D-day

After Stalingrad, Russia began to push the Germans back into Ukraine. The Germans burned and destroyed evey thing in sight. Then while Russia was pushing Germany back the British and Americans began to land troops on D-day. The German defenses were very strong and hefty. The Allies lost many troops and here is how it happened.

The allies had been preparing for this day for a long time. So on the morning of June 6, 1944 thousands of allied troops landed on Normandy's beaches. Hundreds of our American men were killed as they stepped off the boats and were slaughtered by German soldiers with machine guns and artillery. Movies like Saving Private Ryan portray this bloody scene with an R rating (I have never seen the movie myself, but that is what I heard). Fierce fighting soon took place at places like St. Lo.

D-day was one of the bloodiest battles in they war.

If you have a question just leave a comment and I'll answer personaly.

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was a Japanese attack on one of our naval bases in Hawaii. No one on our side even knew the attack was coming. One eyewitness account said: "It was early Sunday morning and I heard the sound of engines I ran out and saw Airplanes with red dots and I thought must be a drill, but then the one of their planes dropped a bomb and I knew that this was real". The Japanese sank many ships, the sailors had little time to react and the Japanese struck quickly. Their plan was this, the first wave would fly in and knock out as many ships as they could.The second wave targeted the air fields and planes. The third wave targeted the dry docks and ship yards. The first wave did their job efficiently, the second the same, but the third didn't even hit. This mistake proved to be a very fatal mistake. Admiral Yamamato decided that they had done their job. The mistake was that with the dry docks still intact the could rebuild almost every thing they had lost. The americans had lost many ships but they fought on till the wars end.

They sunk many battleships, like the Oklahoma, Arizona, and Virginia. These are only three out of the seven battleships that were sunk. Three battleships were rebuilt in the dry docks.

The Resistance

With almost all of Europe captured, Hitler ordered that all newspapers, radio brodcasts and mant other public doucumants to be taken over. With the newspapers and broadcasts, they controlled what people heard. With this type of persecution, many underground groups were formed. To help these forbidden groups, England smuggled weapons, poison, radios, and typewriters (which all of these were outlawed highly) in to them.

Many weaons like the ones pictured above were smuggled in by airdrop using a single engine Lysander(below). These planes would drop tons of guns and radios to help those underground.

The resistance went on untill the end of the war.

Remember if you have any questions just leave a comment and I will answer it in my next blog.

Ifyou want to learn more abou the secret weapons click here.

The Holocaust

This part of the war is very sobering. This time in history is known to be the most scariest and bloodiest time in all of history. When the Germans conquered most of Europe, the Gestapo or the German secret police started rounding up Jews, Slavs, and many other races that Hitler believed were inferior. He only thought that the Aryan race were fit for life. In Hitler's eyes human life was cheap. However, we are told in Genesis 1:27 "So God made man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." This verse tells us that God created us equally in his image. Hitler himself said that god sent him to deliver and glorify the Aryan race.

When the Gestapo rounded Jews up, they were put in boxcars so tightly put together that no one could sit. The ride was a three day trip. When the Jews got off they were then separated in two groups. One had all the able bodied men, and the other had all the seniors, women, and children. The able bodied men were then sent to labor camps. The seniors, women, and children were then sent to a low building that looked like a bathhouse and lullabies were played on loud speakers to calm the people down. They were then put in large rooms with shower heads on the ceiling. The last thing those Jews heard was the sound of hissing gas. Hitler murdered over 5 million Jews and over 6 million other races including Slavs, Kurds, and Arabic's. When U.S. troops saw these camps, they were horrified! It was hard to understand and believe the carnage.

These camps were heavily guarded with electrical and barbed fences plus lookout towers. There was virtually no escape and almost all of the uprisings were put down.

Remember if you have any questions just leave a comment and I will answer it in my next blog.

And if you want to know more click here.

The siege of Lenningrad

The winter was hard for the 3 million citizens of Leningrad in 1941, the German armies had surrounded the city. Their next step was to invade the city, but the people of Leningrad had been preparing for the attack. They would go out a little ways to dig tank traps and trenches. Also surrounding the city there was barbed wire with machine gun nests weaved in at a regular intervals. But that was only the outer perimeter, inside the city there were houses that were actually pillboxes and on top of that the whole city was mined.

Then in September 1941 General Von Leebs Panzer's cut the railroad that connected Leningrad to Moscow now their only way of communicating was crossing Lake Lagoda. Now there was a problem with this route because the Luftwaffe patrolled this route regularly.

So trapped in their doomed city the people were forced to take extreme measures, people ate everything they could get their hands onto. They ate wallpaper, make-up and even leather belts. The only way to get food into the city was to travel across the ice on Lake Lagoda. Soon steady convoys came across the lake with trucks that were full of food. The truck drivers were considered as heroes. The Germans tried to break the convoy by bombing it, but nature just filled the craters right back up. The siege would continue until January of 1944.

If you have a question just leave a comment and I'll answer you personally.

Kharkov

Kharkov was a German attack on the town of Kharkov were Russian soldiers were stationed. The German commander Hausser ordered the 2nd SS Panzer corps (a tank division) to charge Kharkov. Then the Leibstrandarte division or the the Adolf Hitler division and other SS Waffen troops were sent in to attack this industrial city. One German described how slow the fighting was saying "Street after street house after house". Even thought the fighting seemed slow from the soldiers perspective, the Germans captured half the city in less than a day. Then on march 15th the SS Waffen defeated the last pocket of resistance.

If you have a question just leave a comment and I'll answer you personally.

