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History
of Anzac Day
Anzac day signifies the first day of major military action which involved the Australian And New Zealand
Corps (Anzac). The Anzacs were part of the allied expedition set out to take control of Gallipoli (Turkey). The initial goal
of the Anzacs was to eliminate Turkey from the war, however this wasn't the case with fierce resistance from both sides
with over 8000 Australian soldiers being killed.
The large number of Australian casualties had a profound effect on the
Australian population with April 25th being remembered as one of great sacrifice and created a legacy for all Australians
which became know as the "Anzac legend" which became an important part of Australia And New Zealands national identity.
The Anzac Legend is embedded deep within the Australia and New Zealand culture. Its stands for: determination, mateship,
being faithful whilst remaining steadfast, and never accepting defeat.
The Anzac legacy is timeless with every Australian
and New Zealander, and is a commemoration of the sacrifices which were made to make both countries free. It's a time of
reflection and appreciation of all the privileges we have today.
Anzac day ceremonies
In Australia, veterans from
all past Wars and current serving members of the defence force take part in nation wide marches in recognition of the Anzacs.
The ceremonies are then followed by social gatherings, in which traditional games such as two up (a form of gambling involving
two dice) are played. Gatherers will often partake in a drink of rum mixed with milk, as well as "Anzac Cookies"
at the event.
Also on Anzac Day Sporting matches take place such as the traditional Rugby League Anzac day test
much between Australia and New Zealand.
The British Army came into being with unification
of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated
Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland. The British Army has traditionally relied upon volunteer recruits,
the only exceptions during the latter part of the First World War, the Second World War and only once during peace time, when
conscription was enacted.At the beginning of the 18th century the standing of the British Army was reduced after the Treaty
of Ryswick, and stood at 7,000 troops at home and 14,000 based overseas. In the early 18th century the army was recruited
from various sources, and many were mercenaries from continental Europe including Danes, Hessians and Hanoverians.
The
rest of the army consisted of native people, mainly recruited from the poorest sections of society. During this period the
army was not a popular profession, with low pay, flogging and other barbarous disciplinary measures in the Army. Recruits
were aged from 17 to 50 years of age. The army was also kept small by the government, mainly due to the fear that the army
would be unduly influenced by the Crown or used to depose the Government. Only during war was this policy abandoned for rapid
recruitment.
To fill the ranks during wartime, as during the American Revolution, a policy similar to the Navy`s
Press Gangs were introduced. Two acts were passed, the Recruiting Act 1778 and the Recruiting Act 1779 for the impressment
of individuals, for some this simply would have been for being drunk and disorderly. The chief advantages of these acts was
in the number of volunteers brought in under the apprehension of impressment. To avoid impressment, some recruits incapacitated
themselves by cutting off the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. Both acts were repealed in 1780. Others were enticed
to take the King's shilling under false pretences and many men would find they had signed to a lifetime in the army.
This global conflict split a majority of the world's
nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in
the deaths of over 60 million people, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.
World War II was the
most widespread war in history, and countries involved mobilized more than 100 million military personnel. Total war erased
the distinction between civil and military resources and saw the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial,
and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort; nearly two-thirds of those killed in the war were civilians.
For example, nearly 11 million of the civilian casualties were victims of the Holocaust, which was largely conducted in Eastern
Europe, and the Soviet Union. 
Since invading mainland China and French Indochina
in 1940, Japan had been subjected to increasing economic sanctions by the United States, Great Britain and Netherlands, and
was attempting to reduce these sanctions through diplomatic negotiations. In December 1941, however, the war expanded again
when Japan, already into its fifth year of war with China, launched near simultaneous attacks against the United States and
British assets in Southeast Asia; four days later, Germany declared war on the United States. This brought the United States
and Japan into the greater conflict and turned previously separate Asian and European wars into a single global one.
In
1942, though Axis forces continued to make gains, the tide began to turn. Japan suffered its first major defeat against American
forces in the Battle of Midway, where four of Japan's aircraft carriers were destroyed. German forces in Africa were being
pushed back by Anglo-American forces, and Germany's renewed summer offensive in the Soviet Union had ground to a halt.
World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World
War, was a worldwide military conflict; the amalgamation of two separate conflicts, one beginning in Asia, 1937, as the Second
Sino-Japanese War and the other beginning in Europe, 1939, with the invasion of Poland. It is regarded as the historical successor
to World War I. 
