Transcript Chapter 14 - 2 early battles

Chapter 14 - 2 early battles
 Some military leaders from the Pacific
war:
 1. Admiral Chester Nimitz – USA – in
charge of the Navy in the Pacific
 2. General Douglas McArthur - USA–
head of army in Pacific
 Admiral Yamamoto – Japan – planned PH
attack – head of Japanese Navy
Fall of the Philippines
 Japan attacked the Philippines on Dec 7th also.
US and Filipino forces were outnumbered and
retreated to the Bataan peninsula.
 March 1942 – Allied forces on Bataan surrender
(78,000 men)
 They are forced to march 65 miles to a prison
camp.
 10,000 men die on the march due to beatings,
sickness, and a lack of food and water.
Doolittle’s raids on Tokyo
 Right after Pearl Harbor, people needed to feel
like we were striking back at Japan.
 We wanted to bomb Tokyo but couldn’t get our
carriers close enough to do it
 Solution: Use B-25’s bomb Japan – launch them
from carriers and have them land in China.
 April 1942 – “Doolittle’s raiders” bomb Japan –
don’t do much damage but boost US morale and
force Japan to change their next attack.
Coral Sea Battle
 The US had “broken” the Japanese code
and knew they would attack New Guinea.
 May 1942 – our carriers and theirs launch
air attacks.
 We lose 1 carrier but keep Japan out of
New Guinea and keep supply open to
Australia.
Midway – a turning point
 The Japanese use their carriers to launch an
air attack on Midway Island in June 1942
 US Navy knows they are coming and plans
an ambush
 US shoots down 38 planes and sink 4
Japanese carriers
 This stops the Japanese advance and they
lose 3000 men. (we lose 362)
Sending Troops to Europe
 FDR wanted to send troops to Europe as
soon as possible.
 Stalin wanted US troops to attack Western
Europe so Germany would have to take
troops from the SU to fight there.
 Churchill said the best place to attack
Germany was in the “soft underbelly” of
their empire: North Africa
The battle for North Africa
 GB was already fighting Germany in Egypt
and trying to push them West.
 The US landed troops in Morocco and
pushed East in late 1942.
 The German leader was Rommel, the
“desert fox”
 After months of fighting, the Germans
surrendered in May 1943.
Battles in the Atlantic
 German Submarines caused a great deal of
damage to US ships in early 1942
 We lost 360 ships along our East coast –
including many oil tankers.
 To stop this we did several things:
 1. Blackouts curtains/lights out at night
 2.convoys to protect ships
 3.Use of sonar, radar, and depth charges
 4. We built more new ships and started to win the
Battle of the Atlantic by late 1942
Stalingrad
 Hitler believed that he could win the war by
cutting off supplies to the SU
 To do this, he attacked Stalingrad in Sept of
1942.
 The Germans troops were not equipped for a
Russian winter and the Soviets defeated the
Germans there by Feb 1943.
 Each side lost half a million soldiers and
Germany was now in a defensive position in the
SU