In 1939, World War Two broke out. Why? Because Hitler and his Nazi Party invaded Poland, with the aid of Russia. Hitler's reasoning was that Poland was just a pathetic litlle country and would serve better as an addition to his country. He enlisted the aid of Russia because they were a superpower and an invaluable ally; They were right on the other side of Poland.
This was a dumb move on Hitler's part. The British (I will refer to them as the brits) had a treaty with Poland that agreed that if Poland was invaded, Britain would aid them. Thus, the brits declared war upon the Germans.
Unfortunately for the brits, they were trapped on a pathetic little island. The only way they could get across was by a troop carrier (air) or a naval vessel (water). Thus, they were bottled up. As a consequence, they set up a blockade in the Channel to prevent German supplies from leaving.
While the brits were effectively trapped, the Germans were making progress. Within the year, Europe was under Hitler's fist. It was one victory after another for the Wehrmacht. Denmark fell in a day. Norway? Six weeks. France was occupied in under six months. Soon, all of Europe was taken. All except the brits.
This is when the Germans made a crucial tactical error. They waited for the brits to surrender. They should have brought in the Luftwaffe in and they would have taken Britain in about a year. Thus, they would have forced the surrender of the Americans (they would have to submit to Hitler) and Asia would be useless. However, Hitler did not want to invade Britain.
In about 1940, the Germans moved Erwin Rommel to Africa, to drive the brits out. Here is where Rommel proved is aptitude for armored warfare. Rommel and the famed 21 Panzer Division became feared by the brits.
After several crushing defeats, the brits had to retreat. Rommel's plan was to drive the brits into the Black Sea or up into Russia where he would take some of the Russian army. However, he was stopped at Tobruk.
By now, it was late 1941. Now, here comes the fatal move of the Axis in WWII: The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Why? Because they were paranoid. The Americans did not represent a threat until they were brought into the war; The American army consisted of under 20000 men in 1939. By the end of the war it was past 3 million. The army was not exceptionally trained, but it made up for that in quantity of supplies. What the Japanese really brought into the war was the American economy. Back to Africa.
Rommel was not receiving more tanks from the German High Command. They were being shipped, but the British naval blockade was doing its work; Almost 75% of the ships heading for Africa were sank en route. Rommel received no tanks after the Americans entered the war except for about 100 which were received with great pleasure.
Rommel was being driven back out of Africa. The Americans (Now referred to as the yanks) were mass producing Sherman and Grant tanks. Sure, the Panzer IV and VI had more armor and fire power, but once you had some 5 yankee armor divisions aiming at one Panzer Squad, they really stood no chance. Rommel was sustaining lots of casualties. By 1943, he was driven out of Africa. Thusly did the African war end.
By now, the main weapon in the American arsenal was the B-24 bomber. This was probably the most excpensive airplane produced in the war. It had a payload of over 12000 pounds, and was bristling with .50 caliber machine guns. There were 10 men in the B-24, and these are what they are. The pilot, the co-pilot, the navigator, the bombardier, the radioman, and the waist gunner, ball turret gunner, nose gunner, tail gunner, flight engineer and navigator-bombardier. B-24's were made more than any other aircraft even of today. About 18000 were built in the war. (They soon became obsolete. I will explain why on the Aircraft page.)
By now, Japan represented no real threat. After the Americans captured the Sea of Japan, the Japanese were cut off from the world. Now all that had to be taken was Berlin and Italy.
In 1943-4, Italy was seized. Mussolini was overthrown by the people, and the army was taken out by B-24's and other infantry. Now only Berlin was left.
Now it was the Allies' move. Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower had planned for more than a year the Allied invasion of Europe. It was put into action on June 6, 1944.
On June 6, (Called D-Day) the Allies invaded Normandy. The Germans had defended it well; thousands of MG42 machine guns were stationed along the Normandy coast. Rommel invented many antiinvasion obstacles, two of which were very deadly. The first was a stick with a Teller mine on top. Touch the stick and you die. Quite effective, and it killed a lot of men. The second was known as "Rommel's Asparagus," which were simply about 200 poles in the ground. They were an antiglider obstacle. He also had the Normandy Beachheads (Codenamed Utah, Omaha, Sword, Juno, and Gold Beaches) laced with S-mines. When these were stepped on, they would jump out of the ground and explode into thousands of pieces of shrapnel at about waist height. The effect was that the person who stepped on it would get about 100 pieces of shrapnel in his crotch area. Some soldiers actually got them in their digestive tracts and started to vomit shrapnel along with blood.
The coolest antiinvasion weapon was the Goliath tank. No, it is not related to the Goliath tank in Unreal Tournament except for the name and its level of devastation. It was a little cart loaded with half a ton of dynamite that would rocket into the assault crafts and explode. Needless to say, it was unmanned and remote controlled.
Now for the major cause of deaths on D-Day. The big@$$ guns on the top of the cliffs that would hurl shells into the assault crafts and destroyers. Some of these were taken out by the naval barrage before the landing (explained in the D-Day section).
D-Day was a success, even though there were heavy casualties on both sides (about 50000 for the Allies and about 250000 for the Germans. I counted those zeroes and they are the correct number). From here, the Allies marched to Berlin. This battle won the war.
The atomic bomb? That was simply to get the Japanese to surrender. The actual plan was for 5 atom bombs to be dropped in different areas, but that was only if two didn't do the trick.
That is about all. The Germans I'm sure had a splendid time cleaning up the mess they made.
