The German Question, Part One Hundred Forty-Six

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/C
"Germany In World War Two" Part Two/F/3
"Germany Versus the Soviet Union" Part Three
"The German Tide Ebbs"

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (then a U.S. territory, not a state). President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress agreed to a declaration of war on Japan. Roosevelt had been trying to help Britain as much as possible, without getting the U.S. directly involved in the war, by sending material aid to the British. Before Pearl Harbor, the American public was split over possible American involvement in the war. Hitler solved the issue of American participation in the war against Germany by declaring war on the United States on December 11 at a session of the Reichstag. Always the racist, Hitler didn't seem to realize that he was bringing a formidable foe into the war against him. Various statements indicated he believed Americans could not fight well, because they were such a mixture of ethnic and racial groups. Such nonsense helped to hasten his demise. Mussolini followed suit with a declaration of war by Italy on the United States. It wasn't long before heavily armed convoys were transporting American troops and war equipment to Britain.

In North Africa, Rommel's German and Italian forces faced a new British commander, Bernard Montgomery, and "Monty" launched a major offensive against Rommel in late October 1942, in what became the last part of the El Alamein battle. After terrible losses of men and equipment, and in spite of Hitler's order to hold his positions, Rommel ordered a retreat. Thousands of Axis prisoners were taken by the Allies. Meanwhile, the Americans and British forces landed troops in the French North African colonies of French Morocco and Algeria, which were behind Rommel's retreating army. Hitler and Mussolini rushed troops to Tunisia, another French colony sandwiched between Rommel's retreating forces in Libya and the Allied forces which had just landed. French resistance to the landings was relatively light, and the struggle then centered on Tunisia. While Rommel inflicted a punishing defeat on the Americans at a place called "Kasserine Pass" in February 1943, the German and Italian forces surrendered in May 1943. This now left Italy vulnerable to attack.

In the Soviet Union, Hitler's stalled capture of Stalingrad gave the Soviets time to gather fresh troops north and south of the city. In mid November 1942 they struck, breaking through primarily overwhelmed Rumanian lines and trapping a large German, and a smaller Rumanian force, in and around Stalingrad. By early February 1943, the remaining encircled forces surrendered to the Soviets. During the overall Soviet operations that winter, the whole southern sector of the Axis front was pummeled, and a Hungarian army and an Italian army, besides two Rumanian armies and a German army were essentially destroyed. The Germans did not stabilize the front until February/March 1943, but they had lost virtually all of their gains from the previous summer. Although there would still be much intense fighting, Hitler's days were numbered.

WORD HISTORY:
Ebb-This word, closely related to "off," goes back to Indo European "apo," which meant "off, away (from)." This gave Old Germanic "ab," with the same meaning, and from that Old Germanic developed "abjon," with the meaning "tide flowing away, tide flowing 'off' from shore;" thus, "low tide." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ebba," which later dropped the ending "a." The figurative use to mean "decline of someone or something" was already in use in the 1300s. There are various forms present in the other Germanic languages: German has "Ebbe," Low German Saxon has "Ebben," West Frisian has "ebbe," Dutch "eb," Icelandic has "ebbið" (=ebbith), Swedish has "ebb," Norwegian has "ebbe" and Danish has "ebbe." Some of the Germanic languages still retain a verb form, English being one of those, and in Old English it was "ebbian." Dutch has "ebben."