About Me
Since 1930, there had been signs of another world war, the Germans were building up their military as the Treaty of Versallies was put aside. The Japanese were building up for power and attacked manchuria and China. Also, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party was rising to power.
During that time, the U.S. had no intentions of getting into another war, while Great Britain was just as relaxed. When the Germans attacked Poland and France in 1939, The British declared war on Germany and thus, started WWII.
Although America wasn't in the war until late 1941, there were signs for Pearl Harbor even.
After a quick Blitzkreig attack, also know as lightning attack, Poland and France soon fell to number superiority and technological superiority, Britain was quickly on her own in 1940. In the Battle of france, the french Air Force, was knocked out of the sky in their outdated aircraft, while the British were struggling to hold France. It was inevitable, France was to fall.
After what Churchill said,
"Now that the Battle of France is over, the Battle of Britain is about to Begin."---Britain's R.A.F. (Royal Air Force), managed to scrape together 650 fighter aircraft, while the Germans had 2,250 aircraft ready to bomb Britain.Just before the French and British troops were about to be captured and Dunkirk, several transports evacuated them, but useful equipment in the thousands were still left on the beaches. meaning Britain was at her last stand, Either fight and survive, or lose everthing. As Fighter command was trying to find more pilots, some american pilots volunteered to go to Britain and fight for them. They joined in a squadron called, Eagle Squadron. Also, fighter command had Polish,New Zealand,Autralian,Scotish,Czech,Irish,American,Canadian, and British pilots. Once the Germans began attacking British Airfields, they were losing pilots, even though they did have radar, most of the positions were tooken out in the first initial raids. The R.A.F. struggled to get up in 2 minutes, before the Germans attacked their airfields. They tried different tactics, attcking in small wings or big air wings. One night, a German He-111 (Heinkel), was off course, it was over London, it dropped its payload and headed home. The British decided to bomb Berlin back, with Night-bombers, such as the Halifax, the Lancaster mk.III, and the Mosquito, accidently the world's first stealth, because of a wooden airframe. They caused minor damage to berlin,but Hitler was infuriated, and he ordered the Luftwaffe to flatten London. Although, London was only far enough for the fighter escort to be there for five minutes. Dowding said,"Attacking london may had been the German's biggest blunder." So they would get up and get in large fighter formations and attack the He-111's,the Do-17's, and the Ju-88's. The Polish in fact hted the German's so much, that the german pilots that bailed out, would be fired at by the Polish pilots, and they would fly right over them to make their chutes fold, and fall to hteir deaths. The Briish had the Hurricane mk.I,the Spitfire mk.I, and the Spitfire mk.V. The Hurricanes would attack the bombers while the Spitfires would take on the bf-109's and BF-110's. The BF-109 could out climb, out dive, and had better guns, two 12 mm's and two 20 mm's, the Spitfire could outturn the BF-109, but the German aircraft had direct fuel port injections, meaning they could take on negative g's, although the British couldn't, the fuel would soon be starved of fuel. Soon, the German pilots and crew were exhausted, and had high casualities. After 20,000 British civilians were killed, and over three hundred pilots, The Battle of Britain was over, partially due to Hermann Goering changing tactics consistently, and the British will to hold on.---------------------In Early 1941, the Germans and Italians started to go into Africa for the oil fields there. The British diverted their attention to North africa, and setup their divisons there. Soon, The British were fighting in unknown desert warefare. Once the Italains started to get beaten, Hitler sent Rommel and his Afrika Corps to assist. Rommel, also known as the "Desert Fox," had been one of Hitler's favorite Generals, Rommel had fought in World War I, and now WWII.------------------------In the Pacific, the Japanese were going to push foward everywhere where they had controlled land.