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FIRST BOOK of
WORLD WAR II
This book
is
for
Harry Neil Snyder
Printed in the United States of America by the Polygraphic
Company
SIXTH PRINTING Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number: 58-5167
of America, Inc.
FIRST
BOOK
WORLD
WAR LOUIS
L.
SNYDER
CONTENTS The War
Begins, 5
What Caused World War
7
Conquest of Europe, 14
Hitler's
**
II,
The Sinking of the Athenia, 17 The "Phony War," 18 Blitzkrieg in the West, 20
Dunkirk, 2
Miracle
at
U-Boat
War
France
Falls,
in the Atlantic,
26
27
The Battle of Britain, 29 The Battle of the Balkans, 33 The Traitors, 34 The War Behind the Lines, 35 Hitler,
Master of Europe, 37
The Arsenal
of Democracy, 38
Hitler Turns on Russia, 39
"A Date Which Will Live in Infamy," 42 The Japanese in the Pacific, 48 The Home Front, 50 The War in North Africa, 5 The Beginning of the End, 56 The Invasion of Europe, 58 The General Says "Nuts!", 62 Victory on the Seas, 65 Victory in the Pacific, 68
A
Story of Courage, 74
Bombs on Germany, 76 Death of Three Leaders, 80
The A-Bomb, 82 The Problems of
Peace,
86
Planning a Peaceful World, 88
World War
Words, 93 Picture Credits, 94 II
Index, 95
Copyright
©
4 1958 by Franklin Watts,
Inc.
THE WAR BEGINS On
September
of Poland. First
i,
1939, the
came
German Army
crashed across the borders
the Stuka dive-bombers, with shrieking whistles
in their wings, to blast the Polish planes that
were on the ground.
Then
and highways. They
German
the
smashed the big
pilots
bombed
the railroads
cities.
After this came the motorcycle infantry, armored cars, and tanks. Finally the regular infantry
up
— the
foot-soldiers
— moved •
in to finish
the job.
This was a Blitzkrieg,
mans had
new kind
which
a
is
war
of
that the
Germans
German word meaning
The ground was
and
level
It
was
lightning war.
the best trained force in the world with
weather was good.
used.
which
to
called
The Ger-
wage
The
it.
just right for lightning
war.
Meanwhile, the Russians were pushing into Poland from the
They and
the
Germans had made
a treaty to
east.
conquer and divide the
country between themselves.
Poland had no chance against the mighty German army. Her
army had no time
to fight
back or even
to
begin to retreat before
overwhelmed. Within two weeks Warsaw, the biggest
was surrounded by the Germans. In a
little
over a
city in
month
six years of
history of the world.
World War
II,
it
was
Poland,
they had con-
quered the whole country and the Russians moved in from the
So began the
little
the most terrible
war
east.
in the
armored cars enter a Polish Nazi motorcycle infantry and by repeated bombmgs Town after it has been devastated
WHAT CAUSED WORLD WAR There was no one simple cause were many After
I,
were
bitter
which ended the war. They their
European
area.
of
II.
Rather, there
World War
I.
four imperial governments were swept
Germany, Austria-Hungary,
especially,
World War
Most of them grew out
causes.
World War
those in
mans,
for
II
Russia,
away
—
and Turkey. The Ger-
about the terms of the Versailles Treaty lost all their colonies
They were
and one-eighth of
forced to return Alsace-Lorraine to
France. Their navy, second only to Great Britain's, was almost wiped
down
away. Their army was cut
so that
was not much
it
larger than
that of Belgium.
Late in the 18th century Poland had been divided countries
— Russia,
World War was
set
up
I
and Austria,
so there
ended. However, in 19 19, a
in Eastern Europe.
many was made chunk
Prussia,
to give
To
this
could have an outlet to the
sea,
World War
I
was no Poland when
new independent Poland Prussia.
This was a huge
and 80 miles wide. So
she was given
that
what was
German
Polish Corridor, running right through
mans never forgave
territory.
the Allies for splitting their country into
was known
as "the
three
newly re-created country, Ger-
up Posen and West
of territory, 260 miles long
among
war
to
ing old wounds this war actually created
Poland
called the
The Gertwo
parts.
end wars." Instead of
new
ones. If
Germany
heal-
ever
got strong again, she would almost certainly try to get vengeance.
During World
War
borrowed nearly 10
I
the countries allied against
billion dollars
from the United
Germany had
States,
promising
pay
to
it
back over a period of 62
They expected
years.
money from Germany by demanding
to get the
reparations, or payments, for
war damage. Starting in 1929 there all
over the world
sion hit
had
Germany
world-wide depression, a time when
a
people became poor and jobless.
especially hard.
She had
war and was over her head
in the
In such times, ahead,
many
came
it is
when
if
to go.
Such men are
them
only they
— the
After in
World War
it
hard
to
a
I
in Italy,
and Tojo
dic-
the
allowed to run
beings are like animals of themselves as tigers,
They were
Italians,
in Japan.
free country they
the people follow them,
But the Germans, the
They
They promise
— are
three strong dictators arose.
"dead corpse." In a
make
them
to drive
—
and
to rule the lambs.
Germany, Mussolini
democracy
human
man
to do.
dictators
weak lambs. They think
were born
evil
called dictators.
what
exactly
the country. Dictators believe that
strong tigers and
almost everything she
people are cold and hungry and see no hope
tate to the people, or tell
people everything
depres-
in debt to the victorious nations.
sometimes easy for a strong and
where he wants them
believe they
lost
The
however
These
Hitler
men
called
might have found
fine their promises.
and the Japanese had never known
real
freedom. They were used to following strong leaders instead of working out their
own
problems in a democratic government.
Benito Mussolini became dictator of Italy in 1922. nalist
who had
written a
number
followers were called Fascists. the loyalty of the people by
When
He was
a jour-
of revolutionary pamphlets. His
he
first
came
making improvements
into at
power he won
home.
He
built
8
TOJO
MUSSOLINI
The
DICTATORS
« HITLER
new
new
roads,
that he
houses,
had made the
One
of his proud boasts
was
run on time! But he demanded
Anyone who
refused to obey
was
Mussolini's real ambition was to rule a great colonial empire.
He
imprisoned or
which
to
was overcrowded and must have more land
grow and become
Mediterranean Sea
means Our
absolutely.
killed.
told the people that Italy in
factories.
Italian trains
him
that the people obey
new
to
become an
Italian lake
Sea. Mussolini glorified
armies into Africa to take
He wanted
a great nation.
new
the
whole
— Mare Nostrum, which
war and conquest and
sent his
land by force.
General Hideki Tojo was the leader of the war party in Japan.
won power
He
Asia. nesia,
in that tiny island
especially
He
by promising the people an empire in
wanted the Netherlands East
from which America got most of her
tin
Indies,
now
Indo-
and rubber. Under
Tojo's leadership Japan attacked China in 1931. In 1932 she seized the rich province of
Manchuria and renamed
it
Manchukuo.
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany Austrian politician
National Hitler
and
who had worked
Socialist, or
was
a sick
his
way
a ridiculous looking
little
man
mind. But he had the power
from hurt
pride, as the
Hitler promised the half-starved
do what he territories
told
them
He was
an
power through the
Nazi, party. His followers were called Nazis.
to do.
and make her
He
with a screeching voice
to arouse people's feelings,
particularly the feeling of hate. This feeling
suffering
to
in 1933.
is
often strong in people
Germans were
Germans
after
World War
plenty to eat
if
I.
they would
promised to win back Germany's
lost
a great nation again.
10
Under
Hitler, the
Germans began
hope again.
to
He
gave them
back their pride in themselves as a people. But he took away the
dom set
free-
they might have found in the democratic government they had
up
after
World War
I.
No
one dared go against Hitler's wishes or
even disagree with him. Hitler
was driven by the idea
and more
intelligent than all others.
were meant finally the
to rule
mankind.
He
German
He
"race" was stronger
believed that the
wanted
to
Germans
conquer Europe, and
whole world.
"Today, Europe," he
Hitler
that the
said.
"Tomorrow,
the world
!
addresses members of the Hitler Youth Organization at a mass rally
in
Nuremberg
Like some
German
leaders before him, he
worshipped war.
"For the good of the German people," he a
war every
twenty
fifteen or
years.
"we must wish
said,
An army
whose
sole
purpose
for
is
to
preserve peace leads only to playing at soldiers."
Once
up and imprisoned or
Hitler gained full power, he rounded
He
murdered millions of Jews.
told
the
people
that
Germany's
downfall was largely the fault of the Jews, and his followers believed him.
Another thing he did was
to
burn
all
the books that spoke for the
He knew
freedom and dignity of the human
spirit.
be easier to lead once they got
out of their heads that they were
it
that people
would
capable of thinking for and ruling themselves. Hitler's deeds of violence
shook the world
since the days of those other cruel
Rome, Ivan
the Terrible of Russia,
as
it
had not been shaken
— Caligula
dictators
and Philip
of ancient
of Spain.
II
In 1936 Hitler and Mussolini joined forces in what was called the
Rome-Berlin Axis. states
were supposed
many and
On
It
Italy, as a
September
was
to revolve
The
its
axle.
Japan joined the Axis.
Italian plan
in
was
Europe and
as
Now
three dictator nations, Italy,
Japan, planned to conquer the world and divide
The German
European
around the two great powers of Ger-
wheel revolves around
27, 1940,
the Pact of Steel.
called "Axis" because all the
it
it
was
called
Germany, and
between them.
plan was to take over Europe piece by piece. to cooperate
much
with Hitler and get what was
of Africa as could be conquered.
The
left
The over
Japanese
plan was to create a huge empire in the Far East.
12
iStt /;
K
rS3
If
?
f
R
~ -
<
Mussplini stands
in
the saddle to address a meeting of the Fascist Youth Organization
Hitler, Mussolini,
was impossible it.
The
States
Allies
—
to reason
strong and sure of themselves.
It
with them. They wanted war. They started later Russia
and the United
them.
for starting
the Axis powers.
13
felt
— Britain and France, and
tried to stop
The blame
and Tojo
World War
II rests solely
and squarely on
HITLER'S
CONQUEST OF EUROPE
Hitler began his conquest of Europe in 1938. year he sent his troops into Austria.
when he
Nobody
cratic republic
the Sudetenland. area. Hitler to seize the
it
after
World War
There were
a great
included the region called
many Germans
vakia. If Hitler attacked her, they
Britain
living in this
He
threatened
force.
Both France and Russia had signed
war came,
Germany.
This new demo-
claimed falsely that they were mistreated.
Sudetenland by
him
a part of the old Austro-
It
I.
15 of that
to stop
part of
to take over Czechoslovakia.
had been formed out of
Hungarian Empire
hand
lifted a
occupied that country and proclaimed
Next Hitler decided
If
On March
would
treaties to
were bound
surely be
drawn
to
into
defend Czechoslo-
come
it.
And
to her help.
Britain
was
not prepared for war.