WW2-the early air war p1

The early air war was controlled by the Germans. The Germans used this advantage and wiped out the Polish air force very easily. Their main ground attack plane was the Junkers Ju87 Stuka (shown on the top right). Their main fighter was the Bf109G (bottom right). These two planes were the back bone of the Luftwaffe.

Here is a list of the main early German aircraft:

• Bf110


• Fw190


• Do.17

The air would be a constant battle even till the end of the war.

If you have a question just leave a comment and I'll answer you personally.

WWII, PART 1 - THE BEGINNING

WWII started when Hitler invaded Poland with the USSR. He and his generals were trying a new type of strategy called Blitzkrieg. This new type of warfare was fast and deadly.

Imagine your looking at a map of Poland and the surrounding countries. Here is how they invaded Poland...

• The fourth Army started in north Germany, then fanned out as far as the USSR, the towns of Kutno and Plock, and a small detachment to Danzig.
  






• The tenth army started in central Germany, and fanned out as far as the VistulaRiver and to Warsaw. While a small detachment went to Lodz.
  






• The third army started in East Prussia and went to Warsaw and Modlin.
  






• The fourteenth army started in Slovakia and went ot the San River.
  

The Polish army was conquered in a matter of weeks. The new strategy had worked! The third Reich's next target was Scandinavia. They soon had it captured. They then attacked Belgium and advanced so quickly that Belgium and British soldiers had to evacuate all of their soldiers at a place called Dunkirk. After driving out the soldiers in Belgium, Hitler invaded France. He conquered it in four weeks (they were still using the Blitzkrieg tactic). By July of 1940 Hitler's empire had tripled in size! Then Europe quieted down for the rest of the year.

Rome part 4

The city of Rome was in interesting place during this time in history. The city was made up of half ordinary, common folk (plebeians) and the other were people of some respect and money.

A typical villa usually consisted of:

• 2 bedrooms


• a dining room


• a pool room (The pool got its water from the rain.)


• a servants room


• a hall way


• a kitchen


• a bathroom


• a discussing room


• a small garden


• stables


• store houses

School in Rome

Almost all kids in Rome went to school,boys and girls. They usually read on scrolls, but wrote on wax tablets. School was harsh in that you could quickly get a beating for not following instructions.

Fun in Rome

The Colosseum is where Romans went for entertainment. There they would watch people or animals kill one another. This is a crazy form of entertainment in my opinion. However, we Americans don't hesitate going to the theaters and watch Jason Bourne kill people. Are we that much different then the Romans of yesterday?

For those of you interested in weapons, here is a list of what a gladiators might use while fighting in the Colesseum:

• hopolomachus sword ,shield


• tracian sword ,shield


• retiarius trident


• secutor sword ,shield
  
• venatores spear

The retiarius would fight the secutor. Venatores were at type of gladiator that only fought animals. The Colosseum in Rome could hold 50,000 people! It had a pool in the middle and some Palm trees in the middle.

What type of animals were used?

lions

elephants

leopards

If you have any questions about this post, just leave a comment and I will answer you personally. If you would like to read more on the roman army just click here and it will take you to a great website.

Rome Part 3

Next, was the Primus Pilus. He was in charge of 700 to 800 men and 8 senior centurions. This man was shown respect for the position he held. He got paid 18,000 denarii a year. Although he was a very superior officer, he would fight as much as a Legionary. The Primus Pilus carried two weapons called a gladius, and wore a cool looking breastplate.

The Senior Tribune was the Legates right hand man. He was in charge of six Tribunes and had lots of respect. He was also in charge of all the paper work.

The Legate commanded a whole legion and never ever fought.

If you have any questions about this army, just leave a comment and I will answer you personally. If you would like to read more on the roman army just click here.

Rome - Part 2

I once told my grandfather (Who I think knows everything.) that the Roman pilum bends when it hits the ground and he said (to my surprise) "I never knew that."

2. The Roman army was noted for their organized military. The lowest rank soldier was an Auxiliary who was a non-citizen of Rome. They were the lowest paid soldier in the army. They were paid about 250 denarii a year. Now, it would seem like these guys would never be on the front line. However, that's not true. They were always on the front lines fighting. In addition to fighting, they were also messengers and scouts. Instead of a pilum they carried a hasta and instead of a square shield they had a round shield, which allowed them to fight in loose formations. They did not have breastplates and they were given little training.

The Legionary was paid 300 denarii per year. He was very well trained and disciplined. His weapons were a pilum (spear) and gladius (sword). He used a square shield and always fought on the front line. These soldiers, instead of loose formations, fought in tight formations like the "wedge" and others. The wedge was usually used for breaking enemy lines.

Then there was the tortoise which looked like a tank. It was so strong that once they tried to drive a cart and horse over it and it worked! Here is a picture of a tortoise.

The next soldier is the Centurion,he was paid 8,500 denarii. He is in charge of 80 men and was very cruel. In battle he would usually lead wedges. You can see he has a unique helmet. His only weapon is a gladius. The stick in his left hand he used to beat disobedient legionaries. Here were the top 4 reasons a Centurion would issue a punishment.a

1. Cowardliness
2. Theft
3. Disobedience
4. Desertion

Please come back for more on the Roman army.

Remember if you have any questions just leave a comment and I will answer it in my next blog.

Thanks!

Rome - Part I

Many people think that the roman empire was massive. Well actually, the Roman empire was smaller than the US! Now here are 10 technological edges that the Romans had.

1.Their aqueducts were probably the thing that they were known most for. They would usually start at some mountain then traveling over hundreds of miles to some city. Then a smaller one would hook up to a reservoir then the water would be shipped off by pipes to fountains, bathes, and villas.

Now if you have any questions just leave a comment then I will answer it in my next blog.