Hey again everyone, shout out to Raleigh and his fic: Blueblood: Hero of Equestria.
No, wait...
BLUEBLOOD:
HERO OF EQUESTRIA!!!
Ahem.
---
“Twi, I'm home!” Kyle called out, stepping into his house. He rolled a shoulder, sighing deeply. It had been a hell of a day. He found himself with a customer asking for service without any forewarning. The woman was polite enough, but she was a body builder.
Ye gads, she looked like a female Arnold Schwarzenegger. Built like a curved brick and about as firm. He had to really put all of his effort into that massage.
It took a moment but he noticed that Twilight didn't answer his hail. Frowning he checked the living room and basement quickly before going to his aunt's old office. “Twi?” He called out, seeing her before the computer.
She didn't answer.
He walked up to her, looking at the screen.
The photo was black and white, with countless people in it, all thin, malnourished and all dead. Bodies were stacked out on the ground in a manner similar to cord-wood. Every body was nude, stripped of all clothing and dignity.
A picture of the one of, if not the, single worst atrocity ever committed by man unto man.
The Holocaust.
He came up beside the unicorn turned human and looked at her face. He expected disgust, a sickened face about to throw up or even rage.
He found her in shock. Slack jawed and eyes wide open, unblinking with tears leaking from the corners of both her beautiful orbs. They dripped onto her lap, the wet spots in her jeans showing she had been crying silently for sometime. He reached out, setting a hand upon her shoulder and only then did she turn to look at him.
Nothing was said, even as she was pulled from her seat to his arms and into a firm hug. He rubbed her back soothingly, whispering into her ear.
Only then did the sobbing begin.
---
“The horror...” Twilight said, sitting at the kitchen table. Kyle looked at her with a bit of sadness; human beings found the Holocaust to be horrific, terrible and the lowest point in human history. It was hard not to feel shame for his own race. Even if the Nazis had been the most notable users of genocide, they weren't the only ones. He didn't care to know of any other genocides people had committed.
“The Holocaust isn't an easy subject. For anyone.” Kyle began, rubbing her back with one hand. “Look, humans are great. We have lots of good, incredible people. Albert Einstein. Gandhi. Pierre Trudeau. The Wright Brothers. George Washington. But we also have tyrants and monsters. And some do... Well... I'm sure your world hasn't anything like it, but--”
“We do...” She said softly, taking a sip of her tea; he had made her a fresh pot to help calm her nerves but her hands still had a bit of shake in them. “N-not ponies, griffons. B-before the rise of the Steelclaw Dynasty and the Griffon Imperium there were three main clans. The Snowcaps in the north, who usually had a very pale yellow color of fur, the Steelclaws in the middle mountain regions in the center of their continent and the Skyweaver clan in the forested southern areas, both of whom had the more typical brown coats. About eight hundred years ago the Steelclaws launched a massive attack on the Snowcaps. It became known as... … As the Blood River War. The Snowcaps were utterly decimated. King Hannibal Steelclaw, often called the Gore Howl, ordered all the Snowcaps... killed.”
“Twilight...” Kyle let off, rubbing her back firmer as she took another long sip, sniffling a bit.
“I-I've only read about it. Most ponies don't know anything about the Blood River War. Or the Ten Clan Wars. Or the Unification War, or later Iron Revolt. They don't know that maybe ninety percent of all the Snowcaps were believed to be killed. That their tails, wings and heads were amputated. In that order. Still alive. The few remaining Snowcaps fled. To the minor clans, to the Skyweavers, to Equestria, to anywhere. Of the few that didn't get to Equestria, most were killed in the later wars. I knew despite the differences humans and griffons had a lot in common, military wise, but this?”
“Nazi Germany.” Kyle said, sighing as he sat down next to her. “When Adolf Hitler took command he blamed everything he could on the Jews. Germany's defeat in World War One? Jews sabotaged them, clearly. Economic down-term? Jews did it. Shortage of food? Blame the Jews. Stubbed your toe on the sidewalk? Blame a Jew!”
“But still...”
“I'm not justifying them, but you need to understand...” Kyle carried on, sighing. “Germany was a wreck after the First World War and the people wanted a scapegoat. They wanted to be told they weren't at fault for losing. And they wanted a hero, a figure to rally behind, to make them feel proud to be German. Hitler gave them that. He gave them a scapegoat, an excuse and a figure to rally behind. It's just not many people at the time realized out outright fucking insane the man really was. Remember what I said once, about a few jerks stirring up something and getting everyone into something that's wrong, even when they should know better?”
