During WWII there were a plethora of advancements in technology that allowed for a completely new type of warfare. Rockets that could fly thousands of miles and new developments in communications were among them. However, the most significant advancement in technology was the development of the aircrafts. Long range and jet planes allowed for a revolutionary type of warfare. In WWI air battles were a fairly small portion of the battle. In WWII the advancements in aviation allowed for airforces to be a critical part of a country's arsenal. Long distance bombing raids became a threat and air raids became a crucial aspect of a well coordinated attack. The allies' airforce was a key tool that they used to dominate the skies and win the war. They would not have been able to do this without the advancements that took place throughout WWII.
In WWII there were 3 major turning points. All 3 happened in a similar time span. These were the Russian counter attack at Stalingrad, the battle of Midway, and Operation Husky. Of the three turning points, I believe that Stalingrad was the biggest for the allies. Stalingrad was essentially Russia's last chance at stopping the German advance. This was successful, making it a turning point. The significance of this was the pressure it put on Germany. With the Russians now swiftly advancing on the Germans, Hitler's army was put under immense pressure. Millions died but eventually the Russians reached Berlin. Without stopping the German advance Hitler could have dominated the resources on the eastern front and once that was secured moved the millions of troops to the west and to north Africa. The Russians kept the German forces occupied and placed their whole military operation under pressure. Therefore Stalingrad was the most significant turning point.
Once Germany had taken the northern European states, their attack on France was easy. Having the opportunity to exploit France's weakness was taken without hesitation. In under three weeks the Germans had pushed nearly 400,000 French troops to Dunkirk. Having no other options France was forced to call an emergency evacuation. However, the British Navy could only take so many. Eventually they called for civilian volunteers to assist the evacuation. After the evacuation Winston Churchill stated:"Wars are not won on evacuations".By saying this Churchill was demonstrating his frustration with France's failure to defend their land. Obviously you can never win a fight by constantly retreating, attack is needed at some point. I believe that Churchill was voicing his disappointment as he realized that not only would Britain be the next target, but also that if he was to defeat Hitler the allies would now have to take France back.
Saving Private Ryan was a great movie to start the WWII in Europe movie. The film has a great cast and was put together very well by Steven Spielberg. Tom Hanks plays a captain that leads his team to save Private Ryan: one of four brothers who was the last to survive. They have to find him and send him home to his mother. The story begins with the famous amphibious invasion of the beaches in Normandy. The very graphic depictions were interesting. The film allowed for good insight of not only the landing from the eyes of an infantry member but also what happened after the allies entered France. It was interesting to see the conditions of the towns and surrounding areas as the allies pushed through France. The movie has allowed for a visual reference to relate the course material throughout this unit to and i believe it will succeed in doing that.
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