Transcript We`ll divide our study of the war into 2 geographic areas

With the U.S. now at war
• We’ll divide our study of the war into 2 geographic areas:
• The Eastern Theater of Operations
(the ETO)…Europe and No. Africa
• The Pacific Theater of Operations
(the PTO)
The Nazis had broken their pact w/USSR:
Operation Barbarossa (June 1941)
By 1942 : War not going well for the Allies:
– Germany controlled all of Europe and N.
Africa and were deep into Russia
Gloomy Prospects for the Allies
 The chain of spectacular victories disguised
fatal weaknesses within the Axis alliance:
Japan and Germany fought separate
wars, they never coordinated strategies.
 The early defeats also obscured the Allies’
strengths:
The manpower of the Soviet Union and
the productive capacity of the United
States.
Turning Points of the War: The
Battle of Stalingrad
• The Pivotal battle in the war in Europe
The German Army (“Wehrmacht”) had already lost
2 million men on the eastern front.
• In 1942-43, a German army of over 300,000 was
defeated and captured at the Battle of Stalingrad.
• After losing a massive tank battle at Kursk, the
Germans a long retreat home…
• The Red Army crossed into Poland in January
1944.
Stalingrad
House by house…
Brick by brick
North Africa: El Alamein
• In 1942 German forces
tried to seize Egypt
and the Suez Canal
• American invasion:
“Operation Torch”
• Yanks and Brits drove
Germans out
• Turning point in N.
Africa: El Alamein
Defeat of Italy (1943)
• Invasion of Sicily opened door for
invasion of Italy
• Allies fought their way north up
the “boot”
• Mussolini forced to flee…
captured , executed, and hung by
his heels by anti-Mussolini Italians
The Doolittle Raid (April 1942)
• Col. Jimmy Doolittle (related to me!) put
together mission to bomb Tokyo & other targets
IN Japan
• Bombers taking off a carrier?
• Military value? Not much
• Psychological value? HUGE morale boost for
American public
• Movie Trailer: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo trailer
The Pacific Theater: Early Battles
• American Forces halted the Japanese advance in two
decisive naval battles.
– Coral Sea (May 1942)
• U.S. stopped a fleet carrying Japanese troops to New
Guinea
• Japanese designs on Australia ended
– Midway (June 1942)
• Japanese Admiral Yamamoto hoped to capture Midway
Island as a base to attack Pearl Harbor again
• U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz caught the Japanese by
surprise and sank 3 of the 4 aircraft carriers, 332 planes,
and 3500 men.
U.S. strategy to defeat Japan:
“Island-hopping”
• No need to capture EVERY island…
“hop” over some, leaving Japanese
troops isolated
• 1 island chain after another
U.S. Marines assault an island
Allied Island – Hopping (1942-45)
Europe: Operation Overlord
• Stalin had pressed FDR and Churchill for
over a year to open a 2nd front against the
Nazis…a cross-Channel invasion
• All logistics in place for the invasion of
Normandy, France in June, 1944
June 6, 1944: D - Day
• Combined American, British, Canadian assault
• Dwight D. Eisenhower: Supreme Allied Commander
Invasion of Europe (con.t)
• Allies cont. drive into France…by Aug., 1944:
liberation of Paris
The Allies
Advance
•Into Holland: “Operation Market Garden”
•Into Belgium:
•Nazis mount major counter-offensive
•Battle of the Bulge
Germany’s Defeat
Americans advanced into Germany from the west while the
Russians closed in on Berlin from the east
American and Russian soldiers meet at the Elbe River
Berlin 1945
Hitler’s Last Days
In the underground bunker:
committed suicide with
companion Eva Braun
With Berlin in ruins, the
Nazis surrendered May,
1945
Victory in Europe
at last
Time Magazine cover - 1945