When we delve into the strategic and operational decisions surrounding the D-Day landings, the question of why the beaches of Normandy were not bombarded more effectively prior to the invasion becomes more complex. The reality is, the Allies did indeed launch an extensive bombardment campaign, but several factors influenced its perceived effectiveness.
History
How Did Germany De-Radicalize Its People After The Fall of The Nazi Party?
(Force confrontation: German soldiers react to footage of concentration camps, 1945.)
The process of denazification and the trials of various war criminals in Germany was enormous. The Nazi party had 8.5 million members by the end of the war. Somewhere in the region of 18 million people served in the German armed forces during the war, many of whom had committed atrocities and war crimes. 17.2 million people voted for the Nazi party in the 1933 election. Almost 22 million had been members of the German Labour Front, the Nazi replacement for the Trade Unions. Perhaps as many as 45 million individuals were members of or associated with organs of the Nazi party. As such, the process of denazification would have to be conducted on an epic scale.
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What Was It Like To Go Through A Gas Attack In World War 1
Arthur Empey was an American living in New Jersey when war consumed Europe in 1914. Enraged by the sinking of the Lusitania and loss of the lives of American passengers, he expected to join an American army to combat the Germans. When America did not immediately declare war, Empey boarded a ship to England, enlisted in the British Army (a violation of our neutrality law, but no one seemd to mind) and was soon manning a trench on the front lines.
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How Would Japan Have Fared in a Fight, Had the US Landed on Mainland Japan in WW2?
Imagine for a moment, the cataclysmic collision that never came to pass—an American invasion of mainland Japan in late 1945. It’s a chapter of history we narrowly avoided, but the shadow of what might have been lingers ominously. How would Japan have fared? To put it bluntly: Japan would have lost, and it would have been a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions for both sides. The ferocity of such a conflict could have scorched the very essence of Japanese culture, leaving ruins in its wake.
What Happened To Prison Guards Of Concentration Camps When It Was Liberated?
Walenty Lenarczyk, a prisoner at Dachau, stated that following the camp’s liberation "prisoners swarmed over the wire and grabbed the Americans and lifted them to their shoulders… other prisoners caught the SS men.
The first SS man elbowed one or two prisoners out of his way, but the courage of the prisoners mounted, they knocked them down and nobody could see whether they were stomped or what, but they were killed."
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What Was the Alternative to Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan?
The decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 remains one of the most controversial and hotly debated topics in military history. Proponents argue that it was a necessary evil to end the war and save countless American and Japanese lives that would have been lost in a conventional invasion. Critics contend that it was an inhumane act that killed tens of thousands of civilians and opened a dark chapter in the atomic age. But what was the alternative to this fateful decision?
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What Was It like for a Soldier to Use a Flamethrower during WWII?
Few weapons strike as much visceral fear and horror as the flamethrower. A mainstay in the arsenals of many armies during the Second World War, the flamethrower was a potent psychological and physical weapon – but what was it like to actually wield one of these terrifying devices in the heat of battle?
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I’m a German soldier in 1939. What are my chances to survive until 1945?
By the end of the war the Germans had 12.5 million men under arms. Over 4 million died during the war.
Survival depended upon where you were stationed.
If you were in the East there was a much higher chance of being killed and wounded than if you were in the West or in Denmark or Norway.
At the edges of the most vicious battles, such as the fighting near Vienna near the end of the war, or in Silesia, or in Czechoslovakia (where the Germans won major victories til the very last day) the chances of dying were very high.
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What Was The Last Night Like For Kamikaze Pilots
Despite the numerous published testaments, photographs, and films that depict smiling pilots saluting or waving goodbye as they take off on their final mission, a rare description of the night before departure tells a very different story. It occurs in a letter written on June 21, 1995, by Kasuga Takeo, who was eighty-six years old at the time, addressed to Umezawa Shōzō.Kasuga was drafted and assigned to look after the meals, laundry, room cleaning, and other daily tasks for the tokkōtai pilots at the Tsuchiura Naval Air Base. He describes the night before their final flights:
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What Was It Like To Fight Americans During World War 2?
If you were a German fighting Americans at the start of Operation Torch in Tunisia, you’d have a mixed view of American soldiers.
They were certainly brave, but they lacked experience of the British and ran into ambushes that the Brits had learned to avoid in 1941.
Their equipment was generally good, and they were well supplied.
So well supplied in fact, that you and your unit was evacuated to Sicily after your own supplies dwindled to nothing and the Americans were able to flank you.
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