In an effort to keep the peace, Britain's elderly Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, and the French Premier, Edouard Daladier, went to
Germany
to talk to Hitler.
the city of Munich. There,
document known
By done
the
as the
Munich
and on
Hitler
and Mussolini
at
29, 1938, all four signed the
Pact.
Hitler's
at the last
own
terms.
minute. But
it
was
The document gave
11,000 miles of Czech territory. This territory contained
more than 3,000,000 mercy of
on September
Munich Pact war was stopped
at a cruel price,
Germany
They met both
people.
The broken
little
country was
left at
the
Hitler.
Chamberlain returned
to
London waving
a piece of paper.
He
as-
14
• ••*,
15
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is greeted by crowds as he returns from his historic conference with Hitler on Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain's umbrella, which he carried rain or shine, became a symbol of "appeasement," or trying to get along with Hitler on the dictator's own terms
sured the English people that he had brought "peace in our time."
No
one asked the poor Czechs
how
they
felt
about
it.
And
trayal of Czechoslovakia did not bring peace. Before the year
England and France had reason to
to suspect that
the be-
was
over,
Germany planned
invade Poland. After
World War
ing to protect her
if
I
France had signed a treaty with Poland promis-
she were invaded.
Hitler had his eyes on Poland,
would tember
fight to protect her. This 3,
1939, France
Now,
as
it
became
England announced
clear that
that she, too,
was the end of appeasement.
On
and England declared war on Germany.
Sep-
r'
Nazi infantry on the march
Poland
in
THE SINKING OF THE ATHENIA World War
The
day.
was only nine hours old on
to
Cunard
September
liner traveling
Montreal, were enjoying themselves. Suddenly some
cried,
"Look There's !
Almost
at
a torpedo
boats.
The The
!
once there was a crashing explosion and the unarmed
ship began to sink.
the
that beautiful
passengers on board the Athenia, a
from London one
II
Women
and children were rushed
But nearly a hundred people British
had not
yet
into the
life-
lost their lives.
done anything
to protect their ships at sea.
sinking of the Athenia gave the world warning that once again
Germans would do everything
control of the seas, just as they
had
in their tried to
power
do
in
to
break British
World War
I.
THE "PHONY WAR" On
much happened for began to call World War
land, nothing
clared. People
Germans
called
it
the Sitzkrieg,
The French dug underground
of
"phony war." The
the
II
which means sit-down war.
in behind their great
forts
awhile after war was de-
Maginot Line
—
a long series
running along the border between France and
Germany. The Germans stayed behind
their Siegfried Line, or
West
Wall, which they had hastily built above ground. Both sides could see
each other. There was
Some
shooting.
of the Allied soldiers sang a song
Washing on
One
little
—
"I'll
Hang Out My
the Siegfried Line!"
of the reasons for this strange lack of fighting
the winter of 1939- 1940
was one of the worst in
Another reason was that Hitler ner, Russia, in the east.
He
secretly
planned
was the
fact that
living
memory.
on
to turn
his part-
thought he could get out of fighting the
French and English by defeating the Russians. Once Russia was conquered he would turn "See,
we Germans
than you do. Look
to the Allies
and
say,
Communists any more
don't like the Russian
how
strong
we
are
!
Now
An American
let
us
make
peace."
soldier plays the
bagpipes
in
the "Dragon's Teeth" of the Siegfried line
18
19
ADOLF HITLER, 1940: "I am convinced that our struggle will in the future be blessed by Providence as it has been blessed up to now. look to the future with fanatical confidence." I
BLITZKRIEG IN THE WEST Before turning on Russia, Hitler wanted to be stronger in western
Europe. Suddenly, in early April, 1940, he attacked
He
Norway.
Denmark and
took them in a single day. His Blitzkrieg was like a knife
cutting through butter.
A
month
gium.
later Hitler struck again.
German
of these
countries. Parachutists took airfields, bridges,
The German Air
Force, or Luftwaffe,
Rotterdam, in Holland, leaving
At
this
invaded Holland and Bel-
tanks, followed by infantry, crashed across the borders
two small
railroads.
He
it
bombed
and
the center of
in flames.
time Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England.
The
British people
hoped he would find
"I
have nothing
to offer but blood, toil, tears,
a quick
way out
of the war.
and sweat," he
said.
20
MIRACLE AT DUNKIRK By 1940 had
things looked dark for the Allies. Their combined efforts
failed to halt Hitler's
At
advance into Belgium.
the northeastern corner of France
was stationed
They intended
ditionary force, together with French troops. the
Germans from sweeping on
Leopold of Belgium ordered
his
This was a serious blow to the ing one flank, or
side, of the
to Paris.
army
Allies.
a British expe-
May
Then, on
to surrender to the
The
Allied front.
to
keep
King
28,
Germans.
Belgians had been guard-
Now
the
Germans
sent a
Panzer, or tank column, racing westward to the English Channel.
This the
left
the British
main French
back
to
armies.
Dunkirk on
enemy had not
and French troops
to the
They were caught
north separated from
in a trap.
They
pulled
the coast of France, the only seaport that the
captured.
They had
to leave the
Continent or be wiped
out.
Between the retreating Allied armies and the Germans there was a series of flood gates,
North
Sea.
would flow
The in
used to protect Dunkirk from the waters of the
British
opened these flood gates
and hold up
much. The Allied
Army
the
so that the waters
Germans. Actually,
of half a million
men, mostly
it
didn't help
British,
few Dutch and the remains of the French army, were
bombed continuously They were
as they
poured into the tiny
city of
with a
strafed or
Dunkirk.
forced into an ever narrowing space toward the beaches,
with only the sea ahead.
For a few days British and French
21
aircraft controlled the air.
They
were helped by the weather, which was cloudy. The rear guard fought desperately
on the
the beaches
knew
wounded, the
sick, or
outskirts of
that time
dying.
It
men crowding onto Many of them were
Dunkirk. But the
was running
out.
seemed they would
be butchered by
all
Germans.
Meanwhile, a strange rescue
go
fore did such a fleet
French fishing sloops,
boats,
fleet set
to war.
out from England. Never be-
There were motorboats,
navy whalers, tugboats,
mine-sweepers
Channel
sailboats,
— almost anything that would
lifeboats, ferries,
float.
These boats were manned by every kind of Englishman. There were bankers and dentists, taxicab drivers and clerks, fishermen and police-
men. There were old men whose skins looked
fiery red against their
white hair. There were bright-faced young Sea Scouts, adventure of their
lives.
They were
They were unarmed, but waters covered with the
Some cut their
line.
little
As
Dunkirk
into
from Dunkirk. Others
just
they sailed bravely toward of sunken ships.
lost their lives in
crafts into two.
the darkness
bombs
to
when
destroyers
Others were battered and broken by
fighter planes. Still the strange fleet sailed
planes dropped forces
Some
on the great
wet, chilled to the bone, hungry.
skippers steered by the flames
followed in
German
oil
all
off
on while the
British
put a wall of flame between the retreating
and the Germans who were chasing them. the boats approached the beaches,
men waded
out by the thou-
sands to board them. Others dropped from the ruined piers. Packed
beyond the return for
limits of safety, the boats sailed
back
to
England, only
to
more men.
22
Troops being evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk
23
Out
of the rescue boats onto the soil of
of dirty, sleepy,
walk.
One
hungry men. They were
England stepped an army so tired they could hardly
them
reporter said that they brought with
dog
half the
population of Belgium and France.
"Some
of the dogs were shell-shocked.
They whimpered but
the
men didn't!" Dunkirk was
a turning point in
World War
II.
What seemed
be a great defeat was turned into a great moral victory
which the defeated
soldiers
performed
fight another day. Carried out
the retreat saved a
The
whole
—
to
a victory in
so splendidly that they lived to
under the eyes and
fire
of the enemy,
British army.
retreat also inspired the greatest voice in
miracle of Dunkirk, Churchill
made
this
England. After the
proud challenge:
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender "We
shall fight
on the
seas
and oceans.
!
WINSTON
CHURCHILL:
"The little ships, the unforgotten, un-Homeric catalogue of Mary Jane and Peggy IV, of Folkstone Belle, Boy Billy, and Ethel Maud, of Lady Haig and Skylark the little home." ships of England brought the army (after
Dunkirk)
.
.
.
24
s
©
Karsh, Ottawa
4
I
U-BOAT On the British
WAR
IN THE ATLANTIC Ocean other
Atlantic
Navy was
battles
them on
too strong for
Germans depended most
of
all
were being fought. Since the
on
the surface of the seas, the
their fleet of submarines.
These were
called U-boats or Undersea-boats.
In
Now
World War
I
the
Germans had
sent out their U-boats singly.
they hunted in "wolf packs," with a
refueling
and minor
repairs at sea.
At night
fleet
of supply ships for
the U-boats traveled at full
speed on the surface. During the day they would go under the surface
and wait
The
to prey
on Allied shipping.
Battle of the Atlantic
was
like a
game
of hide-and-seek, played
over endless miles of ocean. Allied ships traveled together in convoys
guarded by small warships called destroyers. destroyers
huge "ash-cans,"
filled
From
these sleek, fast
with explosives, were thrown over-
board to destroy the submarines.
The
battle
enemy found
moved it
too hot for
These U-boats took a the
war was
to be
As soon
over the whole of the Atlantic.
him
in
as the
one area, he went somewhere
terrible toll of ships.
They had
else.
to be beaten if
won. T*
The 16 inch guns of an Allied battleship release their charges in a burst of flame
and smoke
Nazi troops entering
Paris
FRANCE FALLS With
the British gone, the
The French They
felt
The
believed that theirs
safe
was the
the Continent.
finest
army
behind their Maginot Line. But Hitler went right
line.
roads were
jammed with
people trying to escape.
wagons, baby carriages, anything that would move.
came swooping out
planes tion
on these
Nazi hordes.
On lines
of the sky
And
all
They pushed
Then
the
and poured death and
of northern France
Mussolini,
war on France and
June 17 a
Nazi
destruc-
German
knowing
was occupied by the
that France
was about
to fall,
Britain.
officer
hurried to a garden behind the front
where Hitler was pacing nervously up and down.
"My
Leader," said the
officer,
"the French have given up. Marshal
Petain has just spoken on the radio.
27
Before
helpless people.
Within a few weeks
declared
in the world.
The huge French armies reeled back in retreat. Germans were hammering at the gates of Paris.
around the long the
Germans overran
He
said,
'The continuation of the
struggle against an It is
enemy
with a heavy heart
Then
I
superior in
say
we must
jig of joy.
legs.
He jumped up and down
The French
was
so
surrendered on June 21, 1940, in a
futile.
that he could
started to
on
is
"
happy
Suddenly he
like a dancer
arms
in
cease the fight.'
a curious thing happened. Hitler
not control the twitching in his
forest of
numbers and
dance a
a stick
little
clearing in the
Compiegne. This was the exact spot where the Germans had
surrendered to the French after
World War
I.
