InNo+shynricpx2013+02.28.2011

=__ Global War __= =__ The Second War (1939-1945) __= Ric Tang- 3B =~God Bless Those Men Who Preserved Our Freedom~=

= Awesome Stuff: = This is a bar graph I made, showing the mighty economic gap between USA and Japan, making the United States the dominant country in terms of producing weapons of war.



Here is a car-toon-doo i made, showing how Great Britain's Royal Air Force's Area Bombing was the only way that could hurt really hurt Germany at the start of the war. Even in the end, the effect of area bombing had broke a lot of German's will to fight.

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Found: Franklin Delano Roosevelt "A DATE THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY" This was the speech the American President gave after Pearl Harbor. Japan had awaken a sleeping giant; an entire industrial nation producing tools of war now seeks revenge on the Empire of the Rising Sun.

media type="youtube" key="2ESA7SnvW9E" height="390" width="480" Another video I found- a fun way of learning how the Americans were able to storm the beaches of Normandy, Omaha Beach, etc, and eventually overwhelm the German defense forces. A Lego Re-enactment: despite constant fires from machine guns and artilleries, the Americans prevailed.

= Notes: =

· ** War in Europe: ** o Britain can only hurt Germany by bombing them form the air. o Germany can only hurt Britain by air raids too. o From 1940-42, British and German military bombed each other’s factories, ports, and railways. o These were called “**precision**” bombings. o These were ineffective, factories were rebuilt, and railways and ports were repaired… o The British Royal Air Force started a new military tactic called “**area**” bombing; introduced by Air Chief Marshal Arthur o These bombings was to flatten everything in a target area, civilian homes and military factories alike. o The aim was to destroy the enemies’ will to fight. o May 1942, “Thousand Bomber Raid”, first of its kind, aimed on German city of Cologne- it was set on fire, 250 factories destroyed with 45,000 people made homeless. o Area bombings were the only way British military could make on German-occupied Europe. o **Dieppe Raid**- August 1942- a land invasion- A British force tried to seize a French point. They captured none of the German strongpoint there, in all, 4384 were killed, 34 ships sunk, 24 tanks and 106 aircraft were destroyed. Only 600 Germans had died. · ** The War in Africa: ** o Axis power led by General Rommel drove the British Eighth Army out of Libya, back to El Alamein in July. o Rommel’s army used up all its supplies during their attacks. Without fuel, food, and ammunition, they pursue no further. o British forces re-organized under a new commander, General Montgomery, with the help of another Allied invasion of French North Africa (**Operation Torch**) was organized to attack Rommel’s army from behind. o General Montgomery spent the summer of 1942 preparing the Eighth army; by October he had 230,000 men against Rommel’s 80,000 soldiers, with 1440 tanks against 540 German tanks. o Battle of El Alamein, British forces overwhelmed German forces, taking 30,000 prisoners chasing the rest back into middle of Libya. · ** The War in the Soviet Union: ** o In 1942, both the Germans and Soviets planned preeminent attacks on each other. o The Soviet Red Army attacks first, aiming to re-capture Karkov, Leningrad, and Sevastopol. o All 3 attacks failed, 250,000 Soviets were taken prisoners. o Germans were now focusing to capture Russia’s Caucasus- rich in oil fields. o **Stalingrad** was a major city and communications centre on River Volga, so Hitler sent half the German forces to capture it. o This was a catastrophic decision- The city is too huge to be surrounded, only way was to assault the city directly. o Next three months, both sides fought desperately for Stalingrad. o The Soviets eventually broke though German lines, trapping 278,000 Germans inside the city. o This was the first time the USSR would win a major victory. · ** The War in the Far East: ** o May 1942, Japan sent an invasion fleet to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea – use as a base for bombing Australia. o American ships caught up with the Japanese fleet, and sunk/damaged all three aircraft carriers in the **Battle of the Coral Sea**. o Weeks later, the Japanese retaliated seeking to destroy the US Pacific Fleet at Midway Island, however, this retaliation ended gravel for the Japanese forces. o **Battle of Midway**, 4 Japanese carriers were sunk, 296 aircraft shot down, and 3500 men killed. The Americans only lost one carrier, and thus crippled the Japanese naval power. o Americans divided the Pacific into three areas of command (to take back from the Japanese) § Admiral Nimitz commanded the central area. He commanded his army bravely during the **Battle of Guadalcanal**, which raged on for 6 months just because of a tactical airstrip line. § General MacArthur commanded the South-West Pacific forces, and introduced the “island-hoping” technique. § Admiral Halsey commanded the South Pacific forces. o Japan was at the brink of defeat.
 * Chapter 8: 1942 Year of Uncertainty **

· Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill announced that their aim was to force Germany, Italy, and Japan into unconditional surrender. · ** Stalingrad: ** o The German 6th Army was fighting for their lives in the ruins of Stalingrad- they are completed surrounded by Soviet forces. o They received strict orders from Hitler to fight to the last man. o January 1943, the German commander, von Paulus, refused Hitler’s orders and ordered a tactical surrender. o On 31st of January, 24 Generals, 91,000 German soldiers were taken as prisoners leaving 150,000 of their comrades dead in the ruins. o This was USSR’s first decisive win, which made Hitler to abandon future plans to occupy Caucasus. · ** Allied victory in North Africa: ** o After a period of 3 years, the Allies now controls North Africa and the Mediterranean. o In 1943, the Allies invaded Sicily with half a million men. o The invasion of Sicily led to the downfall of Mussolini. o Italian economy was already collapsing, with war factories crippled by workers. o A lot of Italians were sick of the war because they had hardly won any victory. o July 25, Mussolini was forced to resign and replaced by General Badoglio. o Allies was hoping to occupy Italy without a fight- Badoglio signed a cease-fire with the Allies and declared war on Germany. o At the same day of the Allies invasion (3rd of September), Hitler had sent German troops to resisted them. o The German defenders had held a strong fight, which forced the Allies to advance very slowly. o At the end of 1943, the Allies had been halted at the German’s **Gustav Line** of defense (only 100 km away from Rome). · ** Bomber Offensive: ** o British bombers continued using “Area bombing” raids against German cities. o First, the concentrated their bombs in industrial cities of the Ruhr Valley. o Allies switched their attention to a city named Hamburg, dropping 165,000 bombs. o These bombs created a “firestorm” which super-heated winds destroyed trees, blew cars over, and set pavement streets on fire while incinerating people hiding in air raid shelters. o The Germans retaliated by bombing British ports and cities, however, they did not have enough bombers to inflict the same amount of damage the British had done. § RAF + US Air Force dropped a 207,000 tones of bombs. § German Luftwaffe dropped 2320 tones of bombs. · ** Turning point at Kursk: ** o Despite the German’s defeat in Stalingrad, they still held their ground in Russia and prepared another great assault on the Red Army. o The Soviets learned from their spies, that the attack would be around the area Kursk- so they planed minefields and dispatched numerous defense task forces. o **The Battle of Kursk** – 5th of July. Two million men, 30,000 guns, 6000 tanks were facing each other. o It lasted for a week, and the Soviets came out victorious by allowing German forces to advance only 30 km. o 12th of July, 850 Soviet tanks counter-attacked in the greatest and most savage tank battle of the war. 300 Germans tanks were destroyed and Hitler finally called off the assault. o The Soviets were now on the offensive side, slowly taking back what was rightfully theirs before the war. The Germans were now on the defensive.
 * Chapter 9: The Turning Points of 1943 **

· ** Displaced people: ** o Over 5 million people were taken to force labor camps in Germany. o In Volga region in USSR, 400,000 German descents were sent to live in Siberia. · ** Concentration Camps: ** o The conditions, which people lived in concentration camps, were really harsh. § Hunger and starvation rations § Sadism § Inadequate clothing § Medical neglect § Disease § Beatings § Hangings § Freezing § Forced suicides § Shootings · ** The “Final Solution”: ** o Most prisoners in concentration camps were Jews. o Jews were stripped of their rights, forced out of work, and imprisoned. o **Ghettoes** – Walled of areas of towns which prisoners were not allowed to leave, under punishment of being shot on sight. o Warsaw = worst of the Ghettoes- half a million Jews walled into a small area fed with starvation rations. o 1942, Nazi’s began “**the final solution**” § Extermination of all Jews in Europe o 6 concentration camps were set up in Poland alone with gas chambers (thousands will die with poison gas) o 1942-1945, 5 million Jews in all parts of Europe were exterminated in the Poland concentration camps. o The German Special Action Squads also killed many Soviet Jews in mass shootings and gassings during their occupation of Eastern Russia. · ** Partisans and Resistance: ** o Civilians formed armed freedom fighter unions to resist the invaders. § Yugoslavia + Soviet Union = Partisans § France + Low Countries = the **Resistance** o Both freedom fighter unions used guerilla warfare tactics against the Axis forces. o In Yugoslavia alone, the Partisans forced Germany to keep 140,000 German troops stationed there. · ** Total War in Unoccupied Lands: ** o Civilians in unoccupied countries such as the USA were also playing their part in “fighting” the evil Axis powers. o Millions of men left their original job to fight in the military, leaving unemployed people to fill in their jobs. o The Great Depression disappeared as they provided goods and weapons of war. o By 1943, America, Canada, Britain and other Allied countries achieved full employment of their labor forces.
 * Chapter 10: Total War **

· ** Retreat in Italy: ** · ** Second front in France: ** o **Operation Overlord** aimed to transport an allied army from England to France and open a second front in Europe. o It was code-named **D-Day** o June 1944: 4 000 ships and landing craft carried 176 000 soldiers and their equipment o Escorted by 600 warships and protected in the air by 2 500 bombers and 7 000 fighter planes. o Between June and December o 2.1 million Allied soldiers had invaded northern France. o **Operation Anvil** o An invasion of southern France in August opened another front o By September, allies had driven the Germans out of France · ** The air war continues: ** o Hitler refuses to admit defeat o **V-1 aircraft** · ** Battle of the Bulge: ** · ** The War in the Soviet Union: ** o German retreat from the Soviet Union
 * Chapter 11: Germany in Retreat **
 * Allies attacked the **Gustav Line**
 * Only way through it was blocked by **Mont Cassino** a mountain with a monastery on its summit.
 * Allies bombed it into rubble but could not drive German defenders
 * Another allied force landed at **Anzio** to attack the Gustav Line from behind but German reinforcements arrived and stopped their advancement.
 * May 1944: Broke through Gustav Line
 * German forces made a second defense zone: **Gothic Line**
 * Bad weather and fierce German resistance kept the allies back from Autumn of 1944 to April 1945
 * The Italian campaign was a costly one but it helped tie down German troops needed to defend Germany against an even greater Allied invasion: **Operation Overlord**
 * Small, pilotless plane carrying a ton of high explosive, fired from launching ramps in France and the Low Countries.
 * Allies also increased their bombing attacks on Germany in 1944
 * Eventually the allies won control of the skies over Germany during 1944
 * From September onwards they were regularly making ‘thousand bomber raids’ on German cities and oil installations
 * Allies halted the Germans and drove them back to their starting point.
 * Germany lost 120 000 men, 600 tanks 1 600 aircraft
 * Pushed Germans back to Warsaw, capital of Poland
 * From August to the end of the year, Soviet forces advanced into the Balkans.
 * Faced with defeat, Romania and Bulgaria deserted Germany and joined the Allies
 * Advancing Yugoslavia, the Soviets liberated Belgrade in October.
 * In November they had entered Greece and by Christmas had encircled Budapest, capital of Hungary.
 * 1944 thus ended with the Soviets poised to strike at Germany itself.

