Download US Involvement in World War 2

Warm-up (in notebook)
1. What was the cash-carry
program? Lend-lease program?
2. How did FDR push the US
towards war?
3. What was the significance of
Pearl Harbor? How was the US
Navy affected?
■Essential Question:
–What role did the U.S. play in
winning the wars in Europe & the
Pacific?
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
Germany pressed
into Russia
Axis armies
controlled
Northern Africa
& threatened
But…over
the next 2 years, the U.S. & the Allies
the
Suez
Canal
began
to win
the wars in Europe & the Pacific
Europe 1941-1943
England wanted
to attack Italy
from Northern
Africa in 1942
The
USSR
“freed”
Poland,
The U.S.Hungary,
wanted Romania
to attack across In 1942,
troops
To U.S.-Anglo
win the European
In 1943, the Sovietbegan
armycampaign,
wonItalian
at Stalingrad;
Nazi-controlled
the
2campaign
different
Germany
was never &
again
on was
the
offensive
France
by 1943
Stalin
ANGRY
plans
were
proposed
“Europe First” Strategy
• Allies battle U-boats
in the Atlantic
• German “Wolf packs”
sink merchant ships
• Convoys, radar help Allies

Battle of Stalingrad

Germany attacked Russia,
June 1941
Germany was defeated by 1943
TURNING POINT of the war; Germany
retreating (90,000 troops captured)


