Source: website bigpigeon.us, webpage The World Wars. © 2021 by Robert A. “Bob” Christiansen, updated 5 May 2021.

​The World Wars webarea, along with the related WW II Dead, WW II - Japan and WW II - Germany webareas,  summarizes American involvement in the 20th century wars with a Pottawattamie County area perspective. ​As yet, there is no World War I material and some WW II webareas are not complete.

The Resources - WW II webarea contains links to the resources I use in my WW II research.

​The planned Big Pigeon's The World Wars webarea:
World War II Overview
I treat WW II as two wars in two different geographic areas:
  • Our War with Japan, with our primary allies being The Republic of China and the British Empire and Commonwealths. This war began in December 1941 with Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and elsewhere in east Asia and the Pacific. Combat ended in August 1945 after the US use of two atomic bombs on the Japanese homeland and the Russian declaration of war on the Japanese Empire. The Japanese war was fought throughout much of eastern and southeastern Asia and the western and central Pacific. 
  • Our War with Germany, with primary allies being the British Empire and Commonwealths and the Soviet Union. Germany began this war by invading Poland in September 1939, achieved an astonishing victory in France in 1940, and expanded the war by an order of magnitude by invading the Soviet Union in June 1941. United States active involvement began in December 1941 and ended in May 1945 with the collapse of the German government and German military resistance. The German component of World War II was fought throughout most of Europe and North Africa.
Planned Division of Eurasia
Japanese Proposed Division of Eurasia, 15 Dec 1941
 As the above map shows, the War with Japan and the War with Germany were quite separate geographically. The four thick arrows show planned offensives that would have brought the Axis forces together, but fortunately never happened.

The red and organge areas represent the Axis powers, their allies, and the territory they occupied as of September 1942.  
The United States was already drifting towards war with both Japan and Germany when the Japanese launched their fateful surprise attacks on December 7, 1941. (December 8  west of the International Date Line.)
  • Japan -  the United States had imposed economic sanctions attempting to curtail Japan's brutal aggression in China and expansionist tendencies in the southeast Asia area. 
  • Germany - the United States was taking increasingly bold actions in the North Atlantic to maintain the maritime supply line to England.
Some comments on my WW II webareas scope and perspective:
  • ​​The WW II - Japan and WW II - Germany webareas focus on United States involvement in WW II. Even though only about 1% of those who died worldwide because of WW II were American, I emphasize the American experience.
  • Bloody as WW II was for the world at large, more Americans (North and South combined) died in our Civil War than in WW II.
  • My goal - To remember the men and women of the Pottawattamie County, Iowa area who served in World War II and who did not survive.
  • Thus my WW II - Japan and WW II - Germany webareas contain about fifty webpages which summarize or outline a battle or campaign followed by a list of those from the Pottawattamie County area who died during that event.

The names of countries:
You may see different names than those I use for some of the countries that fought in World War II:
  • Russia - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics abbreviated as USSR, the Soviet Union
  • China - Republic of China
  • Japan - Japanese Empire
  • Germany - the Third Reich
  • England - Great Britain
At the time, the major countries in the British Commonwealth of independent nations were Canada, South Aftrica, Australia and New Zealand. India was still an English colony. England, France, the Netherlands, Japan and Italy were colonial powers whose colonies figured prominently in the war.

Notes:
  • During World War II our major enemies, collectively referred to as the Axis, consisted of Germany, Japan and Italy. However, a number of smaller nations supported the above three, ranging from Vichy France in western Europe to Siam in Southeast Asia. Italy left the Axis early, in the summer of 1943. In my webareas, I focus on the major powers whom we fought against, namely Japan and Germany.
  • Throughout these webareas, I use maps to support my text. You can usually enlarge a map or photo by clicking on it. 
Sources for The World Wars webpage:
  • For my The World Wars webpage image, I chose a painting that represents a common feature of both WW I and WW II, the use of explosives - delivered primarily by artillery in WW I and by aircraft in WW II - to wreak physical destruction, often on civilian targets, on a scale impossible in earlier wars. The painting is by William F. Draper, an American combat artist.
  • The Planned Division of Eurasia map is courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.