Download Victory in Europe and the Pacific

Section 3: Victory in Europe
and the Pacific
Allies Turn the Tide
Nazis invaded Soviet Union but did not
conquer it
Pushed the Axis powers out of North Africa
Allies invaded Italy, difficult battles
Bombed Germany from bases in England
Battle of Midway won by Allies (ended the
Japanese advance)
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
An Unstoppable German Army Stalls
June 1941, Hitler invades the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Frederick Barbarossa, medieval Germanic
leader
Why break the Nazi-Soviet Pact?
Ural Mountains = raw materials
Siberia = forests
Ukraine = wheat fields
Crush communism in Europe
Operation Barbarossa
 Germans caught
Stalin unprepared
 Slash-and-burn retreat
strategy
 Fall 1941 Nazis deep
in Soviet territory
 German soldiers froze
to death
Allies Turn the Tide
1942
Allies increase
production
May – Japanese are
defeated at Coral
Sea
June – Japanese
are defeated at
Midway
Nov. – Allies halt
German advance in
Africa
Big Three agree to
focus on war in
Europe
1943
Jan. - Germans
surrender at
Stalingrad
May – Rommel’s
army surrenders in
North Africa
July – Allies land in
Sicily
Sept. – Italians
surrender to Allies
1944
Allies bomb German
facilities
June – D-Day: Allies
invade Normandy
Aug. – Allies enter
Paris
Autumn – German
defeat seems
inevitable
The Global Conflict: Allied Successes
Nations mobilize for total war
Democratic political power increases
Economic resources directed to war effort
Consumer good rationed
Prices and wages regulated
War puts an end to unemployment
Democratic governments limit citizen rights
Censored the press
Use of propaganda
Japanese containment camps – US West Coast
Allied Victory in North Africa
Turning points in the war in North Africa
El Alamein
1942 Egypt
British General Bernard Montgomery vs. German
General Rommel “Desert Fox”
Axis powers driven back across Libya into Tunisia
American General Dwight Eisenhower
Morocco and Algeria
Traps Rommel’s army; surrendered in May 1943
Invasion of Normandy
Operation Overlord: headed by Dwight
Eisenhower
Largest fleet ever assembled (4,400 ships)
Deceived Germans: fake army set up near Calais
D-Day: June 6, 1944
11,000 planes led the way
Soldiers stormed the beaches
Gained a foothold in France, 1st step to defeating
Germany
Liberation of Europe
Allies Advance
August 1944: Allies liberated Paris
Hitler refused to surrender to Allied forces
Battle of the Bulge (Hitler’s last offensive
December 1944)
Germany captured several key towns
Reinforcements pushed Germans out of France
Early 1945: Soviets and U.S. outside Berlin
April 1945: Mussolini captured and executed
April 30, 1945: Hitler commits suicide
May 7, 1945: Germany surrenders
Atomic Bomb Ends the War
Manhattan Project
July 16, 1945: 1st Atomic Bomb was tested
Developed by scientists (many refugees)
Truman’s Decision
Invasion might cost: 1,000,000 U.S. lives
Mattered more than Japanese civilian lives
Hiroshima (8/6/1945) Nagasaki (8/9/1945)
95,000 civilians were killed
Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 (VJ Day)