Transcript World War II Lecture #4

The
END
of the War
D-Day (1944)
• code name “Operation
Overlord”
• purpose of the attack was to
free parts of France from Axis
control, then move into and
destroy Germany
• Attack came in three phases –
paratroopers, airplanes
dropped bombs, and then
infantry landed on the beaches
• Allies were successful and
began to slowly gain back
control of France (had been
controlled by Germany for 4
years)
• Germans now had
enemies coming at
them from three
fronts!
Island Hopping Campaign
• American strategy in
the Pacific
• began after the Battle
of Midway
•Allies ‘leapfrogged’
their way towards the
Japanese home
islands
•Should prevent the
war from taking a
decade to end
Battle of the Bulge (1944)
• following the Allied capture of the first German city, Hitler ordered a last
desperate counterattack
• Germans attempted to divide the Allied lines in half
• battle lasted for a month, with an eventual Allied victory
• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600
tanks, and 1,600 planes
• Germany could no longer
effectively attack, could only
defend themselves
• simultaneously the Soviets
were continuing to push
westward towards Germany
Yalta (1945)
•War will clearly be won
by allies at this point
•Stalin, Churchill, and
FDR met
• Started to Plan Post
War World…
• Germany & Berlin would be split into four zones
• Stalin will allow free elections in Eastern European
countries he has liberated from Hitler
• Stalin will aid in war with Japan – attack from the
west
V-E Day (1945)
• Soviet troops entered
Berlin with Americans
approaching from the
West
• Hitler committed
suicide in his
underground bunker
• A week later, on 8th of
May 1945, Germany
surrendered
unconditionally
• war is over in Europe –
Victory in Europe Day
(VE Day)
Battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945)
• Very important battles. Why?
•These islands were close enough to allow
easy bombing of home Japanese islands
•Were part of Japanese empire before Pearl
Harbor
•Japanese goal
•Fight so desperately that the U.S. will
negotiate a peace rather than try an assault
on Japanese home islands (Kamikaze!)
• Eventually the Allies succeeded in taking
the islands
• only about ~200 Japanese soldiers survived
the battle
•Estimated that an invasion of Japanese home
islands would cost at least 1 million American
casualties
FDR Dies (1945)
• FDR dies of a stroke
• Vice President Harry
Truman assumes office
of the President
The Death of FDR
• Reading- FDR’s death
• Would you want to be Harry
Truman at this moment?
– He had only been FDR’s VP for a year
and was not in FDR’s ‘inner circle’ (in
other words, he wasn’t completely in
the loop regarding FDR’s plans)
• So all he has to deal with is
(sarcasm?)
– Finish off Japan
– Decide whether to use the Atom Bomb
– Rebuild the world after the largest war
in history
• U.S. as the dominant superpower for
the first time in history
• What to do about Stalinist Russia,
which now has armies spread over ½
of Europe?