East Germany struggled economically, while West Germany flourished under a capitalist system. The Allies exacted reparations for World War II, too. UK National Archives. The Big Blockade starred John Mills as "Tom", a member of a bomber crew over Hanover, Leslie Banks as an efficient Ministry of Economic Warfare civil servant, Robert Morley as the Nazi U-boat Captain Von Geiselbrecht, Michael Redgrave as a Russian based in Germany, and various others, such as Will Hay, Ronald Shiner, and Bernard Miles in bit parts.[88]. By the end of September 1939, regular ocean convoys were in operation, outward from the Thames and Liverpool, and inwards from Gibraltar, Freetown and Halifax. The Prime Minister said that, while it was out of the question to purchase all exportable surpluses, concentration on certain selected commodities such as minerals, fats and oil could have a useful effect, and announced a deal for Britain to acquire the entire export surplus of whale oil from Norway. The Second World War was the most destructive conflict in human history. To the Nazis, food is a beautiful instrument for manoeuvring and disciplining the masses. German civilian motor traffic had practically entirely gone over to producer-gas, which like all ersatz materials was grossly wasteful in manpower, and this, combined with her colossal losses in the field and the need to keep a disproportionately high percentage of its available labour on the land, had produced an acute manpower crisis requiring the use of some seven million foreign slaves in Germany alone. Learn why and how Germany was divided after WWII. In December 1940 Roosevelt, having won an historic third term as president declared that the U.S. would become the "Arsenal of Democracy", providing the weapons Britain and her Commonwealth needed without entering the war herself. Former president Herbert Hoover, who had done much to alleviate the hunger of European children during World War I, wrote:[33]. The policy of appeasement that was carried out by Britain and France is often considered to be one of the main causes of World War II and began by Germany carrying out actions against the basic terms of the Treaty of Versailles that Germany was forced to accept at the end of World War I.For example, one of the first steps Germany took was to remilitarize the Rhineland. In so doing the Allies sought to maintain British influence in Turkey, and when the Allies decided, at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 to attempt to persuade Turkey to enter the war against Germany, Britain was assigned the role of negotiator. 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. Before the war, Britain recognised Germany's special interest in the region and took a very small percentage of this market, but now, via the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation they used their financial power to compete in the Balkans, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, underselling and overbidding in markets to deprive Germany of goods, although Germany was so desperate to maintain supplies that they paid considerably over the normal market rate. The Turkish chromite ore, which like tungsten was an irreplaceable and essential war material, was the only supply available to Germany, who paid using iron and steel products and manufactured goods in order to draw Turkey into her sphere of influence. Under the Treaty of Versailles, it could not number more than 100,000 soldiers. West Germany developed a strong economy, higher standard of living, and an increased population. Occupying a Chernozem zone of seemingly inexhaustible thick humus, it produced 25% of Russia's wheat, and immense crops of rye, barley, oats, sugar beet, potatoes, sunflowers, flax, maize, tobacco and cotton. In February 1940 Karl Ritter, who had brokered huge pre-war barter agreements with Brazil, visited Moscow and, despite finding Stalin an incredibly fierce negotiator, an increased trade deal was eventually signed between Germany and Russia. If this war is long continued, there is but one implacable end the greatest famine in history. However, only small areas were occupied and then returned after German compensation payments. However it would take a while for production levels to recovers as this operation took a great deal of time as the Soviets were often forced to reassemble whole factories in remote areas. The objective now became to halve Axis oil production by attacking the Ploieti oilfields and fourteen synthetic-oil plants in order to deprive Germany of the means to keep its military machines operational. The German Problem first. Numerous concessions were made to Germany before the rise of Adolf Hitler, and by 1938 only the territorial settlement articles remained. [3] It was their job to compile and sift through the raw intelligence being received from the various overseas and other contacts, to cross-reference it with the known data on ship movements and cargoes and to pass on any relevant information to Contraband Control. Despite Germany's industrial gains, food was another matter. Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and Britain and France declared war two days later. U.S. cheese-makers began producing substitutes for Norway's Gjetost, the Netherlands' Gouda and Edam, Italy's Asiago and Provolone and the blue cheeses of France and with Belgium and the Netherlands' tulip bulbs cut off, U.S. growers in Michigan, North Carolina and the Pacific Northwest were able to achieve twice the pre-war prices. The first territories to be conquered included the most productive. In 1955, the military occupation of West Germany ends. From the outset, although they had formerly been hated enemies, large-scale direct trade took place between the two countries because both were able to offer something the other wanted. By early September the only remaining undamaged deep-water port was Antwerp in Belgium, and the SOE, under the direction of the Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) was given the task of ensuring it was captured intact. The country had been partitioned and had suffered, like so many others from inflation caused by the occupation mark system. Example: A poster with two columns (one for East Germany and one for West Germany) might work best here. [48], In an effort to force Britain into submission, the Luftwaffe concentrated its efforts on factories, ports, oil refineries and airfields. It included all kinds of foodstuffs, animal feed, forage, and clothing, and articles and materials used in their production. But only 10% of bombs fell close enough to their targets to be called hits, and heavily bombed installations often had to be bombed again to knock them out. The Germans held 1,500,000 French prisoners of war as hostages, feeding them on bread and soup so thin that grass was added to bulk it up, and most items were now heavily rationed, with a worker entitled to a daily diet of only 1,200 calories; many people rode bicycles into the countryside during the weekend to scavenge for food. If an enemy bomber reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Hermann Gring! Soon after, Germany's remaining generals surrendered to the Soviet Union and the Allies. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. In addition, Germany remained cut off by the blockade from oversea supplies, such as copper from Chile, nickel from Canada, tin and rubber from the East Indies, manganese from India, tungsten from China, industrial diamonds from South Africa and cotton from Brazil. [36] "We cannot understand how men of the German forces can find such a practice in accordance with their honour or humanitarian feelings". With one communist government and one capitalist government, Germany was on the front lines of the Cold War in the second half of the 20th century. Great efforts went into finishing the new battleships King George V and Prince of Wales before the Bismarck could be completed and begin attacking Allied convoys, while the French also strained to complete similarly advanced battleships, the Richelieu and the Jean Bart by the autumn of 1940 to meet the Mediterranean threat of two Italian battleships nearing completion. His plan was to revive the original World War I blockade but to make it more streamlined, making better use of technology and Britain's vast overseas business and commercial network so that contacts in key trading locations such as New York, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Rome or Buenos Aires could act as a vast information gathering system. The Ministry was also of the view that the strong blockade had probably prevented further large amounts from being transported. By 1950, the UK and France were finally induced to follow the U.S. lead, and stop the dismantling of German heavy industry. This exacerbated the already stark disparities in wealth between eastern and western Germany, a situation that is still somewhat present today. 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. How did the United States government and American people respond to 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. Their view, which many in America and the occupied countries supported, was that it was Germany's responsibility to feed and provide for the people she conquered,[54] and that the plan could not avoid indirectly helping Germany; if aid were given, this would free German goods for use elsewhere. The reigning world powers included: The United States, Britain (and The United Kingdom), and the Soviet Union, were known as The Big Three, and they met to discuss the fate of Germany. Berlin Wall History & Timeline | When was the Berlin Wall Torn Down? The MEW believed that the first Japanese shipment of rubber reached Germany during the summer of 1942, having initially sailed from Indo-China to West Africa. [56] Vichy Vice-Premier Admiral Darlan declared that the Vichy merchant marine had so far brought through the blockade 7m bushels of grain, 363,000 tons of wine, 180,000 tons of peanut oil together with large amounts of fruit, sugar, cocoa, meat, fish and rum. Allied estimates of the value of looted gold ranged between $18.5 million and $22.7 million, but although the British, US and French agreed that Sweden's gold reserves had increased during the war, they were unable to agree how much if any of these rises were due to looted gold. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. West Germany was controlled by the Allies with a capitalist system. 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] On 7 October Germany invaded Romania to block the Soviet Army and to get access to the Ploieti oilfields. Create a poster, chart, or some other type of graphic organizer that illustrates the differences between East Germany and West Germany. February was an important month. Two months into the war, the Ministry reintroduced the "Navicert" (Navigational Certificate), first used to great effect during World War I. There was little effect on production and, with no fighter cover, 7 of the 12 Lancaster bombers were lost, leading to a return to night bombing. Although the MEW tried to prevent it, neighbouring neutral countries continued to trade with Germany. Eventually, a method of de-magnetising ships, known as degaussing was developed, which involved girding them in electric cable, and was quickly applied to all ships. Most were sunk or scuttled, and at least eight foundered on rocks trying to negotiate the way down the unfamiliar and hazardous Norwegian coast. The occupied zone contained France's best industries, with a fifth of the world's iron ore in Lorraine, and 6% of its steel production capacity. They had already lost 23 ships, with many more attacked and dozens of sailors killed, while Sweden, Germany's main provider of iron ore, had lost 19 ships, Denmark 9, and Belgium 3. The German armies defending Normandy were badly restricted by their inability to bring up adequate fuel for their tanks and could only make troop and supply movements at night. Though Germany, with the resources of the conquered territories was still able to produce three times as much steel as Britain,[76] as a result of military action she was beginning to lose other sources of special metals which could not be replaced. It also agreed to provide more than $8 million in gold to make up for that amount of Belgian monetary gold sold to Sweden during the War, but negotiations regarding 8,600 kilograms of Dutch gold ($9.7 million) stalled when Sweden argued that the gold had been acquired before the January 1943 London Declaration on looted gold. They began by raiding airfields and railway stations in France and the Netherlands and badly damaged the Heroya aluminium centre near Trondheim in Norway which produced synthetic cryolite, used in the manufacture of aluminium. Your essay should be approximately one page in length, and it should describe how and why reunification came about, as well as the impacts of reunification. Churchill was endlessly frustrated and bemused by the refusal of the neutrals to openly differentiate between the British and German methods of waging the sea war, and by their determination to maintain pre-war patterns of trade, but stopped short of condemning them, believing that events would eventually prove the Allies to be in the right. Instead, much of the value transferred consisted of German industrial assets as well as forced labour to the Allies.
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