Prelude to war
To better understand such gargantuan conflict as World War 2 clearly was, we first need to focus on the motives and goals each nation had. For the sake of clarity it is customary to dived all nations into three major factions.
Axis started as Germany alone, but it quickly grew through diplomatic influence on two other most prominent nations with similar ideologies
Being the most belligerent faction in World War 2, most events were driven by goals of these nations.
Germany started the war with the aim to
control eastern Europe and European parts of Soviet Union with quick execution of
operation Barbarossa. To really achieve this they also had to defeat France through
Fall Gelb and United Kingdom by
operation Sealion. Hitler decided that the only allies he needed in his campaign were
Italy and
Japan and other similar nations like Nationalist Spain or Portugal would only hinder his ambitions.
To power his enormous warmachine Hitler needed huge amount of iron from Sweden, but to get it home he had to conquer northern port of
Narvik.
Italy aimed to turn Meditteranean Sea to her little pond by taking
Gibraltar and Suez from British hands.
Japan had much bigger ambitions stretching from occupation of China (namely important targets represented by
Shanghai and
Chongqing) and aquiring rare materials and oil by conquering
Manilaand
Batavia, to dealing with dangerous United States by depriving them of
Honolulu and finish their dominance in Pacific by seizing all
important islands.
Allies represented democratic states opposing Axis advance. This faction started as equal partnership between France and United Kingdom, but this was quickly changed.
The first task for them was to get more nations to join. While some of them were logical choice (
USA and
Canada), other were more of pragmatic choice (
Poland and
Greece). Also keeping
France democratic and sympatetic became important task.
The first succesful battleground for Allied forces was Notrhern Africa. At first the problematic supply lines held British advance back, but after launching
operation Torch to liberate Morroco and Algeria and create second front, things have changed.
After securing what was theirs they could switch focus to liberation of Europe by executing enormous operation called
Overlord. Important cities that had to be taken were:
Paris,
Bruxelles,
Amsterdam and of course
Berlin itself.
Italy was also needed to be dealt with.
Apart from Europe, it was also necessary to stop Japan advancing through
Pacific islands and of course
defeating the Empire of the Rising Sun itself.
Last and mainly prestige task was to
keep Switzerland neutral as always.
The last faction consisted of Soviet union and two insignificant Asian states. This was of course not enough for ambitious communist power, so most of the tasks consisted of gaining territories and puppets.
The first move was against
three Baltic states and Finland. Than the nazi invasion came so Soviet Union was pushed to defensive position, but didn't give up. Post-war political situation in Europe after the
fall of the Third Reich should have ensured communist
Finland,
Romania,
Poland,
Hungary,
Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia,
Greece,
East Germany and
Czechoslovakia. Those ambitious goals were not enough, so the last two Comintern members were supposed to be
Korea and
Mexico.
At least that were Stalin's plans.
