World War II Post Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Japanese negotiators agreed to meet with US diplomats.

While they met, the Japanese decided to send a fleet to Pearl Harbor to destroy the US Pacific fleet.

Dec. 7, 1941: Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor killing 2,400, wounding 1,200, and destroying 300 Am. Planes, 18 warships, and 8 of the 9 US battleships.

WAR Dec. 8, 1941: FDR delivered a war message

to Congress. Within 3 days, the US was at

war with Japan, Germany, and Italy.

A Grim Future for the Allies

In Jan. 1942, the Axis powers had a big

advantage in Europe. By then, Britain was

almost defeated, the Axis controlled

almost all of continental Europe, and

German troops had captured most of

North Africa.

German subs were trying to keep food

and supplies from reaching Britain.

Erwin Rommel – aka “Desert Fox”

Commander of the 7th

Panzer Division

One of the most able

commanders of the war

Commanded Germans

and Italians in North

Africa Campaign

Bernard Montgomery

Nickname “Monty”

or “Spartan

General”

Commanded all

throughout War

Part of most of the

major campaigns

George S. Patton

Best known for his

leadership in the allied

invasion of Africa

Was not a part of D-Day

Led force across France

after invasion of

Normandy

Dwight Eisenhower

5 Star General

Supreme Commander

of Allied forces in

Europe

Planned Operation

Torch, invasion of Italy,

and Operation

Overlord

The North African Campaign

Nov. 1942: Br. General Montgomery wins

the Battle of El Alamein in Egypt. This

starts the retreat of German General

Rommel.

Nov. 1942: Am. and Br. troops commanded

by Dwight Eisenhower landed in Morocco

and parts of Tunisia.

Battle of the Kasserine Pass

First big engagement

between America and

Germany.

America suffers heavy

casualties

Reinforced by the British

they push back Axis

powers

Casablanca Conference

January 1943: FDR and Churchill met in

Casablanca, Morocco.

They agreed to win the war in Europe

before concentrating on the Pacific.

They agreed to demand only an

unconditional surrender from all of the

Axis powers.

Casablanca Conference

Decision meant to quiet Soviets about

Western Allies making deals with Axis

supporters.

Reflected Roosevelt’s determination “that

every person in Germany should realize

that this time Germany is a defeated

nation”

The Invasion of Italy

July, 1943: Am. Troops commanded by General

George Patton attacked Sicily.

38 days later, Sicily fell and Mussolini was

overthrown by a disillusioned Italian

population.

Hitler captured Mussolini and set up a fascist

state in N. Italy, and Italian and German troops

continued to fight the Allies in Italy.

Gustav Line

Gothic Line

War in Italy

Sept. 1943: Italy surrendered to the allies,

and many Italians began to fight against

Mussolini and Hitler.

Sept. 1943 - Jan. 1944: US forces are

stalled by Hitler’s troops .

Finally in January, the US landed forces

behind the German lines at Anzio, just

South of Rome.

The Battle of Anzio

This battle took 4 months and 72,000

German deaths to win.

Soon after the battle, Rome fell to the

Allies.

N. Italy finally surrendered to the Allies in

April, 1945, after 190,000 Americans and

483,000 Germans died there.

War in the Soviet Union

June, 1941: Germany attacked the Soviet Union with 3.6 million German soldiers.

The USSR asked the US for lend-lease help, but FDR refused, afraid to be caught helping a communist nation.

Eventually, the USSR repelled the German attack, but this was only a temporary victory.

The Battle of Stalingrad

1942: Germany again attacked the USSR,

this time concentrating its attacks in the

Southern part of the country.

Sept. 1942: the Germans attacked

Stalingrad, a major oil and railroad center.

Map of the

1942

German

Invasion of

the USSR

The Battle of Stalingrad

From September to November, 1942, the

Germans shelled and attacked the city of

Stalingrad.

The USSR refused to surrender the city and

house - to - house fighting saved the city from

defeat.

By late November, the USSR launched a

counteroffensive and began to win the battle.

A Turning Point

Jan. 31, 1943: 90,000 surviving German

soldiers surrendered to the Soviet army

in Stalingrad.

