Living and working in the Washington, D.C. area provides one with a daily reminder of our history, past accomplishments, heroes, and military battles. It seems there is a monument to just about everything. In the absence of a monument, there is a building, bridge, or highway carrying the name of some historic person, place or thing. So why then isn't there a National Monument to the Second World War? But there is, you say. How about the one next to Arlington Cemetery, you know, the one where the Marines are raising the flag at Iwo Jima! The operative word here is "Marines". Yes, it is a W.W.II Memorial, a United States Marine Corps W.W.II Memorial. This monument depicts the acts of those brave Marines that raised the United States Flag on February 19, 1945, on the island of Iwo Jima. There is NO United States National World War II Memorial!

On May 25, 1993, forty-seven years after the end of World War II, President Clinton signed a law authorizing the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) to establish a World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. It will be the first National Memorial dedicated to all that served during World War II. Finally, the Nation will publicly acknowledge the sacrifices, commitment and achievement of the entire nation during some of the darkest days in our history. The target date for ground breaking is on Veterans Day, 2000. Sadly, far, too many of our W.W.II veterans will have died before this auspicious occasion, and even more will die before the monument is completed.

If you are like most Americans over the age of forty, you have probably seen many of the hundreds of World War II movies over the years. The release of Saving Private Ryan in 1998 gave America a renewed patriotic retrospective of World War II. Although Saving Private Ryan depicted the horrors of war, and man's inhumanity to man, it didn't quite tell the whole story. What was the real magnitude of the war and how did it come about? Just why was America involved and why were we fighting in most areas of the world?

On September 1, 1939, under the direction of Adolph Hitler, the German Nazi blitzkrieg invaded Poland and thus commenced Hitler's master plan to conquer the world. During the early part of 1940, Germany's war machine grew larger and larger and continued waging war on numerous fronts. Italy and Germany formed an Axis. Rumors of war were rampant throughout the World. Even so, many Americans remained in Germany and throughout Europe in hopes that this military activity, led by a former private in the German Army would fizzle out, and life would return to normal. This and many other assumptions made during 1940 couldn't have been further from the truth.

In May of 1940, Germany invaded France. The French army and its British and Belgian allies were overpowered by the German blitzkrieg. Toward the end of May, Allied troops were backed up to the coast of France in the town of Dunkirk. In a daring rescue attempt, an armada of ships from England picked up the soldiers and brought them across the English Channel to safety. Over 300,000 soldiers were saved from the oncoming German army.

Hitler's next plan was to invade Britain. But first the German Luftwaffe had to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF) as it posed a threat to German troops if they were to land in Britain. The battle of Britain was the first major battle fought entirely in the air. Hermann Goring's air force began its assault on England in July of 1940 with more than 1,200 aircraft. Britain's Sir Hugh Dowding's fighter command only had around 600 aircraft available to fight off the onslaught waged by the Luftwaffe.

Every day between June and October of 1940, the RAF and the Luftwaffe clashed in the skies over Britain. The Luftwaffe's final effort to destroy England's air force began on Eagle Day, August 13, 1940. Hermann Goring thought his vastly superior forces could sweep the Royal Air Force from the sky in just four weeks, but poor weather and bungled communications hampered the Luftwaffe's raids. Eagle Day ended with 46 German aircraft destroyed, compared to only 14 RAF fighters. Germany had suffered their first defeat of the war.

Hitler decided to launch an all-out bombing attack on Britain's cities, hoping for a British surrender. Although many were killed, the factories kept working and once again Hitler failed in his attempt to defeat Britain.

By early 1941, the German Army had gained numerous strongholds throughout Europe including the invasion of Russia. At 4:00 a.m. on June 22, 1941, the German Panzers lumbered across the Soviet border under a protective umbrella of the German Luftwaffe. At the same hour, the German foreign minister informed the astonished Soviet ambassador in Berlin that Germany was at war with Russia. The Soviet government was completely surprised by the German attack. Hitler's plan was to annihilate the soviet Army in a few swift blows and to seize Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. Once this was accomplished, the Germans expected the Soviet government would surrender and disintegrate.

