EVENTS
OF THE FORTIES
USS Wyoming
World War II was huge!!!!! I
believe it has effected almost every aspect of our daily lives. The
reason World War II broke out was that about 30 years earlier Germany had
lost World War I and as part of the peace settlement Germany had to pay
for all the damage done in the war. This left them in a finance fiasco.
The treaty also made Germany have no armed forces and stationing allied
troops in Germany. The German mark went down so much that a weeks pay would
buy a pair shoes. When conditions worsened, a year later it would take
a lifetimes saving to buy one meal! Conditions like these could make almost
anybody follow anybody who said they had a solution , which is exactly
the case here. As the Nazi party grew in power they made laws treating
jews like second class citizens. Eventually they took over Austria with
out an struggle. Poland was next. Poland tried valiantly to stop Germany
from gaining control but had a very naive vision of war. What Poland pictured
as war is a cavalry unit inspired by a general charging into battle. In
the world of tanks and bombs ,
horses weren't going to cut
it. All Poland had for an air force was a few outdated planes that would
have put up a fight in 1932 not 1939. German panzers and the wehrmacht
( german foot soldiers ) smashed Poland's army. Pretty soon the Nazis took
over France and many other countries with Germanys kind of war : Blitzkrieg.
Blitzkrieg is German for lighting war. Hitler did not think he could
win a prolonged war so he invented blitzkrieg. In Blitzkrieg the goal was
to win quickly using your air force as ground support. Germans would put
sirens on their airplanes to indeuse fear. They would use cunning to make
there attacks look like defense. Two year into the war Germany was winning
hugely. Then came a man that used every thing Hitler didn't. He used inspiration,
determination and good will to build his people's moral. Hitler couldn't
conquer him let alone get to him. That man was Winston Chuchill. That man
helped save the world.
A B17 Bomber
