In the aftermath of World War I, Germans struggled to understand their country's uncertain future. Three further British contraband inspection facilities were established at Gibraltar to control access into and out of the western Mediterranean, Haifa at the other end of the Mediterranean in Northern Palestine, and Aden on the Indian Ocean coast of Yemen at the southern entrance to the Red Sea to control access into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. Prominent in these purchases were cotton, petrol, iron, steel and copper materials essential for waging war. World War II reparations - Wikipedia In January Herbert Hoover's National Committee on Food for the Small Democracies presented the exiled Belgian Government in London with a plan he had agreed with the German authorities to set up soup kitchens in Belgium to feed several million destitute people. Essen and Bremen also suffered 1,000 plane raids and upwards of 1,000 tons of bombs. Portugal also allowed Germany generous credit terms, partly because after the fall of France the presence of a direct land route enabled Germany to threaten Portugal with invasion if she curtailed critical exports. Many historians claim that the combination of a harsh treaty and subsequent lax enforcement of its provisions paved the way for the upsurge of German militarism in the 1930s. [55] He described how the "warrior caste" were given the most, followed by essential workmen (in Berlin, William Shirer and the other foreign journalists were classed as "heavy labourers" and received double rations) while at the bottom prisoners, Jews and the insane got the least. The food situation in the present war is already more desperate than at the same stage in the [First] World War. In total the US provided Soviet Union with $11 billion worth of goods, including 4,800 Grant and Sherman tanks, 350,000 trucks, 50,000 jeeps, 7,300 Airacobra fighter aircraft, and 3700 light and medium bombers. Over the next few months, the ship delivered around 6,700 tons of supplies to Greece, but foundered on rocks and sank during her fifth voyage. 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. 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. Whereas West Germany developed a strong capitalist economy fully integrated with the rest of Europe, East Germany was fully integrated into the Soviet communist economy. Despite Germany's industrial gains, food was another matter. As a result of Allied economic measures and German defeats, by 1943 Spain adopted a more genuinely neutral policy. West Germany developed a strong economy, higher standard of living, and an increased population. Although Swiss citizens largely rejected the Nazis and subscribed to the Internationalist view expressed by the League of Nations, in order to survive and continue to receive imports, Switzerland had little choice but to trade with Germany, for which she was paid largely in coal. An explicit aim of the ECSC and its successors was to minimise risk of future intra-European war, due to the trading links and better knowledge of one another. At night the port authorities used signal lights to warn a skipper he must halt, and the flag had to stay raised until the ship was passed. On October 3, 1990, the two sides were officially reunified. Raeder said that neutrals would only be liable to attack if they behaved as belligerents i.e. Germany in particular was heavily reliant on a wide range of foreign imports and suffered very badly from the blockade. That winter was harsh, causing the Danube to freeze and heavy snow slowed rail transport, stalling Germany's grain and oil imports from Romania. In the first 15 weeks of the war the Allies claimed to have taken 870,000 tons of goods, equal to 10% of Germany's normal imports for an entire year. On the outbreak of war, many South American countries expected to make big profits supplying the belligerents as in World War I. [1][2] The country's cities were severely damaged from heavy bombing in the closing chapters of the war and agricultural production was only 35% of what it was before the war. To the Nazis, food is a beautiful instrument for manoeuvring and disciplining the masses. Battle of Berlin in WWII History & Casualties | What was the Fall of Berlin? In November of 1989, nearly half a million people protested at the wall and demanded that the wall be taken down. 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. [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. Initially the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, was not keen on the idea and still hoped to avoid war, but following his appeasement of Hitler at Munich in September 1938, which was widely seen as a stopgap measure to buy time, he too began to realise the need for urgent preparations for war. France sought to ultimately annex the Saar as well as the entire Ruhr region into France proper, but was denied so by the rest of the Allies. East & West Germany Partition, Conflict & Reunification | When Did Germany Reunite? Sources. 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. 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. On 24 August, at the height of the battle, bombers sent to attack Fighter Command installations and oil refineries on the outskirts of London killed civilians in houses in central London through a navigational error, although many believed the bombing was deliberate. Supplies of copper from Turkey and Spain had been cut off, and the Germans had lost contact with sources of copper ores at Bor in Yugoslavia and Outokumpu in Finland. Other blockade runners were known to be arriving at the French port of Bordeaux, 70 miles inside the Gironde Estuary on the Atlantic coast. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. However, by the end of December 1939 the Soviets didn't agree to start sending raw materiel since they weren't satisfied by German offers, citing refusal to get some of what they wanted and overly high prices on everyone else, and the actual trade within the framework treaty signed in August only took off in 1940 (see below). 