Download 8th Grade Social Studies PowerPoint The United States in World War II

 Neutrality
Act of 1937
• Forbade selling arms to belligerent nations
 1939:
Nazi blitzkrieg of Poland
• WWII begins in Europe
• Allies and Axis form
• FDR: “This nation will remain a neutral nation”
 “Cash and Carry” agreements (1939)
• Arms embargo repealed
• Allowed for export of weapons
 Purchasing nation had to pay cash
 Carry weapons in their own ships
 FDR asked for $3,000,000,000 defense
increase
• Built up US army
 Gave
50 destroyers to British for 99 year
lease on bases in British territories
 1st ever peacetime draft

Lend-Lease Act (1941)
• US could lend or lease weapons to any country whose defense
was deemed vital to the US
US ended diplomatic relationship with Germany and
Italy
 Atlantic Charter

• Issued by FDR and Churchill (Great Britain’s Prime Minister)
• Declared that signing nations would stand against governments
that oppose the will of their people
• 4 Freedoms: From want, from fear, of speech, of religion
• Signed by 15 countries

US defended its “sea frontier”
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2/3 of the way to Great Britain
Essentially undeclared war between Germany and US
US helped Britain find and sink the German battleship Bismark
Retaliation by Germans versus US destroyers
 Japan
had signed a mutual assistance pact
with Germany
• Led by Hideki Tojo (Prime Minister)
• Began preparing assault on eastern Asia
 US in negotiations with the Japanese
• US army in the pacific was the only obstacle to the
Japanese ambitions
 Japanese
envoy received a message on Dec
7, 1941 to break off negotiations at 1PM
• We had broken their code, knew the message
• We failed to relay the message to Pearl Harbor in
time
 Sunday, many people were off
 Sent in a non-priority telegraph


Pearl Harbor was the naval base in Hawaii
7:55 Hawaii time bombs began dropping
• December 7th, 1941
• Aimed at the American battleship fleet
• Arizona, California, and Utah sunk
 15 others, as well
• 120 planes destroyed
• 2408 people killed

FDR referred to Pearl Harbor as “a date which
will live in infamy”
• Speech

War declared on Japan, Dec 8
• Only one dissenting vote

Germany and Italy declared war on US 3 days
later
2
Theaters of World War II
• Pacific
• European
 Japanese
bombed US base in the
Philippines on same day as Pearl Harbor
• Did much damage to US aircraft
 US
retreated to Bataan Peninsula
• US Gen. MacArthur went to Corregidor, then
Australia
 Japanese
won
 Destroyed a whole allied fleet
 Bataan
fell
 Japanese war code had no provision for
surrender
• Did not know how to handle POWs
• Bataan Death March across the island
 FDR
wanted to show Japanese the
Americans would never give up
• Despite the losses
 Gen. James
Tokyo
Doolittle led bombing raid on
• 16 B-25 Bombers
• Had enough fuel to get to Tokyo, but not back
 Might be able to make it to China
• Dropped bombs, but many planes crashed
 Tremendous
psychological boost for US
 Japan tried to take New Guinea
• Would allow them to then take Australia
 US sent out carriers to engage Japanese
 2 fleets were 80 miles apart
• Yet spent whole day trying and failing to find
each other
 First
naval engagement where ships to
not engage one another
• All fighting done by carrier-based planes
 Not decisive for either side
• But the Japanese abandoned their plans


US island
Japanese planned attack using Zeroes
• Fighter planes
• Thought US weak and damaged

US had broken Japanese code
• Knew attack was coming
• Prepared a counterstrike
• Worked around the clock to fix fleet

First Japanese strike successful
• Destroyed half of the US planes

US launched counterstrike as Zeroes returned to
refuel
• Destroyed bombers and fighter planes
• Sunk the Japanese carriers

Turning point of the Pacific Theatre
 US
went on the offensive
 Guadalcanal
• In the Solomon Islands
• Ideal location for US air base
 US
landed virtually unopposed
 The
first night of the operation at
Guadalcanal
 Japanese attack
• Japanese took out 4 US cruisers
 Control
of island changed every day and
night
• Japanese dominated at night
• US air power proved superior during the day
• Went on for 3 months
 Japanese
went to take the US airfield
 Japanese sent waves of infantryman to
take it from the Marines
• They had set up on a ridge near the airfield
• 3-1 odds
• Bayonet attacks
 Marines
held up
• Killed 600 Japanese
• Lost 40 marines
 Battle
for Guadalcanal continued

Japanese planned all out bombardment of
airfield, large landing force
• Henderson Field

