Christmas of 1938 best reflected the losses suffered by countries around the world during the war.
Strictly speaking, Christmas, as one of the most important holidays in the West, was equivalent to the Spring Festival in the East.
During such an important holiday, Western countries should have been filled with laughter and merriment, with the people enjoying sumptuous food and celebrating together as they welcomed this beautiful festival.
But now, in most regions of the countries involved in the war, the laughter and merriment of the past had long since vanished.
Even the foods Europeans had grown accustomed to had become rare sights on the dining tables of civilians in the belligerent countries.
The situation was somewhat better in Britain and France. Although their losses were not insignificant, they had supplies from their colonies. Coupled with Australasia's continuous exports of grain and meat, their people's living supplies, though strained, had not yet reached the point of being driven to the brink.
But apart from Britain and France, the situation in the rest of Europe was no longer quite so bright and beautiful.
There was naturally no need to say much about countries like Italy and Spain, which had only just surrendered. After their unconditional surrender, a considerable portion of the supplies produced by Italy and Spain was transported by the Anglo-French-Australasian forces to the battlefields. This caused a sharp reduction in the supplies available to Italian and Spanish civilians, forcing them to implement a rationing system.
The Spanish and Italians had no choice, however. As defeated nations, the future fate of their entire countries lay in the hands of the victors.
Still, Spain and Italy were not the countries suffering the most in the war. The truly tragic countries were those regions occupied by Germany.
After Spain and Italy surrendered