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. After World War II began in September 1939, most Americans hoped the United States would remain neutral. Diplomats from the Scandinavian nations, as well as Italy and the Balkan countries, who were also major suppliers to Germany, were given quota lists of various commodities and told they could import these amounts and no more, or action would be taken against them. Other Axis nations were obliged to pay war reparations according to the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947. [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. Austria was not included in any of these treaties. [56][58], In 1990, West Germany and East Germany signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany ('Two Plus Four Agreement') with the former Allied countries of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which was founded in 1863 in Geneva, did a great deal of invaluable humanitarian work, particularly in the worst-affected occupied territories, for example Greece. "[31][32] In August 2017, this position was again confirmed in a statement by Deputy Foreign Minister Marek Magierowski,[31][23] stating that "() the 1953 declaration constitutes a binding unilateral legal act of the Polish state a subject of international law. 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. Dutch industry was by now also under complete German control. After World War II ended, the main four Allied powers Great Britain, The United States, France, and the Soviet Union jointly occupied Germany, with the Allied occupation officially ending in the 1950s. The operation, known as Counterscorch, involved sending radio operators into Belgium to liaise with the resistance, keeping them informed of Allied movements and supplying them with weapons and ammunition. 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. The German economy after WWII has been referred to as the Wirtschaftswunder, or the economic miracle of 1955. 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. [56] Greece rejects this notion and on 8 February 2015, the then-Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras demanded that Germany pay the "complete" reparations to Greece. [62] The Japanese began with a barely adequate 6.1m merchant tons which American submarines and aircraft gradually whittled away until only 1.5m tons remained. By this time, attacks on German fuel installations had been so successful that September's output was 8% that of April, and supplies were soon exhausted, just when fighter production reached its highest level. From early December 1939 the British began preventing German exports as a reprisal for the damage and loss of life caused by the German magnetic mines. and "the German state cannot close a case that has never (yet) been opened"[49], As a result of the Nazi German occupation, much of Greece was subjected to enormous destruction of its industry (80% of which was destroyed), infrastructure (28% destroyed), ports, roads, railways and bridges (90%), forests and other natural resources (25%)[50][51][52][Scholarly sources required.] Such was the case of the Columbus, Germany's third-largest liner at 32,581 tons, and the Glucksburg, which ran herself ashore on the coast of Spain when sighted. Example: A poster with two columns (one for East Germany and one for West Germany) might work best here. While Britain was herself importing tens of millions of tons of supplies per year, the enemy was increasingly forced to use ersatz industries. [16] Despite his incredible efforts at continually reorganising production after each setback, from early 1945 Speer admitted defeat in the armaments battle. However, only small areas were occupied and then returned after German compensation payments. [citation needed] The occupying Nazi regime forced Greece to pay the cost of the occupation in the country and requisite raw materials and food for the occupation forces, creating the conditions for the Great Famine. Soon large parts of Germany's remaining transport network were paralysed, and the Ruhr became economically isolated from the rest of the Reich. East Germany continued to struggle under its Soviet communist leadership. Although the Allies kept up the round-the-clock pressure, raiding countless lines-of-communications targets in the build-up to the invasion, they were slow to grasp what German commanders were all too aware of that Germany had plenty of tanks and aircraft and their real achilles heel was the oil supply. In much the same style as The 39 Steps, the film centres on the fictitious port of Eastgate (filmed in Ramsgate) where Captain Anderson, a Danish merchant skipper is delayed by the men of the Contraband Control and encounters various enemy spies. 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. Although they faced a massive task, with whole cities to be rebuilt and industries reorganised to peaceful production, within a few years the West German economy achieved a miraculous turn-around, and by 1950 a Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) was being proclaimed. There were reports that Germany, which badly needed to raise foreign currency had been trying to export bicycles and cars to adjacent countries without tyres. Ministry of Economic Warfare report, UK National Archives MEW Committee report, bombing of economically important targets, Learn how and when to remove this template message, two Italian battleships nearing completion, British intelligence services in the Americas, British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kbir, British attack on the French fleet at Oran on 4 July, Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, strike against ships of the US Pacific Fleet, Plan for Completion of Combined Bomber Offensive, "Contraband Control: England's Ministry of Economic Warfare Seeks a Death Grip on Germany's Trade", Purnell's History of the Second World War, "Speech by Herr Hitler at Wilhelmshaven on 1 April 1939", "They "Scuttle" Because That's The Nazi Way", "Getting a Stranglehold on German Commerce", "Royal Navy on Guard: Contraband control How System Works", "Americans Get Hot Under The Collar As British Keep Seizing U.S. Mail", "Fighting the Economic War in Real Earnest", "Dresden was a civilian town with no military significance. German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering World War II. There was a general belief however, that Sweden went too far in accommodating the Nazi regime. This is because for nearly a half-century after the end of World War II (WWII), Germany was split into two states. There were also ersatz foodstuffs such as coffee made from chicory and beer from sugar beet. 