World War II

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1939 - 1945

"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special news bulletin...Pearl Harbor has been attacked by the Japanese!"

War for most Americans began on Sunday, December 7th 1941, when the Japanese Navy attacked Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Within days the United States was again at War.  Just as before, we were unprepared.  Many of the new recruits had to train with wooden rifles and pretended trucks were tanks.  However, the Nation quickly began to equip our men and women in the ranks by stepping up production and allowing into the work force thousands of women.  But how did the world once again become engaged in war?

With the end of the Great War, "the war to end all wars," in 1918, the United States returned to a foreign policy of isolation.  The United States Senate refused to approve our membership in the League of Nations, proposed and created by President Woodrow Wilson.  The Central Powers had been defeated, forced to surrender unconditionally and agree to the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, ending the armed conflict.  Germany's empire was reduced and the spoils were divided among the European Allied Powers.

During the 1920's Germany, as well as the United States, suffered severe economic depression.  While the United States had a strong leader in Franklin D. Roosevelt (who served an unprecedented 4 terms as President) to bring  us out of the Great Depression, Germany was in a state of political unrest and humiliation, as a result of her defeat in the Great War and the subsequent partitioning of her empire.  From this emerged a charismatic figure in Germany by the name of Adolf Hitler.  Through political ruses, propaganda, mob violence and intimidation, he was able to come to power.  He promised the people jobs, money, food, pride and the re-unification of the "fatherland". 

In 1939 Germany invaded Poland, followed by most of Europe, Greece and Egypt by early 1940.  France was occupied, and the plans for the invasion of England and Russia began. 

On the other side of the world, Japan began an imperialistic move to bring under her domain and sphere of influence the regions of Manchuria, China, Korea, and Southeast Asia.  When Japan invaded China and attacked the city of Shanghai, US volunteers were sent to assist in stopping the Japanese. These men formed a unit call the "Flying Tigers", commanded by Claire Lee Chennault.

The war for the US was fought on two fronts, and the headlines began to have phrases like "Blitzkrieg", "Kamikaze", "U-Boats" and "D-Day".

European Theater of Operations (ETO)
Some of the first units to fight in the ETO were given a harsh lesson in war at Kasserine Pass.  Soon the US invaded North Africa, jumped into Sicily and Anzio, pushed onto Rome and soft underbelly of Europe.  While these battle were taking place, a massive invasion force was being formed in England for the invasion of Normandy.  On June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord (D-Day) began with lighting strikes of Paratroopers at 0015,  followed by assaults on beaches code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. 

Once a foothold was gained on the beaches, the Allies began to break out of the hedgerow country and onto the liberation of Paris, followed by a massive Airborne invasion of Holland in September 1944.  While the Germans were falling back on all fonts, our lines were drawn thin, and Hitler tried one last offensive and broke through the lines in the Ardennes.  In December 1944 the eyes of the nation fell on a little town called Bastogne as General George S. Patton broke though the German lines to relieve the "Battered Bastards of Bastogne" the 101st Airborne Division. Quickly recovering the Allies punched across the Rhine River and into the heart of Germany, linking up with the Russians and discovering the atrocities that Hitler had committed against millions of people in the concentration camps.

The prize of capturing Hitler ended with his suicide outside the "Fuhrer Bunker" in Berlin, and Germany surrender on May 7, 1945 at 0241, with the official ceremony held of May 8th ....V-E Day.

Pacific Theater of Operations
After the attack on Pear Harbor, the Japanese quickly sought to take Midway, Guam and Wake Island.  The US Navy had to quickly get the fleet back into the fight, and aircraft carriers became one of the key weapons.  The US launched the "Doolittle Raid" on the Japanese homeland helping the moral of the troops and the nation, by launching bombers for the first time in history from the deck of carriers.  Naval battles at Coral Sea, Midway Island, the Marianas, Leyte and start of the "Island Hopping" campaigns at Guadalcanal, Wake, Saipan,  and Iwo Jima would show the world of the determination of the US. 

General Douglas MacArthur was forced to evacuate the Philippines, but vowed "I shall return", and in February 1945 Corregidor was retaken.  Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa began on April 1, 1945 which lasted 82 days. These amphibious assaults by US Marine Corps and Army units did not come with out cost, the Marines on Iwo Jima alone took 20-30% casualties in two days.

On August 6, 1945 the United States, ordered by President Harry S. Truman, dropped the first Atomic-Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and a second one on Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945. The Emperor, who had been preparing for the invasion of the Japanese homeland, immediately capitulated.

World War II finally came to an end officially with the unconditional surrender of Japan on the deck of the battleship, USS MISSOURI. While war with Japan had ended on August 15, 1945, V-J Day is celebrated on September 2, when the surrender document was signed in Tokyo Bay.  The flag that had flown over the US Capitol on December 7, 1941, was the same flown aboard the USS MISSOURI during the surrender ceremony.

The men and women who fought (and supported the war effort) during World War II would be called "The Greatest Generation".  But if you ask them, they were just doing their duty and answering the call to arms.  WWII would see minorities and women serving in the armed forces in organizations such as the WAVES, WACS and WASP.  The most decorated unit in US history was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which consisted of Japanese-Americans, while the all-black 332nd Fighter Group, the "Tuskegee Airmen", also had an impressive war record. 

 The men returned home, and soon the term "Baby Boomers" was heard around the nation.  Advances in military equipment such as proximity fuses, aircraft carriers, tanks, jeeps, jet aircraft, the Atomic bomb, Norden Bombsight, and Radar played a key role in this war. The discovery of new technology would not stop just because the war did.  Future leaders of our nation fought during the war, such as future Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, George W. Bush and John F. Kennedy, Senators Bob Dole, Mark Hatfield, and Daniel Inouye also served.

While we started to enjoy peace, a different kind of war had started with out any fanfare.  The "Cold War" between the US and the USSR would continue for many years, take many lives and shape the future of the world. 

But we would feel the effects of war much sooner that we wanted as in 1950 we found our men an women of the armed forces in Korea and a different type of war.