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and war
in Europe followed. The French and British did not declare war at first, hoping they could persuade Hitler through appeasement,
but Hitler did not respond. The United Kingdom and France declared war. During the winter of 1939-1940 there was little indication
of hostilities since neither side was willing to engage the other directly. This period was called the Phoney War.
In
1940, Germany captured Denmark and Norway in the spring, and then in the early summer France and the Low Countries. The United
Kingdom was then targeted; the Germans attempted to cut the island off from vitally needed supplies and obtain air superiority
in order to make a seaborne invasion possible. This never came to pass, but the Germans continued to attack the British mainland
throughout the war, primarily from the air. Unable to engage German forces on the continent, the United Kingdom concentrated
on combating German and Italian forces in the Mediterranean Basin. It had limited success however; it failed to prevent the
Axis conquest of the Balkans and fought indecisively in the Western Desert Campaign. It had greater success in the Mediterranean
Sea, dealing severe damage to the Italian Navy, and dealt Germany's first major defeat by winning the Battle of Britain.
In June 1941, the war expanded dramatically when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, bringing the Soviet Union into alliance
with the United Kingdom. The German attack started strong, overrunning great tracts of Soviet territory, but began to stall
by the winter.
Germany and France had been struggling for dominance
in Continental Europe for 80 years and had fought two previous wars, the Franco-Prussian War and World War I. Following the
Russian Revolution of 1917, Communist revolutionary movements began spreading across Europe, briefly taking power in both
Budapest and Bavaria; in response, fascist and nationalist groups were born.
In 1922, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
and his fascist party took control of the Kingdom of Italy and set the model for German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party,
which, aided by the civil unrest caused by the Great Depression, took power in Germany and eliminated its democratic government,
the Weimar Republic. These two leaders began to re-militarize their countries and become increasingly hostile. Mussolini first
conquered the African nation of Abyssinia and then seized Albania, with both Italy and Germany actively supporting Francisco
Franco's fascist Falange party in the Spanish Civil War against the Second Spanish Republic (which was supported by the
Soviet Union). Hitler then broke the Treaty of Versailles by increasing the size of the Germany's military, and re-militarized
the Rhineland. He started his own expansion by annexing Austria and sought the same against the German-speaking regions (Sudetenland)
of Czechoslovakia.
Following the end of the war, a rapid period of
decolonization also took place within the holdings of the various European colonial powers. These primarily occurred due to
shifts in ideology, the economic exhaustion from the war and increased demand by indigenous people for self-determination.
For the most part, these transitions happened relatively peacefully, though notable exceptions occurred in countries such
as Indochina, Madagascar, Indonesia and Algeria.[144] In many regions, divisions, usually for ethnic or religious reasons,
occurred following European withdrawal; this was seen prominently in the Mandate of Palestine, leading to the creation of
Israel and Palestine, and in India, resulting in the creation of the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.
After Indian independence and partition in 1947
and under the Tripartite Agreement, six Gurkha regiments joined the post-independence Indian Army. Four Gurkha regiments,
the 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 10th Gurkha Rifles, joined the British Army on January 1, 1948. They formed the Brigade of Gurkhas
and were stationed in Malaya.
During the Malayan Emergency, Gurkhas fought as jungle soldiers as they had done in Burma.
They also formed four new units Gurkha Engineers, Signals, Transport and Military Police. They were also used for convoy escort
duties, security of the new villages and ambushing guerrillas. In the year of Malayan independence, Gurkha Signals units monitored
communications during the first free elections.
One Gurkha battalion 2nd Gurkha Rifles - was stationed in Tidworth,
Wiltshire in 1962. On December 7, the unit was deployed to Brunei on a days notice at the outbreak of the Brunei Revolt. The
forthcoming Indonesian Confrontation saw the formation of the Gurkha Independent Parachute Company on April 1, 1963. The unit
was disbanded in 1972.
The 2/5th Royal Gurkha Rifles marching through Kure soon after their arrival in Japan as part
of the Allied forces of occupation
The 2/5th Royal Gurkha Rifles marching through Kure soon after their arrival in Japan
as part of the Allied forces of occupation
After that conflict ended, the Gurkhas were transferred to Hong Kong, where
they had security duties during the upheavals of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Amazing Wartime Facts from WWII
1. The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937)
2. The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).
3. The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair,
killed by the US Army Air Corps.
4. The youngest
US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about
his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).
5. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced “sink us”), the shoulder
patch of the US Army’s 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler’s private train was named “Amerika”.
All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
6.
More US servicemen died in the Air Corps that the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of
being killed was 71%. Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5 tons of machine gun ammo. The
US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.
