Pacific Campaign

Atomic Bombs in the Pacific War

The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers to the fighting between the Allies of World War II and the Empire of Japan during the war. It took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia. 

During this battle the use of bombs was constant causing many deaths and affected people.

For example in the attack of Pearl Harbour, this was a surprise military strike conducted by Japan against the United States. Japan’s attack was a preventive action to keep the United States pacific fled from interfering with some military action that Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against the territories of: Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States.

United States as trying to defend the Allies sent two atomic bombs to the city of Hiroshima and to the city of Nagasaki located in Japan during the final stages of World War II in1945. This was the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.

The first bomb that was thrown was Hiroshima’s bomb. Hiroshima was a city located in Japan. On August 6 , 1945, this city suffered the devastation of a nuclear attack. Japanese’s detected American aircrafts flying above Japanese’s lands. 

At 2:45 am the plane named “Enola Gay” take off from Tinian with the bomb inside. 8:15 am “Enola Gay” dropped the bomb into Hiroshima’s town. 

In few minutes, a column of smoke and fire turn up in the land, on a temperature approximately of 4000°c. Because of the temperature many people dead.

All the building in the ratio of 13 square kilometers from the center of the explotion became totally destroyed. Many people was affected because of the bomb. Entire families were destroyed and all the houses were damaged.

Japanese government thought that USA have only one atomic bomb and the fear have passed , but this idea got into USA army and to show that they have more bombs, they dropped a second atomic bomb. Nagasaki.

Many Japan cities were destroyed due to the Nagasaki bombarding. The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two.

The city of Nagasaki was a huge sea port in southern Japan, it had a great wartime importance because 9of its industrial activity, the production of ships, war materials and military equipment was inside this sea port.

Nagasaki was subjected to a large-scale bombing. On August 1, 1945 a huge number of high-exposing bombs were dropped on the city. Some hospitals and buildings were damaged, this bomb created concern in people, especially in children. Most people were evacuated to safety rural areas; this helped to reduce the population in the city at the time of the nuclear attack.

The explosion generated heat estimated at 3,900 °C. Millions of deaths were produced, from 40,000 to 75,000. The total deaths by the end of 1945 can have reached 80,000. The radius destruction was approximately of one mile.

This bombing had serious effects on Japan´s population, and it led to years of chaos and crisis. Many homes, schools and hospitals were destroyed and it left many affected people.

It was militarily and morally unjustifiable to bomb the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Careful observation of the bombings and all events leading up to it,it allows one to realize the reason this atrocity occurred. The Americans' anger toward Japanese behavior debilitated their moral reasoning. In no circumstance could indiscriminately killing these Japanese citizens be condoned

References:
http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/5/16/15030/8226
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
http://www.atomcentral.com/hiroshima-nagasaki.aspx

Francesca Montalbetti and Valerie Vallejo

Pacific Campaign

Pearl Harbor: causes of Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. 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 of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and the United States.

The attack on Pearl Harbor had several major aims. In first place, it intended to destroy important American fleet units, in order to prevent the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. Also it was hoped to buy time for Japan to consolidate its position and increase its naval strength before shipbuilding authorized by the 1940 Vinson-Walsh Act erased any chance of victory. Finally, it was meant to deliver a severe blow to American morale, one which would discourage Americans from committing to a war extending into the western Pacific Ocean and Dutch East Indies. To maximize the effect on morale, battleships were chosen as the main targets, since they were the prestige ships of any navy at the time. The overall intention was to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference.

The confidence of Japan in its ability to achieve a short, victorious war meant targets in the harbor, especially the navy yard, oil tank farms and submarine base, could safely be ignored, since by their thinking the war would be over before the influence of these facilities would be felt.

The reason why USA has a large naval fleet in Pearl Harbor was that they saw Japan´s aggressive expansionism policy as a direct threat to its nation, so the Naval Fleet was stationed there and more troops deployed to Philippines and the rest of the Pacific.

The reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was that USA placed an embargo on Japan on its steel, scrap metal and oil supply and this considered to be a threat to Japan´s survival so they hatch plans to take revenge against USA striking back. USA was planning to stop Japan´s plan on controlling  Asia-Pacific so Japanese military leaders felt that Japan had to attack US Pacific fleet in order to cripple the USA's ability to fight a war in Asia-Pacific and act as a warning to USA not to interfere. Also, Japan would be in a better position to fight off American attempts of invasion, as it would have enough time to built up troops to protect the countries it had conquered in that continent.

