Transcript AMH Chapter 14 Section 2

American History
Chapter 14
Section 2
Philippine Islands
• The Japanese continued to
win victories in the Pacific
until the Battle of Midway.
• A few hours after their
attack on Pearl Harbor,
Japanese attacked airfields
in the Philippines.
• A few days later, troops
landed on the Philippine
Islands, strongly
outnumbering American
and Filipino forces.
Giving up the
Philippines
• General Douglas
MacArthur decided to
retreat to the Bataan
Peninsula.
• Eventually the
defenders of Bataan
surrendered.
– April 9, 1942
Prisoners of War (POWs)
• Japanese were infamous
on how they badly
treated POWs
• In the Philippines, nearly
78,000 soldiers were
forced to march 65 miles
to a Japanese prison
camps.
• Almost 10,000 troops
died on the way.
• The march was later
called the Bataan Death
March.
Firing Back-April 18, 1942
• By early 1942, the United
States was preparing to
drop bombs on Tokyo.
• President Roosevelt
ordered Lieutenant
Colonel James Doolittle to
command the mission.
• America bombed Japan
for the first time in April
of that year.
• Doolittle’s raid sent
Japanese strategy into a
tailspin.
Breaking the Code
• Thanks to the work of
code breakers,
American forces were
able to decode Japan’s
plan to attack both New
Guinea and Midway.
Battle of Coral Sea-April 7-8, 1942
• Japan suffers its first defeat
of the war during the Battle
of the Coral Sea off New
Guinea –
• The first time in history that
two opposing carrier forces
fought only using aircraft
without the opposing ships
ever sighting each other.
• American forces prevented
the Japanese from cutting
supply lines to Australia.
Battle of Midway-June 4-7, 1942
• Knowing the code
allowed Admiral Chester
Nimitz to ambush the
Japanese fleet at Midway
and win the battle.
• At the Battle of Midway,
3,057 Japanese had died.
• FOUR Japanese Aircraft
carriers were sunk by the
Americans.
• The Battle of Midway was
a turning point.
We want a plan
• In 1942, Joseph Stalin
wanted President the
Americans and British
to open a second front
against Germany.
• Winston Churchill,
however, wanted to
attack the periphery, or
edges, of the German
empire.
Why North Africa was Import
• Egypt was very
important to the British
because of the Suez
Canal, the route used
by most of Britain's
Empire to send supplies
to Britain
Nazi German’s Afrika Korp
• The German “Afrika
Korp” was commanded
by General Erwin
Rommel, a brilliant
commander whose
success earned him the
nickname, the “desert
fox”
Agreeing to attack the edges
• Roosevelt agreed and
ordered troops to
invade Morocco and
Algeria in North Africa.
• These were French
territories under
German control.
Casablanca
• General Patton led the
American forces in
Morocco.
• They quickly captured
the city of Casablanca.
• Then they headed east
into Tunisia, where they
struggled in their first
real battle with German
forces.
Battle of Kasserine Pass
• In the Battle of
Kasserine Pass, 7,000
Americans were
injured.
• Together with British
forces, they were able
to defeat the Germans
in North Africa in 1943.
German Subs
• At the same time, the war
against German
submarines in the Atlantic
intensified as well.
• German submarines had
entered American coastal
waters.
• By August of 1942,
Germans had sunk about
360 American ships there.
Convoy System
• This convinced the U.S. Navy to set up a convoy
system.
• Cargo ships traveled in groups escorted by navy
warships.
• American and British shipyards also upped production
of cargo ships.
• Soon they were producing more ships than the German
submarines were sinking.
• The United States was also using new technology such
as radar, sonar, and depth charges against the
submarines.
• The war slowly turned in favor of the Allies.
Battle of Stalingrad
• In the spring of 1942, Hitler
was confident he could beat
the Soviets by wrecking the
Soviet economy.
• The city of Stalingrad
controlled the Volga River
and was a major railroad
junction, capturing the city
was the key to Germany’s
attack.
• He considered the city of
Stalingrad central to his
efforts.
Not the right supplies
• Hitler ordered his
troops to capture and
hold the city at all costs.
• In September of that
year, German troops
entered Stalingrad, but
they were not equipped
for the cold in ways the
Soviet army was.
Victory and Turning Point
• The Germans lost
thousands of soldiers.
• In November, Soviet
reinforcements arrived and
trapped almost 250,000
German troops within the
city.
• The Germans surrendered
the city in February of 1943.
• The Battle of Stalingrad was
a major turning point of the
war, because it put
Germans on the defensive.