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Name:______________________________ Date: ________
U.S. History
Unit #8
World War II
World War II Statistics
Directions: Label the countries in the chart below. Use the map on the next page. Differentiate
between the Allied Powers (Blue?) and the Axis Powers (Red?) by using two colors.
Military Issues and Events
Directions: Read each of the issues and events and proceed to label the world map with the
icons that represent each of the events. These can be drawn and repeated.
1. Battle of Midway – (June of 1942) A battle in the Pacific between the U.S. and
Japan (considered a turning point). The U.S. defeated Japan. After the battle, Japan's
shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their
losses, while the U.S. steadily increased output in both areas.
2. The U.S. military advancement through the Pacific Islands – After the Battle of
Midway, General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz led what came to
be known as “Island Hopping,” with the goal to attain a position close enough to
mainland Japan to conduct an attack. Hard fought battles against Japan took place in
many of the Pacific islands.
3. The Bataan Death March – took place in Philippines in 1942 after the Japanese
took over the Philippine Islands; it was a forcible transfer of 75,000 American and
Filipino prisoners of war; there were high fatalities due to physical abuse and cruelty.
4. The invasion of Normandy – June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day was a
strategically planned Allied invasion of Northern France to liberate France from
German occupation. While thousands of lives were lost, Operation Overlord was a
success. German forces began to retreat and Allied forces pushed forward.
5. Fighting the war on multiple fronts – the United States and its allies were at war
with Japan, Germany and Italy; the war in Europe was predominately fought on land,
and the war in the Pacific was fought both at sea and on land (islands)
6. The liberation of concentration camps – American, British, and Soviet forces
liberated the people in concentration camps from the Nazi forces. Liberators
confronted terrible and cruel conditions including piles of unburied corpses. Only after
the liberation of these camps was the full scope of the Holocaust horrors exposed to
the world. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state sponsored
persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime.
7. Conventional Weapons developed included the Higgins boat (used for D-Day
invasion of Normandy), tanks, bombers, torpedoes, improved submarines, the M1
rifle (first semi-automatic rifle) aircraft carriers, etc.
8. The development of atomic weapons by the United States increased the
destructive capability of a country while minimizing that country’s loss of lives and
number of troops necessary to defeat the enemy. It also changed how battles were
fought (from using ground troops to using bombs). Two atomic bombs were dropped
over two Japanese cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki).