hoping to gain some advantage in what was seen as
an inevitable war.  In this power
struggle, Italy
straddled the middle and believed that in a future conflict, its weight would
tip the scales for victory in its chosen side.

In the end, it was Italy’s
ties with Germany
that prospered; both countries also shared a common political ideology.  In the Spanish Civil War (July 1936-April
1939), Italy and Germany supported the rebel Nationalist forces
of General Francisco Franco, who emerged victorious and took over power in Spain.  In October 1936, Italy
and Germany
formed an alliance called the Rome-Berlin Axis. 
Then in 1937, Italy
joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, which had been signed by Germany and Japan in November 1936.  In April 1939, Italy
moved one step closer to forming an empire by invading Albania, seizing control of the
Balkan nation within a few days.  In May
1939, Mussolini and Hitler formed a military alliance, the Pact of Steel.  Two months earlier (March 1939), Germany completed the dissolution and partial annexation
of Czechoslovakia.  The alliance between Germany and Italy,
together with Japan,
reached its height in September 1940, with the signing of the Tripartite Pact,
and these countries came to be known as the Axis Powers.

On September 1, 1939 World War II broke out when Germany attacked Poland,
which immediately embroiled the major Western powers, France and Britain,
and by September 16 the Soviet Union as well (as a result of a non-aggression
pact with Germany, but not
as an enemy of France and Britain).  Italy
did not enter the war as yet, since despite Mussolini’s frequent blustering of
having military strength capable of taking on the other great powers, Italy
in fact was unprepared for a major European war.

Italy was
still mainly an agricultural society, and industrial production for
war-convertible commodities amounted to just 15% that of Britain and France.  As well, Italian capacity for vital items
such as coal, crude oil, iron ore, and steel lagged far behind the other
western powers.  In military capability,
Italian tanks, artillery, and aircraft were inferior and mostly obsolete by the
start of World War II, although the large Italian Navy was ably powerful and
possessed several modern battleships. 
Cognizant of these deficiencies, Mussolini placed great efforts to
building up Italian military strength, and by 1939, some 40% of the national
budget was allocated to the armed forces. 
Even so, Italian military planners had projected that its forces would
not be fully prepared for war until 1943, and therefore the sudden start of
World War II came as a shock to Mussolini and the Italian High Command.

In April-June 1940, Germany
achieved a succession of overwhelming conquests of Denmark,
Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and France.  As France
verged on defeat and with Britain
isolated and facing possible invasion, Mussolini decided that the war was
over.  In an unabashed display of
opportunism, on June 10, 1940, he declared war on France
and Britain, bringing Italy into World War II on the side of Germany,
and stating, “I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace
conference as a man who has fought”.

September 22, 1980 – Iraq launches invasion of Iran

An escalation of hostilities, including artillery exchanges and air attacks, took place in the period preceding the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War.  On September 22, 1980, Iraq opened a full-scale offensive into Iran with its air force launching strikes on ten key Iranian airbases, a move aimed at duplicating Israel’s devastating and decisive air attacks at the start of the Six-Day War in 1967.  However, the Iraqi air attacks failed to destroy the Iranian air force on the ground as intended, as Iranian planes were protected by reinforced hangars.  In response, Iranian planes took to the air and carried out retaliatory attacks on Iraq’s vital military and public infrastructures.

Iran, Iraq, and adjacent countries.

Throughout the war, the two sides launched many air attacks
on the other’s economic infrastructures, in particular oil refineries and
depots, as well as oil transport facilities and systems, in an attempt to
destroy the other side’s economic capacity. 
Both Iran and Iraq were
totally dependent on their oil industries, which constituted their main source
of revenues.  The oil infrastructures
were nearly totally destroyed by the end of the war, leading to the near
collapse of both countries’ economies.  Iraq was much more vulnerable, 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 In January 1979, anti-royalist elements (Islamists, nationalists, liberals, communists, etc.) in Iran forced the reigning Shah (king) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to leave for exile abroad, and this event, known as the Iranian Revolution, effectively ended Iran’s monarchy.  The following month, February 1979, Ayatollah (Shiite Muslim religious leader) Ruhollah Khomeini, the inspirational and spiritual leader of the revolution, returned from exile in France and set up a provisional government led by Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan.  After a brief period of armed resistance put up by royalist supporters, the revolution prevailed and Ayatollah Khomeini consolidated political power.

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

The political unrest in Iran
had been watched closely by Iraq,
Iran’s
neighbor to the west, and particularly by Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi
dictator.  In the period following the
Iranian Revolution, relations between the two countries appeared normal, with Iraq even offering an invitation to new Iranian
Prime Minister Bazargan to visit Iraq.  But with Iran’s
transition to a hard-line theocratic regime, relations between the two
countries deteriorated, as Iran’s
Islamist fundamentalism contrasted sharply with Iraq’s secular, socialist, Arab
nationalist agenda.

