Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

forces in May 1943.

The Allies followed up their North African

successes by invading Italy. Soon

afterward, Italians overthrew Mussolini.

Italy surrendered in September 1943.

However, German troops still held most

of the country. The Allies took Rome,

the capital, on June 4, 1944.

D-Day and Battle of the Bulge

June 6, 1944, is called D-Day. On that

day, 156,000 troops from the United

During World War II, many U.S. women

worked in factories that made warplanes

and other products. They took the places of

men who were fighting the war.

U.S. troops wade to shore on D-Day, June

6, 1944. Their goal was to drive the Germans

out of France.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA World War II 69

 

States, Britain, and Canada attacked the

beaches of Normandy in northern

France. After fierce fighting, the Allied

armies moved inland. They freed Paris

on August 25.

The Allies then moved toward Germany.

The Germans made one last attack on

the Allies in December 1944. The Germans

lost this fight, called the battle of

the Bulge, by January. In March 1945

the Allies drove into western Germany.

Germany Surrenders

By February 1945 it was clear that Germany

would lose the war. The Allied

leaders—U.S. president Franklin D.

Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston

Churchill, and Soviet premier

Joseph Stalin—met in Yalta (now in

Ukraine). There they made plans for

Europe after the war.

Meanwhile, Soviet troops pushed

through Germany from the east. By

April 25 the Soviets had surrounded

Berlin, the German capital. Hitler killed

himself on April 30. Germany surrendered

at midnight on May 8, 1945.

End of theWar with Japan

IslandWarfare

In the Pacific Ocean, U.S. troops

captured island after island from the

Japanese. In February 1943, after six

months of jungle warfare, U.S. forces

drove the Japanese from Guadalcanal,

one of the Solomon Islands. The

United States captured Saipan in the

Mariana Islands in July 1944. From

Saipan, U.S. airplanes began bombing

Japan.

In October 1944 soldiers led by U.S.

general Douglas MacArthur landed in

the Philippines. The United States captured

the Philippine capital of Manila in

March 1945.

U.S. forces landed on Iwo Jima in February

1945 and on Okinawa in April

1945. Both these islands belonged to

Japan. During the fight for Okinawa,

Japanese pilots made kamikaze attacks—

they crashed their airplanes into U.S.

ships on purpose. Eventually, though,

U.S. forces captured both islands.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

By 1945 scientists in the United States

had invented the atomic bomb, a new

weapon of immense power. On August

6, 1945, a U.S. airplane dropped an

atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

More than 70,000 people died from the

explosion and fires. On August 9

Winston Churchill (left) of the United

Kingdom, Franklin D. Roosevelt (center) of

the United States, and Joseph Stalin (right) of

the Soviet Union met in Yalta (now in

Ukraine) in February 1945 to make plans

for postwar Europe.

70 World War II BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

another U.S. plane dropped an atomic

bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Japan

surrendered on September 2, 1945. This

ended the war.

Results of theWar

After the war’s end, the Allies divided

Germany among themselves. The Allies

also punished Nazi leaders after putting

them on trial in Nuremberg, Germany.

They punished Japan’s wartime prime

minister, Tojo Hideki, as well.

After the war the United States and the

Soviet Union were the most powerful

countries in the world. Despite having

been Allies, the two countries soon began

a long struggle called the ColdWar.

#More to explore

Bomb • Churchill,Winston • ColdWar

• De Gaulle, Charles • Fascism • France

• Germany • Hitler, Adolf • Holocaust

• Italy • Japan • Nazi Party • Nuremberg

Trials • Roosevelt, Franklin D. • Stalin,

Joseph • Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics • United Kingdom • United

States

Worm

Worms are soft, long-bodied invertebrates,

or animals without a backbone.

There are at least 20,000 species, or

kinds, of worm. They are not all related.

In fact, they belong to several different

animal groups. Some well-known groups

of worms are flatworms, roundworms,

and segmented worms.

Worms are found almost all over the

world. Some worms live in water. Other

worms live in the ground and help to

improve the soil. Many worms, including

some roundworms, are parasites.

Parasites live inside other plants and

animals and can cause harm.

Worms vary in size. Some are so small

that they are invisible to the naked eye.

Others are more than 100 feet (30

meters) long.

Worms usually have a tubelike, flattened,

or leaflike body shape. Earthworms

and other segmented worms have

a body divided into segments, or rings.

Worms usually lack legs or other limbs.

Some types have bristles that help them

to move.

Many worms have sense organs that can

detect changes in their environment. A

few have light-sensing organs.

Different worms reproduce in different

ways. In some types of worm, males and

females mate. Other worms can reproduce

on their own because they have

The soft body of an earthworm is divided

into segments, or rings.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Worm 71

 

both male and female reproductive