“Hitler's the jerk...”
“And the German people should have known better. But they got caught up in, well, Hitler-Mania more or less. Hitler was a great manipulator, and that's what he did. He manipulated. But you need to remember something more important that what Hitler did.”
“What?”
“That he was stopped. People stood up. Other countries fought him. Conquered nations hindered him. There were dozens of attempts to kill him. We wound up with Hitler... But we also stopped him.”
x---x
Dear Princess Celestia
Recently I have discovered pictures of what humans call 'The Holocaust'. It is disturbingly similar to what most books of the Blood River War say happened to the Snowcap Clan. Afterward I decided to look more into the event as well as the war during which it took place, World War Two.
I am including printed out Wikipedia articles of both the First and Second World Wars, and I plan to forward books detailing both wars when I can. For now, I'll give a brief overview.
But before I can touch on the Second War I have to explain the First, as it set the events in motion that allowed for the Second.
In the early nineteen hundreds, over a hundred years ago, the continent of Europe was more or less a room full of powder kegs. Treaties were made in the aftermath of previous wars, outlining who was allied to who and who would come in defense of who in case of an attack. Resentment stirred between nations, a desire to expand boarders and a general dislike for neighboring countries. On the other hand no one want to actually be the one to, well, throw the first spear as it were. Everyone was spoiling for war, but no one wanted to be seen as the aggressor or instigator.
And then came the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungary Throne. It was the spark that set one country off to attack another. The interlocking set of treaties dragged the rest of Europe and, by default, all of those nations holdings into an all out war.
The fighting in the war was best described as a bar room brawl where for the most part people just stood still and hit each other. It's considered the first modern war, and no one had tactics appropriate for it. New rapid firing machine guns could fire hundreds of rounds a minute making infantry rushes suicidal, artillery often had minimal effect and the only thing that seemed to change was the ever rising death toll.
This is also the war in which three notable weapons were employed that would have grater effects in the Second War, the submarine, the tank and the airplane.
The airplane was a recent invention by this time, a small craft designed to fly. The planes used in this era were primitive and fragile, but were also a necessity. Humans cannot fly under their own power and while airships, called zeppelins mostly, were employed to bomb areas the plane was faster, more agile and able to scout ahead, taking pictures for the leaders back at their bases so they could observe the changes in the battle-lines. In turn shooting down these scout planes became a priority, but no one had any weapons to do so.
Eventually other planes were sent up to counter the scout planes, usually with someone firing a gun by hand. Soon after guns were fitted to the front of the plane, usable by the pilot creating what's called 'Fighter Planes'.
The tank, meanwhile, was a heavily armored, self-propelling chariot. It was designed in response to the inability of infantry to charge the lines and help break past defenses. The first were, well, tanks on treads. Picture a massive metal barrel, laid down with cannons on the sides and tracks. Eventually tanks would feature a turret atop of the tank which could rotate three hundred and sixty degrees to fire in all directions.
Lastly the submarine is a specialized boat that can travel under the water. They are armed with 'torpedoes', long cylindrical weapons that detonate on impact and are used to destroy ships. Due to the ability to traverse under the water and out of sight they were also used to recon the seas.
The war was mostly fought between the aforementioned Austrian-Hungarian forces and the Germans against the British and French, as well as the Russians. The American forces were uninvolved for most of the war, entering only nearing the closing of the war when a German submarine attacked one of their vessels. By that time the British/French forces and accompanying holdings were pushing the Austrian-Hungarian/German forces back. The Americans entering was just where it became hopeless for them.
It is important to note that while America remained out of the war through much of the fighting many of their citizens joined the war effort on behalf of Britain, traveling north to Canada (Part of the British Empire at the time) and enlisting there and they were sending supplies to the British.
The German Military did not surrender, instead asking the civilian government to do it for them. This would have repercussions later on.
I should note that I am glossing, and will continue to gloss, over a lot. The First World War lasted a full four years with over ten million military deaths and another seven million civilian. Events happened on and off, but as I said it all set the stage for the next war.
When the Treaty of Versaille was signed the victors took the opportunity to redraw the maps of Europe along ethnic lines, which sounded like a good idea at the time but would also have unforeseen effects after both World Wars. Austria, Hungary and Germany had their military forces heavily regulated to prevent another build up of forces and were expected to pay reparations to all the victorious Allies, in addition to being forbidden to form political unions.