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN Now Britain stood alone, and the Germans sang, "We challenge the lion of England, For the
and
last
decisive cup,
We judge and we say An Empire breaks up.
— get on the foe ringing — get on the foe
Listen to the engine singing Listen, in your ears
BOMBS, Hundreds
of
it's
to
to
OH BOMBS, OH BOMBS ON ENGLAND German Stu\a
!
dive-bombers, Dorniers, and Hein\els
roared over the English Channel and dropped their cargoes of death.
They came mostly
German
for a
at night.
invasion.
"This wicked
man
It
They were
was
to
trying to soften
up England
be called Operation Sea-Lion.
Hitler," said Churchill, "has
down our famous island race." London was heavily hit. Bombs fell on
now
resolved to
break
the slums.
Even Bucking-
ham Palace was hit. Londoners will never forget the night the German bombs started 1,500 separate fires in the heart of the city. Old and famous buildings were wrecked. But Adolf Hitler did not
know
people he was trying to beat down.
29
A German
officer
this picture of Hitler
"victory jig"
snapped doing
his
the courage
The
and strength of the
British people
remained firm
and calm while night
after sleepless night the
There was no panic. From king
cities.
showed an astonishing
to clerk
The two young
spirit.
bombs
to office
British
worked out a good defense
an electronic beam that bounces
enemy
their
boy they
and
air attacks.
against the air raids.
off objects in space, they
By
radar,
could detect
planes far away. "Spotters" watched the skies night and day.
Anti-aircraft guns ringed the
from
on
princesses, Elizabeth
Margaret Rose, stayed in England during the heavy
The
fell
balloons,
men, women,
cities.
The
British even
and some Nazi planes were caught in boys,
and
just a
Thousands
of
— the R.A.F.
It
it.
girls acted as fire-watchers.
But most important of
was made up of
hung piano wire
all
was the Royal Air Force
few hundred young
fighter-pilots.
Some were
not yet twenty years old. In speedy Hurricanes and Spitfires they rose to challenge the
Germans.
St.
Paul's
Cathedral
sur-
rounded by smoke and flame during an air raid on London
30
1
Jap/r i 1
IB f d
liiW
B
•
^kv i
1
^^1V ^"*
JB
-Br
1L w JB
%l. ^ K^^
1
^^ ^Hqai Er^
.^m
'
^P^^V^^d
k. •
^B
Kj k< HP
^^fl
j^
...
H
^fl^^^.- ^^^1
B^»
J^S^% ^fe l
**'
'•
•^
-a
a
]rl
F BF
A
gunner of the London Home Guard camouflaged by blackened face and old wall paper is ready to take up his post in a bombed-out house if the Germans invade England
In three months these young pilots destroyed more than 2,000 Nazi
The Germans were
planes.
forced to give
up
their plan for the im-
mediate invasion of Britain.
The first
they
Battle of Britain
German owed
fore the
defeat of
was the
World War
to the tireless
House
of
"Never in the
first air
young
II.
human
The
in history. It British people
pilots of the
Commons, Winston
field of
war
was
also the
knew what
R.A.F. In a speech be-
Churchill said,
conflict
was
so
much owed by
so
many
to so few."
**K
***»
\ Tk
^t
i:
S\
/
!*_»>
A German armored
••
**^l..^lf
car
a temporary bridge built to replace one destroyed by Greek patriots crosses
THE BATTLE OF THE BALKANS In the years following the
fall
of France, the Axis forces overran
the Balkan countries in southeastern Europe. This gave
advantage over the
Hungary was
Allies, for the area
already under
Hitler had occupied
German
Rumania with
joined the Axis powers
is
on March
1,
its
them
a kind of land bridge to Asia. influence.
By October,
great Ploesti oil fields.
1941.
1
Italians
they tried to invade her through Albania. Mussolini begged
Germany 20,
1940,
Rumania
But Greece fought back bravely. Her army hurled back the
when
a great
for help,
and
it
came
94 1, the Germans held
all
in the usual Blitzkrieg fashion.
By May
of Greece.
These conquests not only gave the Germans control of the Balkans, but also
made them
water route
to India,
by way of Gibraltar, Suez,
endangered. This route was called Britain's to her for
moving
"life line." It
supplies to her armies in the East.
33 During the four years they were besieged by the people of Dover, England, lived in caves hollowed out of the chalk cliffs
bombs and long-range guns
The and Aden, was now
a serious threat in the Mediterranean Sea.
was necessary
#|^ "J-H*^
THE TRAITORS In smashing his
way
to control of the Continent, Hitler
help of
men who
known
as "collaborationists."
Nazis
as they
betrayed their
own
They
countries.
These
had the
traitors
were
collaborated with, or helped, the
stormed into the various countries.
One
of the most
infamous of the collaborationists was Vidkun Quisling of Norway.
His name has come Quisling ruled
to
Norway
mean
a person
who
a self-seeking traitor.
is
for five years in the full glory of Hitler's ap-
proval, only to be shot by a
Norwegian
firing
squad when the Nazi
government crumbled. In France Henri Petain, hero of
World War
I,
helped the Germans.
So did the statesman Pierre Laval. Each occupied country had share of these collaborationists.
fflto
its
A
Goumier, or French colonial soldier from
Morocco
THE WAR BEHIND THE LINES "new
Millions of people were forced into the Nazi
order."
There
were Poles, Czechs, Danes, Norwegians, Netherlanders, Belgians, French, Jugoslavs, and Greeks. laborers in
Nazi
But inside stay beaten.
of
them had
to
work
as slave
factories.
their
They
own
carried
The Czechs wrecked the factories they put to spoil
Many
them. They
countries the peoples of
on a war behind the trucks
bullets
Hollanders killed Nazi
to
lines.
and blew up ammunition dumps. In
powdered
made
Europe refused
glass into oil
and
officers
shells
and
and sugar
into gasoline
which would not explode.
soldiers.
In the middle of the
night they would put iron weights on the bodies and throw them into the canals,
where they would not be found.
Norwegians wrecked telephone, telegraph, and started fires
electric lines.
They
and explosions.
The French
resisted
by blowing up bridges and derailing
35 The Free French, under General Charles de Gaulle, fought the Axis after France fell. Here Free French sailors check the engine room of the submarine Rubis, about to leave on patrol duty
trains.
They published
newspapers right under the noses of the
patriotic
enemy.
And
who
everywhere throughout Europe there were brave people
helped captured Allied prisoners to escape.
The
peoples of Europe became united in their hate for the invaders.
The German were
occupation forces reacted violently.
killed, they
body in
They would
their
men
arrest any-
including children, and put them to death in revenge.
sight,
They warned, Hundreds
took hostages, or prisoners.
one of
If
"Fifty
Frenchmen
of innocent
German
for every
killed!"
men, women, and children were executed.
One of Hitler's most savage lieutenants was Reinhard Heydrich, "the Savage Hangman." Czech patriots killed him, and the Nazis took terrible revenge. In the little
was believed
of the slayers thing.
They
Czechoslovakian village of Lidice, where one
lined
to
be hiding, the Nazis did a senseless, brutal
up every man, 190
machine-gunned them. The 195 tration
camp.
And
trace of Lidice
plowed
in
women
all,
in
on a grassy meadow and
town were
sent to a concen-
the 82 children were scattered abroad.
was destroyed, even
its
Then
every
graveyard, and the ground was
flat.
'The name Lidice has been wiped from the face of the earth ever " shouted the !
Nazi
radio.
But the Nazi radio was wrong. Today, village stood, thousands of visitors pass
has
made
by
at the spot
where the
little
to see the
monument
that
Lidice immortal.
The German
And
for-
policy of terror did not work. For terror breeds terror.
the world does not forget.
36
HITLER, By
MASTER OF EUROPE
the Spring of 1941 Hitler
was the master of
seemed unbeatable. Germany had increased her
size
all
Europe.
He
from 180,976
to
323,360 square miles, plus 290,000 more in lands which she had occupied but not
made
from 65,000,000
part of her Empire.
to 106,000,000. Hitler
Her population had jumped
had 40,000
airplanes, 180 sub-
marines, 363,171 tons of surface navy, 214 infantry divisions, and 12
Panzer
divisions.
of the British
Against
powerful force was pitted the might
Commonwealth, and
Nazi aggression. There was on
this
also
— the resources of the United
a
worldwide opinion opposed
something
else Hitler
to
had not counted
States.
The AXIS and
occupied
territory
The greatest extent of Hitler's invasion of Russia
Moscow©
UNION
OF SOVIET
SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
THE ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY The United
had hoped
States
to stay
struggle
went on she began
fight in
some way. The growing power
Americans
Europe. Without her help
it
tinued the war after the
of France.
to join the
of Hitler threatened not only
The United
also.
which could outmatch the
fall
would have
to realize that she
the rights of Europeans but of
the only nation
out of the war. But as the
industrial
was doubtful
States
might of
was
Hitler's
Britain could have con-
if
After only a year of struggle the British had spent most of their
money buying food and war plight
from the United
was solved on March n, 1941, when the United
the Lend-Lease Bill.
President receive
materials
deemed
Under
Their
States passed
"any country whose defense the
defense of the United States" might
vital for the
war goods from
The United
this act,
States.
the United States by sale, exchange, or loan.
States told the
world her plans by means of the Atlantic
Charter. In August, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime
Minister Winston Churchill met off the coast of
draw up
this
and promised
document. In to
work
for a
it
world
in
would overthrow
which
all
nations
would be equal
Nazi tyranny."
The United States now became mocracy. From her farms poured that
to
they pledged allegiance to democracy
"after the final destruction of the
weapons
Newfoundland
the arsenal, or storehouse, of dethe food,
from her
factories the
the dictators.
When
Germans neared Leningrad, old men, women, and children went out to build a the
girdle of fortifications
around the
city
38
HITLER TURNS
ON
RUSSIA Germany turned on
Suddenly, on Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, her
ally, Russia.
On
this
same day, back in 1812, the French conqueror
Napoleon Bonaparte had attacked a second
Napoleon, thought
it
who
Russia. Hitler,
was
fancied himself
his lucky day.
Three huge German armies crossed the Russian border without meeting any great
Moscow in "Russia
resistance.
the center, is
They headed
and Stalingrad
for
Leningrad
in the South.
broken!" shouted Hitler. "She will never
r
in the north,
1
i^ali
rise
again!"
^MMIf
fiHMM*lfc1
At
many
first
of the Russian people
thought he had come
put
many
them from
to free
But Hitler proved
Stalin.
welcomed Hitler because they
to be
own
their
even worse, they
felt,
Russians to death and treated the rest as
dictator, Joseph
than Stalin.
slaves.
He
The Russian
people rose to defend their homeland.
The It
Russians astonished the whole world by their fierce resistance.
wasn't only the soldiers
the children as well.
They blew up
who
fought, but the old men, the
They burned
bridges.
their
They dynamited
own homes and their
women, factories.
huge dams. They de-
stroyed everything in the path of the Germans.
