HLSS502 week 6
ANNOTATED WEBOGRAPGY
UNITED STATES MILITARY
IN
WORLD WAR II
PPrrooffeessssoorr ____________________
Class Name
Student Name
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Overview: This annotated webography is designed to guide internet-based research for World War II. This webography concentrates on specific topics that involve significant United States Military contributions to World War II. The following nine websites contain detailed timelines, general accounts, analytical papers, and official World War II documentation. Maps, charts, and pictures displaying amplifying data supplement most of the websites. Each section of this webography gives a broad description of the website and concentrates on in-depth analysis of the website’s usefulness to specific topics that involve significant United States Military contributions to World War II. Example illustrations of each site’s homepage are included at the end of each analytical paragraph to provide visual aid. Utilizing this annotated webography, researchers can navigate through the Internet around websites that are not historically sound for information concerning significant United States Military contributions to World War II. Sources: Chronology of World War II ……………………………………………………………..…pg 3 http://www.onwar.com/chrono/index.htm World War 2 Timeline 1939-1945………………………………………………………….pg 4 http://www.worldwar-2.net/index.htm World War II Commemoration……………………………………………………………..pg 5 http://gi.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_mainpage.html World War II Remembered………………………………………………………………....pg 6 http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/wwii/ Hyper War: A Hypertext history of the Second World War…………………………….pg 7 http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ Military Operations: World War II………………………………………………………….pg 8 http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/world_war_2.htm World War II Timeline……………………………………………………………………….pg 9 http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/start.html World War Two………………………………………………………………………..……pg 10 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/ The World at War, History of WW 1939-1945………………………………………..…pg 11 http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/ww2.htm
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This is a “timeline-style” website of the 2,192 days of World War II. It offers a comprehensive day-by-day account of the war from September 1, 1939 to September 30, 1945. The website emphasizes on battles and campaigns but also includes significant social and political events. There is, also, supporting sections for maps and tanks of World War II. The maps section proves to be adequate in providing visual aid, but the tanks section’s technical data did not contain useful information for this specific
topic. Yet, the main portion of the website, the timeline, is useful in displaying a complete picture of the war. It is easy to navigate through by categorizing a search by year then by month then by day. The website’s format is a bulletined timeline that only contains subject lines but lacks explanatory, descriptive, or definitive information. For example, on Friday, February 27, 1942, the website declares “The Battle of the Java Sea. Allied Admiral Doorman commanding a four-nation task force of five cruisers and eleven destroyers attempts to engage a Japanese invasion force commanded by Admiral Takagi on its way to Java. In a series of running engagements (February 27- 28th), the Allied force is almost totally destroyed.” In this example, the website states that the Battle of the Java Sea occurred, and it gives a general account of the events of the battle. The insert fails to give details of why the battle occurred, the significance of the battle, the effects of the battle, or how the outcome arose. Although it lacks enough information to conduct complete research, this website is marginally adequate for this
specific subject, because it provides the complete picture of the World War II story.
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This is a “timeline-style” website that covers significant events during World War II. A prewar section, a section for films concerning World War II, and a section for resource links for categories such as famous quotes and casualties supplement the body of the timeline. This website is much like the Chronology of World War II. They both present the entire picture of the “war years” through a timeline-style website that limits the information presented to subject lines.
Like the Chronology of World War II website, this website is a marginally adequate source, because it fails to give a complete account. It tells the entire story of World War II, but it lacks detailed information. There is one major difference between World War 2 Timeline 1939-1945 and Chronology of World War II websites…the format of the timelines. This website provides a different perspective that allows the researcher to look into topic specific timelines such as the war in Europe, the events in the Americas, and the Holocaust. In some instances, this website gives a varying account that the Chronology of World War II website. For example, in relation to the example presented in the section of this webography for the Chronology of World War II, this website does not have an entry for the Battle of Java Sea. Instead it states in its Asia and the Pacific section, “Japanese land on Java” on Saturday, February 28, 1942. Yet, together with the Chronology of World War II website, this website provides multiple means of searching through time for significant events as well as the events that led up to those significant events and at the same time providing a multi-source timeline for researchers.
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This website is a World War II dedicated website divided into six sections of general categories. Each section is further separated into subsections of specific topics. The first section concerns the story of World War II, and it contains subsections concerning specific topics such as campaigns, diplomatic history, and the prewar and post war eras. The second section concerns biographies on significant individuals as well as articles concerning specific topics. The third section is a collection of actual air combat
films. The fourth section is a collection of photographs. The fifth section is a World War II history test. The final section is a list of related links. The website builds a progressive account of the World War II story. The first section gives a general account of events before, during, and immediately after the war while providing reasoning for significant events. It starts with a broad story of the war, and then breaks down the story into fourteen more specific chronological sections from the prewar era to the post war era. The section ends with amplifying information including cost, casualties, and a chronological timeline. The second section supplements the first by giving more detailed information of significant events such as D-Day and the Atomic Bomb while also providing biographies on important people such as Omar Bradley and Benito Mussolini. As articles within the first section focus on a descriptive style, the style of the second section changes slightly more definitive in order to adequately supplement the first section. The third and fourth sections further provide amplifying data thorough visual aid. This website proves to be an adequate resource for this specific topic by providing general and detailed descriptive and definitive information.
