FIGHTING WWII
• German forces remained in Italy and
battled Allied forces as they moved north.
Preparing for War in Europe:
North Africa
• Hitler hoped to cut off the Allies’ oil from
the Middle East by securing North Africa
for the Axis powers and pushing the British
out of Egypt.
• Hitler sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
and the Afrika Korps to join the Italian army
in North Africa.
• By June 1942, Rommel had taken much of
North Africa and had driven deep into
Egypt.
Poland
• Poles were treated with contempt by the
Nazis.
• Jews in Poland were forced into ghettos.
• Thousands of Jews died from disease and
starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto.
• Six death camps were built in Poland.
• Death camps were equipped with gas
chambers, in which tens of thousands
were killed each month.
Soviet Union
• The Nazis invaded the western part of the
Soviet Union.
• The Nazis used blitzkrieg tactics to
overcome Soviet troops.
• A large German force approached
Moscow.
• A Nazi force marched toward the oil-rich
Caucasus.
War in Europe (1942-45):
Southern Italy
• The Allies used North Africa as a staging
area to invade the island of Sicily in
southern Italy.
• The Allied assault met little opposition at
first.
• Italy’s political leaders voted to oust
Mussolini and restore the king and
parliament.
• Italy surrendered to the Allies and soon
declared war on Germany.
Stalingrad
• Axis troops moved farther into Soviet
territory.
• Hitler split his forces so they could seize
the rest of the Caucasus and also take
Stalingrad.
• By mid-September, Axis troops had
trapped a large Soviet force inside of
Stalingrad.
• The Soviet Red Army launched a
counteroffensive against the Nazi assault.
• The German troops were surrounded, but
Hitler insisted that they fight to their death.
• German troops surrendered to the
Soviets.
• More than 200,000 German and 1 million
Soviet soldiers died in the Battle of
Stalingrad.
Normandy
• Operation Overlord called for an invasion
of France.
• On D-Day, landing craft unloaded Allied
troops on the beaches of Normandy.
• German gun batteries targeted the
invading Allies.
• By the end of the first day, the Allies held
59 miles of the Normandy coast.
• From Normandy, Allied troops began a
rapid sweep across France and liberated
Paris in August 1944.
Battle of the Bulge
• Hitler planned for his armies to burst
through the Allied lines in the Ardennes
region of Belgium.
• On December 16, 1944, eight German
armored Divisions smashed into the
American forces, creating a large bulge in
the Allied line.
• Allied air support and the support of
General Patton’s Third Army forced the
Germans to withdraw.
• The Battle of the Bulge was the last
German offensive on the western front.
Preparing for War in the Pacific:
Philippines
• Under the command of General
MacArthur, Americans and Filipinos
battled a fierce Japanese onslaught.
• Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the
Philippines, but MacArthur vowed to
return.
• After the Japanese completed their
conquest of the Philippines, they rounded
up approximately 70,000 American and
Filipino prisoners and marched them up
the Bataan Peninsula to a prison camp.
• During the Bataan Death March, more
than 7,000 American and Filipino prisoners
died.
Tokyo
• On April 18, 1942, 16 American bombers
bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
• The bombs did little damage to Japan, but
the surprise raids thrilled Americans and
shocked the Japanese.
• The Japanese responded by putting more
resources into defending the home islands.
Coral Sea
• After American code breakers learned
that Japan was moving to isolate Australia,
the Americans sent a small naval force to
the Coral Sea.
• The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought
entirely by carrier-based aircraft.
• This was the first naval battle in history in
which the enemies’ warships never came
within sight of each other.
• Japanese aircraft sank two American
carriers, while American planes sank one
Japanese carrier and damaged the other
two.
• Americans gained a strategic victory
despite fairly even losses.
War in the Pacific (1942-45):
Midway
• The Americans intercepted a coded
Japanese message of plans for a major
offensive, most likely at the U.S base at
Midway.
• American planes demolished the enemy
force.
• Japan never recovered from the loss of
naval carriers and so many of its
experienced pilots.
• The Battle of Midway was Japan’s last
offensive action in the war.
Okinawa
• Knowing that Okinawa would give the
Americans a prime staging area for the
invasion of Japan, Japanese military
leaders moved their best army units from
Japan and China to defend the island.
• The Allies launched a large amphibious
invasion in April 1945.
• The Japanese strongly resisted the
American invaders.
• Combat in Okinawa continued for two
months and claimed the lives of more than
100,000 American and Japanese soldiers.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• On August 6, 1945 an American bomber
dropped an atomic bomb on the city of
Hiroshima, instantly killing as many as
80,000 Japanese.
• Thousands of structures toppled and
hundreds of fires consumed the city as a
result of the bombing.
• Three days later the United States
dropped a second atomic bomb on the city
of Nagasaki, instantly killing some 40,000
people.
• As a result of the bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, up to 250,000 people may
have died from burns, radiation poisoning,
or cancer.
• The destruction of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki brought a Japanese surrender.