A column about history, culture, policy, and things in between.
On this date seventeen years ago a blitzkrieg hit Waukesha County. About 3 AM heavy rains turned to snow, and by dawn we had seven inches of wet, heavy snow covering the landscape. I will never forget the carnage in our yard, neighborhood and city that morning. Though the snow would melt within hours the damage had been done, as its crushing weight pulverized trees, shrubs and plant-life.
But on this same date a far more deadly and history-shaping blitzkrieg occurred. On May 10, 1940, the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany invaded France.
It is impossible today to grasp the stunning impact of this action, which ushered in the greatest conflagration in history, re-wrote the world’s geopolitical landscape, and left FIFTY MILLION dead. Throughout the 1930’s Europe had coddled Hitler, choosing to disbelieve or simply ignore Winston Churchill’s insistent warnings. It had watched as he swallowed Austria and Czechoslovakia, and even acquiesced with his invasion of Poland in September of 1939. As long as Hitler moved eastward, towards Communist Russia, his actions were tolerated, even encouraged. But on this day his forces lunged across the Meuse River at Sedan, and poured westward into France.
The French, who for months had been mired in defeatism and denial despite the obvious signs of German intent, suddenly awoke to their peril and, along with their British Allies, rushed into Belgium to meet the tide of German troops they were convinced would be there. They left the protection of their Southern flank to the “impregnable” combination of the Ardennes Forest and the Maginot line.
That was the problem – the French trusted their fixed fortifications. The Germans however, had revolutionized warfare with the introduction of their mechanized and armored Panzer Divisions. They relied on fluid and fast moving fronts, supported by mobile firepower unprecedented in warfare. The German forces penetrated the Ardennes forest, out-flanked the Maginot Line, and deployed their lethal formations. From there they went on a four-week race to the English Channel, cutting the Allied troops off from their communications, supply lines, and political leaders. Within six weeks the Swastika would fly over the Eiffel Tower.
The Allies were stupefied by the pace and depth of the Nazi penetrations, which spread like a virulent stain over their maps. The Germans progressed relentlessly, ignoring the established rules of war and preventing the Allies from organized response. In command of the lead units, General Heinz Guederian defied the frantic pleas of his superiors in Berlin, who almost begged him to wait for the slower moving German infantry. The grim tank commander knew better, and merely growled back, “We move or we fail. Approve the advance or relieve me from command”. Reflecting back on those frenetic days of mayhem and death, Churchill would say, “The Germans were everywhere – and were everywhere victorious”.
A month later the French had already surrendered. The British Expeditionary Force had retreated to the Channel Coast and was huddled on the beaches of Dunkirk. Then, in a development that many politicians openly attributed to divine intervention, the German tanks stopped. Hitler, perhaps in a vain attempt to show mercy and thereby secure the surrender of England, held them in check. The English waited, and prayed for another miracle. They got one. A fleet of vessels emerged from the coves, tributaries, and harbors of England, and in a completely unplanned and uncoordinated effort, ventured across the Channel. Hundreds of ships, fishing trawlers, commercial vessels, dinghies, private sailing yachts, and rowboats would cross the Channel to bring their exhausted sons back home.
France would endure five years of Nazi occupation, which while reprehensible, would not even approximate the savagery of their Eastern occupations. England, protected by her Channel, would finally turn to the one man she had long scorned and banished to political exile. In London the sixty-five year old Winston Churchill’s time had come, as he had never doubted it would.
For months he would confront his fascist adversary with the only weapons he had: soaring prose and an indomitable will. He spoke to his countrymen as no one had since Shakespeare and the great Elizabeth. His broadcasts originated from an underground London bunker, and were carried to the listening world via the BBC. They stand today as some of the most stirring orations in history, and a profile in political leadership.
