World War Two

I have always been a fan of history. In fact one of my minors in college is history. I have always been interested in World War 2. I think for the most part the significance of this war is grossly understated at this point in time. It has been broomed under the rug with a lot of other things that are not nearly as important. For one thing they had a population who was willing to do what it took to get the job done. This applies for all the players. This amounted to hardships and sacrifices on everybody. Technology. These girls and guys had a lot more stuff them we or at least I had given them credit for. I did say girls too as they took part in the effort in a major fashion. I looked up the P 47 Thunderbolt. It had air conditioning, and a lot of other things that you would not think of being in use then. The bombers could fly at 30000 feet at about 300 miles per hour. A Navy task force could run at thirty plus knots. One reason they say the old battleships were left in Pearl Harbour as bait since they couldn't run but about 25 knots. They used radar, radios, TV and a lot of forms of commuication we think is modern. The Americans and English bombed Dresden Germany with about 1400 planes. They killed more people in that city then was killed in Japan with the A bomb. This was for real. We now get upset over a few troops beiong killed as we should. But these folks were in battles that hundreds of thousands were killed in one day. You also have to take in account that this was a world war. It covered every continent. Every country whether they were neutral or not. Every place was effected. In the United States they had rationing. Only so much food, gas, products and clothes. The United States had around 700,000 deaths. I may guess the lightest amoung the major players. Russia, Germany in the millions. Probably France and Great Britain too. China had very high losses too in the millions. The United States were attacked in Hawaii, Philippines and Alaska. They had operatives in the continental US too. After the war all these troops came back without a job. Many had a tough time. So then they started all this housing. Consumer products. This made jobs and the baby boom. The technology that was created was passed on to the consumer. Television had been around in the early 1930's. But only a few people had it with a few X stations. After the war regular people had access to TV. The basic homelife we have now and have came to love came then too. Central heating and air conditioning. Kitchens with modern appliances. Bathrooms. Again, most of this stuff was around for a long time. But not to the masses. The US was the mack daddy in the atomic age. The World War 2 people are gettting scarce. As most of them are in their upper eighties. So if you run into one or know one take the time to thank them for leaving us later generations a pretty nice place. As if they did not put forth such an effort we may have not been such a fortunate country.