John P. Rossi: The World's Most Dangerous Summer
[John P. Rossi is a professor emeritus of history at La Salle University. He can be reached at rossi@lasalle.edu.]
Seventy years ago this summer, the Western democracies faced what may have been the most dangerous moment in their histories. We tend to be fascinated by turning points - those decisive moments when the fate of nations is at stake. June through September of 1940 was just such a moment.
In a matter of six weeks, Adolf Hitler's armies - which had already dispatched Poland in a month - swept through Belgium, Holland, and France. France, which had defied Germany for four years in World War I, was effectively beaten after six weeks, in June 1940. Hitler dictated the ignominious terms of surrender in the same railway car that was the setting for Germany's defeat in November 1918.
For the Western democracies, all seemed lost. Only Great Britain, which had been driven off the European continent at Dunkirk, stood between Germany and complete domination of Europe.
That this domination did not occur was the result of a series of decisions, incidents, and actions that summer that ultimately brought about the defeat of Germany and the emergence of the United States as a world power.
First, and in some ways foremost, was the determination of one man: Winston Churchill....
Read entire article at Philadelphia Inquirer
Seventy years ago this summer, the Western democracies faced what may have been the most dangerous moment in their histories. We tend to be fascinated by turning points - those decisive moments when the fate of nations is at stake. June through September of 1940 was just such a moment.
In a matter of six weeks, Adolf Hitler's armies - which had already dispatched Poland in a month - swept through Belgium, Holland, and France. France, which had defied Germany for four years in World War I, was effectively beaten after six weeks, in June 1940. Hitler dictated the ignominious terms of surrender in the same railway car that was the setting for Germany's defeat in November 1918.
For the Western democracies, all seemed lost. Only Great Britain, which had been driven off the European continent at Dunkirk, stood between Germany and complete domination of Europe.
That this domination did not occur was the result of a series of decisions, incidents, and actions that summer that ultimately brought about the defeat of Germany and the emergence of the United States as a world power.
First, and in some ways foremost, was the determination of one man: Winston Churchill....