Transcript The US in World War II

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The U.S. in World War II
Section 1: Mobilizing for Defense
Section 2: The War for Europe and North Africa
Section 3: The War in the Pacific
Section 4: The Home Front
Effect of World War II on U.S.
• New Technology
• New Prosperity
• New Position of Power in the World
Theatres of War
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Eastern Europe
Western Europe
North Africa / Italy
Far East / Pacific
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Soviets v. Germany
Allies v. Germany
Allies v. Germany / Italy
Allies v. Japan
Which Area to Concentrate on First??
• Germany First
• Defeat of Japan will not end the war, but defeat of
Germany will leave Japan all alone
• Closer cultural ties with countries occupied by
Germany
• Germany most direct threat to the Western
Hemisphere, European Trade, the Atlantic Ocean,
and Latin America
• Fear Germany might develop weapons powerful
enough to take over the world. (Nuclear and
Rockets)
• Germany might defeat Soviet Union and eliminate
the two front war that is an allied advantage.
Battle of the Atlantic
• Hitler’s U-boats cause huge losses to American
ships that are lifeline to Britain
• Convoy System escorted by destroyers
• Use of Sonar – Sound Navigation Ranging
Apparatus
• Use of Radar – Radio Detecting and Ranging
Equipment
• Ariel surveillance
• Crash Shipbuilding Program
• Mid-1943 the tide turns
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Eastern Front
• Siege and Battle of
Stalingrad
– August 1942 to Feb.
1943
– Germans lost 150,000
and 91,000 were
captured
– Soviets lost 1,100,000
defending the city
– Turning point of war
– Hitler wouldn’t allow a
retreat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eastern_Front_1942-05_to_1942-11.png
Opening A Western Front
• Soviets pressure British and U.S. to open
a second front
• Looked at a cross channel invasion
• British and U.S. decide they are not ready
for this and opt to invade North Africa
North Africa
• Operation Torch
– Nov. 8, 1942
– 1st major Allied Amphibious operation in
European Theatre of North Africa
– Dwight D. Eisenhower – commander
– Landings in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers
(see map page 572)
General Erwin Rommel
• “Desert Fox”
• Commander of German
Afrika Korps
• German forces surrender in
May 1943
• Forced to take poison after
he is implicated in the plot to
kill Hitler
Casablanca Conference
• January 1943
• Churchill and Roosevelt
• Agree to accept only Unconditional
Surrender of Axis Powers
• Look at amassing large army to invade
France across the English Channel
• Agree to the invasion of Italy first
Italian Campaign
• Invasion of Sicily - Operation Husky
– July 1943
• Mussolini forced to resign
• Invasion of Italian Peninsula
– Sept. 1943
– Germans plan to hold Italy
– Bloody Anzio
• 4 months
• 25,000 Allied Causalities
• 30,000 Axis Causalities
Mussolini’s Fate
• Mussolini rescued by the Germans and
installed as a puppet dictator in
German controlled Italy
• Mussolini discovered by Italian
Partisans in April, 1945, as he
attempted to sneak across the Austrian
border with his mistress
• Mussolini and his mistress were killed
and hung upside down in a plaza in
Milan
http://www.custermen.com/ItalyWW2/ILDUCE/Mussolini.htm
http://www.comandosupremo.com/Mussolini.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2179393n
View Tuskegee Airmen Story at link above
Heroes in Combat
Minority Groups
• Tuskegee Airmen
• 92nd Infantry
Division
• 141st Regiment of
the 36th Division
• 100th Battalion
• 442nd Regimental
Combat Team
• Navajo Code
Talkers
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airrole.htm
http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/story.asp?S=1127695
http://www.goforbroke.org/history/history_historical_veterans_442nd.asp
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm
http://bingaman.senate.gov/features/codetalkers/
Tehran Conference
• Meeting between Churchill, FDR, and
Stalin
• Discussed the invasion of Western Europe
for the Spring of 1944 to be timed with the
Soviet offensive
Invasion of Normandy
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• Equipment and
American troops
flood southern
England in
preparation of the
Invasion of
Normandy
• Operation Overlord –
Code Name
www.history.com
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D-Day
• 5 Beach heads were designated for
invasion
– Sword - British
– Gold - British
– Juno - Canada
– Omaha – U.S.
