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“Allies Strike Back”
1941-1945
European Theatre
Operation Barbarossa
• June 22, 1941: Hitler launches Operation
Barbarossa: Invasion of Soviet Union
• The Russians practiced a Scorched Earth
Policy: Destroy everything the German’s
would pass through
• Hitler’s largest Mistake of the War.
1942
• January: 26 nations sign the United Nations
agreement
• Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
• November: Operation Torch: Allied forces
(110.000 men) under Dwight D. Eisenhower
land in North Africa.
Battle of Stalingrad
• On April 5, 1942, Hitler ordered his Armies
to Stalingrad, Soviet forces would be
completely cut off from their own oil
supply.
• Operation Uranus: The Red Army secretly
began to mobilize one million troops,
14,000 heavy guns, 979 tanks, and 1,350
aircraft to attack the Germans
Stalingrad
• The German Blitzkrieg stalled in Stalingrad
• German troops were prepared for Summer
fighting, not the harsh Russian winters
• The Germans lost 147,000 men and 91,000
were taken prisoner.
• The Red Army lost 500,000 men in the battle.
• Stalingrad was the first battle where the
German Army surrendered.
1942- Northern Africa
• Famous North African Tank Battles
• Axis Powers led by Erwin Rommel (Desert
Fox)
• Allies led by Dwight Eisenhower and
Bernard Montgomery
• Battle of El Alamein first victory for Allies
in Northern Africa
General Erwin Rommel
1943
• January 14: Casablanca Conference: FDR
and Churchill announce they will accept
nothing less than an unconditional surrender
from the Axis powers
• May: German forces in Africa defeated,
Rommel moved to European front.
1943
• July-August Operation "Husky": Allied
forces invade Sicily, Italy. The greatest
Airborne-Amphibious Operation of WWII;
3.000 ships and landing-craft with 8
Divisions.
• November: Teheran Conference: First "Big
Three" conference to discuss the upcoming
Allied invasion of western Europe
The Big Three

December 24: General Eisenhower chosen
Commander in Chief of Allied Forces in
Europe.
1944
• January: Leningrad freed from Germans
• June 4: Allied Forces capture Rome
• June 6: D-day
D-day: Normandy Invasion
• D-Day does not stand for Doomsday, it was
a code word for the specific operation
• June 6: 5,000 ships and landing-crafts
carried 5 Allied divisions to the French
coast.
• At the first 48 hours, 107,000 men landed.
D-day
1944
• June 12: In total 326.000 men, 104.000 ton
material and 54.000 vehicles were carried to
the French coast
• June 17: 587.000 landed
• July 2: In total 929.000 men, 586.000 ton
material and 177.000 vehicles landed
• August 15: About 2.000.000 men landed
Battle of the Bulge
• December, 1944: Was the last major
offensive by the German Army.
• Battle was primarily Ground infantry,
Armored vehicles and planes.
Bulge Facts
• Over a million men: 500,000 Germans,
600,000 Americans and 55,000 British.
• 100,000 German casualties, killed, wounded
or captured. 81,000 American casualties,
including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed.
• 1,400 British casualties 200 killed. 800 tanks
lost on each side, 1,000 German aircraft.
1945
• Through the late winter/spring Allied
Forces pushed Axis forces back into
Germany.
• The Big Three meet at Yalta to discuss
Post-War Europe, beginning of
disagreements between USSR and Allies:
Possible start of Cold War
1945
• April 16: FDR dies, Vice-President Truman
becomes President
• April 30, 1945 Hitler, trapped in his Berlin
Bunker, shoots himself
• May 8 1945: Germany formally surrenders
July 1945: Potsdam Conference: Splitting of
Germany into Four Allied Zones, Discussion
of Japanese surrender.
“Allies Strike Back”
1941-1945
Pacific Theatre
December
th
7
1941
• Japanese Air Force attack US Naval
Base at Pearl Harbor Hawaii, and attack
the Philippines the same day.
December
th
8
1941
• United States officially declares war on
both Japan and Germany.
• “A Day which will live in Infamy”
The U.S. would use the Pearl Harbor
Bombing as a Propaganda Source
throughout the war.
• For the next several months the
Japanese military cannot be stopped. . . .
• Under the command of General Tojo,
the Japanese attacked many targets
General Tojo
Battle of Coral Sea: May 1942
• Largest all air battle of the war, huge losses
for American airmen.
• First battle to stop Japanese Aggression
June 1942: The Battle of Midway
• Turning Point in the War: Major Victory for
US American Intelligence broke Japanese
military codes,
• planned sneak attack against Japanese battle
plan of Midway island.
• First Allied Victory
Island Hopping
• Allied strategy to avoid Japanese
stronghold, hopping to Japan
• Led by Douglas MacArthur and Chester
Nimitz
July-November 1942: Battle of
Guadalcanal
• 1st Offensive Victory of the Allies
• 1st territory taken from the Japanese
1944- Battle of Leyte-Gulf
• First use of Japanese Suicide Pilots
• Kamikazes “Divine Wind”
1945
Iwo Jima / Okinawa
• Fiercest battles of the war
• Despite little chance of victory,
Japanese would not surrender
1945
• March -- Tokyo Air Raid : Bombing runs
over Tokyo: These attacks on the mainland
were part of the American effort to force
Japan toward a surrender agreement.
• July: At the Potsdam Conference, Stalin
agrees to enter the war against Japan in
August.
• President Truman learns about the A- bomb
at the potsdam conference
• To save American lives, President Truman
orders the use of the A-bomb on Japan.
• August 6 1945: The bombing of Hiroshima
(Little Boy)
• August 9 1945: The bombing of Nagasaki
(Fat Man)
• Hiroshima- August 6th
– 140,000 people killed
• Nagasaki- August 9th
– 80,000 people killed
• September 2: Japan officially surrenders
• Two important points of Japan’s surrender
1. The Emperor openly announces he
was not a living god, shocking loyal
followers
2. Japan was not, and still is not allowed
to have any military forces.