2. The Allied Drive toward Berlin
War Aims and Strategy
Attacking Hitler and aiding Allies in Europe
Attacking Japan was secondary to war in Europe
Atlantic Charter
U.S., Canada, Great Britain and France
No separate peace
The North Africa Campaign
Axis powers surrendered North Africa in May 1943
Casablanca meeting between FDR and Churchill
Combined strategy for war
Stalin refused to attend
Battle of Atlantic, Combined bombing missions
Allies accept unconditional surrender only
8. Battle of Stalingrad
August 23, 1942-February 2, 1943
German Casualties
850,000 killed, missing or wounded
including 107,000 captured (only 6,000 survived
captivity and returned home by 1955)
900 aircraft (including 274 transports and 165 bombers
used as transports)
1,500 tanks
6,000 artillery pieces
9. Battle of Stalingrad
Russian Casualties
Approx. 1,150,000 killed, missing or wounded
including 478,741 killed and missing
650,878 wounded and sick
40,000 civilians dead
4,341 tanks
15,728 artillery pieces
2,769 combat aircraft
“Hugging the Germans”
“Rat War”
11. Allied Drive Toward Berlin
Battle of the Atlantic
Radar
Breaking German Code
Sicily and Italy
Allies advanced to Sicily from N. Africa
Patton invaded Italy
Mussolini removed from power when Rome was
captured June 4, 1944
12.
13.
14. The Allied Drive toward Berlin
The Tehran Conference
November 28- December 1, 1943
Held in Soviet Embassy in Teheran
Stalin, FDR, Churchill
England and U.S. agree to open a 2nd front against
the Nazis in Western Europe
Agree to move Polish border westward after War
Agree to Iranian Independence
Agree to Tito’s leadership in Yugoslavia
The Strategic Bombing of Europe
Ongoing bombing of Germany
17. Operation Overlord
D-Day
Nazi concentration of forces on mainland Europe “Atlantic Wall”
June 6, 1944
5,300 ships
370,000 English, American, Free French troops
Within 2 weeks: 1 million troops landed in France
August 25, 1944: Liberation of Paris
Slowing Momentum
Gasoline Shortage
Delay until resupply
18. Leapfrogging in Tokyo
MacArthur in New Guinea
Battle of Bismarck Sea
8 Japanese troop ships and 10 warships sunk
Forced Japan not to resupply islands under attack
Island Hopping
Saipan: enabled B-29 bombers to reach Japan’s home islands
without refueling
Philippines landing 10/20/1944
Battle of Leyte Gulf
Battles in the Central Pacific
Kamikaze attacks
21. Battle of the Bulge
December 16, 1944- January 25, 1945
German name: Operation Watch on the Rhine
Allied Casualties
American: 89,500 (19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded,
23,000 captured or missing); ~800 tanks
British: 1,408 (200 killed, 969 wounded, and 239
missing
German Casualties
~100,000 men; 440+ tanks 440+ other tracked
AFV; 2,400 aircraft
22.
23. A New Age Is Born
Roosevelt's Fourth Term
November 1944 Roosevelt wins 4th term
New VP is Harry Truman
Roosevelt’s health declining
Converging Military Fronts
Battle of the Bulge: December 16, 1944
German resistance crumbles
24. A New Age Is Born
Yalta and the Postwar World:
February 4-11, 1945
Unconditional surrender
Soviets join Pacific war after Nazi defeat
Demilitarization; Denazification
Reparations: German forced labor
Dismemberment of Germany
Yalta’s Legacy
Criticism of Yalta agreement
Defacto Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe
26. A New Age Is Born
FDR
Died on April 12, 1945
Truman was not a part of FDR administration
post war strategy meetings, did not know
about Atomic weapon
The Collapse of Nazi Germany
Western Allies met Soviet Allies on April 25, 1945
Mussolini killed April 28
Hitler suicide April 30, 1945
May 2, 1945: Fall of Berlin
May 7, 1945 German army surrendered
27.
28.
29. A New Age Is Born
A Grinding War against Japan
Battle of Iwo Jima
U.S. casualties
27,000 casualties
7,000 killed
U.S. population war weary
The Atomic Bomb
Successful test July 16, 1945
Potsdam Conference
August 6, 1945 Hiroshima: 80,00+ civilians killed
Demand for unconditional surrender of Japan
August 8, 1945: Soviets declare war on Japan
August 9, 1945: Nagasaki: 36,000 killed
September 2, 945: Japan surrendered
Notas del editor
The first American forces would battle the Axis in North Africa, where over 200,000 Germans and Italians would surrender in May 1943. At a meeting at Casablanca, Winston Churchill and FDR would agree that only the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers would end the war.
