Prelude to War (World War II)

228 Pages·1976·34.962 MB·English

by  Robert T. Elson

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ON THE COVER: Members of the infant Nazi 5 | — te Te
party jam a battered truck that will take
them to a rally in the Westphalian town of
Herne. Impoverished as they were in the ‘20s
—the swastika i; crudely painted on pieces of
cardboard—thesé \Nazis, and others throughout
Germany, already displayed the swaggering
military bearing that many of their countrymen
found both reassuring and compelling. .
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WORLD WAR II - TIME-LIFE BOOKS - ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA
BY ROBERT T. ELSON
AND THE EDITORS OF TIME-LIFE BOOKS
apne eet
The Author: ROBERT T. ELSON has a long career
Time-Life Books Inc.
is a wholly owned subsidiary of with Time Inc., including assignments as LIFE Mag-
TIME INCORPORATED azine’s deputy managing editor and Washington
and London correspondent for the TiME-LIFE News
Founder: Henry R. Luce 1898-1967 Service. He is the author of the two-volume Time
Editor-in-Chief: Hedley Donovan InTche I.nti:mat e Historofya Publishing Enterprise.
Chairman of the Board: Andrew Heiskell
President: James R. Shepley
Vice Chairman: Roy E. Larsen The Consultants: A. E. CAMPBELL is Professor of
Corporate Editor: Ralph Graves American History at the University of Birmingham,
England. He was formerly Fellow and Tutor of Mod-
ern History at Keble College, Oxford, and has been
TIME-LIFE BOOKS INC.
Visiting Professor at several American universities.
Managing Editor: Jerry Korn He is the author of Great Britain and the United
Executive Editor: David Maness
States: 1895-1903.
Assistant Managing Editors: Dale M. Brown,
Martin Mann
Art Director: Tom Suzuki
O. EDMUND CLUBB is a former Foreign Service of-
Chief of Research: David L. Harrison
ficer who served with distinction in the Far East. He
Director of Photography: Melvin L. Scott
has taught at Columbia University and New York
Planning Director: John Paul Porter
University, and was a senior research associate with
Senior Text Editors: William Frankel, Diana Hirsh
the East Asian Institute. His books include 20th Cen-
Assistant Art Director: Arnold C. Holeywell
tury China and China & Russia: The ‘Great Game.’
Chairman: Joan D. Manley
President: John D. McSweeney
COL. JOHN R. ELTING, USA (ret.), is a military his-
Executive Vice Presidents: Carl G. Jaeger (U.S. and
torian, author of The Battle of Bunker's Hill and A
Canada), David J. Walsh (International)
Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars.
Vice President and Secretary: Paul R. Stewart
He edited Military Uniforms in North America: The
Treasurer and General Manager:
Revolutionary Era and served as associate editor for
John Steven Maxwell
The West Point Atlas of American Wars.
Business Manager: Peter G. Barnes
Sales Director: John L. Canova
Public Relations Director: Nicholas Benton
Personnel Director: Beatrice T. Dobie HANS-ADOLF JACOBSEN, Director of the Seminar
Production Director: Herbert Sorkin for Political Science at the University of Bonn, is
Consumer Affairs Director: Carol Flaumenhaft the co-author of Anatomy of the S. S. and editor
of Decisive Battles of World War II: The Ger-
man View.
WORLD WAR II
Editorial Staff for Prelude to War:
Editor: Charles Osborne HENRI MICHEL, research director at France’s Na-
Picture Editor/ Designer: Charles Mikolaycak tional Center for Scientific Research, is also Presi-
Staff Writers: Philip W. Payne, dent of the International Committee for the History
James Randall of the Second World War. An officer of the Legion
Researchers: Josephine Reidy, Doris Coffin, of Honor, his book, The Second World War, won
Clara Nicolai, Suzanne Wittebort the French Academy’s Prix Gobert in 1970.
Editorial Assistant: Cecily Gemmell
Editorial Production
JAMES P. SHENTON, Professor of History at Colum-
Production Editor: Douglas B. Graham
bia University, has lectured frequently on educa-
Operations Manager: Gennaro C. Esposito
tional television. He is the author of History of the
Assistant Production Editor: Feliciano Madrid
United States from 1865 to the Present and Robert
Quality Director: Robert L. Young
John Walker: A Politician from Jackson to Lincoln.
Assistant Quality Director: James J. Cox
Associate: Serafino J. Cambareri
Copy Staff: Susan B. Galloway (chief),
© 1977, 1976 Time-Life Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Mary Ellen Slate, Florence Keith,
No part of this book may be reproduced in any
Celia Beattie
form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
Picture Department: Dolores A. Littles,
including information storage and retrieval devices
Martin Baldessari
Traffic: Barbara Buzan or systems, without prior written permission from
the publisher, except that reviewers may quote
Correspondents: Elisabeth Kraemer (Bonn); brief passages for reviews.
Margot Hapgood, Dorothy Bacon (London); Third printing. Reprinted 1977.
Susan Jonas, Lucy T. Voulgaris (New York); Published simultaneously in Canada.
Library of Congress catalogue card number 76-10024.
Maria Vincenza Aloisi, Josephine du Brusle
School and library distribution by Silver Burdett Company,
(Paris) and Ann Natanson (Rome).
Valuable assistance was also provided by Morristown, New Jersey.
Carolyn T. Chubet (New York) and Villette
Harris (Washington, D.C.).
CHAPTERS
1: “A Peace Resting on Quicksand” 18
2: The Soviet Spectre 44
3: A New Breed of Caesars 82
4: Convulsion in the Far East 128
5: Downfall of a Feeble League 148
6: Dress Rehearsal in Spain 166
7: One Minute to Midnight 184
PICTURE ESSAYS
When the Shooting Stopped 6
Killing Ground in Russia 32
The Uneasy Respite 56
Dizzy, Decadent Berlin zie
Deadly Game of Make Believe 96
The Theatrics of Power 106
Samurai Slash at China 138
Rome’s New Legionaries 156
The Nazis’ Seductive Rituals 176
The First Big Take-Over 200
Bibliography 212
Picture Credits 213
Acknowledgments 213
Index 214
CONTENTS