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World War II was the biggest war ever fought. Nearly 30 million people were killed in it. About half were civilians while the other half were soldiers, sailors, and airmen. The war was fought all over the world, but the most important battles took place on the Islands in the Pacific and in Europe. The two sides were called the Axis and the Allies.
The war lasted from 1939 to 1945; the chief countries of the Allies were the United States, Great Britain, Russia, France, and China. The Axis countries were Germany, Italy, and Japan. In March, 1938, Germany took over Austria by force. A few months later Adolf Hitler said he wanted to take part of Czechoslovakia. Hitler and Benito Mussolini met the head of the governments of Great Britain and France in Munich, Germany to talk it over, and Hitler was allowed to annex that part of Czechoslovakia. In 1939 Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia, and threatened war against Poland, while Mussolini conquered Albania.
In August, 1939 Hitler made an alliance with Russia, and an agreement to partition Poland. On September first, 1939 the German army attacked Poland from the west, and that was the start of World War II in the European Theater. Two days later Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. On the other side of the world, Japan had also began a program of conquest. In 1931 a Japanese army invaded and seized Manchuria, in the north of China. In 1937 a Japanese army attacked the main part of China, whose government was headed by Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1940 Japan, Germany, and Italy became allies. The Japanese war leaders hoped to divide the world with Germany. In 1940 the situation looked very bad for democracy. In April Germany attacked Norway and Denmark.
Great Britain sent an army to help Norway but it was defeated. In May Italies troops invaded Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. They surrendered after a few days. On June 14, 1940 the Germans entered Paris, the French army did not put up much of a fight. The United States was not in the war yet.
In 1940 the United States sent guns, planes, and supplies to help the British. When Germany attacked France, Italy entered the war on Germany's side. When he had beaten France, Hitler wanted to conquer Great Britain, but because the British navy controlled the seas Hitler could not invade but he hoped the German Air Force could bomb England so badly they would give in. But England's Prime Minister Winston Churchill informed Germany and the world that England would never surrender.
The Royal Air Force shot down many German planes and Hitler realized he could not beat the British that way. The Allies had their first victory known as the Battle of Britain. Meanwhile across the globe in 1941 the Japanese invaded French Indochina in southwest Asia and threatened to take the Dutch East Indies, known today as Indonesia. The United States warned the Japanese that if they tried to make any more conquests it would mean war! Back in Europe, even with the Battle of Britain, the Germans conquered Yugoslavia and Greece. The island of Crete in the Mediterranean was next and then thousands of German soldiers were dropped onto the island by parachute.
In both fronts the Axis powers were capturing areas for strategic minerals and metals for use in war efforts (such as the Japanese occupation of Indonesia for oil and the German's occupation of Romania, north of the Black Sea also for oil). Reinforcing this, against the advice of his generals, Hitler attacked Russia on June 22, 1941, even though they had a treaty with that country. The Ukraine was rich in oil and gas. Great Britain immediately accepted Russia as an ally. Hitler had begun a war on two fronts. The Japanese thought they could beat the United States and did not heed to President Roosevelt's warning.
On December 7, 1941, with out any warning Japanese planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. By this attack Japan nearly destroyed the entire United Sates fleet that was anchored at Pearl Harbor. So on the next day December 8 th President Franklin D Roosevelt and the rest of America declared war on Japan. Three days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. In 1941 Americas Army and Air Force were very small compared to Germany and Japan's, but the American industry was by no means small. They stopped making automobiles an other peacetime products and began to make guns, planes, tanks, ships, and other things needed to fight a war.
In fact the American's industry played a big factor in the war, because they were able to produce far more weapons than all of the, other countries. In Russia the Germans advanced again. In North Africa the German forces went almost to the Suez Canal before they were stopped. In the Atlantic Ocean German submarines were sinking allied ships. Then the tide turned. The Russians stopped the German army at Stalingrad.
Meanwhile thousands of American troops were arriving in England and American and British planes began bombing German cities and factories. The Germans were finally getting a taste of there own medicine. The Russians were winning back territories previously lost. In October 1942 the British won a great victory in North Africa and began driving forces westward. The German and Italian forces were pushed to Tunisia where they surrendered in May 1943. Then the Allies landed in Sicily and captured it.
By September American and British troops invaded Italy. Things were changing in the Pacific scenarios as well. In May 1942, Japan had control over all of the western part of the Pacific Ocean and most of eastern Asia. An Allied victory in the Coral Sea began the tide turning here as well. In June 1942 a Japanese fleet sailing towards Hawaii was defeated at the Battle of Midway.
In August 1942 American troops were landing on the island of Guadalcanal. This started the long road that led to Japan. Americans captured one island after another, always getting closer to Japan. Island hopping Allies had an advantage to the European front. Here supplies could be cut off even if bases were left behind. In Europe this could not work.
It was a terribly hard campaign but it worked. The United States Navy played a big part in the Pacific campaign. The Navy carried soldiers to the islands and warships bombarded the islands before the attacks. Naval planes from aircraft carriers supported the Marines and soldiers who landed. In March 1943 a, Japanese fleet was destroyed by carrier planes in the Battle of Bismark. In November, Americans invaded the Gelliert Islands, and losses were heavy.
Three months later American troops captured the Marshall Islands. Fighting in New Guinea went on from 1942 until 1944 when the Japanese were finally beaten. Back on the European Front by December 1944 the Allied armies were on the boarders of Germany. Luckily the Germans did not have the V- 1 or the V- 2 at this time. After D-Day, June 6 1944 the Germans invented a flying bomb called V- 1. The Germans launched them across the English Channel at London and other English cities.
Then they invented the V- 2, which was a rocket that flew faster than the speed of sound. It seemed like the British were really in for it, fortunately the Germans did not have many V bombs. Hitler than attacked in Belgium; what we know as the Battle of the Bulge. Which was a victory for the Allies once again by January 1945 Germans were retreating. As in the Pacific the Allies were working their way towards Japan a similar strategy in Europe was successful as well. As Russian forces entered Germany from the east Americans crossed the Rhine River into the heart of Germany.
While in the Pacific General Mac Arthur landed in the Philippines and defeated the Japanese. As the islands close to Japan were captured, air bases were being built on them and planes started bombing cities in Japan. As for Europe, well the Germans held out in Italy through the winter then collapsed. Mussolini was killed by a patriot and Hitler committed suicide, both in April 1945. On May 7, 1945 a day called V-E Day, Germany surrendered. By July 1945 Japan had lost nearly all the island in the Pacific it originally captured.
Japan's Air Force had been beaten but there was still a big army in Japan waiting to fight. On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The next day Russia declared war on Japan. ON August 9, 1945 another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan then immediately surrendered. On September 9, 1945 known as V-J Day, Japanese leaders signed surrender papers on board the U.
S. battleship the Missouri which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan. Suddenly the war had came to an end unexpectedly. The Allies strategy had worked on both fronts. In the Pacific cutting off supplies and building bases for attacks on Japan. In the European Theatre recapturing land and advancing.
Both campaigns were similar in strategy of advancement but different in securing of territory and cutting of resources. Bibliography: sorry
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