The Price Of Empire

The second world war ended more than 70 years ago but wars never end For those who fought the memories are indestructible To understand something so profound we must start before the beginning with what Churchill called The Gathering Storm

Japans unprovoked invasion has plunged China into war and Europe has been brought to the brink of conflict In Italy Mussolini introduces fascism to the political landscape and Hitler dismantles democracy Their expansion threatens neighboring nations

Six months have passed with very little action in the Phony War That is about to end as the German forces add a new term to the vocabulary of warfare Blitzkrieg

Six months after the fall of France Vyacheslav Molotov visits Berlin to discuss how the world might be divided after victory He is told that Britain is defeated But Britain isnt beaten Its just alone

IIn 1941 Britain is holding its own although it is still under severe threat from the German army Japan takes action that would make World War Two truly global The story of the War will be transformed by a single word Barbarossa

Before 1941 was half over the Soviet Union was locked in struggle with Germany Before the year was out humanity would be hanging on the fate of Roosevelts great union compelled to join the struggle by what he termed a date which will live in infamy

It took Hitler half a war to gain an empire But it would also take him half a war to lose one Japan also wound up growing and growing only to start to fall about halfway through the war

There was a plot that eventually Germany headed east and Japan heading west would join up in the Indian subcontinent to make a massive territory But too many setbacks in 1942 marked the end of the beginning

The United Nations planned how best to secure victory and how to arrange the post war world at conference after conference The Allies fought one war on two fronts The Axis fought two wars For both 1943 would mark the beginning of the end

In 1943 the Axis powers are on the defensive everywhere In 1944 The Allies strength would grow in the East with the Soviet Union opening the second front

After the opening of the second front the Allies break out of Normandy The Red Army advances In the East the invasion of the Philippines will bring the Allies one step closer to attacking Japan

The war was started solely because of acts of aggression by Germany and Japan But in 1944 their armies are being driven from the lands that they had conquered and the Allies are beginning to pressure them to accept unconditional surrender

After years of war the defeat of Hitler and the Third Reich is inevitable Peace in Asia will follow peace in Europe after the detonation of the atomic bomb