United States

The official 48 stars state flag of the United States that was used during World War II

## Geographic Information

### Climate

A continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers

### Terrain

A vast central plain, with mountains in the west and hills and low mountains in the east in the mainland, rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska and rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii

## Political Information

### Notable Cities

New York City, Chicago, Charleston, Las Vegas and Seattle

### Government

Federal, presidential, constitutional republic

### Leader(s)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (March 4th, 1933 - April 12th, 1945), Harry S. Truman (April 12th, 1945 - January 20th, 1953)

### Affiliation

Neutral: 1939 - 1941Allies: 1941 - 1945

The United States or America, officially known as the United States of America, is one of the "Big Three" nations, that helped the Allies in their fight against the Axis in Europe and who also mainly fought against Japan during the later stages of World War II.

Notable engagements that the United States was involved in, included the Allied invasion of Italy, during which, the Americans made a landing from Africa into the island of Sicily in Italy, which then they pushed up from into the Italian mainland, hoping to capitulate the Italian Empire, the Normandy landings, during which, the Americans used over 2 whole corps to make an amphibious landing with the British and Canadians in the city of Normandy, France which they then used as a foundation to eventually liberate France from Axis occupation and the Pacific War, during which, America engaged in a bloody war with the Japanese Empire in retaliation for the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

## **The United States before the war**

Before the outbreak of the war, the United States had experienced general prosperity during the Interwar period. This was seen during the "Roaring Twenties" period, during which, the United States had experienced both an economic and cultural boom in several states. Eventually however, on the 4th of September, 1929, the Wall Street Crash happened, which sent not only America but a good portion of the world's countries into an economic ruin, especially the Weimar Republic, the predecessor state to Nazi Germany. This worldwide economic crash would eventually turn into an economic worldwide depression, which became known as the Great Depression, throughout which, the United States would become one of the more severely affected countries.

Eventually, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as the 32nd, Democratic president of the United States. He began his political career by introducing a plan called the "New Deal", which were a series of programs, public projects, financial reforms and regulations that were aimed at curbing the effects of the Great Depression. Eventually, Roosevelt would go on to be elected 2 more times as the US president, with the first re-election in 1936 and the next re-election in 1940. Due to the isolationist and non-intervention policy of the United States at the time, the nation remained neutral throughout most of the beginning of the Second World War II, though it did supply the Allies with valuable war materials via a lend lease system.

## **Attack on Pearl Harbor**

Even though the United States tried it's best to remain neutral, it's efforts were in vain. On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese Empire launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, aiming to cripple the Pacific Fleet of the United States from interfering with their expansion in Southeast Asia. However during the attack, the Japanese didn't attack any of the maintenance ports on Pearl Harbor, meaning that the United States was able to repair their fleet quickly and respond back with a decisive strike after declaring war on Japan on the 8th of December, a day after the attack occurred.

## **Fall of the Philippines**

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was an unexpected surprise for the United States but it wasn't the only surprise that the United States government would receive. To rub salt in the already open wound that was sustained from Pearl Harbor, Japan launched an attack on the unincorporated and organized commonwealth of the Philippines on the 8th of December, 1941. The conflict lasted until May 8th, 1942, with the end results being that the American forces were kicked out of the Philippines and the island was occupied by the Japanese. Even though the Americans had suffered yet another blowing defeat, which is even considered to be the worst military defeat in the history of the United States, they weren't about to give up yet, with General McArthur proclaiming that "I came out of Bataan and I shall return", before he and other high ranking United States officers evacuated out of the Philippines and into Australia.

## **Invasion of Sicily and the Italian Campaign**

After the Americans reorganized from the surprise attacks that were launched on them by Japan, they started providing direct military assistance to the Allies, starting on May 11th, 1942, during the North African campaign, where the Allies were at a threat of possible Italian takeover of Africa and them losing their grip on the African continent. Luckily, the United State's military assistance in North Africa really helped out the Allies in the long run and by the 13th of May, 1943, the Axis had completely lost their grip on the African continent, which gave the Allies an opportune moment to strike at the now vulnerable Italian Empire. At first, the Americans were hesitant to attack the Italian Empire from the Mediterranean, as their main focus was fighting the German Army in northwestern Europe by liberating France but eventually the Americans came to a compromise with the British to which both sides would launch their respective campaigns against the Axis. One of these operations would become known as Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.

