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Old Friday, September 11, 2020
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Default Precis 1972. Please evaluate my attempt

EXAMINATION 1972
Up to a point the Second German War resembled the first. Each began with a German bid for power which almost succeeded in spite of the opposition of France and Great Britain. In each the United States came to the rescue after year of neutrality. Each ended with a German defeat. But the differences were easier to see than the resemblances. The powers were differently grouped: Italy and Japan were on the German side, Russia was neutral until the Germans attacked across what had been, to begin with, Poland and Baltic States. The second war lasted even longer than the other. It pressed harder on the civilian population. After a period of restraint, perhaps, intended to conciliate American opinion, both sides dropped bombs from the air, without respect for the nature of the targets, wherever the officers concerned expected to cause the greatest effect. In Great Britain 60,000 civilians were killed. Though the Island was not invaded, the population was more directly involved than it was in any former war. Children and others were evacuated from towns into the country. Food supplies ran so short that, at the worst, even potatoes were rationed. Of all the states opposed to Germany, Great Britain was the only one which fought throughout the war. The resources of the nation were concentrated in the war effort more completely than those of any other nation on either side. Labour for women as well as men, became compulsory. Nevertheless, once the war reached its full severity in the west, eight months after it was declared, there was less disunion between classes and interests than in any other five years within living memory. Fighting spread all over the world. The Pacific was as vital a theatre as Europe. Scientists, especially Physicists, made revolutionary discoveries during the war, not only in the fields of weapons and defence against them, but in supply, transport, and control in action. Strange to say the fight services suffered fewer casualties than in 1914-18: 300,000 of the armed forces and 35,000 of the navy were killed. There was nothing like the trench warfare of former war, though there was almost every other sort of warfare, from mechanized war of movement in the North African desert to hand to hand jungle fighting in Burma. Both sides experimented and built up stocks for gas warfare and biological warfare, but neither side used them. (George Clark: English History: a survey)
Title: Comparing WW-II with WW-I
Both the World Wars were similar in a way that both were started by Germany, against same opponents and both culminated in Germany’s defeat. However, differences are more striking than similarities. First, power dynamics were different in both the wars. Secondly, the second war was longer in duration and more destructive especially for civilian population than the first war. Although, Britain was not invaded directly in the war, it fought Germany till the end. Therefore, war costed Britain more civilian lives and economic resources. Nonetheless, when war reached its zenith and spread all across Europe and Pacific, class and interest differences vanished. War channelized efforts of scientist not only towards the domain of war but also in communication infrastructure. Strangely, servicemen suffered fewer casualties because war tactics used were different in second war and the use of sophisticated weapons was absent.
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