--- After the Japanese Army took control of the Government in 1938. The Imperial Navy was forced to devise a plan to attack the U.S., Admiral Yamamoto, one of Japan's smartest admirals, designed a plan to attack Pearl Harbor. Yamamoto was first a gunnery Sergant in the Russo-Japanese Naval War in 1908. He was wounded several times.Unlike other Japanese generals and Admirals, Yamamoto looked out from their country, not in to their country. Yamamoto knew that the only way Japan could win a war against the U.S. industrial giant, was to knock out their Pacific fleet in one, decisive blow. There were several problems to attack Pearl Harbor though, first, they sub nets, to stop subs from slipping in, second that the Harbor is too shallow for torpedoes, usually they need at least 60 ft. to arm, but the Harbor was only 40 ft. deep. To counter their problem the Japanese, the leader in torpedo technology, put wooden fins on the torpedo, and put them at an angle. Third, the base was too well defended for an aerial attack. Admiral Kimmel's analysts thought the only thing to worry about is sabatoge, Kimmel replied,
"A smart enemy hits you exactly where you think you're safe."----------------------After the U.S. cut off oil production to Japan, they decided to attack, the date for the attack was December 8,1941 (That would be December 7 in the U.S.). Admiral Nagumo was put in charge of the carrier group, which included 6 carriers, 4 battleships, several heavy cruisers and destroyers. Thanks to Yamamoto, the Japapese air arm was strong, and well trained, and well disciplined, after Yamamoto took command of the Japanese Air Arm of the Navy, he saw the aircraft as the future of warefare.--------------------The AVG (American Volunteer Group) was created to help the Chinese Air Force unoffically. The Chinese were being blown out of the sky. Soon, the AVG became known as the Flying Tigers, created by Chennault.---------------------------Once the attack on Pearl Harbor began, it was early on a sunday when everyone was resting and unprepared, they struck, taking out several bases including Hickim airfield, and since they bunched the planes together to make them easier to protect, but they were sitting ducks. Soon, they were a burning inferno. In Battleship Row, a dive bomber over head, dropped a bomb, it Landed under main gun turret 3, an unarmored spot. It went down to the magazine chamber, causing the bow of the ship to seperate in the explosion, and then sank. The Japanese midget subs, five of them, were dispatched before the attack. We actually fired the first shot, a midget sub was spotted, then they fired and sunk it after two shots. When Admiral Nagumo withdrew the third wave, which was supposed to take out the fuel facilities, they quickly headed back to Japan. The Japanese had failed, their targets were the carriers, not the ships anchored there. Nagumo was quickly removed from command when they got back to Japan. Then, Yamamoto said this,"I'm afriad all we've done is awaken a sleeping giant." --------This attack outraged U.S. citizens, and President Roosevelt declared war on the axis powers. President Roosevelt wanted to strike back at the Japanese, so he had his strategists try to design a plan. Then, came foward was a Sub Commander, on his way to his port, he saw Army Bombers flying, he though that in stripped down twin engined bombers, they could attack mainland Japan. So the plan was choosen. Colonel Jimmy DooLittle was picked to lead the raid. He had been the fist person on earth to do an outside loop, to sink a Battleship, and to be the first to land on just instruments on his control panel, and many other feats. The bomber choosen to use, was the B-25J Mitchell. -He picked 79 men to be in his raid, all they were told was that they were going to do something extremely dangerous. After 3 months of training, they left San Diego on the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier. On the carrier, one of his men asked him what he was going to do with the peace medals the japanese gave him. He said, "I'm going to wire them to the bombs and give them back." Once they got within 450 miles of Japan, they would launch, but a Japanese picket ship spotted the force, and sent a transmit. They were 750 miles away, so they launched, even though the signal was ignored. After they hit their targets, they went into China, one B-25 landed in Russia, the other on the China coast, and several crash landed, Doolittle was the only one to land safely. Soon, the U.S. was in North Africa, and the Pacific. Now the war was in full swing.------------------------------------------------------
