In 1938 Hitler and the Nazi Party invaded Czechoslovakia. Europe was terrified of Hitler and his war machine but there was nothing they could do. The countries of Europe told him that he could keep Czechoslovakia as long as he didn’t invade any more countries. Well in 1939 He did it again when he invaded Poland. The countries in Europe still sat by telling him to stop. The final straw was drawn when on June 4th 1940 Hitler invaded France. England, France, Poland, Russia, Australia, Denmark and all of the other Eastern European countries he would later invade, declared war on Hitler. But where was the United States? Well we were 4,000 miles away telling ourselves that it was none of our business. Well on December 7th 1941 it did become our business.

The War on Two Oceans

On December 7th 1941 a Japanese Naval Force was sent out with a mission. Their mission was to cripple and destroy the United States Naval Fleet on Pearl Harbor. 2 Waves of aircraft launched from 6 Japanese Carriers totaling 350 fighters and bombers were sent out to destroy the fleet. Two Battleships one Minelayer and two destroyers were damaged beyond repair. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft 5 midget submarines and 65 men killed or wounded. The United States Naval Fleet on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was destroyed. 10,000 American and Pilipino troops fighting in the Philippines were pushed back to the Baton Peninsula. With they’re backs to the seas and no Navy to save them they were forced to retreat. Under orders and against his wishes General Macarthur was forced to retreat to Australia with few men. The remaining troops in Baton fought for 6 months with limited ammo, food and water. After 6 months of fighting without re-supply, the American and Pilipino troops surrendered. The Japanese took them on a long march. Any men that stepped out of line were bayoneted or shot. Very few men made it to the POW camps. The march became known as The Baton Death March. After hearing of the news President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and Germany. This was going to be a struggle because now the United States was fighting a war on two oceans.

England

The United States sent over General Eisenhower and all the branches of the Military. From the Air-Force to the Marines to the Navy to the Army they were all there. They did not immediately engage the Germans. They worked on a plan secretly called Operation Overlord. This plan was to invade France and liberate the people of France. The United States bombed the Port of Calais and Normandy to keep the spot of the landing a secret. For two whole years they trained for amphibious landings. In 1943 they began they’re initial battle on the front of North Africa. They sent in British and American troops to fight off the German and Italian solders in Northern Africa. They made great progress when the liberated Tunisia and went all the way west. They would have broken through to the Suez Canal if the Germans and Italians weren’t re-enforced and re-supplied. It was a long battle and eventually The Allies broke through to Libya and forced the Germans and Italians to retreat back into Sicily. But the Allies wouldn’t follow them for another year.

Russia

In 1942 the Russians began a massive assault to take back Stalingrad. Hundreds of thousands of Russians had already died and now 500,000 Russian soldiers were storming into Stalingrad. The Germans fired at them with machine-guns and only 1 out of every 10 Russians soldiers had a weapon! The Russians used rockets and artillery to crush the men trapped inside the now encircled Stalingrad. Hitler had ordered his men to fight to the death and promoted Friedrich Paulus to Field Marshal. Hitler expected him to commit suicide. Instead of committing suicide Friedrich Paulus surrendered to the Russians making him the first Field Marshall in history to be captured. Hitler was furious. Now that the Russians had Stalingrad back they could now advance toward Germany and take back Eastern Europe.

Italy

In 1943 The Allies began they’re initial assault on Fortress Europe by invading Sicily. The 82nd Airborne would be used for the first time as an airborne regiment and the first airborne drop behind enemy lines. Then just before the break of dawn the Navy dropped off 50,000 troops onto the beaches of Sicily. They secured the beach-head and pushed through and liberated Sicily. The Italians were re-supplied by German airdrops but some of the drops were off target and half of the supplies landed in Ally hands. As they moved into Italy the Germans would no longer support Italy. Hitler was saving his men up for the defense against France that would come the next year.