By September 8, 1941, the Germans reached Leningrad in the north and invaded it. Hitler attached great psychological importance to the capture of the city of Lenin. But the siege marked by great heroism and harrowing suffering on the part of the defenders, lasted 18 months, and the city was never taken. In the south, Kiev, the "Mother of Russian cities," fell to the Germans on October 18. But in the center, the Germans were still 200 miles from Moscow. At the end of October, they suspended major operations in the north and south and made an all-out drive to the capital. By the end of November, after fighting vast tank battles which dwarfed the battles in the west of the previous year, the Germans clawed their way to the suburbs of Moscow.

On December 6, General George Zhukov hurled fresh units from Siberia into the battle. Soviet units all along the front went into an offensive and the German lines wavered and fell back. Panic developed in German headquarters, but Hitler assumed operational command and prevented the retreat from turning into a rout by draconian stand-or-die orders. The Germans withdrew into "hedgehog" positions-armed camps bristling with defenses in all directions.

December 7, 1941, at 7:00 am on a beautiful Sunday morning, most of the residents of the islands of Hawaii were enjoying yet another fabulous day in paradise. Precisely at 7:55 am this island paradise became the scene of one of the worst disasters ever inflicted on the United Sates. The Imperial Japanese Navy, launched an air attack under the command of Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, consisting of 183 aircraft from aircraft carriers located 230 miles north of Oahu and commenced the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A second wave consisting of 170 more aircraft hit the islands approximately one hour later.

Ironically, one of the first ships attacked by the Japanese was the USS Utah - AG16. Utah, which was a former battleship, was now a non-combat training ship. The USS Arizona - BB39 received extensive damage from bombs and torpedoes and sank to the bottom of the harbor with over eleven hundred crewmembers losing their lives. The loss of life, ships and aircraft, as a result of this devastating attack was staggering. The U.S. Navy suffered the loss of fifteen ships, including 8 Battleships.

Two US Battleships under attack - left, USS West Virginia, right USS Arizona

 

In his radio address on December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on the Empire of Japan. In his address he stated that yesterday, in addition to the attack on Hawaii, Japan also launched attacks on Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Wake Island and today the Japanese attacked Midway Island. President Roosevelt stated: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

Three days later on December 11, 1941, both Germany and Italy declared war on the United States of America. Not only were we at war, we were at war on both sides of the world.

Commencing on November 18, 1941, the North African Campaign of World War II began. Germany's Field Marshal Rommel and Britain's General Montgomery battled in this tactical military engagement. Although Montgomery enjoyed a numerical superiority that no other British commander had possessed in North Africa, the Eighth army's 300 Sherman tanks were significantly inferior to the 100 German Panzer tanks. However, during the length of the North African Campaign, Rommel was constantly held back by the lack of fuel and ammunition. Rommel successfully attacked at Gazala, but then ignored Hitler's orders to pause, and pursued the retreating Eight Army 250 miles across the desert to El Alamein. In the end, this battle was as much of a failure as his Gazala battle had been a success.

Throughout 1942 the war continued on both fronts with numerous casualties on both sides. Although our naval power had not yet recovered from the disaster at Pearl Harbor, our crippled naval fleet managed to hold its own in the Pacific and our troops led by General Eisenhower seemed to be holding their own in Europe. Between June 3rd and 6th, Japan suffered its first major defeat in the battle of Midway Island. Not only was this a tremendous military victory, it gave the folks back home something to cheer about. During the summer the war in the Pacific raged on. Finally on August 7, 1942, the U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal as we continued to push the Imperial Japanese Navy back toward its homeland.

By this time it was apparent that a prolonged war would result in untold numbers of casualties, and the cost to those nations involved would be astronomical both monetarily and in the loss of human life. President Roosevelt, along with his top military and scientific advisors, realized the devastating impact to all if we could not bring this war of all wars to closure quickly. From these top-secret meetings came the decision to proceed on a course that would change the world forever.

In December of 1942, a group of the top scientists in the world gathered in Chicago and under the direction of Enrico Fermi, succeeded in bringing about a reaction in which the neutrons from fission caused further fission at a sustained level. We now know that German scientists were also working, although ineffectively, toward an atomic bomb. At this time there was not enough enriched uranium in the world for a single bomb, or even for satisfactory laboratory investigations of U-235 behavior. In December of 1942 the Under Secretary of War had directed that a site at Los Alamos, New Mexico, be acquired for a nuclear weapon laboratory. At the time of the founding of Los Alamos Laboratory, (Project Y as it was called) all the world's plutonium could have been piled on a pinhead, with room to spare. The highly classified mission of Los Alamos Laboratory was under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Their mission was to create a bomb in time to affect the outcome of the war.