When
they were hopelessly surrounded, the Russians fought even
harder. Like the early forests,
American Indians, they disappeared
coming out only
at night to
smash the
into the
railroads or kill the
German guards. Help came
at last
from Britain and America
in the
form of war
materials.
Hitler fall
was
so sure of his
in six weeks.
He was
own
strength that he believed Russia
wrong.
He
would
did not reckon with the Russian
climate, especially the severe winters. His soldiers did not even have
winter clothing.
And
the Russian winter of 1941 turned out to be the
worst anyone could remember.
Caught
down
to a
in the icy
mud,
the
huge German war machine slowed
crawl on the Russian plains. Hitler,
who
boasted that he
He said, We did not know how
never was wrong, had to explain to his people.
"We made
a mistake about
one thing.
strong
the Russians were."
40
Russian children attend classes on the steps of bombed-out school
their
On
August
Stalingrad. city.
So
Germans began
22, 1942, the
For three months
closely
two or three
their first direct attack
on
a savage battle raged for this Russian
were the opposing forces matched that the capture of
yards, or even
the rubble day after day.
one building, was big news. Shells churned
A
huge German army outside the
city struck
again and again. But Stalingrad held out.
Soon the Germans were dreds of miles. 18 12.
The
The
retreat
in full flight along a front of
was
just like that of
plains of Russia were filled with
many hun-
Napoleon's army in
smashed and burned war
machines, wrecked vehicles, and the twisted figures of the dead. Stalingrad was disaster for Nazi
Germany.
"A
DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY"
While
the United States
grew
tions with Japan
watched the struggle in Europe, her
She resented the growth of
steadily worse.
Japanese sea and air power in the Pacific area.
would
of eastern Asia she
rela-
interfere with
If
Japan became master
United States trade and
busi-
ness interests there. Japan's brutalities in China, her joining of the
Axis in 1940, had made
it
ruthless a conquest of the free
For
Japan was embarked upon as
clear that
their part, the Japanese
world were
as
Germany
bitter
was.
because of what they called
America's interference in their plan to create an Empire in eastern Asia.
They
felt that
she stood in their
way
to further conquests. Still,
they dared not risk an open break with her until Hitler's
made
in Russia
seem
it
likely that the
the Italian Fascists, the followers of
first
successes
Axis would win the war. Like
Tojo were willing
to risk their
necks only on the winning side
At 7:55 on
morning
the
of
December
7,
1941, a messenger boy
pedaled his bicycle in the direction of the American naval station
Harbor, in Hawaii.
at Pearl
He
George C. Marshall, the Chief of
manding
officer at Pearl
tion to be
on the
carried a telegram Staff in
from General
Washington,
to the
com-
Harbor. The telegram warned the naval
sta-
alert for a Japanese attack.
Suddenly there was a tremendous explosion.
"Wow He
!
" said the
messenger boy, " that's not a joke
dived into a ditch.
hours while bombs
fell all
And
!
he had to stay there for the next few
around him.
42
There had been that
morning
signs earlier that
a patrolling
American
something was wrong. At 6:45
and sunk a Japanese midget submarine submarine had the right station, spotted planes
to be.
many
in waters
Two army
miles away.
privates,
Then on
it
wave
was
a
of Japanese bombers.
of
attack.
B-i7's.
the
red
emblem
of Japan shone
to drop.
The
by a direct
after the at-
tack on Pearl Harbor
The round
The bombs began
murderous
foremast
U.S.S. Arizona
43
American
their
happened. Flying low out of the morning haze came the
pletely destroyed
Wrecked
at a radar
leave.
their wings. It
working
was Sunday morning and most of the ship and plane crews were
on holiday
first
where no Japanese
They were worried, but
lieutenant said that the planes were probably It
Ward, had found
destroyer, the
hit.
battleship
Arizona was almost com-
The Oklahoma,
struck by
many
4>
&t /
pi
'•
V
1
|
4-
''
m^^^ •*
M
y^0>
'-
.»'*WJf
Wesf water near the blazing U.S.S. boat rescues a seaman from the Pearl Harbor Virginia during the attack on nail
^aM
-•«(/
torpedoes, turned over
and sank
many
big warships and
in shallow water. In
air
power
in the
diers, sailors,
and
rise.
some fourteen
smaller ships were wrecked or damaged.
United States planes were smashed they had a chance to
all,
to bits
on
the
ground before ever
In a matter of minutes American naval and
Hawaiian Islands was paralyzed. Nearly 2,500 civilians died in the blazing inferno,
sol-
most of them
Americans. In Washington, Secretary of State Cordell Hull got news of the
he had gotten over the shock of
disaster quickly. Before
came
into his office
and
told
him
that
it,
an aide
two Japanese envoys were wait-
ing outside to see him.
"What do
they want?" the Secretary asked.
"They have
a note for you, sir."
"While bombs are Mr. Hull
let
before he
office
insults.
Then he
on Pearl Harbor
falling
the
two Japanese cool
let
them
let
the envoys have
He
in.
Mr. Hull had been born and
knew some freely
voice "I
45
and he a
is
man
said to
this
coldly told the
He
have used them
in his position
would not
said,
say that in fifty years of public service
any government in
Then he
their heels a while in the outer
raised in the hills of Tennessee.
note that was crowded with such that
to wait."
Americans, he was boiling. Finally, in a
choked with emotion, he
must
them
it
on the Japanese envoys. Usually all
Tell
read the note, which was filled with
colorful curse words,
speak this way. But, like
!
lies.
I
I
have never seen a
never imagined until today
world was capable of uttering them."
two Japanese
to leave his office.
In Japan Emperor Hirohito announced to the people,
"We, by
Emperor
the grace of Heaven,
of Japan, seated
on the
throne of a line for ages eternal, say to you, our loyal and brave subjects:
We hereby declare war on the United States of America Empire."
British
The
next day, in America, President Franklin D. Roosevelt read a
message to Congress. "Yesterday,
famy
and the
It
opened with the words,
December
1941
7,
.
.
.
a date
which
will live in in-
." .
.
With only
a single "no" vote, Congress declared
war on Japan.
Speaking for a nation united, President Roosevelt
"We
are
now
in this war.
man, woman, and child
is
We
are in
it all
a partner in the
said:
the way. Every single
most tremendous under-
taking in our national history."
Three days Steel,"
later,
on December
Germany and
10, 1941,
Italy declared
carrying out their "Pact of
war on the United
States.
Thus, by declaring war on Japan, America found herself with two wars on her hands.
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: (speech to the naHarbor) "We are now rn the midst
tion after Pearl
a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this nation, and all that this nation represents, will be safe for our children" of
46
*.-•-!?? *::
#
:
.
•7-Sj**V'"#?Tt:isSA-
THE JAPANESE IN THE PACIFIC Soon
after Pearl
Harbor Japan began
to spread all over the Pacific.
In four days she attacked Singapore, Manila,
landed troops
all
Wake, and Guam. She
over the Far East.
Japanese planes sank the huge British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle-cruiser Repulse.
Singapore.
The
A
weary British garrison surrendered
Japanese also captured the important
Burma Road,
in
the
supply route to China from India. In the Philippines the outnumbered, starving Americans fought heroically, but in vain.
General Douglas MacArthur, on orders from
President Roosevelt, escaped !
"I shall return " said
from Bataan
to Australia.
General MacArthur.
The Americans made
a last stand at Bataan.
Under command
of
Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, the gallant Filipino-American defenders were artillery,
bombarded from
and attacked by infantry
units.
the
air,
At
last
pounded with heavy they surrendered.
The
Japanese captured 11,500 prisoners. These unfortunate men, with their
commander General Wainwright, were taken by horrible death march. Sick, starved,
the Japanese
on a
and miserable, prodded by Japa-
nese bayonets, they were forced to walk for scores of miles to a prisoners'
camp. Hundreds perished on the way.
Bataan became a household word in the United
would remember "Bataan"
just as they
would remember Pearl Harbor.
Soon the Japanese overran the Netherlands East
Sun
of Japan
was now dangerously
Americans
States.
close to Australia
Indies.
and
The
Rising
India.
48
Dead American beach
in
soldiers
New Guinea
on a
»
% MM
*
•*.
v
-..
THE HOME FRONT In a great war there are two fronts soldiers fight, their fighting
Within factories
battle front
where the
and the home front where the people work
to support
men.
a year after Pearl
and shipyards
long as the war
to
Harbor millions of Americans went
work. They promised not
Americans
lasted.
fulfilled the slogan
"A
girls
ship a day "
tin, brass,
and used
copper, tinfoil, again.
And and
did their share, too.
basements, yards, and vacant
They
all
to
go on
started a shipbuilding !
planes, landing craft, tanks, trucks,
Boys and
— the
strike as
program
rifles
—
all
They went metal.
the tools of war.
searching in
They found
war bonds
to help raise
war. Millions of boys and girls were heroes on the
money
home
attics,
old iron,
kinds of metal that could be melted
helped to win the biggest war in history.
that
out of their factories poured
lots for scrap
also sold
into
down
for the
front
and
THE WAR IN NORTH AFRICA Once Britain,
Hitler
from
had conquered Europe, he could be attacked only from
Russia, or
from North
North Africa thus became
Africa.
one of the most important battle fronts of World
When
the
war began, Mussolini had
His strategy was
from the Far
East.
there before the Africa.
to capture the
The
They planned
sent his troops to
North
Africa.
off the Allies
had troops in Egypt, some stationed
others brought there
to capture all of
North
all
Africa,
the
way round
and then use
it
an attack on Hitler's Fortress Europe.
as a base for
By 194 1
II.
Suez Canal and thus cut
British
war and
War
Italian troops
had already driven 60 miles into Egypt
toward the Suez Canal. Then British forces struck back. Their surprise attack carried
many
them eastward halfway
They captured
Italian prisoners.
Again Mussolini and
across Libya.
Italians
called
on Hitler
for help. Together, the
Germans
drove the British back into Egypt.
The first round of the Battle of North Africa ended in a draw. Round two came in 1942. Once again it was a seesaw battle swinging back and forth. Desert warfare was a story of fast-moving tanks
pushing forward through the enemy
lines
and then retreating
across
the hot sands.
General Erwin
Rommel was
master of tank warfare. as wily It
and shrewd
was
a
dark
as a
moment
able
life
for the British.
putting the finishing touches on inflatrafts for the U. S.
Navy
German
leader.
He was
a brilliant
He was called the Desert Fox because fox. He led his tanks into Egypt.
51
Women
the
But
their
he was
Eighth Army, under
IFRANCEI
The NORTH AFRICAN
CAMPAIGN
SPAIN
Sf B(
DC
o
)
|
AXIS-held countries
SICILY
^> ALLIED advances
'fc.
Algiers
Oran
|
TUNISIA
Germans escape to Sicily
t
ALGERIA
JL_
Casablanca^
MOROCCO >
+
^
F
Eisenhower lands
\
wi,h Allied ,roo P s
\
I
R
N C H
E
NORTH the
Montgomery defeats
Rommel
AFRICA command
El Alamein.