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. German air defences could no longer protect the installations, and on 12 and 20 June the RAF attacked the Ruhr hydrogenation plants and put the eastern plants completely out of action, causing a rapid drop in production; Speer predicted disaster by September if the situation did not improve. Czechoslovakia had lost its grain, its gold reserves, mines, heavy industries and important textile industry. Norway, with extensive mountainous areas relied on imports for half its food and all its coal; shortages and hunger quickly affected Belgium which, despite being densely populated and producing only half its needs, was still subjected to the widespread confiscation of food. The following nations received reparations as part of the proceedings of the IARA: Poland was to be excluded from the proceedings of the IARA by demand from the Soviet Union. The Hungarian border was opened, which allowed East Germans to travel to escape to the West via Hungary. and loss of civilian life (7.0211.17% of its citizens). 28 German bauxite ships were holed up in Trieste and, while a few passenger liners, such as the New York, St Louis and Bremen managed to creep home, many ended up stranded with goods deteriorating or rotting in their holds and with Allied ships waiting to capture or sink them immediately if they tried to leave port. On 16 August the Luftwaffe claimed to have destroyed Tilbury Docks and the Port of London, which normally handled a million tons of cargo per week. These losses included 112 British and 12 French vessels, but also demonstrated the disproportionate rate of loss by neutral nations. [46][47] According to the German government, there is no legal basis for further compensation payments. Along with the copper and tin she received from Russia, Yugoslav copper, Greek antimony and chromium and its Balkan sources, Germany now had sufficient supplies of most metals and coal. [64] Her government refused to cooperate with US economic warfare measures or to sever financial ties with Germany, her main trading partner. Spain agreed to reduce the German exports in May 1944, although the Allies discovered that she continued making clandestine shipments, transporting more than 800 tons of tungsten through to July 1944 and not finally ending the trade until the closing of the Franco-Spanish border in August 1944. 623 French people were killed, mostly workers who had gathered outside to cheer the accurate hits. A third of Dutchmen derived their livelihood from German trade, and Dutch traders were long suspected of acting as middle men in the supply of copper, tin, oil and industrial diamonds from America. The average German worker worked for 10 hours a day 6 days a week; but although he may have had enough money to buy them, most items were not available, and shops displayed goods in their windows accompanied by a sign saying 'Not For Sale'[18][33], Such was the belief in the supreme strength of the Royal Navy that some thought that the blockade might now be so effective in restricting Germany's ability to fight that Hitler would be forced to come to the negotiation table.[34]. [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. Despite the Allied sympathy with Switzerland's position, some individuals and companies actively supported the Nazi cause for financial or ideological reasons. But by far the biggest hole in the blockade was in the Balkans. Cheap restaurants in big towns served dishes comprising turnip or carrot tops made without any kind of fat, and although householders still received a fair ration of rough wine, all spirits were confiscated for industrial use. Britain did rely on imports for a large proportion of its foodstuffs and, even with the widespread 'Dig for Victory' campaign and the use of women farm workers, could only produce around two-thirds of its needs. She also had around 2/3 of Europe's industrial capacity but lacked the necessary raw materials to feed the plants, many of them working at low capacity or closed[citation needed] because of RAF bombing, the general chaos and the flight of the populations. After World War II, according to the Potsdam conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, Germany was to pay the Allies US$23 billion mainly in machinery and manufacturing plants. [64] In January 1944 the MEW estimated that Spain was still selling Germany 100 tons of tungsten a month. In late November Hungary and Romania signed the Tripartite Pact, joining the Axis powers and, although Yugoslavia initially refused to sign, Hitler now had control of the majority of the vast agricultural resources of the Great Hungarian Plain and Romanian oilfields. The Nazi leadership later grew bullish at the apparent success of the mine strategy and admitted they were of German origin, stating that "our objectives are being achieved". However, after East Germany's neighbors like Czechoslovakia and Hungary began opening their borders to the West, East Germans flocked to their neighbors to permanently resettle in West Germany. In Russia, great stimulus was given to emerging industries as a result of frenzied war production, helped in part by advanced industrial plants it took from East Germany after the occupation. Dismantling in the west stopped in 1950. [15][16][17] Similarly the (relatively limited) railway electrification was also dismantled with the notable exception of most of the Berlin S-Bahn which retained its third rail infrastructure for the most part. Portugal provided Germany with direct overland exports of a wide range of commodities including rice, sugar, tobacco, wheat, potassium chlorate, inflammable liquids and yellow pitch, and Portuguese merchants were also known to be sending industrial diamonds and platinum via Africa and South America. The three principal partners in what was eventually referred to as the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan.These countries were led by German dictator Adolf Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito. 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 ).
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