There was some leeway with the Germans in how and when to pay however; unlike other countries during the war they did not raise taxes to pay for the war but instead printed more money (Humans favor using paper currency over gold coins.), which in turn devalued their currency. Some citizen even took to using it as wallpaper as it was devalued so much. This had left the German nation in a state of economic depression.
At the time the Germans were a proud people and they didn't want to admit that they had been bested in the war. Instead they laid the blame everywhere else; the civilian government for surrendering, the Communist (Yes, Humans have Communism too, yes it doesn't work that well for them either) for sabotaging the war effort, cowardly leadership and the Jews.
The Jews are a religious group/race that have been more or less abused and bullied for at least two thousand years, probably longer. No real group in Equestria stands out as a match for the Jews, although they were treated like Herd-less born ponies were until the reforms two hundred years ago. While they are a religious group they have also been treated as a race of their own. They were used as another convenient scapegoat for German pride.
The Great Depression, a massive world-wide economic downturn, followed which did not help the situation at all. Treaties were set up to regulate battleship numbers, but not for a new ship type called aircraft carriers which were designed to carry aircraft across the sea. As the plane, by this point, was still only useful for scouting and shooting down other planes they went unregulated. This would become important in the pacific theater of the next war.
Also in the aftermath came the League of Nations, a union of all the great powers of the day, save the United States of America who did not enter and Communist Russia who was refused entry. It was supposed to allow countries to solve issues with diplomacy and enforce peace. However it didn't do much in the Spanish Civil War that followed and more or less wagged a hoof/finger at Japan for invading China and the abuse the Chinese suffered in the Rape of Nanjing.
Most of the world ignored the Chinese-Japanese War, which came to be known as the China Incident. When the atrocities committed were reported there was some outcry, but little else. The rest of the world had a 'Not My Problem' approach to the situation.
During this time a former soldier by the name of Adolf Hitler began to rise to power in Germany's Nazi Political Party. He played to Germany's pride, promising sanctions on the Jews, a better future and more. The man's following became cult-like and he is, sadly, the Fevered Speech of humanity save in one way; he had no magic. He managed to pull Germany behind him with charisma, strength of will and conviction alone. And the Germans, looking for a hero and savior, lapped it all up. Had they been more aware of his plans, or his aims, they may have done something, but he said that the German 'Aryan' race was superior to all others, and could do anything. Again, the Germans were a proud people and he played to that pride.
Germany began to rebuild its forces and even took over nearby territories, most of them former holdings lost due to the Treaty of Versaille. No one stepped in, mostly due to two reasons; guilt over the harsh sanctions the Treaty of Versaille employed and fear of Communist Russia which was forming the Soviet Union. Many people saw a rearmed Germany as a good buffer between the Allied nations of Britain, France and others and what was perceived as the Communist threat.
And then Germany took over Poland. It was at this point that the Allies knew Hitler wasn't going to stop.
A rough eight month grace period occurred as both sides built up their forces, with France and Britain on one side, Germany and her ally Italy on the other. The Germans were outnumbered and outgunned but came up with a tactic that used the new technology of the day to it's fullest, the Blitzkrieg (Lightning War). Fast, powerful, mobile strikes to break through enemy lines, run rampant in the enemy's rear and destroy supply lines and troops from behind. Some of the German commanders thought it was crazy.
It turned out to be crazy enough to work.
The Germans forced the surrender of France, pushed the British across the channel back to their United Kingdom and conquered all of Europe save Switzerland.
The reason they didn't conquer Switzerland was three fold. One: The Swiss required all of it's of age men to train in the military as well as keep and maintain weapons. In a moments notice they could call upon their civilian population to rearm, become a militia under the armies command and join the fight. Two: Switzerland was a highly mountainous, rugged country with an assortment of places to ambush attacking forces and slaughter them. Three: The Swiss were famous for their neutrality, so the Germans knew they weren't going oppose them anyway and trying to conquer them would be more costly then it was worth.
Afterward most of their fighting took place in Africa between German forces and British forces, attempting to control vital fuel supplies and routes.
While all of this was going on Russia, under the Soviet Union banner, attacked Poland in concert with Germany (The two were allies at the time, although ones who didn't trust each other that much) and attacked Finland. The Soviets do defeat Finland and take much of their lands, but at a heavy cost. For every Fin killed in the Winter War three Soviets died. The appalling performance shocked the Russians rather badly.