US sent fleet to head them off
• Confusion amongst US forces
 Near crashes
 Friendly fire

5 US, 3 Japanese ships sunk
• Earned nickname “Ironbottom Bay”


US avoided assault of Henderson Field
Japanese led one last all out assault
• US fleet sunk 2 battleships, 11 troop transports
• Japanese only landed 2,000 men

US had sole possession of the island within 10
weeks
 European Theater
 “Operation Torch”
• Amphibious landing in North Africa
• Planned by US, Great Britain
• Led by US General Dwight D. Eisenhower
 Morocco and Algeria
• Most lightly held Axis-occupied territories
 British defeated General Erwin Rommel
• “The Desert Fox” – German tank commander
• At the Battle of El Alamein
 Germans counterattacked
• Beat the US at the Battle of Kasserine Pass
• US retook it, drove Germans from North Africa
 Allies
wanted to invade Sicily
• Island off the coast of Italy
 The “Man Who
Never Was”
• Body of unidentified soldier was given fake i.d.
 “Major Martin”
• Body was dropped off of the coast of Spain
 Found by Axis agent
 Report “information” that Allies were going to attack
Sardinia
 Axis powers prepared for invasion at Sardinia
 General
Patton took Sicily
 Invasion
of Sicily led to Italian Dictator
Mussolini losing power
 New Italian government started secret
negotiations with the Allies
 Sept 8, 1943 Italians surrendered
unconditionally
 Nazis
took control of Italian peninsula
 Operation Avalanche
• The landing of US troops at Salerno
 Nazis
were prepared for this landing
• Almost destroyed Allied military
• US had to put all their men (including non-
combat personnel) into action
 Allies
took Salerno
 Allies still had to go through rest of Italy
 Unconditional
Surrender: One side has
to surrender without negotiations
• Cannot ask for special treatment or terms
• Has to let itself be completely dominated by
victorious side
 FDR
and British P.M. Winston Churchill
met at Casablanca in 1943
• Decided not to end war without unconditional
surrender
 Delayed
the end of the war
 AKA
Terror bombing
• Bombing of cities rather than military targets
 Destroy the will of the people to keep on fighting
 Also
adopted by FDR/Churchill
 Done by both sides
• Battle of Britain
• Firebombing of Dresden
 Conference
in November, 1943
 “Big Three”
• FDR, Churchill, Stalin (USSR)
 Goal:
discuss war strategy
 Allies wanted Stalin to side with it
• Made concessions to Stalin
 Endorsed USSR absorbing Eastern Poland
 Allies
couldn’t get past Cassino in Italy
 Planned landing at Anzio
• Thought this would split the German defenses
• Little opposition to landing
• But Allies didn’t advance their position
 Instead they waited for supplies
• Germans brought in reserve troops
 Allies now stuck in both Anzio and Cassino
 Battle
of First Cassino a disaster for US
 Second
Cassino
• US bombed Monte Cassino
 Old Benedictine Monastery
 Not actually a Nazi headquarters like they had thought
• Didn’t help the war effort
 Third
Cassino
• All out attack at Anzio
• Heavy losses, failure
 New
plan
• No more frontal assaults on strong enemy
defenses
• Used camaflouge, night movements to bring in
reinforcements
 Caught
Germans by surprise with next
attack
 US victory on May 23rd, 1944
• Could have destroyed retreating German army
• Instead, wanted to be first Allied troops in Rome
 Rome liberated June 4, 1944
 Operation Overlord
• Invasion of Normandy, France
• Allies would cross English Channel
• Largest amphibious invasion in history
 Misdirection
• Allies led Germans to believe attack would come
elsewhere
 Chance for bad weather
• Gen. Eisenhower’s advisors suggested he wait
• He knew Germans were not expecting attack
• Ordered it to go ahead anyway
 176,000
troops
 4,000 invasion craft
 600 warships
 11,000 planes
 All landed on 60 mile line of Normandy’s
coast
 US assigned two beaches
• Utah
• Omaha
 Heavier fighting with severe causalities
 Werner von Braun
• Developed a rocket that could travel faster than
sound and was virtually defenseless
• Hitler told him he didn’t want it
 Changed his mind a year later
 Allies knew they were building this rocket
• Bombed the factory
• Put the program back a year
 First V-1 hit London June 13, 1944
• First V-2 hit London September 8, 1944
 Very effective weapon
• But too late in the war to win it for Germany
 German
General Rommel tried to
negotiate surrender on the Western Front
• Wanted to focus forces on the USSR in the East
• Denied, as it wasn’t unconditional surrender
 Stauffenberg
failed to assassinate Hitler
• Operation Valkyrie
• Hitler executed 5000 opponents as a result
 Paris
liberated August 25, 1944
 Allies got bogged down in Holland
 Operation Market Garden
• Paratroopers to land behind German lines
• Secure bridges over the many canals
• Allow US tanks to cross
• Heavy fighting, slower progress than expected
• Operation failed

