The MEW continued to receive requests for a partial relaxation of the blockade, often in the belief it would make no appreciable difference to the effect on the enemy, but the pleas were steadfastly refused. Subsequently the Dutch government seized and annexed 69 square kilometres (27sqmi) of border territory from Allied occupied Germany in 1949, almost all of which was returned to West Germany in 1963 in exchange for 280 million Deutschmarks paid by the Federal German government to the Dutch. [citation needed] Despite their declared neutrality, the politically unstable Balkan nations found themselves in an uncomfortable position, surrounded by Germany to the North, Italy to the West and Soviet Union to the East, with little room to refuse German veiled threats that, unless they continued to supply what was requested, they would suffer the same fate as Poland. A number of other countries also downgraded their diplomatic relations with Spain for having openly supported Hitler,[64] and Spain agreed to return an estimated $25 million in official and semi-official German assets in October 1946. Her total tribute was given as $1,200,000,000. Leith-Ross recruited shrewd bankers, statisticians, economists and experts in international law and an army of over 400 administrative workers and civil servants for his new ministry. America also provided significant support, but while Alaska, only 50 miles (80km) from Asia across the Bering Strait was the obvious route for transporting Lend-Lease equipment, it was remote from Contiguous United States. When the Allied warships opened fire the crew scuttled the ship, and 78 Germans were captured. World War I: Aftermath | Holocaust Encyclopedia ", Despite past enmity between the two nations, Turkey quickly responded, chartering the SSKurtulus and, after receiving permission from the British, the ship sailed from Istanbul to Piraeus on 6 October with wheat, maize, vegetables, dried fruits and medicines. Key Facts 1 Nazi Germany possessed overwhelming military superiority over Poland. In 1942 the RAF dropped 37,000 tons of bombs on German targets, probably three times the weight dropped on Britain in 1940 and early 1941. The Allies, who also bought Portuguese tungsten, believed that if they could persuade the Portuguese to stop selling the ore the German machine tool industry would very quickly be crippled and she would be unable to continue to fight. After Italy's disastrous invasion of Greece on 28 October the British intervened in accordance with the Anglo-Greek Mutual Aid Agreement, occupying Crete and establishing airfields within bombing distance of the Romanian oilfields. German memories of the Versailles Treaty and of the turbulent years of reparations, food shortages and high inflation during the years immediately after World War I caused wealthy France to be treated as a vast material resource to be bled dry, and her entire economy was geared towards meeting Germany's needs. It also allowed them to continue to ship high quality Swedish iron ore from the port of Narvik, the trade which Britain tried to prevent with Operation Wilfred. [57] Although America did not enter the war for another nine months, she could no longer claim to be completely neutral and Hitler immediately ordered U-boats to attack US vessels. West Germany was controlled by the Allies with a capitalist system. If an enemy bomber reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Hermann Gring! Contraband Control patrols dotted all practical sea routes, stopping all neutral ships, and making life very difficult for any who tried to slip by, forcing them into ports and laying them up for days before inspection, in some cases ruining perishable goods. Concerning the division of Germany after WWII, the division was reconfigured. State expenditures had almost trebled to pay Germany's occupation and other costs and levies. In fact, Germany produced large volumes of very high quality coal in the Saar region, but much of it was now being used to produce synthetic rubber, oil and gas. 6.9 to 7.5 million Germans had been killed, roughly 8.26 to 8.86% of the population (see also World War II casualties ). [16] Attacks on oil targets remained a priority, and successful raids were mounted against Hamburg, Bremen and Kiel in May, with Kiel suffering almost complete production losses. Prominent in these purchases were cotton, petrol, iron, steel and copper materials essential for waging war. 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. Instead, East Germans charged toward the border in massive numbers and were allowed to leave East Germany. 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. Interest on loans taken out to the pay the debt will be settled on. [36] "We cannot understand how men of the German forces can find such a practice in accordance with their honour or humanitarian feelings". By late 1943 the Germans became so desperate for supplies of key commodities that in one incident they sent a large destroyer force out into the Bay of Biscay to protect ships bringing a cargo into Bordeaux, and lost three vessels (Z27, T25 and T26) to Allied action (Operation Stonewall). Meanwhile, as a result of the sustained Allied diplomatic pressure, together with the deteriorating German military position, Sweden began to reduce its trade with Germany. In Britain it was widely believed that the bombing of big cities and massive civilian casualties would commence immediately after the declaration. Besides the Rumanian supply, his own synthetic industry produced 600,000 tons per year, and another 530,000 came from Poland. Most were sunk or scuttled, and at least eight foundered on rocks trying to negotiate the way down the unfamiliar and hazardous Norwegian coast. