World War II, or the Second World War, was a global military conflict. It began as the joining of what had initially been two separate conflicts, with the first beginning in Asia in 1937 (the Second Sino-Japanese War) and the other beginning in Europe in 1939 (the German invasion of Poland).
The war split the majority of the world's nations into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history, and placed the participants in a state of "total war", which erased the distinction between civil and military resources and resulted in the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort. Over 70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.
The Allies won the war, and as a result, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as the world's leading superpowers. This set the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 45 years. The United Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The self determination spawned by the war accelerated decolonization movements in Asia and Africa, while Europe itself began moving toward integration.
The
Koli Point action, from November 3 – November 12, 1942, was an engagement between
United States Marine Corps and
United States Army forces and
Imperial Japanese Army forces around Koli Point on
Guadalcanal during the
Guadalcanal campaign. The United States (US) forces were under the overall command of
Alexander Vandegrift while the Japanese forces were under the overall command of
Harukichi Hyakutake.In the engagement, US Marines from the
7th Marine Regiment and US Army soldiers from the
164th Infantry Regiment under the tactical command of
William H. Rupertus and
Edmund B. Sebree, attacked a concentration of Japanese Army troops, most of whom belonged to the 230th Infantry Regiment, commanded by
Toshinari Shōji. Shōji's troops had marched to the Koli Point area after the failed Japanese assaults on US defenses during the
Battle for Henderson Field in late October, 1942.In the engagement, the US forces attempted to encircle and destroy Shōji's forces. Although Shōji's unit took heavy casualties, he and most of his men were able to evade the encirclement attempt and escape into the interior of Guadalcanal. As Shōji's troops endeavored to reach Japanese positions in another part of the island, they were
pursued and attacked by a battalion-sized patrol of US Marine raiders.
The
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine
heavy bomber aircraft developed for the
U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against
Douglas and
Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both the other competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract due to the prototype's crash, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 B-17s. The B-17 Flying Fortress went on to enter full-scale production and was considered the first truly mass-produced large aircraft, eventually evolving through numerous
design advancements, from B-17A to G.The B-17 was primarily employed in the daylight precision
strategic bombing campaign of
World War II against
German industrial, civilian and military targets. The
United States Eighth Air Force based in
England and the
Fifteenth Air Force based in
Italy complemented the
RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in
Operation Pointblank, to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for
Operation Overlord. This machine was nicknamed the "Flying Fortress" because of its eight machine guns and three cannons.
The
Battle of Midway was a major
naval battle in the
Pacific Theater of
World War II. It took place from June 4, 1942 to June 7, 1942, approximately one month after the
Battle of the Coral Sea, five months after the Japanese capture of
Wake Island, and exactly six months to the day after
Japan's
attack on Pearl Harbor.During the battle, the
United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against
Midway Atoll, losing one
aircraft carrier and one
destroyer, while sinking four Japanese carriers and a
heavy cruiser.The battle was a
decisive victory for the Americans, and is widely regarded as the most important naval engagement of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.The Midway operation, like the
attack on Pearl Harbor, was not part of a campaign for the conquest of the United States, but was aimed at its elimination as a strategic Pacific power, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It was also hoped another defeat would force the U.S. to negotiate an end to the
Pacific War with conditions favorable for Japan.
