World War II Photos

I had relatives who fought in World War II, including my great-grandfather who served in the Navy. Here are some family photos. 

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The Japanese had made it clear that they were willing to fight until the last man was standing to achieve their imperialist goals. For this reason, the US would drop two atomic bombs on the small island nation.

On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people, tens of thousands more people would later die from radiation exposure. Three days later, on August 9th, a second B-29 bombers dropped the world's second deployed atomic bomb over the city of Naga­saki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender on August 15th, bringing World War II to an end.

The Manhattan Project

Even before the break out of WorId War II in Europe, Nazi Germany had been experimenting with nuclear weapons research. A group of Ameri­can scientists, many of whom were refugees from fascist states in Europe, became concerned with Germany's research.

In 1940, the US government began funding its own atomic weapons program. This program was under the joint respons­ibility of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the War Department after the US entry into World War II. The US Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with the construction of the vast facilities necessary to house the top secret Manhattan Project.

Over the next several years, the Manhattan Project's scientists worked on producing the key materials for nuclear fission- uranium-235 and plutonium-239. Those materials were sent to Los Alamos, New Mexico where a team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn th-se ma­terials into a functional atomic bomb.

On the early morning of July 16, 1945, the Yan ha Han Pro. iect hela its first success­ful test of an atomic device-a plutonium bomb-at the Trinity test site at Alamo­gordo, New Mexico.

By the time the Trinity test had been completed, Germany had already been defeated by the Allied powers. Japan, however, promised to fight to the bitter end despite there being clear signs as early as 1944 that a Japanese defeat was imminent.

In 1945, the Japanese Imperial For­ces were growing increasing desperate for a win. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, Japanese forces inflicted heavy casualties to the Allies, totaling nearly half those suffered in three full years of war in the Pacific, this proved that when Japan was faced with defeat, they were more deadly rather than relenting. In late July, Japan's militarist government rejected the Allied demana for surrender put in the Potsdam Declaration which threatened the Japanese with "swift and utter destruc­tion" if they refused.

General Douglas MacArthur and other top military c. mmanders favored continuing the conventional bombing of Japan that had already been in effect and following up the conventional bombing with a mass­ive invasion. This plan was codenamed Operation Downfall. MacArthur and the other military commanders told President Harry S. Truman that Operation Downfall could result in over one million casual­ties. To avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided to use the atomic bomb in the hopes of bringing the war in the Pacific to a swift end. Proponents of using the atomic bomb believed that its power wouldn't just end the war but would also put the US in a dominant position in the postwar period.

"Little Boy" and "Fat Man"

Hiroshima was a manufacturing center with a local population of 350, 000 and was 500 miles away from Tokyo. Hiroshima was chosen as the first tarket.

After arriving at the US base on the Pacific island of Tinian, the more than 9,000 pound uranium-235 bomb was loaded on a modified B-29 bomber named "Enola Gay" (named after the pilot's mother). The plane drooped the bomb, known as "Little Boy," by parachute at 8:15am on August 6, 1945. It exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city.

Although the city was completely devas­tated, its destruction failed to elicit an immediate Japanese surrender. As a result, on August 9, 1945 at 11:02am, "Fat Man", the plutonium bomb, was dropped on Nagasaki. "Fat Man" was more powerful than the uranium bomb dropped at Hirshimai with a weight of nearly 10,000 pounds. "Fat Man" produced a 22-kiloton blast. This second bomb, although more power­ful than the first, caused less dam­age; due to Nagasaki's topography, a city nestled in valleys surrounded by mountains, the bomb's destruction was limited to 2.6 square miles.

Japanese Surrender

At noon on August 15, 1945, Japan's Emperor Hiro hit-announced his country's unconditional surrender via radio broadcast. The formal surrender agreement between Japan and the US (and the other Allied nations) was signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the US battleship the USS Missouri which was anchored in Tokyo Bay.

The Japanese surrender brought about the end of World War II, but that doesn't mean we're done with our WWII series. Next time, we'll begin examining the actions the US took during World War II on the battlefront and the homefront.

The Japanese in World War II, Part Three

Hello readers. The previous post was a long one, and this post is going to be a long one as well. I prefaced the previous post by stating that I wanted to examine Japanese involve­ment and the Pacific Theatre of World War II. In New York State, the Pacific Theatre of the war isn't cov­ered nearly as much as the European Theatre, so these posts are the product of extensive research. With that being said, this post will examine ten key battles in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

1. The Battle of Singapore

On February 8, 1942, the Japanese launched an attack on British-held Sing­apore that was defended by about 90,000 Commonwealth soldiers who were stationed on the island. Arthur Percival, who commanded the Common­wealth troops, expected the Japanese attack. However, what he didn't expect was the origin of the attack.