This breakdown in relations was only the latest in a long history
of Arab-Persian hostility that resulted from a complex combination of ethnic,
sectarian, political, and territorial factors. 
During the period when the Ottoman Empire ruled over the Middle East
(16th – 19th centuries, to early 20th century), the Ottoman Empire and Persian
Empire fought for possession of sections of Mesopotamia, (present-day Iraq),
including the Shatt el-Arab, the 200-kilometer long river that separates
present-day southern Iraq and western Iran. 
In 1847, the Ottomans and Persians agreed to make the Shatt al-Arab
their common border; the Persian Empire also was given control 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 and Iran
signed an agreement that stipulated that their common border on the Shatt
al-Arab was located at the low water mark on the eastern (i.e. Iranian) side
all 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 in
a military coup.  Iraq then formed a republic and the new
government made territorial claims to the western section of the Iranian border
province of Khuzestan, which had a large population
of 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’s
population censuses do not indicate ethnicity). 
Iran’s demographics
also include many non-Persian ethnicities: Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Baluchs, and
others, while Iraq’s
significant minority group comprises the Kurds, who make up 20% of the
population.  In both countries, ethnic
minorities have pushed for greater political autonomy, generating unrest and a
potential weakness in each government of one country that has been exploited by
the other country.

The source of sectarian tension in Iran-Iraq relations
stemmed from the Sunni-Shiite dichotomy. 
Both countries had Islam as their primary religion, with Muslims
constituting 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 a
majority (66% of all Muslims), but the minority Sunnis (33%) led by Saddam and
his Baath Party held absolute power.

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

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

Iraq was
displeased with the Shatt concessions and to combat Iran’s growing regional military
power, 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 even
enjoyed a period of rapprochement.  As a
result of Iran’s assistance
in helping to foil a plot to overthrow the Iraqi government, Saddam expelled
Ayatollah Khomeini, who was living as an exile in Iraq and from where the Iranian
cleric was inciting Iranians to overthrow the Iranian government.

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

On September 21, 1953, Senior Lieutenant No Kum-sok of the North Korean Air Force defected in his MiG-15 jet fighter into South Korea. No’s defection came about two months after the end of hostilities in the Korean War.

His flight of 17 minutes was not detected by the Korean Air Force nor was it spotted by U.S. air defenses, as the nearest American radar had been temporarily shut down for routine maintenance. Upon his arrival, he surrendered to U.S. authorities. He was later granted asylum in the United States and received a reward of U.S. $ 100,000 ($ 940,000 in 2018) for being the first pilot to defect with an operational aircraft.

His defection brought about reprisals in North Korea, where authorities there demoted the North Korean Air Force’s top commander and executed five of No’s comrades. His father had already passed away while his mother had earlier defected to South Korea. The fate of his other relatives in North Korea is not known.

(Excerpts taken from Korean War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

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’s Volunteer Army signed the Korean Armistice Agreement,
which ended the war.  A ceasefire came
into effect 12 hours after the agreement was signed.  The Korean War was over.

War casualties included: UN forces – 450,000 soldiers
killed, including over 400,000 South Korean and 33,000 American soldiers; North
Korean and Chinese forces – 1 to 2 million soldiers killed (which included
Chairman 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 Korean
refugees who had moved to South
Korea. 
Both the North Korean and South Korean governments and their forces
conducted large-scale massacres on civilians whom they suspected to be
supporting their ideological rivals.  In South Korea,
during the early stages of the war, government forces and right-wing militias
executed some 100,000 suspected communists in several massacres.  North Korean forces, during their occupation
of South Korea,
also massacred some 500,000 civilians, mainly “counter-revolutionaries”
(politicians, businessmen, clerics, academics, etc.) as well as civilians who
refused to join the North Korean Army.

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

The armistice agreement also stipulated the repatriation of
POWs, a major point of contention during the talks, where both parties
compromised and agreed to the formation of an independent body, the Neutral
Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC), to implement the exchange of
prisoners.  The NNRC, chaired by General
K.S. Thimayya from India, subsequently launched Operation Big Switch, where in
August-December 1953, some 70,000 North Korean and 5,500 Chinese POWs, and
12,700 UN POWs (including 7,800 South Koreans, 3,600 Americans, and 900
British), were repatriated.  Some 22,000
Chinese/North Korean POWs refused to be repatriated – the 14,000 Chinese
prisoners 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 American
and 1 British (together with 325 South Korean) POWs also refused to be
repatriated, and chose to move to China. 
All POWs on both sides who refused to be repatriated were given 90 days
to change their minds, as required under the armistice agreement.

