American History
Chapter 14 Section 5
The War Ends
Liberating Paris
• After the Allies invaded
France in June 1944,
they were able to
liberate Paris two
months later on August
25th, 1944.
Battle of the Bulge
• As the Americans pushed
east toward Germany,
Hitler (desperate for a
war victory) began a last
offensive that became
known as Battle of the
Bulge.
• Hitler tried to cut off
Allied supplies coming
through the port of
Antwerp, Belgium.
General Patton Saves the Day
• Three days later, however,
General Patton and his
troops slammed into
German lines.
• Allied aircraft bombed
German fuel depots.
• Patton’s troops soon
broke through the
German lines.
• The United States won
the battle.
VE Day
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By the time the Battle of the Bulge
ended, the Soviets had pushed
Hitler’s troops out of Russia and
across Poland.
As Soviets drove toward Berlin from
the east, American forces pushed
toward it from the west.
By the end of February 1945,
American troops had fought their
way to the Rhine River, Germany's
last major line of defense in the west.
Soviet troops arrived in Berlin on
April 21, 1945, and by April 30, Hitler
had killed himself.
His successor, Karl Doenitz,
surrendered unconditionally to the
Allies on May 7, 1945 and the next
day was proclaimed VE Day for
“Victory in Europe.”
FDR Passes Away
• President Roosevelt
died on April 12, 1945,
after suffering a stroke.
Harry S. Truman
became president and
had to end the war in
Japan.
Iwo Jima
• The United States tried sending
B-29s to bomb Japan, but they
ran out of fuel by the time they
reached Japan and could not hit
their targets.
• American military planners
decided to invade Iwo Jima so
that American B-29 Bombers
could land and refuel before
bombing Japan.
• Iwo Jima’s geography was
difficult.
• American troops succeeded in
capturing the island, but more
than 6,800 marines died in the
process.
Fire Bombing Japan
• While American engineers
prepared airfields on Iwo Jima,
General Curtis LeMay decided
to change plans.
• He ordered B-29s to drop
bombs filled with napalm,
which exploded and ignited
fires.
• The firebombing of Tokyo
killed over 80,000 people and
destroyed more than 250,000
buildings in the city.
• Japan still refused to
surrender.
Okinawa
• To aid a possible
invasion of Japan, the
United States invaded
the island of Okinawa in
April of 1945 and
captured it in late June.
Atomic Bomb
• President Truman knew the
United States had a new
weapon that could force
Japan’s unconditional
surrender—the atomic
bomb.
• The President, along with
his military leaders had to
decide if they would invade
Japan (risk high number of
military deaths) or drop the
bomb (killing thousands of
civilians).
Manhattan Project
• The American program to
build it, code-named the
Manhattan Project, had
started under Roosevelt.
• In 1942, Leo Szilard and
Enrico Fermi built the
world's first Nuclear
Reactor at the University
of Chicago.
• The project was headed
by General Leslie Groves
Ordering the Bomb
• After much debate,
President Truman ordered
the bomb dropped.
• He believed doing so was
justified because it would
save American lives.
• Tinian Island was the
airbase where the pilots
of both planes took off
from in the Pacific.
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
• The Allies threatened
Japan with “prompt and
utter destruction” if the
nation did not surrender
unconditionally, but the
Japanese did not reply.
• On August 6, 1945, an
atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima.
• Three days later, another
was dropped on Nagasaki.
• The bombs killed tens of
thousands of people.
V-J Day
• Faced with the massive
destruction of the nuclear
attacks and the shock of
the Soviet Union joining
the Allies, the Japanese
emperor ordered his
government to surrender
on August 15, 1945.
• August 15, called V-J Day,
World War II was over.
United Nations
• President Roosevelt believed
that a new international
political organization could
prevent another world war,
and he was instrumental in
creating the United Nations.
• In 1944, delegates from 39
countries met in Washington,
D.C. They discussed forming
the United Nations.
• It would have a General
Assembly in which every
member nation would have
one vote.
U.N. Security Council
• It would also have an
eleven-member
Security Council.
• Britain, France, China,
the Soviet Union, and
the United States would
be the council’s
permanent members.
• They would have veto
power.
U.N. Charter
• In 1945, representatives from
50 countries came to San
Francisco to officially organize
the United Nations.
• They designed its charter, or
constitution.
• The General Assembly would
vote on resolutions and
choose the nonpermanent
security group’s members.
• The Security Council attended
to international peace and
security.
Nuremberg Trials
• In August 1945, the
United States, Britain,
France, and the Soviet
Union created the
International Military
Tribunal (IMT).
• At the Nuremberg trials,
the IMT tried German
leaders suspected of
committing war crimes.
• Many of these leaders
were executed.
– Complete list
War Crimes in Japan
• Several Japanese
leaders were also tried
and executed.
• However, the Allies did
not put the emperor of
Japan on trial in order
to avoid an uprising by
the Japanese people.