EGYPT Montgomery, beat
of General Bernard
It
was one of the
the
Germans
at
greatest victories of the war.
While Montgomery was chasing tional surprise far to the west. In
American landings were made
the Desert Fox, there
came
a sensa-
French North Africa, three Angloat
Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers.
Troops, tanks, and tons of supplies were put ashore safely from a vast fleet
of ships.
to the
It
was
a magnificent feat. It
came
as a
complete surprise
Axis war leaders.
The commander
of this expedition
was the great General Dwight D.
Eisenhower.
52
The enemy was now caught
in a pincers
movement from both
and west. Hitler poured thousands of air-borne troops into the But
it
was
east
battle.
all in vain.
Round three came in 1943. Montgomery pursued the Desert Fox westward sand miles. British tanks
Eisenhower closed
in
more than
much as forty miles west. The Germans were
moved
from the
for
as
a thou-
a day.
And
caught in a
steel trap.
The Germans, with it
came, came quickly. Cut
for their tanks, they
What was
Gun
pit
desert
in
left
the African
with
submerged When not in
gun half in sand. use, such
guns were camouflaged with netting
53
their usual skill,
were
off
fought hard. But the end,
by land,
sea,
and
air,
when
without any
oil
helpless.
of Hitler's African
army escaped
to
Europe. They
Allied troops
crossed the toe of Italy.
narrow
The
advance over
straits
hilly
country
North Africa
in
between Tunis and
Sicily, the island off the
Italians lost their African armies
and
all their
African
possessions.
Now
the
way was open
to attack Hitler
from
under-belly of the Axis," as Churchill called
were not
it,
the south, "the soft
where the defenses
as strong as in the north.
54
THE BEGINNING OF THE END Now
that Mussolini's
blasted, the Allies
dreams of empire
planned
to invade Italy
in
North Africa had been
and advance
straight
up
the
peninsula toward Germany.
Over July 9 and Africa to
Sicily.
10,
The
1943, the Allied armies crossed
from North
By August
Italians surrendered in droves.
17 the
conquest of Sicily was complete. President Roosevel-t announced that "it
was the beginning of the end"
When
the Italian people
their armies destroyed, dictator, Mussolini,
the Italian
and
saw
for the dictators. Sicily
and
their colonies conquered,
their cities ruined, they
with his fake promises.
government surrendered
And on
threw out
September
3,
their
1943,
to the Allies.
The Allied armies stationed in Sicily now crossed over to Italy itself. They landed on the beaches of Salerno, September 12, 1943. Hitler sent as many troops as he could to stop them. These fought with every kind of booby trap and gunfire.
The campaign up
the peninsula
the Allies took Naples.
was slow and
costly,
Then came another landing
at
but by Ocfober
Anzio.
After months of bloody fighting the Allied forces finally came
within sight of Rome, the city of Caesar and a host of emperors and popes.
They occupied
the city
on June
4,
1944.
It
was the
first
Axis
capital to surrender to the Allies.
Now Tiber.
the Allied troops rolled
They moved
Line, where the
steadily
on through the
city
and
northward through Tuscany
Germans had
across the
to the
Gothic
established their last line of resistance.
56
(
/' J >
Patrol of
Canadian and Indian
soldiers
This was indeed a time of once. at
The
victory in Italy
crisis.
came when
Many
in
captured
And
Rome
things were happening at
the Allies were poised for a strike
Western Europe. The Russians were battering the Germans
East.
in the
in the Pacific the long tentacles of the Japanese octopus
were being chopped
57
on the lookout for enemy snipers
off
one by one.
THE INVASION OF EUROPE "No power on
He was
earth," boasted Hitler, "can drive us out!"
talking about
what he
called Fortress Europe, the great con-
quered continent which he had ringed with defenses. True, the Allies
had already broken through the defenses of
Normandy,
On to
facing England, was a
in Italy.
maze
But along the shores
of forts, tanks
and
artillery.
the other side of the English Channel, the Allies were planning
undertake one of the biggest gambles of the war. They were going
mighty Normandy defense system and
to attack the
Hitler's fortress.
was
This was the famous Second Front. The First Front
in Russia.
The coming tion Overlord.
May was had
try to invade
to
attack
And
the
on France was
the invasion day
month chosen
called by a secret
was
— Opera-
name
called D-day.
for this great venture.
But the Allies
wait for better weather. Storms arise suddenly over the English
Channel. General Eisenhower, in
command
of the attack,
grave responsibility of choosing exactly the right
moment
had the for
it
to
begin. First
came
a softening-up process.
attacked the coastal defenses. units of
commandos
to-hand combat stations.
French
—
They
Huge waves
of Allied
destroyed roads and bridges. Small
fighters specially trained in sabotage
— were dropped by plane resistance fighters
bombers
were
to
and hand-
wreck the German radar
secretly supplied
with weapons.
Meanwhile, war materials poured across the Atlantic from America. All England became a great military and supply base for the coming
58
!
invasion.
For months trucks and tanks rumbled along the roads. Planes
From
roared overhead.
artillery
ranges came the
boom
of practice
shooting.
Then At
it
came
2 o'clock in the
dropped
softly into
ment began. At harbors
made
calm waters
names
At
— June
of
— D-day
morning
British
Normandy. At
of concrete
and old
for the invasion.
3 o'clock the
heavy
I
ships
and Mulberry
The
boomed.
Artificial
were towed into place
to
make
II.
ships that
under cover of darkness, a huge army of beaches.
bombard-
aerial
These harbors were known by the code-
from 4,000 transport
Normandy
and American paratroopers
sunrise the big guns of the warships
Mulberry
last,
1944
6,
ships
had crossed the Channel
men began
shuttled back
to
pour onto the
and forth
across the
channel again and again. Warships and a great umbrella of planes protected them.
It
was the
greatest display of military
power
in the
history of the world.
Then suddenly tanks,
the
the weather turned rough.
Some
which could be used both on water and on land, ran afoul
German
steel traps
a series of blunders.
had thought
Though
that the weather
had canceled
of
anchored along the beaches.
But the Germans were taken completely by
made
of the amphibious
surprise.
They had
they expected the invasion, they
was not right
a routine E-boat patrol that
for
it
at that time.
They
might have given them
warning.
There was
59
terrible fighting at the
Normandy,
or
"Omaha"
beach,
60
Americans
as the
called
it.
"Utah" beach,
where other landings were made, was taken with Allies
less
difficulty.
And
once the
had gained a foothold on the beaches
they kept going forward. of nearly a million
An
Allied
men was
army
landed in
France. Later,
from the south of France, Allied
armies began to push northward. This operation '
was known by the name of Anvil
Dragoon. The Germans were caught trap. It
was the beginning
Hitler's empire.
.#*.#•
61
Masses of men and equipment being landed on the coast of France from landing craft offshore
of the
in a
end of
THE GENERAL SAYS "NUTS/" By
early
British
December, 1944,
were ready for an
Germans, watching
them back
to drive
six
American armies together with
on Hitlers Siegfried Line. The
all-out attack
closely,
decided to
the
make one
into the sea, just as they
last
had done
The German commander, Marshal von tacked in the Ardennes region of Belgium.
at
Dunkirk.
Rundstedt, suddenly
He
lines.
at-
smashed ahead with
one of the strongest tank forces in history. Soon
tremendous hole, or bulge, in the Allied
desperate attempt
his troops
This
battle
opened
was
a
called
the Battle of the Bulge.
The was
Allies fought hard.
They had no
foggy that their planes could not get
so
American unit was cut completely in the
middle of the Bulge.
British
and the Americans.
At
help from the
his headquarters the
sat silent,
wondering what
It
air.
off the
The weather
One
ground.
off at a small place called
Bastogne
looked like a bad Christmas for the
American General Anthony C. McAuliffe to
do
next.
An
aide
came
in with a message
from the Germans.
"What do they want?" asked the General. "They demand our immediate surrender, sir!"
said the officer.
"And
they want your reply at once." "Tell
them
NUTS
!
That word became
" said the General.
forever
famous
as
an American symbol of
defi-
ance.
Then,
as if
by a miracle, the
skies cleared.
More than 5,000
Allied
62
The
First
the Ninth
Ski
Patrol
Army
the winter 1944-45
63
goes
front in
into action
Germany
on
during
pounce down on the advancing Ger-
warplanes swept into the
air to
man
to a halt.
tanks and bring
Meanwhile ton,
the
them
American Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and
and the English General Montgomery sent
squeeze both sides of the Bulge.
reserves to
Pat-
Belgium
The bewildered Germans were
to
forced
back to their original positions. This was the
German
last
called the Battle of the
At long
last
came
drive of the war.
Bulge the greatest American
the invasion into
General Patton's tanks went so
a great blunder,
American tanks sped
across
fast that
they ran out of gas.
Remagen
But here
On May
8,
it
was cut
1945,
Two South
African engineers display a Nazi flag they un-
earthed hotel
in
under
a
Cassino, Italy
bombed
By good
across the Rhine.
The
had not blown up that precious bridge.
it.
would
Hitler had boasted that his Nazi Reich years.
battle of the war.
Germany.
luck the Americans found a bridge at
Germans, by
Prime Minister Churchill
in half
Germany
and facing
its
surrendered.
end.
last for a
thousand
VICTORY ON THE SEAS While
these furious land battles
were being fought, a
important was being waged on and under the
newed Allies
their
were winning
had been working
re-
this battle of the oceans.
men
at top
American and
oceans.
The Nazis had
sea.
U-boat campaign with even greater violence. But the
For many months
Now
battle just as
These
aircraft
American and
in
British naval laboratories
speed to perfect submarine-detecting devices.
British aircraft of all types patrolled the blue
were equipped with radar
sets specially built for
detecting submarines. Regularly they kept watch over 80,000 miles of
seaways, protecting as
many as 3,000 ships at once.
Destroyers were equipped with a kind of underwater radar, called sonar, for locating submarines. Ships
and
aircraft
worked
together. If
one detected submarines nearby, the other could be called in to help destroy them.
The
tide of the sea battle
critical stage of the
turned against the Germans at the most
war. For
all
the skill of the
German submarine
crews the power of the U-boat was shattered overnight. Radar changed everything.
It
robbed the Germans of
their chief asset
—
invisibility in
night attack.
By
the
end of 1943 and the beginning of 1944 the Germans were
los-
ing submarines at the rate of one a day. Altogether they had some 720
U-boats at in
65
sea.
640 of them were sunk. Out of 40,000
German U-boats, 30,000 lost their lives. The Allies also defeated the Germans on
men who
served
the surface of the seas.
On
December
German a convoy
1943, for example, a British squadron
26,
battleship Scharnhorst.
on the way
to Russia
The
battleship
with supplies.
was trying
The
upon
fell
the
to destroy
British
squadron
sent her to the bottom.
The mastery fully regained
of the seas,
by the
which the Axis had
seized in 1941,
was now
Allies.