Germany also launches airborne attacks at Britain during this time. By this point humans have developed a new type of plane, the bomber. Smaller, faster dive bombers for accurately hitting targets, like installations and ships, and heavier bombers that are inaccurate but drop massive amounts of ordnance onto an area, causing wide spread destruction. This period is known as the Battle of Britain, and it involved fighter planes dueling in the skies, shooting at other fighters and bombers while both sides tried to attack industrial sectors and military installations.
Germany originally began with attacking the Royal Air Force (RAF) of Britain until they sent their own bombers to strike German cities. Hitler then declared that they would drop even more bombs on British cities then Britain had dumped onto theirs, ignoring the RAF's airbases. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake; The RAF with pilots from the United Kingdom, a now independent Canada, escaped soldiers from conquered nations, as well as people from the British Commonwealth, fought in the skies against the German's air force, the Luftwaffe. The Germans were, at no small cost, pushed back.
Having failed to secure Britain by means of diplomacy, bombing or invasion Hitler turned his armies against Russia. Again, I state their alliance was uneasy and that Hitler did not like the Russians. The leader of the Soviet Union at this time was a man called Josef Stalin. If Hitler was the Fevered Speech of Humanity then Stalin was the Gore Howl of Humanity and which of the two were worse is debatable.
Regardless, conquering Russia was feasible for the Germans, if difficult. All it required was their battle hardened and seasoned veterans, the training to fight in cold weather conditions, the equipment to fight in those same conditions, maintain supply lines, gaining the support of Russia's oppressed and suppressed people (And as I said, Stalin was much like Emperor Hannibal Steelclaw in this manner, as well as Emperor Imperious Steelclaw) and commanders with proper tactics and strategies.
The initial invasion went very well for the Germans and their Axis allies. Stalin had expected Hitler to betray him, just not so soon. However of the above laid out, Hitler never planned to pull the Russians, or it's oppressed Soviet States, to his side; he had planned to displace or kill them so Aryan settlers could take the land. However the push into Russia arguably goes too well; survivors of crushed Soviet forces escape from the attacking Axis forces and they can never surround or round them up. As they go further east into Russia their supply lines become more and more vulnerable to the survivors, forcing the Axis to divert manpower to bring them under control. The Soviets manage to get a large military force created, however size is all they had; their soldiers and officers had no experience, the bare minimum of training, improper or absent equipment and not enough guns to supply to their men.
However the Soviets do slow down and halt the German advance in time for winter to arrive, and the Germans and their allies had not received the proper gear for the intense cold of the region. While the Germans would be pushed back somewhat they still controlled a sizable potion of the Soviet Union's holdings. More to the point the failure to take Russia's capital of Moscow causes Hitler to distrust his generals and enter himself into the command of the German military.
Historians seem to wave off how good a politician Hitler was. At the very least he was a capable leader, able to inspire his people and get them behind him. True, he got them behind him under the banner of glory, conquest and aggression and led them towards insanity and evil, but he got them behind him. He was a great politician in this regard.
As a military commander Hitler was much like a newborn foal with Rainbow Dash's ego trying to play a 'grown up' game of chess against Princess Luna.
Or to put it in the most blunt, simple and plain way ponly possible; Adolf Hitler was a bucking horrible military commander.
The German Panzer and Tiger tanks while possibly the best on the field for most of the war were intricate and expensive to make, meaning they could not be made in larger numbers. On top of that he had an obsession with big weapons and tanks. Simply put, when he saw the King Tiger Tank, the largest tank in his military he said it needed to be 'bigger'. So his people came up with the Maus (Mouse, ironically) Tank which never saw service and was so huge that it was impractical.
The war wages on for sometime with the Germans pushing back into Russia and attacking Moscow. Eventually, partly due to Hitler's blundering, the Axis forces are surrounded and defeated. While this doesn't push German forces fully out from Russia, it does stall them as well as gives the Soviets vital 'lessons learned', even if it was from the hardest way possible.
And mind, all of this was happening in the European/African front. The Pacific Front had it's own combat going on throughout this time.
