Example: A poster with two columns (one for East Germany and one for West Germany) might work best here. At the beginning of the war, Germany possessed 60 U-boats, but was building new vessels quickly and would have over 140 by the summer of 1940. But after those early days we went to the other extreme. After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. [79] As a result of military operations in Lorraine and Luxembourg, the withdrawal of Swedish ships from trade with German ports, the closing of Swedish Baltic ports to German shipping, and the loss of supplies from Spain, it was estimated that iron ore supplies had been reduced by 65 per cent compared with 1943. Albert Speer said later that this was a decisive turning point in the war.[16]. Control ports were often very overcrowded, teleprinters constantly sending out cargo listings and manifests to be checked against import quota lists. Shortly after the German invasion of the Low Countries and France, the British took the first tentative steps towards the opening of a strategic air offensive aimed at carrying the fight to Germany. [11][12], Belgium and Luxembourg also sought to annex German territory as reparations for WWII. It was built by the Soviet Union in order to prevent the constant emigration of young, East Berliner professionals who could make more money and live a better life in the capitalist West than in the communist East. Major Alliances during World War II (1939-1945) There were two major alliances during World War II: the Axis powers and the Allied powers.. But by the end of the war, though the UK also lost a quarter of its real wealth,[13] Germany was ruined and she had since then experienced a number of severe financial problems; first hyperinflation caused by the requirement to pay reparations for the war, then after a brief period of relative prosperity in the mid-1920s under the Weimar Republic the Great Depression, which followed the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which in part led to the rise in political extremism across Europe and Hitler's seizure of power. Once it was finally over, those that were in power wanted to make sure Germany would not have the capability to wage another war. On 25 February 1943 the Allies began a round-the-clock strategic bombing campaign in Europe, and a few days later Bomber Command began the 5-month long Battle of the Ruhr, a massive plan to wear down Germany's industrial capacity. As a result, the population density grew in the "new" Germany that remained after the dismemberment. On 10 April the destroyer USSNiblack, which was picking up survivors from a Dutch freighter that had been sunk detected that a U-boat was preparing to attack, and launched depth charges to drive it away. Thousands had already died of cold and from starvation during the first winter of the war and with its sugar beet, rye and wheat systematically stripped away, and with few farmers left on the land, conditions quickly grew worse. Other Axis nations were obliged to pay war reparations according to the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947. Directed by Michael Powell, written by Emeric Pressburger and starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson, Contraband (renamed Blackout in the US) was released in May 1940, just before the start of the German attack on France. A joint BritishFrench staff paper on strategic policy issued in April 1939 recognised that, in the first phase of any war with Germany, economic warfare was likely to be the Allies' only effective offensive weapon. From the start there was close co-operation between the parallel American and British agencies,[64] over economic warfare measures, intelligence gathering and the later Safehaven Program. One US correspondent commented; "Germany worked like a pack of driver ants, picking Greece clean",[68] but the corrupt, collaborationist government also controlled the black market in whatever food was still available, causing rampant inflation of the drachma, which saw the price of a loaf of bread, where available, reach $15. This resulted in an Allied ran capitalist West Germany and a Soviet-controlled socialist East Germany. [85] From 1951 onwards, France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux nations began moves towards the unification of Western Europe with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the forerunner to the Modern European Union. [8] Germany lacked the natural resources Soviet Union had in abundance, whereas Soviet Union was at that time still a relatively backward country in want of the latest technology. Loss of the Yugoslavian and other Balkan mines took away the last supplies of chromium and reduced the supply of lead by approximately 40 per cent the position being worsened by the loss of substantial amounts of scrap which were collected in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Reparations to the Soviet Union stopped in 1953. In 1948, the Deutsche Mark replaced the occupation currency as the currency of the Western occupation zones, leading to their eventual economic recovery.[6]. Even today, though Germany is extremely short of oil, she has enough for actual military operations, and her people are still reasonably well fed. [29] By 25 November 1939, 62 U.S. ships of various types had been stopped, some for as long as three weeks, and a lot of behind-the-scenes diplomacy took place to smooth over the political fallout[citation needed]. In 1948, hoping to promote European recovery and further democracy, the United States, led by President Truman, enacted the Marshall Plan. Mass attacks a few days later left a large part of the city in ruins, reportedly killing 42,000 people.