Percival expected the Japanese to attack via sea routes; partly because of that assumption and because Percival believed the thick jungle and swamp on the Malay Peninsula were impenetrable, Percival left Singapore's landward side virtually undefended. Instead of attacking via sea routes, the Japanese attacked via the landward route Percival perceived as inpenetrable. After a week of fighting, Percival surrendered to the Japanese. He and 60, 000 of his Commonwealth troops were taken as prisoners of war.

2. Battle of the Java Sea

The Battle of the Java Sea was fought between the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) navies against the Japanese Imperial Navy on February 27, 1942.

On February 27, 1942, the ABDA inter­cepted the invading Japanese Navy in the Java Sea with the goal to stop the Jasanese advance into the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). By the day's end, the Jabanese Imperial Navy humiliated the ABDA, sinking three des­troyers and two cruisers, and causing a casualty count of 2,300 men includ­ing ABDA Commander Karel Doorman. The Japanese didn't lose a single ship and would go on to invade Java the following day.

3. Battle of the Coral Sea

The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first active combat between Japan­ese and American aircraft carriers in World War II. Although the battle was fought entirely by aircraft, none of the ships involved in the battle shot at an enemy ship.

From May 4-8, 1942, the combined forces of the US and Australian fleets vollied with the Japanese forces. The Japanese aircraft was more successful, forcing the US and Australian fleets to withdraw. However, the Japanese fleet was worried that there might be more US carriers in the area, so they aban­doned their plan to capture Port Moresby in New Guinea and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. Because the Japanese aban­doned those two planned attacks, the US and Australian fleets came out victori­ous in the Battle of the Coral Sea.

4. Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway was one of the first major encounters between US and Japanese forces in the Pacific, and this battle would have a major influ­ence on the future course of the war in the Pacific.

On June 3, 1942, the Japanese launched an attack on the Aleutian Islands with an aim to attempt to di­vert attention away from their true target, the Midway Atoll. However, the Americans broke the Japanese code and discovered the Japanese Imperial Navy's plan. The American and Japanese navies clashed on June 4th and after three days of fighting the Japanese were forced to abandon their invasion of Midway Atoll.

The American Navy devastated Japan's Navy. The Japanese forces lost all four carriers that participated in the battle and about 250 aircrafts.

5. The Battle of Guadalcanal

More accurately known as the Guadal­canal Cambaign, the Battle of Guadal­canal was a series of battles fought on both land and sea for control of the largest of the Solomon Islands.

On August 7, 1942, the Allied forces (consisting primarily of US troops) launched an attack on the island of Guadalcanal with a goal to put an end to the threat Japan posed to Allied supply lines and communication lines between the US and Australia. The Allied forces were successful in capturing the island but struggled to break Japanese resistance over a six month period.

After losing about 30,000 men, over 600 aircraft, and 24 warships, Japan decided to evacuate some 10,000 men who had survived until February 9, 1943. The Allies sufferer heavy casualties as well--over 600 air crafts destroyed, 25 warships sunk, and about 7,500 men killed in action.

6. Battle of Saipan

The Battle of Saipan began on June 15, 1944 when US forces launched an attack on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands to gain an airbase within striking distance of mainland Japan.

Even when it was clear that the Jap­anese were in a Iosing position, they refused to surrender. By July 9, 1944 when the Americans raised a flag in victory, aporoximately 30,000 Japan­ese troops were either killed or comm­itted suicide, including all four commanders. Fewer than 1,000 Japanese troops were captured as prisoners of war.

7. Battle of the Philippine Sea

Four days after US forces landed at Saipan, US and Japanese carriers engaged one another in battle.

On June 19, 1944, the Japanese Navy launched an attack with the goal to inflict heavy casualties and a de­cisive defeat against the US fleet. However, it was the Japanese who would suffer defeat as by late af­ternoon on June 20th they found them­selves retreating. The Japanese Im­perial Navy and hair force. were severe­ly weakened--three carriers had been sunk and 400 aircraft had been destroyed.

8. The Battle of Leyte Gulf

Sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of the Philippine sea, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was not only the largest naval battle during World War II, but it was the largest naval battle in his­tory. The battle involved over 270 warships (at least 64 Japanese, 217 American, and 2 Australian) and was fought off the Philippine islands of Leyte, Luzon, and Samar from October 23-26, 1944.