Allies had to take long way to Germany
• Since Operation Market Garden failed

Took Aachen on Oct. 21, 1944
• First major German city to be taken by Allies

Battle of the Bulge
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Germany had one final major counterattack
Attacked through the Ardennes forest
Didn’t use radio, leaving Allies off guard
Advanced 50 miles, making a bulge in the Allied lines
Surrounded US Gen. McAuliffe, told him to surrender
 “Nuts!”
 US Counterattacked, beat back Germans
 100,000 GER deaths, 81,000 US death
 US had reinforcements, Germany did not
 Pacific Theatre
 US
began strategic bombing Japan
 Battle of Philippine Sea
• Japanese fleet sought out US fleet to attack it
• US outnumbered the Japanese
• US Submarine Albamore sunk Japanese carrier
Taiho
• Japanese left with only 35/430 aircraft
 Another
step in MacArthur’s “Island
Hopping”
• Going from island to island in the Pacific
 Battle of Leyte Gulf
• More ships involved than any other naval battle
• Japanese feinted, sending empty carriers north
 US fell for it, sent most of its fleet after them
• US went on offensive at both parts of the battle
 US easily beat the Japanese in the north
 US suffered immense casualties in the south
 Japanese took losses and left rather than crushing the US fleet
• This battle essentially took the Japanese navy out of
the war
 The
USSR kept exerting its
influence/taking over Eastern Europe
 Yalta Conference
• FDR was sick
 Relied on Alger Hiss, his advisor
 Hiss later found to be a communist
• FDR wanted to set up a United Nations
 Needed Stalin’s backing
 Allies turned a blind eye to USSR violence/take over
throughout Eastern Europe
 Dresden, eastern
Germany
• Filled with hundreds of refugees
• Not a city of military significance
 Allies
firebombed the city
• To hamper German troop movements
• Buy time for the Russian army to get closer to
Berlin, Germany’s capital
• “to produce a stupefying effect on morale”
• 135,000 residents killed
 US crossed the Rhine River at Remagen
• Only bridge not destroyed by the Germans
 Offensive against Berlin began
• April 16, 1945.
• Attacking force of 1,600,000 soldiers
 Hitler committed suicide on April 30
 May 2: Berlin fell
• Germans in Italy surrendered
 May 8th: V-E Day
• Victory in Europe
• Official end of the war against Germany
 Secret
agreement made at Yalta
• People liberated by an Allied country would be
sent back to their homeland
 Whether or not they wanted to return
• Communists didn’t want people escaping Russia
 Many
people asked the Allies to not be
sent back
• Forced back at bayonet point
 FDR died on Apr. 12, 1945
• Harry Truman became President
 Albert Einstein able to split the atom
• Realized this could be weaponized
 Manhattan Project
• The development of the atomic bomb
• Thousands of people worked on different parts
• Many of them didn’t know what they were doing
 Bombers trained for dropping “The Gimmick”
 They knew no more than that
 US took Iwo Jima
• Raising of the flag
• Fought through Bonzai charges
 US firebombing Tokyo
• Killed 85,000
• Devastated 56 square miles
 US demanded unconditional surrender
• Against Japanese warcode
• Japanese willing to fight to last man, woman, and
child
 US Planned mass invasion of Japan
• Decided that toll on US lives would be too high

Truman had a committee give advice on using
the bomb
• “the bomb should be used against Japan, without specific
warning, as soon as possible, and against such targets as
to make clear its devastating strength”

Truman received coded message the bomb was
ready
• “Babies satisfactorily born”
A group of scientists asked the bomb not be
used
 US told Japanese to surrender unconditionally

• “The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter
destruction”
• Japanese asked to negotiate
• US unwilling
 Enola
Gay
• B-29 bomber
• Dropped “The Gimmick” on Hiroshima
 Little military significance
 100,000 killed
 Japanese
met to debate surrender
• Split decision
• Received word a second bomb had been
dropped on Nagasaki
• Emperor Hirohito intervened
 Even though he was usually just a figurehead
 Emperor
Hirohito contacted US about
surrender
• Asked if they could at least keep their emperor
 US agreed to this one condition
 V-J
Day
• Victory in Japan
• WWII officially over