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Holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic, annihilation of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and their collaborators as a central act of state during World War II. In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed. Although Jews were the primary victims, hundreds of thousands of Roma (Gypsies) and at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons were victims. -
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WWII
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Tuskegee Airmen
In spite of adversity and limited opportunities, African Americans have played a significant role in U.S. military history over the past 300 years. They were denied military leadership roles and skilled training because many believed they lacked qualifications for combat duty. Before 1940, African Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. military. Civil rights organizations and the black press exerted pressure that resulted in the formation of an all African-American pursuit squadron based -
Flying Tigers
The Flying Tigers were officially called the American Volunteer Group, and were known for their planes with iconic shark faces on them -
Liberty Ships
Liberty Ships served in all theaters with distinction. Throughout the war, Liberty Ships were manned members of the US Merchant Marine, with gun crews provided by the US Naval Armed Guard. -
Omar Bradley
Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1936, Bradley was brought to Washington two years later for duty with the War Department. Working for Marshall, who was made Army Chief of Staff in 1939, Bradley was promoted directly to brigadier general in February 1941, and sent to command the Infantry School. While there he promoted the formation of armored and airborne forces as well as developed the prototype Officer Candidate School. With the US entry into World War II on December 7, 1941, Marshall asked -
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was a war crime involving the forcible transfer of prisoners of war, with wide-ranging abuse and high fatalities, by Japanese forces in the Philippines, in 1942, during World War II. -
George Marshall
On September 1, 1939, George C. Marshall realized his life-long dream and was sworn in as Army Chief of Staff. That same day, Hitler's troops invaded neighboring Poland, triggering the six year nightmare known as World War II. Once again, the British and French fought against Germany and its related powers. Once again, the Americans watched from the sidelines, wondering if the conflict would draw them in as well. -
Chester W. Nimitz
An experienced and well-liked leader, Nimitz was also an effective military strategist who directed U.S. forces as they closed in on Japan, beginning in May and June of 1942 with the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. Nimitz was promoted to the newly-created rank of fleet admiral in 1944 and became the naval equivalent to the army's General Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was fought near the Central Pacific island of Midway. The U.S. Pacific Fleet surprised the Japanese forces, sinking the four Japanese carriers, that had attacked Pearl Harbor only six months before, while only losing of one carrier. -
Merchant Marines
One way to understand the Second World War is to appreciate the critical role of merchant shipping... the availability or non-availability of merchant shipping determined what the Allies could or could not do militarily.... when sinkings of Allied merchant vessels exceeded production, when slow turnarounds, convoy delays, roundabout routing, and long voyages taxed transport severely, or when the cross-Channel invasion planned for 1942 had to be postponed for many months for reasons which include -
Island Hopping
In mid-1943, the Allied command in the Pacific began Operation Cartwheel which was designed to isolate the Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The key elements of Cartwheel involved Allied forces under General Douglas MacArthur pushing across northeastern New Guinea, while naval forces secured the Solomon Islands to the east. -
NAVAJO CODE TALKERS
Marines who created a secret code that made it possible for the United States to defeat the Japanese in World War II and end the war. Before World War II, every code that the United States had created for warfare had been broken. Known as experts at code deciphering, the Japanese were never able to decipher the Navajo's secret code.
The success of the code was due, in a large part, to the complexity of the Navajo language. At the outbreak of World War II, there were only thirty non-N -
Atomic Weapons
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Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code-name given to the Allied invasion of France scheduled for June 1944. -
Dwight Eisenhower
As supreme commander of Allied forces in Western Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower led the massive invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe that began on D-Day (June 6, 1944). In 1952, leading Republicans convinced Eisenhower (then in command of NATO forces in Europe) to run for president; he won a convincing victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson and would serve two terms in the White House (1953-1961). -
D-Day Invasion
D-Day, the allied invasion of Northern Europe. An ivasion from multiple position creating a multiple front war, forcing Hitler to send forces West. -
Multiple Front War
The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy, France, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II. It was the largest amphibious operation ever to take place.
Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on 6 June came from Canada, the Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the weeks following the invasion, Polish forces also participated, as well as contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Nether -
George S. Patton
Educated at West Point, George S. Patton (1885-1945) began his military career leading cavalry troops against Mexican forces and became the first officer assigned to the new U.S. Army Tank Corps during World War I. Promoted through the ranks over the next several decades, he reached the high point of his career during World War II, when he led the U.S. 7th Army in its invasion of Sicily and swept across northern France at the head of the 3rd Army in the summer of 1944. Late that same year, Patto -
Douglas MacArthur
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, MacArthur commanded the defense of the Philippines until Mar., 1942, when, under the orders of President Roosevelt, he left for Australia to take command of Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific. From Australia he launched the New Guinea campaign and later (Oct., 1944–July, 1945) directed the campaigns that led to the liberation of the Philippines. -
Postdam Conference
On 16 July 1945, the "Big Three" leaders met at Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin. In this, the last of the World War II heads of state conferences, President Truman, Soviet Premier Stalin and British Prime Ministers Churchill and Atlee discussed post-war arrangements in Europe, frequently without agreement. -
Congressional Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. Generally presented to its recipient by the President of the United States of America in the name of Congress.
