Notes on the Second World War

The Second World War

In September 1939 war broke out again in Europe; war had been going on in Asia for some years already. Within two years, these two conflicts had turned into a genuinely world war, with fighting occurring in just about every part of the globe. In this war, however, casualties were not only restricted to military personnel as had been generally the case in World War I. Civilians died on a huge scale. In fact, although there is much disagreement over actual numbers, there were probably not many more military casualties in World War Two (18 million dead, maybe 30 million total casualties) than in the First World War (32 million casualties, 8 million dead), but of the sixty (or probably a lot more) million (the number continually gets revised upward) who lost their lives during the Second World War, the overwhelming number were civilians (30 million civilian dead). In this case, numbers this large become so meaningless. One of the more amazing events of the war was the speed, and totality, of the French collapse in the face of the German offensive in 1940. In many respects French weaponry was not inferior to German arms, nor did the Germans greatly outnumber French forces in terms of personnel or equipment, but for the most part the French army just faded away. About the only real resistance was put up by some armored troops under the command of General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970). This collapse proved a mighty blow to French prestige, and after the war the issue resurfaced again in the context of collaboration with the Nazi regime. Since France was conquered, many Frenchmen acquiesced in the German occupation. After the war the French government (to re-assert it's previously discredited authority) sought scapegoats to explain the poor performance of the French military. The result was a series of spectacular "collaborationist" trials.

Some recommended online lectures and websites:

World War II
Mussolini and Fascism
Lecture 10: The Age of Totalitarianism: Stalin and Hitler
Lecture 11: Hitler and World War Two
World War Two
History of World War II
World War II in Photos: A Retrospective in 20 parts (In Focus by Alan Taylor of The Atlantic)
BBC's World War Two site has a variety of primary sources available dealing with the Great War. There is also a site devoted to genocide.
For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant website for this unit of the course.
Send the title of the site, the url and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied in this unit.