Download US History, May 14

US History, May 14
• Entry Task: Please take out your packets!
• Announcements:
– Permission forms for the beginning of “Saving
Private Ryan” – alternative assignment given to
those without permission.
– We are going to skip #13 for now, but we’ll answer
#s 14, 15, 16, 17
– Homework: reading about Eisenhower (leave the
top beaches blank for now)
Boeing’s contribution!
• During World War II, Boeing and its partners
worked together to produce a staggering
98,965 aircraft, including the famed B-17
“Flying Fortress.” Representing nearly 28
percent of America’s total aircraft production,
Boeing proved a principal contributor to
industrial production during the war. These
planes helped guarantee victory for Allied
forces and served as a symbol of American
might and innovation.
When the
U.S. entered WW2
in late
1941,
Japan
dominated
Germany
controlled
victory
seemed
remote
the western half of
almost all of Europe
the Pacific Ocean
Axis armies
controlled
Northern Africa
& threatened
the Suez Canal
Germany pressed
into Russia
Europe 1941-1943
The U.S. wanted
to attack across
Nazi-controlled
France by 1943
If the Germans had gained access to
the Suez Canal and Middle East oil,
they would have cut Britain off from
India and
much needed supplies
England
wanted
to attack Italy In 1942,
troops
To U.S.-Anglo
win the European
Infrom
1943,
the Sovietbegan
armycampaign,
wonItalian
at Stalingrad;
Northern
the
2campaign
different
Germany
was never &
again
on was
the
offensive
Africa in 1942
Stalin
ANGRY
plans
were
proposed
MAJOR TURNING POINTS IN WWII
(EUROPE/N. AFRICA)
• German arrogance/mistakes
– German decision to stop the advance in France, thus allowing
the British and French to escape from Dunkirk (1940).
– Battle of Britain - failure to defeat Britain.
– German decision to invade Russia.
– The US entering the war after Pearl Harbor.
• Stalingrad.
• The Strategic bombings in Germany '43-'44.
• The surrender of The Afrika Korps & invasion of
Italy.
• The Success of the D-Day Landings.
The Allies began to win the Battle of the Atlantic in
1941 with Lend-Lease aid, but took control in 1943
with America’s entry into the war
THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
Almost two million tons of Allied ships were
resting on the ocean floor in just 2 months.
Over 15 million tons were lost overall.
• After America’s entry into
the war, Hitler was
determined to prevent
foods and war supplies
from reaching Britain and
the USSR from America’s
east coast
• He ordered submarine
raids on U.S. ships on the
Atlantic, “wolf packs”
• During the first four
months of 1942 Germany
sank 87 U.S. ships
• Summer 1942 – one Allied
ship went down every 4
hours!
• In the first seven months of
1942, German U-boats sank
681 Allied ships in the Atlantic
• Something had to be done or
the war at sea would be lost
• First, Allies used convoys of
ships & airplanes to transport
supplies
• Destroyers used sonar to track
U-boats and broke the German
code system, called the Enigma
• Airplanes were used to track
the U-boats ocean surfaces
• With this improved tracking, Allies
inflicted huge losses on German Uboats
ALLIES
CONTROL
U-BOATS
U-426 sinks after attack from the
air, January 1944. Almost twothirds of all U-boat sailors died
during the Battle of the Atlantic.
STALINGRAD
July ‘42-Feb 43—TURNING POINT
•Russians took the offensive and began to drive Axis forces from
their soil.
•Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history with a
combined casualty toll of almost 2 million people.
•Hitler, refusing to allow retreat, lost 750,000 + 91,000 German
troops were taken prisoner. Soviet Union lost 1.1 million!
•Of those 91,000, an estimated 5,000 survived Soviet labor camps.
The invading Germans saw the conquest of Stalingrad as
essential to their campaign in southern Russia, since from
this strategic point on the Volga River they could launch
further assaults in the Caucasus.
The Russians were determined to defend the city as a vital
industrial and transportation center. Also, the city bore
Stalin’s NAME (SYMBOLIC)
German Bombers Over Stalingrad
Street fighting Stalingrad
Stalingrad: Germans controlled
9/10 of the city
The 1/10 holds out
November 1942: Red Army
counterattacks
• Weakly held
German flanks
collapse
• German 6th
Army is cut off
& surrounded
– surrender
comes Feb
1943
German POWs Stalingrad – out of
91,000 – only 5,000 made it home
El Alamein– July-November 1942: Turning point
Important British Victory
Following El Alamein, Churchill’s plan was to
reach Germany through Italy: “Europe’s soft
underbelly”.