The Japanese Imperial Navy was virtually destroyed as a result of the battle. The Japanese lost all four car­riers, 11 destroyers, 10 cruisers, three battleships, and 12,000 men. In comparison, the Allies lost three des­troyers, two escort carriers, one light carrier, and 2,500 men.

9. Battle of Iwo Jima

The Battle of Iwo Jima is undoubt­edly one of the most well-known battles of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought from February 19-March 26, 1945 over a tiny island measuring just 5×2.5 miles. Although the American armed for­ces were vastly superior to the Japanese forces, the Japanese fought virtually until the last man was standing. Of about 22, 000 Japanese defenders, 21,000 were killed. The American victory had a high cost for this particular battle as well--with 20,000 wounded and 6,800 killed.

10. Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific Theatre. Fought from April 1-June 22, 1945, Am­ericans sought to capture the island of Okinawa to create a base for air raids on Japan as well as to rehearse for the planned invasion of Japan's main islands.

The Americans met a fierce resistance. By June 22nd, the US troops suffered nearly 50,000 casualties, of which about a quarter were deaths. The Jap­anese lost between 100,000-110,000 men. The Battle of Okinawa claimed heavy civilian casualties as well, with the loss of an estimated 100,000 civilian lives.

From these battles and the others the Allies engaged in with Japan, one thing was certain: Japan would continue to fight until the last man was left stand­ing. It is for this reason why the US would make the devastating decision to drop atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war with Japan and finally bringing World War II to an end.

Next time here on the blog, we will ex­amine the Manhattan Project and the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

The Japanese in World War II, Part One and Two

Hello readers. As promised at the end of the previous blog post, this is going to be the first in a series about the Japanese in World War II and the Pacific Theatre of the war. In New York State, schools don't put too much focus on the role of the Japanese in the war; all that seems to be discussed in schools is the attack on Pearl Harbor, interment camps, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the surrender on the USS Missouri. I'm going to examine the role Japan played in World War II in as much depth as possible. So, let's get started.

Sino-Japanese Relations

Before Japan's role in World War II can be examined, we must first take a, brief, I-ok at the relationship between Japan and China.

Japan, from 600 to 838, was very heavily influenced by Chinese culture. From China, Japan adopted a written language, Buddhism, Confucianism, liter­ature, music, and architecture. The Chinese heritage was so embedded Japanese life and culture that some of the skills that disappeared in China over time were preserved in Japan.

As time went on and Japan embraced modernization and Westernization via the Meji Restoration, China lagged behind (and would continue to lag behind Japan through the 1970s). Due, in large part, to China's failure to modernize, Japan and China fought in two wars with Japan's goal being to seize land and resources. These wars, the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), continue to influence modern Sino-Japanese re­lations. Japan wanted to be viewed as a major superpower, on par with the Western world; in order to do that, Japan engaged in imperialism just like their Western counterparts, first invading Korea in the 1890s and then attempting to invade Mancuria in 1931. Japan invaded Korea because it was rich in iron and coal, which newly (and rapidly) industrializing Japan needed; Japan was successful in their invasion. Japan invaded Mancuria to protect the railroads and leased land, eventually engaging with China in a second full- scale war in 1937.

The Second Sino-Japanese War drained Japan of resources necessary to maintain its army such as rubber, iron, and oil. As a result, the Imperi­al Japanese Navy began attacking the already-colonized South Pacific, with bombings and invasion attempts in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philipoines, Malaya, and Pearl Harbor.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy ", was the day the Im­perial Japanese Navy attacked the Am­erican naval base at Pearl Harbor on Honolulu, Hawaii.

Just before 8am on December 7, I 941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the naval base where they destroyed or damaged nearly 20 Ameri­can naval vessels, which included eight battleships and over 300 planes. More than 2, 400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and I, 000 more had been wounded. The following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged Congress to declare war on Japan.

Edging Towards War

Although the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base was a surprise, Japan and the United States had been edging towards wa-with one another for decades.

In response to Japan's aggression towards China, particularly after the Nanking Massacre (more commonly known as the Rape of Nanking) in 1937, the United States placed a battery of economic sanctions and trade embargoes on Imperial Japan. Ameri­can officials reasoned that without access to money and goods, especially supplies such as oil, Japan would be forced to slow its rate of expansionism. However, those sanctions made Japan more de­termined to stand their ground and to continue their rate of imperial expansionism.

