The War to End All Wars
World war one was the first global conflict that introduced new machinery. Tanks, gas attacks, machine guns, and airplanes were invented during the war. It was so terrible that it was called the Great War. It began when a Serbian man assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand wanted to be king of Austria Hungary a powerful empire in central Europe.
Soon Austria declared war on Serbia. Other countries in Europe had alliances so they joined either side. A conflict that began as two countries quickly began as a global war. The opposing sides were the central powers. They were Austria Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, which is modern day Turkey.
Examples of the allied powers were the United States, England, France, Russia, and Serbia. Trench warfare was a big part of world war one. Soldiers had to defend a trench against incoming enemy attacks. Trenches were not wide the opposing side had to cross the ground between the trenches also knows as a no man’s land. Trench warfare was so deadly that tanks were invented.
The British army kept it secret and used the tanks to end the month- long Battle of the Somme. Eventually the allies started winning battles like the Second Battle of the Marne pushed the German army back. The first tank vs. tank battle was fought at Villers- Boudreaux. The war ended with the treaty of Versailles. The treaty was supposed to end all future wars.
The League of Nations a predecessor to the United Nations was created. The league was created under President Woodrow Wilsons 14 points speech it was supposed to keep the peace and prevent future wars. But the treaty created another war. World War II was a long and bloody conflict. Leaders like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini started gaining power. Hilter Blamed the Jews for Germany’s problems.
He wanted to interrogate anti Semitism propaganda into everyday German life. He even created the Hilter youth where all German children who were “racially pure” went. Hitler wanted to make Germany “racially pure” to do this he needed to eradicate the Jewish race from Germany. Soon enough Nazi Germany was taking European countries one by one. The French surrendered in 1940 and the Germans occupied France. But England was not ready to quit Prime Minister Winston Churchill one said “We shall fight them on the beaches we shall fight them on the fields and on the streets and we shall never surrender.
” The royal air force managed to control British skies by fighting the German air force or Luftwaffe in a type of aerial warfare called dog fighting. The U.S. wanted to remain neutral but shipped supplies to England to support its war effort. But Japan wanted to go to war. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed the U.
S. naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This dragged the U.S. into war.
After The U.S. declared war on Japan, Hitler declared war on America. Meanwhile in Europe the German army invaded the Soviet Union in an attempt to capture Moscow. The Germans their invasion of the Soviet Union called it Operation Barbarossa.The Red army defended Moscow and pushed the German army back.
In Leningrad a siege started the Siege of Leningrad lasted from 1941-1944. Over 1 Million casualties occurred at Leningrad. Other sieges occurred like the siege of Stalingrad. Meanwhile in the pacific the Americans retook the Solomon islands the most famous of these battles was Guadalcanal. Also many important naval battles were fought the Japanese imperial navy was nearing total destruction after Midway after losing 4 of its aircraft carriers. During 1944 the allies were preparing for the end of war.
A lot happened in 1944, the 3-year siege of Leningrad ended and the German army withdrawed from Russia. The allies were preparing to invade German occupied France by a massive invasion know as Operation Overlord commonly know as D-Day. The allies had a long time preparing and rehearsing. The allies carried a lot of medical supplies including blood plasma and prosthetic limbs. They even made the Germans believe that the invasion would be at Pont de Calais instead of Normandy. They did this by using blow up tanks and military equipment so that German recon planes would mistake them as real.
They even made tracks for the tanks to mimic movement. The allies invaded Nazi occupied France on June 6, 1944. They stormed on the beaches while machine gun fire rained down on them. They won many battles in France and liberated Paris, the French capital ending the German occupation. After the French liberation, the allies were sure that they could win the war by Christmas 1944.
To do this, they made a lightning invasion of Holland called Operation Market Garden. They wanted to punch through Holland punch through Berlin and Kill Hitler and win the war. Unfortunately, the plan was a failure over 17,000 allied soldiers died and a final end battle called the Battle of the Bulge. The bulge was a Major German offensive fought in three different countries, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Fortunately the allies win, the United States suffered 89,500 casualties, the Germans 100,000.
It was called a German operational failure it pushed the German army back. In 1945 the war was closing allied forces were advancing on Berlin and island hopping in the pacific was reaching Japan. The Russians would flank Berlin on the right the Americans and British on the left. Along their way they pasted concentration camps. The Holocaust has been going on for many years. It was the plan to exterminate the Jewish race from the Europe by mass murder.
Actually, Hitler and the Nazis never used the term “Holocaust.” They called it the “Final solution of the Jewish question”. Over 6 million people died during the holocaust. Most were sent to concentration camps, they were promised showers but water did not come out of the showerhead what came out was gas. Originally the plan was to eradicate the Jews from Germany.
But after many countries fell to Germany the plan changed to mass murder. In the Pacific, the US won Iwo Jima a small island near Japan. The photo of 6 marines raising the American flag over Mt. Surabachi became one of the most iconic images of the war. Then, the U.
