The War: The Battle Of The Bulge

1265 Words 5 Pages

In the eyes of many, war is cruel, aggressive, and ugly. The true definition of this word is, “A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties.” (“The American Heritage”). War brings disagreements and hardships for not only the soldiers, but also amongst the families on the home-front. Luckily, times are a little better now than they were in the twentieth century. On December 7, 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbor started what is known as World War II. A family friend, Dennis Simmons, runs a trip for WWII veterans to take a plane to Washington D.C. and see monuments that are dedicated to those that have lost their lives in battle. I had the opportunity to sit down with him and listen to …show more content…
He had difficulty adjusting to Army life. It was exacerbated when his brother was killed at the Battle of the Bulge. He suffered from survivor 's guilt for the rest of his life. Carla 's [Simmons’ wife] Dad had a very tough time throughout his entire life dealing with his feelings of the war. I don 't believe that he ever dealt with his feelings. It lasted his entire life (Simmons, 12.8.2014).
The Battle of the Bulge was one of the largest, bloodiest battles that was fought by American soldiers. Close to 80,000 Americans were brutally killed, maimed, or captured. This raid came by Allied Force surprise. The Germans wanted to recapture harbor that was previously taken from them and in doing so, a number of their tanks and vehicles were worn-out. The expression, “Battle of the Bulge”, was coined by press to describe the terrifying feat faced by the U.S. (“Battle of the Bulge”). Unfortunately, Carl Irwin suffered deeply from a form of PTSD and was unable to gain peace from this traumatic …show more content…
Simmons’s trips to D.C., he spoke with a veteran that was a radio man on B-17’s, a bomber plane, and in the 8th Air Force that flew over Europe. The 8th Air Force that this gentleman was a part of regularly bombed industrial plants in Germany. After being shot down, he spent two years in a German Prisoner of War camp. Another veteran, Walter Hughes, was Airborne and jumped during Operation Market Garden. This operation supported the attack on D-Day. The movie, “A Bridge Too Far” was based on Operation Market Garden where the purpose was outmaneuvering German defenses to be able to end the war by Christmas 1944. The Walter Hughes Chapter of the 82nd Airborne was named after him. Hughes was just a young kid during the operation. Mr. Simmons notes, “A truly remarkable person” when speaking of Walter Hughes (Simmons,

What Was The Kennedy's Assassination

Word got around and Castro caught wind of this plan around of September of 1960, and was aware that an invasion was coming. Soon after Kennedy’s inauguration Kennedy allowed the CIA go threw with this plan. The part of the plan that went wrong was on April 15, 1961 when eight U.S. bomber planes, painted as Cuban planes, missed their targets which kept Castro’s air force intact. Later on Kennedy canceled the second air strike because pictures of the repainted U.S. bomber planes were revealed to the public. On April 17, a group of militants identified as the Brigade 2506 landed with a total of 1400 men on the shores of the Bay of Pigs.…

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Summary Of My Life In The US Air Force

I had several exciting drive the first few weeks after arrival. It seemed strange to celebrate the American Bicentennial while living in the country we went to war with during the American Revolution! In late September 1977 when my overseas tour was complete, I received orders to report to the Strategic Air Command’s 509th Bomb Wing at Pease Air Force Base New Hampshire. The assignment I was to maintain FB-111 automated avionics test…

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The Blitzkrieg Invasion In World War II

“If moved rapidly enough, concentrations of tanks could smash through enemy lines and into the enemy 's rear, destroying supplies and artillery positions and decreasing the enemy 's will to resist” ("The Concept of Blitzkrieg"). Germany and Heinz knew that Blitzkrieg was also the key to bring them victories during battles. They broke through enemy lines and went straight to their capitol, the capitol was the objective to get. Germans knew that capturing the capitol was the key to making the enemy surrender, because if the enemy lost their capital their government would fall ("The Concept of Blitzkrieg"). “Although, it is often forgotten that surprise was also very important to the success of Blitzkrieg and that is why Germany never declared war on any country that it attacked.” ("The Concept of Blitzkrieg") When the Germans used Blitzkrieg in their invasions, the Germans made these nations surrender in a couple weeks or a month…

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Tanks Vs. Bombs In World War II

The bomber first arrived in Europe on July first 1942, and its presence was felt quickly as its first raid on Nazis was August 17th of the same year. In this raid, eighteen B-17’s that were a part of the British 8AF bombed the rail yard at Rouen. In Europe, bombers had two different bombing techniques, Daytime “precision” bombings, and nighttime “area” bombings. Both of these techniques targeted ball-bearing plants, oil plants, and places that manufactured aircraft, and their objective was to wreck Germany’s ability to wage war. As the war progressed, the need for bombers grew rapidly, and on January 27th 1943, American bombers made their first trip into Germany.…

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Compare And Differences Of The WW1 And WWII

While WWI and WWII have their similarities, there are so many more differences between the two. Both wars left Europe destroyed, caused widespread economic distress, and were won by the Allied Powers. On the other hand, WWII and WWII began for very different reasons, and WWII had a more substantial effect on our society in terms of peacekeeping measures, deaths, and financial cost. WWI was the beginning to the tragic Second World War which changed the course of the world in its…

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Battle Of The Bulge Research Paper

The Battle of the Bulge actually began in the year 1944 towards the end of July, but officially occurred December 16, 1944 through January 25, 1954. The battle was the biggest German Offensive they ever conducted. The battle took place in Belgium, France, and Europe. The United States suffered the highest amount casualties of the Allied Forces. The Germans lost so much that they were unable to replace them for a long time.…

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Essay Of PTSD In The Things They Carried

Throughout this book there are many examples of characters displaying PTSD and other problems. The stories “Speaking of Courage”, “The Man I killed”, “Stockings”, “How to Tell a True War Story”, and “The Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong”, from Things They Carried all enclose multiple examples of PTSD. "The war was over and there was no place in particular to go" (137). This quote is a huge example of the isolation the veterans felt when they came back home. When they came back home they didn’t know how to lead their “normal” lives, the Vietnam War was like a second home and the men in their platoon were their family.…

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The Causes Of The Vietnam War

However, not every war is a good war. There are always terrible costs after the war. The Vietnam war was an awful war because not only the costs of the war were terrible, but the causes of it were meaningless. The 36th American president Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision to go to war with Vietnam in 1964 was a horrible mistake for both the American and the Vietnamese people. The…

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Summary Of Arthur By John Ciardi

This poem dramatizes the conflict between a young man in the military and the ever approaching abyss of death. The speaker talks about a man named Arthur who died in combat. He argues that America is symbolized as all those who have died fighting for the country. The poem is most likely told from the point of view of a man who served in the military, and whose friend was brought back from combat in a coffin. Knowing that the author, John Ciardi, was a gunner in the U.S. Army Air Forces during WWII, this theory is very likely.…

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The Causes And Effects Of World War II

World war two was the deadliest and global war that started from 1939 – 1945, although hand to hand combat started later in the years. This war included almost all the nations in the world, as well as all the “greatest nations”, eventually becoming two great sides forming the Axis and Allies. It’s been the biggest worldwide war in history. It involved more than one- hundred thousand people, including millions of civilians that died innocently in many occasions like the Holocaust (were about eleven million people were killed) and the industrial bombing of cities including the (Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan), the estimate of casualties of innocent people was around fifty- million too eighty five- million victims. These cases made World War…

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The War: The Battle Of The Bulge

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