WW2Europe

Lecture 26, World War II: Europe, of UGS 303, Ideas of the Twentieth Century, at the University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2013

[@aleksandramozejko6317]

Dear Sir, In fact Poles didn't captured Enigma then - Germans send them it by accident in 1920's. But in 1930's Polish mathematicians broke the code of the first edition of Enigma and this is what they sent to England at the beginning of WW2. I really admire Your lectures but as a Pole I want to make things straigth :)

[@peronkop]

This dude loves doing accents. I especially like that he sounds like Adam West.

[@mastereraser2985]

well, to be honest one thing has to be pointed out; austria was NOT "conquered". its important to mention that austria didnt want to be a small country after ww1 and wanted to join germany since then. the western allies didnt allow that until hitler just ignored versailles and brought austria to germany (as they wished). austria had a dictatorship under schuschnigg (who wanted an independend austria) and if you ask the austrians they were pretty happy to join germany. at the heldenplatz in vienna: all people came to see hitler because they cheered the unification. so be careful to state such things as austria being a "victim". the point where hitler passed a border was the attack of "rest" czechoslovakia. but still very nice to watch ! =) greeting from germany! (have an austrian girlfriend and her grandpa confirms that the overall mood was towards germany)

[@doxdorian5363]

Word "Slav" sounds like the word "slave" in English, but in Serbian, the word "slava" means glory, or celebration. Most Serbian families celebrate "slava" which is a celebration of a certain Christian saint, whose roots were pagan in some cases. Slavic people also get their name from the word "slovo", which means "word", which originally meant that the Slavic people were the "people who spoke the same language", and understood each other, in contrast to the Germans ("Nemci" in Serbian), which were the people who spoke another language, as "Nemci" comes from the word "nem" which means "mute".

[@markstuber4731]

Two things about the breaking of the German Code, Bonevak doesn't mention. A. The Germans frequently changed the settings of their enigma machines based on a preset schedule so, the Brits weren't always able to decode German message.. The chaps at Bletchy Park has to break the code multiple times. B. The Brits could sometimes utilize the intel without revealing they broke the code. There just needed to be an obvious and plausible alternative explanation for how the British got the Intel. For example, if the British learned from intercepted messages where a pack of U-boats were, they would send a reconnaissance plans and make sure it was spotted before launching a full scale attack.

[@ldv1452]

The Poles actually did the first mathematical work to break the enigma code. This was fundamental to the follow-up work done at Bletchley park. Furthermore, their contribution to the war went far beyond this. The Poles had also other intelligence coups (e.g. recovering an entire V2), Polish army, naval, and air forces in exile were present at many of the key battles in WW2 making important or even decisive contributions (e.g. Polish pilots during the Battle of Britain). Of course, let us not forget the Polish internal resistance to both nazis and soviets (6 million Poles died, a fifth of the population, during WW2). The highlight being the Warsaw uprising which was only defeated by the actions of the soviets that did not allow aid to reach the Polish resistance and even went so far as to arrest and kill many of the members of the resistance. Polish heroism throughout WW2 should be recognized by everyone!

[@RobbyHouseIV]

Great lecture. Good voice! Regarding the supposed reason for Hitler halting the assault on the Dunkirk pocket, I don't know that I buy it was because he had a soft spot for the British (indeed he did admire them) or at least this wasn't the prime reason. I think the biggest reason was one of an internal power struggle which appeared at about that time within OKH as to who really was in charge, the Chief of Staff which traditionally held the strings of power or the head of state. In the end the head of state won out (Hitler). His decision was to assign the final destruction of the trapped allied forces at Dunkirk to the Luftwaffe which found the air space too thick with enemy fighters. The amount of damage that an assault by the panzer divisions against such a concentrated number of troops was another consideration for allowing the Luftwaffe to nicely tidy up, or so he thought. Another thing I would disagree with was this notion that Stalin was this honorable guy with regards to the pact that he had with the Germans. He had every intention of attacking Germany the first chance he got. He'd assumed that Hitler would become bogged down in a war with France and Britain and when the time was ripe he could come in and take large swaths of territory from Germany. The only problem was that Hitler betrayed Stalin before Stalin could betray Hitler first.

[@darksaga2006]

This is an awesome course! I have watched 7 of these in a row. Are your slides available online?

[@jasonslowiak7546]

What is the Churchill book called your going from? I don't know if I caught it on any of them.

[@letsgobs4933]

The Nazi-Soviet Pact was not "secret" - it was announced publicly on August 25, 1939. However, only the non-aggression part was made public; the "secret protocols", of course, remained secret.

I think Stalin had a pact with each of the Axis powers and each of the allied powers, honored none thoroughly but respected those with the Axis more than with others.

[@nietzschescode]

University of Prague was the 1st european university. courses were given in German, not in Czech.

[@WalterNeumann550]

There was a significant "minority" of Germans prior to 1939. More Germans lived in Czechoslovakia than Slovaks. Prague and especially Brno very densly populated by Germans. Also the Sudetenland ( area at the border) was mostly populated by Germans. Germans had had a very rich history tangled with Czechs since the medival ages. I claim this as a Czech :)

[@nietzschescode]

Kafka lived in Prague, he wrote in German, not in Czech.