7. Germany’s power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One estimate is that if just 1%
of the bombs dropped on German industry had instead been dropped on power plants, German industry would have collapsed.
8. Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average
fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes.
He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
9. It
was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th found with a tracer round to aid in aiming. That was a mistake.
The tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target, 80% of your rounds were missing.
Worse yet, the tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice
of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. That was definitely not something
you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go
down.
10. When allied armies reached the Rhine, the first
thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of
it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act). Don't believe me? Take a look at this.
11. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn’t
worth the effort.
12. A number of air crewmen died of
farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)
13. The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (they also sometimes cleared
minefields by marching over them). “It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army”. Joseph Stalin
14. The US Army had more ships that the US Navy.
15. The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions, and
11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations. The German Army had paratroops who WERE capable
of airborne operations.
16. When the US Army landed in
North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.
17. Among the first “Germans” captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced
to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they
were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were capture by the US Army.
18. The Graf Spee never sank, The scuttling attempt failed and the ship
was bought by the British. On board was Germany’s newest radar system.
19. One of Japan’s methods of destroying tanks was to bury a very large artillery shell with on ly the
nose exposed. When a tank came near the enough a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. “Lack of weapons is no
excuse for defeat.” – Lt. Gen. Mataguchi
20.
Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the
fire-fight. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.
21. The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for US artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane
doing the same thing. He dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols damaging the German plane enough
that it had to make a forced landing. Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. It is unknown where they put them
since the MISS ME only had two seats.
22. Most members
of the Waffen SS were not German.
23. The only nation
that Germany declared was on was the USA.
24. During the
Japanese attack on Hong Kong, British officers objected to Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officer’s
mess. No enlisted men allowed!
25. Nuclear physicist Niels
Bohr was rescued in the nick of time from German occupied Denmark. While Danish resistance fighters provided covering fire
he ran out the back door of his home stopping momentarily to grab a beer bottle full of precious “heavy water”.
He finally reached England still clutching the bottle, which contained beer. Perhaps some German drank the heavy water…
Contributed by Ronald Padavan, LTC, CAP MIWG Chief of Staff MSGT, USAF (Ret.) Past President Lodge 143, Fraternal
Order of Police
In
his prison cell at Nuremberg, Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, wrote a brief memoir in the course of
which he explored the reasons for Germany's defeat. He picked out three factors that he thought were critical: the unexpected
'power of resistance' of the Red Army; the vast supply of American armaments; and the success of Allied air power.
This last was Hitler's explanation too. When Ribbentrop spoke with him a week before the suicide
in the bunker, Hitler told him that, 'the real military cause of defeat' was the failure of the German Air Force.
For all his many failings Ribbentrop was closer to the truth than he might have realised. For the Allies
in World War Two, the defeat of Germany was their priority. Italy and Japan never posed the same kind of threat as the European
superpower they fought alongside. Their defeat, costly though it was, became irresistible. The key to ending the world crisis
was the defeat of Hitler's Germany. This outcome was not pre-ordained, as is so often suggested,
once the British Empire was joined by the USSR and the USA in 1941. The Allies had to mobilise and utilise their large resources
effectively on the battlefield and in the air. This outcome could not be taken for granted. British forces were close to defeat everywhere in 1942. The American economy was a peacetime economy, apparently
unprepared for the colossal demands of total war. The Soviet system was all but shattered in 1941, two-thirds of its heavy
industrial capacity captured and its vast air and tank armies destroyed. This was a war, Ribbentrop ruefully concluded, that
'Germany could have won'. Soviet resistance was in some ways the most surprising outcome. The
German attackers believed that Soviet Communism was a corrupt and primitive system that would collapse, in Goebbels' words
'like a pack of cards'. The evidence of how poorly the
Red Army fought in 1941 confirmed these expectations. More than five million Soviet soldiers were captured or killed in six
months; they fought with astonishing bravery, but at every level of combat were out-classed by troops that were better armed,
better trained and better led. This situation seemed beyond remedy. Yet within a year Soviet factories
were out-producing their richly-endowed German counterparts - the Red Army had embarked on a thorough transformation of the
technical and organisational base of Soviet forces, and a stiffening of morale, from Stalin downwards, produced the first
serious reverse for the German armed forces when Operation Uranus in November 1942 led to the encirclement of Stalingrad and
the loss of the German Sixth Army. |
The British officers were mainly drawn from affluent
backgrounds, most having attended public schools, it was said that the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was 'won on the playing
fields of Eton'. This was largely in part to the sale of commissions, finally abolished due to the Cardwell reforms, and
the further Childers Reforms. In spite of its abolishment, the status of an officer being from a privileged background and
that of another rank being from a less privileged one has, for the most part, endured into the 21st century.
