Governor Livingston High School : Sergeant Curtis Maddox : An Average American Soldier

The United States finally joined World War II when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941, although World War II started on September 1, 1939. People from all over the United States started to enlist help fight the war. Although Native Americans were previously treated very poorly by the Americans, they too enlisted in the military. The United States was with the Allied powers of the world including Britain, France, Soviet Union, China, etc. fighting against the Axis powers Germany, Italy, and Japan.

In 1944, the United States war effort in Europe was just starting to pick up. Even though the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred just three years prior, the growing power of the Third Reich could not be ignored. During this time, France was already occupied by Nazi Germany and Hitler's war machine was on the path of conquering all of Eurasia. In an attempt to combat this immense threat, the U.S. formulated a plan to engage the German forces through an invasion of Normandy. This bloody offensive would be remembered in infamy as D-Day. Shortly before this violent clash of U.S. and German forces, the inexperienced men of the United States Third Army was given an encouraging and inspiring speech by the four star general George S. Patton.

World War 2 was a notorious war fought between the Axis and Allied nations, during the period of 1939 to 1945. The Axis nations mainly included Germany, Japan and Italy, while the Allied nations were led by the United States of America (USA), the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Britain (Source D). The war was kindled after a Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939, which resulted in Britain and France declaring war on Germany. As Germany was determined to carry on their invasions, their allies (the Axis nations) and Britain’s allies (the Allied nations) and colonies were dragged into the war, causing it to become a major world war.

On December 11th 1941 Japan's allies Germany and Italy declared war on the the United States. Japan was not alone anymore. The united states wanted to stay neutral they did not want to fight but they felt obligated after the attacks of pearl harbor but even more after germany, and Italy also declared

America had been able to stay out of the war until December 7, 1941. That was when Japan ordered an attack on the American Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor on the island of Hawaii. FDR and Churchill decided that Germany needed to be defeated. The world at this time was divided into two camps. In one of the camps were the Allies which are those opposing the Axis Powers, Winston Churchill of Britain , FDR of America and Joseph Stalin of Russia.

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” - President Franklin D. Roosevelt. December 7th 1941 marked an event in history that everyone in the world looks back to. On that date the Imperial Japanese Navy surprised attacked the American port of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. This marked the beginning of World War II for America. World War II was the bloodiest war in history with over 60 million deaths. World War II started in Europe when an Nazi controlled Germany invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939. Great Britain entered the war soon after along with the rest of her (Great Britain's) allies

For Americans, World War II began on December 7, 1941 with the attack of Pearl Harbor, but war had been going on for years elsewhere. In the Eastern Hemisphere, war had been going on for several years with the help of two communist powers; Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Stalin by signing the nonaggression pact accepted Germanys plan to invade Poland. Hitler quickly invaded Poland in a blitzkrieg (lightning war). France and England acted quickly by declaring war on Germany, and because the Japanese had planned so extensively they had a neutrality treaty with the Soviet Union signed in case they were to go into war with the U.S. and England. This becomes the European war, which is greatly known as WW2 when the United States, Japan, and England

Before the United States joined World War II in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the great battle had been raging in Europe since 1939. While the British and Russians struggled against the German Reich, the United States remained officially neutral and refused to enter the war.

American Soldiers helped fight in WWII, but ended up doing more than just fighting. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, America declared war on Japan and traveled to Germany. What soldiers had to witness was indescribable, and it is important to know what they did. While United States troops fought in Germany, they came across concentration camps and the remains of how the Germans attempted to hide the camps.

When World War II began, America was neutral as a country. However, that all changed on December 7, 1941. This was the day that the country of Japan, a member of the Axis powers during the war, bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (Murrin et al., 2012). In total,19 ships were destroyed, 200 aircraft were disabled or destroyed to the point of pieces, and over 2,000 Americans were killed (Murrin et al., 2012). This assault on American territory prompted the US to become engaged in World War II (Murrin et al., 2012).

The axis powers, Germany, Japan, & Italy, were strong powers which stood for overpowering weaker nations by expanding their territories. As we were a part of the allied powers, along with Great Britain, China, and the Soviet Union, the United States felt it was imperative to provide military aid to not only the United Kingdom, but to whoever was in need of the help. Ultimately, what brought us into the war was when the Japanese bombed the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Once

Germany, Italy and Japan were held together with the Tripartite Pact, which stated that if any nation was attacked, the other two nations would provide aid to help them. 11 December 1941, Germany declared war on the US, however it was Japan that was attacking and they had no obligation to declare war. At the same time, Hitler was also was managing operation Barbarossa. This came as a relief to England, as now the Wehrmacht were fighting in two different countries. This was an opportunistic moment for the . John Kenneth Galbraith, Roosevelt's advisor stated "When Pearl Harbor happened, we were desperate. ... We were all in agony. We could have been forced to concentrate all our efforts on the Pacific, unable from then on to give more than purely peripheral help to Britain. It was truly astounding when Hitler declared war on us three days later. I cannot tell you our feelings of triumph. It was a totally irrational thing for him to do, and I think it saved

World War II was a fight between the Ally and Axis powers. On the Allys side was Great Britain, America, and France. On the Axis side was Germany, Italy, and Japan. In 1940, Hitler and his nazi army invaded Poland against the warnings of Great Britain, thus forcing Britain to declare war and start World War II . America stayed neutral until 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. With the outbreak of

World War II was fought between two main opposing forces, the Allies and the Axis forces. The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan being the most dominant. On the other hand, some of the countries in the Allied powers were Great Britain, the United States, France, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, Canada, and Greece.

Italy entered the war in 1940 and in conjunction with Germany spread the war to Africa. Invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany on June 22, 1941 transformed the war into a general European struggle. And the attack on Hawaii on December 7, 1941, followed immediately by a declaration of war against Japan by the United States. This converted the European war into a global one.