On May 13, 1943, German and Italian troops, surrendered in North Africa. This was a great victory for the allies. On July 10, 1943, the allies invaded Sicily and the war continued to take its toll. Allied victories in North Africa and the Mediterranean continued to force the Axis back toward its homeland.

On September 3, 1943, the Allies' Mediterranean operations led to the collapse of Mussolini's Fascist government and the subsequent Italian surrender to the Allies. Six days later on September 9, 1943, United States forces invaded Italy.

During 1944 work continued at Los Alamos at an ever-increasing pace. The primary problem revolved around the lack of highly enriched uranium (U-235). It would seem that every day was a "ground breaking" day, as new territory that had never before in history been explored, was evaluated and tested in the quest to create the ultimate "bomb".

On the morning of June 6, 1944, following months of preparation and planning on a grand scale which never before in history had been attempted, the Allies under the direction of General Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the invasion of France. D-Day as it was known, took place. As dawn broke, an armada of more than 5,000 Allied ships steamed through 10 lanes cleared by minesweepers. The warships opened fire on the beaches of Normandy France with the most intense bombardment in naval history. At 6:31 a.m. the first landing craft dropped its ramp and U.S. soldiers began wading 100 yards under heavy fire, onto Utah Beach. Ten miles to the east, at Omaha Beach, U.S. soldiers found only death and misery as they attempted to take the beach. Heavy German defenses on the bluffs above killed 4,649 men during the assault on Omaha Beach. As depicted in Saving Private Ryan, this was one of the bloodiest battles fought during the war.

On Gold, Juno and Sword beaches, British and Canadian troops punched ashore against lighter defenses and terrain. Within a day, the airborne and seaborne forces joined and began pushing deeper into France.

On August 25, 1944, the Allies liberated Paris. Once again the people of France were free from the reign of terror imposed by the German Army. On September 12, 1944, U.S. forces finally entered Germany. We were now on Hitler's door step and the end of the war in Europe appeared to be close. On October 20, 1944, on the other side of the world United States forces landed on Leyte, Philippines.

In late 1944, Germany was clearly losing the war. The Russian Red Army was steadily closing in on the eastern front while German cities were being devastated by intense American bombing. The Italian peninsula had been captured and liberated, and the allied armies were advancing rapidly through France and the Low Countries. Hitler knew the end was near if something couldn't be done to slow the allied advance. Hence the Battle of the Bulge.

The Battle of the Bulge lasted from December 16, 1944 to January 28, 1945 and was the largest land battle of World War II. More than a million men participated in this battle including some 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British.

Two days before the New Year, the Allies launched a counteroffensive. This involved the U.S. Third Army striking to the North while the U.S. First Army pushed to the South. They were supposed to meet at the village of Houffalize to trap all German forces. The Germans did not go easily however, and the Americans had a rough time. Day after day, soldiers wallowed through the snow and many put newspapers under their clothing to provide added insulation against the intense cold.

On January first, Hitler launched a plan he called "The Great Blow." The goal of this plan was to eliminate allied air power. At 8:00 a.m. German fighters swarmed over Belgium, Holland, and northern France. For more than two hours allied airfields were bombarded. By 10:00 a.m. 206 aircraft and many bases were all but destroyed. Hitler's plan had inflicted a great deal of damage to allied aircraft. However, the price he paid for this was devastating to Germany. The Luftwaffe lost 300 planes and 253 trained pilots.

On January 8, 1945, Hitler ordered his troops to withdraw from the tip of the Bulge. Hitler realized his offensive had failed. By January 16, 1945, the Third and First Army had joined at Houffalize and the Allies now controlled the original front. On January 23, 1945, Saint Vith was retaken and finally on January 28th the Battle of the Bulge was officially over.

At the conclusion of the battle, the casualties were high. The United States suffered 19,000 killed and over 61,000 wounded. The British suffered 200 killed and 1,200 wounded. Germany had a total of 100,000 men killed, wounded or captured. This was the last major offensive by the German Army. It was a counterattack against the allied invasion in the Ardennes region in Belgium. The battle got its name because the German counter achieved only a bulge in the allied lines before being repulsed.

