The World War II Multimedia Database

The world in August 1939 was a world that held its breath. Fighting had ended in Spain, and the war in China had stagnated. But few people believed war would be avoided.

Early in the war Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, faced with grievous losses in the great encirclements of 1941, was agitating for a second front in continental Europe. The war in North Africa was not enough.

After the initial terror of the Polish campaign, everyone expected heavy combat, like the summer of 1914. The British Expeditionary Force landed in France, British children were sent to Canada or the countryside; At various times, neutral Belgium and Holland braced for invasion.

The Philippines had suffered under the Japanese occupation. A highly effective guerrilla campaign controlled sixty percent of the islands, mostly jungle and mountain areas. United States Army General Douglas MacArthur had supplied them by submarine, and sent reinforcements and officers.

More than any other Allied garrison attacked on December 7, 1941, the Philippines were an important target for the Imperial Japanese High Command. Japanese Navy and Army bombers from Formosa attacked in the late morning, and achieved the same success their comrades were enjoying over Pearl Harbor.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea in the Marianas in June 1944 was marked by the destruction of huge numbers of Japanese aircraft with low losses to the United States Navy.

United States Army General Douglas MacArthur planned to prevent attacks in his rear area during the reconquest of the Philippines by taking the Morotais and the Palaus. The most heavily defended island in the Palaus was Peleliu. He felt that he need to hold Peleliu before he could move on the Philippines.

In April 1940, obsolescent British Swordfish biplanes, nicknamed "stringbags" for their flimsy construction, struck the Italian fleet at Taranto. Within minutes significant damage was done to Italy's Mediterranean Fleet. To get around the inability to operate torpedoes in the shallow waters of the harbor, the British attached fins to the tail.

The Normandy Breakout had smashed the German Seventh Army, and the Allies advanced on Paris.

With the attack on the United States Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941, Japan had brought the most powerful nation on earth into the war on the side of the Allies.