The main cause of the attack to Pearl Harbor was the need of the Japanese to show they had superiority of Asia and the Pacific. They were sure that the USA would become involved in their claims in Asia and they wanted to destroy American Navy based at Pearl Harbor.

References: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

http://www.conspire.com/the-government-allowed-the-bombing-of-pearl-harbor/

By: Nicole Miñan

Allies Counterattack

Dday battle effects

The D-day battle or battle of Normandy was fought in the summer of 1944 between the Allied nations and German forces occupying Western Europe. This battle was the invasion and establishment of the Allied forces in Normandy, France during WWII. This battle remains as the largest seaborne invasion in history and the largest amphibious operation ever to take place that involved nearly three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy

At the end of the battle, the invasion of Normandy succeeded in its objective, on July 1933, one million Allied troops were entrenched in Normandy; they forced Germans to fight on two fronts; in the east against the Russian army, in the west against the Allies. Finally Germans were forced to go back to their territories. After the D-day battle until the final German surrender that occurred on May 8, 1945, Germany was in continuous combat with the Allied Forces.

The effects of this battle were extremely bad; this battle generated millions of deaths it is estimated that more than 425,000 German and Allied troops were killed, went missing or were wounded during the battle. But the German and the Allied troops were not the only ones that got affected, between 20,000 and 15,000 French civilians were killed during the battle.

This battle had many advantages over Jewish people, D-Day was planned to free Jews from concentration camps. The US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. American forces after this battle liberated more than 20,000 prisoners at Buchenwald. They also liberated the Dachau and Maithausen concentration camps.

The British forces liberated some concentration camps in northern Germany; some concentration camps that were liberated are the Bergen-Belsen and Neuengamme concentration camp.

When the British forces entered the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in mid-April 1945, they found approximately 60,000 prisoners, most of the Jews that were in here, were in critical conditions due to an epidemic, but still alive. 10,000 prisoners died from the effects of disease, or by the effects of malnutrition a few weeks after the liberation. The ones that survived were so weak that they could hardly move thanks to the years of maltreatment. Many of the camps had to be burned down to prevent the spread of epidemics. The survivors of the camps faced a long and difficult road to recovery.

The liberators were in shock due to the living conditions in the concentration camps, where millions of Jews were starving or were at the verge of death. Few days after the liberations the Nazi horrors were exposed to the world. Nazis by trying to deny the bad conditions of the concentration camps burned some of them, producing more deaths.

After this battle the number of liberated Jews was big, but also the number of death soldiers. As any battle it left many death people and also managed to make Germany get out from Normandy, giving more territories to the Allies and at the same time strengthening them.

Valerie

sources:  http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Normandy#War_memorials_and_tourism

http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-day/d-day-and-the-battle-of-normandy-your-questions-answered

Allies Counterattack

What happened to the Nazi leaders after the Berlin War was over?

The battle of Berlin was one of the bloodiest battles in history. Approximately 350000 men were killed and Berlin lay in ruins. This battle was between Germany vs. Soviet Union and Poland.

This battle began on April 16, 1945 until May 2^nd, 1945. In this battle the city of Berlin was surrounded and defeated. Hitler announced on a declaration that the war was lost; he also announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end, but before the battle has got to an end, Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials committed suicide due to the lost of the war. Some historians say that Hitler committed suicide by drinking a poison, others say that he died by a self-inflicted gunshot.

Before committing suicide Hitler appointed two successors: Karl Donitz as the new President of Germany and Joseph Goebbels as the new Chancellor of Germany. But Goebbels committed suicide and leaved Donitz as the leader of all Germany

Hitler’s suicide meant more than one life lost, it meant the end of the holocaust, the Holocaust is considered the greatest crime against humanity recorded in history; and the end of the Nazis, due that their leader was dead.

Many Nazis moved to other places; some moved to countries in South America such as Argentina, because many South America countries had governments that were sympathetic to the regime so Nazis could have new documents and protection. But not all Nazis were safe; some of them were killed, other committed suicide.

More than 100,000 Jewish people had been killed throughout Europe by the Nazis; Germany was in late 1940 an anti-Semitic country, in Romania half of its Jewish population was eliminated, this means 350,000 Jewish people killed. But after Hitler’s suicide many Jews moved to the United States, to Israel and to other countries because there were no Nazis that could control them.

