The Battle Of World War II

Another excruciating obstacle that prisoners sometimes faced was torture. Torture was against the Geneva Accords, but then again, so were many other acts that the NVA and Vietcong (VC) committed against American POWs. Torture sometimes only consisted of a few blows with a bamboo stick, to an all out beating until the prisoner was unconscious, to sometimes even worse acts of violence.

The Geneva Convention and its participants keep all prisoners of war on a uniformed playing field, to prevent

American captors did not submit to the Geneva Tradition. More than 7,100 Americans were caught and interned and a little more than 2,700 are known not passed on while interned.

In January of 1945 a group of US pow’s (prisoners of war) were trapped by the Nazi’s in Stalag IXA POW camp near Ziegenhain Germany. Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds had a gun held to his because he did not turn over his Jewish American soldiers. Instead the whole group of over 1,000 POWs was standing in unity and going against orders. The Nazi threatened to shoot Edmonds, but he calmly responded that giving over the religion of his soldier is against the Geneva Convention. Edmonds continued on to say that if he was shot all of his soldiers must be shot and then the Nazi’s doing so would be put on trial after the war and would face fatal consequences. By doing this brave action Edmonds saved over 200 Jewish soldier who would have fallen under the

POWs captured in Afghanistan and held at camp X-ray is in violation of the Geneva

Allegedly, the outsourcing of terror suspects to countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Syria, countries that engage in torture, also occurred. In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported on methods of physical and psychological coercion used to extract information from prisoners in Iraq. These methods include beatings with hard objects, slapping, punching, kicking, prolonged exposure to the sun, and parading detainees naked, sometimes with women’s underwear on their heads. In some cases, threats were issued against the detainees’ families (Ramsey 105). Acts such as these are what determined the necessity of the 1984 convention prohibiting torture, and yet the abuse continues.

In December 1943, the head of staff of the Allies picked American General Dwight D. Eisenhower as incomparable administrator for the Allies in Europe. English General, Sir Frederick Morgan, added to various arrangements for the Allies, most uncommon was Operation Overlord, a full-scale intrusion of France over the English Channel. This was the codename for the most mysterious summon in the war. The initial plan was to cross the English Channel, land in France and push on into Germany. The attack was set for the spring of 1944. English and American troops, as of now assembling in England for the attack, numbered more than 50 divisions (more than 150,000 troops), with a huge number of

World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, is considered the largest armed conflict in human history. This war was fought over six different continents, in every ocean, and ultimately resulted in fifty million military and civilian deaths; including the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Within the course of the seven-year span of fighting in the war, two decisive battles changed the tide of the war in each theater: The D-Day landings and the Battle of Midway. The invasion of Normandy occurred in the Atlantic theater whereas the Battle of Midway took place in the Pacific Theater of the war. Although these battles happened in different theaters of the war, the Allied victories sent both the Japanese and the Germans marching

On December 7, 1941, the fate of the United States of America changed forever. At the time, the global conflict known as World War 2 had been brutally raging on for over two years. American forces had managed to stay out of the war. However, when the Japanese bombed the naval base in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, the Americans could no longer hold out. On December 7, 1941, the United States of America entered WWII (“Origins of the Normandy Landing”).

As dawn broke on a Sunday morning of December 7, 1941 on the Hawaiian island of Oahu where Pearl Harbor was home to a giant US Navy and Army. There were more than one hundred warships which included eight massive battleships. The US was suffering from the Great Depression, which made Americans think that they would stay out of World War II. As tensions grew between Japan and America, American sailors and airmen were training just in case the US were to join World War II. Americans had not realized that Japan and America were becoming enemies because the main enemy was Adolf Hitler; his goal was to conquer all the democracies of Europe. In 1940, Netherlands and France fell, leaving England to stand alone against the Germans. President Franklin Roosevelt shipped arms, tanks, and planes to help the British but not America soldiers. June of 1940, Japan invaded Vietnam and Cambodia, Roosevelt then took action. He moved the US Pacific Fleet from California to Pearl Harbor to stand guard in the Pacific against further Japanese advances. Three hundred Japanese bombers and fighters were launched in two waves before and after dawn. Back in Hawaii everyone was following their normal duties, thinking that the waves of bombers were US pilots doing drills. The planes kept coming directly over the harbor lower than usual. Minutes later, bombs fell. (Demuth 1-5)

In 1914, a war began that would turn into one of the deadliest combats in all of human history. A war that was fought between two alliances named the Triple Entente, consisting of Russia, France and Great Britain, and the Triple Alliance, which consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. One of the reasons the war was so deadly was because many of the commanders and generals did not develop the tactics at the rate at which the weapons had progressed. Artillery and Machine Guns would decimate anyone who came over the edge of a trench, leading to millions of deaths. The old style of face-to-face trading fire combat had become obsolete due to the invention of the automatic and semi-automatic weapon. A single gun could now kill or injure

1. Two major causes of World War II included when Hitler and his Nazi party took over Germany politically in 1933, and Japanese militarism.

This 1945 documentary reveals horrifying truths of World War II Nazi concentration camps and the evidence of war crimes committed to the European Jews. The entire Documentary depicts remains of what used to be humans that were starved and worked to death until their bodies did not resemble a human's. The film goes in depth through inhumane living conditions of camp members and their everyday life which included beatings, public whippings, forced labor, and execution. Additionally, the documentary shows the liberation of some camos and the examination of some liberated camp members. These freed camp members resembled carcasses and were on the brink of death.

In the United States, one of the major methods in obtaining crucial information has been through the use of Guantanamo Bay. While many have condemned of the torture that is believed to occur there, not only does Guantanamo Bay comply with national and international standards, but it also complies with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (Meese 1) which states

In order to answer this question of rights in captivity, leaders must assess the situation through the lens of an overarching value and a criterion, or means to achieve the value. Executive Order 10631 lays out the duties and responsibilities of US service members in captivity. According to Article III, it is the responsibility of the captured to “continue to resist by all means necessary” (Executive Order No. 10631, 1955). We thus accept this responsibility as the mission of the POW, and ultimately, the value under which we will assess this ethical dilemma.