World War II- A Total War for All

WWII starts on September 1, 1939. It is a conflict that will involve all areas of the world. It will cost 55 million people their lives. Financially, it will cost countries billions of dollars. For example, the United States will spend $341 billion dollars to prosecute this war. Over 300,000 Americans will die in this war.

The Soviet Union will bear the greatest human toll. They will sacrifice 20 million people during the war.

Millions of innocent people will be killed, including the victims of the Holocaust.

The start of the war...

USSR-German

Non-Aggression Pact Signing

The United States prepares for war with a peace time draft. We also pass Lend-Lease laws to support our allies. On 12/7/1941 Japan launches an assault on the Pacific Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On 12/8/1941 the United States declares war. This in not unexpected since the Japanese Imperial Government and the US have limited diplomatic talks due to the Americans freezing Japanese assets, stopping sales to Japan of oil and scrap metals and the consequences Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Chinese mainland.

The US quickly mobilizes for war and FDR assumes greater powers to conduct the war. Citizens make numerous sacrifices for the war effort.

Hitler

Nazi’s

conquest.

Hitler views Paris after Nazi conquest, 1940.

Attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.

The Pacific strategy included several major naval battles including Coral Sea, Midway and Leyte Gulf. The technique of “island hopping” is developed to overtake territories quickly. Soon the US forces are able to command control over the Pacific after early Japanese victories.

In October of 1944 General MacArthur leads US forces back into the Philippine Island in the last major assault before the proposed invasion of Japan.

Japanese Americans being sent to relocation camps in the western part of the United States.

Big Three at Teheran 1943.

Omaha Beach 1944.

Buzz Bomb V-1 before it explodes in London, 1944.

In the European theater, the Allied invasion of France along the beaches of Normandy has left Germany fighting battles in the east, south and west.

In a desperate attempt to weaken the Allies Hitler orders a major advance in what becomes known as the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945). By the end of the battle it is clear that Germany is in a desperate situation.

Through the use of clever deception, misinformation and by providing numerical superiority in weaponry and people the Axis powers in Europe are vanquished.

Horrifying discoveries await the Allies when they go past the Siegfried Line into territories deep inside the Third Reich.

United States troops move into Germany.

Concentration

camp locations.

SS round up Jews in Warsaw, Poland.

Being forced to wear the Star of David.

Inmate at Treblinka.

NAZI terror on display for residents in towns near the Buchenwald death camp.

The once proud German army is drafting soldiers at 16 years of age and is relying on older men as well to bolster their army.

The Allies drop leaflets like this urging German forces to surrender. Germany finally does on May 2, 1945.

“Its time to surrender.”

Mass surrender of Germans 1945.

Big Three at Yalta. FDR dies one month later. Churchill is voted out of office.

America wins the war because its citizens organize massive drives to provide the troops with clothing, food and materials necessary to conduct war.

All Americans feel the need to destroy totalitarian governments that threaten the personal liberties of all people. The “citizen soldier” is seen as a key element in the victory.

“A week later, on 1 November, USS Claxton was hit in one of the first deliberate suicide plane attacks of the war by a Japanese plane that exploded in the water to starboard, killing five and wounding 23.”

destroyerhistory.org

Myuncle,BobLogan

1945“On 1 July, Shangri-La got underway from Leyte to return to the combat zone. On the 2d, the oath of office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air was administered to John L. Sullivan on board Shangri-La, the first ceremony of its type ever undertaken in a combat zone. Eight days later, her air group commenced a series of air strikes against Japan which lasted until the capitulation on 15 August.”

My father standing somewhere near mid-ship on the way home from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was a radar operator.

VE Day London

Harry S. Truman takes over for FDR who dies(4/12/45) in Georgia. Truman is told of a device that might end the war early and save tens of thousands of lives. In July the US successfully tests its first a-bomb. Japan is asked to surrender. On August 3, 1945 Japan refuses to surrender. On August 6, 1945 the single plane, Enola Gay, drops a bomb that kills 80,000 people. After a second bomb is dropped Japan surrenders on August 14.

Nagasaki

Explosion

August 1945

Nagasaki after the atomic bomb is dropped.

Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

VJ Day Times Square NYC

Trial of Nazi war criminals.

Countries Total Dead % ofPop Military Deaths Civilian DeathsUSSR 20,600,000 10.4% 13,600,000 7,000,000CHINA 10,000,000 2.0%GERMANY 6,850,000 9.5% 3,250,000 3,600,000POLAND 6,123,000 17.2% 123,000 6,000,000JAPAN 2,000,000 2.7%YUGOSL 1,706,000 10.9%FRANCE 810,000 1.9% 340,000 470,000GREECE 520,000 7.2%USA 500,000 0.4% 500,000AUSTRIA 480,000 7.2%ROMANIA 460,000 3.4%HUNGARY 420,000 3.0%ITALY 410,000 0.9% 330,000 80,000CZECH 400,000 2.7%BRITAIN 388,000 0.8% 326,000 62,000HOLLAND 210,000 2.4% 198,000 12,000BELGIUM 88,000 1.1% 76,000 12,000FINLAND 84,000 2.2%AUSTRALIA 39,000 0.3%CANADA 34,000 0.3%ALBANIA 28,000 2.5%INDIA 24,000 0.01%NORWAY 10,262 0.3%NEW ZEALAND 10,000 0.6%LUXEMBOURG 5,000 1.7%TOTAL 52,199,262