D-Day- 1939

D-Day originally started with Appeasement, there was a rising idea that the Government should be in charge and the people needed a leader and were willing to give up their freedom to do that. The second stage of D-Day was Arsenal of Democracy, this allowed the US economy to shift. As well as the fortress of Europe, this put an end to the war. 

The war started with the idea of Totalitarianism. Totalitarianism was when a Government had full control over a country. This happened in Italy with facism, Germany with the Nazis (National Socialism), as well as the Soviet Union with Communism. The reason why the Government had gained so much control was because Germany was weak and broken so they were willing to give up their freedom to feel safe. Hitler defied the Treaty of Versailles in 1935. Hitler convinced the country he would build Germany back up and give citizens a reason to be proud of being german, that was the beginning of Germany’s ‘restoration.’ Hitler began ignoring all the restrictions on Germany. Hitler rearmed Germany, occupied Rineland and invaded Czechoslovakia and Austria. At the very beginning, Hitler invaded Poland. After Hitler did that England and France declared war on Germany. However, France was defeated within a few weeks. Britain was left by itself. Germany bombed Britain night and day, this was called the Battle of Britain. Winston Churchill was a great speaker and encouraged Brittain. America stayed isolated but rented war material to Brittain. 

The Arsenal of Democracy was a shift in the US  economy. The US was producing more material than any other country in the workforce combined. However, the Government didn’t take control but instead hired and paid businesses to create war material. The war was a chance for unemployed people to enter the military. 16 million citizens (11% of the US population) were a part of the military, including women. The war introduced rationing. The US strategy was to attack Germany first because Japan had limited resources. America had gotten a note from Albert Einstein, warning the US that Germany was building atomic bombs. America knew they had to use total war as a tactic, they would have to bomb cities and factories in order to stop the War. it was a battle of economies, who could produce the most. For every bomber that was shot down, the US made two more. Three Jeeps were made every four minutes and a war ship was built within 4 days. Every American soldier had 50 pounds of supplies. As well as codebreakers, atomic bombs and radar were all products of a strong economy. 

‘This isn’t the end, this isn’t even the beginning of the end, this is the end of the beginning.’- this was a quote from Winston Churchill. He was referring to the first allied invasion the US and England invaded north Africa, led by Dwight Eisenhower, this was called Operation Torch. They were planning to attack from below. However, they got stuck in Italy. Most of the fighting took place in the Soviet Union, they also lost the most people (28 million), and the US lost 400,000. Operation Overlord was an attack on Omaha Beach, it had the most deaths and 150,000 allied troops attacked. The attack helped the Soviet Union who were attacking from the East. They wanted to reach Paris, then push on to Germany. The allies never invaded Germany because they got stuck on the western front. After D-Day, the US was able to reach Paris. Hitler’s final attempt to stop the US was the Battle of Bulge, this was a failure and allies were able to invade Germany to get into germany. The war ends in 1945 and Hitler commits suicide on April 30th and the Formal surender of Germany was on May 5th. The US finally turns to defeat Japan in the Pacific. However, the US finally found out that Hitler had been creating Concentration Camps. There had been rumors of Concentration Camps during the war but no one wanted to face the truth. 6 million Jews had been killed due to gas, starvation, and labor. This kickstarts the reconstruction of Israel.

Democracy is always stronger than totalitarianism, Hitler called Democracies weak. However, free people with a free economy, fighting for individual freedom is superior to totalitarianism. World War two was a war to protect the innocent. It was the first world war when more civilians were killed than soldiers. The total death number was 72 million people. The US has repeatedly tried to stay in isolation, that would finally end after WWII. the US becomes a World Power to protect Democracy and the innocent. The Soviet Union and the US rise and pose as World Powers.