WWII: The Battlefront
WWII: The Battlefronts

WWII was waged on two fronts:

The Pacific

Europe

High tide of German advance ended in 1942, mostly due to U.S. entry in the war and a Soviet victory
at Stalingrad

British and American militaries coordinated on two objectives:

Overcoming the German submarines in the Atlantic

Begin bombing raids on German cities
Fighting Germany

German submarines sank over 500 Allied ships I
1942 alone

Use of sonar, radar, and bombing German
naval bases helped the Allies overcome the
submarine menace

“Strategic bombing” raids were conducted on
military targets in Europe

Lines between military and civilian targets begin
to blur
North Africa

Operation Torch began in November 1942

Led by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower

Allied forces succeeded in driving the Germans out of North Africa by May 1943

The next Allied target was the southern Italian island of Sicily, where we were preparing to invade
Italy

Mussolini fell from power that same summer, but was given refuge under German protection in
northern Italy

Despite Allied efforts to take Italy, Germans held most of northern Italy up until their final surrender in 1945
D-Day

Allied drive to liberate France began on June 6,
1944

Largest amphibious invasion in history

British, Canadian, and U.S. forces under Gen.
Eisenhower stormed the beaches of Normandy
on France’s northern coast

After a successful attack on the beaches, the
Allies began pushing back German occupying
forces
Victory in Europe

August 1944- Paris was liberated from the Nazis

September- Allied troops had crossed the
German border, began pushing towards Berlin

Germany launched a desperate but rather
successful counterattack in Belgium in
December 1944

After the Battle of the Bulge, Americans
reorganized and resumed their advance
Victory in Europe

Bombing raids over Germany reduced
that nation’s industrial capacity and
ability to keep fighting

April 30, 1945- Hitler committed suicide
in a secret bunker as the Allies closed in
on Berlin

The Nazis surrendered unconditionally a
week later on May 7th
Fighting Japan

In the Pacific, it was largely the U.S. who was challenging Japan

After Pearl Harbor, Japan seized control of much of East Asia and Southeast Asia


By 1942 occupied most all of the Southeastern Pacific nations
The turning point for the U.S. came in 1942 when the interception and decoding of secret
Japanese messages allowed U.S. forces to find and destroy four Japanese carriers that
had over 300 planes

The Battle of Midway ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific
Island-Hopping

After Midway, the U.S. began preparing
for a major strike and eventual invasion of
mainland Japan

Using a strategy called “island-hopping,”
U.S. forces bypassed strongly held
Japanese posts and isolated them with
naval and air power

Would literally move from island to island in
an attempt to get close enough to the
mainland of Japan
Major Battles

Early 1942- Japanese forces drove Gen. Douglas
MacArthur from the Philippines

Famously vowed “I shall return.”

The U.S. reoccupation of the Philippines was the
largest naval battle in history

At the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, the
Japanese navy was virtually destroyed


First time Japanese used kamikaze pilots
The huge Battle of Okinawa was also a hard-won
victory for the U.S.

50,000+ casualties
The Atomic Bomb

After Okinawa, a huge invasion force stood by
ready to invade Japan

Huge casualties were expected

The top-secret Manhattan Project had begun
in 1942, directed by physicist J. Robert
Oppenheimer, to develop a weapon whose
power came from the splitting of the atom

The atomic bomb was successfully tested in
Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945
The Atomic Bomb

Truman and the Allies called on Japan to
surrender unconditionally or face “utter
destruction”

After an unsatisfactory reply, the first A-bomb
was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945

On August 9, 1945, a second bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki

Over 250,000 Japanese died, either immediately
or after prolonged suffering

The first and only time in history a country has used
nuclear weapons in war
Japan Surrenders

Within a week of the second bomb, Japan
agreed to surrender to the Allies

If we would allow the emperor to remain as a
titular (powerless) head of state

Gen. MacArthur received Japan’s surrender
on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo harbor aboard
the battleship Missouri

With Japan’s surrender, WWII had officially
ended
?

On what two fronts or “theaters of operation” was WWII fought?

What was the significance of the D-Day invasion?

What was the turning point for U.S. forces fighting Japan in the Pacific?

What was the significance of the Battle of Leyte Gulf?

Why did the U.S. decide to drop the Atomic bombs on Japan?