Japan had invaded China and while China had more manpower to bear they lacked the discipline, experience and equipment of the Japanese. On top of that the parts of China Japan didn't control were splintered, unable to pull together to form a united front and couldn't effectively fight back. The United States, growing concerned over the ever expanding Japanese Empire places steel and oil embargoes on the Japanese. As the US was the main supplier of both to Japan this gives them a problem; they are too proud to be seen as backing down from the Americans, but don't have the strength to conquer them. In addition they thought that US business interests would bring the States to fight them, and they thought America would look for an excuse to intervene upon Britain's behalf for taking their holdings. (In fact they were wrong on both parts. While Franklin Roosevelt, President of America, wanted to fight the Japanese his public was very anti-war and wouldn't let him.)
The Japanese, however, thought they wouldn't need to back down and give in or invade. At this point the Americans still recalled the losses they suffered in the First World War (Light compared to the other participants, mostly thanks to their late involvement) and their previous Civil War. The Japanese Leadership thought the Americans would not and could not stomach a prolonged war and would sue for peace after giving the US a good buck to the face and a bloody nose.
The task was given to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto who knew better than his peers what Americans were like (He had studied in America for a time) and was very wary of what would happen if the US put it's full industrial might, still 'asleep' from the Great Depression, into the business of War. His superiors told him to just get on with it. His plan was a strike on the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, an island chain off the American coast. His plan was to sink the entire American Naval Fleet.
At the time a naval fleet consisted of destroyers; smaller warships used to picket aircraft and hunt submarines, cruisers; larger ships for ship-to-ship combat and shore bombardment, battleships; same as the cruisers but bigger and with bigger guns, and aircraft carriers, which had only anti-aircraft guns but could launch fighter planes and dive bombers in addition to torpedo launching planes.
Admiral Yamamoto launched his attack and did massive damage to the US Fleet. All of the battleships were sunk or damaged, cruisers and destroyers lost.
However a storm kept all of the American aircraft carriers away from the attack. Admiral Yamamoto knew that this bit of luck was against him. While it came from a movie, one quote sums up the man's thoughts after the Pearl Harbor attack.
“I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”
The Americans, initially, believe they took more damage then they did. The waters were shallow enough to re-raise many ships for repair later on, and at the time it was thought battleships were the true capital ships of the day. Without them they were forced to rely on the aircraft carriers, with the USS (Untied States Ship) Enterprise as the flagship of the fleet. These ships proved to be more than capable of replacing battleships as the premier capital ships.
However the Japanese did deliver the bloody nose they wanted to the face of the United States of America.
The result did not make the country cower or back off however.
To be blunt once more, Your Highness, the anti-war Americans became very pissed off. War was declared by the United States upon the Empire of Japan.
And Hitler, in a fit of what could only be called power induced insanity decided since Japan was a part of the Axis forces that it would be a good idea to declare war on the States as well.
President Roosevelt, meanwhile, was more then happy for that as it meant he could openly involve his country in the European war effort like he wanted and had the public backing him.
To be fair, the Japanese seize nearly the entire Pacific Ocean and at the time looked to have a stranglehold on the area. However those aircraft carriers make a pain of themselves, ferrying medium range bombers near the Islands of Japan for a bombing run called the Doolittle Raid. Aptly named as it did little damage, at least to the cities and industries of Japan. However it spooks the Japanese as they had no idea where those bombers came from (The idea that those bombers, which were fairly large, could fit on a carrier wasn't considered) and made them nervous.
The US focuses mostly on the European/African Front (They wanted to go right after the German homeland, but the British got them to go to Africa first as it was less defended and the Americans deployed had little experience at warfare at this point.), but keeps fighting in the Pacific. The Japanese aims for a single, deceive battle in the meantime to destroy the US Fleet in the Pacific and to force the Americans to negotiate for peace.
However the Americans work out the Japanese communications code and are able to listen in on their movements. The result was the Battle of Midway where the Japanese attacked Midway Island to lure out the US Fleet and destroy it. The plan backfired; while they sunk one of the US Fleet's precious few aircraft carriers they lost four of their own when all was said and done.
What followed was the US and Japan fighting over small, normally unimportant islands to use as air and naval bases, hopping from island to island. The islands had nothing of real value save as bases.
The battle over one of these islands, Guadalcanal, was costly for both sides. The Americans took the island from the Japanese but supply lines were cut off, mostly by night-attacks. Both sides lost more ships, but at this point America may have been hit harder as during the fighting they were down to only one aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise.