Two depth bombs plode at the as a U. S.
boat fights submarine
extime
same Navy P.C. a German
66
,______.__ M -_-__
A-Bomb ,
Aug.
6,
1945
Hiroshima
^Burma Road
ManilaPJPHILIPPINE IATAAN
~Kfrfi
/IALAYA-:
JSingupS
NEW GUINEA
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES 'GUADALCANAL
AUSTRALIA ALLIED VICTORIES in the PACIFIC Occupied
by
Japan
VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC The
Japanese
made
rapid conquests after their attack on Pearl Har-
bor. Before long the rubber, tin, oil, quinine,
and other products of the
East Indies were in their hands. Their conquered empire contained one-quarter of the earth's surface
Then of 1942, victories
The
the
American Navy began thrashed the Japanese
it
to fight back.
fleet
Twice, in the middle
soundly. These two American
put an end to Japanese expansion.
first battle,
It lasted six days.
May.
the Battle of the Coral Sea, took place in early
The
Japanese and American surface
apart even to see each other
fleets
Airplanes did the fighting.
!
Japanese naval expedition abandoned
its
were too
The
far
defeated
plan of attacking southern
New Guinea. The
next month, on June
4, a
Japanese squadron was discovered
headed for Midway Island. Again American naval
They mauled
action.
Now
the
the Japanese squadron so badly that
American Navy was on the
instead of the attacked.
August
7,
1942,
aircraft
A
into
retreated.
was the attacker
strong American offensive took place on
when United
Solomon Islands. The American plan
offensive. It
it
went
States
Marines landed on Guadalcanal
in the
simple, but
From
it
for regaining a foothold in the Pacific
was deadly.
bases in the
It
Solomon
was
consisted of a series of island "hops."
Islands
American
task forces
would
re-
capture one after another of the tiny islands seized by Japan. Each victory
would bring them
a step closer to
Japan
herself.
68
2&
•aA
H SB
$ If
*?
#*v-
•»
Marines slogging through tropical jungles, moving up to attack the Japanese on Guadalcanal U.
S.
;
I
.>.->* l
-
i
>
w*iW *f
*
J
ft
N
I r/A,
U. S.
Army
First the
Engineers carry a section of pipe through the Burmese jungle
Americans recaptured
in the Gilbert Islands.
Next were
were the Marianas. As soon were
of? to the
By October
as
New the
Then came Tarawa Marshall Islands. Then there Guinea.
one island was invaded the Americans
next one. of 1944, the
leap to the Philippines.
A
Americans were ready
to risk the
huge Japanese naval force
daring
tried to halt the
landings on Leyte over the period October 23-27, 1944.
It lost
two 70
Giant seagoing "freight cars" unload war cargoes on Leyte Island
P
U. S.
Marines advance
in
the
Solomon
Islands, ever watchful for
enemy
snipers
A
Coast Guard Combat Photographer snapped this war dog and his master seeking shelter in a foxhole on Leyte Beach
-** ;!» battleships, four carriers, six
about nine destroyers.
General
It
Mac Arthur
was
heavy
cruisers, three light cruisers,
a great
American
and
victory.
returned to the Philippines, just as he had
promised.
Meanwhile, on the mainland of Southeast Asia, small bands of dependent
fighters, called guerilla fighters, carried
the Japanese lines.
They were under
the
in-
on war deep behind
command
of the
American
General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell and the British Brigadier General
Wingate. Slowly but surely the Allies built up their strength. They forced the Japanese out of Malaya, Thailand, Burma, and China.
With to
the capture of the island of
within only 350 miles of the southern
land. U. S.
of Japan.
73
Okinawa, the Americans advanced tip of the
Japanese main-
airmen rained tons of bombs down on the tinder-box
cities
A STORY OF COURAGE Much
of the success of the Allied
to the bravery
British
and courage of the individual
and Americans were cut
They were hungry
a
off
itched
was due
in the Pacific
soldiers.
Many
times the
from guns, ammunition, and food.
good part of the time. In the steaming jungles of
the islands they dripped with sweat.
They
campaign
Hordes
and burned with mosquito
bites.
of insects attacked them.
Their
feet
were
sore
and
swollen from the long marches and the jungle damp.
Then add fight.
To
a Japanese, his
that matters to
him
is
own
personal welfare
nese people, with the
Emperor
Japanese believe that
as the
it is
better to
accept dishonor or defeat
they can help
he
is
if
is
fice lives needlessly, the
it.
very few prisoners.
It
was
terrible
a courage that the Axis
to the
Japanese would not.
almost impossible to
Against these
commit
suicide than to dis-
the family, they will not
Every Japanese if
he
is
soldier
is
captured,
to kill himself.
While most armies would surrender
it
but the whole Japa-
about to be overcome by the enemy, or
the only honorable thing to do
found
sisters,
would disgrace
it
if
not important. All
supreme "father."
grace the "family." Because
told that
is
they had to
the honor of his family. His family includes not
only his mother and father, brothers and
The
enemy
to these hardships the nature of the
make
enemy
The
rather than sacri-
Allies in the Pacific
the Japanese surrender.
They took
a fight to the death all the way.
odds the British and the Americans fought with
had thought impossible in what they
called the
"soft" democracies.
74
*
FT1
»»
I***? U. S.
75
Marines slosh
their
way through mud
to the jungle front lines
-
^
BOMBS ON GERMANY "Not call
a single Allied plane will appear over Berlin. If
me 'Meyer'
Hermann Goering head of the German Air Force. Germans were
lot of
very bitter about
I.
to call
the
him Meyer
first to start
In the early part of
great cities as
He was
said.
the
number two Nazi,
before long.
They were
it.
The Germans were
War
does, you can
!
That's what
A
it
the
World War
bombing
II their
of cities in
World
planes devastated such
Warsaw, Rotterdam, and London. Then
the Allies
struck back.
The
first
great Allied air attack
was on Cologne,
a city in the
middle
more than
a thou-
of the Rhineland. In the short space of 90 minutes
sand planes showered the
city
with 2,000 tons of bombs.
In the weeks that followed the
During the day, American Flying try.
With
on the
the accurate
Fortresses ranged
Norden bomb-sight
all
rest.
over the coun-
they hit their targets right
nose.
At night came
the giant British Lancasters.
of "block-busters" stroy
Germans were allowed no
an entire
— bombs
so
Each
carried eight tons
powerful that one of them could de-
city block.
In between the Fortresses and the Lancasters came lighter British planes called Mosquitoes. Their buzzing was enough to keep the
Germans awake and By 1943
fearful
the Allies
through the night.
had developed a new system of
shuttle
bombing.
76
American tank hit by mortar shell in devastated Cologne. In the background is the famous Dom, one of the most beautiful churches in the World. It was damaged but not destroyed by Allied airmen
Planes would
fly
over Germany, drop their clusters of bombs, and
then head for North Africa. After resting a few days the pilots would return to England by
way
of
Germany, dropping another load
of
Germany were reduced
to
bombs.
One rubble.
after another the great cities of
Hamburg was
almost totally destroyed, and other
cities
were
badly damaged. By 1945 Berlin was a shattered ghost-city. It
was a sad and
terrible business.
by the Germans themselves. Civilians Factories were destroyed.
The Germans were
This was "total" war, invented as well as soldiers
were
Homes were smashed.
learning the hard
way
— what
you do unto
others can be done to you.
A
French and a
killed.
British soldier flee
from a machine-gunning plane
British
wire a tree a canal to hold
troops
felled across
up the enemy
Hitler tried to strike back as best he could. His scientists were
working on
secret
weapons which they believed would win the war
Germany. One of
for
V-i, or Vengeance
these
was
a flying, or "robot"
Weapon No.
i.
It
was
plane which carried a ton of explosives in flying
bombs were launched from
its
called the
actually a small pilotless nose.
the Continent.
down on London. Then the Germans began using the Much larger than the V-i, the V-2 could
bomb,
Thousands
of these
They came scream-
ing
It
was
silent
and gave no warning.
sphere and then the
came down
ground before
it
79
travel at 2,250 miles
an hour.
rose 60 miles into the strato-
at terrific speed. It buried itself deeply into
exploded.
But these weapons came to pieces
It
V-2, or flying rocket bomb.
much
too
late.
Germany was being pounded
by round-the-clock bombings. She could not
last
much
longer.
DEATH OF THREE LEADERS On
April
12, 1945,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt died at
Springs, Georgia, three
months
after
Warm
he had begun his fourth term
as
President. In his last speech, written to be delivered before Congress, his closing
words were,
"Let us move forward with strong and active faith." Roosevelt's death
was a sad blow
and children broke down and
cried
to
Americans.
when
Many men, women,
they heard the news.
Three weeks
death came to the
later
man who had wanted
to be
Caesar. Benito Mussolini's final boast, while Allied armies poured over
Northern
Italy,
was
"Between the two of tiful
would outdo Hitler
that he
us," he said, "the
man
death will be a greater
one
in defeat.
who
dies the
in the eyes of history."
There was nothing beautiful about Mussolini's death. flee Italy in disguise,
me
"Let
save
my
and
upon
spat
the
He
tried to
but he was captured by anti-Fascists.
life,"
he begged, "and
His captors shot him. They strung up the heels outside a
more beau-
Milan
will give
you an empire!"
his bullet-ridden corpse
by
Angry
Italian citizens kicked
man who had
brought them untold
filling station.
body of the
I
and misery.
trouble
Two days later the German dictator, too, was dead. Hitler
was in an underground bunker, or
of Berlin.
Above him was
shelter,
below the
streets
a trembling, shattered city, a flaming ruin.
Raving mad, he rushed from room
to
room.
He
ordered troops which
did not exist into the path of the oncoming Russians.
"The German people Even
at the last
moment
saved by some miracle. his wife of a
are not
worthy of
the
When
mad
me
!
dictator felt that he
the truth
few hours, Eva Braun. Then he put a
Thus ended
the
life
and
his lunatic
Nazis
81
Some
faces in the crowd as President Roosevelt's casket is carried through the
gates of the White House
to the
ground.
killed
bullet into his
own
in the yard.
of one of the most vicious tyrants of
took the combined might of three great
Hitler
would be
was forced on him he
mouth. The bodies were burned with gasoline
It
" he shouted in agony.
World Powers
all
time.
to bring
THE A-BOMB Japan's navy and air force had been almost destroyed by August, 1945. But, by the samurai, or military code, the Japanese were honor
bound
to fight to the end.
into flying bombs. toast,
They turned
Young
were strapped into
Japanese
the
few planes they had
pilots, after
drinking a farewell
their explosive-filled aircraft.
bombs, they aimed their planes
at
left
human
Like
American warships and died
in the
explosions.
What
could be done to bring an
enemy
clear that the Allies
would have
million Americans
would probably be
like this to
its
knees?
It
was
home islands of Japan. A killed or wounded in this last
to invade the
great battle of the war.