[16]. WWII brought great devastation across Europe, especially to Germany. From mid-November the RAF began a series of 16 massed night raids on Berlin, but though the damage was considerable, the raids were less effective than those on the Ruhr and Hamburg. Firms such as the Fischer Steel and Iron Works at Schaffhausen were added to the blacklists because of their exports, causing them to eventually curtail supply and remodel their plant. [36], In the mean time, Poland and Germany concluded several treaties and agreements to compensate Polish persons who were victims of German aggression. The reconstruction of Germany was a long process of rebuilding Germany after the destruction endured during World War II. In late 1944 the German army launched the Ardennes Offensive, an attempt to split the Allied army, recapture Antwerp and force a negotiated peace. German agents were permitted to operate and spread propaganda freely and subsidiaries of IG Farben, Staudt and Co. and Siemens also operated in Argentinian territory, maintaining their links with Germany and supporting Nazi espionage operations in the region. State expenditures had almost trebled to pay Germany's occupation and other costs and levies. The Allies had practical control over the Suez Canal which provided passage between the eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean via Port Said at the northern entry to the canal. Within hours the British liner Athenia was torpedoed by U-30 off the Hebrides with the loss of 112 lives, leading the Royal Navy to assume that unrestricted U-boat warfare had begun. These losses included 112 British and 12 French vessels, but also demonstrated the disproportionate rate of loss by neutral nations. In November of 1989, nearly half a million people protested at the wall and demanded that the wall be taken down. Although numerous attempts were made to bypass the blockade, the net was extremely hard to avoid, and most neutral captains voluntarily stopped at one of the eight Allied Contraband Control ports.[24]. During World War II, Zurich industrialist and armaments exporter Emil Georg Bhrle began amassing one of the twentieth century's most important private collections of European art. flashcard sets. The British urgently set to work to find a defence against the magnetic mine and began preparations to recreate the Northern Barrage, established between Scotland and Norway in 1917 as a safeguard against increasing U-boat attacks. Over the next few months, the ship delivered around 6,700 tons of supplies to Greece, but foundered on rocks and sank during her fifth voyage. But despite the British Foreign Office urging the Ministry of Economic Warfare to be cautious for fear of damaging relations with the US, the British claimed to have uncovered a nationwide US conspiracy to send clothing, jewels, securities, cash, foodstuffs, chocolate, coffee and soap to Germany through the post, and there was no climbdown. The embassy division worked with MEW in the development of new war trade agreements and the re- negotiation of existing overseas purchase supply contracts. A disgruntled captain could dispute the seizure as illegal, but the list of banned goods was intentionally made broad to include "any goods capable of being used for or converted to the manufacture of war materials". [27] Germany then began seizing Danish ships carrying butter, eggs and bacon to Britain, in breach of a promise to allow Denmark to trade freely with her enemies. By late October 1943, the MEW believed that German productivity was down 30%,[74] and that half the drop had occurred in the previous six months, but the figures showed the limitations of all bombing, saturation or precision. But by far the most important material Portugal had to offer was tungsten. From early July the German air force began attacking convoys in the English channel from its new bases and cross-channel guns shelled the Kentish coast in the opening stages of the Battle of Britain. On 16 August the Luftwaffe claimed to have destroyed Tilbury Docks and the Port of London, which normally handled a million tons of cargo per week. On 1 August Italy, having joined the war, established a submarine base in Bordeaux. Her total tribute was given as $1,200,000,000. Raeder maintained that because the British blockade was illegal, the Germans were entitled to respond with "similar methods", and that because the British government had armed many of its merchant ships and used civilians to man coastal patrol vessels and minesweepers, any British ship sighted was considered a legitimate target. D-Day Summary, Date & Invasion | When was D-Day? In 1942 the RAF dropped 37,000 tons of bombs on German targets, probably three times the weight dropped on Britain in 1940 and early 1941. [clarification needed] The ships were based in the Rhine port of Basel, which gave access to the seaport of Rotterdam, until Allied bombing of a German dam interrupted it. On 7 December 1942, Combined Operations launched one of the most famous raids of the war; Operation Frankton, better known as the 'Cockleshell Heroes' mission, in an attempt to sink the ships by sending a 12-man team of Royal Marine Commandos to paddle up the Gironde in canoes to place delayed action bombs on their exposed hulls. [6] Germany was also forced to send the Afrika Korps to Libya in early February, led by General Erwin Rommel, to help its Axis partner in its North African campaigns against the British and Commonwealth forces. By 1950, the UK and France were finally induced to follow the U.S. lead, and stop the dismantling of German heavy industry. [1][2] The country's cities were severely damaged from heavy bombing in the closing