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you France assumed it would become entitled to large volumes of German coal from the Ruhr as war reparations, but the Americans, who kept France and other countries going with a number of short-term loans and Marshall Aid, began to realise correctly that Europe needed the powerhouse German economy to restart growth and prevent the spread of communism, and refused to agree to reparations,[83] the very thing which led to German resentment after World War I and the rise of Hitler. Scapa Flow was again selected as the main British naval base because of its great distance from German airfields, however the defences built up during World War I had fallen into disrepair. succeed. In Romania, farm hands were still mobilized into the Army and, along with Hungary and Yugoslavia, she needed all the wheat that could be produced, but the Germans made heavy demands on them, backed up by threats.[46]. Finally, on 12 October, the invasion was called off until spring 1941, although British cities, notably London, Birmingham and Liverpool continued to be heavily bombed for another 6 months. However, many factories maintained production right up to the moment Allied forces arrived at the gates. Following the collapse of the Mussolini regime, thousands of escaped Allied POWs were given sanctuary and the crews of damaged Allied bombers (both sides regularly invaded Swiss airspace) returning from raids over Germany often put down in Swiss territory and were allowed refuge. [6] The Royal Navy war plans, delivered to the fleet in January 1939 set out three critical elements of a future war at sea. Fears of revenge and anxiety about an uncertain individual and collective future constituted a foundational experience for post-war Germans in the aftermath of the "Third Reich.". Within hours the British liner Athenia was torpedoed by U-30 off the Hebrides with the loss of 112 lives, leading the Royal Navy to assume that unrestricted U-boat warfare had begun. After the first 6 months of the war, Norway had lost 49 ships with 327 men dead; Denmark 19 ships for 225 sailors killed and Sweden 32 ships for 243 men lost. [86] Some 300,000 documents relating to the history of the programme, including plant diagrams, patent descriptions, detailed reports on which catalysts and additives worked best, and monthly reports from the 25 oil from coal plants had fallen into American hands at the end of the war. The blockade almost certainly saved us from defeat. On 11 November Britain scored a major victory against the Italian navy at Taranto, which secured British supply lines in the Mediterranean. The German merchant fleet and all other ships were handed over. Ukraine was a major industrial region. At the end of four and a half months, Germany is in something like the same economic stress she was in after two years of the last war.[14]. In the first 7 days of October alone, the British Contraband Control detained, either by confiscating neutral cargoes or capturing German ships, 13,800 tons of petrol, 2,500 tons of sulphur, 1,500 tons of jute (the raw material from which hessian and burlap cloth is made), 400 tons of textiles, 1,500 tons animal feed, 1,300 tons oils and fats, 1,200 tons of foodstuffs, 600 tons oilseeds, 570 tons copper, 430 tons of other ores and metals, 500 tons of phosphates, 320 tons of timber and various other quantities of chemicals, cotton, wool, hides and skins, rubber, silk, gums and resins, tanning material and ore crushing machinery. At last, using every plane available including trainee crews, the RAF raided Cologne on 30/31 May 1942 with over 1,000 bombers; although over half the city was destroyed and it was seen as a success, the city made a surprising recovery. On 17 August, following his inability to convince the British to make peace, Hitler announced a general blockade of the entire British Isles and gave the order to prepare for a full invasion of England codenamed Operation Sea Lion. 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. However, this miracle only applied to Western Germany, which was operating a capitalist economy became successful. By far Britain's best weapon was her navy, which not only enforced the blockade, but also, despite the attempts of the U-boats and aircraft, continued to largely control the seas and keep her supplied with most of her needs. An official declared "We are not asking for food that Turks would eat, but for food they refuse to eat. Swiss individuals and financial institutions also acted as third-party go-betweens for transactions by others, such as for contraband shipments of cotton to Italy from the United States via a Portuguese factory, and transactions took place in Zurich which facilitated the trade of mercury between Japan and Spain. Ships proceeding eastward through the English Channel with the intention of passing the Downs, if not calling at any other Channel port, should call at Weymouth for contraband control examination. The program provided for immediate measures to prevent any disposition, transfer, or concealment of looted gold or other assets, to deny any safe haven for Nazi looted assets in neutral countries, and for the eventual return of looted artefacts to their original owners. Around this time the RAF began reducing its attacks on synthetic oil production sites because none of the plants were now operating. Efforts began to repair the peacetime neglect, but it was too late to prevent a U Boat creeping into the Flow during the night of 14 October and sinking the veteran battleship Royal Oak with over 800 fatalities. How Germany Was Divided After World War II - HISTORY Potsdam Conference: Definition, Importance & Date - HISTORY The Allies publicly acknowledged that Spain had not been aware it was looted, and later Spain returned $1.3 million in gold bars and gold coins it had seized from German State properties at the end of the War. [32] Pork, veal and beef were rare, but in the early months there was still adequate venison, wild pig and wildfowl shot on estates and in forests. flashcard sets. The highway also allowed the linking up of the Northwest Staging Route, a series of rough Canadian airstrips and radio ranging stations built to convey aircraft from Alberta and the Yukon to Soviet Union and China. In the final year of the war, multiple conferences were held between Stalin, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to determine just what to do with Germany when the country was finally defeated. The country subsequently began a slow but continuous improvement of its standard of living, with the export of local products, a reduction in unemployment, increased food production, and a reduced black market. 