Informative Speech Essay, Research Paper

World War II

In this chapter it discusses the most destructive war of all time, World War II. It was the war of all the world part two. Although the casualties were as much as the first war there was more destruction and many new inventions were started from the war.

From the start of the war the Americans weren t at all prepared. Ending immigration was the beginning of what to come. Americans were so scared of their Japanese counterparts, that they put all the Japanese-Americans into war camps afraid of any war crimes committed inside the country. The Americans went through mass production of ammunition than ever before. There was an avalanche of weaponry that was produced by American factories; it included 40 billion bullets; 300,000 aircrafts; 76,000 ships; 86,000 tanks; and 2.6 million machine guns.

At the beginning of the war the Axis Powers were taking control of the world. Japan was taken over the Philippines when they defeated General Douglas McArthur s army. Then the Japanese fleet took over New Guinea and the Soloman Islands by defeating the American fleets. Next, the Japanese were looking to take over the island of Midway, which is located 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. This was a strategic threat by the Japanese on the Americans so they can pick apart the already disabled Pearl Harbor and work their way onto the mainland, which spelled trouble for the Americans. Under the lead of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, the Americans went on to try to stop this from happening. The fighting was all done by aircraft; the Japanese broke off action losing four important carriers.

There was another end of the world that was still fighting in the same war. The Germans and the Italians occupied most of Europe and a lot of Northern Africa. The German U-boats (also know as submarines) were the latest invention in this war. They were taking out many ships in the North Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. In the ten months of 1942 more than 500 merchant ships were reported lost out of that 111 of that in June alone. Ship destruction far outran construction. In El Alamien, Egypt the Germans were working on taking over the British territory of Egypt. British General Bernard Montgomery delivered a crucial attack on the Germans with the aid of several hundred shipped American Sherman tanks. He quickly drove the enemy back to the neighboring country of Tunisia more than 1,000 miles west.

On the Soviet front in September 1942 the Russians stalled the German assault at Stalingrad. This turned out to be a big mistake in Hitler s military plan. The whole German fleet was caught in an icy noose, later surrendered or were wiped away by the Russians strong wall. A year later Stalin regained about 2/3 of the Soviet land from the Germans.

In August 1943; American, British and Canadian forces took over Sicily, Italy in hoping to take over Italy. The new Rome government overthrew Mussolini. Italy surrendered unconditionally in August of 1943. The Italians were taken over by the Allies but had to go up against the Germans who had refused to let go of Italy. For months of battle Rome was taken on June 4, 1944. On May 2, 1945 five days before the German surrender several hundred thousand Axis troops in Italy surrendered.

Now was time for the Allies to finish off the Germans and let Europe out of this war. The Allies were going to invade the Germans on the France and German border. This area was called Normandy. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the big operation that involved 4,600 vessels that was unwound. Germany was slowly get chewed up by the Allied forces. In October of 1944 the first important German city (Aachen) fell to the Americans.

On December 16, 1944 the crippled German army staked everything he had against a thin American line in the Ardennes forest. The ten-day battle halted when the 101st Airborne Division stood firm at the vital bastion of Bastogne. Later, the world found out of the death camps that were scattered in Germany, Austria and Poland. The world was shocked that such a massive genocide went unnoticed. More than 6 million Jews were killed. On May 7, 1945, what was left of the German government surrendered unconditionally. This day was known as V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day).

Japan was the only Axis Power country left. Americans set up a firebomb raid in Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945. It destroyed 250,000 buildings and killed an estimated 83,000 people. This loss was comparable of the Atomic Bombs that later came. General McArthur was on the move and freed New Guinea and the Philippines of Japanese rule. After a lot of fighting and the death of President Roosevelt April 12, 1945, new President Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin and British leaders agreed to threaten the Japanese by telling them, surrender or be destroyed. The Japanese ignored such strong words. On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on military-base Hiroshima where it killed 180,000 people. After this the Japanese refused to surrender. Three days later, on August 9, dropped a second atomic bomb on the naval-base city of Nagasaki. This destructive blast took a toll of 80,000 people died or were missing. On August 14, 1945 Japan surrendered. On September 2, 1945 the official surrender ceremonies were conducted this day was know as V-J Day (Victory in Japan Day). This marked the end of the war.