This was the turning point of the war in

the east: after this the USSR never lost

another battle, and the Germans did not

launch any more offensives in the east.

War in W. Europe

The US began to bomb Germany in 1942

using carpet bombing tactics.

In 1943, the amount of bombs dropped in

Germany doubled.

By 1944, the US was bombing Germany

24 hours a day.

The bombing of Dresden was one of the

most famous campaigns of the air war.

D-Day

June 6, 1944: Allied troops commanded

by Eisenhower landed on the beaches of

Normandy and began the invasion of W.

Europe and the liberation of France.

Despite brutal German resistance, 2

million allied soldiers occupied France by

July.

The US Frees W. Europe

American forces

continued to defeat the

Germans and freed

Paris by August, 1944.

In Sept., Belgium and

Holland were freed

from Nazi control.

The Battle of the Bulge

Dec. 1944: Germany launched its last

offensive in the war attacking Americans

in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Germany’s offensive moves through the

Ardennes Forest

Germans are stalled at Bastogne

Patton arrives with 200,000 troops

The Battle of the Bulge

The US won the battle. Over 800,000

Americans fought here and 80,000

Americans died.

Germany fought with over 2 million

soldiers, and lost about 200,000 men.

After this battle, the Germans realized

the war was lost.

German Surrender

America invades Germany from the

West

Russia from the East (first one to

reach Berlin)

May 8,

1945:

V-E Day

The Yalta Conference

Feb. 1945: The “Big Three” met at Yalta in

the USSR to plan the post-war world.

Yalta Conference

All agreed to split Germany into 4 zones

of occupation and to also split the capital

city, Berlin.

Stalin promised to allow free elections in

the nations his army liberated from

Germany.

Stalin agreed to enter the war against

Japan soon after the German surrender.

April 12, 1945

Back to the Pacific

Goal of Japan was to capture as many islands and natural resources as possible before being stopped.

◦ Guam

◦ Wake Island

◦ Gilbert Island

◦ Hong Kong

◦ Siam

◦ Burma

◦ Dutch East Indies

War in the Pacific

On Dec. 7, 1941, about one-half of General

MacArthur’s air force was destroyed on the

ground at Clark Air Field in the Philippines.

Within days, a large Japanese force landed

in the Philippines and MacArthur withdrew

to the Bataan Peninsula on Manila Bay.

There he set up defenses, hoping the US

Navy could evacuate his men to safety.

The Philippines

By March, 1942, FDR ordered General

MacArthur to escape to Australia. He left

with the words: “I shall return.”

On May 6, 1942, 11,000 Americans and

Filipinos surrendered. When the Bataan

Peninsula fell, approx. 76,000 Filipinos and

Americans became prisoners of war.

Bataan Death March

Japanese soldiers split the prisoners into

groups of 500-1000 and marched them 60

miles to a railroad.

About 10,000 prisoners died during the 6 -12

day march and some were shot by the guards.

Those who survived were shipped to prison

camps where they were held captive for the

rest of the war.

Bataan

The Japanese

general responsible

for organizing the

march was one of 6

Japanese executed

for war crimes

after the war.

Japanese Expansion

Japanese forces continued to expand and

were not stopped by allied forces until the

Battle of the Coral Sea in May, 1942.

This battle fought entirely with planes from

aircraft carriers. Enemy ships never came

within sight of one another.

Battle of the Coral Sea

Although both the US and

the Japanese navy lost about

1/2 of their forces, this battle

stopped the Japanese from

establishing the bases they

needed to invade Australia.

The Battle of Midway

June 4, 1942: This battle was also fought

entirely from the air.

The US destroyed 3 of the 4 Japanese

aircraft carriers while they were still

loading bombs in their planes. This

carried with it the loss of 250 Japanese

planes.

This was the last Japanese offensive.

Battle of Guadalcanal

1st US offensive of the Pacific war.

August 1942: 11,000 US Marines landed

at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and

about 2,200 Japanese fled into the jungle.

They fought there for 3 months.

Feb. 1943: Japan abandoned Guadalcanal.

