The World War II Multimedia Database

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Japanese planes bomb Midway Atoll. June 4, 1942. Movie

Midway Atoll is 600 miles away from Hawaii. Almost immediately upon taking command, Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) Chester W. Nimitz asked the island commander what he would need to defend the island against attack. "More of everything," the commander replied. Nimitz responded with more men, planes, barbed wire and guns. If Midway fell, as Wake and Guam did in December, than Hawaii itself would be threatened with constant air attack, even invasion. Midway would hold.

Il Duce Benito Mussolini wanted the Mediterranean to be an Italian Lake. When he declared war against a defiant Britain and a defeated France on June 10, 1940, he told his military commanders the war would last four months.

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Poorly trained Japanese pilots are slaughtered by American carrier pilots off the Marianas Islands. June 1944. Movie

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. The Americans had set up an extensive program, including building a carrier that had no hangar deck, to train both aircrew and deck handlers. American pilots were entering combat with some 600 hours in the air. In contrast, the Japanese were sending green pilots into combat with only 50 hours of flight time and little combat training.

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As the invasion fleet supports the landings, kamikaze suicide planes make their first official appearance. October 1944. Movie

US Army General Douglas MacArthur had fought a hard campaign up the back of New Guinea, only to see his greatest successes eclipsed in the press by the invasions in the central Pacific and Europe. Privately, he was considering a run for US President against Roosevelt, and he did not get along with US Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz. The reconquest of the Philippines would shore up his wounded prestige.

This essay contains spoilers. Please don’t continue unless you want to know key details about the film.

Cast

Introduction

For centuries the cultural heart of Russia and the second largest city in the Soviet Union, Leningrad was a prime target of the advancing German Army Group North in June 1941.

One of the stated reasons for the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940 was to protect the former Czarist capital, St. Petersburg, later called Leningrad, from Finnish attack. When the Germans invaded, they called on the Finns to attack Leningrad from the north.

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US Marines land on Kwajalein in the Marshalls in February 1944. Movie