LIFE AS A FEPOW · HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The Origins of World War II
A global conflict nearly two decades in the making — from the ashes of the Great War to the invasion of Poland and the fall of empires.
1919
TREATY OF VERSAILLES
1939
WAR DECLARED IN EUROPE
1941
JAPAN ENTERS THE WAR
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NATIONS DRAWN INTO CONFLICT
The Aftermath of World War I: Seeds of Conflict
World War II, fought between 1939 and 1945, was the most devastating conflict in human history. It brought together nations from every corner of the globe and reshaped the political, social and economic order of the world. But the war did not begin in 1939. Its roots stretched back two decades — to the humiliation of Germany, the resentments of Italy, and the imperial ambitions of Japan.
The origins of World War II can be traced directly to the aftermath of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, imposed severe penalties on Germany — stripping the country of territory, dismantling its military and demanding enormous reparations. The German people were left humiliated, impoverished and burning with resentment. The treaty did not bring lasting peace; it planted the seeds of a deeper conflict.
Meanwhile, Italy — despite being on the winning side of World War I — felt cheated by the postwar settlement. The postwar global order had denied Italy the recognition it sought as a major power, and that grievance would drive it into the arms of fascism.
Europe on the Brink: The Rise of the Axis Powers
In Germany, Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, leading the National Socialist German Workers' Party — the Nazis. Hitler exploited the economic devastation and political chaos of the Weimar Republic, channelling public anger into a programme of extreme nationalism, racial ideology and territorial ambition. He rebuilt Germany's military in direct violation of the Versailles treaty and set about reclaiming what he declared to be German land.
Italy, under Benito Mussolini, sought to revive the glory of the Roman Empire. Mussolini's Fascist regime had come to power in 1922, and by the 1930s he was pursuing an aggressive foreign policy in Africa and the Mediterranean — bombing and occupying Ethiopia, invading Albania, and positioning Italy as a great imperial power.
The two dictators solidified their alliance in 1936 through the Rome-Berlin Axis, and later expanded it into the Tripartite Pact with Japan. Three powers — three ideologies of conquest — now faced a world that hoped, in vain, that diplomacy could hold them back.
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"The seeds of the second great war were sown at the peace conference that ended the first. A victorious alliance punished the defeated with such severity that a new and more terrible war became almost inevitable."
HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT — THE LEGACY OF VERSAILLES
The Spanish Civil War and the Road to War
The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) became a testing ground for the Axis Powers. Germany and Italy supported the Nationalist forces of Francisco Franco against the elected Republican government, using Spain to trial their military tactics, their aircraft and their weapons. The infamous bombing of Guernica — a Basque civilian town — by the German Luftwaffe in 1937 gave the world a preview of what modern air warfare could do to a civilian population. The world watched and took note — but did not act.
The Spark: Germany's Expansion and the Invasion of Poland
Germany's territorial ambitions grew bolder with each success that went unchallenged. In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria in what became known as the Anschluss — absorbed bloodlessly into the Reich. That same year, under the Munich Agreement, Britain and France allowed Germany to seize the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in a desperate attempt to appease Hitler and avoid war.
It did not work. In March 1939, Germany occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia, breaking every promise made at Munich. By September 1939, Germany had signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union — the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact — and on the 1st of September, German forces invaded Poland. Britain and France had guaranteed Poland's independence. Two days later, on 3 September 1939, they declared war on Germany. World War II had begun.
Poland's armed forces were swiftly overwhelmed by the German military's Blitzkrieg — lightning war — combining fast-moving armour, motorised infantry and devastating air power. The fall of Poland was a stark demonstration of the Axis Powers' willingness to redraw the map of Europe by force.
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The Fall of Western Europe
In April 1940, Germany resumed its aggressive campaign, invading Denmark and Norway to secure access to the North Atlantic. Then in May 1940, the German Army launched its assault on Western Europe — sweeping through the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and outflanking the supposedly impenetrable Maginot Line to pour into France through the Ardennes. In nine days the Allied position had collapsed.
France fell within six weeks. German forces entered Paris on 14 June 1940. The country was divided into an occupied zone under direct German control and a collaborationist government based at Vichy. Over 330,000 Allied troops had been evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk — a miracle of improvisation that saved the men, but not the equipment or the continent.
Germany then sought to break Britain's resistance through the Battle of Britain — a sustained aerial campaign aimed at destroying the Royal Air Force and opening the way for invasion. The RAF held. Britain did not fall. But Europe was now under the shadow of the swastika.
Italy and Japan Enter the War
Italy entered the war in June 1940 on the side of the Axis, seeking to capitalise on Germany's successes in Europe. Mussolini opened campaigns in North Africa and the Mediterranean — though Italian military fortunes would prove decidedly mixed without German support.
While Europe descended into chaos, Japan was pursuing its own imperial ambitions in Asia. Japan's transformation into a militarist state had accelerated through the 1930s, driven by a desire to dominate East Asia and the Pacific, secure vital resources — oil, rubber, steel — and establish what it called a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In practice, this meant the conquest of China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands.
The United States, alarmed by Japanese aggression, imposed economic sanctions including an oil embargo — cutting off Japan from 80% of its oil supply. Japan faced a choice: withdraw from its conquests, or seize the resources it needed by force. On 7 December 1941, Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. The next day, the United States declared war on Japan. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States four days later.
A Truly Global War
With the attack on Pearl Harbour, World War II became a truly global conflict. The United States entered the war with its full industrial and military might. Simultaneously, Japan launched a coordinated series of attacks across the Pacific and Southeast Asia — striking Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines, Wake Island and Guam within hours of Pearl Harbour.
The early years of the war saw the Axis Powers achieve dramatic territorial gains. But their overextension — fighting on multiple fronts, across multiple oceans, against enemies with vastly greater combined resources — would ultimately prove fatal. What had begun as a regional conflict driven by territorial ambition had become the defining catastrophe of the twentieth century: a war that would claim between 70 and 85 million lives before it ended in 1945.
For the men of the Scottish regiments — the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the Gordon Highlanders, the Royal Scots — the consequences of these events would be immediate, personal and devastating. Within weeks of Pearl Harbour, they would be fighting for their lives in Malaya, Hong Kong and Singapore.
In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.
NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN — BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, 1938