Transcript Mussolini executed – April 1945

Major WWII
U.S. Military
Strategies, Actions
& Leaders
1941 - 1945
1
From Defense to Offense
• FDR domestic brilliance
• Military Generals Experienced Strategists
• Scientific Innovation Collective race to
beat Hitler to the bomb
2
Allies Goal in WWII = “Total Victory” over Axis
Helping England was 1st Priority
3
North Africa Campaign
1942
4
Rommel & Eisenhower
5
Gen. Patton
Italy Invasion - Summer ‘43
6
GI’s Liberating Sicily – July ‘43
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Mussolini executed – April 1945
8
European Theater
9
Eastern Front – 1942 – ‘44
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US B-17’s & P-51’s Bomb Germany
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D – Day June 6th, 1944
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3 million Allied soldiers
12,000 Allied planes vs. 300 German
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-Air
assault then dropping of
paratroopers behind enemy lines
-Finally amphibious landing
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Battle of the Bulge -- December, 1944
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Dresden & Berlin Fire Bombed – Spring 1945
17
Western Allies
Meets USSR
At Elbe River
April, 1945
18
Liberation of the camps
the atrocities were
“beyond the American
mind to comprehend.”
19
V-E Day -- May 7th , 1945
20
Pacific “Theater”
21
“Island
Hopping”
Strategy
(1942-1945)
Gen. MacArthur
22
Aircraft
Carriers
Allied advantages:
-defensive
-Japan depleted
-No help fr. Germany or Italy
Turning Points: 1943
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Bataan Death March
Winter-Spring 1942
At least 16k died within weeks of reaching prison
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Iwo Jima
Feb./March
1945
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Battle of Okinawa: Largest amphibious assault in
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Pacific war
B-29s Bomb Japan
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Harry
Truman
Becomes
President
April, 1945
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Manhattan
Project
Hiroshima &
Nagasaki
Dropping the bomb
August 6th & 9th
1945
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Should the U.S. do it?
• Establish your opinion and reasoning given
your role.
• Identify likely people who would agree
with you; first from the list of 5 roles then
from the documents
• Examine “Atom Bomb Sources” at “US
History Handouts”
• Examine links
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• Devise three specific reasons
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V J Day
September
1945
nd
2
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IV. Overview of Military &
Diplomatic Impacts of WWII:
• Global “Total” War Brings Unprecedented Devastation
– New military techniques & technologies used world wide
• Examples: Fully Mechanized War, Arial “Fire Bombing”, Paratroopers, Amphibious Invasions,
Radar, Flame Throwers, Jets, Nuclear Weapons
– Civilians across the globe mobilized & targeted like never before
– 50 million dead/wounded world wide -- 1 million US dead/wounded
• New World Order Emerges
– U.S. ends isolationism & accepts role as world “superpower” during & after war
– Traditional European powers geopolitical influence diminished
– US/USSR power struggle (aka “the Cold War”) begins even before WWII officially ends
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