Milestones

  

Churchill pulled the best of the 8th Army from North Africa

to defend the Greeks from Hitler.  The summoned

British force proved to be an expensive gesture that

was easily swept aside.  The Germans captured

seven thousand Brits.  The remainder of Churchill's

force fled to Crete.

The thirty thousand British troops were just getting 

acquainted with their new surroundings when a sky

filled with German paratroopers assaulted them on 

the island of Crete.   Having recently abandoned their

tanks back in Greece, Britain once again ceded the

battlefield to Germany.  Twelve thousand of 

Churchill's men became POW's.  The rest sailed

through submarine infested waters in order to 

reach the Egyptian port of Alexandria.

For Churchill the news of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor

undoubtedly sounded to him like the bugle call signaling

Uncle Sam was on his way.  Too bad Roosevelt would be 

chasing after the Japanese.  Germany was the real threat.

Four days following Pearl Harbor, Hitler solved Roosevelt's

dilemma and declared war on the U.S.  

Washington quickly embraced the European war

as the nation's first priority.

Shocking word came from the tip of the Malay peninsula

where the British island fortress there had surrendered.

With its imposing 15 inch guns pointed out to sea, this

symbol of Britain's rule was considered impregnable.

London's colonial army of 80,000 surrendered to a modest

Japanese force of 30,000.  Turns out English troops were

no match for men trained in jungle fighting.  

Singapore's defenders assumed the threat 

would come by sea and chose to ignore the

possibility of an invasion over land.

 

Japan called the shots in the Pacific until Midway.

The US Navy took advantage of breaking Japan's

military code to ambush Tokyo's national pride -

their world class carrier fleet.  All four Japanese

carriers sank into the ocean's depth while

the Yorktown was America's only loss.

With Japan's defeat, Churchill no longer saw Tokyo

as a serious threat to his Commonwealth members  

of India and Australia.

The loss of Tobruk was too much.

So here we were.  The 8th Army, with its

back to the wall, fighting for all the marbles

near this small railway depot isolated in the

Sahara desert.

A no confidence vote against Churchill was the 

talk among members of the House of Commons.

All this erupted as the Prime Minister plotted

global strategy with his most important ally,

President Roosevelt.

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

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