Ruhr Valley Essay

When a person is in a stressful situation on instinct they have two options, fight or flight. In war the same is true. War is not always bayonets and bullets, it’s the decisions you make during times of hardship. A soldier has to make the decision whether to keep fighting for what they believe in no matter what the stakes or to flee. In December of 1777, George Washington and his troops arrived at Valley Forge. Since the summer of 1775, all has gone well for the Continental Army. More recently Washington was presumably unable to stop General Howe and his British soldiers from claiming the national capital of Philadelphia. With Howe and his army of approximately 18,000 comfortably quartered in Philadelphia,

With Its commission to the fleet, Enola Gay preformed a test mission in preparation for its mission the next morning. The mission would be called “Operation Centerboard 1”, this type of bombing mission had never been preformed, the bomb had never existed or had a full functional test, and the hopes of ending the war hung in the balance of this mission (Museum, 2011). The Enola Gay and its weather plane escort took off from North Field airbase, Tinian Island at 0245Z 06 August 1945, Operation Centerboard 1 was on a course for history (Museum, 2011). The Enola Gay climbed to 30,000 feet in preparation for the bombing raid. The bomb was dropped at 0915Z over Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb hit the intended target 43 seconds later (Museum, 2011). The airplane preformed the escape maneuvers and started the return to base. The detonation mushroom cloud climbed to 40,000 feet and was visible by the crew for 360 miles away from the impact sight(Museum, 2011). The crew safely landed at Tinian island 1438Z performing the mission exactly as planned (Museum, 2011).

Before the bombs were set off over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a test bomb was detonated in the desert lands of New Mexico. The scientists involved in the research and fruition of this weapon were holding their breaths to see if it worked. They were not concerned with how many potential lives their creation could end, they were only interested in seeing if all of their hard work and two billion dollars in funding would pay off. Dr. J. R. Oppenheimer was credited with the idea of using the atomic bomb as a military weapon. If the bomb worked the intention was to use it to end lives, but as they watched in anticipation to see if the

Just three days later, Japan refused to acknowledge the declaration’s request. The United States began performing tests using “gadgets,” much smaller versions of the newly created atomic bombs, to ensure that Little Boy would work properly. The day after the bomb was ready to launch, a typhoon hit Japan delaying the mission for several days. Japan used this time to attack the USS Indianapolis by submarine, causing it to sink. Many died as a result, and survivors weren’t rescued until three days after. Little boy completed its assembly on July thirty-first, and was officially assigned its target, Hiroshima. Little Boy flew over Japan and dropped from the B-29 bomber on August

The Americans, aware that they had been detected, decided to launch the raid early. They launched 200 miles further out at sea than was planned. Between eight and nine AM all 16 B-25s were launched.

The U-235 core, the explosive fuel for the bomb developed at the Oak Ridge laboratories, was carried in a bucket. The core would be located inside “Little Boy” and dropped on Hiroshima. The almost complicated topic to be addressed in making of an

During the war, the United States started developing a weapon that would prove to be devastating to its enemies. The creation of the atomic bomb was made when a group of scientists discovered that splitting uranium atoms could cause massive destruction. President Harry Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt made the executive decision to use this atomic weapon against Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end sooner. On August 6th, 1945, the atomic bomb was loaded on the Enola Gay. The plane left the Mariana Islands in search of Hiroshima about six hours away to drop the first atomic bomb. The bomb devastated the city, killing between 90,000 and 146,000 people. Three days later, a second

The planning of the attack was a long hard thinking process to go through. The Americans used tons of tack ticks to keep it a secret and to sneak up on the Germans. They loaded up almost 160,000 soldiers in 5,000 ships and began to make their way to France early morning on June 6th. They had about 2 million tons of supplies including guns, ammunition and grenades. They also had 11,000 planes, 50,000 Vehicles coming over on ships called LST’s. Then they started to plan where they were going to set up around France to start the attack. They were planning the attack on Germany because they wanted north of France. They were also trying to get the

Through the overcast skies appeared a silver bomber, the largest aircraft anyone had ever seen. It was the Boeing B-29 Dinah Might, crippled in a raid over Tokyo, seeking an emergency landing on the island's scruffy main airstrip. As the Americans in the vicinity held their breaths, the big bomber swooped in from the south, landed heavily, clipped a field telephone pole with a wing, and shuddered to a stop less than 50 feet from the end of the strip. Lt. F. Malo and his 10-man crew were extremely glad to be alive, but they did not stay long. Every Japanese gunner within range wanted to bag this prize. Mechanics made field repairs within a half-hour. Then the 65-ton Superfortress lumbered aloft through a hail of enemy fire and headed back to its base in Tinian Island. The Marines

After the attack, damage occurred on eight of the United States’ Navy battleships, death came to 2,403 American’s, and the wounded numbers rose to 1,178. The United States was infuriated and wanted retaliation against the Japanese immediately. This would not be an easy task since all of the naval assets had be disabled. The president of the United States and all of the highest-ranking officers of the time could not seem to figure out how to make an attack on Japan. The idea of Army bombers flying off naval ships came to light when a submariner named CPT Francis Cowell saw some army bomber aircraft practicing at a naval landing strip. CPT Cowell passed the idea of army bombers taking off from a navy ship to General Happ Arnold who quickly realized that this could be the key to their predicament. This concept was so crazy for its time and the high-ranking officials could only think of one man that would be able accomplish such a task and that was Jimmy Doolittle. Jimmy gathered 79 volunteers to begin training for “extreme” short-field takeoffs however; Jimmy never told his men what their mission would be. All of the volunteers knew how great of a pilot Jimmy Doolittle was and they never second-guessed their decision to be a part of Jimmy’s master plan. The pilots used a highly modified Mitchell B-25 bomber specifically designed by Jimmy Doolittle

Finally, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was unjustified because of the lack of testing. Although the project to design the first atomic bomb, codenamed the Manhattan Project, began in 1941, the first bomb was not ready to be tested until the month before it would be used in 1945. When it was tested at Trinity Site in New Mexico, the detonation caused unexpected results (“The Manhattan Project”). It caused “A blinding flash visible for 200 miles lit up the morning sky. A mushroom cloud reached 40,000 feet, blowing out windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away. When the cloud returned to earth it created a half-mile wide crater metamorphosing sand into glass” (“The

The bomb uses a device called an altimeter to measure how far it is from the ground. It sends out radio frequencies which are bounced back to it. Microchips in the bomb determine how far it still has to fall, and when to detonate. The bombs also have fuses in the front which arm ! the bomb. They are not inserted until the bomb is ready to be launched.

Mission was planned for August 11th but was changed to the 9th due to bad weather

The plan for Juno Beach was to be completed in five phases. Preceding the main invasion, the Canadians three airborne divisions were given the assignment to land first. The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Armoured Brigade would work under the British Army. They were to land in brigades consisting of combat engineers, units who worked with specialized vehicles. Major General Keller commanded over 20,000 men and overseen the operation of 200 tanks and other military vehicles. Carpiquet Airport was the main objective for the Canadian 3rd Division of Canadian infantry. Canadian Parachute Battalion and 6th British Airborne Division worked together to secure the areas around Orne and Dives Rivers.

In a war of mass destruction and huge weaponry, development of the next big offensive device was on the minds of all the leaders involved. Many of these weapons were designed in secret laboratories under the top scientists and physicists in the world. High emphasis and funding put into these designs, the developments flourished. Some of these weapons were unbelievable successes, making their way to the battlefield meeting all the expectations set by their imaginative creators. Others, however, did not make it any further than the testing unit. Numerous previously unheard of ideas were presented, several being far ahead of their time. This was cause for some of the weapons failures. Although, these were