$1,000,000,000,000

... a while back, I found a copy of the first "complete history" of World War II... it was in an antique shop in Charleston, Tennessee.... I knew when I first laid eyes on it that it would add perfectly to my military history bookshelf... an original.. published in 1947... the first few pages had areas for attaching photos of veterans and describing their service.. in other words, this was a history book made for the families and veterans to show their impact on the History of the World... a novel idea, indeed....

... anyway, as I began reading it, I was mesmerized by the two page "foreword"... and to this day, the numbers still strike me as incredible... shocking to the extreme... and since tomorrow is Independence Day, I feel like sharing it with you people...

Historian's Foreword

This is the first History of World War II to present a complete panorama of the greatest struggle in human history, with authentic text, official photographs, maps, records, and documents in a single volume.

Its service is to give homes, schools, and libraries a standard work in which the reader may obtain a comprehensive understanding of the epoch-making events through which we have passed. Here we witness the organization of the greatest armies, navies, and air forces the world has ever known - the gigantic battles on land, sea, and in the air - the might of industrial power and production.

We have lived through the most stupendous struggle in the 7,000 years of recorded history. The destiny of 70 nations and 2,000,000,000 people has been at stake. The homelands of more than three quarters of the population of the earth have felt the iron heel of war. More than 100,000,000, one out of every twenty human beings on the globe, have been engaged in the fighting forces of belligerent nations.

The records of World War II, as set out in this volume, challenge the imagination. The official lists of numbers killed and wounded are a tragic commentary on civilization: more than 20,000,000 casualties; 30,000,000 more men, women, and children driven from their homes; 10,000,000 more massacred; hundreds of thousands of homes left in ruins.

The cost of this "War for Survival", with its destruction, devastation, and economic losses, is estimated at the sum of $1,000,000,000,000. The great wealth of the world, with its resources, industrial power, and man power, has been concentrated on destruction. Nations have accumulated and indebtedness which far exceeds all the money in the world. The responsibility for meeting this obligation is placed upon future generations to carry the burden.

This is the price we have paid for human freedom. The amount of money consumed in this war is sufficient to build a home for every family in the world, or to give an education to every child on earth. It is far greater than all the moneys every expended for schools, churches, and hospitals since the beginning of the human race.

We have, therefore, endeavored to make this History of World War II a human history, treating men and events as they directly affect our own lives. The causes which created this human tragedy are herein analyzed, with sketches of the leading personalities and backgrounds of the nations involved.

Military events are clearly visualized from the outbreak of the war to its final battles. Our purpose has been to present these with such clarity that you may follow your own "boys" through to the final victory and re-live the experiences through which they passed.

This service has been accomplished through the organization of a staff of experts, specialists, and analysts under the direction of a historian-general. (This list of staff authorities and writers is given on pages iii and iv, and in the section, "Authorities and Official Sources; on pages 939-941). Divisional chiefs are "on duty" at desks over which more than 60,000 words from the battlefronts passed every day.

Official communiqués from all parts of the world were analyzed each day, with reports and proclamations issued by all Governments. As each even was officially confirmed, it was transcribed into historical narrative for this book and coordinated by the historian-general.

Throughout the war, conferences were held with official sources, military authorities, and communications with diplomats and statesmen, and supplemented by the information organizations representing thirty nations.

While it was the first great "War in the Air" coordinated with land and sea forces, it may also be called the "War of the Scientists," in which invention, discovery, mechanical genius, and mass production take a foremost part. Through this new age of radio, with the elimination of time and space the whole world was in instant communication. Through cinematography and radio photography, the scenes of action were brought immediately into our homes. The war passed before our eyes on motion picture screens and was preserved on films to pass before the eyes of generations to come.

Another war on this gigantic scale, with further developments of instruments for destruction by scientific genius, would place the human race in danger of self-annihilation. Therefore, a clear understanding of World War II is essential for our own self-preservation. The time has come, if we are to survive as peoples and nations, when some cooperative plan must be agreed upon whereby wars can be stopped at their point of inception - some plan whereby we can all live together in peace and security.

This History of World War II is dedicated to that great forward step in human progress. It stands also as a memorial to those who fought and died for this achievement. The colossal magnitude of this war may be visualized when we state that the armies and navies engaged in World War II would forma a marching line of men in combat reaching four times around the earth in continuous procession.

May it never happen again.

Francis Trevelyan Miller

... absolutely incredible....