December 7, 1941:
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor,
Schofield Barracks and Hickham
Air Field, Hawaii
The attack on
Hawaii brought the
United States into
the war.
December 7, 1941
Dec. 8, 1941
U. S. declares
war on Japan;
Dec. 11, 1941:
Germany & Italy
declare war on
U. S.
Political master-mind:
Hideki Tojo
Tactical master-mind:
Admiral Isoroku
Yamamoto
Japanese “Peace
Mission” to Washington
while Yamamoto’s
fleet set sail for attack
on Hawaii (Nov. 1941)
Attack on Hawaii:
Sunday, December 7, 1941
8:00 a.m.—9:30 a.m.
Japanese: 181 airplanes from 6
aircraft carriers
U. S. losses: 21 ships sunk or
badly damaged (8 battleships,
3 cruisers, 4 destroyers); 188
Aircraft destroyed & 159 damaged;
2,403 killed (1,177 on U.S.S.
Arizona); 1,178 wounded.
Attack on Hawaii:
Japanese losses: 64 killed, 29 aircraft
destroyed; 74 aircraft damaged
Admiral Husband E.
Kimmel blamed for
devastating losses
Army Lieutenant
General Walter C.
Short shared the
blame
Attack on Hawaii:
The “miracle” of Pearl Harbor:
The U. S. Pacific Aircraft Carrier
Fleet, under Rear Admiral William F.
Halsey, was at sea on routine
maneuvers
Japan wanted control of Southeast
Asia and China.
Eastern Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
December 7-10, 1941: attacks against
Hawaii, Wake Island,The Philippines,
Malaya/Singapore, and Indonesia.
Japan’s goal: to stop
European and American
colonial expansion in the Pacific
U. S.—Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam,
and the Philippines
Great Britain: Burma, India, Malaya
France: Indochina (Vietnam)
The Netherlands: East Indies
Singapore, Dec. 1941Feb. 1942—the British forgot
the lessons of history.
Japanese did the
unexpected: attacked
through the jungle.
“Greatest military
disaster in British
history.”
5 million Americans volunteer for
military service. 10 million drafted.
General Marshall asked
for a Women’s Auxiliary
Army Corps (WAAC) to
perform non-combat
military duties
After great
debate in
Congress,
WAAC approved; Oveta
Culp Hobby first director
December 22, 1941:
Roosevelt &
Churchill’s
Washington
Conference.
Top priority: defeat
of Germany
Hold in Pacific
Accept only unconditional surrender
The Philippines
100,000 Filipinos;
31,000 Americans
Commander:
Gen Douglas
MacArthur
Excellent battle plans based on withdrawing and fighting a delaying
Action until relief convoy from the
U. S. arrived. Force was well-trained.
The Philippines
Did not follow the
battle plans.
Tried to defeat the
Japanese at the
water’s edge.
Japanese successful—huge U. S.
losses in people and materiel.
Relief convoy never sent; Roosevelt
orders MacArthur to Australia
The Philippines
April 1942—Bataan falls—40,000
American POW
The Philippines
Bataan Death March
10,000 began
3,000 died from heat, exhaustion,
disease, beatings, beheadings,
bayonetings, being buried alive.
Japanese BUSHIDO
Allied build-up in the Pacific
—1942-43
U. S. Commander of Pacific naval
forces: Admiral Chester A. Nimitz.
U. S. Army commander:
General MacArthur
British commanders: Lord Mountbatten
and General Slim
Allied Strategy
British:
Malaya/Burma/
India
Admiral Nimitz: island
hopping; Navy and
Marines
Gen. MacArthur: New Guinea/Philippines
Early 1942, Army Air Corps
General Jimmy Doolittle and a
force of B-25 bombers, takes off of
the U.S.S. Hornet and bombs Tokyo.
Little damage to Japan but a great
morale boost to American people.
Turning Point in the Pacific War
Battle of Midway (following Battle of
the Coral Sea), May 1942.
Early May: Battle of Coral Sea
U. S. intercepted Japanese fleet
bound for invasion of
Australia
First naval battle
where opposing
fleets never saw each
other—planes vs.
ships.
Turning Point in the Pacific War
Battle of Midway, May 1942.
U. S. Rear Admiral
Raymond Spruance
defeats Yamamoto
Four Japanese and
one U.S. aircraft
carriers sunk.
Island Hopping
Guadalcanal—Aug 1942February 1943
Island Hopping
Solomon
Islands and
Gilbert
Islands:
November
1943
Island Hopping
Battle of Tarawa
Gilbert Islands
Tarawa an atoll made
of coral. Flat—no vegetation. 38
islands, circled by a coral reef with a
lagoon in the middle. Most of the
battle fought on the main island of
Betio.
4,836 Japanese, well-dug-in.
Battle of Tarawa
Not enough
Amphtracs—used
Higgins Boats.
Charts—102 years old.
Did not listen to native intelligence.
Synchronization problems:
Naval gunfire too early.
Naval air too late & on station only
8 minutes, not 30 as planned.
Land-based aircraft did not show.
Battle of Tarawa
Marines sitting ducks.
