Second World War

Recognition belongs to legal acts which permit a new state to enter international community as a full partner. It establishes normal relations between two states as a precondition of their mutual communication in politics, as well as in economics and other fields. Thus, swift recognition by as many states as possible is the first task of every newly established foreign ministry. As soon as 15 March 1939, Slovak foreign ministry notified its prospective counterparts about birth of the Slovak State. The Norwegian foreign ministry was to make a stand on recognition. This, due to tense international situation on the eve of WWII, turned to a lenghty process of consideration, complicated even more by the outbreak of the war in September 1939. Early in April 1940, Norway was about to give a de facto recognition. However, Nazi invasion still the same month stopped the action, which, nonetheless, somewhat disturbed initial contacts of Norwegian and Czechoslovak exile representations.

"Throughout 10 May 1940-22 April 1942, British forces conducted a military occupation of Iceland. There were two initial reasons for this venture: firstly, in order to acquire air and naval bases to combat German forces situated along the Norwegian coast; and secondly, in order to prevent the island from coming under German control, thus guarding against encirclement. Whitehall certainly considered it an advantageous undertaking. However, as this dissertation shall show, such beliefs were swiftly escalated. During June 1940, after France’s capitulation, the retention and defence of Iceland became all the more important. It was essential, for example, that Britain could maintain at least one clear access route in and out the North Atlantic. Failure to do so would surely have lead to her starvation and/or military defeat. As a result, and along with other important reasons discussed herein, over 20,000 British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel, supported at various points by American and Canadian troops, were eventually stationed there.

Unfortunately, there are very few publications on the British invasion and occupation of Iceland, notwithstanding a few specialist works. Those works that do exist, however, read more like chronological narratives, rather than analytical studies. Consequently, there exists some exciting opportunities for the historiography’s expansion, not just in size, but also in nature of content. This dissertation, entitled ‘The Uninvited Guests: Britain’s Military Forces in Iceland, 1940-1942’, contributes to that much needed expansion.

This dissertation looks at the British occupation of Iceland over two periods: the invasion period, 10-19 May 1940, and the occupation period, 20 May 1940-22 April 1942. It assesses the effects and consequences of both the invasion and occupation, and tries to determine how far they preserved Icelandic freedoms and secured Allied interests in Northern Europe. Indeed, this dissertation shows that the invasion and initial occupation of Iceland was a complete military disaster, one that offered no benefit to either the Icelanders or Allies. If anything, it put the Icelanders at greater risk of harm from German retaliation. This dissertation also shows that Britain made good its early deficiencies by eventually bringing security and prosperity to Iceland, where before there had been none, and by positively utilising Iceland in the war against Germany. The conclusions of this dissertation are fascinating; they show that it is possible to cultivate rich reward from an operation that could have been destined for complete disaster."

"The Pacific War is an umbrella term that refers collectively to a disparate set of wars, however, this book presents a strong case for considering this assemblage of conflicts as a collective, singular war. It highlights the genuine thematic commonalities in the legacies of war that cohere across the Asia-Pacific and shows how the wars, both individually and collectively, wrought dramatic change to the geo-political makeup of the region.

This book discusses the cultural, political and social implications of the Pacific War and engages with debates over the war’s impact, legacies, and continuing cultural resonances. Crucially, it examines the meanings and significance of the Second World War from a truly international perspective and the contributors present fascinating case studies that highlight the myriad of localised idiosyncrasies in how the Pacific War has been remembered and deployed in political contexts. The chapters trace the shared legacy that the individual wars had on demographics, culture and mobility across the Asia Pacific, and demonstrate how in the aftermath of the war political borders were transformed and new nation states emerged. The book also considers racial and sexual tensions which accompanied the arrival of both Allied and Axis personnel and their long lasting consequences, as well as the impact returning veterans and the war crime trials that followed the conflict had on societies in the region. In doing so, it succeeds in illuminating the events and issues that unfolded in the weeks, months, and indeed decades after the war.

This interdisciplinary volume examines the aftermaths and legacies of war for individuals, communities, and institutions across South, Southeast, and East Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific world. As such, it will be welcomed by students and scholars of Asian history, modern history and cultural history, as well as by those interested in issues of memory and commemoration."