----------------- In 1942, the Battle that would change the tide of World War II was to take place, at Stalingrad. It was a personal fight between Stalin and Hitler. Stalin's famous order was made, "Not One Step Back!" After 2 and a half months of fighting the Germans were surrounded and surrendered from lack of food and clothing. During this time some of the world's best sniper's came to become famous. One of them was Vassili Zaitsev. Who by the end of the war had 242 confirmed kills. Some people think he killed as many 400. Russia's top female sniper was Lyudmila Pavlichenko, with 309 kills. Russia had stoppd the Germans from reaching the vast oil fields of the Caucaus. The tide of Battle had changed.---------------In North Africa, the British 8th Infantry Division, also known as the "Desert Rats," were in Tunisia, when the American 1st Infantry Division, also known as the "Big Red One," for their distinctive red patch they had during WWI from the German Soldiers uniform. Slowly, the german Afrika Corps and the Italian divisions were pushed back in a port in Nothern Tunisia.-------------------------------After the push into Tunisia, the British and American forces needed to resupply and rest. During that time, the Germans and Italians were preparing their defenses. Next, Operation Torch, the landing on Sicily, was to take place. The Allies needed airfields for aircraft. The Allies decided to land at Gela. Soon the Americans had landed at Gela and were rapidly moving. ------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------The Americans were preparing to land in Italy. The Germans and Italians set up several defense lines across Italy. It was going to be a bloody fight. After around half a year, the Americans and British had knocked Italy out of the war.-----------------------------------------------------In July 1943, the Germans and Russians fought at Kursk to hold the Germans back from Moscow. At first the Russians were forced back, but Russia made a huge counter-offensive and along with a record of the largest tank battle to date and the most aerial losses in one day to date. It was the greatest examples in a battle of misguidance. The Germans thought little of the Red Army, but Russia had intelligence on the the Germans attack and made elaborate defenses. While the Germans got bogged down in the defenses, the Russians made a counter-offensive with 4 lines of axis moving to attack the Germans. --------------------------------------------------- Now, in 1943, the British and Americans were building up a large force to infiltrate fortress Europe, and to conduct amphibious landings on Omaha,Utah,Golden, and Juno. On June 8, the first wave landed on Omaha. The first wave was ripped apart from machine gunners. Behind the beaches, the 101st had parachuted behind enemy lines, confusuing the Germans. In the end, the allies had lost nearly 6,000 men in Operation Overlord.---------------------------------------------------
----------------------------- As the British and Americans swiftly retook France and knocked the Germans on their back, Montgomery had devised a daring plan codenamed-Market Garden. It called to drop thousands of paratroppers dropped in Holland, and capture several bridges for Montgomery's 2nd Armored Division, and cross into the Ruhr and capture Berlin and end the war by Christmas of 1944. Quickly after the first six hours of Market Garden, the plan was going bad, troops were scattered all over Holland and the Arnhem area. In the end, 14,000 allied men had lost their lives.---------------------- Soon, in late 1945, the U.S. and Britain pushed into the Fatherland(what the Germans called their country). ----------------------------Many of the Unsung heroes of World War II were the women that stayed behind while their brothers and husbands and fathers went off to war. For 5 years, women lost fingers got seriously injured, while working in the factories while the men were at war. Without them, we wouldn't been able to fight back.---------------------------By the end of April, Allied forces took over Germany, Hitler had comitted suicide, and World War II came to a close.---------- The war was with great losses-
27 mllion Russians KIA,MIA
21 million Chinese KIA,MIA
Some 16 millions Germans KIA,MIA
Some 15 milllion Japanese KIA,MIA
8 million British KIA,MIA
Some 6 million French KIA,MIA
560,000 Americans KIA,MIA
Millions of peoples from different countries all over the world.---------------------------------------------World War II was the war which no other war's death tolls came near to how costly the Second World War was.-------------------------"The losses were were heavy, but all ranks would willingly undertake another operation under the similiar conditions... We have no regrets."- Major General Robert Urquhart.