Japanese artillery at 3,000 yards.
Heavy machineguns at 2,000 yds.
Higgins boats stuck on reef at 800
yards. Marines had to wade, under
heavy Japanese fire, 700-800 yards.
Battle raged 5 days. Marines win
but with many casualties.
Only 17 Japanese survive.
February 1944:
Battles of Kwajalein
and Eniwetok in
the Marshall
Islands
Island Hopping
The Marianas Islands:
Battle of Saipan:
June 1944; Battle of
Guam: July 1944
Island Hopping
September-October 1944
Battles of Leyte, Leyte
Gulf and Peleliu
At Leyte Gulf, the Japanese attempt a
New tactic: kamikaze (“Divine Wind”)
424 kamikaze
suicide
missions; 16
U.S. ships
sunk; 80
damaged
Battle of Leyte Gulf a disaster for
Japan; lost 4 battleships, 4 carriers,
13 cruisers, 400 planes
January 1945: Battle
of Luzon—MacArthur
returns to main island
of the Philippines
February
1945: the
miracle of
Los Banos—
a perfect U. S.
operation
February 19-March 17,
1945: The Battle of
Iwo Jima
6,000
Marines
Killed;
20,700
Japanese
entrenched;
most killed
April 1-June 21, 1945
The Battle of Okinawa
U.S. 20,000
casualties;
7,600 killed;
Japanese:
110,000 killed
Allied planners predict 1 million
allied casualties if Allies invade
the Japanese home islands.
April 12, 1945, President
Roosevelt dies of a massive
stroke in Warm Springs, GA
Vice President Harry S. Truman
of Missouri sworn in as
the nation’s 33d
president
Informed of a new
weapon being developed
In Los Alamos, New Mexico
scientists under Dr. Robert
Oppenheimer and General
Leslie Groves
worked on
the Manhattan
Project to
develop an
atomic bomb
First test blast
on July 16, 1945 to give Truman a
bargaining chip over Stalin at the
forthcoming Potsdam Conference.
July 1945, Truman, Stalin,
and Churchill (later
Clement Attlee) meet at Potsdam,
near Berlin, Germany
Truman
informs
other Big 3
members
about bomb
and they
design postwar Germany
After Okinawa, Truman is
convinced he must use the
atomic bomb against Japan.
Some scientists wanted to stage a
demonstration for Japanese. But
only 2 bombs available at the time.
Truman was convinced, after
several meetings, that using the
bomb in a surprise strike against
a Japanese city would save the most
lives—American and Japanese
August 6, 1945: B-29 The
Enola Gay, piloted by Paul W. Tibbets,
drops a single atomic bomb,
named “Little Boy,” on
Hiroshima, Japan
The city is destroyed;
about 70,000 people
are killed.
August 9, 1945, a
B-29 named Bock’s
Car drops an
atomic bomb named
“Fat Man” that
destroys the city of
Nagasaki
Emperor Hirohito orders his
government to ask for terms
of surrender.
10 August 1945:
Japanese ask for terms
of peace. Allies
demand unconditional
surrender.
2 September, 1945: Japanese
surrender on deck of the battleship
U. S. S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
SS. St. Louis Affair
U. S. refused to allow
Jewish passengers
to immigrate to U. S. Had not used
up the number of visas permitted by
law
U. S. Economy in World War II
GNP soared from $91 billion in
1939 to $166 billion in 1945
Personal incomes grew by as much
as 100% or more
The West in World War II
West: launching point for most of
the naval war against Japan
Ship and aircraft
manufacturing in
California
Los Angeles became
a major industrial
center
The Second Great Migration
Brought many more AfricanAmericans to northern cities than
First Great Migration
Bettered economic conditions; but
created urban tensions
Military: Blacks limited to menial
assignments; segregated units
The Tuskegee Airmen
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Relocation of Japanese-Americans
constitutionally permissible
December 7, 1941
Dec. 8, 1941
U. S. declares
war on Japan;
Dec. 11, 1941:
Germany & Italy
declare war on
U. S.
Hitler orders submarine
raids off U. S. Atlantic coast.
Under Admiral Karl Doenitz
U-boats sink 87 U. S. ships
off the East Coast in first
4 months of the war.
By July 1942—wolfpacks
had destroyed 681 allied
ships.
Allies use convoys, sonar,
and radar-equipped aircraft to
finally defeat u-boat threat to Allied
shipping
Turning Point: Stalingrad
(Aug.23,1942-Feb. 2, 1943)
Brutal fighting
Gen. Paulus
Hitler: “Fight to
last man.”
Brutal city fighting.
Germans: 90,000 of 330,000 survive
Only 5,000 survived POW.
Soviet casualties: 1,250,000
Stalin: “Hold
At all costs.”
Marshall
Zhukov
The War in North Africa
German Afrika Korps
commander: Field
Marshall Erwin Rommel
Replaces Italians after
they suffer tremendous
defeats against the
British
The Desert Fox
British Eighth Army
commander: General
Bernard Montgomery
British Eighth Army
defeats Rommel
in Egypt, Fall 1942,
at El Alamein
November 1942: Operation
Torch
General Dwight Eisenhower
First fight French
The War in North Africa
U. S. first fights Germans in Tunisia
at Kasserine Pass.
