The Wizard War

Introduction

The Ultra Secret

Wonder Weapons

Radar

Total War

 

Introduction

More than any other war in human history, the Second World War was a war of advancing technology. Incredible advances changed the very nature of the warfare forever.

The Wehrmacht in World War II

Unlike the United States Army, the German Wehrmacht had a long standing professional officer corps that had experience going back to the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. While many American career officers had seen action in World War I, the vast majority of Americans entered combat for the first time.

The Warsaw Uprising, August-October 1944

The Red Army Offensive in the spring of 1944 reached Warsaw by the late summer. Poland had suffered for five years under Nazi occupation, and the Government-in-Exile in London kept the focus of the Polish cause.

The Siege of Wake Island (December 1941)

Wake Island has the distinction of being the only time defenders were able to prevent a landing during World War II. The marines and naval personnel on Wake, a refueling station for the Pan American Clipper, would become heroes to the American public starved for good news as the Japanese advanced across the Pacific.

The Soviet Union in World War II

The Soviet Union had fought with Japan over the Manchurian border. An uneasy truce had existed since September 1939, when, in 1941, both nations realized that the coming war in Europe would mean that they would have to protect their interests elsewhere. Still, both nations had significant forces in Northern China in case the other attacked.

United States in World War II

The President of the United States had a strategic dilemma throughout the start of World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was secretly aiding the British in their war against Nazi Germany. He did not want war with Japan, because it would prevent the full weight of the United States military and industry from being brought to bear on Germany.

Prelude to War: United States

As Japan was opened by the Admiral Matthew C. Perry in 1854, the United States was a nation of contradictions. As Perry's black ships were landing in Edo Bay, his nation was growing bitterly divided over the issue of state's rights versus national interests. Japan seemed very far off, especially to a nation that was centered on the Atlantic.

The United States Navy in World War II

United Kingdom in World War II

The United Kingdom had already been fighting the Germans for over two years when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Dominion garrisons in Malaya, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and elsewhere.

Prelude to War: United Kingdom

After World War I, Great Britain was marked by the death of a million of her young men, more than she was to lose in World War II. Her leaders, many old men overdue for retirement whose replacements were dead in Flanders field, were gripped by the memory of their war dead. The true horror of trench warfare had been kept from the British public, but not to the same extent that the German public was.

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