The End of World War II

The North African Campaign Britain and US wanted to

defeat the Axis, starting in North Africa

June 1942: General Erwin Rommel (Germany) took Tobruk, Libya Germans then advanced into Egypt

October 1942: General Bernard Montgomery (UK) launched massive attack at El Alamein, Egypt

Germans were defeated

The Allied invasion of North Africa was known as Operation Torch.

November 1942: Large Allied force, led by Dwight D. Eisenhower (US) invaded North Africa

The German army in Africa was defeated by May 1943

Stalingrad Summer 1942:

German troops headed south to get oil and capture the city of Stalingrad

August 23, 1942: Battle of Stalingrad began

Germans destroyed most of the city, but Stalin would not surrender

The Battle of Stalingrad November 1942:

Soviets launched a counter-attack and cut off the Germans from their supplies

Hitler refused to abandon Stalingrad

February 1943 Germans surrendered

99% of Stalingrad was destroyed

Importance of Stalingrad

TURNING POINT BATTLE in Europe

After this, the Germans were on the defensive and began to retreat

Invasion of Italy

Allies went to Italy after North Africa thought it was the weakest part of the Axis powers

July 1943: Allies invade Sicily captured it from Germans and Italians

Mussolini was fired by King Victor Emmanuel and on September 1943, Italy surrendered.

Germany Invades Italy

Germany invaded Italy and put Mussolini back in power

Fighting continued in Italy until May 1945

April 1945 Mussolini captured and killed

Preparations to Invade Western Europe

1943: Allies started to build up an invasion force in Britain

They tricked the Germans into thinking the invasion would come either in Norway or Calais, France

Inflatable Tank Plywood Guns

D-Day

Operation Overlord was the plan to invade France

Under the command of Dwight D. Eisenhower

British, American, French, Canadian forces invade at Normandy, France

Allies expected heavy casualties The actual day the Allies invaded is

known as D-Day. It occurred on June 6, 1944.

Military road vehicles awaiting shipment to France at Southampton docks.

Empress Dock almost completely filled with landing craft preparing for D-Day

D-Day Statistics:

• 5000 ships• 150,000 men• 30,000 vehicles• Six parachute regiments with over 13,000

men• 800 planes

By end of the day, more than 9000 Allied solders were dead, but 100,000 made it ashore

IMPORTANCE: allowed Allies to establish a beachhead and bring more men and supplies into France.

Battle of the Bulge

After D-Day, Hitler faced a two-front war

December 1944: German’s last offensive launched

Known as the Battle of the Bulge Eventually the Allies won and forced

the Germans to continue retreating

The End of the War in Europe

March 1945: Allies invaded Germany By end of April, Soviets attacking

Berlin April 30, 1945: Hitler committed

suicide May 7, 1945: Germany

Surrendered V.E. Day celebrated: May 9, 1945

Island Hopping Continues The US strategy in

the Pacific was called island hopping. The US attacked smaller, weakly defended islands, getting closer and closer to Japan

October 1944: Allied forces returned to the Philippines after the Battle of Leyte Gulf

Kamikaze Attacks

After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese had no navy left

The Japanese were using more kamikaze attacks.

These were Japanese suicide pilots. They crashed planes into Allied ships.

Kamikaze Attacks

USS Missouri during a kamikaze attack, April 11, 1945

USS St Lo after a kamikaze attack, October 25, 1944

Iwo Jima and Okinawa March 1945: American

Marines took Iwo Jima April 1945: Americans

invaded Okinawa This was one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Americans began planning an invasion of Japan

The invasion was expected to cost about 1 million American lives

The End of the War The Manhattan Project was the secret

government project that was building atomic bombs.

President Truman warned Japan of “a rain of ruin from the air.”

August 6, 1945: US dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

70,000-80,000 people killed immediately August 9, 1945: US dropped a-bomb on

Nagasaki More than 70,000 killed immediately Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945

VJ Day