U. S. II Corps
badly beaten.
The War in North Africa
General George Patton
put in command
afterward. Whips II
Corps into shape.
British and U. S. defeat
Germans in
North Africa
in late spring 1943.
What next?
Where would you attack next?
Greece?
Sicily?
Italy?
Southern
France?
Western
France?
Northern France?
Casablanca Conference
Over Gen.
Marshall’s
objections,
decided to
invade Sicily
next
Churchill—“Attack the soft
underbelly of Europe” (Italy)
Operation Husky: the
invasion of Sicily,
July 1943.
Eisenhower overall
commander
U. S. 7th Army (Patton) and
British 8th Army
(Montgomery)
Operation Husky Messina
Palermo
Patton unhappy
with plan.
Monty
Patton takes
Patton
Palermo then
beats Monty
to Messina, but most Germans escape.
Operation Husky
At first, Patton
is a big hero.
Then the press
reports a story that
Patton slapped 2 soldiers.
Eisenhower relieves Patton and
nearly sends him back to the U. S.
in disgrace. The Germans refuse
to believe the story.
Apennine
Mountains
Po River
June 1944
Apennine
Mountains
January 1944
Anzio
Rapido River
Sept.1943
Italians surrender when
Allies invade at Salerno—
Mussolini deposed.
Germans move in, take over fight
under Field Marshall Kesselring
Key Battles: Anzio & Monte Casino
Allies aided by 50,000 Italian
partisans including former Al
Capone lieutenant, Lucky Lucciano
April 28, 1945: Mussolini captured
by Italian partisans, shot, & hung by
heels in a Milan square.
British and U. S. bombers
destroyed industrial facilities,
demoralized the population and
cleared the way for invasion of France
The Allies including the U. S.
8th Air Force, bomb German cities of
Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin
Dresden: ¾ of
city destroyed;
135,000 killed
Germans expect
Allied
attack
at the
Pas de
Calais.
Shortest distance between Britain &
France. Patton set up as a diversion.
Allies use diversion to plan attack in
Normandy
5 June 1944: Airborne Assault
Pathfinders
3 Airborne divisions
British 6th Airborne Division
U. S. 82nd Airborne Division
U. S. 101st Airborne Division
Omaha Beach—U. S. VII Corps
1st Infantry Div; 29th Infantry Div.
Utah Beach—U. S. V Corps
4th Infantry Div.
Gold Beach—British XXX Corps
Juno Beach--Canadian
Sword Beach—
Ponte du Hoc Brit. I Corps
Operation
Overlord
6 June 1944
Major obstacle
For allies:
Rhine River
British 21st Group
US 1st Army
US 3d Army
US 7th Army
Compared to WW I—new warfare:
mobile and fast: airplanes, tanks
Key Leaders
Germans: Erwin Rommel
Supreme Allied Commander:
Dwight D. Eisenhower
U. S. Ground
Commander:
Omar Bradley
British:
Bernard Montgomery
Battle of the Bulge—Dec. 1944Jan. 1945
The Germans launch a last ditch
offensive in the dead of winter.
Their goal is to cut the allies in half,
then try to make peace.
Battle of the Bulge—Dec. 1944Jan. 1945
Dec. 1944—Germans being squeezed
by Soviets in east & allies in west.
Hitler’s last grand plan:
a.Mass forces, attack to take Antwerp.
b.Cut Allies in half.
c.Massive offensive in blizzard-like
conditions through Ardennes
Forrest.
Battle of the Bulge
Germans over-run U. S. 106th Division
Germans massacre many POW from
106th Division at Malmedy, Belgium
U. S. forces hold key towns of St. Vith
and Bastogne
101st Airborne Div. holds
Bastogne Bad weather
hampers allies
BG McAuliffe of 101st Abn.
says “Nuts!” to surrender
demand.
Patton’s Third Army pulls out of a
winter offensive, turns left and moves
100 miles in 3 days to relieve
Bastogne.
The War in Europe Wraps Up
The Battle of the Bulge is the peak of
the war.
The Rhine River only remains as a
major obstacle.
3rd Army crosses on pontoon bridges.
British plan major crossing—but slow.
1st Army (9th Armored Div.) captures
bridge intact at Remagen.
The War in Europe Wraps Up
April 1945: Germany close to final
defeat but many units are still
fighting hard.
The Soviets are on the
outskirts of Berlin
May 7, 1945: Hitler
and his wife, Eva
Braun, commit suicide.
May 8: Admiral Doenitz
surrenders.
In Germany, Nazi leaders are tried
in the city of Nuremberg for crimes
against humanity. 22 tried; 13
sentenced
to hang.
Herman
Goering
commits
suicide;
12 were
hanged.
U. S. troops occupy Japan;
MacArthur was named military
governor.
1,100 people, from Tojo to guards,
tried. Tojo and General Yamashita
were hanged.
MacArthur
installs U. S.
type
constitution.
Allows
emperor to remain