The War : A Military History Of World War II

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege 1942-1943 is book written by the British military historian, Antony Beevor. Stalingrad covers the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II. Stalingrad was a city in Russia where Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fought for control. This was part of Adolf Hitler’s plan to crush the Soviet Union and extend his Third Reich into Russian territory. The battle lasted from August 1942 to February 1943. However, the battle ended up with the destruction of the entire German 6th army and with a victory for the Soviet Union. Beevor has won three awards for this book. I wish to give brief summaries of the five sections of the book and give reviews on their main content.

WWII began when Germany executed an unprovoked attack on Poland on September 1st, 1939. Germany was controlled by Adolf Hitler, who wanted to take revenge for their defeat in WWI. Hitler and his political party, the Nazis, believed that the Jews were the cause of all evil. They decided that the only solution to solve Germany’s problems was to extirpate the Jews. Hitler and the Nazis began to take more and more rights away from Jews. Eventually, Jews began to be sent to

The book “The Face of Battle: a study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme” authored by John Keegan is a non-fiction resource dedicated to enlightening the reader concerning the history of the military with the emphasis being between the 1960s and 1970s. Keegan provides a more detailed and accurate representation of combat in three fundamental battles in British history, and these include Agincourt, Waterloo, and Somme. In addition, the author attempts to explore the life of a common soldier, which according to him, is shaped by blood, anguish, and gripping fear.

Research the Warsaw Ghetto. April 19 to may 16, 1943 while the world war II was going on, other people of the Jewish Ghetto in Nazi Occupied Warsaw. Poland put an armed revolt against the deportations to expiration camps. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising helped inspire other revolts in extermination camps and Ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe.

World War II-- also known as The Holocaust / The Genocide -- was the world 's second 'Great War '. World War II was much more larger in scale and more longer in duration. World War I had only lasted for four years, while World War II had lasted for six years. I find it quite interesting that contrary to popular belief; the United States did not enter World War II until 2 years after the genesis of the conflict. It was only in 1941, when the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor that the United States had entered the war. World War II started in 1939 due to Germany performing an unprovoked attack on Poland. Surprisingly, only a few months later after Germany invaded Poland; the whole European continent was at war. In 1939, the United States was not ready to go to war. In the early 20th century, the United States Army only ranked 39th in the world. Many Americans believed that the United States could not handle another global conflict right after the Great Depression. Although the United States was not 'officially ' part of the war at that time, that did not stop the United States from becoming 'unofficially ' involved.

The start of WWII began with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, as polish defenses along the border were not strong enough to prevent the Nazi invasion. Soon after, the Germans made their way to the Polish capital, Warsaw, which would later turn into one of the most infamous ghettos for the people targeted by Nazi soldiers (USHMM). Only two months after the German invasion of Poland, 2 Polish women were ordered a death sentence for tearing down Nazi Placards. Three million Polish Jews lived in Poland before the war; less than 100,000 would survive. Poland represents the biggest number of people to rescue Jews, around 450,000. Previously, Jews had lived in Poland almost peacefully for over 800 years, with a stable economy and other groups being tolerant towards them, until the Partitions of Poland being implemented in 1772, allowing the Russian Empire to legally persecute and discriminate against Polish Jews. Although Jews were the primary target for the Germans, many other groups were targeted and discriminated against, such as the Roma Gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals, Christians, the disabled, and blacks. In the spring of 1995, Poland was liberated when the Allied troops invaded and freed the people under the Nazi regime.

Kennedy greatly details many of the major events and battles that took place between the Allied and Axis from the initial outbreak of war and the final days of the war in Europe. Kennedy begins his article by describing the perceived plan of Operation Barbarossa, which was the Wehrmacht's plan to grant more “Lebensraum” or living space for the ever increasing population of Germany. Kennedy then shifts to discuss the major military events that had a huge impact when regarding the potential outcome of war for either the Soviets or Germans; recounting major battles of the front. Such battles included the likes of Leningrad, a massive siege on a Soviet city with the German’s intending to wipe out the city’s population of millions of citizens, Stalingrad, one of history’s largest battles in the history of mankind that ended after the Soviets cut off German supply lines and surrounded the Germans in the city, and Berlin, the final major confrontation between the two powerhouses that ended shortly after Adolf Hitler’s suicide among other high ranking Nazi officials. As for the individual details in the article, Kenedy remains relatively terse when explaining each of the events’ significance and effects in areas such as casualties, level of brutality in terms of the tactics employed,

On September 1, 1939, Germany under the control of Adolf Hitler invaded the sovereign nation of Poland effectively starting the Second World War. By the end of the conflict in 1945 an estimated 64 million had died, more than the population of the United Kingdom (Thomas). The Second World War saw the end of the German Third Reich, the founding of the United Nations, and the United States and Russia becoming global superpowers. The Second World War’s start is one log debated: a continuation of World War I that theoretically ended in 1918, Japan seizes Manchuria, Germany’s reoccupation of the Rhineland, or Germany’s invasion of Poland (World). No matter the start of the warfare it is one of the deadliest wars the

Poland was initially invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. However, in 1941, Germany captured all of Poland by destroying the Russians and causing them to suffer a significant amount of loss in their territory and population. While Hitler ordered that the civilians of Warsaw be mass murdered, including women and children; so the city may fall in ruin. The number of the Jewish population decreased by almost half in only a year by the Nazis. Because of the large population of Jews living in Warsaw, it became the main reason for Hitler’s hatred towards the place and wanted to wipe the Polish capital from the world; the Nazis even liquidated the Jewish ghetto. Eventually, the Poles decided to stand up against the Nazis. But the Home

By the summer of 1943, the German army was retreating to Poland. The city of Lublin fell, and Warsaw fell afterwards. Unfortunately, the Poles discovered that their “liberation” only meant that the Nazis were replaced by the Soviets.

However, during the twentieth century Poland became vulnerable to countries like Germany, and Russia. On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. There were many reasons for the invasion of Poland. One of the reasons was because Germany wanted to get its land back. One misconception was that Poland was a German country. The reason why this was false was because Polish culture was always dominant, even with the German invasion. The Germans wanted to destroy Polish culture and its history, and make everything German. Polish citizens were separated from their families, threatened, beaten, and forced to work in hard labor camps. A group called the UPA’s (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) attacked women and children, which they believed was a way of cleansing them from their Polish traditions. It was believed that thousands of men, women, and children were killed by the UPA’s -6. During this period of time, Poland was demoralized. It slowly began to vanish from the map. In 1934, Poland became diplomatically isolated. Joseph Stalin took the eastern part of Poland as part of the Soviet Union -7. At this point, Stalin knew that if he could take part of Poland, than he could ensure political dominance over the entire population of Poland. This had affected Poland’s economy,

The war began on September 1st, 1939 with an unjustified attack on Poland, lead by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler . Many other battles took place all throughout the world, but the main focus of conflict materialized in the heart of the European front, where The Battle of Stalingrad would unfold. Prior to the start of the war, Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin joined sides with the Nazi advance by signing the German-Soviet pact of non-aggression with Adolf Hitler on August 23rd, 1939 where he would push into Poland along side Hitler . As the conflict progressed, Hitler required food and supplies for his army, however, he viewed the Soviets as a weak, powerless, and corrupt country that could serve as a great home for his Nazi comrades. He soon began prepping for a mass Soviet invasion know as Operation Barbarossa . It would be launched on the 22nd of June 1941, that would terminate the

In August of 1939, the German-Poland pact was signed to divide Poland’s government in two. This provided Germany with the power to attack Poland without Soviet intervention. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland (ushmm.com). Poland was going to send in troops, but was persuaded otherwise by France and Britain (history.com). The Polish army was defeated within weeks of invasion, and stayed under German Occupation until January of 1945 (ushmm.com). On September 17, 1939, Soviet troops invaded east and there was no hope left for Poland. On September 18, Poland’s government and military leaders fled (history.com).

In World War II, the crimes which stood out against humanity shook the foundations of the world. From the rise of Hitler to the genocidal Holocaust, the war took the lives of more than 80 million people over the course of 6 years. Today, North American education continues to pass down the horrors of the war as a grim reminder of the past. However, what our history textbooks cover tend to focus on the American side of things. Instead of learning important events which were going on in other parts of the world, we recognize our triumphs and efforts in the war. The Siege of Leningrad, for example, is not talked about frequently, although it was a catastrophic time for the Russians. The Siege of Leningrad was a military blockade by Hitler in an attempt to take the city by letting Leningrad (St. Petersburg today) starve to death. By surrounding

Often viewed as one of Germany’s most successful invasions, the invasion of Poland is speculated to be the official start of World War II. Furthermore, the Invasion of Poland took place in September of 1939 due to the fact that Adolf Hitler wanted to expand the German nation and gain complete power over Poland. Hitler felt that by invading Poland, Germany would gain a significant amount of new Lebensraum for the German People to thrive. Hitler had planned to colonize the Poland territory and enslave the Poland’s in an attempt to follow his German nation ideology plan. According to Evan Mawdesley, During the Invasion of Poland, Germany used a new military tactic against Poland formally known as the “lighting war” strategy. This new tactic allowed