1941, the United States declared war against Japan and entered World War II. Allied economic warfare experts believed that without the Swedish exports the war would grind to a halt,[64] but Sweden was surrounded by Axis countries and by those occupied by them, and could have herself been occupied at any time if they failed to give Germany what she wanted. A disgruntled captain could dispute the seizure as illegal, but the list of banned goods was intentionally made broad to include "any goods capable of being used for or converted to the manufacture of war materials". In 1950, the dismantling of West German heavy industry ends. From early February 1945 railheads, marshalling yards and transport systems of over 200 small towns, such as Hildesheim and Meiningen in West Germany and Jenbach in Austria were attacked in Operation Clarion. Overview of the reconstruction of Germany, Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, Journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. 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. Germany was divided after WWII because it was to blame for WWI and WWII. On the outbreak of war, many South American countries expected to make big profits supplying the belligerents as in World War I. Despite early success, caused in part by severe Allied supply shortages, particularly of fuel, the operation eventually petered out. On 24 August 1939, a week before the invasion of Poland which started the war, Germany announced rationing of food, coal, textiles and soap, and Shirer noted that it was this action above all which made the German people wake up to the reality that war was imminent. Essen and Bremen also suffered 1,000 plane raids and upwards of 1,000 tons of bombs. In 1972, West Germany paid compensation to Poles that had survived pseudo-medical experiments during their imprisonment in various Nazi camps during the Second World War. [citation needed]. Dutch industry was by now also under complete German control. [65] With the gradual turn of the war, a number of neutral countries began to take a stiffer line with Germany, in some cases refusing further credit. Potatoes were fried using Greek olive oil and shipped back to Germany, and the tomato crop was hurried to scurvy-ridden German troops in Africa. The mining and manufacturing region of the Ruhr, often likened to the Black Country in the Midlands of England, was one of the world's greatest concentrations of metal production and processing facilities as well as chemical and textile factories; the Ruhr was also home to several synthetic oil production plants. [19] In 1932 the MP Stanley Baldwin made a famous speech in which he said that "The bomber will always get through". On 17 January 1940 the Minister of Economic Warfare, Ronald Cross said in a speech in the House of Commons: We have made a good start, we must bear in mind that Germany does not have the same resources she had some 25 years ago. The canal, built largely by French capital, at that time came under British jurisdiction as a result of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936. At this point Franco saw that the Royal Navy had reduced the German navy in Norway to an impotent surface threat, the Luftwaffe had lost the Battle of Britain, the Royal Navy had destroyed much of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kbir, had also destroyed Italian battleships at Taranto and the British Army was routing the Italian army in North & East Africa. Poland After WWII History & Economy | What Happened to Poland After WWII? Each division required 600700 tons of supplies per day while artillery and mortars used 8 million rounds per month. The officials meant to ease the chaotic scene by announcing there would be changes made to allow more freedom of movement. The Germans also gained the occupied country's natural resources and industrial capacity. Millions of Germans were pressed into forced labour for several years to work for the Allies in camps, mining, harvesting or industry. In early February, Hugh Dalton of MEW told the House of Commons that Britain and America would send 8,000 tons of wheat to Greece, although there was no guarantee that the relief supplies would find their way to the starving. [59], For the Nazis, the capture of the Russian landmass, one-sixth of the Earth's land surface or 8,000,000 square miles (21,000,000km2), not only provided the Lebensraum they demanded, but also provided the answer to all their raw material problems. Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and Britain and France declared war two days later. Spain supplied Britain with iron ore from the Bay of Biscay, but, as a potential foe, she was a huge threat to British interests as she could easily restrict British naval access into the Mediterranean, either by shelling the Rock of Gibraltar or by allowing the Germans to lay siege to it from the mainland. Learn why and how Germany was divided after WWII. Before the war, 70% of Germany's export trade was with European countries, mostly the Netherlands, France and England, but the Ministry estimated that Germany's remaining annual exports were worth 44m to South America, 19m to the Far East, 15m to the US, and that although nothing could be done to prevent the overland exports to Scandinavia, Italy, Russia and the Balkans, it was believed that German sea trade could be reduced by 45% by the measure. They advised neutrals to shun British waters and trade with Germany, declaring that because of the defensive minefields and contraband control, British waters were not mercantile fairways subject to the Hague Convention regulating sea warfare, but military areas where enemy ships of war must be attacked. 