For many Americans, World War II started on Dec 7, 1941. This was when America was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor. However, for most Europeans, the war started much, much earlier. Although experts argue over when the conflict began in Asia, many point to either Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931 or the invasion of China in 1937. War came to the European continent much later, with most experts agreeing that September 1, 1939, the day that Hitler invaded Poland was the beginning. America did not officially enter the war until 2 years after the conflict began in Europe, however the United States was far from a casual observer. Although it sat on the sidelines, it did supply food, weapons and hardware to what became to be known as the allied troops.
Although big business was happy to trade with the Europeans for hard cash, in general, America was a very different country back then. The memory of the first world war was still fresh in people’s minds. A massive influx of immigrants fleeing Europe in the 1920s and 30s kept the old world conflict’s fresh in people’s minds, while the desire to shed blood for it was at a minimum. Officially, America had a policy of isolationism. However, as things began to heat up, it became clear to those in power in Washington DC that the attitude that American people had would have to be changed. With this in mind, the United States Department of War, now known as the Department of Defense, commissioned 7 propaganda films. These movies, called —“Why we fight”, were shown to the American people at the movie theaters, usually before a feature film.
The films covered a wide range of topics, from the Japanese aggression in Asia, to the rise of Nazism, and even one film described as- “The Battle for Russia”.
The film goes on to note that — “The vast natural resources of the Soviet Union are then described, showing why the land is such a hot prize for conquerors. To give a positive impression of the Soviet Union to the American audience, the country's ethnic diversity was covered in detail, and later on, elements of Russian culture familiar to Americans, including the musical compositions of Tchaikovsky and Leo Tolstoy's book War and Peace are also mentioned. Communism is never mentioned at any point in the film; instead, the Russian Orthodox Church is described as a force opposing Nazism. The start of the film includes a quote from U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who commended the Russian people's defense of their nation as one of the most courageous feats in military history.
The film then covers the Nazi conquests in the Balkans, described as a preliminary to close off possible Allied counter-invasion routes, before the war against Russia was launched on June 22, 1941. The narration describes the German "keil und kessel" tactics for offensive warfare, and the Soviet "defense in depth" used to counter this. The scorched earth Soviet tactics, the room-to-room urban warfare in Soviet cities, and the guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines are also used to underline the Soviet resolve for victory against the Germans. The Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Stalingrad conclude the film.”
And this really is the story that should be told. The eisenhowerinstitute.com notes that-“Americans have little conception of the Soviet Union's experience in World War II. No cities in the United States were besieged, not a single bomb was dropped by an enemy airplane on any of the states, no part of our population was enslaved, starved or murdered, and not one village, town or city was completely destroyed or even heard a shot fired in anger.“
The website goes on to note — “About the only way we can begin to understand is through imagination. The distance between Moscow and Berlin is about the same as that separating New York City and Atlanta. Imagine twenty million people being violently killed between those two American cities in four years.“
To help further help visualize and better understand the war, the eisenhowerinstute.com asks you to imagine — “The Eastern Front in the war wound like a serpent from Sevastopol on the Black Sea to Leningrad on the Baltic. Including the twists, bulges and turns of the line of battle at the height of German penetration, November 1942, the line would have stretched from Baltimore to Cheyenne, Wyoming. In place of Leningrad, can you fathom Chicago under bitter siege and constant shelling for 900 days? (900 days is almost 2 1/2 years!) Is it possible for us to mentally picture thousands of dead bodies lying on the frozen streets between Lake Shore Drive and Evanston? Could we endure seeing a million people die, mostly from starvation, during the Chicago siege? At the same time of the Chicago siege think of Cincinnati becoming a battleground such as Stalingrad where not a single structure was left habitable and several hundred thousand soldiers killed each other in the process of leveling the city.” Now, just take a minute and stop to imagine that — the consequences of total war. Death, destruction. “ To put it another way- For every American soldier killed fighting Germans, eighty Soviet soldiers died fighting them.
So, while most American’s and Western Europeans are focused on how the war affected them, the war was even more horrible on the Eastern front. And as we approach the day marking the end of World War II, we should all take a moment to honor those that died fighting to cleanse the world of the specter of Nazism. Just as the famous saying goes — “All Gave Some — Some Gave All”.
So, what do you think dear listeners, Is the scale of death on the Eastern Front well known in the West?
