Hello again! Long time no talk to...
OK... I'm guilty as charged! I allowed the busyness of life to overwhelm me, and I haven't posted anything to our blog for months. Sorry about that! In any case, I'm back.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm a West Point graduate (class of '83) who served as an Army Aviator (CH-47 Chinooks) for 6.5 years before getting out of the Army for my higher calling as a wife and mother. Now I have 3 boys (Christopher - 12, Shawn - 10 and Matthew - 9) and a full-time job as an IT Project Manager for a Fortune 500 company. My eldest son loves anything and everything related to World War II. His brothers are also interested in WWII, but not with the love that Christopher possesses. I have to admit, the same was true of me until I partnered with my eldest to develop our World War II for Kids web site last year. Now I eagerly engage in subjects that allow me to share my sons' interest.
Last year, Christopher won the county and regional Social Studies Fairs and was a finalist at the state Social Studies Fair for his project titled The Role of American Airborne Forces in the European Theatre of World War II. I was so proud of him! This year, he opted to turn his sights to the Pacific theatre, covering the most decisive naval battle in U.S. history: the Battle of Midway. More specifically, his project addresses how the superior Japanese fleet was defeated by the inferior U.S. fleet in this battle that served as the turning point in the Pacific theatre. His conclusion: Determination to strike back at Japan for its devastating attack at Pearl Harbor, plus superior American naval leadership, intelligence and tactics, and maybe a little bit of luck, led to the major defeat of the Japanese fleet by the smaller U.S. fleet at the Battle of Midway. Once again, Christopher took home the blue ribbon at the county Social Studies Fair, and he anxiously awaits the regional and state Social Studies Fairs in January and March 2009.
I must admit, I learn as much as Christopher does when I help him pull together papers and projects. As a cadet at West Point, I did a research paper on how Japan managed to deal such a decisive blow on the U.S. at Pearl Harbor. I won't go into the details, but one of the conclusions that I reached was that Admiral Chester Nimitz should have been fired for allowing the U.S. Navy to be caught with its pants down at Pearl Harbor. Almost thirty years later, as we read many references related to Midway, I came to respect Admiral Nimitz as a brilliant man and instinctive tactician. He was a calculated risk taker. His adversary, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, was also a brilliant man, but he was too cautious while the U.S. Navy pulled out all stops. This enabled the U.S. Navy to stay a step ahead of the Imperial Japanese Navy, leading to a history changing defeat at Midway.
I encourage you to visit our web site read more about the Battle of Midway. And feel free to comment on our blog if you have anything to add.
Here's wishing you all a wonderful 2009!
Marge@wwii4kids
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Another Victory for American Airborne in World War II
Hello again!
The Regional Social Studies Fair judges were quite impressed again with Christopher's project about The Role of American Airborne Forces in the European Theatre of World War II. He took home another First Place ribbon (county and regional fairs now). He scored 100 out of 100 possible points. Wow! Next he moves on to the State Social Studies Fair on March 22nd. I'll let you know how well he does there.
We've already begun brainstorming potential topics for next year's Social Studies Fairs. Of course, they all have to do with World War II! Christopher's first thought has to do with World War II weaponry. We'd have to hone in on something a little more specific than that, because he could write dozens of pages on that subject, and that's too long for one of these events (at least for his age group). Another topic under consideration is the impact of the African theatre on the outcome of the war. We don't hear as much about the war in the African theatre, but it did contribute to the Allied victory in World War II. So he might explore that topic.
Christopher's still working on the new WWII Ships page for our website. He's been a tad busy with preparing for Social Studies Fairs, keeping up with his school work, and playing basketball. He's able to find a fair amount of information on some ships, but he struggles to find information on others. His grandfather served on the USS Metcalf, a Fletcher class destroyer. He's found lots of info on other ships in this class, but not much on the Metcalf. But he wants to include this particular ship in his article because it was his granddad's, and he lost his granddad to cancer last year. So if any veterans or historians out there have some info for him on the Metcalf, please let us know.
Don't forget to check-out our World War II for Kids website if you haven't already. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into developing it... for you, our readers. Thanks for your continued support and interest. We'll look for something new and exciting to share with you in the weeks to come. Until then...
Keeping our love of WWII history alive...
marge@wwii4kids
Thursday, January 24, 2008
World War II Is Still Relevant!
Greetings! Once again, it's taken me a month to get back to you. Please forgive my delinquency.
