I am doing a school assignment for my History class (obviously) on Military Conflicts of the 20th century.

Now the deal is I have to pick one skirmish (war, battle, has to be military conflict) and make a project detailing some aspect of it.

So say if I were to choose World War II, I would choose something specific about World War II that I could cover in 10 minutes to the class.

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Can you please recommend some military conflicts of the 20th century, can be any place on the globe, and specify why exactly you chose it. I want to be unique in my presentation so I won't be doing the World Wars unless there's something specific that a bunch of 10th graders will find entertaining for 10 minutes.

Thanks.

hmmm...I can't think of any of the top of my head, but do one that invovles interesting facts and such. ie: I once read that the Allies purposly through a dead body dressed in a commander's uniform with phoney war planes on him. The Germans believed them and protected the north side of sicily while it was being invaded from the south.

For WWII I would try the Battle of the Bulge. Lots of good stuff there.

Are you American? If so, have some fun.

Do a presentation on the Balangiga massacre (Phillipines, 1901), and then follow it up with accounts of General Smith and the Pacification of Samar. Should get some attention.

Battle of Tarawa would be good. It was a slaughter on both sides. Marines were still working the kinks out of amphibious assault.

edit: or you could be smart-ass and talk about the poland invasion of germany. When they attacked the radio station. :p ;) That'd most likely get you an F though.

Do the Boer War, I think its the most often ignored war of the 20th century.

There was one massacre in the Korean War that occurred at a bridge. A company of American soldiers was told that irregular forces were using civilians as shelter and to stop all civilians from crossing the bridge. They were receiving reports of their buddies dying over the radio when out of the fog approaches a group of refugees they don't speak English and are fleeing for their lives the Americans do not speak Korean and don't want to shoot them but what choice did they have? That was an exercise that was given on the rules of engagement. Those particular soldiers failed by today’s standards. They opened fire into the crowd. It poses some real ethical questions if you can find the incidents particulars.

Please tell us what you went with and how you did.

Do the Boer War, I think its the most often ignored war of the 20th century.
The Boer War was 1898-1900, 19th century there.

Another way you might get the teacher's attention is by doing something about the 1956 Sinai Campaign, in which Eisenhower threatened to bomb Tel-aviv. Although you're teacher might actually like that, considering the general attitudes in the US.

Battle of Tarawa would be good. It was a slaughter on both sides. Marines were still working the kinks out of amphibious assault.

edit: or you could be smart-ass and talk about the poland invasion of germany. When they attacked the radio station. :p ;) That'd most likely get you an F though.

The Nazis actually faked that as an excuse to invade, Poland never had any reason to attack Germany before the invasion.

The Chinese Civil War!

Mao Zedong (Communists) versus Chiang Kai-shek (nationalists) with a little Japanese thrown in here and there! An incredible three-way war full of numerous atrocities such as the "Rape of Nanjing." Now that's a war.

Korean War was pretty bad...

The Boer War was 1898-1900, 19th century there.

Another way you might get the teacher's attention is by doing something about the 1956 Sinai Campaign, in which Eisenhower threatened to bomb Tel-aviv. Although you're teacher might actually like that, considering the general attitudes in the US.

Was there actually a military conflict or was it just bluff?

Guys, when you're posting responses please include a website if you can because its tedious sifting through Google search pages looking for something comprehensive.


Thanks again :)

One more thing:


Please include a SPECIFIC part of the conflict that I should cover, since I can't cover a whole war in 7-10 minutes.

Was there actually a military conflict or was it just bluff?

Guys, when you're posting responses please include a website if you can because its tedious sifting through Google search pages looking for something comprehensive.


Thanks again :)

The Sinai Campaign? Yes, that really happened, it lasted 100 hours. Eisenhowers bomb threat was never carried through though, he succeeded in intimidating Israel. Israeli wars are always interesting to cover; they're short, furious, and always accompanied by some great technological, strategic, or tactical leap forward in military history. Try these links: http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&srch=&id=5&clr=1 http://www.isayeret.com/links/guide.htm

You might also want to look up the Siege of Syracuse, that's an amazing little peak into the technology and tactics of archimedes.

The Siege of Syracuse wasn't 20th century?

Oh, yeah, forgot about the time period limit. Syracuse was around 309 BC