American military leaders knew trouble was coming to the South Pacific, expecting Japan to attack one of the Europe un colonies in the area. Due to not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval base at Pearl Harbor was relatively undefended. For this reason, Pearl Harbor was an easy target for the Jabanese, whose goal was to destroy America's Pacific Fleet.

With the attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base, Japan haa found itself at war with the United States. Japan had wanted to goad the U-S. into relieving the economic sanctions against them, but instead pushed the U.S. into a second global conflict, one that would result in the occupation of Japan by a foreign country for the first time.

On December 8, 1941, Congress app­roved Roosevelt's declaration of war against Japan; on December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy, Japan's allies, de­clared war against the U.S. In turn, Congress declared war on Germany and Italy.

• • •

The Japanese in World War II, Part 2

As a result of the December 7, 1941 attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by Imperial Japan's navy, the U.S. enacted Exec­utive Order 9066, allowing for the intern­ment of Japanese-Americans for the duration of World War II. This post will examine what conditions were like for those who were interred.

Executive Order 9066

On February 12, 1942, shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into law. Executive Order 9066 was meant + prevent espionage on American soil, military zones were created in the Pacific States (California, Washington, and Oregon) due to their sizeable Asian populations, and the Executive Order called for the relocation of Americans of Japanese descent.

Executive Order 9066 affected 117,000 peo­ple, most of whom were American citizens. Canada would follow in America's footsteps and relocated 21,000 of its citizens of Japanese descent.

Anti-Japanese Activity

Weeks prior to the signing of Execu­tive Order 9066, government entities had been arresting Japanese-Americans as a result of the Pearl Harbor attacks.

On December 7, 1941, just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the FBI rounded up nearly 1,300 Japanese com­munity and religious leaders, arresting them without evidence and freezing their assets. The arrestees were trans­ferred to fascilities in Montana, New Mexico, and North Dakota; many of these initial arrestees were unable to inform their families of their arrests and forced relocations.

The FBI searched the private homes of thousands of Japanese residents on the Pacific coast, seizing any items they deemed as contraband. Some politicians called for the mass incarceration of the Hawaiian people, as one-third of Hawaii's population was of Japanese descent. Some Japanese residents were arrested and 1,500 people (or one percent of the Japanese population in Hawaii) were sent to intern­ment camps on the American mainland.

War Relocation Authority

After a lot of organizational chaos, about 15,000 Jersanese Americans willingly moved out of prohibited areas ana were met with racist hostilities.

In March 1942, the War Relocation Authority, a civilian organization, was set up to administer the relocation plan of Executive Order 9066. The War Relocation Authority was headed by Milton S. Eisenhower from the Depart­ment of Agriculture. Eisenhower only lasted until June 1942, resigning in protest in what he saw as the incar­ceration of innocent citizens.

Relocation to Assembly Centers

On March 24, 1942, Army-directed evacuations began. People of Japanese descent were given six days notice to dispose of any belongings other than what they could carry. Anyone who was at least 416 Japanese was evacuated, which included 17,000 children under age ten, as well as thousands of el­derly and handicapped individuals.

Japanese Americans reported to centers near their homes. From there, they were transported to a temporary relocation center where they would live for months prior to being transported to a permanent facility. 

Life and Conditions in the Interment Camps

Interment camps were located in remote areas and encompassed large tracts of land. These camps were usually reconfigured fairgrounds or dirt racetracks, featuring buildings not meant for human habitation. For example, in Portland, Oregon, 3,000 people were forced to relocate to the Pacific International Livestock Exposition Facilities where they stayed in the livestock pavilion. The Santa Anita Assembly Center, located near Los Angeles, California had 18,000 people interred there with nearly half of that population living in livestock stables. 

Interment camps, or assembly centers as they were often called, were run like cities. People lived there, worked there, and children went to school there. The work that was offered to those who were detained at the facilities operated un­der the policy that no one should be paid more than an Army private; jobs in these camps ranged from teachers to doc­tors to laborers to mechanics.

There were a total of ten permanent internment camps. Each camp was nearly identical--there was some form of barracks where several families were housed to­gether, common eating areas, schools, post offices, work facilities, farmland, and guard towers all surrounded by barbed wire fen­cing.