I have some exciting news for our readers... My eldest son Christopher (11) took home the blue ribbon (first place) in the county Social Studies Fair for his project titled "The Role of American Airborne Forces in the European Theatre of World War II". I shared most of his paper with you in my last post.
His victory communicated two things to me:
For those of you who have visited our website, we're currently developing another tab for the About WWII page. It will be called WWII Ships. We recognized when we were preparing to launch our site in Nov-07 that it hardly touched on the Navy in WWII. It wasn't intentional. It's just not our strong suit. My military background was Army Aviation (CH-47 Chinook pilot), and my father's was Air Force. It only stands to reason that we'd be more familiar with the land and air battles. So over time, we intend to build on the information posted about the Navy and Marines. As always, we welcome any input you have for us in this area.
Thanks for your interest in World War II for Kids!
marge@wwii4kids
I have some exciting news for our readers... My eldest son Christopher (11) took home the blue ribbon (first place) in the county Social Studies Fair for his project titled "The Role of American Airborne Forces in the European Theatre of World War II". I shared most of his paper with you in my last post.
His victory communicated two things to me:
- My son, is a bright young man. (He takes after me, of course.) He currently aspires to go to West Point and then go on to be a General in the U.S. Army. Hopefully, this recognition will motivate him to keep working hard in school. (He's not always self-motivated.)
- Intelligent people recognize that World War II is still relevant today. It was a dark, yet inspiring, period of our nation's history. If future generations don't study it and learn from it, then history, with all its horrors, is bound to repeat itself.
For those of you who have visited our website, we're currently developing another tab for the About WWII page. It will be called WWII Ships. We recognized when we were preparing to launch our site in Nov-07 that it hardly touched on the Navy in WWII. It wasn't intentional. It's just not our strong suit. My military background was Army Aviation (CH-47 Chinook pilot), and my father's was Air Force. It only stands to reason that we'd be more familiar with the land and air battles. So over time, we intend to build on the information posted about the Navy and Marines. As always, we welcome any input you have for us in this area.
Thanks for your interest in World War II for Kids!
marge@wwii4kids
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Role of Airborne Operations in WWII
Hello again! Welcome back to the World War II for Kids blog!
Sorry it's been a while since we've blogged. It's been a busy month for us, but we're back. Christopher, the eldest of our Kid historians, has been busy with his Social Studies Fair project this past month. His topic is the role of airborne operations in the European theatre of World War II, and I thought I'd share with you some of excerpts from his paper. Here goes...
The reason we study history is to learn from our mistakes so that history doesn’t repeat itself. One of the lessons learned from World War I was that troops and equipment can get bogged down fighting trench warfare and run out of steam before reaching their objectives. In this paper, I’m going to tell you how the United States, as part of the Allied Forces, used airborne operations to help them achieve victory in World War II.
The concept of inserting troops behind enemy lines goes back at least as far as Benjamin Franklin, who said “ten thousand men descending from the clouds might do an infinite deal of mischief.” America first attempted to use airborne operations toward the end of World War I, to get past the trench warfare that slowed troops down. But airborne didn’t catch on until after World War I, when Russia and Germany showed that it could be successful. Then America started taking airborne training and preparation more seriously.
Airborne operations involve the use of aircraft to insert military troops into combat. In World War II, these operations involved the use gliders and parachutes. Units that were specially trained in airborne operations were known as airborne units. Troops trained to jump into combat using parachutes were known as paratroopers. Pathfinders were specially trained paratroopers dropped in different places before the main bodies to mark drop zones for them.
The most well known U.S. airborne divisions were the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, who fought in the European theatre as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The operations of these two divisions were the focus of my son’s paper. The 17th Airborne Division also fought in the European theatre as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 11th Airborne Division only fought in the Pacific theatre. The 13th airborne division never got to prove themselves in World War II, and were shipped home and deactivated in August of 1945. Each airborne division was made up of two regiments of paratroopers and one regiment of gliders.
The mission of an airborne division is to drop behind enemy lines and destroy heavy gun sights, land supplies for troops, take out enemy infantry, and eliminate small enemy bunkers, hiding places, or any kind of supply depots before the main infantry arrives. The airborne divisions were dropped before the main infantry arrived so the airborne divisions could complete their mission so the main infantry could move quickly inland without having to deal with heavy enemy troops, obstacles, casualties, wounded, or damaged vehicles.
