Battle of Iwo Jima

Causes for United States attack Iwo Jima

The Pacific war, also called the Asia- Pacific War refers broadly to the Pacific theatre of the Second World War that took place in the Pacific Ocean, it´s islands and in East Asia, then called also the far east. During the pacific campaign there were different battles, Pearl Harbor attack, lwo Jima, Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The battle of Iwo Jima was a mayor battle in which the United States fought and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island. I think this month-long battle included some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II. Despite the bloody fichting and severe casualities on both sides, Japanese defeat was assures from the start. The Americans possessed an overwhelming superiority in arms and numbers. United States of America had a plane launching base where they could launch bombers at the Japanese mainland this made it possible for the fire raids and eventually the nuclear bombing.

The subsequent invasion of the island by U.S.A forces resulted in the highest number of U.S. casualties of any operation to date in the Pacific War. Adding in the large United States casualty rate on Okinawa between April and early July of 1945 gave U.S. military planners a clear idea of how fiercely Japanese troops would defend their territory and how many United States casualties they would inflict in the process.

One major cause for United States to attack Japan was the past they have had, mainly the Pearl Harbor attack, United States had get with a feeling of revenge because of the surprise attack of Japan, as Japan had destroy completely the Pearl Harbor, United States wanted to remove something like they did with Pearl Harbor.

When the battle was almost over, and United States had almost have the victory, and United States throw the atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when it was not necessary, because Japan was almost surrendering and they had resist all that time only to have some honor and respect from the people. Unfortunately Nagasaki was an nuclear hell, that´s how United States obtained the total surrender of Japan and was the beginning of the Cold War.

United States of America had secured the victory of Iwo Jima battle, U.S had taken it us a revenge because of the destruction of the Pearl Harbor (Pearl Harbor attack), regaining his honor and being equal with Japan, because both countries have just lost territories on the battles.

In my opinion Iwo Jima was a consequence of the Pearl Harbor, because in the Pearl Harbor attack, United States had enter to the World War II. U.S.A had left with a grudge and a feeling of revenge, wanting to recuperate the territory they had lost, and making Japan lost some land because of what they had done in the past.

Written by: Rafaela Hermoza and Micaela Espinosa

Militar Helmuth Weidling

Battle of Berlin: Helmuth Weidling

The battle of Berlin was the last battle of the World War II. It involved aero attack and Helmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling was one of the most recognized general in the German Army, before and during World War II. During the Battle of Berlin he was the commander of the Berlin Defence Area.

Since November of 1938 he was a Colonel, he participated of the invasion of Poland in 1939. On April of 1940 he was labeled as a Commander and hi participated in the Battle of France y on the first stages of the Operation Barbarossa in the USSR. The 1 of January from 1942 he was a Commander of the division of infantry and one month later he became on the Mayor General. The 1 of January from 1943 he was promoted to Marshal and on October from the same year he becomes the general of the XLI. After that the 10 of April from 1945 he was assigned to the Commander of the LVI Panzerkorps,  by then the Battle of Berlin have had already started.

On 22 of April he was accused of firing a squad for having retreated in the face of advancing Soviet forces, which was in defiance of standing orders to the contrary. So his action were required a death sentence. This situation turned to be a misunderstanding and it was cleared up before Weilding’s execution could take place. After this incident Hitler named him commander of the Berlin Defence Area. He represented many people including Hitler himself.  

The forces available to Weidling for the city defence included   roughly 45,000 soldiers in different divisions. These divisions included Berlin police force, boys in the Hitler Youth and about 40,000 elderly men of the Home Guard. Weidling organized the defences into eight sectors designated "A" through to "H". Each sector was commanded by a colonel or a general, but most of the colonels and generals had no combat experience. On 25 April, Weidling ordered Major-General of the Reserve, Werner Mummert, commander of Müncheberg to take command of the German LVI Army Corps. Weidling ordered that the command of Müncheberg be handed over to Colonel, Hans-Oscar Wöhlermann. On 26 April, Weidling ordered Müncheberg and Nordland to attack towards Tempelhof Airport and Neukölln. At first, with its last ten tanks, "Müncheberg" made good progress against a surprised Soviet foe. However, the surprise was replaced with fierce defensive fire and several local counter-attacks. These soon halted the German tank division's advance.

While Hitler and his generals focus their effort to thwart Feeling and Himmler, Weidling focuses on the more obvious and pressing issue at hand: the siege of Berlin by the Red Army. On several occasions he has rebelled against Hitler's rule. Because his personality is as strong as Hitler’s so they have had many times big discussions about insignificant stuff.

Written by: Eileen Gallagher

Battle of the Atlantic

Karl Dönitz and the Kriegsmarine

Karl Dönitz was a German military that participated in the First and Second World War. During the Second World War he commanded the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany between January 30, 1943 until the end of the war. He was appointed as successor to his country Reichspräsudent by Adolf Hitler, a power he was in charge for 23 days, between April 30^th and May 23 on 1945.  He made many changes during the Battle of the Atlantic, leading the Kriegsmarine.