As it turns out it was all they needed, even if it was damaged for the last part of the fighting. The Enterprise would go on to be famous, 'the most revered and decorated ship of World War Two.' Even as better carriers came into the conflict, on both sides, the Enterprise was front and center, leading the charge.
It also highlighted Japan's main weakness; they could not replace their losses while America very much could, particularly when the giant that was the American industrial might shook off the grogginess, had it's cup of coffee and got to work. Not too long after the United States goes from one aircraft carrier to outnumbering Japan's carriers three to one.
The Germans, meanwhile, weren't faring much better. The Soviets, now getting their act together, started to push them back, bringing their own industrial might up to speed and pressing it's men into combat. While the war was not impossible to win at this point for the Germans their chances went from good to not-very-good and taking a turn towards poor. It was at this point Hitler directed what humans call 'The Holocaust.'
The Germans began to round up Jews, people of Jewish decent as well as gypsies (Traveling wanderers, not unlike bitsies), homosexuals (People interested in their own sex sexually/romantically like filly-foolers and colt-cuddlers) as well as other races and Russian prisoners of war. The Nazi's considered them a 'blight upon the superior Aryan peoples' and that they had to be... culled.
In the end there are no real account on how many people the Nazi's killed in this manner. Some estimates put it up to six million, perhaps even more. At least half of Germany's prewar Jewish population was killed.
It should be noted that it wasn't the German people committing the Holocaust, but their leaders in the Nazi party. For much of the war they would be unaware of what was going on; the victims of the Holocaust being brought to the death camps quietly and without fanfare to impose Hitler's 'Final Solution to the Jewish (And Gypsy, and Homosexual, and People Born With Disabilities, and Anyone Else That People in Power Disliked) Question.'
In addition to murdering millions of people the Holocaust had a drawback; namely directing resources away from the front lines, where they were needed. This was on top of Hitler demanding his people make super-weapons like giant cannons and bigger tanks. His people had also made a jet fighter plane (By this point in time most planes used propellers; jets were much faster) which were very successful, but had it adapted to a bomber which wasn't as effective. Again, Hitler was inserting himself into his military's command, to it's determent.
Worse for the Nazis, Hitler had set up his military so all of it's divisions would be competing against each other for his attention and approval, fostering rivalries between his own forces. The idea being these divisions would prevent anyone of his underlings from trying to overthrow him and take control of the Nazis and Germany. Instead this only made the effectiveness of his military worse; despite being on the same side many times his forces refused to play nice with each other.
And then came what is known as D-Day, or 'When Hitler's Chances Changed From Poor to Pretty-Much-Non-Existent'. The Allies consisting mostly of Canada, America and Britain, launched an attack on the beaches at Normandy, launching an invasion that would push the Germans out of France and back to their Fatherland. They got a toehold in mainland Europe and began pushing Hitler's forces back.
It should be noted that the biggest threat to Hitler, the Nazis and Germany wasn't the Allies charging from the west, but the Soviets to the east. The Soviets had an easier time getting troops and supplies over, not having to traverse an ocean, and a huge amount of soldiers. The Allies, however, forced a second front onto the Germans. If they ignored the Allies they would charge through Europe unchecked, liberating captured territories and hit Germany with everything they had.
On the other hoof/hand if they diverted troops to the west to fight the Allies then that was even less men and resources to ward off the Soviets. They were trapped between and anvil and a hammer.
It didn't help that the people of captured territories like France, Poland and Greece were actively undermining and attacking Nazi forces, or that they pressed captured soldiers and oppressed citizens to work in factories building there war machines allowing them to sabotage what was made. Over time the Allies and Soviets shoved the Germans deeper and deeper into their own territory.
In desperation Germany launched a massive assault on the Allies. This would be best known as the Battle of the Bulge, due to how the German's surprise attack and sudden aggressive, mixed with the overconfidence of the Allies, allowed the Germans to shove the Allies back, making a 'bulge' in their lines. The plan was to damage the Allies enough that they would retreat or ask for a ceasefire, freeing up men and arms to send against the Soviets. It might have worked, save that several American troops, encircled in the town of Bastogne, refused to surrender.
Outnumbered, outgunned and outclassed the brave Americans refused to give up and fought on despite a lack of supplies, ammunition and an abundance of casualties. At one point the Germans sent a messenger to the Commander in Bastogne, offering generous terms for their surrender. The Bastogne Commander sent a one word reply back.
“Nuts.” Which I imagine was his way of saying 'Go buck yourself.'