But there was another solution
The known
problem.
idea of nuclear fission, or splitting the atom, to physicists. If the
scientists
of
to the
could
make
World War
produce the
II
first
mans would win
a
power
bomb
of
of the
had long been
atom could be
controlled,
enormous power. Since the beginning
both the Allies and the Axis had been racing to
atomic bomb. There was real danger that the Gerthe race.
Early in the war, Albert Einstein, the great German-born
scientist
who was now an American citizen, told President Roosevelt that such a bomb could be made. The President immediately set aside two billion dollars for research to produce the bomb. Many scientists worked on the
project. There
German
scientist
were the
who had
Italian
Enrico Fermi, Lise Meitner
escaped Nazi
Germany
—a
— the Danish Nils 82
Robert Oppenheimer, and
many
Bohr, the American
J.
bomb
produced was a fearsome weapon.
these scientists
Harry a
S.
Truman, who became
President after Roosevelt died, had
hard decision to make. Should he use
He
decided that
Japan
fair
warning, but she refused
For months a
vast
American
of Japan. Early in the fortress
the
morning
named Enola Gay took
A-bomb
verse.
air
The
—a city
been selected
weapon
that
end the war.
to
armada had softened up the August
of
gave
had
in
it
islands
1945, a giant Super-
6,
ofT for Japan.
In her
the basic
bomb bay was
power
of the uni-
had
army
Hiroshima was located a small but im-
base.
2,000 times the blast power of the largest time. It blew almost all of
Hiroshima
collapsed like toys. Sheets of flame
bomb
TNT.
It
whipped through
Some had
Houses
the city. their
swayed. There was an electric smell in the
The
air.
hills
Tens
eyebrows
Others had skin hanging from their arms and
Terrorized birds flew off in every direction.
had
ever used until this
off the face of the earth.
of thousands of panic-stricken people fled. off.
He
to surrender.
That one bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of
burned
or not?
of Hiroshima, with a population of 344,000,
as the target. In
portant Japanese
weapon
this terrible
was the quickest way
it
The
others.
faces.
around the
city
In seconds some 150,000
people were killed or wounded.
Hiroshima was covered with a huge rolling cloud of smoke and dust. First the heavens turned black.
floated into the air. like
83
form.
Gradually
its
Then
a giant
mushroom
cloud
deadly shape changed into a flower-
This
Three days Nagasaki, a
later
city of
was a
residential street in Hiroshima
an even more powerful A-bomb was dropped on
250,000 people.
After a week of silence the Pearl
Harbor saw
that they
men who had planned
had made
a great mistake.
the attack
Human
on
courage
could not compete with the atom gone crazy.
On
September
Tokyo
2,
1945, the battleship Missouri lay at anchor in
Bay. Aboard her were the
commanders
of the Allied forces
awaiting the arrival of the beaten Japanese.
Then
a
little
launch appeared alongside the huge ship.
peace delegates stepped from Silently they filed to a table set
it
The
and came aboard the
Japanese
battleship.
on the foredeck. 84
In a clear, firm voice General render. Everyone present
now
the terms of sur-
was thinking of Pearl Harbor. General Mac-
Arthur finished reading and "I
MacArthur read
said,
invite the representatives of
Japan
to sign the
instrument of
surrender at the places indicated."
Without
a
word
the Japanese envoys wrote
"These proceedings are closed,"
The war
in the Pacific
was
said
over. It
down their names.
General MacArthur.
had
lasted only three
longer than the war in Europe.
Japanese Foreign Minister Shigemitsu signs the surrender document that ended World War II. General MacArthur (left) and Lt. General Sutherland stand watching
months
THE PROBLEMS OF PEACE World War trillion dollars
can
was the most expensive war
II
More than
in history.
how
were spent for war materials and armaments. But
we measure
a
the cost of broken lives, destroyed homes, the misery
and poverty caused by war?
Germany 200,000.
3,250,000
lost
Among
men
in battle, Japan 1,500,000,
and
Italy
the Allies, Russia led with a loss of 3,000,000 killed
in battle, the British
Empire 400,000,
and
the United States 325,000,
France 200,000.
The war was even more lives.
disastrous for civilians. 12,000,000 lost their
35,000,000 were wounded.
disease took their dreadful
When
Italy,
Not only bombs but
British,
and
toll.
Germany, and
finally
entered the defeated Axis countries.
—
starvation
Japan surrendered, the Allies
Germany was
split into
four zones
American, French, and Russian. Those nations which had
been occupied by the Axis were cleared of enemy troops.
For the
first
time in her history Japan learned what
occupied by a foreign people!
it
Her Emperor was allowed
throne because he was the only person
who
out.
Under General MacArthur, head
tion forces, the Japanese
When full
began
the Axis prison
to learn the
rule.
The
crimes against humanity go unpunished.
keep
his
The
military
of the occupa-
ways of democracy.
camps were opened,
measure the horrors of Axis
to
to be
could persuade the Japa-
nese people to submit peacefully to their conquerors.
crowd was wiped
meant
the
world learned in
Allies did not let these
The Nazis
war
responsible for
86 Japanese children come on the run when American Occupation troops hand out chewing gum and candy
the death of millions of people in gas ovens were put
Nuremberg. Nineteen were found
guilty
and
trial
in
either executed or sen-
Hermann Goering
tenced to long prison terms.
on
killed himself with
poison a few minutes before he was to be hanged.
The
terrible price
was now
which Europe had paid
clear. It is difficult to
understand
for submission to Hitler
how
he gained such power
over intelligent people. Most difficult to understand
mans themselves did not clear, in his speeches to.
Some
ties.
and
stop
him
in the beginning.
in his book,
is
why
the Ger-
He made
it
quite
Mein Kampj, what he was up
did try to stop him, of course, and they paid terrible penal-
But most went along with him, even though he carried out
horrible cruelties right under their eyes.
responsible before the world
and before
For
history.
this they
his
must remain
PLANNING A PEACEFUL WORLD After the
two
World War greatest
II,
the United States
powers on
could these two countries
earth.
live in
The
and the Soviet Union became
great
problem now was, how
peace?
Before the war ended, the diplomats of the Big Three States,
Great Britain, and Soviet Russia
— had made temporary plans
to insure a peaceful world.
At
February 4-1
had agreed that the
1945, they
1,
— the United
the Yalta Conference, over the period liberated, or freed,
peoples of Europe should be allowed to form democratic governments of their
own
choice.
But Russia did not
live
up
to her part of the
agreement. Before long she established "satellite"
states in
Eastern
Europe.
The word "satellite" means a small star which revolves around a larger one. The satellite states were meant to revolve around Russia and do
as she told
them. Russia seized control of such countries as
Hungary and Czechoslovakia At
in spite of her promises at Yalta.
the last wartime conference, held at Potsdam,
July 17 to
August
Germany. Then
2,
1945, the Allies fixed the peace terms for defeated
the wartime friendship between the Big
orated. Russia turned her back
on her
countries to her side. Believing she
she plunged ahead with a plan to the
Communist
The United to
do
Germany, from
allies
was not
and
tried to
safe in a
Three evap-
draw other
democratic world,
draw more and more
countries into
dictatorship.
States
and Great Britain refused
to recognize her right
this.
88
THE UNITED NATIONS World War
After
I,
the world tried to prevent
ing a League of Nations where countries could
more wars by formsettle their disagree-
ments peacefully. But the League disappointed many people. weakness was that
The the
it
was an organization
of governments, not peoples.
Charter of the United Nations, formed after
same purpose
peoples
as the
League,
starts
Its
World War
out with the words,
II for
"We
the
." .
.
The Charter
of the United Nations
was signed
San Francisco on
at
June 26, 1945, by the delegates of 50 countries.
The United Nations is a kind of town meeting of the world, where delegates of the member nations can meet and discuss their problems.
When
nations quarrel
it is
better to talk things over than to
Perhaps most important of the things that have led to
all,
war
go
to war.
the United Nations tries to prevent in the past. It has even
between nations that had already started
made
peace
to fight.
Various branches of the United Nations work hard in other ways to
The Economic and Social Council world, for we know that poverty can
prevent the things that lead to war. helps poor people
all
over the
help to breed war.
The World Health
Organization,
on public health and the control of
WHO,
disease. It
such as malaria, tuberculosis, and on leprosy, typhus, polio,
advises
less
and diphtheria, and
member
makes war on plagues
common
diseases such as
in emergencies sends planes
with doctors and drugs from one country to the other.
89
countries
*
9$
Headquarters for the United Nations in New York. At the left is the United Nations Secretariat building. The domed building to the right is the General Assembly Hall, backed by the New York skyline
90
The
International Labor Organization,
ILO, helps workers through-
own problems but also with worldall workers to know and understand
out the world, not only with their
wide labor problems.
It
teaches
each other better.
The
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization,
UNESCO,
gives useful information to all countries.
One
of the weaknesses of the United Nations
veto clause.
What
this
means
is
— the United China — can or
Security Council tionalist it
that
is
any one of the big nations on the
States, Britain, Russia, France, or
forbid, talking about
veto,
the rule called the
Na-
any question which
does not want to discuss.
One
of the most difficult problems of the United Nations has been
that of disarmament, or reducing the
future
World War
weapons
unthinkable.
Any
all-out
war would
forces of the world.
have developed far too missiles
A
terrible
which can span
result in the destruction of
most
toward disarmament of
their
mankind. But the nations must take the
own
free wills.
Nations and
and all
We
— the hydrogen bomb, and guided
a continent.
of
is
armed
tell
They must plainly
in foreign countries.
list
first
step
their
armed
forces with the
and honestly how many there are
The United Nations
United
at
home
has been trying to have
the nations of the world permit a special committee to
make
a full
inspection of their armaments.
The way
of the United Nations has been neither easy nor happy.
But the important thing
Some
91
is
that the road to peace
is still
open.
people say that there has always been war and that there
always will
be.
Let us not be too sure of
code of the duel.
demand
that the
So
law
it is
as a
Once men
lived
man thought he had been insulted, man who had insulted him fight it out If a
This old-fashioned idea died out for the
that.
means
as people
began
to
by the
he would in a duel.
have more respect
of obtaining justice.
with the nations in the world today. As
increases, the nations will turn to the
their respect for
law
United Nations instead of going
to war.
We live in an atomic age. Not many of us could survive an atomic war. We will live in one world, abiding by laws created for the good of all people, or
We
we
must win
will not live at
a victory over
all.
war
itself.
That
is
the hope of the
civilized world.
92
WORLD WAR A-BOMB: The ALLIES: Great
II
WORDS
atomic bomb. Britain, France,
United
States, Russia,
China, and
many
smaller countries.
ATLANTIC WALL: German control of the ports of Western Europe. AXIS or AXIS POWERS: Germany, Italy, and Japan. BANZAI ATTACK: Reckless bayonet charge by Japanese soldiers with
yells of
"Banzai!" This means, "10,000
years, forever!"
BLITZKRIEG,
BLITZ: Lightning war: swift-moving
or
air
and ground attacks by German armies.
