Encyclopedia of World War II (Facts on File Library of World History)

911 Pages·2007·22.32 MB·English

by  Alan Axelrod

Encyclopedia of
World War II
Alan Axelrod
Consulting Editor
Col. Jack A. Kingston, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Encyclopedia of World War II
Copyright © 2007 by Alan Axelrod
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Facts On File, Inc.
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New York NY 10001
ISBN-10: 0-8160-6022-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6022-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Axelrod, Alan, 1952–
Encyclopedia of World War II / Alan Axelrod; consulting editor, Jack A. Kingston.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-6022-3 (alk. paper)
1. World War, 1939–1945—Encyclopedias. I. Kingston, Jack A. II. Title. III. Title:
Encyclopedia of World War Two. IV. Title: Encyclopedia of World War 2.
D740.A94 2007
940.5303—dc22 2006026155
Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for
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Text design by Erika K. Arroyo
Cover design by Salvatore Luongo
Illustrations by Jeremy Eagle and Dale Williams
Printed in the United States of America
VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
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For Anita and Ian
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Contents
★
IntroductIon vii
Entry LIst ix
EntrIEs A–Z 1
BIBLIogrAphy 893
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Introduction
★
The legendary American commander General tous product of the war: nuclear (and, later, ther-
George S. Patton, Jr., once observed that next to monuclear) weapons.
war, “all other human endeavor paled to insignifi- World War II is best understood as an exten-
cance.” If we accept this judgment, we may begin sion of the earlier global cataclysm that was World
to appreciate the magnitude of World War II, in War I (1914–18), which left many territorial issues
which Patton played so prominent a role. It, after unresolved even as it created a host of new cultural
all, was the largest and bloodiest war in history. and economic incentives for war. The article entitled
Rare was the patch of the planet that was “Causes of World War II” and the articles treat-
spared involvement in this war, at least at some ing France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United
time during 1939–45; however, the principal com- States in this encyclopedia provide discussion of the
batants were Germany, Italy, and Japan—the Axis background against which World War II developed,
powers—and France, Great Britain, the United including a straightforward summary of the causes
States, the Soviet Union, and China—the Allies. of the war from the perspectives of each of the
The butcher’s bill created by this conflict was major combatant powers. While the economic and
unprecedented in extent and remains unequaled. territorial causes of the war are relatively easy for a
Most authorities attribute 40 million to 50 mil- modern reader to grasp, the ideological dimensions
lion deaths—the vast majority of these civil- are both more complex and yet more elemental.
ians—directly to the war. The peak number of Politically, the war was a contest involving
troops mobilized by all combatant nations was three broad orientations:
72,928,000, and millions more civilians were
1. T he combination of German Nazism and Italian
committed to war-related industrial production
fascism (to which may be added Japanese mili-
(among these both free workers and slave laborers)
tarism)
and to partisan, guerrilla, and resistance activity.
2. Soviet communism
World War II devastated Europe and Asia and
3. Western democracy
left a world-shaping legacy in its turbulent wake.
As a result of the war, the power of the Soviet Although the socioeconomic basis of Nazism, fas-
Union was extended to many nations of eastern cism, and Japanese militarism was fundamentally
Europe, and communism also triumphed in China opposed to the communism of the Soviets, the
and established footholds in parts of Korea and German and Soviet dictators, Adolf Hitler and
Vietnam. The world experienced a profound shift Joseph Stalin, began the war as unlikely allies. After
in power and influence away from the old states Hitler betrayed the alliance by invading the Soviet
of western Europe and toward the United States Union in June 1941, Stalin made a new unlikely
and the Soviet Union, which, through some five alliance, this time with the democratic powers, and
decades following the war, were the only global thus the prewar ideological enmity between Soviet
superpowers, each armed with another momen- communism and Western democracy was held in
vii
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viii Encyclopedia of World War II
abeyance for the purpose of defeating the common At somewhat more than a half million words,
Axis enemy. the Encyclopedia of World War II is intended to be
Yet the ideological dimension of World War comprehensive, but it makes no claim to being
II went far beyond politics to encompass racial exhaustive. As Patton’s assessment of war implies,
mythologies held by Hitler and the Nazis as well as discussion of World War II properly encompasses
by the Japanese militarists (and to a far lesser degree, every aspect of human endeavor. Here, however,
by the Italian Fascists), in which the aggressors saw we have been guided by our sense of what sub-
themselves as a master “race” naturally and inexo- jects are most commonly sought by students and
rably opposed to a number of lesser “races” (often instructors at the high school and undergraduate
defined as subhuman). These lesser races were prop- levels, as well as by others with a nonspecialist
erly subject to conquest, including economic exploi- interest in World War II. Beyond this, we do not
tation for labor and other resources and even geno- claim to have definitively identified all that is
cidal extermination—the latter most infamously important to the war anymore than we claim to
exemplified in Nazi anti-Semitism, which gave rise have excluded absolutely all that is of only periph-
to the “Final Solution” and the “Holocaust,” both eral interest. We are confident, however, that each
of which are treated in this encyclopedia, but also of the articles we have included will be useful,
evident in Japan’s brutal treatment of conquered relevant, and interesting to the student, instructor,
peoples and defeated armies (see, for example, and general reader. Each article includes cross-
“Nanking [Nanjing], Rape of”). The mass persecu- references to related articles and concludes with
tion, torture, and murder of civilian populations suggestions for further reading. These suggestions
were very much a part of World War II, both as a constitute a specialized bibliography of World War
motive and a result, and these subjects are treated in II subjects; readers looking for general works on
this encyclopedia along with the more conventional the conflict should consult the bibliography that
military aspects of the war. concludes the encyclopedia.
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Entry List
★
A antiarmor weapons Attlee, Clement
Aachen, Battle of Anti-Comintern Pact Auchinleck, Claude John Ayre
ABC-1 Staff Agreement Antonescu, Ion Aung San
Acheson, Dean ANZAC Auschwitz extermination camp
Admiralty Islands, Battle of Anzio Campaign Australia
African-American soldiers, appeasement policy Australia, air force of
sailors, marines, and airmen Arctic convoy operations Australia, army of
airborne assault Ardennes, Battle of the (Battle Australia, navy of
aircraft, British of the Bulge) Austria
aircraft, French armed neutrality Axis (Tripartite) Pact
aircraft, German armor, British Axmann, Artur
aircraft, Italian armor, French
aircraft, Japanese armor, German B
aircraft, Polish armor, Italian Bader, Douglas
aircraft, Soviet armor, Japanese Badoglio, Pietro
aircraft, U.S. armor, Soviet Balbo, Italo
aircraft carriers armor, U.S. Balck, Hermann
Alamein, Battles of Arnim, Jürgen von Baldwin, Stanley
Alam el Halfa, Battle of Arnold, Henry Harley (“Hap”) balloon bombs
Albania artillery, British Baltic Sea, action on the
Aleutian Islands Campaign artillery, French banzai charge
Alexander, Harold artillery, German Barbie, Klaus
Algeria artillery, Italian barrage balloon
Alsace-Lorraine artillery, Japanese Bataan, Death March
“Amerika” bomber artillery, Soviet Bataan, fall of
amphibious warfare artillery, U.S. battleships
Anami Korechika Atlantic, Battle of the bazooka
Anderson, John Atlantic Charter Belgium
Anderson shelter atrocities, German Belorussia
Anschluss atrocities, Japanese Belzec extermination camp
antiaircraft weapons attack aircraft Beneš, Edvard
ix
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