Before the Second World War, Dönitz had pushed for the German fleet was based on submarines and ships, conceived as vulnerable surface and also he thought that the British Army was much powerful in this type of surface vessels. Dönitz wanted to pull Britain out of the war and gain mastery of the Atlantic Ocean required a fleet of 300 submersible allies to cut off supplies.

Dönitz found that the fleet was not prepared for war. Just had 50 submersibles, some short-range or coastal, as the U-Boot Type II. The Führer requested that such units were designed to fight the British Army units, instead of attacking supply units.

Donitz was promoted on January 31, 1943 to the rank of Grand Admiral, equivalent to General Feldmarschall of Heer and Luftwaffe. This gave rise to, the position of Paramount Chief of the Kriegsmarine. Karl Dönitz got the position he wanted to beat Great Britain, and seize the Atlantic Ocean, Dönitz had become in charge of the Kriegsmarine

Despite the lack of submersibles, the Germans became nightmare waters of the North Sea and the Atlantic between 1939 and 1942. Good preparation of crews and their motivation, despite the tough life on board, and the outstanding design class VIIC German U-boats forced the allies to create huge convoys escorted by all type of vessels, from cruise up even fishing armed with small cannons and machine guns. They confiscated everything that could float and carry a watch and cannon.

Karl Dönitz was arrested by the Allied Forces and taken to the city of Nuremberg, where he was accused for war crimes such as instructing his troops in peace moments. He was accused also for being responsible for the Order #154 that had developed by the unlimited submarine warfare, making a violation of the principles of the naval warfare.

Finally at the end of the war Karl Dönitz and the Kriegsmarine were defeated, all the last German submarines operating models were captures intact by the allies. The formed the basis for developing classes of submarines equipped with the advances of German naval engineering.

Karl Dönitz died on December 24^th of 1980, when he was 89 years old.

In my opinion Karl Dönitz did a great job, because he found the weaknesses of their opponents, so we can beat them, but did not get to fully achieve breakthroughs made ​​with Germany, leaving a mark also of that battle, and leaving Germany with a brand and also the Battle of the Atlantic.

Written by: Rafaela Hermoza

Battle of Britain

Pilots

By the summer of 1940, there were about 9,000 pilots in the RAF for approximately 5,000 aircraft, which most of them were bombers. All the time, the new pilots had "almost not chance at all" of surviving their first five sorties because they don't have experience, and that was because they received the most-damaged planes. The number of survivals rose up during the next 15 sorties as their skill and confidence grew, but sadly, after 20 sorties the number of survivals again decreased to zero.

With aircraft production running at 300 each week, only 200 pilots were trained in the same period. So then, more pilots were sent to the squadrons than there were aircraft, so this allowed the squadrons to continue with operational strength. Another factor was that only the 30% of the 9,000 pilots were assigned to operational squadrons; the 20% of the pilots were involved in the pilot training, and a another 20% were undergoing further instruction. And finally the rest were assigned to staff positions,because the RAF policy stated that only pilots could make many staff and operational command decisions. And for fighting only 30 pilots were released to the front line from administrative duties.For these reasons, and for the loss of 435 pilots during Battle of France, and some others lost in Norway, the RAF had fewer experienced pilots at the beginning of the battle. 

From regular RAF forces and the Auxiliary Air Force and the Volunteer Reserve, the British people could master some 1,103 fighter pilots in July 1st. Replacement pilots, with little flight training and often no gunnery training, suffered high casualty rates.

The Luftwaffe would master a larger number like 1,450 of more experienced fighter pilots. They had comprehensive courses in aerial gunnery and instructions in tactics suited for man vests man combat. Training manuals also discouraged heroism, stressing the utmost importance of attacking only when the odds were in the pilot's favour. But, German fighter formations did not provided a sufficient reserve of pilots to allow for losses and leave, and the Luftwaffe was not able to produce enough pilots to prevent a decline in the operational strength as the battle progressed.

Written by: Paula Guardia and Eileen Gallagher

Puʻuloa

United States involvement in WWII

The Pearl Harbor attack took place on December 7 of 1914, Pearl Harbor, was very important for the United States of America, because this made U.S.A enter to World War II. United States was a country with great economic advantages that is why many European countries traded with them, that´s also why they wanted to conquered U.S. Time ago England tried to get the United Sates in the war, but they resist and didn´t enter. This attack did not develop overnight, U.S. and Japan had problems long before. This attack also benefit other countries, like for example England, time before they wanted to conquered United States, so they so it like an opportunity.

The problem between U.S.A and Japan had started many years ago from WWII, it began when the United States stopped commercializing with Japan because they had changed to fascism, and US only wanted to export and commercialize with Democratic countries, so Japan felt injured and had a feeling of revenge with the United States for many years. This problem of stop the commercialization between them was one cause for Japan to attack the Pearl Harbor. United States didn´t wanted to commercialize with countries that don´t were democratic because it would be a bad reputation for them, that´s made them ordered French, Dutch and English colonies stop to sell products to Japan, so Japan also stopped commercializing with other countries because of United States. They make Japan fall economically, get in an economic crisis, cutting their commercialization with many countries, not only U.S.A

In 1914, in World War II Japan wanted to conquered more territories, wanted to have territories on the Pacific, wanted territories of Indonesia and Malaysia, when United States realize they were in trouble, because with their interests in Indonesia, Filipina and Hawaii, Japan may want to attack them and get the territories they wanted, so they had a plan and began to decrease oil and arms sale to Japan.