The Royal
Family traditionally had its members serve in the Armed Forces, usually with the Royal Navy though many have served with the
Army. This tradition has continued into the 21st century, with Prince Harry and Prince William both joining the Army as officers.
Foreign Royals have also served in the Army, such as Eugène Bonaparte the son of Napoléon III,
was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, but was killed in 1879 while serving in South Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War.
Also later in the 20th Century King Abdullah II of Jordan served as a Second Lieutenant with the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen
Mary's Own).
Preceding events
In Europe, the origins of
the war are closely tied to the rise of fascism, especially in Nazi Germany. A discussion of how the Nazis came to power is
a requisite in this context.
The origins of the Second World War are generally viewed as being traced back to the
First World War (1914-1918). In that war Germany under the ultra-nationalistic Kaiser Wilhelm II along with its allies, had
been defeated by a combination of the United Kingdom, United States, France, Russia and others. The war was directly blamed
by the victors on the miltant nationalism of the Kaiser's Germany; it was Germany that effectively started the war with
an attack on France through Belgium. France, which had suffered a previous defeat at the hands of Prussia (a state that merged
one year later with others to form Germany) in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, demanded revenge for its financial devastation
during the First World War (and its humiliation in the earlier war) ensured that the various peace treaties, specifically
the Treaty of Versailles imposed tough financial reparations and restrictions on Germany.
A new democratic German
republic, known as the Weimar Republic, came into being. After some success it was hit by hyperinflation and other serious
economic problems. Right wing nationalist elements under a variety of movements, but most notably the Nazi Party of Adolf
Hitler, sought to blame Germany's "humiliating" status on the harshness of the post-war settlement, on the weakness
of democratic government, and on the Jews, whom it claimed possessed a financial stranglehold on Germany. Hitler was appointed
Reichskanzler (Chancellor) on January 30, 1933, by the aged President von Hindenburg. Hitler's government exercised much
of its power through the special emergency powers possessed by the President under the constitution.
These powers
enabled a government with the President's powers to effectively bypass the Reichstag (federal parliament). Under a further
disastrous clause in the Weimar constitution when the President died, his office was temporarily assumed by the Chancellor.
As a result, when Hindenburg died, the immense powers of the presidency fell into the hands of Adolf Hitler. Through the possession
of those powers and an Enabling Act that allowed the nazi government to bypass and ignore the constitution, Hitler ensured
his possession of the presidential powers became permanent and so gained dictatorial control over Germany.
The
Italian economy also fell into a deep slump following World War I. Anarchists were endemic, Communist and other Socialist
agitators abounded among the trade unions, and many were gravely worried that a Bolshevik-style Communist revolution was imminent.
After a number of liberal governments failed to rein in these threats, Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III invited
right-wing politician Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party to form a government in 1922, following their largely symbolic
Marca su Roma (March on Rome). The Fascists maintained an armed paramilitary wing, which they employed to fight Anarchists,
Communists, and Socialists.
Within a few years, Mussolini had consolidated dictatorial power, and Italy became
a police state. On January 7, 1935, he and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval signed the Italo-French agreements.
Meanwhile in Germany, once political consolidation (Gleichschaltung) was in place, the Nazis turned their attention to foreign
policy with several increasingly daring acts.
On March 16, 1935, the Versailles Treaty was violated as Hitler ordered
Germany to re-arm. Germany also reintroduced military conscription (the treaty stated that the German Army should not exceed
100,000 men).
These steps produced nothing more than official protests from Britain and France, for they were more
serious about enforcing the economic provisions of the treaty than its military restrictions. Many Brits felt the restrictions
placed on Germany in Versailles had been too harsh, and they believed that Hitler's aim was simply to undo the extremes
of the treaty, not to go beyond that. Faced with no opposition, Hitler moved troops into the Rhineland on March 7, 1936. Under
the Versailles treaty, the Rhineland should have been demilitarized, for France wanted it for a buffer between herself and
Germany. But, as before, Hitler's defiance was met with inaction.
The first German conquest was Austria. After
Italy had joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, thereby removing the main obstacle of a Anschluss of Austria, Germany announced
the annexation on March 12, 1938, making it a German province: "Gau Ostmark."