British Infantry at El Alamein
Significance: it
ended Axis
hopes of
occupying
Egypt, taking
control of the
Suez Canal,
and gaining
access to the
Middle Eastern
oil fields.
Why North Africa FIRST?
• Americans originally wanted to attack Europe &
Stalin wanted a 2nd front to divert troops – Churchill
convinced them to start in Africa
• November 8, 1942 – Operation Torch begins: Allies
land at Casablanca, Oran, Algiers
– Allies attempted to stop the Axis advance, pull
pressure off the Soviet Union, and allow for the
opening of a second European front
Allied Commanders
• US General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• US General George Patton
• British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery
Montgomery at El-Alamein
The U.S. also
had to fight
Vichy French
forces
Axis Commander
• Erwin Rommel – Ordered to
assist the Italians by Hitler
• Nicknamed the “Desert Fox”
• Continues to fight in Europe
(D-Day) after Germans are
defeated in N. Africa
• Remembered as one of the
greatest generals of all time
• In the end: forced to commit
suicide after implicated in a
plot to kill Hitler
CASABLANCA MEETING
• FDR and Churchill met in
Casablanca and decided
their next moves
• 1) Plan amphibious
invasions of France and
Italy
• 2) Only unconditional
surrender would be
accepted
FDR and Churchill in Casablanca
Operation Torch:
significance
 American troops were green and NEEDED the practice
fighting away from home
 The invasion involved more
than 100,000 men and over 600
ships, placing it among the
largest such invasions in history.
 Opens the door to Sicily and
Italy
 Frees up 5-6 million tons of
shipping
Allies took more than
1,000 miles of North
African coastline, push the
Germans out of North
Africa, and control the
Mediterranean.
 British and US figure out
how to work together
Allies take Tripoli – Kasserine Pass
Allies vs. Italian and German defenders – critical test of
how to stage large-scale amphibious landings
American Cargo Ship Hit off of Sicily –
Allied casualties: 25,000
Italy was called the “soft
underbelly” of Europe
The Tide Turns
• In Italy, Mussolini is overthrown in September 1943 and the
new government joined the Allies.
April 29, 1945
Mussolini and
15 other fascist
leaders are
executed and
hanged at an
Esso gas
station in the
Piazzale Loreto
in Milan.
Gustav Line
• Three German
defense lines kept
the Allies from
moving up the
“boot” of Italy
• Salerno –
September 1943
• Italy surrenders,
but Germans take
over the battle
Allies March Into Italy
Tehran Conference – Nov-Dec 1943
Roosevelt & Churchill affirm their intention to
invade Western Europe
Fighting in Italy – “one tough gut”
• Bloody Anzio –
January–Feb. 1944
– An effort to bypass the
German Gustav Line
– Both sides dug in for a
grueling, 4 month siege
• Rome is not declared
an open city until June
4, 1944
The Italian
Campaign…
• failed to force Germany
to divert any of its
resources away from
the Russian front
• led Stalin to suspect
that Britain and the U.S.
were intentionally
leaving Russia to suffer
the brunt of Nazi power
Monte Cassino
May 1943 – British and S Africans – march
toward Rome
In Germany,
approximately 20% of
the total
houses/housing units,
were destroyed or
heavily damaged.
300,000 civilians killed and 780,000 were
wounded.
The principal German cities have been largely
reduced to hollow walls and piles of rubble.
German industry is bruised and temporarily
paralyzed.
By
agreeing
to “Operation
Overlord”
Tehran
Conference,
1943
FDR proposed
a future
Unitedwould
Nations
dominated
(D-Day),
the Allies
divide
the
by “4 policemen”
(USA, Britain,
& USSR)
Axis military
across China,
two fronts
with power to “deal immediately with any
• Insudden
1943, FDR,
Churchill,
Stalinrequires
met in Tehran,
emergency
which
action”
Iran for the first of three wartime conferences:
– The USA, Britain, USSR coordinated their
war strategy
– FDR & Churchill finally committed to Stalin’s
demands to open a western front (D-Day)
– Discussed plans to create a “general
internat’l organization” to promote “peace
& security” (UN)
Europe 1944-1945
U.S. & British
troops landed at
5 strategic points,
pushed through
France, drove
towards Germany
The long-awaited 2nd
front came on June 6,
1944 with D-Day
US History, May 15
• Entry Task: Please take out your packets!
