declaring war on people...

[timmy872]

britain went to war with Germany over invading poland. what actions were taken against Russia 2 weeks later?

the US did nothing till they were attacked at pearl harbour then declared war on Japan. never declare war on Germany.

Germany declares war on the US, though not needing to fight her at all.

japan never declares war on Germanys enemies, (which i have heard possibly cost Germany dear at gates of moscow).

i know a declaration of war is only talk and its always better to drop a bloke from behind when he aint looking but what went in to those actions? anyone know?

regards

[phylo_roadking]

Timmy, if you search, you'll find THIS has been discussed a number of time on the Forum...

britain went to war with Germany over invading poland. what actions were taken against Russia 2 weeks later?

Britain and France declared war on Germany - because both of them had entered treaty obligations with Poland guaranteeing to protect them from German agression and agressive moves on her WESTERN frontier. The treaties didn't mention anything about Russia and Poland's Eastern frontier.

The British and French DID discuss how to take the war to Russia...by aiding Finland When the whole aspect of a campign in Norway was first discussed - it was in the context of putting a land army into Scandanavia first to sieze Narvik and stop Swedish iron ore getting to germany via, Norway - THEN move on into SWEDEN to occupy the Gallivare iron ore fields - and THEN move on into Finland. Thus making their intention to invade TWO NEUTRAL COUNTRIES (as of 1939) publically acceptable by coming to the aid of poor lil Finland against the Soviets

Unfortunately - by the time they actually got to some decision to actually DO something - Finland was out of the fight against Russia, thus loosing them this element of the operation.

i know a declaration of war is only talk

Actually - it's not. Anything but. You'll need to do some resaearch on the "Hague Conventions" and the "Hague Rules on Land Warfare", often referenced in documents/books as "HRLW" - but a Declaration of War put a LOT of obligations on both sides as to how to behave, or how they could expect to be treated if those obligations weren't kept.

[phylo_roadking]

A Declaration of War doesn't have to be made by BOTH sides, but just by one; doing so automatically puts both nations at war - whether the other side wants to be or not LOL

The US didn't want generally to be involved in a EUROPEAN war when it started in 1939. FDR introduced the Draft, put the US economy on a war footing, the War Department began to reequip and expand from the 75,000 regular soldiers it had, for instance - SMALLER than what the Treaty of Versailles had left the Germans after WWI ! - but poular sentiment was finely divided between support for beleagured little Britain and staying out of the war. He also in various ways began to relax various legal provisions over arms exports and the US began selling a lot of war materiel to the UK. A number of military changes were actually made - the US extended its national limits at sea, and then right out across the Atlantic to meet the operational range of the Royal Navy and Coastal Command to help protect convoys from the US from German U-Boats - but without getting into the war legally, just protecting her rights and the lives of her citizens as Neutrals But there was still considerable opposition in the population and in Congress to the US actually getting involved in Europe.

Of course, Germany didn't NEED to declare war on the US...and certainly, for many years wouldn't physically be able to REACH her - but did so to show solidarity with the Empire of Japan...AND it also "allowed" German U-Boats to operate legally in US coastal waters and against US shipping carrying war materiel to Britain under the Hague Conventions.

[phylo_roadking]

japan never declares war on Germanys enemies, (which i have heard possibly cost Germany dear at gates of moscow).

There is also the strange wrinkle that throughout the war - even after Pearl Harbour - American Lend Lease aid to the USSR arriving in the Far Eastern Russian port of Vladivostock...reached it VIA JAPANESE WATERS! Carried in ships flying the Russian flag, the ships loading in West Coast ports in the US sailed through Japanese territory to Russia. Although the Empire of Japan was at war with the USA, it wasn't with the USSR, and so THAT particualr trade route was actually to a nation that was Neutral with respect to Japan!