World War Two 1939 - 1945

Stalingrad (Stalingrad)

Pearl Harbor

The Atlantic Wall

Battle of El Alamein • November 1942 • General Erwin “Desert Fox” Rommel

• Afrika Korps • General Bernard Montgomery • General Dwight Eisenhower

• Operation Torch • Casablanca

The “Big Three” Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill

Tehran, Iran 1942

Agree to finish war in Europe first

Italian Campaign Goal - breakthrough to Rome

Battle of Monte Cassino • Longest and bloodiest battle

• Liri Valley ends in stalemate in Anzio

Battle of Kursk July 5, 1943 - August 23, 1943 Soviet tanks defeat Nazi panzer divisions decisively Nazis always in retreat after this

Operation Overlord

D-Day

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istory

Liberation of Europe

Allied soldiers push in to Paris and free France

Soviet army closes in on Germany from the East, crossing Elbe

US and British forces advance from the west, crossing Rhine

August 25, 1944 - France Liberated

September Belgium and Luxembourg liberated

Allied Attacks on Germany Round the clock bombing for 2 yrs. Major industrial cities (Hamburg and Dresden)

Battle of the Bulge (1944) Allied advance into Belgium via Ardennes German counterattack Delays allies 6 weeks

March to Berlin March - April 1945 Hitler commits suicide Germany surrenders in May 7, 1945

V-E Day: May 8, 1945

Yalta ConferenceSouthern Russia, February 1945Russia enters war against Japan no later than 3 months after Hitler’s defeat Russia promised two islands, occupation zone in Korea and division of Germany

Battle of Corregidor May 5-6, 1942Manila Bay Americans loose Philippines

Bataan Death March May 1942Filipino and American POW65 mile march Starved, beaten and bayoneted

Battle of Coral Sea May 1942First air-sea battle - use of aircraft carriersStopped Japanese from taking important islands = first major setback for Japanese

August 1942-February 1943

Allies attacked Japanese airbase Solomon Islands

Island hopping campaignGoal - recapture Japanese held islands by bypassing others

Blockade of Japan Admiral Chester Nimitz

Savage struggle ended with more than 24,000 dead

February - June 1945

Allied push to takeover the Japanese mainland

Brutal fighting over small islands close to Japan

Extremely high casualties on both sided

Battle of Okinawa The most intense Kamikaze attacks

Iwo Jima

Hiroshima: August 6, 1945 “Little Boy” Enola Gay (B-29)

Nagasaki: August 9, 1945 “Fat Man”

August 10, 1945 Emperors Hirohito surrenders

September 2, 1945 Formal peace signed Battleship Missouri, Tokyo Bay

Why use Nuclear technology? 1. Invasion of Japan would cost

millions of lives 2. Quickest end to the the war

Deaths = 140,000+ Japanese civilians Untold radiation damage

V-J DAY SEPT. 2, 1945