End of U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of WWII, from the first day of conflicts until the last one of war. Also it was the most important war during this period, because all the other battle depended on this battle. German U-Boats were defeated and control of the shipping lanes inking the Allied.This Battle wasn’t the most powerful in navy, neither in submarines. But the battle of the Atlantic was a commerce war paid by the U-Boats. For about 6six years, Germany launched over 1000 U-Boats into a combat, in a way to isolate the British Isles. This cut the vital supplies of food; raw materials that were needed for continue fighting.

The end for the U-boats was because; the Allies kept adding new escorts, developed new weapons and perfected the convoy system which easily defeated the wolf packs. While they still have the U-Boats without new advances.By the end of the war, the U-Boats in the battle of the Atlantic had sent more than 3000 ships and some Allied shipping. Because of these shipping the Allies sank almost 800 U-Boats and in which many people died.

During the early war, German U-Boat successes against British shipping had been so remarkable, that the Allies made the defeat of German U-Boats.

 The grand Admiral Karl Donitz, commander of the German U-Boat force understood the potential of the submarine’s unconventional ability, and believed Germany could fight a naval power like Great Britain, and win. He was the only one that thought they could win no one else thought that.

While having the super battleships of Germany such as the Bismarck had only made legends as being hunted down and sunk by the Royal Navy in the battle, grand Admiral Karl Donitz was right because the German U-Boats continue to have many losses on Allied shipping.

Finally, the greatest effort was in the development of a true submarine, instead of the mere submersibles of the U-boats. What Donitz desperately wanted was a vessel that could travel rapidly underwater, stay there for weeks and attack while submerged.

In conclusion we can see that the U-Boats was a great advance and invent. But unfortunately it didn’t work on the battle. These was a big cause  why the Germans lost.

By: Valeria Gomez

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact


 On August 23, 1939, four days after the economic agreement was signed and a little over a week before the beginning of World War II, Ribbentrop and Molotov signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.

This agreement stated that the two countries - Germany and the Soviet Union - would not attack each other. If there were ever a problem between the two countries, it was to be handled amicably. The pact was supposed to last for ten years; it lasted for less than two.

What was meant by the terms of the pact was that if Germany attacked Poland, then the Soviet Union would not come to its aid. Thus, if Germany went to war against the West (especially France and Great Britain) over Poland, the Soviets were guaranteeing that they would not enter the war; thus not open a second front for Germany. 

In addition to this agreement, Ribbentrop and Molotov added a secret protocol onto the pact - a secret addendum whose existence was denied by the Soviets until 1989.

When the Nazis attacked Poland in the morning on September 1, 1939, the Soviets stood by and watched. Two days later, the British declared war on Germany and World War II had begun. On September 17, the Soviets rolled into eastern Poland to occupy their "sphere of influence" designated in the secret protocol.

Because of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the Soviets did not join the fight against Germany, thus Germany was successful it its attempt to safeguard itself from a two-front war.

The Nazis and the Soviets kept the terms of the pact and the protocol until Germany's surprise attack and invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

By: Angelina Galván

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing

Health Effects after Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombin

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On August 6^th and 9^th, 1945, the United States of America dropped atomic bombs – first on Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki – in order to bring about an end to the war with Japan. For the first time in history, weapons of such massive destruction were used against civilians.

During the first two weeks after the atomic bombings, the death rate rose to approximately 150,000. By the end of December 1945, the death rate was estimated to be 200,000.Today, it is approximated that there are between 100,000 – 400,000 individuals who were exposed to the bombs who are still alive.

Many Japanese died immediately from the blast forces, heat, and fires resulting from the atomic explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a large number died within weeks or months from radiation effects.

The atomic explosions inflicted complex physical damage: individuals suffered burns from heat radiation and fire; injuries from the blast wave and atomic diseases from initial radiation, induced radiation and residual radiation. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation  and the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization note that early effects of exposure to the bombs, based on medical interviews taken with more than 100,000 survivors between 1956 - 1961, included the acute radiation symptoms of: fatigue, high fevers, epilation, nausea, vomiting, bleeding from the gums, cataracts, diarrhea, leukopenia and purpura. In general, acute radiation symptoms did not appear at low-dose radiation exposures. Between the years 1950 – 1990, there were nearly 430 reported deaths from cancer that were attributed to the radiation, with the proportion of individuals dying from cancer higher among those who were closer to the hypocenter.