The fighting continued until American reinforcements arrived, breaking the German attackers and forcing them to retreat.
Some of Hitler's commanders took note of how the tides were turning and aimed to depose of Hitler and try and salvage the situation, attempting an assassination on the man's life.
It failed and only made him more paranoid of his own commanders.
In the end Germany was defeated. Hitler, like Fevered Speech, committed suicide.
Afterward the Allies and Soviets would engage in a cold war and that was it for the bulk of the fighting in Europe.
The Americans, during their charge into the German homeland, would also uncover The Holocaust and the horrors it left. They launched a propaganda campaign, bringing the horrors done to light and making it clear to the German people that they were as complicit in the monstrosities as the Nazis; not from action but inaction. They let Hitler come to power, they let him begin his invasions, they let him kill and murder. This did what World War One, and to an extent this war, failed to do; break German pride.
In fact the Germans to this day suffer a bit of a cultural cringe over the actions of the Nazis and their horrors, almost seventy years after the fact.
Back in the pacific the Japanese were being pushed back to their own home islands. Like the Battle of the Bulge the Japanese launched one, big attack to try and drive back the Americans or at least pause them long enough to recover.
By this point in the war the Japanese air force was turned into a joke, and not even a good one. They still had planes, although not that many, but no one to pilot them. By now almost all of their seasoned, veteran airborne warriors were dead, sidelined or crippled. In their place was barely trained rookies and untalented fliers. They had carriers in their home islands, but without a credible air force to put on them they were almost pointless.
Worse they were separated from the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) Yamato and IJN Musashi, Japan's super-battleships; even bigger and more powerful than a conventional battleship with the largest guns ever fielded in naval combat. These two ships were the last strengths the Japanese had over the US Fleet, and they were well south.
They turned this to an advantage.
Sailing their carriers southward they intended to use them as a decoy to pull naval support away from the American invasion of the islands in Leyte Gulf while the IJN Yamato and IJN Musashi with accompanying support ships; battleships, cruisers and destroyers, head northwards to stop the invading forces. This force would undergo an air assault from American bombers, costing them the IJN Musashi, although the amount of punishment that took to sink it stunned the Americans. They retreat temporary before doubling back, fooling the US Fleet into thinking they were in full retreat.
Because of this the American Fleet, including the revered USS Enterprise, sailed northwards to meet the carrier fleet, leaving only a token force to guard the invasion. By the time the Japanese Fleet arrives their force consists of the IJN Yamato, three normal battleships, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and 11 destroyers.
The American token force consists of a handful of escort carriers (Smaller carriers with only two or three dozen planes each), and a handful of destroyers.
To explain how big of a mismatch this is, imagine Princess Luna leading three of her finest unicorn guards and another twenty of her finest Earth Pony guards into battle against a motley collection of first year Flight School Pegasi and a mixed collection of Earth Ponies. That was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, specifically The Battle of Samar (There were several battles going on at the time, all of which comprised the Battler of Leyte Gulf.)
It was a mismatch of epic proportions and the Americans, in all honesty, should have retreated. Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans and his destroyer, USS Johnston, had other ideas and on their own initiative charged the overwhelmingly more powerful Japanese force. Other commanders soon followed him. While they were outgunned their destroyers still had torpedoes, which were fairly short ranged compared to the guns on the ships but had the power to destroy the attacking Japanese warships. The escort carriers, meanwhile, did retreat but put every plane into the air that they could. Together they attacked the Japanese with bravery that boggles the mind.
Even more mind boggling is this. They won.
The outnumbered, outgunned, outclassed, out-everything token force beat the superior Japanese Fleet, which included one of the biggest warships to ever set sail. The sheer aggressiveness and unwillingness to retreat fooled the Japanese commanders into thinking that they were fighting much larger and more powerful forces then they were, an illusion empowered by the fact that the torpedoes launched were bringing down ships. In the confusion the Japanese, which I need to repeat, which had the overwhelming, crushing advantage lost and retreated. While the Americans lost a couple of ships, including USS Johnston and her commander, the Americans won despite the overwhelming odds via sheer guts and idiotic bravery.
I swear, if Rainbow Dash was a human she would have been a World War Two fighter pilot for the United States.
Not long after the Japanese pulled their forces from China to strengthen homeland defense. In addition they employed a new tactic, the Kamikaze (Divine Wind).
