The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945

by The New York Times

  Students at a camouflage class at New York University in 1943 made models from aerial photographs.

  Crowds of French citizens line the Champs Elysees during a parade in celebration of the liberation of Paris, August 1944.

  American soldiers march through the streets of Rome shortly after the arrival of General Mark Clark and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, July 4, 1944.

  U.S. warships in the Fast Carrier Task Force (Task Force 58), under the command of Rear Admiral Marc Mitscher, in the Pacific Ocean, 1944.

  Members of the United States 69th Infantry Division meet a Russian patrol south of Torgau, April 25, 1945.

  Crewmen playing poker in the cramped quarters of the USS New Mexico during Pacific operations, 1944.

  American troops with local residents at Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands, 1943.

  American troops playing softball on the island of Tarawa in the Pacific, 1943.

  The Nuremberg Trials, 1946. In the first row, from the left, Hermann Goering (with hand on his chin), Rudolf Hess, Joachim Von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walther Funk and Hjalmar Schacht.

  Hermann Goering during his cross-examination at the Nuremberg Trials, Germany, 1946.

  General Alfred Jodl, Hitler’s military adviser, controller of German High Command and chief of the Operations Staff (center), signs the document of surrender of the German armed forces at Reims in General Eisenhower’s headquarters, May 7, 1945. Major Wilhelm Oxenius is on his left and Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, Admiral of the Fleet is on his right.

  Representatives of the Allied powers establishing a War Commission for the trial of European War criminals. From the left, seated, Professor Trainin of Russia, General Nikitchenko of Russia, Lord Jowitt of the U.K. and Justice Jackson from the U.S.

  Glossary

  PEOPLE

  HAROLD ALEXANDER (1891–1969): After commanding the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Middle East in August 1942. As Eisenhower’s deputy, he commanded the invasion of Sicily and then Italy and became supreme commander in the Mediterranean in November 1944.

  CLEMENT ATTLEE (1883–1967): The leader of the British Labour Party, he joined the War Cabinet in May 1940 under Churchill. He took responsibility for home affairs and from 1942 was deputy prime minister. He succeeded Churchill in July 1945 following Labor’s election victory.

  PIETRO BADOGLIO (1871–1956): Italian marshal who was head of the Supreme Command in 1940 and succeeded Mussolini as premier in July 1943. He negotiated an armistice in September 1943 and then left Rome for Salerno. He was replaced as premier in June 1944.

  OMAR BRADLEY (1893–1981): He was appointed deputy to Patton in the Operation Torch campaign, but by May 1943 he was commander of the Second U.S. Army Corps, which he led into Sicily. He commanded the First U.S. Army for the Normandy invasion, then the Twelfth U.S. Army Group, which he led to the end of the war in the final battles in Germany.

  NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN (1869–1940): British prime minister from May 1937, Chamberlain was responsible for organizing the Munich Conference in September 1938 but then took Britain into war a year later after Germany’s invasion of Poland. He resigned on May 10, 1940 and died a few months later.

  CHIANG KAI-SHEK (1887–1975): Leader of the Guomindang Party in China, Chiang tried to unite the nation in the 1930s in the face of Japanese aggression. He was defeated in the post-1945 civil war with the Communists and ended up as ruler of Taiwan, where he retreated in 1949.

  WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL (1874–1965): Britain’s wartime prime minister from May 1940 to July 1945 and also minister of defense, he played a central part in sustaining British belligerency in 1940 and in forging links with Stalin and Roosevelt in the wartime “Grand Alliance.” He strongly supported bombing the European Axis, and favored a Mediterranean strategy over a frontal assault on Hitler’s European fortress. Churchill’s influence began to decline as the war continued, but post-war he became a prominent Cold Warrior, hostile to Communist expansionism.

  MARK CLARK (1896–1984): Following a rapid promotion from a pre-war major to chief of staff of U.S. Army Ground Forces in 1942, Clark went on to command the U.S. Fifth Army in the invasion of Italy. In December 1944 he became commander-in-chief of Allied ground forces in Italy.

