Figure 1.--After 8 months of the Phony War, the storm finally broke in the West. Even as the Panzers crossed the Meuse abd began the race to the Channel, larger numbers of Anericans continued to believe that the United States should not get involved. Here a boy rides his tricycle in a Detroit Mother's Day anti-War march (May 16, 1940). The press caption read, "Geirge Litwin, four year old son of Mr. amd Mrs. Theodore Litwin, 525 Thriwbridge Avenue, riding his trycycle down Woodward Avenue, carrying his sign, 'I don't want to be a war orphan' during the Mother's Day Peace Prade staged by religious and labor organizations."

Americans watched as the NAZIs in vaded Denmark and Norway (April 1940). Then the storm broke in the West. The Germans launched their long awaited Western offensive (May 10). They quickly defeated the Dutch and then struck in the Ardennes. They crossed the Meuse (May 12). And then begun the drive to the Channel. Even during the battle for France, the isolationists still fought to prevent any American involvement in Europe. What is very clear to us today, was not to large numbers of Americans who refused to see the danger of Hitler and the NAZIs. By mid-May it was becoming increasingly clear that France was unable to hold back the Germans as they had done in World War I, By the end of the month with the Panzers closing in on the BEF, it looked like Britain might be lost as well. The French Arny and the British Fleet had been a bulwark protecting American in connection with the American fleet. Now the French Army was desintegrating. There was the further danger that if France and Britain capitulated that the Germans could gain access to their fleets including British carriers--fleets which combined with the German surface and U-boat force would exceed the strength of the American fleet which also faced the Japanese in the Pacific. Here Churchill made it clear that if Britain fell, the British fleet may well fall into German hands. [Lash, p. 149.] The American army at the time consisted of a mere 80,000 trained but not well equipped men. American planners estimated that it would take the Germans about 6 months to seize and man the captured fleets. [Freidel, pp. 333-334.]

Sources

Freidel, Frank. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Rendezuous with Destiny (Little Brown: Boston, 1990), 710p.

Lash, Joseph P. Roosevelt and Churchill, 1939-1941 (1976).

Created: 2:53 AM 1/20/2006
Last updated: 2:53 AM 1/20/2006