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This website is a division of Scholastic.com tailored to assist those starting a research paper. Sections of this website include recommended research topics, a list of articles, and a list of other online World War II resources. The only section that provides useful resource information is the section concerning a list of articles. The list of articles includes general accounts of the war separated into three parts supplemented with separate articles on significant events,
aspects, equipment, and people. For other topics such as intelligence operations, blitzkrieg, the Normandy invasion, Luftwaffe, and high profile generals such as George Patton and Erwin Rommel the website proves to be an excellent resource, because it provides specific articles for these subjects. For this specific topic, the website provides limited contribution. Its contributions include a different approach through third party accounts of top U.S. Generals including George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley. It, also, provides information concerning strategies and tactics. The articles focus on principles of each topic. By doing so, the website supplements other resources by providing amplifying information. Yet, the website is not an adequate World War II website due to its focus on being a “research starter” instead of being a source of the subject. Because of this approach, the website lacks enough subject matter to be an adequate World War II source. Although this website cannot be used as a stand-alone source, it proves to be useful in supplementing research for this specific topic by providing a different approach as well as information on strategies and tactics.
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This web site is a collection of material related to World War II. The contents are official government histories, source documents, primary references, and order of battle information. It is a public domain categorized into general accounts, official documents, and by each theater of operations. The General Accounts section is complied from American Military History of 1973 (Maurice Matlof, General Editor). This section is separated into four sub-sections that cover the accounts of the Allied
Powers including their defensive plan, grand strategy, war against Germany and Italy, and war against Japan. Each sub-section covers strategy and significant events of each topic chronologically and supplements the information with maps and pictures. The General Accounts section proves very useful for this specific topic, because it not only describes how the U.S. Military participated in the war but also describes the causes and effects of U.S. participation. For example, the website describes U.S. fortified positions after the attack on Pearl Harbor, then describes how the strategy was used later to penetrate Japanese defenses by attacking from multiple directions in the War Against Japan sub-section. The official documents section is a compilation of diplomatic and political documents including those from conferences, relevant US legislation, international pacts, and treaties. This section proves to be vaguely useful for this specific topic. It displays the formal commitments of the U.S., but it does not fully explain the purpose or extent of the commitments. The Theater of Operations section is separated into four sub-sections. Each sub-section gives a more detailed account of significant events in specific theaters including the Pacific, European, China-Burma- India, and American Theaters. This section provides much useful information in the same manner that the General Accounts section does, but the Theater of Operations section provides a more specific and detailed account of campaigns and battles. Yet, the Theater of Operations section falls short of explaining the effects or future contributions of each section. This website proves very useful for this specific topic by giving general and specific accounts of the participation of the U.S. Military as well as a broad account of the causes and effects of specific U.S. Military contributions.
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This World War II website is part of a military section of the Global Security website separated into six sections. The First section is an article concerning the events of World War II. It chronologically accounts for the significant events of all theaters of the war that shaped the immediate events causing the war to the defeat of Japan and Germany. The second section is a list of analytical papers. The list includes topics such as the meaning of World War II, testimony of ex-German leaders, and explaining Hitler. The third section is a list of related websites for further research in World War
II. The fourth section is a list of links to U.S. Army documents that cover a variety of specific topics such as the Women’s Army Corps, training for mountain and winter warfare, and the Battle of the Bulge. The fifth is a list of links to U.S. Naval documents that cover a variety of specific topics such as casualties, Operation Tiger, and patrol torpedo boats. The final section is a list of links to U.S. Air Force documents, but it only includes one link concerning the U.S. Strategic Bombing Strategy. Lacking specific details and facts to support this specific topic, most of this website was not adequate for research. The first section gave a good overview of the war, which could be used to build a general understanding. Yet, the article was too broad to be used sufficiently. All of the analytical papers of the second section were irrelevant for this topic. Many of the articles under the last three sections proved useful, thou. Useful articles provided amplifying data in subject areas such as American campaigns, U.S. Army Special Forces, and Navajo code talkers. The only portion of this website that was useful for research of this specific topic was a majority of the Army, Naval, and Air Force documents.
