Major Battles of WWII

Mr. Blais

America in the World

Stalingrad• This Soviet city became a

KEY battleground of the war in Europe because it controlled access to the Volga River and the oil rich Caucasus region in the south.

• The Soviets and Germans fought here from the summer of 1942 through February 1943

• The longer the fight went on the more intense it became. Both sides fought hand to hand and house to house in an attempt to take the city (Utterly destroying the city in the process)

Stalingrad• With the help of the winter chill

the Soviets managed to halt the German advance and a strategic counterattack allowed them to capture much of the freezing German army

• This Soviet victory came at a high cost for both sides.• Soviets had 1.2 Million casualties

with almost 500,000 dead• The Germans had 800,000

casualties including almost 100,000 POWs

• Stalingrad was destroyed BUT for the first time in over four years the German army had been defeated in battle

• From this point forward Germany would continue to lose territory to the Allies

Battle of Normandy (D-Day)• D-Day took place on June

6, 1944 and it would take two more months to capture all of Normandy

• D-Day was the largest amphibious landing in history. It included:• 5,000 ships• 1,000 planes• 100,000 troops

• This entire effort was designed to give the Allies a foothold in Western Europe, something they hadn’t had in over four years

Battle of Normandy (D-Day)• Stubborn German resistance

made this fight extremely difficult.

• Allies had over 10,000 casualties on the first day, Germans lost around 5,000.

• Loses would reach into the hundreds of thousands over the next two months.

• With the Allied victory at Normandy the Germans were now forced to fight on two fronts, which would lead to their collapse in less than a year.

Battle of the Bulge• By the end of 1944 the Allies

had pushed the Germans all the way back to their own western border.

• As winter set in Germany prepared for one last all out offensive in hopes of forcing the Allies to settle for peace.

• On December 16, 1944 200,000 German soldiers and 1,000 German tanks attacked the Allied front in the border region between Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg

• Initially this surprise attack was an overwhelming success.

Battle of the Bulge• Within seven days the

Germans had split the American and British Armies, plus they had created a 70 mile wide and 50 miles deep bulge in the Allied line.

• Luckily for the Allies the 101st Airborne Division stubbornly held on to the key city of Bastogne, keeping its important crossroads out of German hands and effectively slowing the entire German advance.

Battle of the Bulge• With help from another American

Army to the south the Allies stopped the German advance and over the next month retook all the land the Germans had taken from them.

• Over this month of fighting the Germans had suffered almost 100,000 casualties and the Allies had suffered almost 80,000.

• But by January 25, 1945 the Allies were right back where they had started over a month earlier.

• This battle effectively marked the end of Germany.

• Most of their 1,000 tanks were destroyed, they lost over half of their effective fighting force and within four months the entire war in Europe was over! [5/8/45 V-E Day]

Battle of Midway• After the attack on Pearl Harbor

the Japanese had clear control over the western Pacific Ocean

• On June 4, 1942 they attacked Midway Island in the Central Pacific

• This island was crucial to the Japanese because of its proximity to Hawaii (only 1,000 miles away), it would help end American influence in the Central Pacific, and it would be an opportunity to take out the few aircraft carriers America had in the Pacific

Battle of Midway• Japan sent over 75 naval

vessels, including 4 aircraft carriers, to attack and take Midway Island.

• Unfortunately for the Japanese, the American naval force (About 50 ships, including 3 aircraft carriers) had discovered the Japanese plan to attack Midway and was lying in wait just north of the Island.

• Once the Japanese launched their planes to attack Midway, the American carriers set their trap in motion and launched their planes against the unsuspecting Japanese carrier force.

Battle of Midway• The Japanese carriers, caught

by surprise, were all severely damaged in the ensuing battle.

• By the end of the battle America successfully defended Midway island, sank all four Japanese carriers, and only lost one carrier of their own [Yorktown]

• This was crucial to the war effort because only six months after Pearl Harbor the Americans dealt the Japanese a crushing naval defeat, which helped lessen the strength of Japanese naval fleet

Battle of Guadalcanal• From the summer of 1942

through February of 1943 American and Japanese forces fought of the island of Guadalcanal in the south Pacific

• The Japanese wanted the island as an air base that they could use for their future invasion of Australia

• The U.S. needed this island to protect Australia (One of their only allies in the Pacific) and to keep trade routes between Australia and the U.S. open

Battle of Guadalcanal• For months land forces fought on

the island while naval battles ensued off the coast as each side tried to reinforce and supply their troops on the island.

• American forces on the island slowly gained the upper hand and forced the Japanese to leave the island by the beginning of 1943.

• This marked the first time in the war that America had defeated the Japanese on land and officially marked the beginning of Japanese decline as they would continue to lose land to American forces for the rest of the war.

Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa• These were the last two

battles of the Pacific War.• Both of these islands were

part of the Japanese home islands and the only two home islands America would ever take.

• Because this was Japanese soil, the defenders made these islands as impenetrable as possible.

• These islands would cost the Americans dearly

Battle of Iwo Jima• The Marines landed on Iwo Jima

(an 8 square mile island) in February of 1945 and it took them more than a month to conquer the island.

• The Japanese jammed 22,000 defenders on to the island and they were heavily dug in.

• All the Japanese defenders died on that island except for 200 that were taken prisoner.

• The Japanese caused over 25,000 American casualties in just over a month and clearly demonstrated that they would rather die than surrender

Battle of Okinawa• The Battle of Okinawa was

fought from April to June of 1945.

• The Japanese jammed almost 115,000 defenders on to this island and over 100,000 would die on the island.

• The airfields taken on Okinawa (and Iwo Jima) would be crucial on later bombing raids of Japan

V-J Day• The lessons learned on Iwo

Jima and Okinawa, that the Japanese would rather die than surrender, led our government to drop two Atomic Bombs on Japan in hopes of ending the war.

• The first one was dropped on 8/6/45 on the city of Hiroshima

• The second was dropped three days later on Nagasaki

• The Japanese finally signed their official surrender on 9/2/45 [V-J Day]

• WWII was now OVER!