S. wanted to take Okinawa an island even closer to Japan than Iwo Jima. The U.S. would show up with massive force.
So the Japanese imperial navy presented their best warship the Yamato. The Yamato had 18 inch Main guns the biggest on any warship at that time. It was also the biggest warship at that time. The Japanese navy wanted it to beach itself on a sandbar and fire at approaching American ships. But the ship was ambushed by American fighters and was sunk by multiple torpedo and rocket hits. The Japanese also used Kamikazes or suicidal planes.
Kamikaze literally means “divine wind”. Pilots of kamikaze aircraft would fly their lanes at high speed into American destroyer ships and sink them after multiple hits. But the Americans were able to get past this and take Okinawa. Japan was next to fall. In the European front things got better. The red army advanced into Germany from the east, while to U.
S. British and French attacked from the west. In the east, the Russians punched through Seelow heights the last line of defense before Berlin. After punching through Seelow, they advanced into Berlin. The battle for Berlin was a fierce conflict.
The Russians advanced towards the Reichstag, the German parliament building and the last German stronghold, Soon a battle for the Reichstag begun. There were 300 German defenders. The soviets attack on the Reichstag halted when the Germans started firing their 12.8 cm guns far away. It was not until evening until the soviets entered the Reichstag. Fierce room-to-room fighting was used.
The Reichstag wasn’t used after the fire of 1933 but the Germans made good defenses in it and the allies used the Reichstag as a symbol of Nazi Germany. By May 2, 1945 the soviets had complete control of the Reichstag and planted their flag. The photo called “Razing a flag of the Reichstag” is a symbol of Nazi Germanys defeat and allied victory over Germany. The victory won in Europe now must be won in the pacific. In the pacific things got better after the U.S.
won Okinawa, some of the best scientists gathered together for the Manhattan project. The Manhattan project was the codename for the atomic bomb. It was a plan to defeat Japan. On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima killing thousands of people instantly. It was dropped by the Enola Gay.
On August 9, 1945 the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. After the bombings Japan Surrendered and World War II was over. The effects of World War II were devastating. Entire cities in Europe were destroyed due to air raids. In the Pacific Bombing raids destroyed many islands jungles. The human cost was also devastating.
60 million people were killed during World War II. Generations of young men were lost. Even today the effects of both world wars shattered human life. The effects of the holocaust also changed human lives forever. Many people lost their homes.
Their families, their possessions, and their lives the effects of the atomic bombs killed many people after the bombs were dropped. In Europe many people lost their homes, their lives, their families. The effects of war are devastating. No such war will happen again. No such mass murder will happen again. No such war between the world’s most powerful nations will ever happen again.
We should all work together to make the world a peaceful place. As one Holocaust survivor said, “No such event will happen again, and the world will be safe for our children, for all children.” World war one was the first global conflict that introduced new machinery. Tanks, gas attacks, machine guns, and airplanes were invented during the war. It was so terrible that it was called the Great War.
It began when a Serbian man assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand wanted to be king of Austria Hungary a powerful empire in central Europe. Soon Austria declared war on Serbia. Other countries in Europe had alliances so they joined either side. A conflict that began as two countries quickly began as a global war. The opposing sides were the central powers.
They were Austria Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, which is modern day Turkey. Examples of the allied powers were the United States, England, France, Russia, and Serbia. Trench warfare was a big part of world war one. Soldiers had to defend a trench against incoming enemy attacks. Trenches were not wide the opposing side had to cross the ground between the trenches also knows as a no man’s land.
Trench warfare was so deadly that tanks were invented. The British army kept it secret and used the tanks to end the month- long Battle of the Somme. Eventually the allies started winning battles like the Second Battle of the Marne pushed the German army back. The first tank vs. tank battle was fought at Villers- Boudreaux. The war ended with the treaty of Versailles.
The treaty was supposed to end all future wars. The League of Nations a predecessor to the United Nations was created. The league was created under President Woodrow Wilsons 14 points speech it was supposed to keep the peace and prevent future wars. But the treaty created another war. World War II was a long and bloody conflict. Leaders like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini started gaining power.
Hilter Blamed the Jews for Germany’s problems. He wanted to interrogate anti Semitism propaganda into everyday German life. He even created the Hilter youth where all German children who were “racially pure” went. Hitler wanted to make Germany “racially pure” to do this he needed to eradicate the Jewish race from Germany. Soon enough Nazi Germany was taking European countries one by one.
The French surrendered in 1940 and the Germans occupied France. But England was not ready to quit Prime Minister Winston Churchill one said “We shall fight them on the beaches we shall fight them on the fields and on the streets and we shall never surrender.” The royal air force managed to control British skies by fighting the German air force or Luftwaffe in a type of aerial warfare called dog fighting. The U.S.
wanted to remain neutral but shipped supplies to England to support its war effort. But Japan wanted to go to war. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed the U.S. naval base of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This dragged the U.
S. into war. After The U.S. declared war on Japan, Hitler declared war on America.
Meanwhile in Europe the German army invaded the Soviet Union in an attempt to capture Moscow. The Germans their invasion of the Soviet Union called it Operation Barbarossa.The Red army defended Moscow and pushed the German army back. In Leningrad a siege started the Siege of Leningrad lasted from 1941-1944. Over 1 Million casualties occurred at Leningrad.