Korematsu us. United States

In 1942, a 23-year-old man named Fred Korematsu was arrested for refusing to relocate to an internment camp. Kore- matsu went f. court over the incident, and his case went all the way t. the United States Subreme Court. In the SCOTUS case Korematsu us. United States, Fred Korematsu's attorney argued that Executive Order 9066 violated the Fifth Amendment. Korematsu lost the case, but he went on to become a social activist where he advocated for civil nights.

Endo vs. United States

Korematsu vs. United States sought to put an end to the internment of Japanese Americans, but where it failed another SCOTUS case was successful.

In 1945, the internment of Japanese Ameri­cans came to an end with the decision in Endo vs. United States. In the decision, SCOTUS ruled that the War Relocation Authority lacked the authority to subject Japanese Am­ericans to its leave procedures.

The case was brought us by Mitsaye Endo, who was the daughter of Japanese immigrants from Sacramento, CA. After filing a habeas corpus petition, the government offered to free Endo. However, Mitsaye Endo refused, wanting her case to address the entire issue of Japanese internment, not just her own case. Endo won the case and Japanese internment came to an end.

Reparations

The last Japanese internment closed in Uarch 1946, but it wasn't until 1976, during the Gerald Ford administrati-n, that Executive Order 9066 would offic­ially be repealed. In 1988, Congress issued an official apology and passed the Civil Liberties Act awarding $20,000 to over 80, 00 individuals as reparations for their treatment.

The Nazis in Europe, 1939-1945: Part Three

Hello readers. This post will be ex­amining the dark topic of the Holo­caust. I would like to preface this post with the following--history is full of uncomfortable topics, but I be­lieve that it's the uncomfortable topics that make us think on our morality and beliefs the most as human beings; I believe that if a historical topic makes you uncomfortable, it's one that should be covered in as much depth as pos­sible. As a historian, it's my duty to record the past and to share its importance with others, not to censor, limit, or "dumb down " what happened to protect the fragile constitutions of some of my readers. With that being said, let's dive into this topic.

The Holocaust is not an event that just happened overnight but happened because of apathy and complacency. The 1946 poem "First they came" by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller describes some of the steps the Nazis took toward their "Final Solution". The poem states:

"First they came for the Com­munists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Social­ists and 9 did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me

And there was no one left To speak out for me."

*Beginning of the War*

In September 1939, the German Army occupied the western half of Poland. German police forced thousands of Polish Jews from their homes and into ghettoes, and gave the confiscated property to ethnic Germans, Germans from the Reich, and Polish gentiles. The ghettos were surrounded by walls and barbed wire, functioning as a captive city-state. The ghettoes faced rampant overpopulation, unemployment, poverty, hunger, and disease.

Also in the fall of 1939, Nazi officials began the Euthanasia Program. In­itially, around 70, 000. Germans who were institutionalized for men­tal illness or disabilities were selected to be gassed to death during this program. Many prominent religious leaders spoke out against the Euthanasia Program, and Hitler put an end to the program in 1941, al th-ugh the killings continued in secret. By 1945, an estimated 275, 000 people deemed handicapped from all over Europe had been killed.

*Towards the Final Solution*

Throughout the spring and summer of 1940, the German Army expanded Hitler's Nazi empire conquering Den­mark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Beginning in 1941, Jews from all over the continent, as well as European Gypsies, were trans­ported to the previously mentioned Polish ghettoes. In June 1941, the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. Mobile killing units called Einsatzgruppen murdered more than 500,000 Soviet Jews over the course of the German occupation.

In the late summer of 1941, top Nazi leaders called for a "final solution" to the "Jewish problem", as worded in a July 31, 1941 memorandum written by Hitler's top commander Hermann Goering. 

As part of this "final solution," beginning in September 1941, every person designated as a Jew in German-held territory had to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing, marking them as targets for discrimination and worse.

Beginning in June 1941, Nazi scien­tists had started experimenting with different methods of mass killing at the concentration camp of Ausch­witz, near Krakow, Poland. In August, Nazi officials gassed 500 Soviet prisoners of war with the pesticide Zyklon-B. With the successful use of the Zyklon-B gas, the German SS placed a huge or­der of the gas with a pest-control firm.

*Holocaust Death Camps*

Beginning in late 1941, the German Army began the mass transportation of Jews from the ghettoes to the concentration camps. The people trans­ported to the concentration camps first were people the Nazis saw as being the least useful--the very young, the old, and the infirm--the populations the Nazis deemed as the weakest.