What was the Atlantic Charter? Compare and contrast the alliances in the First World War with those in the Second World War. How were the Germans able to seize most of the Allied territory so quickly?
What was the Allies’ strategy in North Africa, and why was it important for the invasion of Italy? Why did Eisenhower’s plan on D-day succeed? What was the Battle of the Bulge? What was the role of strategic bombing in the war? Was it effective?
Major General George S. Patton Patton commanded the U.S. invasion of Sicily, the largest amphibious action in the war up to that point. He believed that war “brings out all that is best in men.”
At a meeting in Tehran, Iran, FDR, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin agreed that all three would continue to fight until Japan was defeated. Bombing of Germany was a constant event. Americans bombed during the day when the missions had greater accuracy but were more dangerous. The British bombed at night when it was safer. This was not thought of as the British failing to pull their own weight, but as a right earned since they had been involved from the start.
Operation Overlord General Dwight D. Eisenhower instructing paratroopers before they boarded their airplanes to launch the D-day assault.
Hitler had concentrated his forces on the areas most likely to be used for an invasion attempt from England. It was up to the Allied forces under Dwight D. Eisenhower to defeat this “Atlantic Wall” in order to invade France. On June 6, 1944, D-Day began. Over 5,300 vessels carried 370,000 soldiers across the English Channel. After two weeks, 1 million troops had landed in France, and on August 25, Paris was liberated. The advances in Europe by Allied forces resulted in a shortage of gasoline. Eisenhower chose to slow down the advance and wait until supply had caught up with demand before beginning another push toward Germany.
General Douglas MacArthur was the commander of Allied forces in the Pacific charged with retaking the islands for the assault on Japan. At the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, eight Japanese troopships and ten warships were sunk. From this point, Japan chose not to reinforce any island being attacked. This allowed the Allies to attack an island, allow the Japanese forces to stop sending supplies, and then move to the next one. The first island would be allowed to wither and die, while the Allies “leaped” to another one. Admiral Chester Nimitz took the vital island of Saipan in the Marianas Island chain. Saipan was close enough to Japan that B-29 bombers would be able to reach it without risking fuel shortages. The next stop was to retake the Philippines. The army landed on October 20, 1944. Japan, realizing the importance of the raw materials there to its war effort, launched a three-pronged naval assault on the U.S. forces there. At the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the larges naval engagement in history, the Japanese lost most of their remaining naval forces and began to use kamikaze attacks.
MacArthur’s triumphant return General Douglas MacArthur (center) theatrically coming ashore at the island of Leyte in the Philippines, October 1944.
The war’s end U.S. soldiers corralling German prisoners of war in 1945.
The Republicans nominated Thomas Dewey. FDR easily won his party’s nomination. He also won the presidency again. At the Battle of the Bulge, December 16, 1944, German forces counterattacked in a last-chance strike to drive the Allies into the sea. Once defeated, the Germans had little but token resistance to offer the Allies as they poured into Germany.
At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the Big Three (FDR, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin) met again to discuss the shape of the postwar world. Also, they would address the need for the creation of a new world security organization, which would become the United Nations, to replace the defunct League of Nations. Although many blame the Yalta Conference for recognizing Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, at the time Soviet forces already controlled those areas and only another war would have driven them out.
FDR did not live to see the end of World War II. He would die on April 12, 1945. Hitler’s Germany would collapse less than a month later. Allied forces from the East would meet with Soviet forces from the west on April 25, and Mussolini would be killed on April 28. Hitler would commit suicide on April 31. On May 2, Berlin fell, and on May 7, the German army surrendered.
May 8, 1945 The celebration in New York City’s Times Square on V-E day.
Holocaust survivors U.S. troops encounter survivors of the Nazis’ Wöbbelin concentration camp in Germany, May 1945.
With the war in Europe over, the battles in Japan took center stage. On February 19, 1945, Marines invaded Iwo Jima, whose only use was that of an emergency landing strip for crippled planes. After 20,000 casualties and 7,000 deaths, the island fell to the Americans. The horrific loss of life in these battles led the government to look for ways other than manpower to end the war. From the start of the war, Hitler had been working on at atomic bomb. FDR had realized this and insisted that the United States had to have it first. By August 1945, the bomb was ready, and Truman ordered it to be used on Japan if it did not surrender before August 3. On August 6, the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, obliterating 80,000 lives in an instant. Two days later, the Soviets would finally declare war on Japan. The next day, August 9, the second atomic bomb would be dropped on the port city of Nagasaki, killing 36,000. Finally, Japan surrendered and the war was over.