With their air force decimated to a collection of barely trained pilots and a shrinking arsenal of planes they decided to maximize their air force the only way they could; jamming as much explosives onto the planes as possible and ramming them into the US Fleet's ships, at the cost of the pilots.
The Japanese hundreds of years ago had a samurai class, not unlike knights, who followed a code called Bushido. To them taking as many foes with you in glorious death was an honor. Minotaurs have a similar 'death before dishonor' view, but not to the... extremes the Japanese could take it.
While the Kamikaze damaged and destroyed ships and scared the daylights out of the Americans all it only slowed down the American armadas. America began an invasion of the islands of Japan and in anticipation for the casualties they expected to take made what are called Purple Hearts, a medal given to soldiers wounded in battle, in high enough numbers for the expected casualties. They have yet to make any more due to how many were made at this time.
However the Americans wound up creating a super-weapon of their own, the Nuclear Bomb.
The power of this bomb is hard to imagine... But if it were dropped into the center of Manehattan, Neigh York would no longer exist. It is a weapon of terrible power.
The Americans thought that the mere threat the weapon posed would force the Japanese to surrender.
They did not.
One of these bombs was dropped onto the city of Hiroshima, causing an estimated seventy to eighty thousand deaths instantly. That number later doubled due to radiation that the bomb left in it's wake. (I will also make sure to find some information on radiation; human experiments into the subject can prove useful in our own experiments, as well as helping fight magically resistant cancers.)
Amazingly the Japanese did not surrender. It should be noted that their ability to fend off air attacks from the US by this point was slightly better than my brother's ability to resist Cadence's 'bedroom gaze'. Which still meant if the US wanted to bomb any point in Japan, the Japanese could do almost nothing to stop them.
The result of this was a second nuclear bomb being dropped on Nagasaki to similar casualties. This time the Emperor decided that enough was enough and planned a formal surrender.
Several of his junior officers, proving that 'military' and 'intelligence' just don't agree with each other all the time, tried to pull a coup to force the war to continue. Thankfully it failed.
It should be noted that humans to this day debate if the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary or if a conventional invasion would have been better. I suppose the Americans could have called an armistice or ceasefire or something but I imagine they wanted to make sure the Japanese knew they were beaten in no uncertain terms without risking more of their own people. Much like the Germans the Japanese were a prideful people and they must have decided that breaking that pride would ensure they wouldn't try anything else against them ever again.
So far, it's worked.
And thus the most horrible war in human history ended, after the deaths of anywhere between sixty and seventy eight million people. While there was some fallout, such as Germany being cut in half between the Allies and Soviets (Germany was reunited a little over twenty years ago) and the start of the Cold War between the Allies and Soviet Union, the world settled into an age of peace.
A short lived, uneasy peace, but still.
To this day the Nazi's are considered an easy, acceptable target by almost everyone. There is a group of people called 'Neo-Nazis' that worship Hitler's world view, and decry Jews and other races, but they have little political power and are generally looked down upon by the world at large. And while the war produced untold horrors it also showed what makes humanity great; individuals rising above and beyond the call of duty. A single man holding Nazi forces at a bridge, oppressed French citizens undermining and sabotaging the invaders, an unarmed troop transport ramming a tank onto it's side. The Second World War showed the depths humanity could reach, but also the heights.
I think that, in the end a man named Mahatma Gandhi had it right.
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it—always.”
For a time Adolf Hitler rose to power. He was a tyrant and murderer, and for a time seemed unbeatable. But in the end the world aligned to fight him.
And he fell.
In the end humans and ponies are alike; the tyrants will rise, and then heroes will bring them down.
Signed Your Faithful Student
Twilight Sparkle
x---x
She groans, setting the letter aside. It was her longest yet, and emotionally draining. She sat there for several minutes before turnign to the computer, logging onto the site 'You Tube'. On a whim she typed in 'awesome world.' Once the results loaded she scrolled down until on caught her eye.
“The World Is Just Awesome (Boom De Yada) | Discovery”
She clicked on it.
And after it was done playing, she couldn't help but smile.
---
Oh done, finally...
That letter... I knew even compressed there was a lot of history on World War Two, but I didn't expect such a long letter from it. 
Still, that's done and over with. Whew.
Not sure what subject Twilight will tackle next, but I don't want it to be something so... loaded.
Ahem...
**Raises a fist to the sky** CURSE YOU HITLER!!!