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. This was the last serious attempt by the German army to regain the initiative on land, although the Luftwaffe launched one final offensive with 800 aircraft against Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands and France early in 1945. With the war all but won, there were increasing reports mostly based on paranoia and hearsay that Nazi leaders were preparing to escape justice[81] and were already preparing the way for the next war by secreting funds in neutral nations and moving resources abroad. There was a general belief however, that Sweden went too far in accommodating the Nazi regime. Once it was finally over, those that were in power wanted to make sure Germany would not have the capability to wage another war. After World War II both West Germany and East Germany were obliged to pay war reparations to the Allied governments, according to the Potsdam Conference. There were reports of grave-robbing by people desperate to find the money to feed their families, but in the towns there were none of the staple potatoes, figs, raisins or tomatoes available and it was not long before the population began to die in droves from hunger, cholera, typhoid and dysentery. During a debate in the House of Lords about the economic war on 9 May 1944, just before D-Day, Lord Nathan told the House:[43]. Negotiations continued, but with the coming of the Cold War the US softened its approach and released over $64 million in assets frozen since the war, and allowed Spain to use its remaining gold as collateral for private loans. Heavy investment was made in ersatz (synthetic) industries to produce goods from natural resources Germany did have, such as textiles made from cellulose, rubber and oil made from coal, sugar and ethyl alcohol from wood, and materials for the print industry produced from potato tops. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. If the early hopes were exaggerated, we must not attenuate the actual achievements. Tungsten carbide was a critical war commodity with numerous applications such as the production of heat-resistant steel, armour plate, armour-piercing shells and high-speed cutting tools. During this time, Germany was held accountable for the Allied occupations expenses, amounting to over several billion dollars. An erroneous announcement was made stating that travel would be allowed outside of the wall and that the policy was to immediately go into effect. They remained in boxed storage at the National Archives in Washington for the next 30 years until chemical engineers began the arduous task of collating all the information and feeding it into a computer at the federally run Oak Ridge Energy Center. The Pacific half of World War II, which began with Japan's attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, ended almost four years later when Japan surrendered to American-led Allies on September 2, 1945. But a September 1943 agreement under which she agreed to end ball-bearing exports failed to include a restriction on sales of the high-quality steel used in their manufacture; this allowed the restrictions to be largely by-passed, and the agreement ultimately had little effect on the German war industry. Germany: Reluctant military giant? - BBC News 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. Evidence that at least part of Germany's attack was with illegal floating mines came when a British freighter was sunk at anchor off an east coast port, when two mines came together and exploded off Zeebrugge, and when a large whale was found near four German mines on the Belgian coast with a huge hole in its belly. The country had been partitioned and had suffered, like so many others from inflation caused by the occupation mark system. Poland, the country most harshly treated, had suffered the confiscation of all state properties, all central stocks of textiles, food and livestock. [4] Sweden provided Germany with 9m tons of high grade ore per year via its Baltic ports, without which German armaments manufacture would be paralyzed. Britain considered naval blockade to be a completely legitimate method of war,[1] having previously deployed the strategy in the early nineteenth century to prevent Napoleon's fleet from leaving its harbours to attempt an invasion of EnglandNapoleon had also blockaded Britain. [citation needed]. This system was in essence a commercial passport applied to goods before they were shipped, and was used on a wide scale. [77] German commanders increasingly put their faith in the new Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter and the V-weapons to turn the tide. Nearly all of this territories were returned to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957. In some cases these new resources were considerable, and were quickly reorganized for the Nazi war machine. Minutes on Commons debate, 1941. [citation needed] Schacht also proved adept at negotiating extremely profitable barter deals with many other nations, supplying German military expertise and equipment in return. [16] From the beginning of Overlord on 6 June, the Allies enjoyed complete control of the skies over the beachhead, and were able to transport adequate oil across the sea via tanker and use of the PLUTO underwater pipeline, while the artificial Mulberry jetties and the capture of small harbours initially enabled them to bring enough ammunition and food supplies ashore. In time it would lead to the death penalty for such crimes as forging food coupons and protesting against the administration. But shortly later pursued a policy of radical redrawing of the longstanding Dutch-German border and the transfer of a large part of German territory to the Dutch as reparations.
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