The first mass gassings began at the camp of Belzec, near Lublin, Poland, on March 17, 1942. Five more mass killing centers were built in occupied Poland--Chelmo, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. From 1942 to 1945, Jews and others the Nazis viewed as less than and not having a place in the Third Reich were deported to these camps where they were worked to death, experimented on, and killed in gas chambers; their bodies then being cremated or buried in mass graves. The heaviest of these deporta­tions took place during the summer and fall of 1942 where over 300,000 people were taken from the Warsaw Ghetto alone. Fed up with the deporta­tions and their forced living conditions, the people of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the Nazis in an armed revoIt. From April 19-May 16, 1943, the War­saw Ghetto Uprising took place; the uprising resulted in the death of 7,000 Jews with 50,000 survivors being sent to extermination camps. Because the resistence fighters were able to hold off the Nazis for nearly one month, people in other ghettos and camps in German-occupied territories were inspired to revolt as well.

The Nazis had attempted to keep the concentration camps a secret, but with the large scale mass killings that was impossible. Eyewitnesses had brought reports of the atrocities happening at these camps to the atten­tion of Allied governments. The Allies initially ignored these reports; they were focused on fighting the war at hand, and many people did not believe the reports because the reported atrocities seemed too unbelievable to be happening at such a large scale. At Auschwitz alone, more than two million people were murdered. Although only Jews were gassed, a large population of inmates worked at the forced labor camp there and suffered starva­tion and illness. In 1943, eugenicist Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz to begin his infamous experiments on the Jewish prisoners. Mengele is most well- known for his experiments on twins; in those experiments, he would inject them with vari­ous substances, such as chloroform and petrol, under the guise of giving them medical treatments. Mengele's experiments earned him the nickname "the Angel of Death."

*Nazi Rule Comes to an End, But the Holo­caust Continues*

In the spring of 1945, German leader- ship was crumbling as Hitler was hid­ing out in a bunker and his two top officials, Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering, both sought to take power. After writing his last will and political testament on April 29th in which he blamed the war on the Jews, Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945; and Germany's formal surrender in World War II came a week later, on May 8, 1945.

German forces had begun evacuating many of the death camps in the fall of 1944, sending inmates under guard to march further and further from the oncoming enemy's front line. These "death marches" continued all the way up to the German surrender and resulted in the deaths of 250,000- 375,000 people.

*Aftermath and Impact of the Holo­caust*

The wounds of the Holocaust cut deep, and the mid-to late-1940s saw an unprecedented number of refugees, POWs, and other displaced populations move across Europe. Survivors of the concentration camps found it difficult, even nearly impossible, to return home. Many survivors had lost their families and communities, and were denounced by their non-Jewish friends. As a re­sult, the Allied powers faced pressure to create a national homeland for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, and created the independent nation state of Israel in 1948.

In an effort to punish those responsible for the Holocaust, the Allies held the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1949. The Nuremberg Trials brought to light the Nazi atrocities dur­ing the war. The pump-se of the trials was to bring Nazi war criminals to jus­tice. The defendants (high ranking Nazi officials, military officers, indus­trialists, lawyers, and doctors) were in­dicted on various charges such as crimes against peace and crimes against hu­manity. The Nuremberg Trials established a precedent for how modern courts deal with instances of genocide and other crimes against humanity.

That wraps up the series of posts about the Nazis in Europe. Next time here on the blog, we'll be examining the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

The Nazis in Europe, 1939-1946: Part Two

Hello readers! Once again, I was feeling motivated to get some research and writing done so I could get this information out to you.

Today's post is going to be about key battles of World War II. Now, I'm not a military historian, and World War II isn't a topic I'm well versed in; the information in this post was taken directly from www.ancienthistorylists.com and was written by Saugat Adhikari. I'll put a link to the original article at the end of this post.

"The Second World War (1939–1945) was one of the deadliest events in the history of mankind. The war that claimed over 60 million lives across the globe saw many battles resulting in huge bloodshed on all sides. Some lasted for minutes while others went on for months and even years. Here is a list of the 10 major battles fought during the Second World War:

10. Battle of Kursk, July to August 1943

The Battle of Kursk was fought during the Second World War from July to August 1943. It was a series of offensives between the German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front near Kursk, 450 kilometers southwest of Moscow. Operation Citadel was the German codename for the offensive. It led to one of the largest ever armored clashes, the Battle of Prokhorovka, fought on July 12, 1943. The Battle of Kursk was an unsuccessful attempt by the Germans to take over the Soviet forces, and they lost a huge number of men and tanks in the process.