Today, people who were exposed to the bomb, especially those who were children at the time, run a higher risk of developing cancer and other fatal diseases.

By: Angelina Galván 

D-Day

The Normandy invasion took place in the Bay of the Seine, on the south side of the English Channel between the Cotentin Peninsula and the port of Le Havre. Some fifty-five miles broad and twenty deep, its waters were shallow, had a considerable tidal range, and, when the wind blew from the northward, could be very choppy. The planned landing beaches covered about forty-five miles of the Bay's shoreline. Westernmost was "Utah" Area, stretching eight miles southward along the low-lying southeastern coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. Directly to the east was "Omaha" Area, covering twelve miles of generally hilly terrain. United States forces were assigned to take both of those areas, with important assistance from the navies of Great Britain and other Allies. British and Canadian troops would assault the areas code-named "Gold", "Juno", and "Sword", which ran twenty miles eastward from "Omaha". This sector ended at the mouth of the Orne River, some fifteen miles west of Le Havre, where the German Navy based a group of potentially very dangerous torpedo boats.

The actual landing beaches occupied a fraction of the width of each area, but were intended to provide sufficient initial footholds to allow rapid reinforcement and expansion inland, with the attacking soldiers joining their flanks to create a continuous beachhead perimeter before the enemy could mount a major counterattack. Each area would be assaulted by approximately one army division, with initial landings being made by much smaller units at 6:30AM in the American areas and about an hour later in the British. Their arrival on the shore was to follow a bombardment by ships' guns and aircraft ordnance, kept relatively brief to maintain as much as possible of the element of surprise. As a result, German shore defenses frequently remained intact, and would prove troublesome to both the landing forces and ships offshore.

To protect the invasion zone's western extremity, and to facilitate the "Utah" landing force's movement into the Cotentin Peninsula, the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions descended by parachute and glider in the small hours of "D-Day", 6 June 1944. Though badly scattered and lacking much of their equipment, these brave paratroopers kept the Germans occupied and helped ensure that the "Utah" Beach assault went relatively easily. The British and Canadian attacks, assisted by an air-dropped division on their eastern flank and a longer naval bombardment, generally also went well.

Not so in the "Omaha" area, where deep beaches backed by steep hills meant that the U.S. troops landing there were exposed to withering fire from enemy small arms, machine guns and artillery. Casualties were very heavy and the assult only succeeded after a day of brutal fighting, with warships coming in close to provide direct gunfire in support of the hard-pressed soldiers.

By nightfall on the sixth of June, the situation was favorable, even on Omaha. Entered the popular culture as the  "D-Day", a name it has retained ever since.

Bibliography: http://www.history.com/topics/d-day

The Battle of Berlin

The Battle of Berlin

The Battle of Berlin was one of the final battles of World War II between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which directly resulted in the unconditional surrender of Germany to the Red Army, but this had to fight house to house throughout the battle despite their numerical superiority. The battle began in the early hours of April 20, 1945, when General Georgy Zhukov ordered the bombing in central Berlin from the east, while the 1st Ukrainian Front General Konev moved north from the south, crossing the first lines of defense. On April 23, troops from the 1st Belorussian Front Zhukov entered the suburbs of the capital. On April 26, the 8th Army Infantry and 1st Armored Army, belonging to the 1st Ukrainian Front, managed to open a corridor from the south that came to the center of Berlin. On April 30, after bloody fighting house to house, with the men of the Waffen-SS to fight until the last drop of blood, Soviet units were able to take the Reichstag.

Before the end of the battle of Berlin, the Führer Adolf Hitler and some of his faithful followers committed suicide. After two days of heavy fighting, the vast majority of the defenders finally surrendered on 2 May. However, fighting continued fiercely, starring companies of the Waffen-SS, in different pockets of resistance to the west, northwest and southwest of the city until the end of the war in Europe on May 8, 1945.