• Announcements:
– Permission forms for the beginning of “Saving
Private Ryan” – alternative assignment given to
those without permission.
– We are going to answer #19
– Beaches/Eisenhower worksheet (leave the top
beaches blank for now)
By late 1943, early 1944, Allies had…
• Air Superiority over Europe
• Success against the U-boats in the Atlantic
• Success at Stalingrad & Kursk (Soviets); March
1944 – Soviets enter Poland
• Every German agent was either dead, jailed, or
working for British intelligence.
• Now, to take “Fortress Europe” at Normandy,
heavily defended by Army Group B of the
German Army under command of Field Marshal
Erwin Rommel (Commander of all German Forces was Field
Marshal von Rundstedt).
By June 1944, there
were over 1.5
million US troops in
Britain
Stockpiles of
equipment: 2.5 tons
7 million tons of oil
stored in UK
• How do you hide the largest invasion force in
history???
Europe 1944-1945
U.S. & British
troops landed at
5 strategic points,
pushed through
France drove
towards Germany
The long-awaited 2nd
front came on June 6,
1944 with D-Day
Winston Churchill to his wife the night
before: “Do you realise that by the time
you wake up in the morning twenty
thousand men may have been killed?”
Amphibious landings: Dieppe
• Attack on the Nazis in France by the British,
August 18, 1942
• More than 2/3 of a 6,000 man raiding force
were left behind on the beach
Amphibious landings: Tarawa
• Attack by the US
Marine Corps in
the central Pacific,
November 1943
• 3,000 casualties
• the Atlantic Wall: a
formidable complex
of defences running
from the FrancoSpanish border to
Denmark
Knocked out German gun position on
Utah Beach
Atlantic Wall fortification
Transportation Plan – By the 1st week in June:
• French rail and road
communications had
been seriously damaged
• the Luftwaffe in France
reduced to about 800
operational machines
• But the cost had been
enormous. Two thousand
Allied aircraft were lost
and 12,000 airmen killed.
• Under the direction of General Erwin Rommel,
all beaches on which a landing was considered
possible had been festooned with belts of
obstacles and minefields, and covered by
machine-gun and mortar emplacements.
Amphibious Landing…
http://www.strijdbewijs.nl/hinder/obstacles.htm
D—Day June 6 1944- Operation Overlord
Largest amphibious landing in history.
– Originally scheduled for June 5 (weather deemed insufficient –
after June 6, TWO more weeks until a full moon)
– 4,000 ships crossed the channel to invade “Fortress
Europe”; 50-mile stretch of Normandy.
– Allied forces landed 156,000 troops on the coast of
France in one day.
– By August, France was liberated. Within six months,
they were successful in reaching Germany.
– 2,499 American D-Day fatalities and 1,915 from the
other Allied nations, a total of 4,414 dead
– German casualties – between 4,000-9,000
Losses
were
extremely
heavy on
D-Day
US History, May 18
• Entry Task: Please take out your packets!
• Writing Prompt: Why was the success of D-Day so
significant for the Allies – and those oppressed by
the Axis Powers?
• Announcements:
– Grades were updated on Friday, FYI.
– We are going to answer #18, 19 and finish the
Beaches/Eisenhower worksheet
– FYI: Australian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek,
New Zealand, Norwegian, Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe),
and Polish fighters participated in D-Day
Largest invasion in history
The Allied Commanders:
General Omar Bradley, Admiral Bertram Ramsey, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur
Tedder, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Sir
Bernard Montgomery, Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, and
Lieutenant-General Walter Bedell Smith.
GOALS of D-Day
• Open a second front (relieve pressure on the
Soviets in the East)
• Liberation of France (weaken Germany’s
overall position and secure a bridgehead in
Normandy)
• Drain German resources
• Block access to key military sites
German Army – around 400,000
were killed, wounded, or captured
during the Normandy Campaign
From D-Day until Christmas 1944, German prisoners of war were
shipped off to American detention facilities at a rate of 30,000 per
month.
D-Day will make this possible by March
1945: British/American troops shaking
hands with Soviet forces in Germany
Operation
Bodyguard:
sites set up as “fake
outs”
The deception worked. The Germans concentrated their most
powerful formation, 15th Army, in the Pas de Calais. Normandy
was held by the smaller, but still formidable 7th Army.
