World War II is known today as the most destructive and deadly human conflict in human history. World War II is accountable for about 60 million deaths worldwide, including civilians. World War II started in Europe when Germany's newfound leader Adolf Hitler started invading Germany's surrounding countries. These countries included Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia. After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the U.K declared war on Nazi Germany. Following this in 1940, Benito Mussolini and Fascist Italy entered the war for the Axis powers and declared war on Great Britain. Germany and England engaged over London in the Battle of Britain. This was an aerial battle where Britain suffered from many causalties and lost many planes, but Germany lost more. Germany attempted to invade areas controlled by the Soviet Union. German lines expanded in Stalingrad, but U.S.S.R troops bounced back and drove the Nazis out of Russia. After the attack, Joseph Stalin declared war on Germany and joined the Allies. Both Germany and Italy invaded countries in North Africa. Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1939. Allied powers helped liberate these countries and drove Axis powers out of Africa by the end of the war. After driven out of Africa, Italy was invaded from Sicily and up north through the country. After Italy fell, Allied troops made a plan to invade Germany and take Berlin. British and American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in France. This raid was famously know as D-Day. Meanwhile, Soviet troops were making their way to Germany from Russia. Both sides met in Berlin and ripped the city apart. The Russians came with about 2,500,000 soldiers and many tanks. When the Russians were closing in on Hitler's bunker, he killed himself along with his wife Eva Braun and his dog Blondi. Later, the Soviet flag was planted into the Nazi Reichstag. Weeks later on May 7th 1945, Germany surrendered. This was internationally known as V-E Day. The end of World War II in Europe was not the end of the war however. The Americans were on the verge of deafeating Japan in the Pacific, but they swore they would never surrender.
|
The rapid combined air, sea, and land assault was the essence of blitzkrieg (lightning war), and the superbly trained and equipped German forces swept aside the valiant but outgunned and outnumbered polish forces. So it began again, a war sparked by nationally conflicts in east-central Europe and provoked, in part, by a German stab at continental hegemony that expanded into a global conflict touching every continent. Yet again the war in Europe developed into a contest between a German-held Europe and an Allied coalition attacking on its periphery. While Poland reeled and withered under blitzkrieg, no significant fighting took place in the West. In the meantime, the British responded by bombing Berlin, which caused relatively little damage but did have a profound psychological effect on the Germans and was instrument in Hitler's (military poor) decision to concentrate on civilian targets instead of wiping out the RAF (royal Air Force). The fall of France left Germany master of the Europe continent, and it left England to, stand alone against Nazi aggression- although de Gaulle, operating from England, worked feverishly to organize the "free French" resistance against the Nazi occupation of his homeland. Matt G/Anthony L |
Matt G
|
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 until he retired in 1955. Even though he was always the worst student in school, Churchill was known for his astounding experience in literature. He won a Nobel Prize in literature in 1953. Churchill was sent to many countries such as India and countries in Africa as a soldier for the British army. After he returned to England in 1900, he was elected to Parliament. In 1901, he sat in the House of Commons for his first time. He then began to criticize the Conservatives and ran as a Liberal. He was elected as a Liberal in 1906. In the next few years, Churchill moved up three cabinet positions in the British government. In 1911, Winston Churchill was appointed to the Admiralty by Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith. Before World War I, Churchill organized antisubmarine tactics, reorganized the navy and modernized the British fleet. When the U.K entered World War I on August 4th, 1914, England was ready. After the war in 1918, Churchill moved up more positions in the military. During World War II in 1940, Churchill was appointed as prime minister. Chruchill led the U.K to victory in World War II. |
During the chaos of World War II, the Holocaust (The Final Solution) was being planned in Nazi Germany. The Holocaust was the organized and systematic murder of over six million Jewish Europeans from 1939 until 1945. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler felt that the Jews were to blame for Germany's loss of World War I. Because of this, the Nazis set up approximately 40,000 camps across Europe for the Jewish people to live in. In these camps, they were treated horribly. They were starved, beaten, worked and killed. Most of them were often killed in gas chambers and later buried in mass graves. Before Jews were sent to the camps, they were forced into cities called ghettos. These were worn down cities that barely had any living space and terrible living conditions. This was temporary however, as most Jews were sent to concentration camps shortly after. The Nazis picked the prisoners who were physically capable of labor. The others were killed. The prisoners who could work would spend hours a day performing backbreaking labor. One of the most famous and notorious concentration camps was Auschwitz. In this camp, about one million Jews were executed. A famous Nazi in Auschwitz was Dr. Josef Mengele, aka "The Angel of Death". He performed inhumane scientific experiments on selected Jews. He mostly experimented on twins and murdered hundreds. During the Allied invasion of Germany in 1945, camps were liberated and the Jews were set free by American and Soviet troops.n later years, Nazis who worked in concentration camps were tried by the Allied nations in the Nuremberg Trials. To the day, the Holocaust was and is still known as one of the most evil acts of genocide ever.
Matt G |