The War Path
(1936-...)
21th Chapter:
The War That Did Not End All Wars
1. Barbarrossa.
After the peace of London the guns did not remain silent for long. Germany has forgotten that Russia had been allied with France and was a threat to the German security, as Berlin perceived the situation. Thus, Russia had to be defeated. To achieve this Germany bvegan the biggest and more risky military campaign ever seen, a campaign that saw the breaking of her alliance with Great Britain, that did not want anything to do in a war against Russia.
While France was being defeated, Russia had not remained iddle and began to gear herself for the incoming confrontation. However, when the war did took place, Russia was compeltely surprised. It all began after the putsch of Bucharest, in april 1941, when king Carol II of Romania was deposed by a pro-German group leaded by general Ion Antonescul. After this incident the German Abwehr began to notice an incresing concentration of la inteligencia alemana demostró la presencia de grandes concentraciones de tropas en la frontera. It was not the moment to wait and not even the death of Wilhelm II (June 4, 1941) could postpone the invasion of Russia.
His heir, Wilhelm III, saw the biggest invasion ever seen, as it pitched half Europe against Russia, when, on June 22, 1941 the armed forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Finland, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria, plus legions of volunteers coming from Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Catalonia, Denmark, France, Norway and France crossed the Russian border, making thus the start of the Russo-German war (1941-43).
Only the endless human reserves and the eternal Russian battlefield avoided that the Zarist army was defeated in the first battle. When St Petersburg began to be shelled by early september by the long range guns of the Imperial German Army, the Tsar moved, along his government, to Moscow, where the German Armored Hordes, filled with the new Teutonicus Furore reached towards early November. Amidst the cruellest winter ever seen, the soldiers of both sides fought and died in the most vicious fight ever seen.
However, it would not be until the spring of 1942 when the war in Russia began to go to the German side, as the armies of the kaiser attacked the Caucasus. Stuck in front of Moscow, the German army turned to the south, to cut the vital line of supplies that kept the Tsarist army alive. Thus, when the German forces conqeured the oilfield of Baku and reacehd the Volga, the STAVKA had to risk everything to avoid the ultimate defeat, so they send their best untis to strike a strong counterstrike in the Caucasus, that obligade the Germans to send their reserves to the south.
Then they attacked to in front of Moscow. There the war was, indeed, decided. The Tsarist armies achieved a complete surprise, but they neither could not win the decisive battle that would annhilate the German army nor retake the essential oilfields. At the end of 1942, the Russian army had run out of luck: its best trained units had been decimated in these futile attacks and their morale suffered another blow when St Petersburg finally felt to the German-Finnish onslaught. The lack of supplies and oil comming from the south will settle the war.
On their part, the Germans were also exhausted. Their units were just a shadow of their former strenght after the wonderous taks of fighting in such gigantic front. They also needed to rest.
2. Pearl Harbour.
The attack against Russia marked the lowest mark of the Anglo.German relations. Were it not for the Japanese attack against Pearl Harbour (December, 7th, 1941) and against Hong Kong on the next day, that began the War of the Pacific (1941-44), perhaps London and Berlin would had come to blows.
Thus Great Britain had to turn to defend the Empire against the Japanese assault. Side by side with the United States, the United Kingdom would recover from the initial surprise and would, eventually, defeat Japan. Russia, on her part, was devastated by this unexpected war, as it meant a significat reduction in the amount of supplies that reached them. It was due, of course, to the needs of the armies of the new Allies, the United States and Britain, caused by the war in the Pacific, but also to the reluctance of London to risk a two-front war by sending supplies to Russia when the Empire was at stake.
With the country on the verge to defeat, the Tsar and his goverment had no other option but to negotiate with Berlin. Knowing too well what had just happened in France, the Tsar was not willing to risk his crown. Also, the Tsar knew that he had no room to negotiate. In the end, the Tsardom was saved, but it meant loosing White Russia and Ukrania, which become puppet states of Germany, plus the recognition of the Baltic States and the end of the Tsarist claim upon Finland.
There we can find the origin of the future wars, as many of the citizens of the new states were not happy changing a Tsar for a Kaiser, which caused some rebellions (as the Rising of Kiev -1956-, that proclaimed the short lived Free State of Ukraine, which vanished under the tracks of the German Panzers after five days of existence) and guerrillas (as in the Baltic countries, where the last armed bands, help by St Petersburg, were not defeated until 1965).
The surrender of Japan in 1944 took at the same time that the creation of the Kaiserbund, a pact which linked all the European monarchies (with the logic exception of Great Britain) in a organization aimed to arrange peacefully the possible conflicts that may arose among its members. Actually, the Kaiserbund was nothing but an armed alliance created by Berlin and aimed to help Germany in any conflict against Great Britain and the United States.
3. The Cold War
The years that followed the defeats of Japan and Russia saw the rising of the tension among the Great Powers. If Great Britain came closer to the United States to protect herself from Berlin, Germany replied increasing his influence over her allies and puppets, as we can see in the creation, in 1956, of the Europäische Zollverein, aimed to help the free-trading in Europe.
The Anglo-American reply was the so-called Truman Plan, which consisted in helping (by military and economical means) of any single country which were not allied with Germany. This fact was openly stated by the MacArthur declaration (1958) where, with the United States clearly defined as the "The Arsenal of Democracy", Washington granted the security of those nations not linked with Berlin, something that give raise "Free Nations", an international organization aimed to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights and achieving world peace. Or so they said.
American-made 155 mm-GMC M40 used by the Russian army during its short border war with Afghanistan in 1966
Since then the international relations have been marked by the state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between the United States and the German Empire, which was expressed through military coalitions, propaganda, espionage, weapons development, industrial advances, and competitive technological development. Another feature of this tension have been the regional wars that both poweres have used -or caused- upon their allies or non-alligned countries, to increase their influence (as the failed Evian Putsch in France (1961) during the decolonization porcess, the Greek Civil War of 1967-71 or the many wars that came after the end of the Englishd and French Empires (Biafra, Rhodesia, Indochinw, Rhodesia, Sudan)).
4. Catalunya today
Thirty five years have went by since the end of the war with France and Catalonia has changed a great lot since then. The waves of inmigrants that have installed themselves in Catalonia, in both sides of the Pyriness, have helped to create a multicultural country, open to the world, even if this has not been plagued by some social conflicts.
In the international side, Catalonia maintains a cold relation with Spain, and those relations are colder as the neighbour countyr seems on the verge of a new civil war (1). A neutral country since the decade of the 60s, Catalonia is still on good terms with Berlin, but not so much with London or Washington. After her brief time of main character of the events of 1939-1940, Catalonia now is happy with her role as a minor power. Provided, of course, that bussiness go on as usual.
(1) When this work was ended (March 1973) its writer was unable, of course, to imagine that the feared Spanish civil war (November 20th, 1975 - February 23rd, 1981) would end with the formation fo the Federación de Estados Ibéricos (Iberian Countries Federation) with Spain and Portugal.
THE END