On February 19, 1945, United States Marines landed on Iwo Jima and on April 1, 1945, the invasion of Okinawa took place. Even though we were now on Japan's doorstep, the Imperial Japanese forces continued to fight with everything they had. If we were to defeat Japan, the cost in loss of life would be staggering.

Following the death of President Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, the decision to continue with the secret atomic bomb at "Project Y" became the responsibility of our new President, Harry S. Truman. As the Vice-President, Truman was totally unaware of the project until after the death of President Roosevelt. The decision was made to continue with the project and to conduct a test.

War in Europe culminated on May 7, 1945, when Germany was officially defeated and surrendered. On May 8, 1945, the official proclamation of V-E Day (Victory in Europe) was announced.

Increased pressure to produce the World's first atomic bomb was ever present. Jumbo, as it was called, weighed in at a slim 214 tons and was 25 feet long, 12 feet in diameter with 14 inch, thick walls. A special 64-wheel trailer was required to carry Jumbo across the desert to the test site known as "Trinity." The purpose of "Jumbo" was to test the first fission bomb in a contained environment, however this concept was scraped shortly before the test. "Jumbo" was mounted on a tower 800 foot from ground zero and participated as an observer only. On July 16, 1945, at exactly 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time, the first atomic bomb was detonated from atop a 100 foot tower. At that instant came an incredible burst of light, bathing the surrounding mountains in an unearthly brilliance. Then came the shock wave that knocked over two men at a distance of 10,000 feet from Trinity, then the thunderous roar. A vast multi-colored cloud surged and billowed upward. The power of the bomb was equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT. The 100-foot steel tower was completely vaporized, and desert sand was fused to glass for hundreds of yards around ground zero. "Jumbo" however, survived the test.

Enrico Fermi wrote the following notes on that monumental day: "My first impression of the explosion was the very intense flash of light, and a sensation of heat on the parts of my body that were exposed. Although I did not look directly towards the object, I had the impression that suddenly the countryside became brighter than in full daylight. I subsequently looked in the direction of the explosion through the dark glass and could see something that looked like a conglomeration of flames that promptly started rising. After a few seconds the rising flames lost their brightness and appeared as a huge pillar of smoke with an expanded head like a gigantic mushroom that rose rapidly beyond the clouds, probably to a height of the order of 30,000 feet. After reaching full height, the smoke stayed stationary for a while before the wind started dispersing it."

The world had now entered the Atomic Age!

Three weeks later, on August 6, 1945, the world's second man-made nuclear explosion occurred over Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb was dropped from an Army Air Corps B-29, the Enola Gay. Three days later on August 9, 1945, the third atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. Five days later, August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered. The official victory signing ceremony took place on September 2, 1945 aboard the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo harbor.

It has been stated publicly by politicians and military leaders alike, the devastation and destruction to Hiroshima and Nagasaki was far beyond all expectations. The loss of human life was enormous. About 70,000 died at Hiroshima and another 40,000 at Nagasaki. Thousands more were injured, and for the most part those dead were civilians. History records, in minute detail, the rational for creating and dropping the bomb on Japan. This was done to avoid a ground assault on the Japanese Empire. The United States Government estimates that by making the decision to drop the bomb, at least one million military lives were saved in what would have been the bloodiest battle in history.

Statistically, World War II was by far the greatest war in history in terms of human and material resources expended. In all, sixty-one countries with 1.7 billion people, three-fourths of the world's population, took part. A total of 110 million persons were mobilized for military service, more than half of those by three countries: the USSR (22-30 million), Germany (17 million), and the United States (16 million). For the major participants of the war, the largest numbers on active duty during the war at any one time were as follows:

USSR	12,500,000
U.S.	12,364,000
Germany	10,938,000
Great Britain	8,720,000
Japan	7,193,000
China	5,000,000
France	5,000,000
Italy	4,500,000

Most statistics on the war are only estimates, since the war's vast and chaotic sweep made uniform record keeping impossible. Many governments lost statistical data, and some resorted to manipulating it for political reasons. A rough consensus has been reached on the total cost of the war. In terms of money spent, it has been put at more than $1 trillion, which makes it more expensive than all other wars combined.

