WWII Combat
Nazi Tide
• Nazi’s had taken Western Europe
• Unsuccessful air war with Britain
• Nazi’s break Russian nonaggression pact
– Armies advance miles into western Russia
• Stalingrad
– Offensive would complete conquest of Russia
– Russian Casualties 500,000
– German Casualties 300,000
– Turning Point
Casablanca Conference
• Churchill and FDR
demand unconditional
surrender of Germany
and Japan
– Permanently eliminate
Germany and Japan
– Soviets encouraging to
keep fighting
– Crushed Hitler’s hope
for negotiation
Europe’s Soft Underbelly
• North Africa
– Kasserine Pass in Tunisia
– British /US troops push across North Africa forcing the surrender Axis
• Sicily
– Allies take island and cause the
– Italians push Mussolini out of Power Italian Prime Minister,
– Italian Armistice September 3rd 1943
• Invasion mainland Italy
– Anzio/Monte Cassino
•
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet in Teheran
– 2nd front in Western Europe
– Partitioning of Germany
– Russia vs. Japan
D-Day Normandy France
• Largest amphibious operation in history June
6th 1944
– 2 million troops
– 5,000 ships
– 11,000 aircraft
• Allies deception / Patton’s Fake Army
• Hitler believed the deception and pulled tank
units
Nazi Counter Offensive
• French troops retook Paris August 5, 1944
• German Counteroffensive Belgium’s Ardennes
Forest Winter 1944
– Americans caught by surprise
– Desperate battle
– Shortage of fuel
– Frozen ground
– 70-100,000 US Casualties
Yalta Conference
• February of 1945 Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt met (Russia)
• Terms of Agreement
a. Russia enter war against Japan after Germany defeated
b. Creation of United Nations
c. Russia regain territories lost to Japan in Russo-Japanese War
plus special rights in Manchuria
d. Outer Mongolia recognized as independent nation
e. Free elections to be held to establish democracies in those
nations formerly occupied by Nazi
g. Germany was to be divided into British, American, French,
and Soviet zones of occupation
End of War in Europe
• 1945- US steps up bombing campaign on
Germany
• Dresden firebombed
– 1,400 Allied planes
– City reduced to rubble
– 135,000 died
• April- Russians attack Berlin
• Hitler’s Suicide
• May 7th Germans surrender
Battle of Midway
•
•
•
•
•
June 1942
Japanese Seek to destroy last US carriers
Set a trap at Midway Island
US broke Japanese radio code
US dive-bombers catch Japanese rearming
Guadalcanal
• Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, NE of Australia
• 1st of many bloody battles in the Pacific
• Island Hopping Campaign
– Stepping-stones for eventual invasion of Japanese
main islands
– Unnecessary to defeat Japanese on every island
– Goal: secure islands so US bombers can attack the
Japanese main islands
Bloody Island Battles
• Battle of Tarawa
– 2 mile long and half mile
wide island
• 18,000 US Marines
vs.
• 4,500 Japanese
– 17 Japanese survive,
• US: 2,000 wounded 1,000
died
• Continue Island hopping Saipan, Guam and Tinian
Island Air Bases
• B-29 Superfortress Bombers
– Faster, higher and farther with heavier bomb loads
• March 9-10th 1945: B-29’s bomb Tokyo with
Napalm
–
–
–
–
–
–
Gelatinized gasoline- start fires hard to extinguish
250,000 pounds of Napalm dropped
Japanese homes/buildings made of wood and paper
Estimated 100,000 Japanese die
1 million homeless
16 square miles of Tokyo destroyed
The Philippines
• General Douglas
MacArthur’s vow
• Battle of Leyte Gulf
• Kamikaze suicide
attacks
– Sank 400 ships
– Nearly 10,000
Americans die
• June 1945 recapture of
Philippines complete
Okinawa a Prelude
• Japanese Home Territory
– 350 miles from Kyushu
– Staging ground for the invasion
• 183,000 Americans
vs.
• 77,000 Japanese, 20,000 Okinawans
–
–
–
–
–
–
Battle lasted 82 days
US lost 12,000
Japanese lost 70,000
100,000 to 150,000 civilians
Civilian Suicides
Kichiku - ogre-beasts
Atomic Secret
• April 12th FDR suffered a massive cerebral
hemorrhage and died
• The Manhattan Project 1942
• 1st atomic bomb successfully detonated
Alamogordo, New Mexico July 16th
The “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”
• August 6th 1945
• Japanese Industrial city of Hiroshima
–
–
–
–
70,000 Japanese citizens vaporized
100,000 Japanese injured
98% of the buildings destroyed
100,000 perished from burns and radiation sickness
• August 9th
• Nagasaki Naval Port
– 80,000 people died from blast and radiation
Japan Surrenders
• Hirohito chooses total
surrender
• August 14th 1945
fighting in Pacific
ends
• September 2nd
General MacArthur
accepts surrender of
Japan