Airborne operations helped to minimize friendly casualties. They also helped prevent the destruction of Allied vehicles, tanks, and armor, which they really needed. They cut telephone lines so the Germans couldn’t call in artillery barrages or reinforcements. And they worked to capture bridges so the Germans couldn’t blow them up to prevent the Allies from moving inland.
There were several decisive battles in the European theatre that airborne operations played a big part in: Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily), Operation Overlord (D-Day/the invasion of Normandy), Operation Repulse (Battle of the Bulge), Operation Varsity (crossing the Rhine River on the way to Berlin), and Operation Eclipse (the taking of Berlin before the Russians could get there). The airborne divisions also achieved early success in Operation Market Garden (“A Bridge To Far”), but weather and other re-supply problems prevented the Allies from building on their early success.
In conclusion, though the Allies had a lot to learn about the proper use of airborne operations, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were key to victory in the most decisive battles of World War II. Not all battles were a complete success for the Allied forces, but they learned from each opportunity how to effectively utilize the airborne operations to open the way for the main forces to move past enemy lines, resulting in greater success and ultimate victory. Airborne forces earned the respect of the world for the important part they played in the decisive battles of World War II. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were amongst the heroes of the war, and they remain two of the most respected military units to this day.
I left out the sections that detailed the roles of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the decisive battles he mentioned above, because I didn't want our post to get too lengthy. However, feel free to email us at wwii4kids@gmail.com if you'd like us to email you the rest of it. Also, feel free to post a comment here if you'd like to add anything to the information addressed in this post.
Thanks for your interest!
marge@wwii4kids
Sorry it's been a while since we've blogged. It's been a busy month for us, but we're back. Christopher, the eldest of our Kid historians, has been busy with his Social Studies Fair project this past month. His topic is the role of airborne operations in the European theatre of World War II, and I thought I'd share with you some of excerpts from his paper. Here goes...
The reason we study history is to learn from our mistakes so that history doesn’t repeat itself. One of the lessons learned from World War I was that troops and equipment can get bogged down fighting trench warfare and run out of steam before reaching their objectives. In this paper, I’m going to tell you how the United States, as part of the Allied Forces, used airborne operations to help them achieve victory in World War II.
The concept of inserting troops behind enemy lines goes back at least as far as Benjamin Franklin, who said “ten thousand men descending from the clouds might do an infinite deal of mischief.” America first attempted to use airborne operations toward the end of World War I, to get past the trench warfare that slowed troops down. But airborne didn’t catch on until after World War I, when Russia and Germany showed that it could be successful. Then America started taking airborne training and preparation more seriously.
Airborne operations involve the use of aircraft to insert military troops into combat. In World War II, these operations involved the use gliders and parachutes. Units that were specially trained in airborne operations were known as airborne units. Troops trained to jump into combat using parachutes were known as paratroopers. Pathfinders were specially trained paratroopers dropped in different places before the main bodies to mark drop zones for them.
The most well known U.S. airborne divisions were the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, who fought in the European theatre as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The operations of these two divisions were the focus of my son’s paper. The 17th Airborne Division also fought in the European theatre as part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 11th Airborne Division only fought in the Pacific theatre. The 13th airborne division never got to prove themselves in World War II, and were shipped home and deactivated in August of 1945. Each airborne division was made up of two regiments of paratroopers and one regiment of gliders.
The mission of an airborne division is to drop behind enemy lines and destroy heavy gun sights, land supplies for troops, take out enemy infantry, and eliminate small enemy bunkers, hiding places, or any kind of supply depots before the main infantry arrives. The airborne divisions were dropped before the main infantry arrived so the airborne divisions could complete their mission so the main infantry could move quickly inland without having to deal with heavy enemy troops, obstacles, casualties, wounded, or damaged vehicles.
Airborne operations helped to minimize friendly casualties. They also helped prevent the destruction of Allied vehicles, tanks, and armor, which they really needed. They cut telephone lines so the Germans couldn’t call in artillery barrages or reinforcements. And they worked to capture bridges so the Germans couldn’t blow them up to prevent the Allies from moving inland.
