Part three of the reading HW

Ok so a couple of things that came to mind while I was reading the last third of the reading. When the author mentioned that the soldiers were as young as 18 year old that really hit me. I knew they were young but i cant even imagine if I had had to go to fight only a year from now. They had thier whole lives ahead of them, they hadnt even been to college yet. Also, going from the movies we have seen lately from BOB and Saving Private Ryan i really see how brutal the wars can be. No matter how many times I see it, the amount of suffering gets to me every time.

Uncle Chuck and the Holocaust

Here are a couple pages about my great Uncle Chuck liberating the concentration camp of Buchenwald. I found these couple pages from his memoir  that i blogged about earlier.  I also found someone at the Holocaust museum who was liberated from Buchenwald and I thought it was pretty cool that i had a family member there. Here is his account (click on the picture for a bigger view)!!!!

My family in WWII

When I was younger, Im not sure exactly when, my grandpa gave me a memoir of his uncle in world war two. It is a full story with his accounts of the war. He talks about seeing death camps and having a grenade land a few feet from him, but never exploded. I have read it twice in my life but its been a while. I believe it is one of the original copies typed on a typewriter, check it out!

(the top right conner says "to Mike Rench [my grandpa] from, your uncle chuck")

The eastern front.

I feel like hitler underestimated the Russians because of the fact that he though he could march right into Moscow. I think that he forgot how many people they have and as we talked about Russia can afford to having millions killed. I don't think any country of that time could defeat Russia with now allies simply because of numbers. If hitler had stayed away fro mattacking Russia head on we could be looking at a very different Europe because it would be extremely hard to defeat a Germany that was only fighting on one front.

The pacific

I dont believe that either side can gain moral superiority in a battle like Guadalcanal. there is just too much loss of life to. Although in the end the men felt good about holding the island, there wasnt much in it for them. to the soldiers it was just a jungle where they lost a bunch of their friends. The battle especially wasnt a moral victory for the Japanese because they were slaughtered by the thousands by American machine gunners, and they couldnt hold the island. All in all the island was nothing but a strategical victory for the military.

What's up with the Facial hair

Ok so here is my question to all of you. Throughout history this is not the most common type of beard, and I think that you would agree. But why would two of the most creepy killers of all time have the same style beard. It is probably coincidence, but I just found it kind of funny. 

Big Military Experience

As we have been discussing the last couple weeks about how the Axis powers came to be, I noticed that each one has gained major battlefield experience that the Allies don't have in their time of peace. Germany fought in Germany testing out new tactics giving them the edge at the beginning of WWII with their Blitzkrieg attacks. Mussolini and Italy gained experience in North Africa, and finally the Japanese. They fought multiple wars in China and gained naval experience in the Pacific. All of these things put the Allies at a major disadvantage to start the war and it showed as the Allies were beaten early in the war.

DEJAVU?

So I feel like this week is just like the week we spent when Germany invaded France in World War One. Both times the germans destroyed the French and British, both times the French were caught off guard, both times they defended the wrong boarder, both times they were out maneuvered. It seems like Germany always manages to have the upper hand in the war but then they get stuck fighting a two front war and eventually lose. It appears that both wars began almost the exact same way. And not to mention the main countries are basically the same.  Didn't anybody learn anything from the first world war?

Why did the Allies side with Russia during WWII

Throughout World War Two the Allies fought with Russia against Nazi Germany. But wasn't Russia the communist nation? The Allies were terrified of communism but they still sided with the Russians. And it wasn't like they were a peaceful nation either. Stalin was killing just as many people as Hitler. Both nations wanted were gaining power and were building huge militaries. Both had recently overthrown old governments.  So what if the Allies had joined up with Germany because they felt Russia was doing harm to other nations? Why didn't the Allies side with Germany?

This is a little video showing both nations rising in power

In class the other day you asked if anyone had heard about some of the things that happened in Russia with concentration camp type things during would war two. I read this book called The Endless Steppe which was about a girl and her family who are taken away to work in work camps and mines of siberia. It is a really good book but it has been a while since I read it. You should check it out. Even my mom enjoyed it.

Red Baron game

Btw. That Red baron game is pretty addicting. haha!!!!

treaty of Versailles

ok so. I think that the Germans deserved what they got because of all the things that the Germans had done to the french over the past hundred years with the Franco Prussian war and such. However, I am surprised that the French were not able to see that this could lead to peace. This treaty would only cause more tension between the nations and another war was on the horizon. Do you think that there were any people in power that foresaw another conflict between the nations (World War Two)?

FLYBOYS or THE RED BARON

The movie flyboys was about WWI pilots as well except from the allied perspective. I was just curious if anyone else has seen it and which one they like better. Which side do you think had the better pilots?

