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Post by jdv on Sept 1, 2021 11:27:08 GMT -5
WHEN Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany invaded Poland 82 years ago, they could scarcely imagine their ultimate destruction at the hands of the allies a mere 6 years later.
Of course this date tends to be Euro specific, as Japan had essentially been at war with China since the late 1800's, while Germany itself had already defeated France in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian war, but the Nazi invasion of Poland truly began what we now think of as modern warfare.
Their combined use of coordinates attacks between planes and tanks, plus the brand new philosophy of "blitzkrieg" that the planes & tanks afforded them, stunned the brave Poles who were forced to attack tanks with horses. Whatever meager chance Poland had was dashed when the Soviet Union invaded 17 days after the Germans in a co-originated attack.
That unlikely pairing of natural adversaries would come to a halt less than 2 years later when Hitler let loose his hoard upon Russia in the summer of '41. But for a year after Poland, all sides were content to continue to mount their armies in what was, even then, called the "sitskreig". That un-official peace would end when the Germans invaded - the routed - France in June of 1940.
By the end of the war, Europe was in ruins, communism held sway, and the United States left the sole standing super power (although that would quickly change as Russia recovered).
In many ways the USA has lived off of the fruits of victory from that war the entire time since, although obviously that's now on fumes.
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Post by Warpig on Sept 1, 2021 15:07:01 GMT -5
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Post by Warpig on Sept 1, 2021 15:07:41 GMT -5
"....much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it..."
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