David White - The Everything World War II Book: People, Places, Battles, and All the Key Events

THE
EVERYTHING
World War II Book
2nd Edition

Dear Reader,

Unfortunately, more and more World War II veterans are dying every day, and despite the millions of words already written about the devastating worldwide confl ict in which they par ticipated, many of these veterans are taking their war stories to their graves with them. These stor ie s go untold for a number of reasons, a primary one of which is that they are too harrowing to relive. Additionally, as more and more time goes by and more and more wars take place, this particular war gets forgotten a little bit more, romanticized a little more, and discussed a little less. All of these event s are unfortunate.

Many people know something about World War II but couldnt carr y on an informed conversation about the subject. While were not asking that you become an expert in the subject (although those people are fading as well), what we would like is that you take from this book a certain understanding of what the world was like before, during, and after this mos t brutal of all wars. This book can help guide you on that process, and it is our hope that you will continue your study or, at the ver y least, have a greater grasp of the subject and its place in the history of our planet.

The EVERYTHING Series

Editorial

Production

Visit the entire Everything Series at www.everything.com

From the rise of the Third Reich to V-J Day
all the people, places, battles, and
key events you need to know

David White and Daniel P. Murphy, Ph.D.
Donald Vaughan (first edition)

Copyright 2002, 2007, F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced
in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions
are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

An Everything Series Book.
Everything and everything.com are registered trademarks of F+W Media, Inc.

Published by Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.
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www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN-10: 1-59869-641-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-59869-641-7
eISBN: 978-1-44052-458-5

Printed in the United States of America.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
available from the publisher.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

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This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.

To my wife, who inspires my life and my work, and to my parents,
who started me on the road to appreciating history

Contents

Top Ten Things You Should Know about WWII

1. D-Day gets a lot of press, but it wasnt the most important battle in the war.

2. Pearl Harbor was certainly the instigation for the American involvement in WWII, but its likely that Japan and the United States would have gone to war anyway.

3. The world might be a far different place today if Hitler had spent more time making speeches and less time directing troop traffic.

4. More than anything else, many historians believe, the weapon that turned the tide of battles more often than not was airpower.

5. The estimated American death toll for an invasion of mainland Japan was 1 million lives.

6. Winston Churchill, famous for being prime minister during the Blitz, was already out of office a year after the war ended.

7. Weather played a vital role in nearly every important battle in the war.

8. Much has been said about the Holocaust. Much more needs to be said so that history doesnt continue to repeat this type of event.

9. What really made this war possible was the tremendous manufacturing capabilities of the major players involved, which thrived and made tremendous innovations while the majority of their usual workers were fighting on the front lines.

10. In a sense the war did not end in 1945 but was frozen in the new divisions of the moment, which continued in the Cold War.

Introduction

LOOKING BACK from the vantage point of a new millennium, its clear that no other event of the twentieth century was as momentousor as horrendousas World War II.

Many countries, such as Great Britain and the Soviet Union, were fighting for their very existence against the military might of a fanatical madman bent on global domination. But even those lands not directly involved in the fighting felt the wars influence. At the height of the conflict, no nation was left untouched.

Officially beginning in 1939 with Germanys invasion of Poland and ending six years later with most of Europe and much of the rest of the world in crumbling chaos, World War II proved to be, in terms of lives lost and cities destroyed, the most devastating conflict in human history. When the big guns ceased and the smoke cleared, freedom had proved victorious over dictatorial rule, but the world as we knew it would never be the same.

Much has been written and said about World War II since its official conclusion with Japans formal surrender on September 2, 1945, yet the war, its goals, and the stories of the men and women who fought it grow dimmer with each passing year. Two generations have grown up in its shadow, with each becoming more distant and uninterested.