  KARL DÖNITZ (1891–1980): Grand admiral of the German Fleet from January 1943 until April 1945, when he succeeded Hitler as head of the German state. From 1939 to 1943 he headed the German submarine arm and was responsible for waging the Battle of the Atlantic. He was condemned to ten years in jail at the Nuremberg Trials.

  ANTHONY EDEN (1897–1977): British minister of war in 1940 after Churchill’s appointment as prime minister, and then, from December 1940, foreign secretary, succeeding Lord Halifax. Eden played an important part in Britain’s war effort and helped to see the United Nations Organization through to its inception in May 1945.

  DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (1890–1969): Appointed head of the Army Operations Division after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower was chosen to lead the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November 1942. He was appointed supreme commander in the Mediterranean and then for the Allied invasion of France in 1944, a position he retained to the end of the war.

  CHARLES DE GAULLE (1890–1970): A brigadier general in 1940, de Gaulle was a pioneer of armored warfare and commander of the French Fourth Armored Division in the Battle of France. In June 1940 he moved to London where he declared the Free French movement, which he led through the liberation of France in 1944 despite the hostility of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In May 1943 he was co-chair of the Committee of National Liberation with Henri-Honoré Giraud, but by 1944 he was the dominant figure. He helped to construct a new democratic order in France after the liberation.

  HENRI-HONORÉ GIRAUD (1879–1949): A French general who commanded the French Seventh Army in the Battle of France. He escaped from German captivity in 1942 and established close contact with the Americans. He was made commander-in-chief of all French forces in North Africa and then French high commissioner in the region. He worked with de Gaulle to found the French Committee of National Liberation, but was ousted from the committee in November 1943 and in April 1944 resigned, to disappear as a political figure.

  JOSEPH GOEBBELS (1897–1945): A prominent German National Socialist politician, Goebbels headed both the Party Propaganda Office and the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. In 1942 he was made a commissar for civil defense and in July 1944 was named Reich plenipotentiary for total war. He committed suicide in Hitler’s bunker on May 1, 1945.

  HERMANN WILHELM GOERING (1893–1946): Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and air minister, he was named Hitler’s successor in 1939 and given the supreme rank of Reich marshal after the defeat of France in 1940. His political stock declined during the war, but was revived briefly when he was considered the most important Nazi on trial at Nuremberg. He committed suicide on the night before his scheduled execution.

  RODOLFO GRAZIANI (1882–1955): Italian general who was governor of Ethiopia from 1936–1937 and then commander of Italian forces in Libya. He resigned after defeat in the desert in early 1941, but returned as Mussolini’s defense minister from 1943–1945. He was condemned in 1948 to nineteen years in jail but served only a few months.

  ARTHUR HARRIS (1892–1984): Named marshal of the British Royal Air Force in 1945, Harris masterminded the bombing assault on Germany after becoming commander-in-chief of the RAF Bomber Command in February 1942.

  HEINRICH HIMMLER (1900–1945): Head of the SS (Schutzstaffel) security force of the National Socialist Party, Himmler was appointed Reich chief of police in June 1936. In 1939 he set up the Reich Security Main Office under Reinhard Heydrich. Himmler was responsible for the genocide of the European Jews and the system of concentration camps. In August 1943 he was made interior minister and in July 1944 commander of the German Reserve Army. He
committed suicide in May 1945 after he was captured by British soldiers.

  ADOLF HITLER (1889–1945): Leader of the National Socialist Party in Germany and German head of state from 1934, Hitler led his nation into war in 1939 as supreme commander of the armed forces. A dictator who made himself commander of the German Army in December 1941. Hitler led his forces to complete defeat. He committed suicide in Berlin on April 30, 1945.

  CORDELL HULL (1871–1955): Roosevelt’s secretary of state from March 1933 to October 1944, Hull played an important part in drafting the United Nations Declaration on January 1, 1942 and, later on, creating the United Nations Organization. He was tough on Japan in the negotiations in 1941 and his stance accelerated the Japanese decision for war.