– Utah – U.S.
http://www.military.com/ContentFiles/dday_maps_3c.htm
http://www.wtj.com/articles/normandy/
http://www.wtj.com/articles/normandy/index_map_sealand.htm
D-Day
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Eisenhower the Supreme Commander
June 5,1944 day set to launch invasion
Bad weather prevents launch
Last possible day to go and coincide with the
tides is June 6, weather still not great but the
launch is ordered.
• Germans know an invasion is imminent but do
not know where. They are surprised.
• Germans believed invasion would happen in
Calais, across the Strait of Dover.
D-Day
• The largest land-sea-air operation in army
history
• Mulberry Harbor – enormous concrete ports
towed across channel (see map 575)
• 1,200 fighting ships
• 4,126 landing craft
• 804 transport ships
• 10,000 planes
• 132,500 soldiers
• 23,000 airborne troops
• 10,000 American Paratroopers dropped into
France
http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blydday12.htm
Patton’s Third Army
http://www.generalpatton.com/gallery.html
http://www.generalpatton.com/gallery.html
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• Patton a tank commander in
Africa, Italy, and France
• Old Blood and Guts
• Always in trouble with his
superiors
• Loses command until the
invasion of France where his
Third Army steams over the
German defenses at an unheard
of pace
• German commanders admired
and feared him
Liberation of Paris
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• Liberation of Paris by
August 1944
• Paris was to be burned by
Hitler’s orders but they
order was not carried out
• Allies rush to liberate
France, Belgium, and
Luxembourg by
September 1944
View slide show @
http://home.att.net/~j.lepse/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html
Battle of the Bulge
http://www.history.army.mil/reference/bulge/images.htm
• Ardennes Offensive launched Dec.
1944
• Germans launch the last major
German offensive of the war
• Hitler’s last ditch attempt to win the
war
• Germans mass large force and throw
everything they have at the Allied
lines in the Ardennes
• American troops, inexperienced and
overstrained, hold the line although a
dangerous bulge occurs
• The line holds, but the Allies suffer
heavy losses, 19,000 Americans
killed
Battle of the Bulge
• Hitler’s Last Ditch Attempt
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Nazi’s best commanders
Coincides with the weather
Selected the weak spot in the line
Created confusion with English speaking Nazi soldiers in
U.S. uniforms
• Real Significance
– Caused war to be 6 months shorter
• Germans used most of reserves (lost 100,000 troops killed,
wounded, captured, plus 600 tanks and guns, and 1600 planes)
– Soviet Union attacks at same time in the Eastern Front
and they move into Germany sooner than expected.
Nazis had pulled troops from Eastern Front to man the
attack. Soviets will occupy most of Eastern Europe.
Unconditional Surrender
• April 25, 1945 – Soviet troops move into
Berlin
• Hitler marries his girlfriend, Eva Braun
• Hitler and Eva commit suicide and Hitler
orders their remains burned
• V-E Day – Victory in Europe Day
– May 8th, 1945
– Eisenhower accepts Germany’s Unconditional
Surrender
Nuremberg Trials
• 24 Nazi leaders were put on trial for numerous
crimes
– Crimes against humanity
– Crimes against peace
– War Crimes
• 12 of the 24 were sentenced to death
– Others sent to prison
• Established the idea that individuals are
responsible for their own actions, even in times
of war
Roosevelt Dies
• April 12, 1945 FDR dies of a stroke at his
home in Warm Springs, Georgia
• Harry S. Truman, FDR’s Vice – President
becomes the nation’s 33rd president
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Truman
Funeral Procession for Roosevelt
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vofdrdeath.htm