With Austria secured, Hitler
turned his attention to Czechoslovakia. His first order of business was to seize the Sudetenland, a mountainous area in northeast
part of the country. With Austria in German hands, the tiny state was nearly surrounded. Following lengthy negotiations, and
blatant war threats from Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went out of his way with French leaders to appease
Hitler, even though the United Kingdom had earlier guaranteed the security of Czechoslovakia. However, the Munich Agreement
of September 30, 1938, then allowed German troops to occupy the Sudetenland.
Czech representatives were not allowed
at the conference; their government strongly opposed giving up the Sudetenland but they were powerless in the face of German
military might and British and French unwillingness to support them. A few months after that, in March 1939, the remaining
Czech lands passed into German hands as well. March 14 Slovakia declared her independence, recognized by France, Britain and
other important powers. The Slovak state tried to avoid nazification, but was finally occupied by Nazi-Germany in September
1944.
Italy, facing opposition to its wars in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) from the League of Nations, forged an alliance
with Nazi Germany, which had withdrawn from the League in 1933. In May of 1939, Italy and Germany thus formed the Pact of
Steel, which deepened their alliance and established a Rome-Berlin "Axis."
At the start
of the war the British Army Strength stood at 897,000 men including reserves, the number was higher than the start of the
previous world war. One reason was the Military Training Act of 27 April 1939 which required all men aged 20 and 21 to take
six months military training. The act was further increased upon the declaration of the war to include all fit men between
the ages of 18 and 41. Conscription was gradually brought in starting in October 1939 and applying to all fit men between
20&23, the age group was increased as the war continued. By the end of 1939 the strength of the British Army stood at
1.1 million men, and further increased to 1.65 million men during June 1940 By the end of the war and the final demobilisations
in 1946, over 3.5 million men had been enlisted in the British Army.
The Local Defence Volunteers was formed
early in 1940, very large numbers of civilians too old or too young for the Army, or barred from serving if they were in reserved
occupations, volunteered for the new force. The organisation was eventually renamed the "Home Guard" and was to
be part of the defence of Britain in the advent of a German invasion of Britain.
In September, 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria under
false pretexts and captured it from the Chinese.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party became leader of Germany. Under
the Nazis, Germany began to rearm and to pursue a new nationalist foreign policy. By 1937, Hitler also began demanding the
cession of territories which had historically been part of Germany, like the Rhineland and Gdansk.
In July 1937, Japan
launched a large scaled invasion of mainland China, beginning with the bombing of Shanghai and Guangzhou and followed by the
Nanking massacre in December.
In Europe, Germany, and to a lesser extent Italy, asserted increasingly hostile and aggressive
foreign policies and demands, which the United Kingdom and France initially attempted to diffuse primarily through diplomacy
and appeasement. 
In 1944, the outcome of the war was becoming clearly
unfavorable for the Axis. Germany became boxed in as the Soviet offensive became a juggernaut in the east, pushing the Germans
out of Russia and pressing into Poland and Romania; in the west, the Western Allies invaded mainland Europe, liberating France
and the Low Countries and reaching Germany's western borders. While Japan launched a successful major offensive in China,
in the Pacific, their navy suffered continued heavy losses as American forces captured airfields within bombing range of Tokyo.
In 1945 the war ended. In Europe, a final German counter-attack in the west failed, while Soviet forces captured Berlin
in May, forcing Germany to surrender. In Asia, American forces captured the Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa while
British forces in Southeast Asia managed to expel Japanese forces there. Initially unwilling to surrender, Japan finally capitulated
after the Soviet Union invaded Manchukuo and the United States dropped atomic bombs on the mainland of Japan.
In an effort to maintain international peace,the
Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October, 1945.[140]
Regardless of this
though, the alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over,
and the two powers each quickly established their own spheres of influence. In Europe, the continent was essentially divided
between Western and Soviet spheres by the so-called Iron Curtain which ran through and partitioned Allied occupied Germany
and occupied Austria. In Asia, the United States occupied Japan and administrated Japan's former islands in the Western
Pacific while the Soviets annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands; the former Japanese governed Korea was divided and occupied
between the two powers. Mounting tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union soon evolved into the formation of
the American-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliances and the start of the Cold War between them
Economic recovery following the war was varied in
differing parts of the world, though in general it was quite positive. In Europe, West Germany recovered quickly and doubled
production from its pre-war levels by the 1950s.Italy came out of the war in poor economic condition, but by 1950s, the Italian
economy was marked by stability and high growth. The United Kindgom was in a state of ecomonic ruin after the war,and continued
to experience relative economic decline for decades to follow.France rebounded quite quickly, and enjoyed rapid economic growth
and modernization.The Soviet Union also experienced a rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era. In Asia,
Japan experienced incredibly rapid economic growth, and led to Japan becoming one of the most powerful economies in the world
by the 1980s. China, following the conclusion of its civil war, was essentially a bankrupt nation. By 1953, economic restoration
seemed fairly successful as production had resumed pre-war levels.This growth rate mostly persisted, though it was briefly
interrupted by the disastrous Great Leap Forward economic experiment. At the end of the war, the United States produced roughly
half of the worlds industrial output; by the 1970s though, this dominance had lessened significantly.