Hitler’s Mistakes
• Slept until noon that day – no moves until his
orders!
• Unwillingness to take advice/suspicion of
generals – they begged for all available
reinforcements (including 2 Panzer divisions
nearby)
• No plans put in motion for counterattack – he
wanted to wait until the situation became clearer
• Launched V-1 attacks against London (instead of
beaches at Normandy)
• Forces were over-stretched and over-estimated
Some good luck
• Field Marshal Rommel – left June 5 to celebrate
his wife’s birthday – 400 miles away
• Key officers took advantage of the bad weather to
go to Rouen
• 21st Panzer Division commander visited his
mistress in Paris
• French resistance provided military intelligence
• For German field commanders on the scene, the first minutes of the
invasion brought great alarm and great confusion. Frantic phone calls
went out to their generals and they in turn phoned the High Command,
whose ranking members were presently staying with Hitler at his
mountaintop villa at Berchtesgaden, not at their regular headquarters.
Multi-part attack – air, sea, land
U.S. 82nd and 101st
Airborne Divisions,
numbering 13,000
paratroopers
45% of units were widely
scattered and unable to rally.
Eisenhower addresses paratroopers
prior to D-Day
BAND OF BROTHERS miniseries dramatizes the experience of "Easy" Company (part
of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division)
Planes drop paratroopers behind enemy lines at Normandy, France
June 5, 2009
Paratroopers After D-Day
• 1 – Utah Beach
• 2 – Omaha Beach
• 3 – Gold Beach
4 – Juno Beach
5 – Sword Beach
Gold Beach
Gold
• Who landed on Gold beach?
This was a British landing beach. The British 50th Infantry
Division, and the 47th Royal Marine Commando, led the
attack.
• What were their orders?
To cut the important road from Caen to Bayeux and take over
the small port of Arromanches. It was hoped they could link
up with the US troops at Omaha Beach and the Canadians at
Juno Beach.
• How did it go?
There were 400 casualties as the beach was secured.
• At first, German strongpoints inflicted heavy casualties, but
combination of Petard mortar and Crocodile tank soon
smashed defenses (some damaged by land mines)
• A naval bombardment in the morning weakened the German
positions and the town of La Rivière was taken at 10am. By
the end of the day 25,000 troops had come ashore at Gold
beach.
Juno Beach
Juno
• Who landed on Juno beach?
This was a Canadian landing beach for the 3rd Canadian Division,
joined by tanks from the British Hussars.
• What were their orders?
To cut the road from Caen to Bayeux, link up with the British forces
at Gold and Sword beaches and take an airport west of Caen.
• How did it go?
The Canadian troops suffered a lot of casualties. There were 1,200
dead or wounded out of the 21,000 troops who landed at Juno on
D-Day. Casualty rates in the first hour were very high, with half of
the first assault teams killed or wounded.
• By the end of D-Day the Canadians had linked up with the British
from Gold beach. They took the towns of Bernières and SaintAubin. Some of the tanks managed to cut the Caen-Bayeux
highway.
Sword Beach
Sword
• Who landed on Sword beach?
This was a British landing beach for the 3rd Division
together with French and British commandos.
• What were their orders?
The aim was to capture the town of Caen which was at the
center of the local road network. The commandos would
move inland and meet up with the airborne Allied troops
who had taken over important bridges a few miles in from
the coast.
• How did it go?
About 29,000 soldiers landed on the beach on D-Day and
there were 630 casualties, dead or wounded. A German
battery was temporarily disabled by gliders. They finished
the day four miles short of the town of Caen but were
successful in linking up with the airborne units.
Utah Beach
Utah Beach
• Who landed on Utah beach?
This was an American landing beach.
The US 4th Infantry Division came ashore here at 6.30am on
D-Day.
• What were their orders?
To break out and split up. Most of the troops would push
north towards the important harbor at Cherbourg.
• How did it go?
They were the first to land; 23,000 (210 will be killed, go
missing, or be wounded)
Although many soldiers drowned as they climbed down into
the smaller boats (because of the waves), the troops came
ashore about 1,000 yards South of intended landing place, luckily
avoiding heavy defenses
• The rest of the troops also came ashore at the "wrong" place.
