WAR IN EUROPE

EQ: “Why was WWII unlike any other war in our world’s history?”

1. The soldiers moved quickly by tank,

ship, and airplane. (There were no

deadlock trenches.)

2. Air raids dropped bombs on factories,

hospitals, and homes killing civilians.

3. The battle zone was huge! It covered

almost half the world! • Europe/Africa

• Pacific

Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union), FDR (U.S.A.), and Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)

The Allies met and planned together in order to try and reclaim much of Europe. France was priority.

Led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied forces led the largest ever water-to-land invasion in history on June 6, 1944 to the beaches of Normandy, France.

They crossed the English Channel, and fought bravely.

They succeeded in pushing the enemy back, and headed for their new destination—Germany.

By March 1945, the Allies had reached the border of Germany, and kept pushing the Germans back.

They pushed east and the Soviets pushed west.

As the Allies pushed their way through Germany, they came across the concentration camps where many Jews and other people that opposed Hitler had been put.

No one really knew what was going on in Hitler’s concentration camps, until it was too late.

The Allies could not believe what they found in the camps (like gas chambers and large ovens full of dead bodies), and the horrors that they saw just made them even more determined to win.

This was a holocaust (mass murder), and it became known as the Holocaust.

All in all, 12 million men, women, and children were killed during the Holocaust—6 million of which were Jews alone.

By April 1945, Germany was losing ground from the constant pushes from the east and west, and its capital, Berlin, was surrounded.

In May 1945, the Allies heard the news that Hitler had killed himself, and on May 8, 1945, the German forces officially surrendered.

This day became known as V-E Day (“Victory in Europe Day”).

The war had finally ended in Europe… now they just needed to go where?

The story of Anne Frank is the story of a

young Jewish girl that tried to hide from

the Nazis in WWII.

Warning: It is sad.

EQ: “Why was WWII unlike any other war in history?”

Just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor,

Japanese forces invaded the Philippines.

The Americans fought hard for five

months, but the Japanese were too strong

and forced the Americans there to

surrender.

General Douglas MacArthur was serving

at the time, and promised the people, “I

shall return.”

Instead of trying to reclaim all the islands that Japan now controlled, America decided to go “island hopping.”

Island hopping meant trying to retake only the most important islands to help them make their way to Japan’s capital city, Tokyo.

In January 1945, General MacArthur was able to keep his promise as the island hopping landed them in the Philippines.

The island hopping was working, but it

was hard and costly. Many soldiers died.

Iwo Jima was a small island that took 25

days to take, and 4,000 U.S. soldiers lost

their lives.

Okinawa was another island that they

took, but it cost the lives of 11,000 U.S.

soldiers and over 110,000 Japanese.

FDR contracted a disease that made him

ill and even paralyzed his legs.

President Roosevelt’s health continued to

decline as he started his 4th term of

presidency, but the public was unaware

of how serious his health issues were.

In April 1945, FDR died, and Harry

Truman (Vice-President) took over the

Presidency.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Rooseveltinwheelchair.jpg

As America got closer to Japan by

hopping islands, Truman kept asking

Japan to surrender. Japan would not.

So the U.S.A. kept dropping bombs on

Japan, and then warned them that

something much worse was about to

happen if they didn’t surrender soon.

What could be worse than bombs?

An atomic bomb!

The atomic bomb was a new “weapon of

mass destruction” developed by

American scientists.

It was the most powerful/destructive

bomb the world had ever seen and would

forever change how wars were fought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_p

opup?v=-22tna7KHzI

Good

Quick end to war

Less Americans will

die

Show our power

Bad

Civilians will die

Damages

environment and

atmosphere

TOO destructive

• Truman now had to make the difficult decision

as whether to use it or not.

• He decided to use it.

Why would Truman decide to use such a

destructive weapon?

He wanted to end the war quickly, and

stop American losses.

Japan still refused to surrender, so on

August 6, 1945, America dropped the first

ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

This bomb killed 140,000 people.

Japan still refused to give up.

Listen to Truman’s Announcement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trumann_hiroshima.ogg

Three days later, on August 9, the U.S.

dropped a second atomic bomb on

Nagasaki, Japan.

Japan surrendered after this.

The Allies celebrated V-J Day (“Victory in

Japan Day”) because the war was

FINALLY OVER!!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Japan_map_hiroshima_nagasaki.png

“The Fat Man mushroom cloud resulting

from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki

rises 18 km (11 mi, 60,000 ft) into the air

from the hypocenter.”

http://www.youtube.com/watc

h_popup?v=jyqN_rutJIc&vq=s

mall#t=41

In this terrible world war that included over 50 nations, 55 million lives were lost.

Never had there been such a war…

After the war, 50 countries met together in San Francisco and formed an organization called the United Nations (UN)to try and keep peace in the world.

Even though it seemed like a good idea, the UN hasn’t really been able to keep countries from making war on each other.