MKNE political information

In many ways the Second World War lasted longer than our standard –UK-centred dating suggests. From 1937 to perhaps 1952. Or maybe the ‘World War’ was actually shorter than the European phase?

If you count continuous conflict involving core belligerents, the war stared in July 1937 when Japan attacked China. The slide to European participation came with the annexation of part of Lithuania by Nazi Germany in January 1939 and the Hitler-Stalin pact which regulated the partition of middle Europe between the major dictatorships.

Britain conventionally dates the Second World War from 3 September, when Our Empire declared war on Nazi Germany following the 1 September invasion of Poland.
Globalisation of the conflict, it might be argued, dates from the German attack on its partitioning partner USSR in June 1941. The attack in December 1941 by Japan on the European colonies in Asia, and on the USA, knitted in the ongoing Asian conflict with the European. Fighting consequent to the major phase of the war continued after the surrender of Germany and Japan, ceasing in east Europe in 1952 when armed resistance to the imposition of the Soviet system finally ceased.

Another way of looking at this is that a huge European Civil War lasted from 1914 to 1991, from the conventional First WW opening through to the liquidation of the occupation structure imposed by the USSR on east Europe. The ‘2nd WW’ was the second phase of intense hostilities in this process…

Whether as a beginning in its own right or as a major escalation September 1939 remains a terrifying dark moment of despair…

Labels: second world war