chapters of the war and agricultural production was only 35% of what it was before the war. Her vast empire gave her formidable resources to draw on, excellent foreign credit facilities and gold reserves, and British rationing was nowhere as severe as in Germany. Conversely, neutrals who went out of their way to co-operate with the measures could expect "favoured nation" status, and have their ships given priority for approval. By mid-August the attacks were becoming increasingly co-ordinated and successful. On 17 August, following his inability to convince the British to make peace, Hitler announced a general blockade of the entire British Isles and gave the order to prepare for a full invasion of England codenamed Operation Sea Lion. [39] The Swiss Fund for the Victims of the Holocaust (which had obtained settlement money from banks in Switzerland) used some of its funds to pay compensation between 1998 and 2002 to Polish Jews and Romani who were victims of Nazi Germany. [citation needed] On 22 January the UK ambassador was handed a note from the State Department calling the practice "wholly unwarrantable" and demanding immediate correction[citation needed]. Why was Germany divided after WWII? The famished people of Europe must now look to the onward sweep of our advancing Armies coming as liberators and bringing bread in their train. After completing this lesson, you should be able to: To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. 366; 370ff. In anticipation of U.S. entry into the war, British and U.S. military staffs secretly formulated plans for joint operations. The first V1 flying bomb was launched against England on 13 June 1944, and soon 120 V1s per day were being fired at London, killing large numbers of civilians. Other Axis nations were obliged to pay war reparations according to the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947. In some cases, as with the crucial Swedish iron ore trade, it was done openly, but elsewhere, neutrals secretly acted as a conduit for supplies of materials that would otherwise be confiscated if sent directly to Germany. [16] Despite his incredible efforts at continually reorganising production after each setback, from early 1945 Speer admitted defeat in the armaments battle. [citation needed] Later Greek governments insist that this was only a down payment and further payments need to be made. The Allied countries of Britain, France, and the United States controlled West Germany including West Berlin. Portugal was Europe's leading supplier of tungsten (and scheelite, another member of the wolframite series of tungsten ore minerals), annually providing Germany with at least 2,000 metric tons between 1941 and mid-1944, about 60 percent of her total requirement. The Nazi official who took the leading role in preparing German industry for war was Hermann Gring. Likewise the Netherlands, with its 2.7m cattle, 650,000 sheep, half a million pigs, and huge surplus of butter, cheese, meat, milk, margarine and vegetable oils, depended on Britain for its animal fodder. They advised neutrals to shun British waters and trade with Germany, declaring that because of the defensive minefields and contraband control, British waters were not mercantile fairways subject to the Hague Convention regulating sea warfare, but military areas where enemy ships of war must be attacked. [1][pageneeded], The blockade had four distinct phases:[1][failed verification], At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the United Kingdom used its powerful navy and its geographical location to dictate the movement of the world's commercial shipping. The ECSC was the earliest formation of what later became today's European Union. This exacerbated the already stark disparities in wealth between eastern and western Germany, a situation that is still somewhat present today. He commented; At present their plight is lamentable and will become much worse. Both East and West Germans wanted their country to be reunified, and after East Germany held its first free elections in March of 1990, a joint East-West Bundestag passed several laws during the summer of 1990 preparing to reunify Germany. As time went on other miscellaneous items such as clothing, soap, park benches, garden tools, bed linen and doorknobs were also taken. Many of the installations that had previously been reported as wiped out continued to operate. [32] Chamberlain said that although he realised this would be detrimental to the neutrals, (Norway got nearly all its coal from Germany) the policy was in strict adherence to the rules of law and that whereas Germany's use of mines and submarine warfare had already caused many innocent deaths regardless of nationality, no loss of life had been caused by the exercise of British sea power. Steel, iron and wood were so hard to obtain that the work of rebuilding Rotterdam came to a standstill. The defeat of Germany in the World War II and her occupation by the Soviet Union and the Western Powers gave rise to complications in the field of European and international politics. The MEW became concerned at the "steady trickle" of Japanese blockade runners reaching Europe, which one estimate put at 15 ships by the end of 1942,[41] and on the anniversary of the German and Italian declarations of war on the US, General Tojo expressed his pleasure that Japan was able to contribute the resources captured in the South Pacific to the Axis cause. In October 1943 the USAAF attacked Ploieti again, but according to German records total loss of petroleum to the end of 1943 had not exceeded 150,000 tons. [62] The Japanese began with a barely adequate 6.1m merchant tons which American submarines and aircraft