Tanks by the Soviets lost exceeded all estimates, due to the effective utilization of the Panzerfaust, which however, was not enough to stop the armored advance on the capital. The German resistance was finished to finished munitions and troops. The Soviets reported in Berlin some 155,000 dead and 250,000 wounded or sick. Meanwhile some 45,000 Germans were killed, including civilians. A feature of the Russian invasion of Germany was the mass rape of women as punishment for the war, despite them not being responsible. In Berlin, 500,000 women were raped 2,000,000 of total German sexually assaulted one of these some 10,000 Berliners are suicidaron.2 March 4 There was a very strong cruelty in the days following the conquest, reaching up to 70 times violating the same mujer.5 6

In a case similar to the final stages of the war and the Soviet advance, Nazi Party members fled leaving German civilians to their fate, they only learned of the approach of the Soviets when retreating German soldiers giving Front enemy advance notice, being that it was too late to flee. The last wishes of Hitler ordered that Admiral Karl Dönitz became President of the Reich, while Joseph Goebbels would be the new Chancellor of Germany. However the latter's suicide, along with his family, leaving Dönitz with responsibility for the war. Finally, on May 8, 1945, the German High Command surrendered unconditionally to the Soviet Union ending the war in Europe.

The Battle of Berlin was the last major confrontation in the European theater of World War II, where two ideologically opposed forces fought a duel terribly bloody, leaving an indelible mark in the history of mankind.

Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin

Strategies of Battle of Britain

This battle is between Germany and Great Britain. As we know each country should have a strategy in which they could succeed. These strategies have many advances in technology.

Germans wanted to invade Britain, so they had to have all the control in the air over the English Channel, otherwise the Royal Navy would be able to destroy their invasion and reached to the shore. Because of these the troops would have suffered heavy casualties, and the invasion stop. The Luftwaffe’s knowledge of the air was vital to any plan of invasion that would be successful for crossing the Channel, for preventing British aircraft or ships to interfere in the operation.

Something that stands out is that each German Navy, Army and Air Force hade their own ideas as to where invade or when. It seems that there has been not cooperation between these forces.

When Germans attack British people have also a big strategy. They put radar masts and attach the stations on the south coast, damaging them. But Germans could attack because of the Luftwaffe, they prove the British defenses before they made the big attack.

Also Germany decided to put the troops on the French coast, the raids were increasing against the South coast of England. German people made a second plan with the Luftwaffe they were ready to used it. The goal was to destroy the RAF, in South East England. To put weight on the British defenses.

This pattern continues for some time and the situation was more desperate. The Spitfire and Hurricane could easily take off from grass fields, but the maintenance and spares supply situation became dangerously stretched. Despite this the crews kept their fights as combat, winning the battle on the ground.

Many people made suggestions of what to do with the fighters, finally they decided to pulled them back north of the Thames, it was effectively because it brought air superiority.

In conclusion, we can see that the both, Germany and Great Britain had many strategies. However Germany was the one that had more strategies, and also this one’s succeed. Something that stands up was that Germany changed their strategies many times due that it may not succeed at that point. By changing them the Germans could succeed.

By: Valeria Gomez

The plan of Germany for the invasion of Poland

The invasion of Poland was an invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. The invasion of Poland was the first of the military aggression that Hitler’s Germany would undertake. The Polish army was easily defeated, unable to cope with the superior German troops who were using their famous technique called Blitzkrieg (lightning war), based on the rapid movement of armor and high firepower brutally applied. However, the fall of Poland would be accelerated by the subsequent invasion by the Soviet Union and the lack of help from its allies Britain and France.

The Soviet Union and Germany wanted to invade Poland but they were afraid of a war in two fronts (between them and against Poland). That strong fear that both countries felt made them sign the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact (1939) or a Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was signed by the foreign ministers of each country, Ribbentrop from Germany and Molotov from the Soviet Union. They put aside their ideological differences for their interests. The Pact, in secret, was a strategy developed by both countries to achieve the partition of Poland between them.

They both were interested on invading Poland. In case of the Soviet Union because Poland was filled with Jewish people that agreed with communism and also they needed Poland territory to be near Germany for future possible attack.

