War can impact the society in many ways some are good and helpful while some are not. Wars can be caused in many ways such as religious reasons or to be independent of another country or because they just want more land.
The Battle of Lexington and Concord was fought on April 19, 1775 which started the American Revolutionary War. There were tension building up for many years before the war between the colonies (USA) and Britain. The night before the war the British came from Boston towards Concord to take away any weapon from the colonists but the colonists found out about the surprise attack through spies and friends in Britain. So Paul Revere and many other horse riders went to warn the colonists that the British were coming while the minutemen were preparing for the battle and taking their places to come in contact and block their way. Later when the British arrived there was many gunshots and the British retreated.
At 1764 the British taxed the colonists. Many of those taxes were the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, and The Townshend Act. These acts caused aggressive displeasure to the colonists. The colonists made the protest “taxation without representation.” At 1770 the Boston massacre occurred and three years later the Boston Tea Party so on June 1774 King George III closed off the Harbors in the colonies until they paid for the tea the dumped the previous year.
On April 18, 1775 the friends of colonists and spies told them that their were British coming so Paul Revere and other horse riders went and screamed “the British are coming” durring the night before the British came which was called “Paul Revere’s Midnight ride. Even though this warned many it may have confused people who lived at rural side of the 13 colonies since they still considered themselves as British. At the dawn of April 19 1775 about 700 british troops arrived at Lexington and saw 77 minutemen gathered. One of the British Majors yelled “Throw down your arms! Ye villains, ye rebels.” Then the outnumbered minutemen were told to spread out by their commander and then shots started being fired no one exactly know who fired the first shot to this day. After that when the smoke was cleared out about 8 minutemen were dead on the spot and 9 were wounded while only one of the British soldiers were injured (most likely since the minutemen were heavily outnumbered. Then the British headed to Concord to search for any weapons of ammunition not knowing most of the weapons were put into different locations. The British decided they will burn any arms they found and the fire got a bit out of control. The minutemen at the higher ground thought they were burning down the whole town of Concord, so the minutemen started rushing to Concord’s North Bridge which was guarded by a British soldier. The British then fired a shot which was returned by the minutemen this was called The Shot Heard ‘round The World which was given by the poet with the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson. After searching Concord for 3-4 hours the British decided to return back to Boston but the minutemen went to the area and many more followed the British. The fighting began again shortly after but the minutemen were firing behind boulders and bushes so the British did not see them. The British quickly started retreating but they weren’t fast enough they dropped their belongings including their weapons and ammunition to have less load and to retreat quicker. The British reinforcement arrived at Lexington but the minutemen did not stop firing at the retreating British army while the British tried keeping the minutemen at bay by firing cannons. When more minutemen came the colonists had a great chance to wipe out the escaping British but their commander told them to not so the British got to safety at Charlestown Neck where they got support from the navy. The minutemen did not show any good skill in shooting since only 250 British were dead or wounded and there were about 3,500 minutemen while the British killed or wounded over 90. In spite of that the minutemen proved they could stand up to one of the most powerful armies in the world. The news of the war spread quickly, reaching London on May 28. By the next summer the full war of independence had broken out.
On June 6, 1944, now known as the D-Day, the future president Dwight D. ar Act Eisenhower who was a supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in World War II gave direction to go and invade Europe which was called the Operation Overlord. Invading another nation may sound like a cruel thing but in this case, the reason for the invasion was done with a good intention… hopefully, well the causes of the battle were that they wanted to take Germany from Hitler’s’ Nazi army in Western Germany. Hitler was not a good ruler he killed Jews in concentration camps and there were so many chaoses in Germany. So by the first week of June 1944, the allied forces were poised to travel by ship or plane over the English channel to attack the Germans army at Normandy. on June 5. President Roosevelt had a window of best 4 days of respectable weather in which an invasion could be possible. whilst horrific weather hitting the transmission channel on June 4, Eisenhower wrestled with the melodic theme of suspending Operation Overlord. weather climate has been expected to get worse over the following workweek and he had 1000 of employees and thousands of lots of provisions that have been in his words, hanging at the cease of a department. After a promising but cautious report from his meteorologist at 9:45 p.m. on June 5, Eisenhower told his body of workers that they have to go. At that night their allies at England made an inspiring statement which arrived the following day to each and every fighter(soldiers navy’s sailor etc). Also on the radio delivery of the message he tried to give all the fighters the feeling of confidence and leadership. He reminded that everybody in the world was counting on them and also reminded them that their opponents were not going to show any mercy and will fight with cruelty and told them to be brave and show how devoted they are to protect their country and do not accept anything other than the victory of their country. And at last, he wished them a good luck and sought God’s blessing on this noble undertaking. This was an amazing speech but like that wasn’t enough he also