The Soviet line at Kursk was protruding into enemy territory and the Germans attempted to attack from different directions. The Soviet forces held off the offensive and launched counterattacks called Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev and Operation Kutuzov which helped reclaim the cities of Orel and Kharkov. This was the first time during the war that a German strategic offensive was halted before it could break through enemy lines. The German advance was 8 to 12 kilometers in the north and 35 kilometers in the south.

9. Battle of Berlin, April to May 1945

Also known as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, the Battle of Berlin was the final major offensive of the Second World War in Europe. After the Vistula-Oder Offensive of January–February 1945, the Red Army halted on a line 60 kilometers east of Berlin. Operation Clausewitz was the German defense plan against the Soviet attack. After the Soviet offensive was resumed on April 16, the city was attacked from the east and south, and a third force countered the Germans in the north. A Soviet soldier described the enormous amount of equipment deployed during the attack.

The Soviet army was successful in encircling the city and on April 20, 1945, also Hitler’s birthday, the 1st Belorussian Front started shelling the city center, while the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced to the southern suburbs. Hitler and a number of his followers committed suicide before the battle was over. The city surrendered on May 2 while fighting continued to the northwest, west and southwest of the city until May 8, when the war finally ended in Europe. After this battle, the city of Berlin was divided into four as agreed by the Allies.

8. Battle of Moscow, October 1941 to January 1942

The Battle of Moscow represents two significant periods of fighting on the Eastern Front during the Second World War from October 1941 to January 1942. By early October, after four million casualties on the Soviet side, the German army had come to within 200 miles of Moscow. This was when Operation Typhoon was launched, an offensive intended to seize the Soviet capital and put an end to the campaign. But the reality turned out to be far from what either side had expected.

The Soviets had a huge but badly organized army. The Germans, on the other hand, with their expertise and equipment could have won any war on the planet. But due to the freezing weather and inability to get supplies through to the Panzer Army, the Soviet defense was able to hold off the Germans. The poor-quality Russian roads had taken out about 40 percent of the German truck fleet and by the time the Germans were within 15 miles (24 kilometers) of Moscow, they were battered and exhausted. The Soviets defended the city by constructing three defensive belts, deploying new armies and bringing troops from the Siberian and Far Eastern Military Districts.

7. Second Battle of Kharkov, May 1942

The Second Battle of Kharkov was fought from May 12 to 28, 1942. It was an Axis counter-offensive in the region around Kharkov against the Red Army on the Eastern Front. The objective of the offensive was to eliminate the Izium bridgehead over Seversky Donets or the “Barvenkovo bulge,” an area known for staging Soviet offensives. After the Battle of Moscow, which drove the German forces away from the Soviet capital, the Kharkov Offensive was a new attempt from the Soviet side to expand their strategic initiative.

On May 12, 1942, under the command of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, the Soviet forces attacked the German 6th Army from a salient established during the winter counterattacks. This offensive further depleted the Red Army’s reserves and failed to gain a significant element of surprise. Initially there were promising signs for the Red Army but the offensives were stopped by German counterattacks. Joseph Stalin and several staff officers made critical errors in underestimating the 6th Army’s potential and overestimating their own forces. This cut off the advancing Soviet troops from the rest of the front. The battle led to almost 300,000 casualties on the Soviet side and 20,000 for the Germans and their allies.

6. Battle of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

The devastating attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by Operation AI of the Japanese Imperial Army, was a complete surprise and took place on December 7, 1941. This attack marked a climax in the worsening relationship between Japan and the Unites States. Once the US fleet was out of their way, the road to conquering all of Southeast Asia and the Indonesian archipelago would open up for the Japanese.

On November 26, a Japanese fleet including six aircraft carriers, two battleships, three cruisers, and eleven destroyers sailed 275 miles north of Hawaii. About 360 planes were launched from this point for the final assault. Four US Navy battleships were sunk and the remaining four were damaged. Additionally three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer were also sunk or damaged. A total of 2,403 Americans died in the attack and 1,178 others were wounded. This surprise attack came as a shock to the American people and led to the US entering the Second World War in both Europe and the Pacific. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan.

5. Battle of France, May to June 1940

The German invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 is known as the Battle of France or the Fall of France. In a short space of six weeks starting on May 10, 1940, the German forces defeated the Allies and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Italy also tried to invade France by entering the war on June 10, 1940. The land operations on the Western Front from the German side were all over by June 6, 1944.