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This website is a database of articles related to World War II. The articles include descriptive papers, detailed outlines, maps, documents, analytical accounts, and reference listings. Specific topics of these articles include those directly concerning the war such as battles, equipment, places, and people as well as those indirectly concerning the war such as movies, the influence of postwar events, effects of the war, policies, and related websites. This website proved very useful in any level of research for any specific topic related to World War II. Its format allows the researcher to explore the website by date, topic, links on the internet, pictures, maps, documents, or bibliographies. It covered almost every aspect of World War II from its effects like the reason for the boom of San Diego, California to policies causing
the war including U.S. isolationism to descriptive accounts of World War II events such as Operation Torch. The range of the articles from broad topics such as the aftermath era and the air war to specific topics such as U.S. “fast carriers,” code breaking, and films about Pearl Harbor allow the reader to choose the focus of research. The website, also, covers a vast range in time from 1917 to 1949 and expands with a brief account of the Cold War period up to 1991. The many pictures allow the researcher to easily understand the text. For this specific topic, there were many articles within this website that proved very useful. The vast amount of subjects allows the researcher to view many aspects of the topic. Yet, most of the articles only give a general account of the given subject by briefly describing significant events or factors. Most articles lack a detailed account of the causes and effects of each subject. Only lacking detailed accounts of specific subjects, the vast range of subjects, timeline, and focus as well as the easily navigational format and amplifying information provided by the pictures make this website a useful resource for this specific topic.
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This website is a division of the British Broadcasting Channel website. It is a collection of articles separated chronologically into eight sections. The first section covers the era between World War I and World War II. The next six sections divide the World War II years into sections titled Blitzkrieg, Britain Alone, Allies in Retreat, The Tide Turns, Axis in Retreat, and End Game. The last section covers the reconstruction and retribution period. At the end of each section, a dropdown menu is provided containing a list of articles giving a
general account of specific periods of that section. Each section contains articles written by various authors. Each article gives a detailed, historical, and comprehensive account of the significant events of the war with a focus on the battles of the war. Each article provides a table of contents that allows easier navigation. Yet, the vast amount of information within this website hinders the researcher’s ability to locate pertinent information in a timely manner. Thus, overall navigation of this site is poor. This material contained in this website is an adequate source for research in any topic concerning World War II. For this specific topic, it gives specific accounts of U.S. Military contributions, but it falls short of explaining the purpose or effect of U.S. Armed Forces. It supplements other websites in this webography by providing a British account of the war. This website is better suited for U.S. Military contributions in the Western Front, because that is where the emphasis of the compilation of articles within this website resides. This website proves to be an adequate source of information concerning this specific topic by contributing specific information form a British perspective.
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This website is a detailed outline of the events of World War II. Events covered not only include those that occurred during or directly before or after the war but also those events related to the war as early as Adolph Hitler’s birth in 1889. Sections that cover secret communications, World War II museums, and related World War II websites supplement the outline. Each section of the outline, separated by year in chronological order, covers significant events including campaigns and battles,
significant diplomacy including treaties and pacts, and military equipment including tanks and ships. Charts of military strength supplement the outline at certain times or for certain campaigns as well as with pictures and maps. Throughout the outline, links are provided to other websites or articles amplifying significant events. The amplifying links include biographies, significant aspects of the war such as World War II aviation, significant equipment such as the Battleship Bismarck, and significant events such as the Bataan Death March. The secret communications section proved to be of marginally useful for this specific topic, because it provides limited information concerning U.S. Military contributions to developing secret operating procedures for communications and the level of success for the procedures. The World War II museums and related World War II websites sections did not provide useful information for this specific topic, because they did not provide relevant information. This website proves to be useful, because it gives information in areas that other websites in this webography do not cover. For this specific topic, the articles, maps, and pictures supplement other websites of this webography by providing additional information.
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Summary: Contributions of the U.S. Military to World War II can be found within each source of this annotated webography to varying degrees. The timelines of the Chronology of World War II and the World War 2 Timeline, 1939-1945 websites can be used to guide research. Information concerning strategy and tactics of the U.S. Military in World War II can be discovered in the World War II Remembered website. U.S. Military contributions to the overall strategy and outcome through its participation in campaigns and battles can be found within the Hyper War: A Hypertext History of the Second World War website. Specific contributions of each branch of service can be found within the Military Operations: World War II website. Specific details of contributions of the U.S. Military can be discovered within the World War II Timeline website. Causes and effects of U.S. Military participation can be found in the Hyper War: A Hypertext History of the Second World War. Different perspectives to the topic can be researched using the World War II Remembered website’s third party bibliographies of top U.S. Generals and the British account of the World War Two website. Finally, The World at War, History of WW, 1939-1945 website can be used to supplement the other sources through its account of information not contained in the other websites such as significant aspects of the war like the Aviation War and significant military equipment. Complete research of U.S. Military contributions to World War II can be obtained by using the Chronology of World War II and the World War 2 Timeline, 1939-1945 websites as a guided outline, then beginning research by using the descriptive and definitive information of the World War II Commemoration website as a base of research, and finishing research using the other websites for amplifying information.