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    The Second Front: Grand Strategy And Civil-Military Relations Of Western Allies And The USSR, 1938-1945
    The Second Front: Grand Strategy And Civil-Military Relations Of Western Allies And The USSR, 1938-1945
    The Second Front: Grand Strategy And Civil-Military Relations Of Western Allies And The USSR, 1938-1945
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    The Second Front: Grand Strategy And Civil-Military Relations Of Western Allies And The USSR, 1938-1945

    By Captain Denys Schur

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    The debate about grand strategy in the Second World War has scarcely ended even in the 21st Century. The present study examines the classical issue of the grand strategy in Europe and the anti-Hitler coalition as concerns the US-UK-Soviet exchange about the Second Front. The great phenomenon of the Second World War was the creation of an unprecedented military alliance between the western powers and the Soviet Union. Due to mutual antagonism, inter-Allied cooperation during the Second World War was very complicated and at times extremely tense. Perhaps the most acute disagreement in the relationship between the Allies was the “Second Front” controversy. Despite desperate Soviet demands to open the Second Front as soon as possible, the Western Allies launched a massive cross-channel operation in the northwestern Europe only in June 1944. This thesis analyses the reasons why it took the western powers so long to organize and execute such an operation and its implications for the post-war order. The detailed analysis of the grand strategy during the Second World War is one of the ways to comprehend the violent 20th Century amid the carnage of the 21st Century and its own problems of grand strategy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLucknow Books
    Release dateAug 15, 2014
    ISBN9781782898177
    The Second Front: Grand Strategy And Civil-Military Relations Of Western Allies And The USSR, 1938-1945

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      Book preview

      The Second Front - Captain Denys Schur

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 2005 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      THE SECOND FRONT: GRAND STRATEGY AND CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS OF WESTERN ALLIES AND THE USSR, 1938-1945

      by

      Denys Schur, Captain, Ukrainian Army B.S., Leningrad High Military-Political College, 1991

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      ABSTRACT 5

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6

      I. INTRODUCTION 7

      II. THE COMING OF THE ANTI-HITLER COALITION 10

      A.—WESTERN POWERS AND THE USSR ON THE WAY TO CREATION OF THE ANTI-HITLER COALITION 10

      B.—MAIN EUROPEAN DEMOCRACIES (GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE) 10

      C. — THE UNION OF THE SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS 15

      D. — THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 20

      III. — THE SECOND FRONT AS A RESULT OF GRAND STRATEGIES AND CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS OF WESTERN ALLIES AND USSR DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR. 27