The United States spent the most money on the war, an estimated $341 billion, including $50 billion for lend-lease supplies, of which $31 billion went to Britain, $11 billion to the Soviet Union, $5 billion to China, and $3 billion to 35 other countries. Germany was number two with respect to money spent on the war with $272 billion, followed by the Soviet Union with $192 billion and then Britain with $120 billion. Italy and Japan spent $94 billion and $56 billion respectively. The money spent does not come close to reflecting the war's true cost. The Soviet Government has calculated that the USSR lost 30 percent of its national wealth, while the Nazi executions and looting were of incalculable amounts in the occupied countries. The full cost to Japan has been estimated at $562 billion. In Germany, bombing and shelling produced over 5 billion cubic yards of rubble.

The human cost of the war, not including more than 5 million Jews killed in the Holocaust who were indirect victims of the war, is estimated to have been 55 million dead. There were 25 million military and 30 million civilian deaths. The country with the heaviest human loss of life was the USSR, for which the official total of military and civilian dead is given as more than 20 million. The Allied military and civilian losses were 44 million; and those of the Axis, 11 million. The military deaths on both sides in Europe numbered 19 million, and in the war against Japan the total was 6 million.

The following table shows, by country, the total number of military and civilian casualties of World War II.

Country	Military Deaths	Civilian Deaths	Total Deaths
United States	407,318	No significant civilian losses	407,318
USSR	13,000,000	7,000,000	20,000,000
China	3,500,000	10,000,000	13,500,000
Germany	3,500,000	3,800,000	7,300,000
Poland	120,000	5,300,000	5,420,000
Japan	1,700,000	380,000	2,080,000
Yugoslavia	300,000	1,300,000	1,600,000
Romania	200,000	465,000	665,000
France	250,000	360,000	610,000
British Empire	452,000	60,000	512,000
Italy	330,000	80,000	410,000
Hungary	120,000	280,000	400,000
Czechoslovakia	10,000	330,000	340,000

Perhaps the most significant casualty over the long term was the world balance of power. Britain, France, Germany and Japan ceased to be great powers in the traditional military sense, leaving only two, the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Home Front

In 1939, roughly 10 million people were unemployed. Countless more had substandard or low paying jobs. Many factories were under producing, and farmers were unable to sell what they were producing. When the war broke out in Europe, things changed dramatically. Between 1941 and 1945, the number of unemployed people in the United States, dropped to around 1 million. The output of manufactured goods increased by more than 300 percent and average productivity was up by 25 percent. Even after correcting for inflation, real earnings rose 27 percent in manufacturing work.

World War II held important liberating changes for women on the Home Front. While more than 350,000 women chose to enter the military, 6.5 million women worked in defense plants and even more worked in offices during the war. Supporting the war effort also meant making changes in both industry and home life. Changes in family life many times involved migrating to the city where work was plentiful. This of course meant dislocation and sometimes sub-standard housing, as the sudden surge in population created problems for the cities. As mothers became single parents, children came to experience life without a father. The labor shortage during the war helped many women and minorities obtain higher paying industry jobs.

The National World War II Memorial

The memorial will honor those who served in the armed forces of the United States during World War II and commemorate the participation of the nation in that war. All military veterans of the war, the citizens of the "home front," and the nation-at-large will be honored.

Symbolic of the defining event of the 20th Century in American history, the memorial will be a monument to the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment to the American people to the common defense of the nation and to the broader causes of peace and freedom from tyranny throughout the world. It will educate future generations of Americans, deepening their understanding of what the World War II generation accomplished in securing freedom and democracy. Above all, the memorial will stand as an important symbol of American national unity, a timeless reminder of the moral strength and awesome power that can flow when a free people are at once united and bonded together in a just and common cause.

The memorial will be constructed at the historic Rainbow Pool site on the National Mall, a 7.4-acre rectangular area at the east-end of the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The following pictures are artist renderings of the monument, as it will look when completed.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to help complete the World War II National Memorial, mail your check to:

World War II Memorial Fund

P.O. Box 96766

Washington, D.C. 20090-6766

For further information please call toll free 1-800-639-4WW2