gradually whittled away until only 1.5m tons remained. Speer was an inspired choice by Hitler, performing better than could have been expected of him, expertly organising the resources at his disposal, ensuring the speedy repair of bomb-damaged factories and pushing productivity up month after month. In the Soviet Zone of Occupation (later the German Democratic Republic) virtually all double tracked rail lines were reduced to a single track with the material being taken to the Soviet Union. The paradox with this argument as the neutral countries were quick to point out was that Germany was benefiting from the very same maritime activity they were trying so hard to destroy. As a direct result of war, the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires ceased . After World War II both West Germany and East Germany were obliged to pay war reparations to the Allied governments, according to the Potsdam Conference. On the eastern front, the Red Army had taken back its manganese mines at Balki, from which the Germans had been getting 200,000 of the 375,000 tons their war industry required each year. The Soviets, who also concluded a 100 million arms deal with China shortly afterwards, expected criticism from Britain and America; Izvestia newspaper declared; There are in Britain and the United States some leading statesmen who believe that the United States may sell to Britain everything whereas the Soviet Union cannot sell to Germany even cereals without violating the policy of peace. After the initial success of D-Day and the breakout from the Normandy beachhead which followed, the advance began to slow due to the constant difficulties of keeping the vast armies supplied. Former president Herbert Hoover, who had done much to alleviate the hunger of European children during World War I, wrote:[33]. Immediate steps were also taken towards the appropriation of the best of the conquered nation's food. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 1940 there were still 60 German merchant ships alone in South American harbours, costing 300,000 per month in port and harbour dues, and Hitler eventually ordered them all to try to make a break for home. 7.181 billion dollars were initially slated for Greece. The port, also a base for German and Italian submarines, was one of the most heavily defended waterways in Europe, protected by numerous patrol boats, searchlights, shore batteries and thousands of troops. Well-known companies such as Oerlikon-Bhrle provided guns, Autophon A.G. provided transmitting apparatus, and other companies exported coal-gas generators, ball bearings, bomb sights, ammunition, carbon black, timepieces and rayon for parachutes. Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940 and, after the US ordered a total oil embargo on all "aggressor nations" on 1 August 1941, cutting Japan off from 90% of her oil supply, she looked to the huge reserves in the south Pacific and south east Asia, territories already largely under US, British and Dutch jurisdiction. FDR had died in April, so the new American president, Harry Truman attended the conference. South of the Loire the weather was more favourable but, with the coming threat of invasion, the Germans were intent on stripping the land so the Allies would be left with nothing and be compelled to bring everything across from England. 28 German bauxite ships were holed up in Trieste and, while a few passenger liners, such as the New York, St Louis and Bremen managed to creep home, many ended up stranded with goods deteriorating or rotting in their holds and with Allied ships waiting to capture or sink them immediately if they tried to leave port. Because of its distance from the sea, a naval excursion was impossible, while the RAF believed that a bombing raid would be far too inaccurate and costly in civilian life and aircraft. It will be won on the assembly line". [87] An earlier silent film of the same name had been made in 1925, centred around similar events from World War I. [56] Greece rejects this notion and on 8 February 2015, the then-Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras demanded that Germany pay the "complete" reparations to Greece. ", "Uchwaa Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 10 wrzenia 2004 r. w sprawie praw Polski do niemieckich reparacji wojennych oraz w sprawie bezprawnych roszcze wobec Polski i obywateli polskich wysuwanych w Niemczech", "Deutsche Kriegsreparationen an Polen? Furthermore, the main industrial sector of Germany, the Rhine Valley in the southwest, was turned into a quasi-police state under French control. The looted goods were taken to Germany mainly by trains, which themselves were mostly kept by Germany.[44]. Turkey still maintained its good relations with the US and Britain despite the trade, which the economic warfare agencies sought to minimize. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Turkey eventually ended trade with Germany and declared war on her in February 1945. East Germany, though technically its own state, was essentially a client state of the Soviet Union. [51] Following losses of 10% during a raid on 7 November the RAF was ordered to conserve and build up its forces for a spring offensive, by which time a new navigation aid known as GEE would be available and the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber would be entering service. In this, it has so far been 100% successful, with no two countries ever having waged war on one another while they were both members. E tank), thirty of their latest aircraft including the Messerschmitt 109, Messerschmitt 110 and Junkers 88, locomotives, turbines, generators, the unfinished cruiser Ltzow and the plans to the battleship Bismarck. Lesley has taught American and World History at the university level for the past seven years. In February 1945, they met at the Yalta Conference in the Soviet Union and decided the final partitioning and division of Germany. In the Balkans, the Ploieti oilfields were lost to Germany as an oil source from August 1944, and various opposing paramilitary groups and partisans united behind Marshal Tito. [46][47] According to the German government, there is no legal basis for further compensation payments. Germany sits in the heart of Europe, and many of the industrial raw materials she can't supply herself can be imported from her European neighbors. Key Facts 1 Nazi Germany possessed overwhelming military superiority over Poland. Germany had suffered heavy losses during the war, both in lives and industrial power. [citation needed] Despite their declared neutrality, the politically unstable Balkan nations found themselves in an uncomfortable position, surrounded by Germany to the North, Italy to the West and Soviet Union to the East, with little room to refuse German veiled threats that, unless they continued to supply what was requested, they would suffer the same fate as Poland. Spain supplied Britain with iron ore from the Bay of Biscay, but, as a potential foe, she was a huge threat to British interests as she could easily restrict British naval access into the Mediterranean, either by shelling the Rock of Gibraltar or by allowing the Germans to lay siege to it from the mainland. When severe frost and snow came in January, food was declared the main priority,[16] although Germany still maintained the ability to defend its vital installations with formidable numbers of anti-aircraft cannons. Germany began by targeting the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish pulp boats, sinking several before Sweden shut down its pulp industry and threatened to stop sending Germany iron ore unless the attacks ceased. According to the Yalta Conference, no reparations to Allied countries would be paid in money (though that rule was not followed in later agreements). Although the naval blockade, now heavily reinforced by US warships, restricted their efforts, merchants in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires smuggled important quantities of platinum, palladium, drugs, and other chemicals to Germany, and a major aim of the US contraband control was to use US exports to Argentina to put pressure on her government to turn away from Nazi influence and break financial ties. [22][23] In a United Nations note, dated 24 November 1969, the communist government of Poland demanded action from the organization not only to punish war criminals and those who have committed crimes against humanity but also to establish procedures and divisibility of compensation for war crimes and damages committed by Germany during World War II. Harris was known for his sharp tongue and lack of remorse for the German civilians being killed by the raids; one of his subordinates said of him. The French collaborator Pierre Laval promised to send 300,000 more workmen to Germany immediately. Overview of the reconstruction of Germany, Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, Journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. Hintergrnde und Einschtzungen eines nicht nur innerpolnischen Streites", "Odpowied na zapytanie nr 3812 w sprawie strat poniesionych podczas II wojny wiatowej", "Germany rejects Poland's claim it owes 1.3tn in war reparations", "On Behalf of Victims of Pseudo-Medical Experiments Red Cross Action", "Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie | Stiftung Polnisch-Deutsche Ausshnung", "Zweiter Weltkrieg: Polens Regierung prft Reparationsforderungen an Deutschland", "Szef Biura Analiz Sejmowych: Polska i Niemcy nigdy po II wojnie wiatowej nie zawary umowy ws. [18] Germany produced 85% of its own food and UK 91%- Still, even after rationing, food portions were sufficient even for hard labour workers. By now the V1 and V2 launch sites were being increasingly overrun, and with the Allies moving towards the Rhine and the Soviet armies rapidly closing in from the east, large numbers of refugees began to congregate in the cities, creating utter chaos. Shirer recorded in his diary on 15 September that the blockade was already having a direct effect. During this period, the Italian Lati Airline, flying between South America and Europe was also used to smuggle[31] small articles such as diamonds and platinum, in some cases, concealed within the airframe, until the practice was ended by the Brazilian and US governments and the airline's assets in Brazil confiscated after the British intelligence services in the Americas engineered a breakdown in relations between the airline and the Brazilian government. At the allotted moment the resistance seized the port, keeping the Germans out until the Allies arrived, and Belgium was liberated in less than a week, although the port of Antwerp itself was not fully operational and capable of landing large cargoes until after the Battle of the Scheldt in late November. From early December 1939 the British began preventing German exports as a reprisal for the damage and loss of life caused by the German magnetic mines. . After three years of war Britain had spent 10 billion, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kingsley Wood, had to ask the House of Commons to find another 1 billion to continue. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. BEW personnel sat on the Blockade Committee on equal terms with their British counterparts, undertaking the routine work of handling Navicerts, ships permits and defining contraband.