· ** ‘Victory disease’: ** o Japan had taken too much for their own control o They had to control 350 million Asian people living on thousands of islands separated by 100 million km2 of ocean. · ** ‘Island hopping’: ** o Americans divided their forces into three areas of command, under Admiral Nimitz, Admiral Halsey and General MacArthur o **Island Hopping**: Drive Japanese from each group of islands back towards the Philippines and the Japanese home islands o **South-East Asia Command** · ** Economies at war: ** o America had better economy and more people to build guns and ammo, outnumbered the Japanese o The capture of Marianas Islands in 1944 brought the US air force within bombing range of Japanese home islands for the first time in the war o Bombed Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka · ** No surrender: ** o Japan constantly fights o **Battle of the Philippine Sea-** 435 aircraft were sent, 35 remained.
 * Chapter 12: Japan in retreat, 1943-44 **
 * Aim to drive Japanese from India back into Burma
 * The production of war materials dropped even further.
 * Few Japanese taken prisoner because they thought surrendering was dishonorable
 * **Battle of Leyte Gulf-** Largest naval battle in history
 * Japan used **kamikaze** aircraft against American ships.
 * Fighter planes filled with high explosive.

· ** Victory in Europe: ** o Germany had to fight on three fronts in 1945 · ** The Defeat of Japan: ** o Continued to ‘island-hop’ o **Luzon**: largest Philippine island, 200 000 Japanese were killed o **Iwo Ima**: only 200 of its 22 000 defenders were alive o **Okinawa**: 107 000 Japanese dead, 7 394 American o Despite homelessness, hunger and industrial collapse created by bombing, the Japanese prepared in 1945 to fight to the end.
 * Chapter 13: Defeat of the Axis, 1945 **
 * Soviet army
 * Allied forces
 * Italy Allied forces
 * **Operation Thunderclap**
 * Aimed to destroy Germans’ will to fight with a final, gigantic bomber offensive.
 * Destroyed nearly every city in Germany
 * However did not stop German will to fight
 * Did not destroy German economy
 * Had not won the war
 * On April 11: western Allies reached the River Elbe
 * On April 16: Soviets crossed the Oder and advanced to the capital: Berlin encircling it on the 25th
 * **Hitler** was ill and isolated committed suicide on April 30th
 * 4 million men in armed forces
 * America did not want to lose soldiers like they did in Iwo Jima, Okinawa so they dropped a newly-invented atomic bomb on the city of **Hiroshima**
 * Killed 71 379 of its citizens and injuring 68 000 more
 * 4 days later another atomic bomb flattened the city of **Nagasaki**
 * Killing 40 000 people
 * On September 2, 1945 they surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur in Tokyo.

= = = = =** Summary: **= The world had again entered an era of risk and uncertainty, with the creation of deadly machines manned by young operators wrecking havocs across the lands, sea, and air. Not only did the Second World War claimed the lives of soldiers and warriors, but also the lives of the innocent civilians who had never came in contact with a gun before. The fiery greed of the Axis forces was eventually extinguished by the noble Allies forces, with the trade-off of millions of lives from both sides.

=** Questions: **= 1. Describe the differences between precision bombing and area bombing. 2. How were the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway a decisive victory and a turning point for the Allies in the Pacific front? 3. Where was the Gustav line and what was its significance? 4. How did the Great Depression “end” for America? 5. Why were the Japanese forces fighting so much harder as the Allies came closer to the Japanese homelands?

=** Citations: **=

 "Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address."//Youtube//. Web. 5 Mar 2011. .

 "LEGO D-DAY (Blender 2.46)." //Youtube//. Web. 4 Mar 2011. .

 "Medal of Honor- D Day." //WallHits//. Web. 5 Mar 2011. .

 "Medal of Honor- D Day." //WallHits//. Web. 5 Mar 2011. .

 Brooman, Josh. //Global War//. New York, 2005. 20-31. Print.