But everything was not over, few years after the war Neo Nazis appeared, they were young that did not live in the time of war and tried to stick with Nazi ideology, but they didn’t have a real organization and knowing how bad Nazis were with Jewish people, they deny that the Holocaust ever happened, so by doing this they convince more people to support them. They hate black people, Jews, the disabled and homosexuals. If they have a powerful position at their jobs, they might practice discrimination, only hiring straight, non-Jewish, non-disabled white people.

Hitler’s suicide after the battle of Berlin brought advantages and disadvantages for some people.

Benefits primarily for Jews, besides that they would no longer be assassinated due that their great torture was over; they also wouldn´t have to scape from the Nazis. And disadvantages primarily for members of the Nazi party, now that their leader has committed suicide it was the end of the Nazi party, also the liberation of the Jews from the concentration camps, must have hurt them much because the Nazis were anti anti-semitic and the last thing they wanted was the deliverance of the Jews.

Short video about the battle:

 

Valerie

sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/death_of_adolf_hitler1.htm
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131

Eastern Front

Hitler influence in the Battle of Moscow

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of WWII between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union , Poland and some other Allies which encompassed Northern , Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945.

The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life variously due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres.

It was decisive in determining the outcome of World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for Germany's defeat. It resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviert Union as a military and industrial superpower. 

The two principal powers were the Nazi power in Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Many Battles took place in the Eastern front influenced by Hitler.  

After Hitler presence in Barbarossa Battle, he decided to the advance to Moscow . He and his generals sent panzer groups from the north and south in the last two weeks of November. The north group got 21 miles from the city before General Winter came to the rescue of Russia.

Since the Nazis had planned to take Russia before winter started, they were not equipped for the cold weather and snow. With temperatures at 60 degrees below zero, the Germans literally froze. German soldiers lit fires under the engines of their tanks for hours to get them warmed up. German soldiers were freezing to death while they slept.

However, the Red Army were able to pull reinforcements from Serbia and led a divesting counterattack. Hitler decided not to let his generals retreat and lost all confidence in him. All through December Hitler started to fire all of his top commanders. This led to Hitler naming himself commander-in-chief. On December 5, Hitler lost all former allies against Russia. This lead to the near capture of Hitler's prize army. Moscow, along with the Soviet Union, had been saved.

The final tally tilted amazingly harsh on the Russian side of the battle. Russia suffered over 600,000 deaths. Meanwhile , the German troops suffered a smaller deaths with 250,000. For the efforts of Moscow residents to defend the capital city, Moscow was honored with the title Hero City in 1965.

Moscow Battle is considered one of the most importante batles in the war between the Axis powers and the USSR, basically, because the Soviets were able to successfully prevent the most serious attempt to capture their capital. 

The battle was also one the of the largest during WWII, with more than as million deaths. This marked a truning point as it was the first time since the Wehmach began its conquest in 1939.

References:

http://war.by-airforce.com/articles/Moscow-1942.html

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_for_moscow.htm

http://www.serpukhov.su/dima/war/eng/eindex.htm

Francesca Montalbetti

Eastern Front

Causes of the Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle for Stalingrad is considered by many historians to have been the turning point in World War Two in Europe. After the German defeat at Stalingrad the Germany Army was in full retreat.

It was a major battle of World War II in whicn Nazi Germany and its allies foughr the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in south - western Russia.

The battle took place between July 17, 1942 until February 2, 1943, and is often cited as one of the turning points of the war. The battle was among the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare, with the upper estimates of combined deaths coming to nearly two million.

It took place because Hitler was winning in Russia, but he wanted to take the oil fields in southern Russia. So he sent a massive force to seize them.

However, Hitler became impacient, so he diverted some of the force to seize the city on the river Volga, which was the chief way for the Russians to transport oil from the oilfields to other parts of the country. That city was called Stalingrad. 

The plan of the battle was to concentrate all available forces in the southern flank of the long front, destroy the front line Russian forces there, and then advance in two directions to be primary and secondary objectives which were the two most important remaining industrial centers in South Russia.

Germany attacked and russia defended , pouring hundreds of thousands of troops into the fray.

Hitler's intention was to make victory for Russia to great a price for them to continue fighting. But he failed at all of it. If leaders of the world payed attention in history, they would not make the same mistakes others have done. 

However, some historians believe that Hitler ordered the taking of Stalingrad simply because of the name of the city and Hitler's hatred of Joseph Stalin. For the same reason Stalin ordered that the city had to be saved.

The failure of the German Army was nothing short of a disaster. A complete army group was lost at Stalingrad and 91,000 Germans were taken prisoner. With such a massive loss of manpower and equipment, the Germans simply did not have enough manpower to cope with the Russian advance to Germany when it came.