  ALBERT KESSELRING (1885–1960): German field marshal and air force commander, Kesselring was appointed commander-in-chief of Axis forces in the Mediterranean theater in November 1941. At the end of the war he was commander-in-chief in Western Europe. Tried for war crimes, he was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted.

  ERNEST KING (1878–1956): In 1941 he became admiral of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, where his success in the anti-submarine war persuaded Roosevelt to make him commander-in-chief of the U.S. Fleet and in March 1942 also chief of naval operations.

  FUMIMARO KONOYE (1891–1945): A Japanese prince who served as prime minister on three occasions between 1937 and 1941, failing to bring the war with China to a conclusion or to negotiate agreement with the United States in 1941. He was a champion of a Japanese “New Order” but played little part in the politics of the Pacific war. He committed suicide in prison in December 1945.

  WILLIAM LEAHY (1875–1959): A chief of U.S. naval operations in the 1930s, Leahy was a close confidant of President Roosevelt. He was U.S. ambassador to Vichy France in 1941–1942, but then became Roosevelt’s personal chief of staff and chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

  DOUGLAS MACARTHUR (1880–1964): A former U.S. Army chief of staff, MacArthur was military adviser in the Philippines when war broke out and commander of U.S. forces there. He was appointed commander in chief in the Southwest Pacific in April 1942, and later became supreme commander of the Allied Powers for the occupation of Japan in August 1945.

  MAO ZEDONG (1893–1976): The Chinese Communist leader who led a long march to Shaanzi province to escape Chiang Kai-shek’s forces in 1934. Mao helped to establish a Red Army to fight the Japanese and resist Chiang, and in the post-war civil war this army formed the core of the successful Communist takeover of the country in 1949.

  GEORGE C. MARSHALL (1880–1959): Chief of the War Plans Division in Washington in the late 1930s, Marshall was chosen as army chief of staff in 1939, a post he held to the end of the war. In 1947, as secretary of state, he launched the European Recovery Program, known as the Marshall Plan.

  CHARLES MERZ (1893–1977): A journalist on a number of papers before joining The New York Times editorial board in 1931. In November 1938 he was appointed editor of the paper and held that post through 1961.

  VYACHESLAV MOLOTOV (1890–1986): One of the favored inner circle around the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Molotov was Soviet premier in the 1930s and foreign minister from March 1939, a post he held throughout the war. He negotiated Soviet participation in the United Nations Organization.

  BERNARD LAW MONTGOMERY (1887–1976): The British field marshal who achieved Britain’s first major land victory at El Alamein in November 1942. He led the Eighth Army into Italy and was then appointed commander of the land campaign in the Normandy invasion. He ended the war in command of the Twenty-First Army Group.

  BENITO MUSSOLINI (1883–1945): Leader of the Italian Fascist Party and Italian prime minister from October 1922 to July 1943. Mussolini had ambitions to create a new Roman Empire in the Mediterranean and Africa, and launched a war against Ethiopia in October 1935. The war was won and Mussolini forged a close “Axis” partnership with Hitler. He launched war against Britain and France on June 10, 1940 and against Greece in October 1940. Popular support for Mussolini declined as Italian forces were defeated on all fronts, and he was overthrown by a coup in July 1943. Rescued by German special forces, he headed a new Italian Social Republic in German-occupied Italy. He was killed by partisans on April 28, 1945, trying to flee to Switzerland.

  CHESTER NIMITZ (1885–1966): Appointed commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in December 1941, he became overall commander-in-chief of U.S. Pacific forces in March 1942. In 1944 he was made fleet admiral in recognition of his role in the island-hopping campaign against Japan.

  GEORGE PATTON (1885–1945): A career cavalry officer, Patton became commander of the First Armored Corps in 1942, and then, for Operation Torch, commanded the Second U.S. Army Corps. He was commander of the Third U.S. Army in France in 1944 and played a spectacular part in driving the Germans back to their frontier. He died in a car accident in 1945.

  JOACHIM VON RIBBENTROP (1893–1946): Hitler’s foreign policy adviser and, from February 1938, German foreign minister. He signed the pact with the Soviet Union in August 1939 but played a role throughout the war as Germany’s leading diplomat. He was executed after the Nuremberg Trials for crimes against peace.