The Battle of France saw two main operations on the German side. Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) saw the armored German units break through the Ardennes along the Somme Valley cutting off and surrounding the Allied units advancing to Belgium. After the Belgian and French forces were driven back to the sea, the British evacuated their own troops and several French divisions from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. After the British troops left, Fall Rot (Case Red) began on June 5. The remaining French divisions resisted but were soon overcome. Paris was occupied by German forces on June 14. After the battle, France was divided up and occupied by Germany, Italy, and the neutral Vichy government.

4. Battle of Britain, July to October 1940

After the fall of France, Hitler expected the British to seek a peace settlement with Germany, but Britain continued to fight. To bring the war to a quick end Hitler planned an invasion of Britain, codenamed Operation Sealion. For the operation to be successful, the Germans had to first secure the skies over the United Kingdom which were protected by the Royal Air Force (RAF). Germany had been banned from having an air force after the First World War but the Nazi government had reestablished it and it was one of the most formidable air forces in the world. The RAF fought the Germans off with the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire, two of the best fighter aircraft in the world.

Unable to gain advantage over the RAF, the Germans shifted their focus to London. This would be a critical error by the Germans, because despite the devastation it caused to the residents of London, it also gave the British defenses time to recover. On September 15, the British resisted another massive attack by the Germans who suffered many losses. Later, Hitler postponed Operation Sealion indefinitely. This victory was one of the most important for Britain and proof that air power alone could be used to win a major battle.

3. Battle of Midway, June 1942

The Japanese planned to eliminate the United States’ position as a strategic power in the Pacific by launching the Battle of Midway. At the start of the battle, the Americans were outnumbered about 2 to 1. Between June 4 and 7, 1942, the Battle of Midway began with the US side commanded by Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance and the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo. Largely due to developments in codebreaking, the US was able to predict the date and location of the attack, giving them the upper hand.

The Japanese plan was also a failure due to their incorrect assumptions about the American mindset. All of the four large Japanese aircraft carriers which were a part of the force that attacked Pearl Harbor were sunk while the US only lost the carrier Yorktown and a destroyer. Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Americans had earned a decisive victory over the Japanese and gained an offensive position for the Allies. Military historian John Keegan called the Battle of Midway one of the most stunning and decisive moments in the history of naval warfare.

2. Battle of Normandy, June to August 1944

The Battle of Normandy was codenamed Operation Overlord. With Operation Overload, the Allies launched the largest amphibious invasion of Normandy to free German-occupied Western Europe during the Second World War. Commonly known as D-Day, the operation was launched on June 6, 1944 with the Normandy landings. About 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on the same day and over two million Allied troops had reached France by the end of August. Special technology was developed to cope with the conditions on the Normandy beaches, including artificial ports known as “Mulberry harbors” and a series of specialized tanks called Hobart’s Funnies.

The Allies carried out a military deception plan called Operation Bodyguard in which electronic and visual misinformation tricked the Germans over the date and location of the main landings. The Allies did not attain their objectives on the first day but gained substantial momentum and captured the port of Cherbourg on June 26 and the city of Caen on July 21. Operation Dragoon was launched to invade southern France followed by the liberation of Paris on August 25. By August 30, 1944, the German forces had retreated across the Seine which marked the end of Operation Overlord.

1. Battle of Stalingrad, July 1942 to February 1943

Considered by many historians as the turning point of the Second World War, the Battle of Stalingrad was fought between July 1942 and February 1943. The German army suffered many losses, after which it began its full retreat and the war turned in favor of the Allies. The Russians consider this battle to be the greatest of the Second World War, and it is also known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia. The battle was devastating with nearly two million military and civilian casualties, one of the greatest losses in military history. 

The German 6th Army was not required to fight the battle. Army groups A and B were already on their way to the Caucasus in southwest Russia to secure the oil fields there when Hitler ordered the attack on the city. While it was generally unwise to leave a major city unconquered during an advance, some historians believe that it was mainly Hitler’s personal hatred of the Russian leader Stalin (whose name was part of the city’s identity) which led to the attack. For simple reasons of morale, the Russian army could not afford to lose the city.

Conclusion

Of all the battles fought during World War II, these were the most prominent and had a lasting impact on the final outcome. These offensives and assaults brought about millions of military and civilian casualties as some of the battles directly targeted cities like London, Stalingrad, and Moscow. Led by generals, admirals and commanders with tremendous strength on both sides, each battle’s successes and failures slowly paved the way for the final Allied victory in 1945. "

Link to original post: Ten Major Battles of World War II