The End of WWII

THE END OF WWIIPart One: Battle of Tarawa

Part Two: Atomic Bombings and SurrenderPart Three: The Fate of the Commanders

Strategy to Defeat Japan

Invade the home islands and engage the Japanese Armed Forces in battle until they have no choice but to surrender

Pacific Area Division of Responsibility North and Central: Adm. Chester Nimitz Southwest: Gen. Douglas Macarthur

Trident Conference (1943) Decides on a central drive because a southern

drive would take too long

Battle of Tarawa (Nov. 20-23, 1943)

First battle fought by Americans in the Central Drive

First time American soldiers met serious opposition against Japanese during an amphibious landing Japanese had defenses and bunkers set up to

attack the soldiers as they landed on the beach Crucial mistake: NO cover fire and NO

demolition teams sent to destroy obstacles Result: Victory for US but not without

heavy casualties

Lessons Learned

From now on, during any amphibious assault landing, the army must provide: Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT)

organized to destroy beach defenses before troops land

Close gunfire support must be carried out until the soldiers actually capture the beach

Improved landing craft with better armor that has a way for troops to walk directly onto the beach without having to jump off and swim

Supplies already loaded onto landing craft and sent to the beach with the troops

Death of President Roosevelt

After years of declining health, President Franklin Roosevelt died in office on April 12, 1945

This came as a shock to the nation as it was completely unexpected

Suffered a stroke just days before he was supposed to speak at the opening of the United Nations

Died in the middle of sitting for a portrait painted by Elizabeth Shoutmatoff

Harry Truman

FDR’s vice president who took over as President

There was very little exposure for vice presidents at the time, so very few people in the country even knew who he was Was only VP for 82 days Never discussed foreign policy with FDR Completely in the dark about the situation

Upon FDR’s death, he inherited a war with no end in sight, and also a lingering idea which would change the course of history

Manhattan Project

Research and development program of the United States to create an atomic bomb

Extremely top secret Truman did not even know about it as Vice

President Fun fact: through spying, Joseph Stalin knew about

the atomic bomb program before our own vice president

Top scientists and military commanders planned to create a weapon that would cause devastation and force Japan to surrender

To bomb, or not to bomb?

Though the bomb would cause many deaths, was it still worth it? Had the US not dropped the bomb, they would

have had to invade the Japanese mainland (which they were planning even as the bombs were being dropped) and that would have caused the war to drag on for many more years and result in many thousands dying

YOU DECIDE

To be continued…

Operation Valkyrie

A plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, created by his own commanders that lost all hope for winning the war

Led by Ludwig Beck, Henning von Tresckow, and Claus von Stauffenberg

One of more than 30 attempts to kill Hitler throughout his career as a politician.

The plan was to plant a bomb inside the meeting room at the Wolf’s Lair (headquarters in the German countryside)

Failure

Stauffenberg brought the bomb inside a briefcase

At the last moment, the meeting was moved to an outside building with open windows These open windows would cause the impact

to be weakened, thus the bomb failed and only wounded several people

Had it occurred in the bunker’s meeting room, the small, concrete-walled room, Hitler and several top generals would have been killed

Result

Stauffenberg and all those involved were arrested and executed immediately

The Nazis executed nearly 5,000 people and arrested 7,000 more

Included in the plot was Erwin Rommel, who was forced to commit suicide

What we learn from this: not every Nazi had blind obedience to Hitler. Some wanted to try to change things for a better Germany

The Death of Adolf Hitler

The Russian Army was closing in on Berlin, which was in ruins from bombardment

With all hope lost, Hitler and his top leaders retreated to the Fuhrer Bunker, a massive underground structure located near the Reich Chancellery

Even near certain defeat, Hitler still had dreams for German victory and Jew-free society

He gathered his generals around maps and ordered movements of troops that did not exist

Shortly before he killed himself, Hitler found out that SS leader Heinrich Himmler was negotiating with American soldiers. He called him a traitor, and shortly after, married his long-time mistress Eva Braun in a small ceremony in the bunker

He then knew that all was lost. He gave final orders for his body to be burned

Many of his generals also committed suicide

Suicide

On the afternoon of April 30, 1945, Hitler and Braun walked into a private room and closed the door

Braun bit a cyanide capsule while Hitler shot himself in the head while taking the cyanide

His body was removed and set on fire but never fully burned before Russian troops arrived (they then cremated him and scattered the ashes at unknown locations, so people in the future could never gather there to pay tribute to him) There are many conspiracies saying that Hitler escaped

or the Russians captured him alive, but they have never been proven

Death of Mussolini

With the end of the war in sight, Mussolini went to the German army and borrowed a uniform in an attempt to escape Italy with them

However, he was identified by Italian Resistance Soldiers, and he and his mistress were executed by firing squad the next day, on April 28, 1945

Their bodies were then hung upside-down so people could beat and spit on them

Atomic Bombings

Japan and the US were now the only nations still at war, and Truman finally had to decide on dropping the atomic bombs

The first one was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6. Truman then warned the Japanese to surrender or they would drop another one. They refused, so Nagasaki was bombed on August 9

Result: 300,000 dead (combination of soldiers AND innocent civilians)

Why Japan Lost the War

Failed to eliminate or severely cripple US naval base at Pearl Harbor

Underestimated the will of the US to fight and wage war

Failed to develop a system to adequately supply its forces far away from home islands

Failed to use submarine fleet at an offensive force

Why the Axis Powers Lost

No combined chiefs of staff for coordinate and organize the war effort

Did not plan for a long-term war Poor leadership Politics came before military tactics Did not think the allies would fight a war

under the bitter end

What happened to…

Emperor Hirohito: cleared of all blame by the US government and would become a top ally of ours in years to come

Prime Minister Hideki Tojo: put on trial for war crimes and executed, his ashes scattered over the Pacific

Dr. Joseph Mengele and Adolf Eichmann: escaped to South America along with many other war criminals, who lived in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay They were hunted for many years. Eichmann was

captured/executed in the 1960’s, but Mengele was never found Heinrich Himmler: suicide Herman Goering: suicide Dwight D. Eisenhower: placed in command of US forces

during the Korean War and eventually became president in the 1950’s