saving private ryan
Saving Private Ryan is a war movie that was made in 1998. It is based on the invasion of Normandy in WWII. In the opening scene, the American soldiers struggle against German infantry, machine gun nests, and artillery fire and suffer heavily. Captain John H. Miller survives the initial landing on the beach, and him and his men successfully penetrate the German defences. Back in Washington, the U.S. War Department discovers that three men, all of the last name Ryan, have been killed in action. They discover that there is a fourth brother, Private James Francis Ryan, who is a paratrooper, lost somewhere in Normandy. Captain Miller is assigned to the job of finding Private Ryan, and getting him home to what is left of his family safely. The storyline of the movie follows Captain Miller and his men as the head out in order to search for Private Ryan. They are faced with many dangers and a few of their men are lost. This movie was deeply moving. I feel as though it really captured the war, and what men and women had to go through.
Explain Winston Churchill’s quote: “Wars are not won on evacuations."
When Winston Churchill made this statement: "Wars are not won on evacuations", he was referring to the Dunkirk Evacuation, one of the most successful evacuations in history. It is the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the shores of Dunkirk. This was necessary after the Germans had surrounded thousands of these soldiers by using the blitzkrieg tactic. They were ferried across the English channel and rescued from the Germans. By the ninth day, 338,226 troops had been evacuated and brought back safely. All sorts of vessels were used in the evacuation. Everything from large naval cruisers to row boats owned by citizens of nearby villages were used to float troops across the channel to England. When Churchill made this statement however, he was referring the strategies of the military, noting that though the evacuation of Dunkirk was a great success, wars are not won by removing soldiers from the battlefront. Instead, the only way to win a war is to attack and advance, not defend and retreat. Churchill was trying to make the point that there was no way the British and Allied Forces could make a dent in the German forces and advance in the war if they were to continue evacuating their troops from the front lines.
In your opinion, what was the most significant turning point for the Allies in WWII?
Technology was a major leading factor in the way WW11 panned out. Jet planes, guns, tanks, submarines, radar, enigma, u boats. This is only the beginning of the advancements that formed the affairs which occurred over the violent years of 1939 through until 1945. Although all of these advancements were tactical, there was one that changed the course of the war, and introduced a whole new playing field in battle that was incomparable to other advancements; Nuclear Weapons. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, the Americans took action. This brought together a group of scientists who created three nuclear bombs at the so called Manhattan project. These three bombs were called Trinity, LIttle boy and fat Man. In 1946, U.S president Harry Truman decided to launch two of these atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where tons of men died instantly, and the radiation from the bomb killed several more instantly. After this incident, Japan surrendered and brought WW11 to an end. Hence, the dropping of the nuclear bombs changed the course of world history as was the only time in history that a nuclear bomb was launched. This advancement in technology didn't only end WW11 but changed the course of world affairs to a certain extent.