WWI Generals

From what we have been learning so far I just felt I should discuss my opinions on what I have thought. I cant believe how dumb the generals are in this war and they all seem the same for both sides. Every time there is a battle each general thinks he has this outstanding plan but in reality it is the same as always, run into  machine gun fire and get  obliterated. Artillery then charge, over and over again. WHEN IS SOMEONE GOING TO COME UP WITH AN IDEA THAT WILL ACTUALLY WORK AND NOT GOING GET EVERY MAN INVOLVED KILLED???????????????

Armenian Genocide

As we leaned this week, the Armenian government had a just about everything to do with the genocide. They ordered and carried out the genocide. They issued propaganda and massacred people. But what about the average citizen? They did some of the killing but not on  a large scale. Plus the people just did what the government said. Do you think the Turkish citizens are to blame for the genocide as well, or just the Turkish government? Could the people have done anything to stop it.

Ok so this weekend I watched the the rest of the movie Galipolli and it was a pretty good movie. I liked it a lot, however I would have liked to see some more fighting scenes but thats ok. After watching the rest of the movie i found out how good of friends the two were in the movie. The ending was very depressing because it just ended with him being killed. We never found out about what happened to Mel Gibs. Do you think he lives through the war or is killed? What would his reaction be if he found out that his best friend was killed?

Germany's attempts to destroy the British Empire

One of the biggest reasons the Germans wanted to attack the British colonies was to spread out Britain's  forces so that there would be fewer men fighting on the western front. The Germans even hoped that they would give up the fight on the western front entirely to protect the colonies. In oder to accomplish this the Germans tried to take the Suez  Canal from the British. However, they were crushed because they had underestimated the the strength of the British force occupying the canal.

How Was WWI A "Global War?"

First of all WWI became a global war because of all of the imperialism that had occurred in the previous century. All of the colonies that belonged to Britain and Germany had to fight each other throughout the war allowing the war to extend to all conners of the world. Also the Germans had plans of destroying the British resources from other nations, and there was even plans to invade the US now. Can you imagine someone wanting to invade New York today?

Propaganda

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What if the Generals had not found out about the Christmas Truce?

During the movie I began to think of some interesting questions about what could have happened with this remarkable instance. Imagine if the Germans and the Allies had been able to continue their truce past Christmas because the commanding officers hadn't read the letters and found out. Would they have been able to stop the fighting throughout the war and lives would have been spared? Is it possible that the Generals would never have found out? Even more important could the war have ended earlier if the Generals hadn't discovered the Christmas Truce. I think that it is possible for the peace to have lasted a while and it would have prevented a lot of death. Maybe if it had continued for a little longer over a few more front lines the men would have refused to fight and bring an end to the war.

The Gun Big Bertha, used by the Germans for destroying forts, was the biggest gun of World War I. It fired a 42 cm wide shell up to 15KM away!!!!! That doesn't sound that big but once you actually think about how wide of a bullet that is you can really can understand its power. But my question to all you is, was all that money and man power to move and fire it worth it? How come we don't build guns that big today?

We Three Kings (the tzar king and kieser) Check out the article

There are the twins on the left (not really) and the other guy who looks nothing like them on the right! 

Can you imagine being king of an entire country or empire, now add to that you have two cousins who also rule an empire? Well that how things were in the early 20th century Europe. The three cousins ruled in their own empire and seemed to be happy with each other for the most part. What would make them turn against on one another and go to war. Do you think they really wanted to fight or was inevitable that the nations would go to war against the will of their leaders?

Check this video out!! Slaves did build the white house

So I went googling about what you said about the slaves building the white house and according PBS it is true. The guy, who also wrote a book called Black Men Built The Capital, in this video talks about how the inauguration area used to be where all the slaves lived. They were called "tent cities." Not only did they help build the White House but also the Capitol building and other aspects of Washington D.C.

What causes a world war?

I beleive that world wars begin when there more than a few things that go wrong. Issues between many contries have to be developed over many years to cause a chain of events just waiting to explode. Almost like holding a tiicking time bomb. Without a really bad situation invlving entire continents there is no way to have world war. Similarly there has to be an underlying reason for world wars to break out. Such as former dissagreement and cultural hatred between countries. I believe that there could be another world war someday but not in the near future. I dont see enough heavy serious issues between multiple countries about the same issue to create that ticking time bomb. But there is nothing to say it can't happen again!!!

General Patton

this has nothing to do with the class(testing)

Josh is in the World Wars class

OMG i am so excited to be here!!!!!!!! this class is awesome

What's up all!!!!!