The Major Battles of the Second World WarPacific TheatreEuropean Theatre

After Pearl Harbor• The situation for the US

seemed bleak

• Japanese soldiers captured the Philippines (Dec, 1941- May, 1942)

• Bataan Death March – 75,000 American and Filipino POWs forced to march up the Bataan Peninsula- terrible treatment by the Japanese and conditions killed 7,000 of the men

• Japanese continued to expand their control over Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific

Doolittle Raid• April, 1942

• Retaliatory raid on Japan

• Dropped bombs on Tokyo, killing 50 and damaging about 100 buildings

• Mostly just a morale boost for public relations

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Battle of Coral Sea May 7-8, 1942• First American Victory in

the Pacific

• Fought only with planes flying from aircraft carriers

• Somewhat a draw, but the Japanese had to call off attack on New Guinea, which could have given them access to Australia

• Hope at last!

Battle at Midway June, 1942• Considered the Turning

point for America in the War in the Pacific

• Huge Victory for American navy under the leadership of US Commander Chester Nimitz

• Nimitz had the Japanese plans (thanks, Navy codebreakers!)

• Sank 4 Japanese carriers

• Japanese lost most of their experienced pilots

Island Hopping StrategyAfter Midway, the US Navy went on the offensive in the Pacific, using a new strategy: Island Hopping - Capture some islands and ignore others on the way to Japan. Two of the last two Pacific Battles – Iwo Jima and Okinawa (March and April, 1945)- were some of the deadliest of the war.

Mac Arthur

"The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary objective of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return." - General Douglas Mac Arthur, American Commander-in-Chief South West Pacific

Strategic Bombing• From Okinawa, and other

Pacific bases, the US could bomb Japanese home islands

• Goal: Destroy the enemy’s ability to make war by bombing factories, bases, farms, shipyards, etc.

• The US did this to several Japanese cities, including Tokyo (March, 1945), creating much death and destruction (more than the Atomic bombs will).

Manhattan Project• Under the leadership of General Leslie

Groves and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project built the atomic bomb and tested it on July 16, 1945.

• August 6 and 9, 1945, Truman ordered the use of the atomic bomb on two cities in Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), effectively ending the Second World War with the August 15 surrender of Japan.

• What were the pros and cons of using the bomb?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The European Theater• The USSR had suffered several terrible defeats

since the Germans invaded in June, 1941.

• The German army besieged Leningrad in 1941 (a siege that lasted for three years) and Stalingrad in 1942.

• From the moment that the US entered the war Stalin begged for a second, Western front to take some of the pressure off of the Soviet Union.

• The Allies (GB and US) decided instead to take on: 1) the Germans U-boats in the Atlantic - success by mid 1943

2) German and Italian forces in North Africa -Eisenhower and Patton led Allied forces to a win over Erwin Rommel’s forces in May, 1943

3) an Invasion of Italy, starting in Sicily in July, 1943 - Italy officially surrendered in Sept., 1943, but fighting continued in Italy, with the Germans fighting the Allies in Italy into 1945.

“No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”

-Charismatic American General George Patton

“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”

- Supreme Allied Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower

Patton

Eisenhower

Battle at

• In the meantime, the Soviets were on their own in the East…The Battle of Stalingrad (and the siege of Leningrad) raged on.

• The fighting in Stalingrad included house-to-house fighting. Millions of Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed or captured, but Soviet resistance and the brutal Russian winter of 1942/43 defeated the Germans, who surrendered (91,000 troops) on January, 1943.

• Stalingrad was the farthest eastern point of the German army’s advance into the USSR…a major turning point in the war…from Stalingrad, the Soviet army went on the Offensive, and the Germans retreated.

Stalingrad

D-Day June 6, 1944

• Finally a second front…

• Preceded by non-stop saturation bombing (by the British) of German cities and strategic bombing (by the Americans) of German political and industrial centers, starting in early 1942

• A phony invasion setup had been created to fake out the Germans.

• D-Day is the name given to the landing of 160,000 Allied troops (using 11,000 planes and 4,400 landing craft and ships, and 448,000 tons of ammunition) in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. D-Day, the first day of the Invasion of France (“Operation Overlord,”), involved five separate landings by American, British, and Canadian troops and was commanded by General Eisenhower. Stiff German resistance resulted in nearly 10,000 Allied casualties, but the Germans were ultimately unable to repel the Allied forces.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrNXesmcLG8&safe=active

• By the end of August, 1944, all of Northern France was under Allied control and Eisenhower began to prepare for the invasion of Germany

• As the Americans and British closed in on Germany in December, 1944, the Germans counter-attacked with one last major offensive launched through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Belgium, and France and Luxembourg

• Called the Battle of the Bulge because of the bulge in American battle lines, it was nearly a German success, but Allied forces hung on through brutal German assaults, until the winter skies cleared and Allied bombers could attack German positions.

Battle of the Bulge December 16, 1944 – January 25, 1945

Victory

• While the Allies advanced on Western Germany and northward, up the Italian Peninsula, the Soviet Army marched on the Eastern German border.

• On April 28, 1945, Mussolini was captured and executed.

• Hitler took his own life on April 30.

• The Soviet Army captured Berlin on May 2.

• Germany formally surrendered on May 7, 1945 - (“V-E Day”).

• FDR had died on April 12, and Harry S. Truman would have to see the US through the rest of the war.

• When Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, the war was over (“V-J Day”).