In the Case of Germany they needed to recover the city of Danzig taken by the League of Nation after World War I because Danzig was important for naval war because it was located strategically. They wanted to have free access to the port of Danzig through the Polish Corridor but the Polish refused so Germany decided to attack Poland. Also Poland was filled with Jewish people, so it was time to start the final solution (Nazi anti-Semitism).  The fall of Poland would mean the sharp fall in living standards of its citizens, especially the Polish Jews, killing 20% of the Polish population that existed before the invasion during the occupation. The same as the Soviet Union, Poland had always been a frontier between the Soviet Union and Germany so they needed to be closer for a future attack.

 

By: Giovanna Trisoglio

The Plan of Pearl Harbor Attack

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an incredibly daring, technically sophisticated combined naval-aerial surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, just northwest of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The devastating aerial attack carried out by Japanese fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo planes crippled the U.S. Pacific fleet as a preamble to Imperial Japan’s lunge for strategic territories spanning the Pacific Ocean – but it also stirred the wrath of the American people, decisively ending U.S. isolationism and bringing the world’s largest industrial power squarely into the war against Japan and its European allies in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United Stated naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories ode the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.

The man in charge of planning the attack, the brilliant admiral Isoroku Yamamato, was an admiral and commander in chief of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. It was formed in the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and Harvard at university. He advised against the Pearl Harbor attack and plan, noting that even if it succeeded, Japan would still face an implacable enemy drawing on huge resources. 

The Pearl Harbor attack plan had two immediate goals. The first one was the destruction of American aircraft carriers known to frequent the area. The second one was the sinking of as many other capital ships as possible, especially battleships. With these two tasks complete, the Japanese hoped to neutralize the American fleet’s ability to project air and sea power in the Pacific Basin for at least six months.

During that time they planned to occupy the East Asian and West Pacific regions with such firmness that the Allies would be forced to negotiate a settlement.  In pursuit of these attack goals, Japanese naval officers created a detailed plan which took advantage of known factors such as the American Navy’s habit of returning to its main anchorage at Pearl Harbor every weekend. Equally detailed alternate plans included options for attacking the American fleet’s deep sea anchorage, or hunting down U.S fleet units in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands. This later plan was the worst situation for them, because it would require their carrier fleet to fight its way into the attack zone.

By: Giovanna Trisoglio

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg was a tactic based on speed and surprise and needed a military force to be based around light tank units supported by planes and infantry (foot soldiers). Its meaning is lighting war and it was first used by the Germans in World War II. The Blitzkrieg included surprise attacks, rapid advances into enemy territory, with coordinated massive air attacks, which struck and shocked the enemy as if it was struck by lightning. The Blitzkrieg main moves were technology, surprise, speed and move. The tactic was developed in Germany by an army officer called Hans Guderian. He wrote a military pamphlet called “Achtung Panzer” which got into Hitler’s hands.  As a tactic it was used as a devastating effect in the first years of World War II.

Germany used this tactic because they needed to maintain high mobility to succeed in an attack, in order to maintain the element of surprise. In the early war it was extremely successful, just like the Schliefflen Plan of World War I. By maintaining the element of surprise they could destroy the enemy before it has the chance to fight back. They used Blitzkrieg tactics in the early war as they needed to also maintain their numbers in order to fight a war against almost all of Europe.

Germany needed to be fast enough because it could kill everyone in their sleep before they can woke up and fight back in a counterattack. By maintaining the high mobility Germany was able to win battles very easily.

The Blitzkrieg was very useful for Germany. It had many advantages such as assuring success by attacking force; prevent reinforcement for defenders and supplies delivery for soldiers. The Blitzkrieg used less ammunition and equipment, and soldiers.

The most important advantage of Blitzkrieg was speed and mobility. Blitzkrieg was primarily a strategy of repeated “shock and awe” tactics that relied on overwhelming force directed through military hardware. The German military in World War II achieved most of its great victories with the Blitzkrieg tactic.

However, the Blitzkrieg had its disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage was that it becomes easy to overextend Germany in an invasion. Germany risk gaining too much ground too quickly, making it very easy for the enemy to slip in behind Germany and destroy its supply lines, which can destroy an entire invasion by breaking the will to fight and equipment needed to fight, as many generals have repeatedly learnt over time.

 By: Giovanna Trisoglio