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In 1931 Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. In September 1936 the German dictator had a rally at a the German city of Nuremburg. At the Cathedral of Light with 180,000 people red flags and the oath to Germany. Grand spectacles like the Nuremburg rally were essential to a toleration rule. A toleration government is where a government take total control over a nation. It dominates every aspect of life, using terror to suppress individual and silence all forms of opposition. The pride and unity of the Nuremburg rally hid the fact that people who disagreed with Hitler were silenced, beaten, or killed. Hitler’s power rested on the destruction of the individual. Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini governed by the philosophy of fascism. Fascism emphasizes the importance of a nation or a ethnic group and the supreme authority of their leader. In the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin based his toleration government on communism. Like fascism communism relies on a strong doctorial government that does not respect individual rights and freedoms. Historically however Communist and fascist have been fierce enemies.
Hitler determined to put Germans to work while restoring Germany’s military force, the Nazis secretly began spending money on expanding and rebuilding the army in violation of the Versailles treaty. They also hired unemployed workers to boiled them massive public buildings and a network of highways now known as the Autobahn. Unemployment fell to near zero, industry prospered, and by 1936 the depression ended in Germany . In addition the Nazis were now in a position to put Hitler’s evil plans into action. Like Mussolini Hitler saw expanding as a way to show a nations pride. He longed to see Germany as a world power. To do this he believed that Germans needed more territory which he called ( “lebensraum”) living space, to the east Hitler’s main goal was to take over Eastern Europe. On March 7,1936 German troops took control of the Rhineland a region west of Germany. The Versailles treaty had banned their military forces from this region. Germany used the area as a base for the 1914 attack on France and Belgium. Since the allies did not take action in 1935 when Hitler revealed his secret rearmament, he had a good reason to believe that the allies would not enforce the treaty.
After the Germans started moving into other countries Hitler made a alliance with Italy and later Japan. Their alliance was named the Axis. The other countries involved in military action was called the allies. They included The United States of America, Russia, Great Britain, China, and others.
Some of the most famous battles of the war was Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was a naval base in Hawaii. Pearl Harbor was an assault on the naval base. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor early in the morning. They destroyed the base. They destroyed 6 battle ships, 200 planes were destroyed, and 7 cruisers were destroyed. After that battle Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan and then Hitler declared war on the U.S. After Hitler declared war on the U.S. the United States the Untied States quickly moved into Africa. During that time the Russians slowly held off 3.6 million axis solders. Shortly after midnight on June 6th 1944 the landing of allied troops changed everything. The largest invasion from sea left the shores of Great Brittan and headed towards Normandy, France. During the Night the United States made a daring move to get behind enemy lines. At dawn the liberation of Western Europe began. Allied warships began shelling the coast. Some where around 1,000 American planes bombarded RAF’s air bombardment. Despite the advance of Hitler’s generals he hesitated to launch a quick counter attack. In spite of heavy casualties a week after d-day 1.5 million allied troops had come ashore. By late July 2 million allied troops were in France. Air attacks helped the allies establish a beachhead in Normandy and it also held off German troops. A big plus was that German troops could blow up any bridges. The next main battle the Americans faced was the Battle of the Bulge. The Nazi’s tried to hang on their conquest to the north form allied forces. Hitler sent some draftees there some as young as 15. Then in December 1944 the Germans launched a counter attack on Belgium and Luxemburg. The German army quickly moved the allied forces back forming a bulge on the enemy’s line. Many little units cut of from the United States Army fought very well against overwhelming odds. From Paris Eisenhower sent more troops to battle. General Patton moved his forces over to stop the German advance. Over a few weeks the allied forces moved the German forces back and restarted the allied drive into Germany.
As the Soviet Union surrounded Berlin and the American’s advancing Hitler decided to commit suicide in a underground bunker on April 30, 1945. A few days later on May 8, 1945 Germany’s remaining troops surrendered. When the fighting in Europe ended Allied troops and civilians rejoiced saying it was V-E Day( Victory in Europe Day). The war wasn’t over though until the Japanese surrendered or were defeated. Over in the Pacific Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, architect of the Pearl Harbor attack hoped to destroy the rest of the American forces my luring them near Midway Island. Yamamoto committed a large part of his navy to the battle. He thought that Admiral Chester Nimitz would use all of his resources to protect Midway which was vital to Hawaii’s protection. The battle of Midway opened on June 14,1942 with Japanese bombers bombing the U.S. at the same time. The American’s had a unsuccessful attack on the Japanese fleet. The whole battle was primarily fought in the air. At first American planes were trying to fend off carrier based bombers then American carriers intervened. The American planes bombed Japanese planes when they were refueling . On top of Japanese ships hoses filled with fuel were set on fire some bombs stacked up and exploded. American’s quickly sunk three out of four Japanese ships and then sank the last one later that day. The Japanese lost the battle and it was a turning point in the war.
After a lot of battles in the Pacific the American’s decided to use a atomic bomb that Albert Einstein developed and wrote a letter about to the U.S. They bombed two Japanese city’s . On the USS Missouri the Japanese surrendered.
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Fun Facts:
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Albert Einstein and World War 2 American Armed Forces in the 1800’s |
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