Despite resistance in parts – such as a Kursk – they were in retreat on the Eastern Front from February 1943 on. 

References:

http://www.stalingrad.net/

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_stalingrad.htm

http://www.2worldwar2.com/stalingrad.htm

http://battle.volgadmin.ru/osn_eng.asp?np=20

Francesca Montalbetti

Western Front

The terrifying situation of Jews in Poland

This period of time was a real horrible tragedy, in which the Nazi regime wanted to exterminate the entire Jewish people, by killing millions of them. Not only adults but also children and babies, just because of the fact they were of a different race, considered sub-humans and not part of the Arian race. All these people were abused, many died of hunger, and there were just a few who survived. After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and following the agreement of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the USSR invaded Poland form the east, the Polish army surrounded. So Hilter, as he wanted took control of all the Jewish that lived there. Many of them had to live on the ghettos, but time after, when the last step for the final solution took place they were killed in the extermination camps. This is called Holocaust. 

Poland was where the German Nazi program for the extermination of Jews, the "Final Solution" took place, mainly because at that time it was where the majority of Europe's Jews lived (excluding the Soviet Union). The number of people killed, including Jewish people and gypsies, because of this extermination is definitely enormous. It is know that of the remaining Jews in Germany after 1941, only about ten thousand survived the Holocaust. 

As we know millions of Jews live in the Eastern Europe and Nazism was an anti-Semitic ideology. Hitler wanted to destroy the Slavic elite, enslave the workers and make the land and natural resources available to the superior race. While other "Aryan" nations in Northern and Western Europe were almost conquered and were forced to accept German leadership, one group must be totally eradicated: the Jews. So the final solution had to start. 

With the invasion of Poland more than two million Polish Jews came under German control, and deportations to the ghettos and concentration camps in Poland began. The Germans managed this enormous Jewish population by forcing them to live in marked-off sections of towns and cities the Nazis called “ghettos” o “Jewish residential quarters”. 

These ghettos were city districts in which the Germans concentrated Jewish population and forced them to live under miserable conditions, suffering of hunger, diseases and also forced labor. The Germans created at least 1,000 ghettos on occupied territories. The largest ghetto was in Warsaw, the Polish capital, where almost half a million Jews were confined. 

Then these ghettos are "liquidated" and the remaining population shouted, so another 900,000 Jews were killed. But for the Nazi leadership, this wasn’t enough. While the mobile killing units were still working, an even more terrible plan was created: the construction of killing centers in occupied Poland, to transport all remaining Jews under German control in Europe to these death camps and kill them with gas. 

With the exception of Italy, the German and allied forces carry out a ruthless campaign of mass killings and deportations in the occupied territories themselves. 

In the beginning of the systematic mass murder of Jews, Nazis used mobile killing squads called Einsatzgruppen. This squad consisted of four units of between 500 and 900 men each which followed the invading German troops into the Soviet Union. The death camps proved to be a better, faster, less personal method for killing Jews, one that would spare the shooters, not the victims, emotional anguish. 

Concentration camps prisiones
had to wear colored triangles
in their cloth.

By that time, about one million Jews were already dead. But the methods employed so far, like mass shooting, starvation and slave labor, were considered ineffective. Also, the Nazis wanted to bring the planned extermination to an end while the war was still going in their favor. 

In 1941 six extermination camps were already built or modified: Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Lublin-Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka. Here Jews, Eastern Europeans, gypsies and the physically and mentally handicapped were brought and murdered. These camps were located on the rail network so that the victims could be easily transported to them. The system of camps was expanded over the course of the German occupation of Poland and their purposes were different; some served as transit camps, some as forced labor camps and some as death camps. While in the death camps, the victims were usually killed shortly after arrival, in the other camps able-bodied Jews were worked and beaten to death. After experimenting with mobile gassing units, permanent gas chambers are installed together with crematoria. 

Deportations began in September 1941 with Jews from Germany and Austria. As the killing centers were not ready, the victims were dumped into overcrowded "ghettos" close to the death camps. By the summer of 1942, the gas chambers were working. 

In Western European cities, Jews were ordered to report to collection points. They were taken by train to transit camps and from there transported in cattle trains across Europe to the extermination camps. In occupied Poland the ghettos were emptied one by one in 1942. Mass deportations continued until January 1945, when the Jews of Hungary were transported to Auschwitz. More than 3 million people die in the camps. 

