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World War II: Difference between revisions
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[[File:world war two 170.jpg|frame|Humanity's best and worst were displayed for all the world to see.]]
{{quote|''"I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?"''
|'''Joseph Goebbels''', 1943 <ref>The guy was a [[Complete Monster]], but his words ''here'' sum up the general feel of the war.</ref>}}
The roots of humanity's greatest conflict go back centuries, but the immediate causes of the war lay in the resolution of the [[World War I|First World War]] and the Great Depression.
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*** Another reason was that British intelligence believed (correctly) that the Nazi High Command was inclined to expect the attack at Calais, where the Channel is narrowest. As it is usually easiest to deceive the enemy with the appearance of what they expect, considerable efforts were made to create the illusion that the attack would occur at Calais. The deceit worked so well that Hitler and the Nazi High Command continued to believe that the Normandy landings were diversionary for long enough that they were irrevocably entrenched by the time forces began to be repositioned to try to stop them.
* [[America Wins the War]]: To this day, many Westerners do not appreciate the extent to which the war in Europe was mainly fought and mostly decided on the Eastern Front.<ref>Though this is balanced out by how notoriously unhelpful they were in the Pacific Front; they didn't even let the Allies use their Pacific ports to bomb Japan.</ref>
** The World War II monument in Washington DC states "[http://lh3.ggpht.com/_pVXrYi8s2rM/Sui2hpM0sEI/AAAAAAAACDY/0f-Pa3th1DM/DSCF2893%5B10%5D.jpg Americans came to liberate, not to conquer]"
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: And they do.
* [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant]]: Maybe bombing Pearl Harbor wasn't such a good idea.
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* [[Heroic Neutral]]: For a given value of both 'heroic' and 'neutral', until the Japanese Cabinet [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant|ordered an attack]] [[What an Idiot!|on the US Fleet.]]
** Sums up the attitude of most US citizens, at any rate. The US government was just itching for a war with the Axis. The Japanese saw that and the Germans did as well - especially given the undeclared naval war between US naval forces in the Atlantic and the U-boats, not to mention Lend-Lease.
* [[Impossibly Cool Weapon]]s : Many a [[Cool Ship]], [[Cool Plane]], [[Cool Tank]], and [[Cool Gun]]. World War II buffs constantly argue over which was the coolest and consider this to be [[Serious Business]].▼
* [[Home Guard]]: Seen on all sides during the war, from the British [[Trope Namer|Home Guard]] to the American Civil Air Patrol to the German Volkssturm and the Japanese 'Volunteer' Defence Corps.
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: [[Winston Churchill|...We Shall Never Surrender!]]
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* [[Idiot Ball]]: Franklin Roosevelt did all he could to support the British and later the Soviets against Hitler, going so far as to issue shoot-to-kill orders against German U-boats stalking Atlantic convoys, [[Heroic Neutral|but there simply wasn't very much support in America for an active intervention in the war]]. [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant|Even after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor]] and FDR got a declaration of war the next day, there was little pressure for a formal declaration against Germany and Roosevelt didn't even ask for one. Then, three days later, [[Stupid Evil|Hitler declared war on the United States.]] Whoops.
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: Towards the end of the war, a few groups of Japanese soldiers sometimes roasted and cannibalized their captives. Other Asians were referred to as "black pigs" and American soldiers were "white pigs".
▲* [[Impossibly Cool Weapon]]s : Many a [[Cool Ship]], [[Cool Plane]], [[Cool Tank]], and [[Cool Gun]]. World War II buffs constantly argue over which was the coolest and consider this to be [[Serious Business]].
* [[Ironic Echo]]: Enforced. Hitler signed the peace with France in the same rail carriage where the Germans had signed the 1918 armistice.
* [[I Shall Return]]: [[Trope Maker]], from Gen. MacArthur after he left the Philippines to avoid capture by the Japanese.
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* [[Mad Scientist]]: Josef Mengele and the scientists of the Japanese Unit 731.
* [[Magnetic Hero]]: Churchill, indirectly. Not the most charismatic man in person - he once ran through several secretaries in the space of a month when he was being particularly insufferable - but his effect on the people of the British Empire was electrifying. Contrast Hitler, a very charismatic man of more down-to-earth roots.
* [[Media Research Failure]]: Aryan was originally a linguistic category, now called Indo-European due to the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of Aryan. Hitler never assumed all Aryans were blue-eyed blonds; in fact, Persia was renamed Iran, from ''Aryan'', in 1935. The Japanese were (of course) considered Aryans as well, and Tibet was the homeland of the Aryan race. So there's [[Media Research Failure]] all around.
* [[Memetic Mutation]]: Tons of books, movies, TV shows and odd references.
** From the time period itself was [[wikipedia:Kilroy was here|Kilroy was here]], a graffito that ''may'' have originated among American servicemen - like many Memes, it's hard to pin down a source. First appearances were in 1936-1938. The "Kilroy" had several phrases (sort of like some of the memes on the Internet today) which were used with the graffito "Kilroy was here", and "Wot, no X?":
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* ''Sahara''
* ''[[The English Patient]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[The Rat Patrol]]''
* ''[[A Walk in the Sun]]''
==== Southern Europe ====
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* ''633 Squadron''
* ''[[Catch-22]]''
* ''[[Twelve O'Clock High]]''
* Both versions of ''Memphis Belle''
* ''Reach for the Sky''
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* ''[[A League of Their Own]]''
* ''[[The Best Years of Our Lives]]'' concerns the efforts of three ex-servicemen to readjust to life in the States immediately ''after'' the war.
* ''[[
* ''[[1941]]'', though this one is a comedy.
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* ''[[Bomb Girls]]''
* ''Changi'': an Australian miniseries set in the titular Singaporean POW camp.
* ''[[Combat! (TV series)|Combat!]]''
* ''[[Dad's Army|Dads Army]]''
* Four ''[[Doctor Who]]'' stories - "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S26/E03 The Curse of Fenric|The Curse of Fenric]]", "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E09 The Empty Child|The Empty Child]]"/"[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E10 The Doctor Dances|The Doctor Dances]]", "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E03 Victory of the Daleks|Victory of the Daleks]]" and "[[Doctor Who/Recap/2011 CS the Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe|The Doctor The Widow and the Wardrobe]]."
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* ''[[Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe]]''
* ''B-17 Flying Fortress''
* The ''[[1942]]'' series of [[Shoot
* The Pacific campaign of ''[[Empire Earth]]: Art of Conquest''.
* ''[[Clock Tower|Clock Tower 3]]'' features the protagonist evading a serial killer during the London bombings.
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[[Category:Useful Notes/Britain]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/History]]
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