Steven Otfinoski - World War II Infantrymen: An Interactive History Adventure

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YOU live in a world at war in the early 1940s. The Allies are fighting the Axis powers attempt to take control of the world. What part will you play in the war?

In this book, youll explore how the choices people made meant the difference between life and death. The events youll experience happened to real people.

Chapter One sets the scene. Then you choose which path to read. Follow the links at the bottom of each page as you read the stories. The decisions you make will change your outcome. After you finish one path, go back and read the others for new perspectives and more adventures. Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice.

YOU CHOOSE the path you take through history.

It is early 1942, and the world is at war. Germany, Japan, and Italy have joined forces. Together they have invaded country after country. These three nations are known as the Axis powers. The Allies will do all they can do to stop the Axis powers. The Allies are the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, China, and those fighting with them.

The problems that started this war began more than 20 years ago. The first World War lasted from 1914 to 1918. It ended in defeat for Germany. The winners, including the United States, France, and Great Britain, dealt harshly with Germany.

Germany lost all its colonies after the war. Its size was reduced by one-eighth. Its army and navy were also greatly reduced. The German economy declined and unemployment soared.

An economic depression in the 1930s also affected much of the world. People in some European nations looked to strong leaders to restore their nations greatness.

Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in the 1920s. By 1933 Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party had control of Germany. Hitlers goals were to establish a German empire and get rid of people he called undesirables. These people included the Jewish population of Europe. In May 1936 Italy and Germany signed a pact to work together.

Hitler (right) welcomed Mussolini to Germany in June 1940.

In 1938 Hitler began to put his plans into action. In March Germany took control of Austria. By October, it occupied neighboring Czechoslovakia. When Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

In April 1940 German troops occupied Denmark and attacked Norway. The following month Germany invaded Belgium and the Netherlands.

By June 1940, France had fallen to the Germans. Italy invaded British African colonies in August and Greece in October. Japan invaded French territory in Asia in September. Meanwhile, Hitler set his sights on Great Britain. He launched an intensive air attack on the nation. But the British held out.

Frustrated, Hitler invaded Yugoslavia and joined Italy in attacking Greece in April 1941. Two months later, he turned on the Soviet Union, launching a major attack on that vast nation.

Then on December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The next day the United States declared war on Japan. Days later the United States declared war on Japans allies, Germany and Italy.

Right now it feels like the whole world is fighting. The Allies are battling the Axis powers in three major parts of the worldthe islands in the Pacific Ocean, North Africa, and Europe. You have joined the army and will fight for your country in the infantry. Where will you fight?

It is January 1942. Last month the Japanese began landing troops in the Philippines. Now Japanese forces have taken over nearly all of the island nation. American and Filipino soldiers have retreated to the Bataan Peninsula.

You are among the American infantrymen defending Bataan. General Douglas MacArthur is your commander. On February 22 President Franklin Roosevelt orders MacArthur and his staff to so the Japanese wont capture them. From Australia, MacArthur sends a statement to the Filipinos promising, I shall return.

U.S. soldiers ducked for cover in a foxhole as the Japanese attacked on the Bataan Peninsula.

General Jonathan Wainwright is now in command of the Allied forces in the Philippines. He is a good leader, but you wonder how long he can hold out against overwhelming odds. The Japanese have the Americans and Filipinos bottled up on the Bataan peninsula.

The Japanese infantry is moving steadily forward. Food supplies are getting low on Bataan. Some of the men go into the jungle to hunt animals for food. They kill snakes, lizards, and monkeys. They even eat their own pack mules. The situation is growing desperate. Its only a matter of time before Bataan falls to the Japanese.

The island of Corregidor lies off the coast of Bataan. Wainwright is positioned on Corregidor, occupying an old Spanish fort called The Rock. Hell make his last stand there.

You could transfer to Corregidor before Bataan falls. There you could face a bloody battle, which you might not survive. But staying on Bataan and surrendering to the Japanese could bring an even worse fate. What will you do?

You get your transfer to Corregidor. As the days pass, the Japanese step up their attack on the island. You and the other men flee to the long underground tunnel beneath the fort. Every time a shell lands on the fort, the ground shakes. Dirt and dust from the earthen ceiling fall on you.

On May 5 the Japanese come ashore on Corregidor and close in on the tunnel. General Wainwright fears there will be a last bloody battle. He urges the commanders still fighting outside the fort to surrender.

Many of your fellow soldiers are ready to surrender. But others plan to escape into the hills and continue fighting. You dont have much time to decide what to do.

You surrender to the Japanese. You are one of more than 70,000 soldiers from Bataan who are now prisoners of war. The Japanese plan to march you 65 miles to the city of San Fernando. It quickly becomes clear that the Japanese will not be kind. They randomly beat you and the other prisoners.

You and two friends in your company, Frank and Tom, march in line with other prisoners. A truck pulls up on the dirt road. Inside sit rows and rows of Filipino prisoners. A Japanese guard climbs out of the trucks cab.

We can take a few more, he says in English. Your friends shake their heads. These guards could be more cruel than the ones walking with you. But it is a long march to San Fernando.

You decide against the truck, fearing what might happen if you leave the others. But you soon start to wonder if you made the right choice.

You march in rows of four. The hot sun beats down on you. You are tired from nights of little sleep and almost no food in the last days of the fighting. On top of that, the guards are cruel. One hit your head with the butt of his riffle.