WORLD WAR II
World War II was an international warfare that persisted from 1939 to 1945 even though associated differences started earlier. Towards the end of 1939, the ideal relationship between Britain and America was indisputable. Nevertheless, large swathes of the American community, politicians, and media were profoundly isolationistic. After evaluation of its occurrences, the majority of people disliked the involvement of the US in World War I and hoped that the country would not take party in the Second World War. In this regard, the idea of shunning foreign involvements and concentrating on national issues was extensive. When World War II began in Europe, the American president, Roosevelt, established that the warfare threatened the security of the United States. He sought the best means of assisting the European nations devoid of directly being involved in the war.[1] The need for the involvement of the US heightened in 1940 when France fell, leaving Britain as the only nation between the US and Nazi Germany.
In 1939, the enactment of the 4th Neutrality Act allowed the United States to trade munitions with the warring nations on condition that they paid in full and took the weaponry. In 1941, President Roosevelt made a step toward ensuring that the US became an armory of democracy through the Lending-Lease Act that allowed America to loan, sell, or lease weapons and food to whichever nation whose defense was considered fundamental to the security of the United States. The United States was involved further in the war by its soldiers escorting the British convoys while carrying the Lend-Lease supplies with the intention of safeguarding them against the German U-boats.[2] When the US president declared a “shoot on sight” rule, it appeared that he was intentionally eliciting warfare with the Germans. Moreover, Churchill (the then Britain’s Prime Minister) frequently tried to persuade Roosevelt to take part in the World War II.
The military account of the participation of the US in the Second World War focused on the warfare against Germany, Italy, and Japan from the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941.[3] In the course of the first couple of years of the war, the US had upheld official neutrality. The United States fiscal sanction on Japan in a bid to discourage Japanese military attacks in Asia-Pacific angered them, which resulted in the bombardments on Pearl Harbor. After the attacks on the Pearl Harbor, the US Senate voted without dissent for the participation of United States in the war. Four days later, Hitler declared warfare on the United States, which served as a masked blessing for the US as it created a way for the legal pursuit of Germany as the first approach. The greatest priority of the World War II was the overpowering of Germany although the initial warfare against Japan was urgent following the sinking of the battlewagons at Pearl Harbor.
The battle against Germany entailed support to Britain, the Soviet Union, and their allies with the United States supplying ammunitions.[4] The strength of the United States military was assessed first to a limited extent in the North African attacks before being deployed more intensely with the support of the British combatants in Italy in 1942 and 1943 where Italy surrendered, leaving Germany to take over. With the Soviet Union being undefeatable in the East and the Allies standing firm in the West, Germany was clenched to death. In 1942, the United States embarked on Operation Torch where it attacked North Africa with allied troops gradually cornering German fighters until they conceded in Tunisia in 1943. The German capital fell to the Soviet Union in early 1945 and following the death of Hitler, Germany had no option but to surrender. The shared triumph was valuable in the mobilization of the United States public view behind the warfare endeavor.
The US residents who offered military personnel, ammunitions, resources, backed the participation of the United States in the World War II greatly and the motivation to engage in the war until victory was realized. The Second World War cost the United States more than 340 billion dollars, which was equal to 75% of the US gross domestic product; in terms of the current value, the warfare cost more than 4.5 trillion dollars. In the course of the World War II, more than 16 million Americans took part in the US military and about 290000 lost their lives while approximately 670000 were injured in the process. Furthermore, there were more than 130000 American prisoners of war where about 115000 returned to the US after the warfare.[5] Even though dissimilar situations of ideological and tactical approaches came up between the United States and Britain in the course of World War II, most significantly concerning the British Empire, the position of Britain in Burma and India and the nature of the post-world war, it is indubitable that Roosevelt and Churchill benefited from a strong personal relationship. The two nations (the US and Britain) shared a similar elemental dedication to collaborating in an effort to eliminate global fascism around the world.
Bibliography
Choudhry, Taufiq. “World War II events and the Dow Jones industrial index.” Journal of Banking & Finance 34, no. 5 (2010): 1022-1031.
Legro, Jeffrey. Cooperation under fire: Anglo-German restraint during World War II. Ithaca, United States: Cornell University Press, 2013.
[1]. Jeffrey Legro, Cooperation under fire: Anglo-German restraint during World War II (Ithaca, United States: Cornell University Press, 2013), 56-62.
[2]. Taufiq Choudhry, “World War II events and the Dow Jones industrial index,” Journal of Banking & Finance 34, no. 5 (2010): 1022-1031.
[3]. Ibid., 56-58.
[4] . Ibid., 1025-1033.
[5]. Ibid., 1028-1030.