      A. — IMAGINARY AND REAL REASONS FOR THE POSTPONEMENT OF THE SECOND FRONT 28

      B. — THE SOVIET DEMANDS AND ANGLO-AMERICAN REACTIONS 29

      C. — TWO DIFFERENT STRATEGIC APPROACHES 32

      D. — BEGINNING OF THE GREAT STRATEGIC DEBATE AND CRUCIAL DECISION FOR OPERATION TORCH (JANUARY 1942-DECEMBER 1942) 35

      E. — BRITISH MEDITERRANEAN STRATEGY AND AMERICAN CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS 39

      F. — THE SOVIET FACTOR 42

      G. — TEHERAN CONFERENCE AND ULTIMATE DECISION FOR THE SECOND FRONT 44

      H. — SUMMARY 46

      IV. THE SECOND FRONT AS THE BEGINNING OF COLD WAR 48

      A. — THE ESSENCE AND PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF INTER-ALLIED COOPERATION 48

      B. — THE FIRST BATTLEGROUND OF THE COLD WAR 49

      C. — THE SPHERE OF INFLUENCE DIVISION 51

      D. — THE CRUCIAL SOLUTIONS OF THE YALTA CONFERENCE 51

      E. — THE COLD WAR ON THE WAY 53

      V. — CONCLUSION 55

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 58

      LIST OF REFERENCES 59

      ABSTRACT

      The debate about grand strategy in the Second World War has scarcely ended even in the 21st Century. The present study examines the classical issue of the grand strategy in Europe and the anti-Hitler coalition as concerns the US-UK-Soviet exchange about the Second Front. The great phenomenon of the Second World War was the creation of an unprecedented military alliance between the western powers and the Soviet Union. Due to mutual antagonism, inter-Allied cooperation during the Second World War was very complicated and at times extremely tense. Perhaps the most acute disagreement in the relationship between the Allies was the Second Front controversy. Despite desperate Soviet demands to open the Second Front as soon as possible, the Western Allies launched a massive cross-channel operation in the northwestern Europe only in June 1944. This thesis analyses the reasons why it took the western powers so long to organize and execute such an operation and its implications for the post-war order. The detailed analysis of the grand strategy during the Second World War is one of the ways to comprehend the violent 20th Century amid the carnage of the 21st Century and its own problems of grand strategy.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I would like to express my deepest thanks to my academic advisors, two brilliant historians, Doctor Donald Abenheim and Doctor Daniel Moran, whose profound knowledge and determination inspired me to do this study. Their guidance and patience were the clues that helped me to complete this work. I am very grateful for their support, tolerance and understanding. I also thank the faculty and staff of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Department of National Security Affairs for the important knowledge I have obtained while studying here, knowledge which, I hope, will be very useful in my future career. I give my special thanks to Richard Black-Howell, the editor of my thesis, who spent long hours making this thesis readable.

      I. INTRODUCTION

      The debate about the effectiveness of the Allied grand strategy in the Second World War has scarcely ended even in the 21st century. The Second World War, which is truly considered the turning point of 20th century history, not only changed the geopolitical structure of the world, but also brought about a new political division, international tension, and violence, which spanned the second half of 20th century.

      The crucial moment that ensured Allied victory in the Second World War and predetermined the shape of the post-war world was the opening of the Second Front in Europe in June 1944. This event proved to be fateful both for the people participating in the conflict and future generations. The Allied invasion in northern France not only facilitated and hastened the ultimate victory over Germany and Nazi ideology, but also brought about the division of the world into two antagonistic camps, the Western free world led by the United States leadership on the one hand, and the communist world under Soviet Union leadership on the other hand. The United States and Great Britain found themselves confronted by a former ally, one which seemed to some to be even more hostile to democracy and freedom than the Nazi regime. This hostility between former allies and unwillingness to find some kind of compromise led to the state of the Cold War, which continued up to 1991, and whose legacy is relevant in international relations even now. The course of rapid developments in the after-war world and even in the beginning of the 21st century is the direct result of grand strategies implemented by major western powers, Great Britain, France, the United States of America, and the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

      The present study examines the classical issue of the grand strategy of the war in Europe and the anti-Hitler coalition as concerns the US-UK-French-Soviet exchange about the Second Front. This thesis attempts to examine the grand strategies and civil-military relations of the Western Allies and the USSR as they relate to the creation of the Second Front in the European theater, from the period when the Second World War began, throughout the course of the war, and into its final phase, when the formation of the Bipolar World began.

      It has been thought for decades that deep inter-allied discussions about opening the Second Front in northern France were aimed mostly at placating an insistent Stalin. The question of why it took the western powers so long to prepare, organize, and execute such an operation is still a point of historical controversy. Soviet historiography, for instance, for many years entertained the idea that Anglo-American hesitation to open the Second Front in Europe was induced by a cynical motive of achieving strategic and political advantages in a war with Hitler at the expense of Soviet Union.{1} This work attempts to establish the real reasons why the Second Front in Europe, which Stalin so desperately pleaded for, was opened no earlier than June 1944, and why it was not opened later.

      It is not a recognized fact that the decision to launch some kind of military operation in Western Europe, which was to be conducted by Joint Anglo-American military forces, was made from the very moment when the anti-Hitler coalition was created. Stalin, who claimed that the USSR faced the entire military might of Nazi Germany, what was for the most part true, hoped

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