Japan had many problems with United States among the XX^th century, that made them attack U.S.A, so at the end, they decide to attacked them and proclaim the war, this surprise attack to the Pearl Harbor is very important in United States’ history, because of this war they get in the World War II, but Japan was not the only one that wanted to fight against United States, many European countries wanted the U.S.A enter to the World War II.

In my opinion the main cause of United States get involved on the World War II was that they stopped commercializing and exporting with Japan because of their type of government, I think that they could continue trading with Japan no matter what kind of government they had, because the trading not only beneficed Japan but also the United States of America.  I think that United States were involved on the World War II since the first moment.

Written by: Rafaela Hermoza

The Battle of Arnhem

Operation Market-Garden

The plan called Operation Market-Garden, is very important in world war II, for being the largest airborne drop in military history. In a few words this is the "Market" plan: Three Allied divisions would be involved, the US Army, 101st Airborne, would be dropped in Eindhoven and would take the canal crossing at Veghel; then again the US Army, 82nd Airborne, would land on the bridges over the Maas River and Waal River. After that, the British, 1st Airborne, would get 60 miles behind the German lines; so then later the Polish, 1st Airborne Brigade, would be dropped in the Rhine bridges at Arnhem. 

The Germans were beginning to stabilize their western forces. German units were moved into Arnhem, and while British intelligence was aware of that, their presence was discounted. The Airborne units had suffered a lot in the Normandy campaign, and are still reorganizing in their camps when the orders were set. They had returned in the beginnings of August after forty days of fighting, 40% of their members were now resting in allied cemeteries. The reconstituted Allied airborne force of World War II was the greatest the world have ever seen, probably would never see again.

In September 17 of 1944, the airborne landings began, and the Germans were even scared of the forces that were descending on them. The same morning the XXX Corps began to advance, but the Germans poured fire in the tanks and vehicles, allied air support wasn't adequate, and the Germans recovered quickly.

Almost all the Airborne forces were able to accomplish their goals, except for the 82nd Airborne, which had to build a temporary bridge to get XXX Corps across. As fellow paratroopers, they knew the British 1st Airborne couldn't hold on for too long.The British 1st Airborne was still holding on, they were supposed to be relieved on the fourth day, but after nine days the XXX Corps still didn't relieved them. It was clear that the 1st Airborne was cut off.

So then, on September 26, Montgomery ordered the 1st Airborne to break out of Arnhem and join the allied lines in the south. Out of 10,000 men dropped into Arnhem, only 2,300 could manage to came out; 1,400 were dead and over 6,000 were captures and become prisoners of war. 

Finally the Operation Market-Garden had failed, and with that the opportunity to end the war in 1944.

Written by: Paula Guardia 

Vive la France!

Liberation of France

Everything started the 22nd of August of the year 1944, the barricades began to be set up around the city, and fighting between French fighters and German troops, everything was unleashed.This fighting led to the loss of 1,500 fighters and civilian lives. Even though the Allies had long avoided bombing the French capital, the German General Dietrich von Choltitz's troops did not had a low moral sense. 

General Dwight Eisenhower, the American commander of all Allied forces in Europe, was at first was against taking Paris. He originally planned to be close, but not attack, Paris, letting its defenses fall as Germany was defeated; he could only enter the city. Free French leader General Charles de Gaulle, had a different view. He demanded intervention, saying to break away from Eisenhower's command and attempt to take Paris on his own should Eisenhower continue to avoid the French capital. In the interest of harmony among top Allied leaders, Eisenhower caved in to de Gaulle's demands; in the end, the general rising of fighters in the city, should make the task a little bit easier while getting small the damage to property and lives.

Against Adolf Hitler's specific orders, von Choltitz chose not to fight for Paris. He began taking the people out of the city in secret before the Allies arrived. 

General von Choltitz surrendered to Leclerc on the 25th of August, the same day that the Allies entered the city. Also on that day, de Gaulle moved his headquarters into the War Ministry in Paris at the approval of Eisenhower; de Gaulle's French forces marched in the Champs-Élysées the 26th of August. De Gaulle made a public speech legitimizing his claims as the liberator of France. 

Acting as the ruler of Paris, de Gaulle requested two American division to remain in Paris to assist him in maintaining order. Arriving in Paris on 27th of August, Eisenhower understood de Gaulle's needs but could not excuse the men necessary from the front. Instead, what the American Supreme Commander did was that he made the American Infantry Division march through Paris, and he led the troops eastward to the front lines. General Bradley stood by de Gaulle on the review stand during the victory parades to symbolize American contributions to the liberation of France.

Written by: Paula Guardia