´óÏó´«Ã½

(This chapter is part of Len Baynes' book '
The Will to Live
', an account of his wartime experiences with the Cambridgeshire Regiment, his capture in Singapore, and the four years he spent as a prisoner of the Japanese.)

How WW2 began

Britain disarmed during the thirties, our pacific government deciding to rely on The League of Nations, with what was called 'Collective Security'.

Meanwhile, Germany was re-arming fast. Hitler and Mussolini joined forces, forming 'The Axis', and Hitler later made a non-aggression pact with Stalin. Too late, a couple of years only before war was declared, we decided to re-arm, without putting the nation on a war footing.

After war broke out late 1939, we sent all our available forces to help France defend her borders (The Maginot Line) against the anticipated German assault, and began all-out re-arming.

For several months Hitler consolidated his gains in Poland, Czechoslovakia etc. in what was called 'The Phoney War'. Then he quickly conquered the low countries, which left The Allies' flank exposed. The French defence rapidly collapsed, and after retreating, leaving our flank exposed, they capitulated.

In our weakened state, Japan took the opportunity to attack, and as we had disbanded our Far Eastern Fleet, we could no longer defend our Far East empire.

In France, we were left with our only stratagem; to get out of the country as quickly as possible, in order to be able to fight another day. This entailed fighting a rearguard action against the quick-moving Panzer tank divisions across the whole of France, to Dunkirk.

As our troops neared the Channel, Britain called for every available ship and boat to assemble on our south coast, ready to cross over and evacuate our troops when they reached Dunkirk.

They came in their thousands, from small launches to trawlers. When the day came for the rescue the bad weather eased long enough for them to cross. Many were lost from air attack, but the majority of our men were saved, although all their equipment and weaponry was lost.

'Collective Security' had failed. Britain and her Commonwealth faced the world alone, with her factories, towns and cities being devastated by the overwhelming superiority of the Axis air forces.

Ships bringing supplies of food and equipment were sunk by the enemy submarine fleet. Our forces in North Africa were being pushed back by Rommel and the Italians, as we could not supply them from the sea. That was when Churchill made his presence felt with his famous 'We shall fight them…' speech.

After that Britain really got its nose to the grindstone. Our wooden Hurricane fighters' parts were made in cottage workshops all over the country; metal Spitfire parts were made in every car factory and engineering works.

Ford turned over its workshops to producing Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the finest aircraft engines in the world.

Finally the time came when, in 'The Battle of Britain', the Luftwaffe found it was losing its bombers to the Hurricanes and Spitfires faster than it could make them, and the worst of 'The Blitz' was over.

However, Hitler had by then made his greatest mistake. His plans to invade England across the channel, when we were at our weakest, were postponed, while he reneged on his Non Aggression Pact with Stalin, and, hopeful of another quick victory, he attacked Russia.

Then came the turning point. In America Roosevelt instituted 'Lend Lease', under which he supplied us with armaments and food, (buy now and pay later). When the Germans began sinking American ships on their way to us, Roosevelt declared war on Germany.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour finally brought the mighty USA completely into the war, victory was no longer in doubt.

Christians Believe that The Hand of God was Behind Our Victory.

Yours Len

Chapter 2

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.