Omaha Beach
A soldier of the 116th Infantry Division
recalled: "I got out in water up to the top of
my boots. People were yelling, screaming,
dying, running on the beach, equipment
was flying everywhere, men were bleeding
to death, crawling, lying everywhere, firing
coming from all directions. We dropped
down behind anything that was the size of
a golf ball. Colonel Canham, Lieutenant
Cooper, and Sergeant Crawford were
screaming at us to get off the beach. I
turned to say to Gino Ferrari, 'Let's move
up, Gino,' but before I could finish the
sentence, something spattered all over the
side of my face. He'd been hit in the face
and his brains splattered all over my face
and my stuff. I moved forward and the tide
came on so fast it covered him and I no
longer could see him."
Omaha Beach, pocked by D-Day
bombardment
OMAHA
BEACH
6/6/44
American soldiers on the beach had to climb the cliffs and
dislodge the Germans one-by-one, taking out the machinegun nests and 88mm guns which had so far killed hundreds
of Americans.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Omaha
Who landed on Omaha beach?
This was an American landing beach for the US 1st infantry division with the
116th regiment of the 29th division.
What were their orders?
To capture the coastal villages and then cut off the important road from
Bayeux to Isigny.
How did it go?
This was the toughest place to land. The US soldiers had to fight really hard to
get ashore and 2,400 were killed or wounded. There were problems even
before the first soldier landed on the beach.
The German defenses on the beach were supposed to have been damaged by
an attack from bombers and warships, but these had missed their targets. The
defenses were intact, so troops had to advance up the beach under heavy fire
from German machine guns positioned on a cliff.
Thirty amphibious tanks that would have helped protect the American troops
nearly all sank because the waves were too big. The conditions on the beach
were recreated in the film Saving Private Ryan.
Despite all this by the end of the day 34,000 US troops had been landed here
and the push inland had begun.
Planners had scheduled 2,400 tons of supplies to reach Omaha Beach during
D-Day, but only 100 tons got ashore
• A U.S. Coast Guard LCI,
heavily listing to port,
moves alongside a
transport ship to
evacuate her troops on
June 6, 1944. Moments
later the craft will
capsize and sink. Note
that helmeted
infantrymen, with full
packs, are all standing
to starboard side of the
ship
On the Beach
Toward the Cover of Tanks
Medics at D-Day
D-Day injured
Omaha Beach
The world hears the news
• German radios announced the invasion at
7am (promise that invaders would be “swiftly
annihilated”)
• By mid-afternoon it was clear – battle was
running in the Allies’ favor
• Churchill addressed the House of Commons to
announce an astounding success
The beach days following D-day
Liberation of Paris
FRANCE FREED
• By September 1944, the Allies
had freed France, Belgium and
Luxembourg
• Hitler had seen four million
Germans killed, wounded or
taken prisoner.
• That good news – and the
American people’s desire not to
“change horses in midstream” –
helped elect FDR to an
unprecedented 4th term
General George Patton (right)
was instrumental in Allies
freeing France
“Paris is like a magic sword in a fairy tale — a shining power in
those hands to which it rightly belongs, in other hands tinsel and
lead. Whenever the City of Light changes hands, Western
Civilization shifts its political balance. So it has been for seven
centuries; so it was in 1940; so it was last week.”
VS
Over 40,000 persons were killed
in the Hamburg firestorm while
three quarters of the city was
destroyed. Such scenes were
repeated in several other cities
including Berlin, Munich,
Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Cologne
and Dresden. In addition to the
human toll, centuries of art and
culture vanished as thousandyear-old cathedrals and
cherished historical monuments
were instantly turned to rubble.
Hitler: isolated himself – stopped
making speeches – rarely seen
in public (Wolf’s Lair military
headquarters)
Assignment: Write a news article
reporting the results of the Battle of the
Bulge. Include a headline, an overview
of the battle, and make sure you have
covered your basic facts: who, what,
when, where, how and the significance.
http://www.teachingamericanhistory.or
g/neh/interactives/wwii/lesson3/
Battle of the Bulge
or Ardennes Offensive
• Dec. 16, 1944 – Jan. 25, ‘45
• Largest and costliest land battle
for US troops; last German
offensive of the war
• Germans managed to
penetrate deep into Allied
territory, creating a massive
bulge in center of the American
lines.
• Germans lost 120,000 troops,
600 tanks and assault guns,
and 1600 planes
Europe 1944-1945
• Bart Hagerman, Private, 17th Airborne: We were
always thinking about food. We were always thinking about the
cold and how to get warm or how to get dry. And we were always
thinking about sleep. You were lucky if you got two or three hours'
sleep and if the sun ever did come out -- and it did finally during
the latter part -- it almost put you to sleep just immediately.
• I would go to sleep at night and my feet would get cold and I would
wake up and they were numb and I'd start kicking them together
and get circulation started again, and I was good maybe for
another hour or so.
• Ed Stewart, Sergeant, 84th Infantry: It's very difficult to
sleep if you're shivering with cold. One of the things that you do, you
lie down on your side and bring your knees up. And you'd be paired
with another guy who is facing you so your knees would go into his
stomach and your head around his head. You have two people in the
womb position taking advantage of that position to preserve body
heat and life.Another way of doing it -- to keep you off the snow -- is
you take three persons, three men, and you put your arms around
each other's shoulders so that you got three bodies, if you will,
propping each other up. And then you lower your head and you go to
sleep standing up. You never really went off into a deep sleep -- sort
of half-awake, half-asleep.
• Roger Rutland, First Sergeant, 106th Infantry: I had
frozen toes. My big toes were as big as a-- much bigger
than a golf ball, and I had many men that I had to send
back and that had feet amputated at the ankles. Some of
them would just lose their toes.
Bastogne
•The US 101st Airborne
Division was completely
surrounded (4 to 1) in
Bastogne but never fell
• Artillery flattened the town, tanks and infantry attacked
from every side, there was no way to evacuate the
wounded…
• the 101st acting commander, Brigadier General Anthony
McAuliffe, famously replied to a formal surrender
request with one word: 'Nuts!‘
• Patton's Third Army, advancing from the south, relieved
Bastogne on 26 December.
Yalta Conference in February 1945
To recognize the independence &
nations
in Eastern
Europe
• The sovereignty
“Big 3” met atofYalta
to discuss
post-war
Europe given the eminent defeat of Germany:
– Stalin refused to give up Eastern Europe but he did
agree to “self-determination”
– Stalin agreed to send Soviet troops to the Pacific after
the German surrender if the USSR could keep
Manchuria
Soon after the Yalta Conference in Feb 1945,
FDR died…and Harry Truman became president
Mussolini &
His Mistress,
Claretta
Petacci
Are Hung in
Milan, 1945
• April 30, 1945 - Hitler married
Eva Braun and they swallowed
cyanide and Hitler shot himself
with a pistol.
The bodies of Hitler
and Eva Braun were
cremated in the
chancellery garden
by the bunker
survivors (as per Der
Fuhrer's orders) and
reportedly later
recovered in part by
Russian troops.
In late April 1945, the Allies broke through
the Eastern & Western Fronts forcing both
Italy & Germany to surrender
WW2 Timeline
(Allies, Axis, USSR)
“Island-hopping”
allowed
the Allies
to win
The Doolittle Raid
on Tokyo
on April
strategic 18,
islands
investing
precious
1942without
was a morale
boost
time, resources, & American lives
U.S. victory at Midway in 1942
gave the Allies naval supremacy
The Japanese refused to play by according
to the Geneva Convention “rules” of war
The German surrender in May 1945, allowed
the U.S. to turn its full attention towards Japan
Victories at Saipan in 1944 & Iwo Jima &
Okinawa in 1945 allowed for bombings on Japan
The Decision to Drop the A-Bomb
• With no definitive end it sight, how would the
Allies defeat Japan?
– The U.S. military favored a full-scale invasion of Tokyo
by 1946
– The Japanese refused to surrender & were arming
civilians for an Allied invasion
– At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, Truman gave
the order to use the atomic bomb
Enrico Fermi at the
University of Chicago
Triumph & Tragedy in the Pacific
• In August 1945, the USA forced Japan to
surrender by dropping 2 atomic bombs
• Effect of the atomic bomb:
– Saved hundreds of thousands of American (&
Japanese) lives
– Revenge for Pearl Harbor
– Showed the USSR that the USA had the ultimate
weapon (began the Cold War nuclear arms race)
Nagasaki
Hiroshima
WW2 Timeline
(Allies, Axis, USSR)
Its Finally Over!
Conclusions
• WW2 was the largest & deadliest war in history &
changed the U.S.
– Wartime industry ended the Great Depression,
expanded the size of the federal gov’t, & ushered in
affluent decade
– The USA emerged as a world superpower, developed a
nuclear arsenal, & engaged a Cold War against the USSR