  ERWIN ROMMEL (1891–1944): The German field marshal who led the Afrika Korps in the North African campaign from 1941 to 1943, and then became responsible for building up the defenses against the D-Day invasion. He committed suicide after the July plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944.

  FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (1882–1945): U.S. president for most of the war years, Roosevelt was elected for unprecedented third and fourth terms in 1940 and 1944. He helped steer America through the economic crisis of the 1930s with his New Deal strategies and pressed for U.S. rearmament at the end of the decade. He threw the United States behind the Allied war effort in everything short of war. After the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt insisted on a Germany-first strategy and was generous in making U.S. resources available to the rest of the Allied nations through the Lend-Lease program.

  CARL SPAATZ (1891–1974): Overall commander-in-chief of U.S. Strategic and Tactical Air Forces in Europe in December 1943, Spaatz built up the Eighth Air Force in England in 1942 and then went to the Mediterranean theater as Eisenhower’s commander of Allied Air Forces. He was the architect of the strategy to defeat the Luftwaffe and to destroy German oil supplies in 1944.

  JOSEPH STALIN (1878–1953): Stalin was appointed general secretary to the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in 1922 and in 1941 became chairman of the Council of Commissars (that is, Soviet premier). During the war he was also chair of the Soviet Defense Committee and in this role he supervised the whole Soviet war effort.

  EDWARD STETTINIUS (1900–1949): In January 1941, Stettinius was appointed director of the Office of Production Management and in August 1941 administrator of the Lend-Lease Program. He became secretary of state in November 1944 and represented the United States at the founding conference of the United Nations at San Francisco in May 1945.

  ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER (1891–1968): Publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961, succeeding his father-in-law, Adolph Ochs. Hostile to U.S. isolationism in the pre-war period, he also disliked the new powers acquired by Roosevelt to push through his legislation. During the war, Sulzberger championed a post-war order in which the United States would play a major part. He was concerned that his Jewishness might give rise to charges of bias, so he failed to give Nazi persecution of the European Jews prominent news coverage in The Times before and during the war.

  HIDEKI TOJO (1884–1948): Japanese prime minister from 1941, he led Japan into war with the United States. Military reverses forced his resignation in July 1944 and he was hanged as a war criminal in 1948.

  HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884–1972): Vice president of the United States in 1944 and then U.S. president following Roosevelt’s death in April 1945. He led the Senate Special Committee that investigated war contracts, and saved millions of dollars of federal expenditure. He made t
he fateful decision to approve the atomic bombing of Japan and, post-war, played a leading role in containing the spread of Communism in Europe.

  ALEXANDER VANDERGRIFT (1887–1973): A senior Marine Corps officer, Vandergrift was given command of the First Marine Division for the invasion of Guadalcanal. In January 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant general and became commandant of the Marine Corps in Washington.

  ISORUKU YAMAMOTO (1884–1943): In 1939 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet and organized the assault on Pearl Harbor. In 1943, intercepted messages allowed U.S. fighter aircraft to shoot down the plane in which he was flying.

  GEORGI ZHUKOV (1896–1974): The Soviet marshal who saved Moscow from capture in 1941, Zhukov became Stalin’s deputy supreme commander in August 1942, and masterminded the capture of Berlin in April 1945.

  EVENTS

  ARNHEM (September 17–26, 1944): Operation Market Garden was a British paratroop operation designed to seize a crossing on the lower Rhine around the Dutch town of Arnhem to create a salient for the invasion of Germany. Heavy German resistance led to the collapse of the operation with heavy British losses.

  ATLANTIC CHARTER (August 9–12, 1941): The document agreed to by Churchill and Roosevelt at a meeting in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The eight-point charter committed the two nations to establishing free trade and democratic government worldwide after the war.

  BARBAROSSA CAMPAIGN (June 22–December 5, 1941): The German campaign to destroy the Soviet forces in a quick strike in the summer of 1941. Despite rapid progress toward Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad the campaign bogged down into a war of attrition by the winter of 1941.