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

Since then, the Korean
Peninsula has remained divided along
the 1953 armistice line, with the 248-kilometer long DMZ, which was originally
meant to be a military buffer zone, becoming the de facto border between North Korea and South Korea.  No peace treaty was signed, with the
armistice agreement being a ceasefire only. 
Thus, a state of war officially continues to exist between the two Koreas.  Also as stipulated by the Korean Armistice
Agreement, 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 are
brought into Korea.

Because of the constant state of high tension between the
two Korean states, the DMZ has since remained heavily defended and is the most
militarily 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 negotiations
periodically.  Since the end of the
Korean War, there exists the constant threat of a new war, which is exacerbated
by the many incidents initiated by North Korea
against South Korea.  Some of these incidents include: the
hijacking by a North Korean agent of a South Korean commercial airliner in
December 1969; the North Korean abductions of South Korean civilians; the
failed assassination attempt by North Korean commandos of South Korean
President Park Chung-hee in January 1968; the sinking of a South Korean naval
vessel, the ROKS Cheonon, in March 2010, which the South Korean government
blamed was caused by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine (North Korea
denied any involvement), and the discovery of a number of underground tunnels
along the DMZ which South Korea has said were built by North Korea to be used
as an invasion route to the south.

Furthermore, in October 2006, North Korea announced that it had
detonated its first nuclear bomb, and has since stated that it possesses
nuclear weapons.  With North Korea aggressively pursuing
its nuclear weapons capability, as evidenced by a number of nuclear tests being
carried out over the years, the peninsular crisis has threatened to expand to
regional and even global dimensions. 
Western observers also believe that North Korea has since been
developing chemical and biological weapons.

September 20, 1942 – World War II: German SS kills 3,000 Jews in Letychiv

On September 20, 1942, German SS units murdered 3,000 Jews
in Letychiv town in western Ukraine.

The Germans captured Letychiv in July 1941 and segregated the Jewish population in a ghetto and a separate slave labor camp. The prisoners were sent to work on a road building project. Upon completion of the project, the SS was called in. Three separate mass shootings took place: in September 1942, where 3,000 Jews were killed (comprising about half of the ghetto), in November 1942, where 4,000 were killed (the rest of the ghetto’s population), and in November 1943, where 200 Jews from the labor camp were killed (this time, by the local police). Further mass executions of the remaining workers in the labor camp were carried out in the following months.

(Taken from Genocide and Slave Labor – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Because of the failure of Operation Barbarossa and succeeding campaigns, Germany was unable to implement the planned mass-scale transfer of targeted populations to the Russian interior.  Elimination of the undesired populations began almost immediately following the outbreak of war, with the conquest of Poland.  The killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians occurred in hundreds of incidents of massacres and mass shootings in towns and villages, reprisals against attacks on German troops, scorched earth operations, civilians trapped in the cross-fire, concentration camps, etc.

By far, the most famous extermination program was the Holocaust,
where six million Jews, or 60% of the nine million pre-war European Jewish
population, were killed in the period 1941-1945.  German anti-Jewish policies began in the
Nuremberg Laws of 1935, and violent repression of Jews increased at the
outbreak of war.  Jews were rounded up
and confined to guarded ghettos, and then sent by freight trains to
concentration and labor camps.  By
mid-1942, under the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” decree, Jews were
transported to extermination camps, where they were killed in gas
chambers.  Some 90% of Holocaust victims
were Jews.  Other similar exterminations
and repressions were carried out against ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, and
other Slavs and Romani (gypsies), as well as communists and other political
enemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.  In Germany itself, a clandestine
program 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 actually
involved sending patients to gas chambers, applying lethal doses of medication,
and through starvation.

Some 12-15 million slave laborers, mostly civilians from
captured territories in Eastern Europe, were rounded up to work in Germany,
particularly in munitions factories and agriculture, to ease German labor
shortage caused by the millions of German men fighting in the various fronts
and also because Nazi policy discouraged German women from working in
industry.  Some 5.7 million Soviet POWs
also were used as slave labor.  As well,
two million French 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 ensure continued compliance by the Vichy government.  Some 600,000 French civilians also were
conscripted or volunteered to work in German plants.  Living and working conditions for the slave
laborers were extremely dire, particularly for those from Eastern
Europe.  Some 60% (3.6
million of the 5.7 million) of Soviet POWs died in captivity from various
causes: summary executions, physical abuse, diseases, starvation diets, extreme
work, etc.