The U.S. in World War II Section 1: Mobilizing for Defense Section 2: The War for Europe and North Africa Section 3: The War in the Pacific Section 4: The Home Front http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-02.jp http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-05.jpg http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-06.jpg http://www.archives.gov/research/w w2/photos/
http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-05.jpg. The U.S. in World War II. http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-06.jpg. http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-02.jpg. http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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• Eisenhower the Supreme Commander• June 5,1944 day set to launch invasion • Bad weather prevents launch• Last possible day to go and coincide with the
tides is June 6, weather still not great but the launch is ordered.
• Germans know an invasion is imminent but do not know where. They are surprised.
• Germans believed invasion would happen in Calais, across the Strait of Dover.
D-Day
• The largest land-sea-air operation in army history
• Mulberry Harbor – enormous concrete ports towed across channel (see map 575)
• 1,200 fighting ships• 4,126 landing craft• 804 transport ships• 10,000 planes• 132,500 soldiers• 23,000 airborne troops• 10,000 American Paratroopers dropped into
• Germans launch the last major German offensive of the war
• Hitler’s last ditch attempt to win the war
• Germans mass large force and throw everything they have at the Allied lines in the Ardennes
• American troops, inexperienced and overstrained, hold the line although a dangerous bulge occurs
• The line holds, but the Allies suffer heavy losses, 19,000 Americans killedhttp://www.history.army.mil/reference/bulge/images.htm
View slide show @http://home.att.net/~j.lepse/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html
Battle of the Bulge
• Hitler’s Last Ditch Attempt– Nazi’s best commanders– Coincides with the weather– Selected the weak spot in the line– Created confusion with English speaking Nazi soldiers in
U.S. uniforms• Real Significance
– Caused war to be 6 months shorter• Germans used most of reserves (lost 100,000 troops killed,
wounded, captured, plus 600 tanks and guns, and 1600 planes)– Soviet Union attacks at same time in the Eastern Front
and they move into Germany sooner than expected. Nazis had pulled troops from Eastern Front to man the attack. Soviets will occupy most of Eastern Europe.
Unconditional Surrender
• April 25, 1945 – Soviet troops move into Berlin
• Hitler marries his girlfriend, Eva Braun• Hitler and Eva commit suicide and Hitler
orders their remains burned• V-E Day – Victory in Europe Day
– May 8th, 1945– Eisenhower accepts Germany’s Unconditional
Surrender
Nuremberg Trials
• 24 Nazi leaders were put on trial for numerous crimes– Crimes against humanity– Crimes against peace– War Crimes
• 12 of the 24 were sentenced to death– Others sent to prison
• Established the idea that individuals are responsible for their own actions, even in times of war
Roosevelt Dies
• April 12, 1945 FDR dies of a stroke at his home in Warm Springs, Georgia
• Harry S. Truman, FDR’s Vice – President becomes the nation’s 33rd president
Funeral Procession for Roosevelthttp://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vofdrdeath.htm