After the necessary preparations were made, the Americans set off from Africa on the 9th of July, 1943, to invade and take over the Italian island of Sicily, which they did successfully. Right after the island was taken on the 17th of August, the fascist dictator of the Italian Empire, Benito Mussolini, was toppled from power as his fascist regime collapsed and was arrested by the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel the III. Shortly after his arrest, the Italian government signed the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies on September 3rd, 1943, which officially ended the war between the Italian Empire and the Allies and placing Italy on the side of the Allies. However, Nazi Germany wasn't about to let the Allies open another front which they can attack Nazi Germany from, so on the 8th of September, 1943, Germany and their allies in the Axis, Croatia and Romania, all launched an attack against Italy to stop the Allies from having an gaining access to Nazi Germany in the south. Eventually, the whole northern and central parts of the Italian peninsula were fully occupied by the Germans on the 19th of September, after which, Nazi Germany set up a puppet government in this area, which came to be known as the Italian Social Republic, which was led and administered by Benito Mussolini, who was rescued by the Germans during the Gran Sasso raid on the 12th of September, 1943. Due to the proclamation of this republic, many Italian resistance movements began sparking up across the republic, which led to the Italian Civil War, it also led to the start of the Italian campaign by Allies which started on September 9th, 1943 and aimed at liberating the whole of the Italian peninsula from German occupation. Eventually, mainland Italy would be fully liberated on the 2nd of May, 1945, which would allow for the Allies to push further into Nazi Germany from more than one side.

## **Normandy Landings**

As the agreed upon plan by the Allies, the Americans were also preparing to make another invasion somewhere on the mainland of France. Eventually, the Americans would decided to attempt an amphibious landing in the north-western region of Normandy, France. They specifically chose Normandy after a deception operation, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, which was designed to deceive the German Army and to make them think that the Allies were landing somewhere else rather than Normandy.

After the German Army was successfully deceived by the Allies, the Americans, British and Canadians landed on Normandy on the 6th of June, 1944, with the Americans landing on the beaches of Utah and Omaha, the British landing at Gold and Sword and the Canadians landing at Juno. Omaha Beach saw the most bloodshed out of all the 5 beachheads, with estimated casualties between 2,000 and 5,000+ Allied soldiers. Eventually, after hours of grueling urban hand to hand combat and a lot of casualties on both sides, all 5 of the Allied beachheads managed to link up as one united front against the Germans. This would mark the main beginning of Operation Overlord, which would last for 2 months, 3 weeks and 3 days, during which, the Allies managed to liberate all of western Europe from German control and were eventually able to capitulate Nazi Germany along with the Soviet Union on the 8th of May, 1945.

## **The Pacific War**

Even though the war in Europe was officially over, the Empire of Japan was still standing in the Pacific but it didn't look like they would last for much longer, with the Allied victory during the Burma campaign and the American landings on the Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the sun was setting for the Empire of the Rising Sun. However, both of the American amphibious landings on the Japanese islands of Iwo Jima nd Okinawa, had cost them very dearly, with over 27,071 American casualties during the battle of Iwo Jima and an estimated 14,009 to 20,195 dead Americans during the battle of Okinawa. After the capture of these 2 islands, the Americans were in doubt as to what to do next. They initially planned an invasion of the Japanese home islands, which was codenamed Operation Downfall, however, the operation did not start right away, as the Americans feared that the civilian population would resist the American armies as they advanced into Japan, which could have mounted up to over a million Allied casualties. Therefore, the Americans had decided to think of another plan, one that involved less bloodshed.

## **Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki**

Eventually after months of planning and careful thorough thinking, the Americans had came up with the idea to drop 2 nuclear bombs, 1 small bomb on the city of Hiroshima and one larger bomb on the city of Nagasaki. This plan was initially met with quite a bit of controversy and doubt, as it would be the first ever nuclear attack in history, however, the United States would eventually gain permission from Great Britain to drop the atomic bombs, after Japan refused to surrender according to the Potsdam Declaration, that was issued to the Japanese government on July 26th, 1945, which they promptly ignored.

On the 6th of August, 1945, a nuke called "Little Boy", was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb contained over 64 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, which would contribute to the 20,000 soldier and estimated 70,000 to 126,000 civilian deaths. After the bomb on Hiroshima was dropped, the US issued a press statement to Japan which called for the Japanese surrender, otherwise they were to "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth", as said by the United States president at the time, Harry S. Truman.

Foolishly enough, the Japanese refused to surrender to the Allies and because of this, 3 days later on August 9th, 1945, a second, more deadly bomb nicknamed the "Fat Man", was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The lethal bomb was filled with 6.4 kilograms of plutonium, which caused over an estimated 39,000 to 80,000 civilian casualties and at least 150 soldier casualties. Japan would proceed to surrender on the 15th of August and would later on sign the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on the 2nd of September, 1945, which effectively ended the Second World War.

## **The United States after the war**

Being one of the few nations that was mainly untouched on it's mainland during World War II, the United States didn't find itself as economically and politically unstable as some of the other nations that fought, such as most countries on the European mainland. Due to this, the United States was easily able to become a global and economic superpower after World War II, with a lot of influence in their occupied territories, such as the south-eastern occupied portion of Germany and their occupied territory of Japan. This would affect political events for years to come, such as during the Cold War, where the United States was engaged in a proxy war with the Soviet Union, to assert their dominance over global events.