The U.S. & Nazi Germany - December, 1941

Tom Brokaw, alleged journalist, was the one who threw the critical straw on this camel's back. He told his American audience that WWII started on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese air force attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbour. As Allied war veterans all around the planet threw their stewed prunes at their TVs, I decided to take what feeble efforts I could to help them by starting to write the simple truth about recent history. For example, by the time the Zeros appeared on that Hawaiian morning, Poland, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and France had fallen under the Nazi jackboot, the Battle of Britain had been fought and won, and the Wehrmacht had penetrated a thousand kilometres inside the Soviet Union. In short, the war had been underway for more than two years, Mr. Brokaw!

Ask an American, particularly a Rush Limbaugh acolyte, how it was the U.S. entered the big war (not that the Great War wasn't well-named - I'll deal with that one in other posts) against Germany. Most have never considered the question, and so assume that the FDR speech to Congress the day after the "date that will live in infamy" (no argument there) requested a blanket declaration of war against all the Axis nations (i.e., Germany, Italy, Japan). It did not: FDR wanted to declare war on Japan, and received virtually unanimous consent to do so. On Dec. 11, Mussolini, then Hitler, declared to the world that, by the terms of the Tripartite Agreement, their countries were at war with the U.S. Roosevelt again went to Congress to ask for the U.S. to make its own declaration, which shortly passed. Had the arrogant Axis leaders not taken such an incredibly foolish step (on their own - Japan had not asked for their assistance), one is hard pressed to imagine Roosevelt asking for European war so shortly after the stunning shock of the Pearl Harbour fiasco. To the nearly exhausted English and their allies (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) getting the Americans on side was a gift beyond measure.

Let's conclude simply: World War Two started on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded its eastern neighbour, Poland. Britain and France declared war on September 3, after repeated requests to Hitler for his forces to retreat. The U.S. entered the war on December 8, 1941, against Japan, and December 11, against Italy & Germany, after those countries declared war on it.