Download world war ii invasion of the soviet union and pearl harbor

WORLD WAR II
INVASION OF THE SOVIET UNION
AND PEARL HARBOR
Invasion of the Soviet Union
• Operation Barbarossa – German invasion of the
Soviet Union – June 22nd, 1941
• Hitler hates communism and views the
Russian people as just a step above Jews
• Has no respect for the Russian army
• Orders the execution of Russians wearing
the Communist insignia
• Attacks with 3 million soldiers and at first the German
blitzkrieg is highly effective
• German troops and tanks race across the Soviet
countryside
• The Soviet army has lots of soldiers, but they are
poorly trained and equipped
• Within six weeks one German army group is 220
miles from Moscow
• Expect to win before winter arrives
• By winter the Germans are deep into Soviet
territory, but have not captured Moscow or
Leningrad
• As winter sets in, German progress slows and
then stops
• Were unprepared for the Russian winter
• The Germans commit horrible atrocities against
the Russian people: murder, torture, cities
starved or completely wiped out
• The Russians knew this would be a fight to the
death and they fought with a sense of
desperation
Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7, 1941
• Why the Japanese attack
• Island nation – need resources and raw materials, so
they have an expanding empire
• Feel provoked by the U.S.
• The U.S. has placed embargoes on resources, such
as oil, and has frozen Japanese bank accounts
• Other defensive measures due to the Japanese
invasion of China
• Why Pearl Harbor
• Need a quick win
• Center for the U.S. Pacific Fleet
• Destroy fleet, take colonies, and sue for peace
• The attack
• Was a two prong attack
• Planes bombed airfields and ships at Pearl Harbor
in three different waves
• Lasted just under two hours
• 200 aircraft destroyed all 8 battleships were either
damaged or sunk in the harbor
• Casualties
• 2,403 dead and 1,100 wounded
• 1,177 men die aboard the U.S.S. Arizona
• At the same time the Japanese attack U.S. colonies of
Wake Island and the Philippines
• The Philippines fall and General Douglas
MacArthur leaves with a promise to returne
• Bataan Death March
• 70,000 prisoners march towards a distant
prisoner camp
• Thousands die due to lack of food, water, and
violence from their Japanese captors
• Many more will die at the prisoner camp
• They also attack Hong Kong, Thailand, Burma,
Malaya, Guam, and French Indochina
• Why fails
• Didn’t eliminate the fuel tanks or other ships (didn’t
launch the third wave)
• All aircraft carriers not in port – they were sent out to
sea a week before
• Aircraft carriers are crucial to battles at sea since
they are able to launch planes
• U.S. reaction
• U.S. Congress declares war on Japan on Dec. 8
• Three days later Germany and Italy declare war on
the U.S.
• The U.S. and the Soviet Union are now part of the
Allied Powers
• Revenge – Doolittle’s raiders bomb Japanese cities
• Bring war home to the Japanese
War in the Pacific
• The Japanese start off with an advantage as the
U.S. works to overcome the damage from Pearl
Harbor
• Battle of Coral Sea – May 1942
• Japanese and Americans meet in battle off the
coast of Australia as the Japanese were getting
ready to invade British-controlled New Guinea
• Both sides lose an aircraft carrier, which hurt
the Americans more
• Battle of Midway Island – Turning Point *
• June 1942 – Japanese want to capture this
American military base
• Japan wants to lure the Americans into
battle and finish what they started at Pearl
Harbor by destroying their fleet
• The U.S. had broken the secret Japanese code
and knew of the attack – U.S. ready and
waiting
• They destroy four aircraft carriers in five
minutes, only lose one of their own
• The Americans now have the advantage
• Island-hopping = take islands that are not as well
defended and cut off supply lines to Japanese
strongholds
• Bypass strongholds and capture weaker targets,
which are then used as bases for the next attack
• Will “hop” from one island to another as they
advance towards Japan
• Battle of Guadalcanal – summer 1942
• Japanese are building an airstrip there
• Brutal series of battles that lasts for six months
• Thousands of Japanese die or kill themselves to avoid
capture
• women and children jump off cliffs, soldiers carry
out old samurai traditions, suicide charges
• Tarawa
• It takes the Americans three days to capture the 8
square mile island
• 17 out of 5,000 Japanese survive
• 3,000 American casualties
• From 1942 to 1944 the Allies capture the Solomon,
Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana islands
• MacArthur returns to the Philippines in fall of 1944
• Battle of Leyte – largest naval battle ever fought
• First major use of a new Japanese weapon, the
kamikaze attack
• Kamikazes = Japanese pilots who load their planes
with explosives and deliberately crash into Allied
ships, sacrificing their own lives
• Battle ends in victory for the U.S.
• America recaptures the Philippines
• Iwo Jima – Feb. 1945
• Want to capture the island to make the regular
bombing raids on Japan easier for U.S. pilots
• The Japanese decide to make the Americans think
twice about invading Japan
• Takes 25 days to capture the five mile island
• Approximately 7,000 Americans dead and 20,000
wounded
• Out of 21,000 Japanese, only 216 surrender
• Fought to the death
• Raising the flag
• Okinawa
• Many casualties, war of attrition
• 82 days of combat
• Kamikazes sank or damaged 245 ships
• U.S. casualties = 75,000, with 12,000 dead
• Approx. 120,000 Japanese killed, along with
150,000 Okinawan civilians
• Now at Japan’s doorstep