The Battle of Stalingrad - Background
• Germans begin “Operation Barbarossa” on June
22, 1941.
• Invasion of Russia goes very quickly. By
December Germans are on the verge of taking
Moscow.
• Russian winter halts German advance. Germans
dig in, lines stabilize by spring, 1942.
German Goals
• Capture Stalingrad
• Move southeast and capture Crimean oil fields
• Use the capture of Stalingrad as propaganda in
war effort
Russian Response
• Stalin orders all Russians who are able to fight to
defense of Stalingrad.
• Soviets run short on supplies
• Soviet soldiers ordered not to retreat under any
circumstances.
• Result is fierce urban fighting.
▫ Factories and buildings become fortresses for
Russians
▫ Germans call fighting in Stalingrad “rattenkrieg”
 War of the rats
The Eastern Front
The Battle of Stalingrad
• Aug. 21, 1942 – Feb. 2, 1943
• One of the bloodiest battles in human history
• Between 1.5 and 2 million people killed during
battle.
• Over 50000 Russian civilians killed during
bombing raids.
▫ Ordered not to evacuate by Stalin, in order to
increase the morale of defenders.
Turning Point of the War
• German Army eventually surrounded by Russian
Army, trapped at Stalingrad.
• Germans lose an entire army.
• 90000 Germans captured.
▫ Only 5000 survive Russian prison camps
• Germans forced to give up push for Crimean Oil
fields
• After Stalingrad Germans gain no new territory.
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
■Allied invasion of
North Africa
■ Operation Torch
■ Key Leaders:
– Gen. Dwight
Eisenhower
– Gen. George Patton
■ May 1943 – German &
Italian troops surrender
in Tunisia
• Allied invasion of Italy
• July 1943 – British & American
armies invade Sicily
• Mussolini overthrown
• Allies defeat Italy
• Sept 1943 – Italy surrenders
War in Europe
■ Operation Torch (November 1943)
■ Casablanca Conference (1943)—unconditional
surrender of Axis
■ Battle of Atlantic—won by U. S. in 1943
■ Sicily invaded on July 10, 1943
■ September 1944, Italy mainland invaded
■ Anzio landings on January 22, 1944
■ Rome fell on June 4, 1944
• British & American bombers batter
Germany
• To relieve pressure on Stalin & the Soviet Union,
Allied bombers attack German cities
• Target political & industrial centers
• Tuskegee Airmen –
African American
squadron, protected
bombers from
enemy pilots
• 1,500+ missions, zero
causalities
Carpet Bombing of German Cities
• Allies begin large scale
daylight bombing raids
on German cities.
• Designed to demoralize
German citizens and
destroy production
capacity of Germany.
• Millions of buildings
destroyed, possibly as
many as 500,000
German civilians killed.
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
Allied
ingenuity
helped
win
the
war:
Hedgerows
in
Normandy
U.S. soldiers were trained to problem-solve
rather than wait for orders
The Road to Victory – WWII Endgame
1944
(1) Operation Fortitude - Calais
Europe
Leading up to D-Day; Attempt to
fool Germans
(3) Liberation of Paris
August 1944
(4) Battle of the Bulge
(2) Operation Overlord
D-Day Invasion of Normandy
Allies land on the beaches of
Nazi-controlled France
June 6, 1944
Omaha
The beach where many US
troops landed & faced heavy
German resistance
December 1944January 1945
Last major German
counterattack; was
unsuccessful & crippled
Germany’s forces
Operation Fortitude
• Fictitious army created
under command of
Gen. Patton
• Used phony, inflatable
tanks & weapons made
of cardboard
• Also, fake scripted
radio messages
• Fooled Hitler & German
intelligence, paved the
way for an invasion of
Normandy
The liberation of Europe
• Soviet forces move westward,
liberating the Balkans.
• Allied forces move eastward
liberating France, and the low
countries
• In April 1945 Soviets and
Americans link up at the Elbe
River.
Operation Overlord and After
■ Teheran Conference—Cross-channel invasion
■ June 6, 1944—landings in Normandy (5,000 U.
S. casualties on Day One)
■ Paris fell August 25, 1944
■ Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 16, 1944—January 26,
1945
■ March 7, 1945, Bridge at Remagen seized
■ May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered
Ike with Paratroopers before D-Day
Operation Overlord (D-Day) – June
6, 1944 – Allied invasion of France
Normandy Landing
(June 6, 1944)
German Prisoners
Higgins Landing Crafts
American troops following their landing on
“Omaha” beach
Yalta Conference in February 1945
■TheTo“Big
3” met
Yalta to &
recognize
theat
independence
discuss post-war
given
sovereignty
of nationsEurope
in Eastern
Europe
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
April 12, 1945 – FDR Dies
Harry Truman (“Give ‘em Hell
Harry”)
In late April 1945, the Allies broke through
the Eastern & Western Fronts forcing both
Italy & Germany to surrender
Hitler and Eva die together in
suicide
Führerbunker
“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
• Fighting in the Philippines
• Allied forces attacked by Japan
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur forced
to evacuate
• Allied troops surrender, captured,
forced to march over 60 miles
(Bataan Death March)
• The Doolittle Raid
• US planes bombed Tokyo in
retaliation for Pearl Harbor;
boosted US morale
• Battle of Coral Sea
• Japan attacks New Guinea;
Allied forces (US & Australia)
defeat the Japanese
• Momentum shifts
toward the US,
confidence rising
• Turning Point in the Pacific – Battle of Midway
• Japan hopes to capture Midway, an American naval base
in the Pacific
• US commander Chester Nimitz intercepts the Japanese
plans
• June 4, 1942 – Japan attacks, but US is victorious
• TURNING POINT: Japan retreats, US on the offensive
• America on the offensive – Guadalcanal
• August 1942 – US attacks Japanese at Guadalcanal
on the Solomon Islands
• Three months of
fighting, US victory
• US troops begin
“island-hopping”
on the way to Japan
War in the Pacific
■Island Hoping and Leapfrogging
■January 1943, New Guinea
Invaded
■Tarawa invaded, Nov. 20, 1943
■Marianas secured on June 19, 20,
1944
■Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 25,
1944
The Japanese refused to play by according
to the Geneva Convention “rules” of war
Iwo Jima – February 19, 1945
Bloodiest Battle in Marine Corp
History (6812 die)
The German surrender in May 1945, allowed
World
War
II
in
the
Pacific
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
Okinawa (April 1, 1945) – largest
invasion in history, 300 miles
from Japan – defended by
300,000 Japanese (Kamikaze
Missions)
Americans bomb Japan
■ Tokyo and other
Japanese cities
firebombed by U.S.
■ Estimates of civilian
deaths in Tokyo
range from 90,000 to
over 100,000
■ Most Japanese
buildings constructed
from wood.
War in the Pacific
■ U. S. plans to invade Japan: Operations
Coronet and Olympic, but war casualties rise
■ Firebombing raids on Tokyo, March 1945
■ Decision to use Atomic Bomb
■ August 6, 1945—Hiroshima; August 9, 1945,
Nagasaki
■ Japanese sue for peace on August 14, 1945
■ Formal Surrender on U. S. Missouri, September
2, 1945.
How did we get Atomic Bombs?
■ Manhattan Project
– 1942-1946
■ J. Robert
Oppenheimer,
physicist – “Father
of the Atomic
Bomb”
The Decision to Drop the A-Bomb
–The U.S. military favored a fullscale invasion of Tokyo by 1946
–The Japanese refused to
surrender thus far & were
arming civilians for an Allied
invasion
–At the Potsdam Conference in
July 1945, Truman gave the
order to use the atomic bomb
(we will address this Thursday)
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:
–Revenge for Pearl Harbor
–Showed the USSR that the USA
had the ultimate weapon (began
the Cold War nuclear arms race)
Affects of the atomic bomb
■ Intense heat created by blast causes
blindness. Incinerates everybody and
everything in a 1 kilometer radius (0.6
miles).
■ Shockwave destroys all wooden
buildings in 2 kilometer radius (1.2
miles) .
■ Radiation exposure kills people near
ground zero. Many other people within
a 2-3 mile radius develop various forms
of cancer.
■ Bombs are estimated to have killed
more than 200,000 people.
Nagasaki
Hiroshima
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
“Little Boy” - Dropped on Hiroshima
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
“Fat Man” – Dropped on Nagasaki
The aftermath of the A-Bomb
The Road to Victory – WWII Endgame
1945
Europe
Pacific
Hitler commits suicide
by gunshot
April 30, 1945
Battle of Iwo Jima
Feb. 9, 1945
Battle of Okinawa
April 1, 1945
Atomic Bomb – Hiroshima
August 6
Atomic Bomb – Nagasaki
August 9
V-J Day (Victory in Japan)
September 2, 1945
V-E Day (Victory in Europe)
May 8, 1945
Balance Sheet
■23 million soldiers and 33
million civilians died world wide
■War cost approximately
$1,000,000,000,000
■9 million Soviets died in Battle
■U. S. lost 294,000 servicemen
in combat, 600,000 wounded,
and 114,000 others killed in war
related accidents.
VJ Day: The War ends!