Transcript THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR II

WWII Comes to an
End in Europe
Arcadia Conference
• Churchill & Roosevelt meet
• Stalin asks for relief
– Wants second front open
• Plan to invade North Africa & Southern
Europe
– Stalin angry
• Why?
North African Campaign
Allied
troops
landed
in Casablanca,
Oran
and the
Algiers
North African Campaign
• Battle of El Alamein
• Operation Torch
Meanwhile…on the Soviet Front
• Battle of Stalingrad
Casablanca Meeting
FDR and Churchill in
Casablanca
• FDR and Churchill
• 1) Plan combined
invasions of
France and Italy
• 2) Only
unconditional
surrender would
be accepted
Italian Campaign
• Victory at Sicily
– Mussolini arrested
• Germans in N. Italy
• Italy not secured
until 1945
• Mussolini’s end
ALLIES LIBERATE EUROPE
Allies sent
fake coded
messages
indicating
they would
attack here
• Plans for invasion of France underway
• “Operation Overlord” under Gen. Eisenhower
– Also called “D-Day,”
• 3 million U.S. & British troops
D-DAY
D-Day was an amphibious landing –
soldiers going from sea to land
• Largest landsea-air
operation in
military history
• German
retaliation brutal
OMAHA BEACH 6/6/44
Landing at Normandy
Planes drop paratroopers behind enemy lines at Normandy, France
Losses
were
extremely
heavy on
D-Day
• Allies free France,
Belgium and
Luxemburg
• Leads to Battle of
the Bulge
FRANCE
FREED
LIBERATION OF DEATH
CAMPS
• Soviets move
eastward into
Poland
• Discovered many
death camps
ALLIES TAKE BERLIN; HITLER
COMMITS SUICIDE
• April 1945: Soviets
storms Berlin
• Hitler prepares for the
end
– Married Eva Braun
– Wrote a last note:
• Jews fault for starting
• Generals fault for losing
– Gave guards strict
instructions
– Gave poison to his wife
– Shot himself
V-E DAY
• Unconditional
surrender of the Third
Reich
• May 8, 1945: V-E Day
• February 1945
• “The Big Three”
• Stalin: harsh
approach, keep
Germany divided
• Churchill: strongly
disagrees
• Roosevelt:
mediator
– Wanted Soviet
Union to join Pacific
Theater and United
Nations
THE YALTA
CONFERENCE
YALTA AGREEMENTS
• 1) Divide Germany into 4 occupied zones after the war
• 2) Stalin agreed to free elections in Eastern Europe
• 3) Stalin agreed to help the U.S. in the war against Japan
and to join the United Nations
NUREMBERG WAR TRIALS
• 24 surviving Nazi leaders put on trial
– crimes against humanity
– crimes against the peace
– war crimes
• 12 of the 24 sentenced to death