Bas-Reliefs of Atlantic Theater

Bronze sculptures of scenes from World War II on the warfront and the home front.

NPS / Claire Hassler

Quick Facts

Amenities

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Twelve "bas-relief" or shallow sculptures line the wall on the north side of the World War II Memorial's entrance. They illustrate the American expereince in the Atlantic theater of war, from the United States' Lend-Lease policy of providing aid to friendly countries before Pearl Harbor to the US Army meeting the Soviet Red Army at the Elbe River in Germany, an event that signaled the ending of the war in Europe.

Inscriptions
corner pillar, side of bas reliefs
Women who stepped up were measured as citizens of the nation, not as women...
This was a people's war, and everyone was in it.
Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby
Corner pillar, side of plaza
They have given their sons to the military services. They have stoked the furnaces and hurried the factory wheels. They have made the planes and welded the tanks, riveted the ships and rolled the shells.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt