Transcript Toward Victory

TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Allied Victory in World War II and the
Holocaust
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Objectives
• Learn how the Allies were finally able to defeat
Germany.
• Discover how a powerful new weapon brought
the war in the Pacific to a close.
• Explore the horrors of the Holocaust.
• Understand the consequences faced by captured
enemy leaders.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People
• Harry S Truman – Roosevelt’s Vice President;
became President when Roosevelt died in 1945
• island hopping – a strategy in which American
forces would capture some Japanese-held
islands and go around others
• kamikaze – Japanese missions that ended
when suicide pilots crashed their planes into
American ships
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People (continued)
• genocide – the deliberate attempt to wipe out
an entire nation or group of people
• war crimes – wartime acts of cruelty and
brutality that are judged to be beyond the
accepted rules of war and human behavior
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
How did the Allies win World War II
and what were the results?
In mid-1942, the Allies started to turn back
Axis advances in the Pacific, North Africa, and
Europe.
Ultimately the Allies were victorious, and after
the war the United States took the lead in a
new global conflict—the Cold War.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In 1943, Russia was
bearing the brunt of
the Nazi assault,
and Stalin urged
the United States
and Britain to take
the pressure off by
invading France.
But Roosevelt and
Churchill did not
think their forces
were ready for
that difficult task.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Instead, they chose the more realistic goal
of removing Italy from the war.
July
1943
American and British troops crossed
the Mediterranean Sea and took
control of the island of Sicily.
Sept.
1943
Italy surrendered to the Allies.
However, German troops in Italy continued to
fight, and the Allies faced a long struggle before
they finally controlled Italy.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In 1944, the Allies under General Eisenhower were
ready to invade France.
On June 6, 1944—known
as D-Day—more than
155,000 American,
British, and Canadian
troops crossed the
English Channel and
landed on five beaches
at Normandy, France.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Troops at four of the beaches quickly overcame German
opposition, but 2,500 American soldiers died fighting the
fierce German defense at Omaha Beach.
D-Day was a
success, and on
August 25, 1944,
the Allies
liberated Paris.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Allied forces pushed eastward into Belgium.
German troops
created a “bulge” in
the American lines.
However, since the
Germans were short
on supplies and
soldiers, they failed
to break through the
lines.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Soon after, the
Western Allies
entered Germany
from the west.
In January 1945, a
huge Soviet force
entered Germany
from the east.
While the Allied armies advanced on the ground,
their planes bombed German industries and cities.
Meanwhile, Roosevelt died of a stroke, and
Vice President Harry S Truman became
President.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
On April 16, Soviet troops began an assault on
Berlin.
Hitler hid in a bunker beneath the city’s streets,
where he committed suicide.
A week later,
Germany
unconditionally
surrendered at
Eisenhower’s
headquarters in
France.
On May 8, the
Allies celebrated
V-E Day, Victory in
Europe.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Battle of Midway halted Japan’s advance in the
Pacific, and now the Americans went on the offensive.
American
commanders
adopted a strategy
known as island
hopping.
Americans fought
grueling battles as
well as hunger and
disease until they
controlled each island.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Navajo soldiers made a key contribution to the
island-hopping strategy.
Using their own language,
these code-talkers
radioed vital messages
from island to island.
The Japanese intercepted
the messages but were
unable to understand the
rare Navajo language.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In January 1945,
MacArthur fulfilled his
promise to return to
the Philippines when
army units landed on
Luzon and then
advanced on Manila.
Island hoppers
approached Japan,
stopping at Iwo Jima
in February and
Okinawa in April.
A month later, the
Americans had
control of the city.
About 18,000
Americans soldiers
died securing the
two islands.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
During the battles, the Japanese displayed their
willingness to die rather than surrender.
Japanese kamikaze
pilots crashed their planes
into American ships.
These events convinced American leaders
that only a full-scale invasion of Japan’s
home islands would force a surrender.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
By the spring of
1945, after the
war in Europe
was over, the
Americans began
bombing Japan.
U.S. ships
bombarded Japan’s
coast and
destroyed shipping,
and Japan faced a
food shortage.
Yet Japanese leaders still talked of winning the war.
President Truman’s military advisers warned him that an
invasion of Japan might cost 500,000 American
casualties.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In July, Truman learned that the United States
had successfully tested an atomic bomb in the
New Mexico desert.
On August 6, an
American plane
dropped an atomic
bomb on Hiroshima.
Within minutes, more
than 130,000 people
died.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Still, the Japanese refused to surrender.
On August 9, the United States dropped a second
atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, and 35,000
people died instantly.
Many more in both cities would die slower deaths from
radiation poisoning.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
On August 14,
1945—known now
as V-J Day—Japan’s
emperor announced
that the nation
would surrender.
On September 2, 1945,
MacArthur formally
accepted Japan’s
surrender.
World War II was over at last.
It was the bloodiest war in history, with 60 million
dead. Two-thirds of those who died were civilians.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
During the war, Hitler tried to annihilate all the
Jews in Europe.
Entire families were wiped out
in a genocide known today as
the Holocaust.
The Nazis also killed millions
of Poles, Slavs, Roma,
communists, people with
physical and mental
disabilities, and others.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The Nazis built six death camps in Poland and
transported millions of people to them in railway
cattle cars.
• Hundreds at a time
were killed in gas
chambers.
• Others were
subjected to torture
or horrifying medical
experiments.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
As Allied soldiers liberated the death camps, they were
shocked by the piles of corpses.
The survivors were living skeletons.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
For the first time in history, war victors prosecuted
leaders of the losing side for war crimes.
In Nuremberg,
Germany, Allied
judges tried
prominent Nazis for
starting World War II
and for the horrors of
the concentration
camps.
Similar trials were
held in Manila and
Tokyo to try Japanese
war leaders.