scribbled down a note that no one noticed that if this mission failed he was responsible for the things that happened, meaning he took all the blame if they failed the mission. While at the White House President Roosevelt awaited the start of the Operation Overlord. According to Doris Kearns Goodwin in No Ordinary Time, Roosevelt wanted to be in England with Churchill and Eisenhower for the important event, The Operation Overlord, but with his health declining his trip to England would have been impossible or nearly impossible. Instead, he just sat in his office trying to finish up the speech he was going to say when the war began as his sons and daughters suggested. Instead, he made a prayer. Later that night at 3 AM he was notified that the war had begun and called the radio stations and told them to broadcast a prayer for the soldiers that were on the war in Europe. Sometime later on June 11, 1944, the beaches were full of 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy. The Germans suffered a lot on their part since they were celebrating commander Rommel who was taking time off of the military. Also, Hitler believed that the war was just a hoax trying to distract the Germans from a coming attack north of the Seine River so he had refused to send nearby troops to fight against the troops coming from The United States and sent reinforcement from far parts which had caused delays. He also didn’t want to call armored forces. America’s allies helped the US by air attacks and took down some main bridges which forced the Germans to take detours and naval support from their allies. After many weeks the American allies fought through Normandy to the Germans who were not giving up and resisting. By the end of June, the allies had already seized a great portion of Cherbourg including 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy and continued marching through France. By the end of August, American Allies had reached The Seine River and completely took out Hitler’s Army, Nazi, in the Northwest of France which concluded the Battle of Normandy (operation overlord). The Allies then prepared to enter Germany to meet with the Soviet-allied forces that were moving in from the east. The invasion then went against Hitler’s army the Nazis. It was a great psychological blow, also Hitler couldn’t send any troops from France to build the Eastern Front to advance against the soviet union. The following year on May 8 the Americans accepted an unconditional surrender from the Nazis. Also, a week earlier Hitler had committed suicide, it was surely a victory for the Americans.
The Battle of Normandy would not be possible without the help of science but what scientific advances did they have on these wars. “Sea,” said King Canute, the 11th-century Danish King of England, “I command you to come no further!”. As we all know none of us can control the sea but could we tell how the sea moves and the tide levels? It’s not enough to remember how they fought but how science contributed to these victories. For any war the sailors have to determine how tall the tides will be is very crucial which the United States Army learned in The Battle of Tarawa when the traveled in the Pacific Ocean. A miscalculation left the US stranded and the Japanese lets say used them as target practice. Predicting ocean tides is not as easy as you might think, a professor who taught undergraduates says I can testify to just how complex, even counterintuitive, this science is. About at the 17 century Isaac Newton stated that the ocean tides were dependant on the earth’s sun’s and moon’s gravitational pull. To determine the tides even with Newton’s statement I just told you about it will still be very difficult. Why? The reason is that the Earth has different and also changing angles. Water reacts to gravity strongly and the closest side to the moon is going to have a bulge, while on the other side of earth the water stays as a calm thin layer. Since the Earth also is pulled towards the Moon the waves could grow even more. Just imagine waves moving as earth rotates.
Science is not only used to determine the waves but could also be used science was also used for mustard gas also used for ww2. Mustard Gas or Sulfur Mustard, Mustard gas can cause irritation in eyes sometimes short term blindness, diarrhea and breathing problems. Also during the Battle of Lexington and Concord there was a very contagious diseases that was incurable. The disease caused fever, headaches, body pains, and eventually a severe rash. The disease was brought to the colonies somewhat around the 16 century. It is said that the greatest threats to the army was not the enemies but was the disease. The disease killed one in three people infected. Since it was during a war there were gonna be rumors. So there was a rumor that the British were deliberately spreading the disease. When the British left Boston only soldiers with smallpox were allowed to enter Boston George Washington ordered all doctors to look out for soldiers with smallpox and keep them in isolation hospitals, kind of harsh but it was the best way to not let the disease from spreading to other soldiers. By July 1776 about three thousand soldiers in the Northern Army were infected. General Gates still wrote to George Washington that ‘the Smallpox is now perfectly removed from the Army.’ while they were still treating the infected without any authorization. This was a risky thing to do. Some time later Washington moved his army to New York and made a isolation hospital for the infected and told people to stop the vaccination for smallpox. The General Told them ‘any disobedience to this order will be most severely punished.’ A private physician was caught giving vaccinations to soldiers and was put in jail. Early 1777 Washington was convinced only the vaccinations will prevent the destruction of his army.
As we learned wars can be crucial most of the times. Although they are dead they are sometimes needed, for example, The Revolutionary War was crucial since the Americans had fewer rights than the British so the war actually had a good impact. Wars are necessary since we don’t know what life would be like without the lessons that we have learned from the war, it could’ve been a perfect life or a life of misery being ruled by Hitler. After all The Operation Overlord was part of the World War 2 anyway which was fought mainly to defeat Hitler.