The killing of millions of Jews and other "non-Aryans" in the Holocaust is the greatest crime against humanity recorded in history. In total 6 million murders happened in these camps. However, the Nazis destroyed all the records that show the number of people they had murdered, but the survivors of the extermination camps have given an accurate portrayal of what ‘life’ was like in these places. The death camps were seen as factories which had to make profits. 

For many years there has been an accepted figure for the number of Jews murdered - six million. As a result of recently found evidence, this figure is now being upgraded and some historians have put the figure as high as 7 to 8 million. To this day mass graves are still found in Russia of Jews murdered by the Einsatzgruppen and so the final figure may never be truly known. 

The way they were treated is unimaginable, but as simple as breath, they kill someone.

Here are two of the many documentaries about the holocaust, but please be careful many of them containg strong and shocking pictures.

By: Luciana López-Albujar

References:
http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206286.pdfhttp://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/46.html

http://www.holocaust-education.dk/holocaust/ghettoer.asp

http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/camps.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_camps_in_occupied_Poland_during_World_War_II

http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007706

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_camp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps

Western Front

The marriage between Germany and the Soviet Union

As Appeasement continued, Joseph Stalin knew that there would be another war in Europe. In 1930 Stalin became more and more concerned that the Soviet Union would be invaded by Germany, so he believed that the best way of dealing with it was forming an anti-fascist alliance with countries in the west. Stalin argued that even Adolf Hitler wouldn´t start a war against a united Europe.

In April 1939 he tried to minimize the risk of his nations, so he called for an anti-fascist alliance between the USSR, Great Britain and France. They thought Hitler wouldn’t be able to invade Poland if taking that action would have meant war with Russia. But this negotiation failed for 3 main reasons: first, because Chamberlain didn’t like and trust Communist Russia; secondly, the Polish government refused to allow Soviet Forces into Poland making it hard for the USSR to counter attack German invasion; and finally, Stalin saw the British and French reactions to the Sudetenland Crisis, and didn´t believed that the western powers would enter into a war if called upon, so he didn’t trust that they would resist Germany.

After this, Stalin knew that war was inevitable but he also knew that his armed forces were not prepared for a big and long conflict at this moment. At the same time, Hitler was planning his invasion of Poland. In August 1939 Ribbentrop visited Moscow for a meeting with Molotov, the newly appointed Soviet Minister for foreign affairs. Ribbentrop proposed a non-aggression pact with the USSR.

Why they signed an agreement if they hated each other?

Because Hitler was sure he wouldn’t make the same mistake of WWII, he knew how difficult it’s to fight in two fronts. Also he wanted to be assured that when Poland was invaded, the Soviet Union would not intervene, thus making the invasion a much easier task and allowing the Wehrmacht to quickly complete the invasion and prepare to deal with the British and French response.

In the other hand Stalin was convinced that war was about to break out. He knew Hitler was lying, but he did not trust the British, so he had two choices: make an alliance with Britain and probably end up fighting a war with Hitler over Poland or make an alliance with Germany and get half of Poland straight away. This option also provided Stalin with time to rearm for a German invasion of the Soviet Union, which he believed was incredibly likely to happen at some point.

The conclusion is that both signed because of a strong fear and because they knew it was convenience and a strategy.

Ribbentrop and Molotov arranged two pacts - the economic agreement and the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.

To the chancellor of the German Reich, Herr A. Hitler.

I thank you for your letter. I hope that the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact will mark a decisive turn for the better in the political relations between our two countries.

J. Stalin^*

The first pact was an economic agreement, which Ribbentrop and Molotov signed on August 19, 1939.The economic agreement committed the Soviet Union to provide food products as well as raw materials to Germany in exchange for furnished products such as machinery from Germany. During the first years of the war, this economic agreement helped Germany bypass the British blockade.

 

Four days later Nazi-Soviet Pact or Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed and Stalin and Hitler agreed not to attack each other or help another party attack the other side. What means 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 concerning the division of various territories. The Baltic States (Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia) and Bessarabia were to be part of the Soviet sphere, while Lithuania's claim of Vilna and its surroundings was acknowledged by the Germans. Poland was to be divided between the two countries.

A week after the second agreement was signed, Germany invaded Poland. The Soviet Union took over the eastern part of the country, including western Belorussia and the western Ukraine, while Germany occupied the rest.The central portion, named the General Gouvernement, became a German protectorate, governed by German civil authorities under the autocratic leadership of Hans Frank. In 1940 the Soviets annexed the Baltic States, Bessarabia, and northern Bukovina.

