Bellringer
• SOL Challenge
• Have out your timeline and map from last class!
• Review Questions (we’ll do them together)
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When did the Germans invade Poland?
What was the significance of the Battle of Britain?
What was Operation Barbarossa?
What was the significance of the bombing of Pearl
Harbor?
• BJOTD: What do you call Robin Hood’s mom?
Agenda
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SOL Challenge
Review
Notes
Timeline/Map
SOL Wrap-Up
Cake Project!
World War II: 1942-1945
European Theatre
North Africa
• After Pearl Harbor, Allies decide
to open a 2nd front in Africa, not
France against the Axis Powers
– Angers Stalin
• Nazis push the Allies back in
August of 1942
• Battle of El-Alamein, 23 October
– 5 November 1942
– Allied victory against Rommel’s
Axis forces
• Operation Torch
– November 8th, 1942: Allied forces
land behind Rommel’s troops and
wipe out the Afrika Korps
– Allies led by General Dwight D.
Eisenhower
Battle of Stalingrad
• Hitler wanted to control the
industrial center at Stalingrad
• Began August 23, 1942
– By early November, the
Germans controlled 90% of the
city
• Soviets counterattack, cutting
the Germans off from their
supplies and starving them
through the winter
• February 2, 1943: 90,000
frostbitten and starved
Germans out of the original
300,000 surrender to the
Soviets
Battle of the Atlantic
• On-going from 1941-1943
• German U-boats vs. Allied
shipping convoys
• Goal for Germany: cut off Great
Britain from its supplies
• After 2 convoys are sunk, Allies
respond by having planes fly
escort for convoys
• Allies win, but at a cost:
– 3,500 merchant ships, 175 warships
lost
– Germans only lost 783 U-boats
Operation Overlord
• Plan: to invade Normandy, France
from across the English Channel
on June 6, 1944 (D-Day)
– Largest land and sea attack in
history
– Commander: General Dwight
Eisenhower
• Allied forces landed on 5 different
beaches along the coast of France
– Utah, Juno, Sword, Gold, Omaha
• Allies took heavy casualties
(10,000), but held the beaches
• This victory gave the Allies a base
from which to continue marching
towards Germany
Battle of the Bulge
• As the Allies moved in from
France, the Soviets moved in
from the East and the
Germans were getting
desperate
• Hitler decided to
counterattack in the West
• December 16, 1944: Hitler
sent his German tanks
through a weak spot in the
American defense in the
Ardennes
• Allies eventually pushed
back and won, forcing the
Germans into retreat
Germany Surrenders Unconditionally
• By late March of 1945: Allies crossed the Rhine
River into Germany
• By April 25, 1945: Soviets surrounded the capital
city of Berlin from the East
• Hitler committed suicide on May 1, 1945
• May 7, 1945: General Eisenhower accepted the
unconditional surrender of Germany
– Unconditional surrender: surrendering without making
any demands or pleas
– President Roosevelt had died on April 12; President
Truman received the news of the surrender
Pacific Theatre
Battle of the Coral Sea
• Fought in May, 1942 when
an American fleet
intercepted a Japanese
strike force on its way to
Australia
• Both fleets of ships faced
each other and fought
without firing a single shot
– Battle fought by air
• Battle was a draw
– Allies lost more ships than
the Japanese, BUT
– Allies STOPPED Japanese
southward expansion
Battle of Midway
• Japan’s next target was the
island of Midway
– Americans had broken the
Japanese intelligence code,
and knew they were coming
• June 4, 1942: Allies launched
a surprise attack, destroying
over 300 Japanese planes as
they waited to take off from
carriers
• Battle ended by June 6, 1942
with a Japanese retreat
– Marked the turning of the
tide of the war in the Pacific
Battle of Guadalcanal
• Commander of the Pacific:
General Douglas MacArthur
– Strategy: to “island-hop” past
the strong Japanese bases to
get himself closer to Japan
itself, then cut supply lines
• Battle of Guadalcanal:
August 7, 1942-February
1943
– Fight over the Soloman
Islands in the Pacific
– Japanese stayed until they
lost 23,000 out of 36,000
men, then retreated from
the islands
The Dropping of the Atomic Bomb
• Island-hopping continued
through 1945
– Japanese lost the battle of
Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima
– Next stop for the Allied
forces: Japan
• Truman had a choice:
Invade Japan or Bomb
Japan
– Invading might cost .5
million Allied lives while
atomic bombing would
lose only Japanese lives
– Truman decides to drop
the bomb
• First Bomb: Little Boy
– Dropped on Hiroshima,
Japan on August 6, 1945
– 73,000 perished in attack
• Second Bomb: Fat Man
– Dropped on Nagasaki,
Japan on August 9, 1945
– 37,500 died in attack
Japan Surrenders
• September 2, 1945: Japanese surrender to
General Douglas MacArthur
• WWII officially over
Directions for Timeline
• Place the events from today on the timeline
given to you
• Recommendation: put the events from Europe
on one side, and from the Pacific on the other
– Label the event, date it, and write 1 sentence with
its importance/significance
• If you finish early, have me check it, then try
and place the events on the map from last
class