The British and French governments followed a policy
of appeasement in order to avoid military confrontation after the high cost of the First World War. This policy culminated
in the Munich Agreement in 1938, which would give the Sudetenland to Germany in exchange for Germany making no further territorial
claims in Europe. In March 1939, Germany annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia. Mussolini, following suit, annexed Albania
in April.
The failure of the Munich Agreement pushed the United Kingdom and France to prepare for war with Germany.
France and Poland pledged on May 19, 1939, to provide each other with military assistance in the event either was attacked.
The following August, the British guaranteed the same.
On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop
Pact which provided for sales of oil and food from the Soviets to Germany, thus reducing the danger of a British blockade
such as the one that had nearly starved Germany in World War I. Also included was a secret agreement that would divide Central
Europe into German and Soviet areas of interest, including a provision to partition Poland. Each country agreed to allow the
other a free hand in its area of influence, including military occupation.
In early May, Japan initiated operations to capture
Port Moresby via amphibious assault and thus sever the line of communications between the United States and Australia. The
Allies, however, intercepted and turned back Japanese naval forces, preventing the invasion.
Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier
bombing on Tokyo, was to seize the Midway Atoll as this would seal a gap in their perimeter defences, provide a forward base
for further operations, and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces
to occupy the Aleutian Islands. In early June, Japan put their operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese
naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the Japanese plans and force dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve
a decisive victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy.
With their capacity for amphibious assault greatly diminished as
a result of the Midway battle, Japan chose to focus on an overland campaign on the Territory of Papua in another attempt to
capture Port Moresby. For the Americans, they planned their next move against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands,
primarily against the island of Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the primary Japanese base in Southeast
Asia. Both plans started in July, but by mid-September the battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops
in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island.
Guadalcanal soon
became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in a battle of attrition. By the start of 1943,
the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops.
The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) is a regiment of the
British Army, forming part of the Brigade of Gurkhas. The Royal Gurkha Rifles are now the sole infantry regiment of the British
Army Gurkhas. Like the other Gurkha regiments of the British and Indian armies, the regiment is recruited from Gurkhas from
Nepal, which is a nation independent of the United Kingdom and not a member of the Commonwealth. The regiment was formed in
1994 from the amalgamation of the four separate Gurkha regiments in the British Army:The Royal Gurkha Rifles are considered
to be some of the finest soldiers in the world, as is evidenced by the high regard they are held in for both their fighting
skill, and their smartness of turnout on parade. Their standard of drill is considered to be on a par with that of the Foot
Guards and in July 1997 the regiment mounted the guard at Buckingham Palace.
The
two battalions of the RGR are formed as light role infantry; they are not equipped with either armoured or wheeled vehicles.
One battalion is based at Shorncliffe, near Folkestone in Kent as part of 52 Infantry Brigade, and is available for deployment
to most areas in Europe and Africa. The other is based at the British garrison in Brunei as part of Britain's commitment
to maintaining a military presence in SE Asia. The two battalions rotate in each role, usually for three years at a time.
As part of the restructuring of the infantry, the UK based battalion was transferred from 2 Infantry Brigade to 52
Infantry Brigade, to be given a more mainstream role. Together with the Royal Irish Regiment and the Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders (5 SCOTS), the UK based RGR battalion will rotate as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade—it will spend five years
with this formation, followed by two years as a light infantry battalion with 52 Brigade. 2RGR will taken on this role for
the first time in 2010.
The proximity to Afghanistan has meant that the Brunei based battalion has been called
upon to deploy as part of the British force. Twice during its most recent Brunei posting the 2nd Battalion was deployed as
the Afghanistan Roulement Infantry Battalion, while the 1st Battalion deployed as part of 52 Infantry Brigade in late 2007.
During this tour, Cornet HRH Prince Henry of Wales was attached for a period to the 1RGR battlegroup as a Forward Air Controller.
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