[Llarry]

The world was still embroiled in a world war. The Battle of the Bulge was Nazi Germany's last gambit to avoid defeat and, despite early successes, by January the Allies had turned the tide in that huge battle. Soviet forces were closing in on Germany from the east. The Nazi leadership was scrambling to find wonder weapons to stave off defeat. They had already employed the V-1 cruise missile, but Allied advances meant that short-ranged V-1s could no longer reach the UK. But the first ballistic missile -- the V-2 -- was hitting targets in the UK as well as Allied-held areas in the European mainland. Allied bombers ranged over Germany spreading destruction. It would have been hard to believe at the time that the war in Europe would be over in a few months, but that was indeed the case.

In the Pacific, there were still desperate battles going on in the Philippines as Allied forces continued to defeat the tenacious Japanese Army. At sea, Allied navy ships continued to take losses from suicidal Japanese air kamikaze attacks. It seemed that nothing could eliminate these bloody assaults, which took a heavy toll of ships and men.

American submarines operated off the Japanese coast and sank large numbers of Japanese ships, cutting Japan off from vital supplies of everything from fuel to food.

Army Air Forces B-29 heavy bombers from the Marianas Islands pummeled Japan from the air as weather permitted. Japanese factories and cities were left as smoking ruins.

The Japanese civilian population suffered shortages of everything; the winter of 1944-45 brought hardship to everywhere in Japan.

The imperial and military leadership of Japan had no intention of surrender despite the military reverses and the hardship of the people. The punishment inflicted on Japan would continue to increase in coming months:
-- The Americans would take the island of Iwo Jima starting in February, bring deadly aircraft ever-closer to Japan. A few months later, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific war would begin on Okinawa.
-- Submarine missions around Japan would increase in boldness, further damaging the country's economy.
-- Coming months would see a campaign to sow sea mines around Japan by B-29s in a successful attempt to further strangle the Japanese war economy (and the civil populace.)

In a sidenote, a relatively small group of people in the U.S. were working on a 'wonder weapon" that they hoped would result in a bomb so devastating that the Axis powers would have no choice but to surrender or be destroyed, but it was still anybody's guess whether the atomic bomb could be an effective weapon.

[Murf the Surf]

Originally Posted by Llarry

The world was still embroiled in a world war. The Battle of the Bulge was Nazi Germany's last gambit to avoid defeat and, despite early successes, by January the Allies had turned the tide in that huge battle. Soviet forces were closing in on Germany from the east. The Nazi leadership was scrambling to find wonder weapons to stave off defeat. They had already employed the V-1 cruise missile, but Allied advances meant that short-ranged V-1s could no longer reach the UK. But the first ballistic missile -- the V-2 -- was hitting targets in the UK as well as Allied-held areas in the European mainland. Allied bombers ranged over Germany spreading destruction. It would have been hard to believe at the time that the war in Europe would be over in a few months, but that was indeed the case.

In the Pacific, there were still desperate battles going on in the Philippines as Allied forces continued to defeat the tenacious Japanese Army. At sea, Allied navy ships continued to take losses from suicidal Japanese air kamikaze attacks. It seemed that nothing could eliminate these bloody assaults, which took a heavy toll of ships and men.

American submarines operated off the Japanese coast and sank large numbers of Japanese ships, cutting Japan off from vital supplies of everything from fuel to food.

Army Air Forces B-29 heavy bombers from the Marianas Islands pummeled Japan from the air as weather permitted. Japanese factories and cities were left as smoking ruins.

The Japanese civilian population suffered shortages of everything; the winter of 1944-45 brought hardship to everywhere in Japan.

The imperial and military leadership of Japan had no intention of surrender despite the military reverses and the hardship of the people. The punishment inflicted on Japan would continue to increase in coming months:
-- The Americans would take the island of Iwo Jima starting in February, bring deadly aircraft ever-closer to Japan. A few months later, the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific war would begin on Okinawa.
-- Submarine missions around Japan would increase in boldness, further damaging the country's economy.
-- Coming months would see a campaign to sow sea mines around Japan by B-29s in a successful attempt to further strangle the Japanese war economy (and the civil populace.)

In a sidenote, a relatively small group of people in the U.S. were working on a 'wonder weapon" that they hoped would result in a bomb so devastating that the Axis powers would have no choice but to surrender or be destroyed, but it was still anybody's guess whether the atomic bomb could be an effective weapon.

80 years ago, maybe that's why so many have forgotten the lessons of WW I & WW II. Good to see Canadian troops in the fight (landing craft photo)

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by Murf the Surf

80 years ago, maybe that's why so many have forgotten the lessons of WW I & WW II. Good to see Canadian troops in the fight (landing craft photo)

Canadian troops in landing crafts approach a stretch of coastline code-named Juno Beach, near Bernieres-sur-mer, as the Allied Normandy invasion gets under way, on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)

[M-technik-3]

Lived in the area, if you go hiking in the deep woods you can still come across reminders of the battles. I used to Mtn Bike in the Luxembourg caves that the resistance used.

The Eifel is still very rural region.

This generation sacrificed both on the home front and on the front.