Ryan Y.

WWII

   

WWII was the most destructive and terrible war of all time. About 50 million people died. There were also many terrible and tragic events and battles.Many new weapons were developed during WWII. There are also many fun, fascinating and fabulous facts. Read on to find out more about WWII.

 
Many people died in WWII. History.com states that “The most destructive war of all time, approximately 50 million people died.The USSR (Soviet Union) had 42 million casualties, Germany had 9 million, China had 4 million and Japan had 3 million.The Allies had 60 million deaths and the Axis had 12 million deaths. Another Interesting tragedy is that only 20% of Soviet males born in 1923 survived WWII.The was also waged ferociously in Europe, from 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 the Allies had 200,000 casualties and 550,000 wounded. Germany had to watch many of its generals die, 84 were executed by Hitler and they totally lost 136 generals in total which averages out to a general dead every 2 weeks.⅓ of the generals died from air strikes or about 45 killed by airstrikes.

   
     I hope there will never be a government like the Nazis.The Nazis cold heartedly killed 1.5 million children, 1.2 million of which were Jewish children in the Holocaust.The Nazis also killed millions of Polish people, but they thought about 50,000 looked German and were sent back to Germany to be ¨Germanized¨.The Nazis had many cruel plans and before they decided to gas the Jewish people they considered to send them to Madagascar.Russians were also cruel and prisoners of war in Russian camps had had very small chance of survival, only 15% survived. Many people died in WWII during tragic battles and the USA was a major factor in WWII.

    Most people in the scientific community believe that WWII started on September 1 , 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, others believe that WWII started on September 18, 1931 when Japan invaded Manchuria and some even believe that WWII is just WWI with a break in between. On July 7, a problem near Marco Polo bridge resulted in war between Japan and China.When Germany invaded Poland the battle in Europe began. As the longest battle of WWII the battle of the Atlantic lasted from 1939 to 1945. On July 10 Germany frightened the world by swiftly invading conquering the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and the french.July 10, 1940 an “air war” occurred over England. During May 10, 1941 Hitler and his deputy and confidant Rudolf Hess parachuted into Scotland to negotiate a peace treaty, he was captured and kept as a POW. Later that year Britain and the USA declared war on Japan. The US was the only country that Germany formally declared war on. The greatest tank battle happened on July 4-22, 1943 and more than 3,600 tanks were involved.WWII ended on September 2, 1945 after the US dropped 2 nuclear bombs on Japan and  Japan signed a surrender agreement.Japan and Russia never formally ended hostilities, in 2000 plans to make  the sign a peace agreement failed.WWII was a long battle with many battles and many new weapons were used.

 

   There were many new weapons developed during WWII. The Nazis had two very huge guns, each of the guns were 31.5 inches in diameter. They hold the record for the largest guns in the world. They needed to be transported in several pieces and 4,000 men were required to assemble and guard the guns.The British started using all kinds of explosive devices that looked like soap, shoes, bicycle pumps and even rat. During September 1944 the Japanese started using a new weapon, a large piloted bomb. It was not very effective but it sank a US destroyer.The Soviets started using a new weapon that if you love dogs you will definitely not like. It was called the anti-tank dog. The dogs were kept hungry and they were taught that there was food under the tanks.When the dogs dived under the tank the bottom of the tank strikes a rig and detonates the 26 pound bomb.The British developed a weapon called the unrotated projectile.The idea was that was a rocket with wires and parachutes attached to it, any aircraft that went through the area would risk snagging a wire and pull the rocket back to the aircraft and blowing the aircraft. It didn’t work because the wind would make the rockets blow up the ship that sent the rockets.

     From 1939 to 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs, which averages out to an average of 27,700 tons of bombs dropped every month. A cool thing is that the US Army had more ships than the US Navy.The Germans had 22 infantry divisions, two armor divisions and 11 paratroop divisions, none of which were capable of airborne operations. As part of the Army the Air Force only became a separate branch after the war.The Germans sunk 2,000 Allied ships and only lost 781 U-boats. Balloons were used to protect cities in Britain during air raids, bombers had to fly higher to avoid the balloons and therefore reduced there accuracy. One thing that saved many soldiers lives was the blood transfusion. Although poison gas was often used in WWI only Japan and Italy used chemical weapons during WWII.The youngest person during WWII in the US military was Calvin Graham.As one of the first “Germans” to be captured were 7 Koreans, they were forced to fight for the Japanese  until they were captured by Russians until they were captured by the Germans and fought for the Germans until the US army captured them.

The Germans had a total of 3,363  generals while the US had just over 1,500 generals. Most German war criminals went into refugee camps therefore gaining freedom. Russians had an advantage when they started using paratroopers until 1940 when the Allies opened a new school called Central Landing school. After 1942 the US marines started using the Navajo language as a code, more than 400 people were trained to use the code and the Japanese never decrypted the code. Many weapons were used during WWII but there also many other cool things about WWII and fun facts.

Many cool things happened and there are many fun facts about WWII. When the US army landed in North America, some of the equipment they brought over were three complete Coca-Cola bottling plants. They sure most have LOVED Coca-Cola. Another cool thing is that during WWII, hamburgers in the US were called “Liberty Steaks” to avoid the German sounding name.Although Japan fought  alongside Britain, France and the US during WWI. Japan felt cheated when they didn’t gain much territory when the peace treaty was organized. The Great Depression had a terrible effect on the world, It prevented Germany from paying WWII reparations or money to the Allies for waging war on them and therefore forced Britain and France to default their debt to the US and causing trouble throughout the world. From 1940-1945 the US army budget increased from $1.9 billion to $59.8 billion.

In 1941  a private earned $21 a month and in 1942 a private earned $50 a month.The Italian Fascists took their symbol from a bundle of rods that showed the power of ancient Rome.Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s deputy was the last Nazi to be incarcerated in the Tower of London.

WWII was an extremely disastrous war.With so many deaths, plenty of cool catastrophes on exact dates, including the brave soldiers and tragic death machines. There are many fascinating and fabulous facts.These things make me believe that WWII was a tragic, terrible war.