There were several decisive battles in the European theatre that airborne operations played a big part in: Operation Husky (the invasion of Sicily), Operation Overlord (D-Day/the invasion of Normandy), Operation Repulse (Battle of the Bulge), Operation Varsity (crossing the Rhine River on the way to Berlin), and Operation Eclipse (the taking of Berlin before the Russians could get there). The airborne divisions also achieved early success in Operation Market Garden (“A Bridge To Far”), but weather and other re-supply problems prevented the Allies from building on their early success.
In conclusion, though the Allies had a lot to learn about the proper use of airborne operations, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they were key to victory in the most decisive battles of World War II. Not all battles were a complete success for the Allied forces, but they learned from each opportunity how to effectively utilize the airborne operations to open the way for the main forces to move past enemy lines, resulting in greater success and ultimate victory. Airborne forces earned the respect of the world for the important part they played in the decisive battles of World War II. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were amongst the heroes of the war, and they remain two of the most respected military units to this day.
I left out the sections that detailed the roles of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the decisive battles he mentioned above, because I didn't want our post to get too lengthy. However, feel free to email us at wwii4kids@gmail.com if you'd like us to email you the rest of it. Also, feel free to post a comment here if you'd like to add anything to the information addressed in this post.
Thanks for your interest!
marge@wwii4kids
Friday, November 9, 2007
Salute To Military Veterans
Greetings! Welcome to the World War II for Kids blog!
We're new to blogging, but chose to use it as a forum to connect with kids who are interested in an important piece of history: World War II. I'm the mom of 3 boys who can't soak up enough information about this subject. Christopher (11) is my junior historian, who is partnering with me in getting this blog and our website going. His brothers, Shawn (9) and Matthew (8), are also quite interested in this topic, but not yet ready to commit their time to writing about it or sharing in the research.
In honor of Veteran's Day, it seemed appropirate to salute the men and women who have served our country in time of war. Though I served in the U.S. Army for 6.5 years after graduating from West Point, I was never called to put my life on the line like so many other brave men and women out there who were called to fight in combat. In the case of World War I and II, the country stood behind our soldiers. In our more recent wars, our soldiers haven't always received that same support.
To all of you out there who have served or are serving in time of war, whether on the front lines or in rear echelons, we want to express our sincere appreciation for your service. To those who paid the ultimate price, we have not forgotten you! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts! We owe our freedom and security to you, and many others around the world do, too!
Though I never served in combat, I try to impress upon my boys that war isn't the same as playing the video games that helped spark their interest in WWII. It's not glorious, and there's nothing fun about killing other human beings... though sometimes in the course of war, it can't be avoided. And they can't walk away from it after dying... for the 3rd time. It's different when you're really putting your life on the line or taking the life of a real person.
I welcome the input of those who have been there, serving our country in war, to share your "soldier's story" with us. We don't want to forget our history. Not only is it a big part of who we are today; but it will help us to grow and make wise decisions in the future.
Thanks for coming along with us on our journey!
marge@wwii4kids
We're new to blogging, but chose to use it as a forum to connect with kids who are interested in an important piece of history: World War II. I'm the mom of 3 boys who can't soak up enough information about this subject. Christopher (11) is my junior historian, who is partnering with me in getting this blog and our website going. His brothers, Shawn (9) and Matthew (8), are also quite interested in this topic, but not yet ready to commit their time to writing about it or sharing in the research.
In honor of Veteran's Day, it seemed appropirate to salute the men and women who have served our country in time of war. Though I served in the U.S. Army for 6.5 years after graduating from West Point, I was never called to put my life on the line like so many other brave men and women out there who were called to fight in combat. In the case of World War I and II, the country stood behind our soldiers. In our more recent wars, our soldiers haven't always received that same support.
To all of you out there who have served or are serving in time of war, whether on the front lines or in rear echelons, we want to express our sincere appreciation for your service. To those who paid the ultimate price, we have not forgotten you! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts! We owe our freedom and security to you, and many others around the world do, too!
Though I never served in combat, I try to impress upon my boys that war isn't the same as playing the video games that helped spark their interest in WWII. It's not glorious, and there's nothing fun about killing other human beings... though sometimes in the course of war, it can't be avoided. And they can't walk away from it after dying... for the 3rd time. It's different when you're really putting your life on the line or taking the life of a real person.
I welcome the input of those who have been there, serving our country in war, to share your "soldier's story" with us. We don't want to forget our history. Not only is it a big part of who we are today; but it will help us to grow and make wise decisions in the future.
Thanks for coming along with us on our journey!
marge@wwii4kids
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