Transcript The Allied Victory

The Allied Victory
How do the Allies defeat the Axis Powers?
Planning the Victory
1943: Allied leaders first meet at Tehran Conference, plans on
beating Hitler in Europe
FDR & Churchill meet with Chiang Kai-Shek to discuss Asia at
the Cairo Conference
1945: Big three meet at Yalta discuss post-war plans, will meet
later at Potsdam
D-Day: Invasion of Normandy (European War)
Gen Eisenhower is named Allied Supreme Commander in Europe
June 6 1944: Allies launch an invasion in N. France
Led by Gen. George Patton, 150K allied troops land, 27K KIA 1st day
Gen Omar Bradley begins air assault, Allies winning within a month
Great Britain
Allied army push Germany from the west, Soviets push from East
Dec 1944: Massive German counter-attack at Battle of the Bulge
•March 1945: Allied troops win Battle of Bulge, FDR dies 04/12/45
•April 1945: Hitler commits suicide – Germany surrenders (VE Day)
•Nov 1945: Nuremberg Trials – former Nazis appear before military
tribunal, most found guilty
The Pacific War
Allies liberate Korea & China
March 1945: After a month of bitter fighting, the Allies take the island
of Iwo Jima (over 18K-Japan, 6K-Allies killed)
April 1945: Allies land on Okinawa, 350 miles south of Japan
Okinawa is one of the bloodiest battles of the war: 100K Japanese &
19K Allied troops killed in a month and a half of fighting
Despite the heavy casualties, Japan refuses to surrender. Allies
preparing for a full-scale invasion of Japan
The Manhattan Project
FDR gives the okay for developing an atomic bomb
General Leslie R. Groves & physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
developed bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
•Weapon could release
more energy than 20,000
tons of TNT
Trinity Test
•July 1945: Gadget was
tested in a controlled
explosion in New Mexico
desert
•Truman informed of the new weapons, August 6, 1945 a plane named
Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, Japan
•Japan doesn’t surrender. Three days later, a plane named Bockscar
dropped the third bomb named “Fat Man” on Nagasaki, Japan
•Japan surrenders on August 13th, 1945