Island-Hopping

From February 1943 on, the US forces

began to selectively attack enemy-held

islands in the Pacific.

The Japanese fiercely defended their

positions and both sides suffered heavy

casualties.

American Offensives

The US first captured the rest of the

Solomon islands and then the Gilbert

islands.

After seizing the island of Tarawa in the

Gilbert islands, it was used by US Admiral

Nimitz to launch bombing raids on

Japanese bases in the Marshall islands.

More US Offensives

By Feb. 1944, the US had crippled

Japanese air power and seized the

Marshall islands.

By June, 1944, the US captured parts of

the Mariana Islands.

The Mariana Islands were important

because they enabled US planes to bomb

Japanese cities.

The Philippines Mid-October 1944: US forces invaded the

Philippine island of Leyte. Although the US quickly captured the island, a huge naval battle ensued.

The Japanese used kamikaze pilots for the 1st time in this battle.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest in Naval history, engaging more than 280 warships. As a result of the battle, the Japanese navy was virtually destroyed.

Japanese Kamikazes

Japanese kamikazes were suicide pilots

who crashed their planes which were

heavily loaded with bombs into allied

ships.

During the war, the US experienced

about 4,900 kamikaze attacks which

destroyed 57 American ships and

damaged about 650 others.

A Kamikaze

Pilot

The Philippines

After securing Leyte, the US invaded

Luzon in an attempt to capture Manila,

the capital city of the Philippines.

In one month’s time, 100,000 Filipinos

died, 80,000 Japanese died, and 27,000

Americans also perished.

The US did not fully secure the

Philippines until June, 1945.

The Battle of Iwo Jima

The battle for this 14 square mile island was

one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

25,000 Japanese protected the small rocky

island and it took over 110,000 Americans to

defeat them. Only 216 Japanese surrendered--

the rest died.

More US medals of honor were given for this

battle than any other single battle of the war.

Marines Raising the US Flag at Iwo

Jima

American Offensives

Iwo Jima was located about 700 miles

from Japan. Its capture was another step

toward an eventual invasion of the

Japanese home islands.

The next island to fall to the Americans

was Okinawa, which was located about

350 miles from Japan.

Battle of Okinawa

April-June 1945: In another bloody battle, nearly 100,000 Japanese defended the island from an allied force of 180,000 soldiers and 1,300 warships.

Japanese kamikazes launched nearly 2,000 attacks against the British and American fleets.

This was the single bloodiest battle of the Pacific war with nearly 50,000 allied deaths and 93,000 Japanese deaths.

Okinawa

Potsdam Conference

Held in Potsdam

Germany

Stalin, Churchill,

Truman meet

Send a letter telling

Japan to surrender or

face total annihilation.

Manhattan Project

Headed by Robert

Oppenheimer

Helped by his students

at University of Berkley

Created the atom

bomb

The Bombing of Hiroshima

August 6, 1945: On President Truman’s orders, the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

It destroyed about 90% of the city and killed about 140,000 people.

Nagasaki

When the bombing of Hiroshima did not

elicit a surrender from the Japanese

government, a 2nd atomic bomb was

dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

The bomb on Nagasaki was equally

destructive and led to a Japanese

surrender.

V-J Day

August 14, 1945: Japan agreed to an

unconditional surrender.

The formal surrender was signed on

September 2, 1945 on the USS Missouri in

Tokyo Bay, officially ending WWII.

The Results of the War

After the defeat of the Axis powers, all territories that had been taken over by Japan were returned to their pre-war status.

All of the German-occupied territories were supposed to be given free elections, but only the W. European nations became democratic. Stalin refused to honor the Yalta agreements and made E. Europe into a series of Communist dictatorships.

World War II Allied Deaths

Nation Military Civilian Total

France 122,000 470,000 592,000

Britain 305,800 60,600 366,400

US 405,400 0 405,400

USSR 11,000,000 6,700,000 17,700,000

World War II Axis Deaths

Nation Military Civilian Total

Germany 3,250,000 2,350,000 5,600,000

Italy 226,900 60,000 286,900

Japan 1,740,000 393,400 2,133,400