France

On June 6th 1944 the Allies began their assault into France by dropping 10,000 Para-troopers behind enemy lines to destroy bridges and enemy supply lines so that they could not re-supply the beaches where the allies would land. The Allied beach-heads were code named Juno, Omaha, Sword, Gold and Utah. The Naval amphibious landing was code named Operation Neptune. In the battle of Normandy the casualties were as follows:

United States:

1,465 dead, 5,138 wounded, missing or captured;

United Kingdom:

2,700 dead, wounded or captured;

Canada:

340 dead; 621 wounded or captured

Nazi Germany:

Between 4,000 and 9,000 dead, wounded or captured

The Casualties for the Battle of France:

Allies:

360,000 dead or wounded, 1,900,000 captured

Germany:

45,000 dead,
110,000 wounded

Italy:

1,247 dead or missing,
2,631 wounded,
2,151 hospitalized due to frostbite1

The combatants for the Allies were France, United Kingdom, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg

The combatants for the Axis were Germany and Italy

The Strength for the Allies Was:

144 divisions
13,974 guns
3,384 tanks
2,935 aircraft

Total:

2,862,000

The Strength for the Axis Was:

Germany

141 divisions
7,378 guns
2,445 tanks
5,638 aircraft

Italy

32 divisions

Total

3,350,000 Germans
700,000 Italians

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge began when the allies broke through into Belgium in Winter 1944. The Germans made one last major offensive in the Ardennes in Southern Belgium and northern France. The Germans came in with tanks, troops and artillery. They pounded the allied positions and caused some serious damage. The allied airborne invasion of Belgium that went disastrously wrong was named Market Garden and dropped 35,000 troops behind enemy lines. The British 2nd Army was meant to travel 60 miles and meet up with the para-troopers but the para-troopers were captured which lead to the Battle of the Bulge.

The Casualties were as follows:

• American: 89,987 casualties (19,276 dead,23,554 captured or missing,47,493 wounded)
• British: 200 dead, 1,400 wounded and missing
• Germans: 84,834 casualties 15,652 dead,27,582 captured or missing,41,600 wounded

This would be Germany’s last great offensive.

Rescuing POWS

On January 27th 1945 a group of 120 men was sent out with a mission that people said had no significance to the war effort. They’re mission was to rescue 500 POWS inside of a Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp. These soldiers were there for 3 years. There were 250 Guards in the Prison Camp, 1,000 more by the nearby river and 10,000 more nearby in the area. The Pilipino Guerrillas were going to hold the river and blow the bridge. The Raid was lead by Capt. Robert Prince. The raid was overseen by Lt. Col. Henry Mucci. The Rangers were greatly out numbered but they liberated all of the prisoners. 1 prisoner died after being liberated from malaria. 2 Rangers died. James Fisher died of Mortar wounds the day after the raid. Corporal Roy Sweezy was killed when 2 rounds stuck him in the back and died almost instantly. The American’s believed that the Japanese were going to kill the POWS instead of release them because the Japanese Burned 250 POWS at a nearby camp at Palawan. All in all, entire raid was very successful. 512 POWs were liberated from the camp with only 3 American casualties. There is a movie called The Great Raid that shows the Ranger’s strategy and the actual raid itself. The Great Raid remains the most successful Military Rescue Operation to date.

Berlin

The Germans were surrounded. The Russians were closing in on Berlin in the east and the American’s and the British from the south-west. Even though the Germans knew they were surrounded they fought like cornered rats using whatever scraps of ammo they had left. Stalin declared “The Regiment that put the Soviet flag on-top of the Reichstag Building to be The Heroes of The Soviet Union.” The Germans were known for using children for destroying Soviet tanks with Panzer-Treks. General Eisenhower said “We will accept nothing but Germanys complete un-conditional surrender and nothing less!” Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva committed suicide in their underground bunker on April 30th 1945. Two days later Germany surrendered to the Allies. Through Germany was defeated World War Two was not over.

Atomic Bomb and Surrender in the Pacific

The Americans had re-captured the Philippians and were now considering the invasion of Japan. The casualties were estimated at about 1.5 million American soldiers and 1.0 million British Soldiers. But then the first Atomic Bomb was successfully tested in Arizona and was put to use on August 6th 1945 on the city of Hiroshima “Little Man.” 60,000 Japanese civilians were killed and the Japanese were wondering how many more would die. They did always say to fight to the last man. This was put to the test on August 9th when the second atomic bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki. 80,000 more Japanese civilians were killed and the Japanese surrendered on August 14th 1945. World War Two was finally over.

Final Comments

So in the end World War Two turned out to be the bloodiest war in history. The overall casualties are as follows:

Allies:

• Military dead: Over 14,000,000
• Civilian dead: Over 36,000,000
• Total dead: Over 50,000,000

Axis:

• Military dead: Over 8,000,000
• Civilian dead: Over 4,000,000
• Total dead: Over 12,000,000

In a 7 year span over 120 million people lost their lives to protect the freedom of the world. That is why we will never forget the people that died to protect our freedom and our way of life. “Everyone Pledges Allegiance, A Select Few Show It.”