1. USA involvement in ww2

2. Lecture overview • Pearl Harbor • U.S. strikes back • North Africa and Italy • Battle of Stalingard • D-Day Invasion • German Surrender • Closing in on Japan • Japanese Surrender

3. Japan tries to rough us up • Remember, Japan invaded and occupied China • Japan looked to expand into Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) • US worried Japan would try to take Philippines and Guam • Roosevelt halts oil shipments to Japan • This forces Japan to proceed with plans to invade Indonesia • To protect the move, Japan plans to attack US naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (it was only a US territory at the time, not a state) • Dec. 7, 1941 – “a date which will live in infamy” • 19 ships sunk or destroyed (8 were battleships) • 2,300 Americans killed, 1,100 wounded • We of course declare war on Japan and its allies

4. U.S. Strikes back • April 1942 – we bomb Tokyo • New kind of naval warfare used for the first time: aircraft carriers • Sometimes fleets would never fire a shot at each other • June 7, 1942 – Battle of Midway • U.S. cripples Japanese fleet, forces their retreat • Turns tide of the war in the Pacific • General MacArthur comes up with plan to “island-hop” • skip Japanese strongholds to islands closer to Japan that were not well defended

5. Back to the Action in Europe • Well, first to North Africa • November 1942 – American forces land in Morocco and Algeria under General Dwight D. Eisenhower • May 1943 – Allied forces defeat Rommel • That is all, North Africa fighting done • Now to Italy • July 10, 1943 – Allies invade Sicily • July 25 – the king of Italy had Mussolini arrested • September 3 – Italy surrenders • Germans seize control of Northern Italy and put Mussolini back in charge • June 4, 1944 – Allied forces enter Rome • April 27, 1945 – Italian resistance fighters capture Mussolini near Milan, shoot him the next day and hang his body in downtown Milan

6. Seriously dude, don’t you ever learn? • Summer 1942 – Hitler sends another army to take oil fields in Caucasus Mountains and Stalingrad/Volgograd • August 23, 1942 – Battle of Stalingrad begins • November 1942 – Germans control 90% of a city ruined by bombing and fighting • Russian winter sets in again, Soviets counterattack trapping Germans inside and cut off supply lines • German general begs Hitler to order retreat but he refuses, saying city was “to be held at all cost” • February 2, 1943 – 90,000 frostbitten, starving German troops surrender to Soviets, they are all that remained of 330,000 • Soviets lost over 1,000,000 soldiers and the city was 99% destroyed • Germans now on defensive with Soviets pushing west

7. We’re coming for you, Adolf! • Oh yeah, forgot to tell you that Germany offered peace settlement with Britain before attacking them • Would have given them claim to what they had already conquered, yeah Britain wasn’t having that • D-Day invasion – June 6, 1644 • Allies secretly began building up army in UK in 1943 • Thousands of ships, planes, tanks and landing craft • More than 3,000,000 troops • Used deception to confuse Germans where invasion would happen, Hitler guessed wrong • Allied forces capture Normandy beaches; liberate Paris by September

8. Give Up, dude. We have you surrounded • U.S./Britain move from West, Soviets from East • Hitler decides to break Western Front • December 16, 1944 - Battle of the Bulge • German counterattack gains early success but forced to retreat once Allies regroup, don’t have reinforcements • March 1945 – Allied army crosses Rhine River • Mid-April – 3 million Allied soldiers approach Berlin from southwest, 6 million Soviet soldiers the east • April 25 – Soviets surround Berlin, bombard with artillery • April 30 – Hitler commits suicide • May 9, 1945 – Germany officially surrenders unconditionally, marking V-E Day • President Roosevelt never sees the peace, died on April 12; Harry Truman becomes president

9. Closing in on Japan • Fall of 1944 – Allies moving in on Japan • Battle of Leyte Gulf– essentially destroys Japanese naval fleet, eliminating it as a fighting force in the war • All they have left is army and kamikazes • Suicide pilots that would sink ships by dive crashing bomb-filled planes into them • March 1945 – Iwo Jima taken, 760 mi from Japan • June 21, 1945 – Okinawa taken, 350 mi from Japan • Japanese lose 100,000 troops, U.S. only 12,000 • In perspective, less than 5000 lost in Iraq over 10 years

10. U.S. lands the mother of all punches • Advisors warn Truman that invasion of Japan might cost 500,000 lives • He has alternative; powerful new weapon called atomic bomb • Manhattan Project—secret program to develop the bomb, plutonium reactor work done in Hanford, WA • July 16, 1945 – first exploded atomic bomb in New Mexico desert, Truman warned Japanese • August 6, 1945 – Hiroshima bombed, about 75,000 die immediately • August 9 – Nagasaki bombed, 70,000 die immediately • September 2, 1945 - Japan surrenders, V-J Day