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World War II veterans reflect on their service Wednesday, November 11, 2009  Post a comment | E-mail this story | Print  var addthis_pub="4a00a7c064d7b667"; Today is Veterans Day, which began as Armistice Day, proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson Nov. 11, 1919.In 1938, Armistice Day became a legal holiday and shortly after the name was changed to Veterans Day. Although the date was moved over the years, Nov. 11 became holiday's official date in 1978. Regardless of the date, the holiday remains a time to thank veterans for their service and contributions to America and its ideals. Bay News 9.com writer Rod Gipson recently sat down with two local veterans who spoke about everything from their war days to their feelings on Iraq and Afghanistan.   

World War II veterans reflect on their service Wednesday, November 11, 2009  Post a comment | E-mail this story | Print  var addthis_pub="4a00a7c064d7b667"; Today is Veterans Day, which began as Armistice Day, proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson Nov. 11, 1919.In 1938, Armistice Day became a legal holiday and shortly after the name was changed to Veterans Day. Although the date was moved over the years, Nov. 11 became holiday's official date in 1978. Regardless of the date, the holiday remains a time to thank veterans for their service and contributions to America and its ideals. Bay News 9.com writer Rod Gipson recently sat down with two local veterans who spoke about everything from their war days to their feelings on Iraq and Afghanistan.   

World War II veterans reflect on their service Wednesday, November 11, 2009  Post a comment | E-mail this story | Print  var addthis_pub="4a00a7c064d7b667"; Today is Veterans Day, which began as Armistice Day, proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson Nov. 11, 1919.In 1938, Armistice Day became a legal holiday and shortly after the name was changed to Veterans Day. Although the date was moved over the years, Nov. 11 became holiday's official date in 1978. Regardless of the date, the holiday remains a time to thank veterans for their service and contributions to America and its ideals. Bay News 9.com writer Rod Gipson recently sat down with two local veterans who spoke about everything from their war days to their feelings on Iraq and Afghanistan. 

he first bomb was exploded in a test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. See also Manhattan Project. Two more bombs had been built, and the possibility arose of using them to convince the Japanese to surrender. President Harry S. Truman decided to allow the bombs to be dropped. For maximum psychological impact, they were used in quick succession, one over Hiroshima on August 6, the other over Nagasaki on August 9. These cities had not previously been bombed, and thus the bombs’ damage could be accurately assessed. U.S. estimates put the number killed or missing as a result of the bomb in Hiroshima at 60,000 to 70,000 and in Nagasaki at 40,000.

Although the human cost of the war was tremendous, casualty figures cannot always be obtained and often vary widely. Most experts estimate the military and civilian losses of Allied forces at 44 million and those of the Axis at 11 million. The total number of civilian losses includes the 5.6 million to 5.9 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Of all the nations that participated in World War II, the human cost of the war fell heaviest on the USSR, for which the official total, military and civilian, is given as more than 20 million killed. The United States, which had no significant civilian losses, sustained more than 400,000 deaths.

World War II, global military conflict that, in terms of lives lost and material destruction, was the most devastating war in human history. It began in 1939 as a European conflict between Germany and an Anglo-French coalition but eventually widened to include most of the nations of the world.

1920s, attempts were made to achieve a stable peace

Hitler’s Change of Plan The Russians were doing exactly what the German generals had wanted, sacrificing enormous numbers of troops and weapons to defend Moscow. Hitler, however, was not satisfied, and over the generals’ protests, he ordered Army Group Center to divert the bulk of its armor to the north and south to help the other two army groups, thereby stopping the advance toward Moscow. On September 8 Army Group North cut Leningrad’s land connections and, together with the Finnish army on the north, brought the city under siege. On September 16 Army Group South closed a gigantic encirclement east of Kyiv that brought in 665,000 prisoners. Hitler then decided to resume the advance toward Moscow and ordered the armor be returned to Army Group Center.

The amount of money spent has been estimated at more than $1 trillion, which makes World War II more expensive than all other wars combined.

As a prelude to the postponed cross-channel attack, the British and Americans decided at Casablanca to open a strategic air (bombing) offensive against Germany. In this instance they agreed on timing but not on method. The British, as a result of discouraging experience with daylight bombing early in the war, had built their heavy bombers, the Lancasters and Halifaxes, for night bombing, which meant area bombing.

he Lapland War (Finnish: Lapin sota) were the hostilities between Finland and Nazi Germany between September 1944 and April 1945, fought in Finland's northernmost Lapland Province. While the Finns saw this as a separate conflict much like the Continuation War, German forces considered their actions to be part of the Second World War. A peculiarity of the war was that the Finnish army was forced to demobilise their forces while at the same time fighting to force the German army to leave Finland. The German forces retreated to Norway, and Finland managed to uphold its promise to the Soviet Union.

These ecosystems are either barren or with scanty vegetation consisting of mainly thorny bushes. Deserts are classified as warm (hot) and cold (temperate) deserts. The hot deserts are the Sahara in Northern Africa, Kalahari in Southern Africa, Thar in India, Atacama in South America, deserts of Mexico and Australia.The deserts of Iran and Turkey, Gobi desert of Mongolia, some deserts of Argentina are recognised as temperate or cold deserts. Characteristics of Desertsi) Most deserts receive some rain every year but not uniform. ii) Light green covering of annuals is seen just after rains.iii) Have scanty vegetation, clear skies, hot days and extremely cold nights. iv) Soil is rocky and encrusted with sand or salt.v) Long periods without precipitation and extreme temperature (50 - 60oC) conditions (arid lands) impose considerable restraints on the flora and fauna which inhabit there. vi) Sandy storms are very frequent.vii) Occur generally in rain shadow areas. Flora1) Includes succulents such as Cacti and Euphorbias, which can store water in their tissues. 2) Trees with long spreading roots such as Acacia, Prosopis, Phoenix (dates) are found.3) Ephemerals (short lived) such as Boerhaavia repens are seen only during rainy season. FaunaMost desert animals are nocturnal and avoid the heat of the day by burrowing into the cooler soil. Animals include ants, locusts, lizards, Gila monster, coral snake, rattle snake, burrowing owls, Gambel's quail, kangaroo rats, rabbits, camel, skunk, badger foxes, jackals and desert cats. In general, the organisms having specialised structural and physiological and behavioural adaptations to withstand the extreme temperatures only can survive in a desert.

One of the victors’ stated aims in World War I had been “to make the world safe for democracy,”

As dismantlers of the world status quo, the Japanese military were well ahead of Hitler. They used a minor clash with Chinese troops near Mukden in 1931 as a pretext for taking over all of Manchuria, where they proclaimed the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. In 1937-1938 they occupied the main Chinese ports.

The start of the war is generally held to be September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by most of the countries in the British Empire

In 1945 the war ended in a victory for the Allies. The Soviet Union and the United States subsequently emerged as the world's superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The acceptance of the principle of self-determination accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Western Europe itself began moving toward integration.

List of wars by death toll