Other sieges occurred like the siege of Stalingrad. Meanwhile in the pacific the Americans retook the Solomon islands the most famous of these battles was Guadalcanal. Also many important naval battles were fought the Japanese imperial navy was nearing total destruction after Midway after losing 4 of its aircraft carriers. During 1944 the allies were preparing for the end of war. A lot happened in 1944, the 3-year siege of Leningrad ended and the German army withdrawed from Russia. The allies were preparing to invade German occupied France by a massive invasion know as Operation Overlord commonly know as D-Day.
The allies had a long time preparing and rehearsing. The allies carried a lot of medical supplies including blood plasma and prosthetic limbs. They even made the Germans believe that the invasion would be at Pont de Calais instead of Normandy. They did this by using blow up tanks and military equipment so that German recon planes would mistake them as real. They even made tracks for the tanks to mimic movement. The allies invaded Nazi occupied France on June 6, 1944.
They stormed on the beaches while machine gun fire rained down on them. They won many battles in France and liberated Paris, the French capital ending the German occupation. After the French liberation, the allies were sure that they could win the war by Christmas 1944. To do this, they made a lightning invasion of Holland called Operation Market Garden. They wanted to punch through Holland punch through Berlin and Kill Hitler and win the war. Unfortunately, the plan was a failure over 17,000 allied soldiers died and a final end battle called the Battle of the Bulge.
The bulge was a Major German offensive fought in three different countries, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Fortunately the allies win, the United States suffered 89,500 casualties, the Germans 100,000. It was called a German operational failure it pushed the German army back. In 1945 the war was closing allied forces were advancing on Berlin and island hopping in the pacific was reaching Japan. The Russians would flank Berlin on the right the Americans and British on the left.
Along their way they pasted concentration camps. The Holocaust has been going on for many years. It was the plan to exterminate the Jewish race from the Europe by mass murder. Actually, Hitler and the Nazis never used the term “Holocaust.” They called it the “Final solution of the Jewish question”. Over 6 million people died during the holocaust.
Most were sent to concentration camps, they were promised showers but water did not come out of the showerhead what came out was gas. Originally the plan was to eradicate the Jews from Germany. But after many countries fell to Germany the plan changed to mass murder. In the Pacific, the US won Iwo Jima a small island near Japan. The photo of 6 marines raising the American flag over Mt. Surabachi became one of the most iconic images of the war.
Then, the U.S. wanted to take Okinawa an island even closer to Japan than Iwo Jima. The U.S.
would show up with massive force. So the Japanese imperial navy presented their best warship the Yamato. The Yamato had 18 inch Main guns the biggest on any warship at that time. It was also the biggest warship at that time. The Japanese navy wanted it to beach itself on a sandbar and fire at approaching American ships.
But the ship was ambushed by American fighters and was sunk by multiple torpedo and rocket hits. The Japanese also used Kamikazes or suicidal planes. Kamikaze literally means “divine wind”. Pilots of kamikaze aircraft would fly their lanes at high speed into American destroyer ships and sink them after multiple hits. But the Americans were able to get past this and take Okinawa.
Japan was next to fall. In the European front things got better. The red army advanced into Germany from the east, while to U.S. British and French attacked from the west.
In the east, the Russians punched through Seelow heights the last line of defense before Berlin. After punching through Seelow, they advanced into Berlin. The battle for Berlin was a fierce conflict. The Russians advanced towards the Reichstag, the German parliament building and the last German stronghold, Soon a battle for the Reichstag begun. There were 300 German defenders. The soviets attack on the Reichstag halted when the Germans started firing their 12.
8 cm guns far away. It was not until evening until the soviets entered the Reichstag. Fierce room-to-room fighting was used. The Reichstag wasn’t used after the fire of 1933 but the Germans made good defenses in it and the allies used the Reichstag as a symbol of Nazi Germany. By May 2, 1945 the soviets had complete control of the Reichstag and planted their flag. The photo called “Razing a flag of the Reichstag” is a symbol of Nazi Germanys defeat and allied victory over Germany.
The victory won in Europe now must be won in the pacific. In the pacific things got better after the U.S. won Okinawa, some of the best scientists gathered together for the Manhattan project. The Manhattan project was the codename for the atomic bomb.
It was a plan to defeat Japan. On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima killing thousands of people instantly. It was dropped by the Enola Gay. On August 9, 1945 the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. After the bombings Japan Surrendered and World War II was over.
The effects of World War II were devastating. Entire cities in Europe were destroyed due to air raids. In the Pacific Bombing raids destroyed many islands jungles. The human cost was also devastating. 60 million people were killed during World War II.
Generations of young men were lost. Even today the effects of both world wars shattered human life. The effects of the holocaust also changed human lives forever. Many people lost their homes. Their families, their possessions, and their lives the effects of the atomic bombs killed many people after the bombs were dropped.
In Europe many people lost their homes, their lives, their families. The effects of war are devastating. No such war will happen again. No such mass murder will happen again. No such war between the world’s most powerful nations will ever happen again. We should all work together to make the world a peaceful place.
As one Holocaust survivor said, “No such event will happen again, and the world will be safe for our children, for all children.”