World War II

Jonathan Sutkins

Ms. Mazzante

Pd.3

4/30/10

1. My blog is about Chapter 16 which is World War II.

World War II started mainly in part of Hitler's drive for power. Hitler and Germany wanted full control over the countries in Europe and to have World Power. The war was with Germany, Japan, and Italy against the United States, Great Britain, and Russia. The U.S. got into the war in 1941, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor which ruined their Pacific Fleet. Germany had many costly mistakes that caused them to loose the War. Such mistakes were Germany trying to invade Russia during the Russian winter, and Hitler's strong goal of containing all of Europe. The United States were involved in winning the war with the allies. They also won the D-Day invasion, the naval battle of Midway, and the Battle of The Bulge which all marked key major victories. In the end World War II ended with Hitler's suicide and Germany's downfall. If the allies did not succeed in winning the major battles the outcome of the war could have been dramatically different.
The chapter objective I have is accomplishing my goal of giving the viewer a better understanding of the events during World War II, and showing the importance and impact World War II had on the countries involved.

2. Painting one is called "The Eternal Soldier." It was painted by Wilhelm Sauter in 1940.

The painting relates to WWII because it shows German soldiers in WWI on the left side and German soldiers in WWII on the right comparing both to having the same struggle and how the World War I soldiers carried over to World War II.

Painting two is called "Tank Scout." It was painted by Ernst Kretschmann in 1942.

This painting's relation is the man being a Tank Scout during World War II. A Tank Scout is someone who scouts where the tanks and panzer's were located during the war.

Painting three is titled "Cross the Beach At Normandy." Painted by Manuel Bromberg.

This painting by Bromberg is meant to show the soldiers crossing the beach at Normandy which was a major battle because if it had not occurred, there could have been a complete possession of Northern and Western Europe by the Soviet Forces.

Painting four is called "Dunkirk." This was painted by Otto Engelhardt-Kyffhauser.

As we learned in class, the Miracle at Dunkirk was when the German's broke through the line forcing the allied troops back the the coast. Following this Great Britain sent all their ships that were able to carry men to go and rescue the trapped soldiers. The rescue succeeded and this saved hundreds of thousands of soldiers lives.

3. Three people in the news.

1. Harry Truman-- What President Truman did to become so newsworthy is that he had the final say in whether or not the U.S would drop the atomic bomb(s) on Japan. He issued that the first bomb be dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. In his statement about the use of the A-Bomb he said,"Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. It had more than 2,000 times the blast power of the British “Grand Slam,” which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare."

2. Winston Churchill-- He gave a speech on June 4th, 1940 which was about how they would fight alone. Here is an excerpt from his speech. “We shall defend our island whatever the task may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight on the fields and industries. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” This is newsworthy because he gave this speech to the people of Britain. This shows just how determined he was to fight for what he believed in and how he believed in his people and his country.

3. General George MacArthur-- In one of his speeches on "Island Hopping" a drive that bypasses strongly-held islands to strike at the enemy's weak points he told the people of the Philippines that he would return. After losing the island of Leyte in February,1942, he returned and declared, "People of the Philippines, I have returned."

4. Two U.S Events

The first U.S event that I chose was Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was a planned attack formed by Yamamoto. The attack happened on December 7th. The primary targets of the Japanese were the 8 battleships, although there were some 90 plus ships anchored in Pearl Harbor. The results of the air raid were severe. Twenty-one ships were sunk or damaged, Aircraft losses were 188 destroyed and 159 damaged, and to add to all of this 2403 Americans lost their lives.

Connection Across Time-- The connection across time I decided to use for Pearl Harbor is the attack on 9/11. I chose this because like Pearl Harbor, a foreign country attacked a major landmark on United States soil. Secondly, after Pearl harbor we decided to enter into World War II. And after the 9/11 attacks we decided to send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The second U.S event i chose was on Rosie The Riviter. She was a fictional character used by the military which helped recruit more than two million women into the work force. At the time the jobs women had were to stay at home and be a house wife. They were not expected to go out and work in factories or in the Military. In 1943, almost 15 million women were in the workforce, and astounding number compared to the years before.

Connection Across Time-- My connection across time to Rosie The Riviter is how this character got women to finaly get out of the house and take on real jobs in the work place. They not only showed men they were capable of doing the job but they were also very good at what they did. This also sparked the creation of women's rights in America.

5. Spot Light On

Pearl Harbor

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Japan's greatest naval strategist, said the United States fleet was "a dagger pointed at our throat." Soon followed the so called surprised attack on Pearl Harbor. It was on the morning of December 7th when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The Americans broke a code that told them an attack was possible but with no time or date. The Japanese did there job sinking or damaging 8 battleships, and also sinking nearly the whole Pacific Fleet. They also killed about 2400 American people. After this America declared war on Japan and president Roosevelt described the day as " a date which will live in infamy." The attack on Pearl Harbor caused great despair on the United States and completely ruined the Pacific fleet. Revenge was coming!

6. 3-2-1 Summary

3. 1. Many consider WWII to be the only true world war because of the many nations involved and the extraordinary number of places the war took place. (Europe, Soviet Union, N.Africa, China, South East Asia and the Pacific.)

2. WWII started because Germany invaded Poland. Germany wanted power again and Japan wanted world power followed by the rise of Militaristic leadership.

3. Germany killed between 11 and 24 million civilians.

2. 1. Nearly 700,000 U.S troops were wounded during WWI

2. The effects on Hiroshima were devastating.

Temperatures reached 7,000 F, up to 980 MPH winds, 20,000 tons on TNT were dropped, 62,000 buildings were destroyed, 70,000 people were killed immediately, 140,000 dead by the end of 1945, and 210,000 was the total number of people killed because of the Atomic Bomb.

1. One question I have is had the Atomic Bomb not been dropped, could the war have ended differently between Japan and the United States and what could that have caused?