BLOCKBUSTERS:
BURMA ROAD:
Big British bombs. Supply route to China.
CASE BARBAROSSA: Hitler's plan for crushing Russia. COLLABORATORS: Traitors who helped the Axis inside conquered DER FUEHRER: The leader; used by the Germans in referring to the FASCIST: Badge F.F.I.
:
countries.
Nazi
leader,
Adolf Hitler.
name
of the party founded in Italy by Mussolini. French forces of the Interior; French fighters for freedom from the Nazis. of authority; the
FLAT-TOPS: Aircraft carriers. FLYING FORTRESS: Heavy American bombing plane. GOTHIC LINE: Final German battle line in North Italy. GREATER EAST- ASIA CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE: Japanese name of World War II.
HURRICANE:
for their
conquered empire in early years
British fighter plane.
DUCE: The leader; the Italian Fascists' name for their leader, Mussolini. ISLAND HOPPING: The U. S. plan to hop, skip, and jump from one island KAMIKAZES: Japanese suicide pilots. LANCASTER: Heavy British bombing plane. LEND-LEASE ACT: U. S. help for Britain, March 11, 1941. LUFTWAFFE: The German Air Force.
IL
MAGINOT
LINE: French underground
MAQUIS: French resistance fighters. MESSERSCHMITT: German fighter
MULBERRY HARBORS
MURMANSK RUN: NAZIS: O.P.A.:
:
Artificial
line of forts along the
to another to the heart of Japan.
Franco-German border.
plane.
harbors made especially for the sea lane for help to Russia.
Normandy
invasion.
North Atlantic
Followers of Hitler. Office of Price Administration; U.
S.
agency to nx wages and prices, January, 1942.
OPERATION OVERLORD: Code name for the Allied invasion of Normandy. OPERATION SEA LION: Code name for Hitler's plan to invade England, which was OPERATION TORCH Code name for the invasion of North Africa. PEARL HARBOR: U. S. naval base in Hawaii; attacked by the Japanese on December RADAR: The electronic "eye" which sees through fog and darkness.
never carried out.
:
7,
1941.
R.A.F.: Royal Air Force of Great Britain.
RED DEVILS: 1st British Airborne Division. SECOND FRONT: The Allied line against Germany SIEGFRIED LINE: German Defense SITZKRIEG: "Sit-down" or "phony" SPITFIRE:
ROSE: Japanese U-BOATS: Submarines.
V-l
:
93
Western Europe.
war, on the Western Front, 1939 to early 1940.
British Fighter plane.
STORMOVIK: Russian ground-strafing THIRD REICH: Hitler's Nazi state.
TOKYO
in
line facing France.
girl
Vengeance weapon; Nazi
who flying
plane.
sent out radio appeals in English for the Allied troops to surrender.
bomb.
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left,
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right,
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United Press
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94
INDEX Aden, Arabia, 33 Airplanes: Enola Gay, 83; Dorniers, 29; Flying FortHeinkels, 29; Hurricanes, 30; Mosquitoes, 16; Spitfires, 30; Stukas, 5, 29; Superfortresses, 83 Air warfare, 5, 20, 21, 22, 27, 29-32, 42-45, 48, 58, resses, 76;
59,65,68,73,76-78,82-84 Albania, 33 Algiers, 52 Allied powers: France, 7, 13, 14, 16, 18, 21, 27, 28; Great Britain, 7, 13, 14, 16, 21-24, 26, 29-32, 40,
51-56, 58-66, 73-79, 86; United States, 7, 13, 38, 40, 42-50, 52-78, 80, 82-86, 88, 89; Russia, 5, 7, 13, 14, 18,39-42, 57, 58,88 Alsace-Lorraine, 7 Amphibious operations, 52, 56, 58-61, 68-73
Anzio, 56
Compiegne, France, 28 Congress, 46 Convoys, 26 Czechoslovakia, 14, 16, 36, 88 Daladier, Prime Minister Edouard, 14
D-day, 58-61 Death march, 48
Denmark, 20 Depression, 8 Desert Fox, (see Rommel, Gen. Erwin) Desert warfare, 51 Destroyers, 22, 2 6, 65, 73
Disarmament, 91 Dunkirk, 21-24, 62 East Indies, Netherlands, 10, 48,
Egypt, 51 Eisenhower, General
Appeasement, 16 Ardennes, 61, 62 Arizona, 43
Far East, 12, 48
42 58 Flying bombs, 79, 82 Fortress Europe, 51, 58 First Front,
Atomic bomb, 82-84 Atomic war, 92 Australia, 48
Gilbert Islands, 70 Gibraltar, 33
Austro-Hungarian Empire, Axis powers: Germany, 5,
7,
14
7, 8, 10-12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 26-37, 39-41, 51-66, 76-79, 81, 86, 87; Italy, 8, 10, 51, 57, 81, 86, 88; Japan, 8, 10, 42-48, 57, 68-74, 82-86
Bastogne, Belgium, 62 Bataan, 48 Battle of the Bulge, 62, 64 Battle of the Coral Seas, 68 Belgium, 20, 62 Berlin, Germany, 81 Big Three, 88 Blitzkrieg, 5, 20, 33 Book-burning, 12 Bradley, General Omar, 64 Braun, Eva, 81
Burma, 73
Goering, Hermann, 76, 87 Gothic Line, 56 Greece, 33 Guadalcanal, 68 Guerilla fighters, 73
Guided missiles, 91 Hamburg, Germany, 78 Hawaii, 42-45 Hiroshima, Japan, 83 Hirohito, Emperor, 46 Hirohito, Emperor, 46 Hitler, Adolf, 8, 10-14, 16, 27-29, 34, 39, 40, 42, 51 54, 56, 58, 61, 64, 79, 81, 87
Holland, 20
Home
front,
50
Hull, Secretary of State Cordell, 45 Hungary, 33, 88
Hydrogen bomb, 91
Caesar, Julius, 56 Caligula, 12
India, 33, 48 Island "hops," 68-73
Ivan the Terrible, 12
War
7-13 Chamberlain, Prime Minister Neville, 14, 15 China, 10, 42, 48, 73 Churchill, Prime Minister Winston, 20, 24, 29, 32,
54 '
Collaborationists, 34
Cologne, Germany, 76 Colonies, 7, 10
Commandos, 58 Communists,
18,
,
Guam, 48
Burma Road, 48
„
64
Fascists, 8,
Atlantic Charter, 38 Atomic age, 92
38
D., 52, 58,
England, (see Allies; Great Britain)
"Arsenal of democracy," 38 Asia, 10, 33 Athenia, 17
Casablanca, 52 Causes of World
Dwight
68
88
II,
Japanese characteristics, 74 Jews, 12
King Leopold of Belgium, 21 Land bridge to Asia, 33 Land warfare, 21, 27, 33, 39-41, 51-53, Laval, Pierre, 34 League of Nations, 89 Leningrad, Russia, 39 Leyte Island, 70
56, 61-64
INDEX Libya, 51 Lidice, Czechoslovakia, 36 London, England, 17, 29, 76, 79 Luftwaffe, (see Air warfare)
Radar, 30, 43, 58, 65 Reich, German, 64 Reparations, 8 Repulse, 48 Resistance fighters, 35, 36, 58
MacArthur, General Douglas, 48, 73, 85, 86 Maginot Line, 18, 27 Malaya, 73 M^re Nostrum, 10 Manchukuo, 10 Manchuria (see Manchukuo) Marianas, 70 Marshall, General George C, 42 Marshall Islands, 70 McAuliff, General Anthony C, 62 Mediterranean Sea, 10, 33 Mein Kampf, 87 Midway Island, 68 Milan,
Italy,
Rhineland, 76
Robot bomb, 79 Rome, Italy, 56
Rommel, General Erwin, 51-53 Roosevelt, President Franklin D., 38, 46, 48, 56, 80, 82 Rotterdam, Holland, 20, 76 Royal Air Force, 30, 32
Rumania, 33 Samurai, 82 San Francisco, U.S.A., 89 Satellites,
Scientists:
Enrico,
81 52, 53,
Bohr, Nils, 83; Einstein, Albert, 82; Fermi, 82; Meitner, Lise, 82; Oppenheimer, J.
Robert, 83 Sea warfare, 17, 26, 65, 66, 68-73
Missouri, 84
Montgomery, General Bernard,
88
64
56
Montreal, Canada, 17
Sicily, 54,
Moscow, Russia, 39 Munich, Germany, 14
Siegfried Line, 18, 62
Mussolini, Benito,
Singapore, Malaya, 48
8, 10, 12, 14, 33, 51, 56,
81
Slave laborers, 35 Sonar, 65 Stalin, Joseph, 40 Stalingrad, Russia, 39, 41 Stilwell, General Joseph, 73 Submarine warfare, 26, 65 Sudetenland, 14 Suez, 33 Suez Canal, 51 Surrender: French, 27; Italian, 56; Japanese, 84, 85
Nagasaki, Japan, 84 Naples, Italy, 56 Napoleon Bonaparte, 39 Nazis, 10, 65, 81, 86 New Guinea, 68, 70
Norden bomb-sight, 76 Normandy, France, 58-61 North Africa, 10, 12, 51-54, North Sea, 21 Nuclear
fission,
56, 78
82
Tank
Okinawa, 73 Oklahoma, 43
Omaha Beach, 59 Operations, military: Anvil Dragon, 61; Overlord, 58; Sea-Lion, 29 Pact of Steel, 12, 46 Panzer, (see Tank warfare) Parachutists, 20 Paris, France, 21, 27 Pas de Calais, France, 59 Patton, General George, 64 Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 42-45, 48, 68, Petain, Marshal Henri, 27, 34 Philippine Islands, 48, 70-73
Sitzkrieg, 18
warfare,
5,
20, 21, 51-53, 59, 62-64
Tarawa, 70 Thailand, 73 Tiber River, 56 Tojo, General Hideki, Tokyo Bay, 84 Tunis, 54 Turkey, 7 Tuscany, 56
42
Nations: Charter, 89; Economic and Social Council, 89; Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, 91; International Labor Organization, 91; Veto clause, 91; World Health Organization, 89 Utah Beach, 61
United
84
Vengeance Weapons, 79
"Phony war," 18
Versailles Treaty, 7
Ploesti oil fields, 33
Von
Poland, 5, 7, 16 Polish Corridor, 7 Posen, Poland, 7 Potsdam, Germany, 88 Prince of Wales, 48 Prison camps, 48, 86 Prisoners, 48, 51, 74
9, 10,
Rundstedt, Marshal, 62
Wainwright,
Wake
Lt.
Island,
General Jonathan, 48
48
Ward, 43 Warsaw, Poland,
5,
76
Weather, 58, 59, 62
West Wall
(see Siegfried Line)
Wingate, Brig. General, 73
Prussia, 7
World War
Quisling, Vidkun, 34
Yalta Conference, 88
I,
7, 8, 10, 11, 16,
26, 89