This paper analyzes the involvement of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Nazi genocide during World War II in Ukraine. The issue of the political rehabilitation of these organizations became one of the central political issues in this post-Soviet state. The research question is whether leaders and members of the Bandera faction of the OUN (OUN-B) and the UPA were involved in the Nazi-led genocide. This article devotes particular attention to Volhynia where the UPA was established by the OUN-B in 1943. The study analyzes the biographies of 329 OUN-B and UPA leaders and documents concerning the OUN-B and the UPA, local police, and Nazi mass executions of Jews, Ukrainians, and Poles from the State Archive of the Volyn Region, the State Archive of the Rivne Region, the Archive of the State Security Service of Ukraine in the Volyn Region, the Archive of the State Security Service of Ukraine, the National Archives in the US, and other archives. This paper shows that large proportions of leaders and members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army served in various police and militia formations, collaborated with security and intelligence agencies of Nazi Germany, and took part in the Nazi genocide, primarily in assisting roles during mass executions of Jews in the first two years of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

"Few navies have been immune from mutiny in the twentieth century, but the question of how and why naval discipline sometimes breaks down has received little scholarly attention. This book brings together a set of readable and up-to-date essays examining mutinies in the navies of Russia (the Potemkin mutiny, 1905), Brazil (1910), Austria-Hungary (1918), Germany (1918), France (1919), Australia (1919), Chile (1931), Great Britain (the Invergordon mutiny, 1931), the United States (the Port Chicago mutiny, 1944), India (1946), China (1949), and Canada (1949).

The nature of these incidents varied widely, but all represented a deliberate assault on naval or political authority. The objectives of the mutineers ranged from limited reforms of a purely naval nature to overtly political goals and, in rare cases, to outright revolution. The first twelve chapters in this book address the causes of a particular mutiny, its long-and short-term repercussions, and the course of the mutiny itself. Taking advantage of new research and new methodologies, the contributors provide something of value to both the specialist and non-specialist reader.

The volume concludes with an essay by the editors shedding important new light on the dynamics at work in the outbreak, development, and resolution of modern naval mutinies. It shows that mutinies in democratic, western states usually differed fundamentally from those in authoritarian regimes or less-developed societies. In the former, incidents were usually short-lived and non-violent. They tended to spread easily from ship to ship, but the mutineers' demands remained moderate and limited. In the latter, mutinies were less frequent, but were more often characterized by violence, escalating demands, and revolutionary intent.

Looking forward, the authors' conclude that the days when sailors might rebel against their immediate superiors to seize control of a warship are probably long gone. But as long as western states rely on broad and imprecise definitions, incidents will continue to occur that meet all of the legal criteria for mutiny, even if there is a reluctance to use the term. The potential for major naval mutinies probably remains, however, in non-democratic states like China and throughout the underdeveloped world."

This paper examines the ways in which British failures in the early stages of the Second World War raised doubts about the ability of the Royal Navy to protect the North Atlantic. It argues that these concerns led Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King and President Franklin D Roosevelt to radically alter North American defence strategies, particularly in the Arctic, which significantly affected the governance of the region and the management of its resources during and after the war.

"Doris Lessing’s novels reveal the way in which war affects humanity by capturing the traumatic state of the author herself and also of the characters in her works. As a result of the two world wars, in the twentieth century, trauma emerges as a paradigmatic discourse for defining its catastrophic, disastrous and injurious aftermaths. In the novels Martha Quest and A Proper Marriage, the author shows  how the war is an extremely traumatic experience for those who are direct witness to its violence and how it wreaks havoc on the entire generation. In A Proper Marriage, there is no particular mention of any catastrophic effects of war. The novel vividly portrays the anxiety which people suffer before a war. The catastrophe of the World War-I aggravates the impact of the forth coming World War-II. Hasty marriages and pregnancies are manipulated as the ways to escape the trauma of the impending war. Such discourse of trauma of wars, with its vivid catastrophic and disastrous effects on the people, narrated in the Martha Quest and A Proper Marriage, forms the topics of investigation and discussion in the present paper. The paper also explores and discusses how scientific war accelerated the destruction of the youth without coming to their aid. Attempt has also been made to shed light upon various techniques of escapism used by the characters to survive in the chaotic world.

Keywords: Doris Lessing’s Novels, Paradigmatic Discourse, Stress Disorder,  Martha Quest,
                  Trauma of war, escapism
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