[@williampjohnston53]

Another reason that Hitler didn’t finish off the British at Dunquehk, May have been that he had a lot of support in the UK amongst influential people. He may have hoped for a change of leadership.

[@amg5656]

By way of correction, it should be pointed out that (as amply documented) Churchill did not know that Coventry was about to be bombed. British intelligence expected a bombing of London and surrounding areas. Also, as another commenter already pointed out below, the etymology of the word "slavs" has nothing to do with the word "slave" in English.

[@PhiloofAlexandria]

On Coventry: Well, there goes another favorite philosophical example of an ethical dilemma. Thanks for informing me. On 'slav' and 'slave': It seems now to be controversial. "slave, n., late 13c., "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.), from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples." (www.etymonline.com/word/slave) But see, for another possibility, www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctv16zk023.7.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A2d74b410e46f223985854bb8e8b5a728&ab_segments=&origin=&acceptTC=1

[@amg5656]

@@PhiloofAlexandria Indeed. 😄 In Slavic languages, "slava" is glory (hence "Slava Ukraini"), and "slova" is word. Slavs think one of these two choices is the origin for their group's ethnic name. In the second interpretation, Slavs are people who know the word, and "Niemetz" (orignal meaning "mute") are Germans, who are can't talk the talk. Slave in Russian is "rab". Sorry for being pedantic, I like linguistics so I wound up studying Russian just to see the similarities with Latin.

[@MRbeqa100]

I do like he, i get what he sayed

[@AdurianJ]

Finland the only democracy in Eastern Europe held the line against the Soviets in 1939. Finland had looked west to Scandinavia and it's old mother country Sweden after independence and this created a much more stable country than the other east European states. Today the Baltic countries for instance site this example when they organise their states structures.

[@rosesprog1722]

Not exactly, After the Sudetenland, Slovakia split off and Poland took Tetschen so Pres. Hocha, afraid of a Hungarian invasion asked Germany for protection, the Germans did not invade aggressively. And, why didn't France and Britain accept Stalin's offer? Because they wanted to go to war with Germany, they didn't want to avoid it. -In the House of Commons on April 3, 1939, Chamberlain, about the guarantee given to Poland spoke these significant words: "To have deviated in this matter so far from our traditional ideals as I have done on Friday on the orders of HM Government in fact constitutes so significant a milestone in British politics that I feel I can safely say that this decision will be accorded a chapter by herself, once it is time to write history." -Secretary of State V. Weizsäcker, hardly a fan of Hitler's commented: "Thus, how could those in London think that such an act would serve the cause of peace? Do they think they can publicly intimidate Hitler, spoiled and dazzled as he is by external successes? And do they think that this is the way to exhort the Polish government to caution? I did not believe it, and the British Ambassador agreed with me". -The British Minister and later Ambassador Duff Cooper put it as: "Never before in history had Great Britain granted a nation of inferior rank the power to decide whether England was to join in a war or not. Now, precisely this decision was left up to a small group of people who, with the possible exception of Colonel Beck, were completely unknown in England. And even tomorrow these unknowns might order the start of a European war."

[@realitykicksin8755]

And history is very busy repeating itself.

[@imluvinyourmum]

Hitler wanted Britain to surrender and not destroy them exactly because America would enter the war if 300 000 British troops were destroyed. Don't forget he had a Minister of Propaganda, he was all about public image. Hitlers idea was to take out countries 1 by 1 and never expected Britain and her allies to step in till he was ready to attack them, then America would have to obey once Hitler controlled Europe. That's why he wanted control of Russia so badly, the perfect land mass to launch aircraft at the US. Then American oil embargo's put a huge dent in the Axis war machine, caused Pearl Harbor, and ended with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[@juniuskerr4508]

Going back to the Athenian Greeks, democracies aren't squeamish about violence and aggression, they fight all the time... just look at the 19th century England and China, India, Afgahanistan, Africa... the 20th century USA vs Nicaragua, WW1, WW2 Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, need I go on... Let's not forget the USA vs Spain, and its involvement in China , the Boxer rebellion and all that.

[@davidhobbs5679]

I strongly disagree on his assement on historical determinism, while Marxist and other ideologies misplace the driving force, ultimately as he said himself, Japan had nothing to gain by going for a Northern invasion, likewise Germany had no real gain that he could defend if he went after India, fundamentally the geography of the earth forced the Germans to invade Russia (if the were going to expand) and for Japan to attack SEA, to get resources. Great man theory only can explain the when, not the why (other than by arbitrary means that do not explain historical trends).

[@deadman746]

I hope the accidental dislike from my fat fingers is gone, because this is excellent.

[@anirbellahcen5551]

So, after I watched this lecture I have a question: Do colonial forces have the right to invade others' countries BUT Hitler has no right at all? if yes, then this is a pure double standard Sir. Hitler was a reactionary impulse of the German people about the Treaty of Versailles.

[@TaoQiBao]

These students lack disciplin. Talking all the time. Their phones ring ...