Transcript Chapter 25, Section 2

The Battle of the Bulge
 By 1944, Americans liberated Paris, Brussels, and Holland
 Americans cross into Germany
 At first Americans are pushed back, but the General
Patton moves his entire army of 250,000 soldiers from
Western France
 One of the largest battle in Western Europe
 Nazis now realized the war was lost for them
Bombing of Dresden
 February 1945 – British and American bombers
attacked the city of Dresden in Germany
 25,000 people killed, many civilian refugees
displaced by the Soviet advance
 Many critics claim that the bombing was
unnecessary since civilians were the target
 Others claim it was necessary because Dresden had
suburban factories and was a junction of major rail
and telephone lines
War Ends in Western Europe
 Fighting between German and Soviet forces from 1941-1945





was the greatest conflict ever fought on a single front
13.6 million Soviets and 3 million Germans were killed –
2/3rds the total dead for WWII
Soviets want to capture Berlin, Germany’s capital
Rather than fleeing Berlin, Hitler commits suicide
Germany surrenders
V-E Day (Victory in Europe) May 8, 1945
The Yalta Conference
 Before the end of the war, FDR, Churchill, and
Stalin met at Yalta in the Soviet Union to plan for a
post-war world:



Split Germany into 4 zones
Berlin would be divided
Stalin promised elections in his territories and promised to
enter the war against Japan
Pacific Battles
WAR IN THE PACIFIC
Battan Death March
 Hours after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed American





airbase in the Philippine Islands
US troops surrendered at Bataan Peninsula
2000 escaped to Manila Bay
About 76,000 Filipinos and Americans became
POWs
Japanese marched these POWs to a railroad
junction
At least 10,000 died during the 6-12 day march
Douglas MacArthur
 Commander of Allied forces in the Pacific
Doolittle’s Raid
 In spring of 1942, Allies began to fight back against
Japanese
 16 bombers attacked Tokyo and other Japanese cities
 Pearl-Harbor-style air raid over Japan
 Did little in terms of damage, but was the morale
boost the Allies needed
Battle of Coral Sea
 1st naval combat
carried out entirely
by the aircraft
 Americans bombed the
enemy forces more than
70 miles away
 It prevented that
Japanese from
establishing the bases
they needed to bomb
Australia
Battle of Midway
 Japanese hoped to destroy





what remained of the Pacific
Fleet (what they didn’t get to
at Pearl Harbor)
Fought entirely from the air
US destroyed 4 Japanese aircraft
carriers and sunk 250 planes
This was a devastating blow to
Japanese naval power
Removed the immediate
Japanese threat to Hawaii
After this battle, there were
no more Japanese offensive
operations