This pact can be call as a marriage of convenience. It was supposed to last for ten years; it lasted for less than two. It came to an end when Hitler broke his promise and invaded Russia in 1940.

The world was shocked when Russia and Germany signed the pact. The British government knew about the Nazi-Soviet negotiations since the beginning but the Pact came as a complete surprise to the British public, who found it hard to believe that communist, Hitler-hating Russia had made an alliance with Nazi, Communist-hating Germany.

For Germany at first it was a good pact, because they need to neutralize the USSR in the conflict with Poland and the real purpose was because Hitler wanted to win their Lebensraum in Russia, stop communism, control of the resources and of all the Jewish people. But after they took the decision to invade Russia, hoping that this time Britain was already forced to capitulate, and underestimating the USSR they crush with the reality they were not good prepared for a war and Britain was. At the end Germany didn´t benefit with the pact, and finished making the mistake they feared: a war on two fronts.

But with Russia is different, they get many benefits from the beginning winning part of Poland and being able to prepare their army for any war, especially a battle with Germany, that is what they were waiting for.

Here are two videos that explain the Nazi-Soviet Pact

References:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir1/nazisovietpactrev1.shtml

http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/nonaggression.htm

http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII8.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Non-Aggression_between_Germany_and_the_Soviet_Union

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSnazipact.htm

By: Luciana López-Albújar

Operation Sea Lion

Battle of the Atlantic: U-boats

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of the Second World War; it began the first day of hostilities and ended on the last day of the war, from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945.  This battle was not about the most powerful navy; neither about glorious battles fought between battleships and submarines. The Battle of the Atlantic was a commerce war waged by German U-Boats against Britain’s merchant marine. For over six years, Germany launched over 1 000 U-Boats into combat in an attempt to isolate and blockade the British Isles, forcing the British out of the war.

During WWII, the Kriegsmarine produced much different type of U-Boats as technology evolved. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-Boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine, the German Navy, and aircraft of the Luftwaffe. What were really the U-Boats? U-Boat is an abbreviation of “Unterseeboot” (undersea boat); it refers to military submarines operated by Germany, mainly in World Wars. They were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships; they were most successfully used in an economic warfare role, enforcing a naval blockade against enemy shipping. In both wars the main targets of the U-Boats were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada, Britain and United States to British’s islands, to the Soviet Union and the Allied Countries in the Mediterranean.

Since 1939 a newer model of U-boat had much better engine power and greater fuel carrying capacity; the Type VII B. By 1941 this had been overtaken by the Type VII C; they were so successful that over 600 were built. The Type VII C was 220 feet long and displaced about 770 tons on the surface and it had a very good reputation for reliability. The Type VII became the standard design for Germany’s submarine fleet during WWII.

The U-Boats had a number of spectacular victories at the start of the war. The British aircraft carrier “Ark Royal” narrowly missed being hit by U-39, later the aircraft carrier “Courageous” was sank by U-29. The U-27 had done a great deal to undermine the plans of the Admiralty which were to pin the German surface fleet in the North Sea and block any moves into the Atlantic.

With an open access to the Atlantic, the U-boats presented a far greater threat than before. In August of 1940, Hitler effectively lifted any restrictions to U-boat activity. However, the success of the ocean-going U-boats was not matched by a similar success around the coast of Britain. British coastal defenses had become a lot better as the war had gone on and far more dangerous for the smaller coastal submarines used by the Kriegsmarine. But out in the Atlantic, U-boats took their toll. In 1940, 1.6 million tons of shipping was sunk, a loss rate that Britain could not sustain.

However, the U-boats started having problems; the German war machine could not produce enough U-boats fast enough. The Kriegsmarine had developed its requirement strategy around the war being over quickly. During the “Happy Times for U-boats, there were only a maximum of 30 at sea, this was not many for an area the size of northern Atlantic. During 1943, “Happy Times” were coming to an end for U-Boats. New tactics developed by the British spelt the end for U-boats, British organized “convoy support groups” for the convoys.

In order to attempt against Britain’s merchant marine, Germany developed powerful submarines called U-boats, at the beginning they gain a lot of victories but later they face many problems, they lead to the defeat of Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic. The U-boats were so damaging that Winston Churchill commented that it was the only time in World War Two that he thought Britain would have contemplated surrendering.

References:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/u-boats.htm

http://www.uboataces.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-boat#U-boat_developments

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/battle_atlantic_01.shtml

By: Nicole Miñan