The End of the War 1943-1945

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

•Dwight D. Eisenhower was made the commander of U. S. troops in 1942.•His first move is to create an invasion plan for Europe.•He chooses Italy first before France hoping to knock Italy out of the war.

Invasion of Italy

• July of 1943• Began with the invasion of

Sicily• Led by General Patton• Mussolini is fired and the Fascist

Party is outlawed.• Italy surrenders in Sept. of 1943, but the

Germans fight on in Italy against U. S. & British forces.

Invasion of Italy• German resistance is stiff.• Mussolini is put in power by

Germany in Northern Italy.• The U. S. never totally roots out

German resistance.• Eventually, the Italian people hunt

down Mussolini and blame him for the destruction of their home.

• They kill Mussolini, drag him through the streets, and hang him up for display at a gas station.

• The U. S. loses many thousands of soldiers more than anticipated.

• Italy scares U. S. officials about casualty numbers that an invasion of France will cost.

Tuskegee Airmen

• From the segregated Tuskegee Institute in Alabama

• First African American pilots to fly in WW2.

• Units were segregated.• Escorted U. S. bombers

to targets.

Victories are piling up in the Pacific:

• Solomon Islands• Gilbert Islands• Marshall Islands• Caroline Islands• Mariana Islands• US soldiers were

shocked at the practice of seppuku, kamikazes, and no surrender.

• U .S. Politicians were shocked at the huge loss of life.

Navajo Code Talkers

• Navajo Indians used in the Pacific• Code was never broken by the Japanese• Navajo were always paired up with a white soldier with orders to kill

them if they were about to be captured by the Japanese.

Sample code words:

• Tank = turtle• Machine gun = sewing machine• Bomber = pregnant airplane

Operation Overlord “D Day”• Dwight D. Eisenhower

was made the Supreme commander

• Create a 2nd front, and a beachhead in France

• Eisenhower’s most trusted General, Omar Bradley, made commander of 1st Army which led the way onto the beaches at Normandy.

D-Day Invasion – Normandy Beach, Northern France

• Largest amphibious landing in history (150k men in the 1st wave)

• Hitler thought it was a decoy and delayed reinforcements

• Invasion was a success partially due to the huge intelligence scam put on the Germans and French Resistance fighters.

Invasion took 2 years to plan because it had to be perfect. It could not fail.

About 10,000 Allied deaths; 2500 American deaths.

SAIPAN - JUNE 15, 1944

• 153,000 Marines vs. 30,000 Japanese

• We need Saipan to bomb Japan (1200 miles away).

SAIPAN

• The Japanese chose death over surrender. Soldiers and Civilians jump over the cliffs to their death.

BOMBING JAPAN - 1944

• We are now in position to bomb Japan.

• * Most bombs were fire bombs. Most of Japanese structures were made of wood & paper.

• * Japan will receive 160,830 TONS of bombs.

Battle of Leyte Gulfand the Battle of the Philippines

October 1944

• MACARTHUR RETURNS!!!• Largest naval battle in history.• 280 ships fought each other

over 3 days.• First kamikazes appear.• last major battle that the Japan

can launch.• Japan will use whatever it has

left to fight to the death.• Victory at Leyte leads to the

Battle of the Philippines.• 80,000 Japanese die• 100,000 Filipino civilians

KAMIKAZES

• Last attempt to turn the war. Attacks would last the rest of the war.

• Scares U. S. sailors.

• There is little defense.

Hiroo Onoda • He had been stationed on Lubang

Island in the Philippines when it was overrun by U.S. forces in February 1945. Most of the Japanese troops were slain or captured, but Onoda and several other men holed up in the jungle. The others were eventually killed, but Onoda held out for 29 years, dismissing every attempt to coax him out as a ruse. Finally the Japanese government located his commanding officer, who went to Lubang in 1974 to order Onoda to give up. The lieutenant stepped out of the jungle to accept the order of surrender in his dress uniform and sword, with his rifle still in operating condition.

• Fighting proved difficult; the Germans had been getting ready since 1940.

• Swampy countryside and the hedgerows on the sides of roads made northern France difficult to root out the Germans.

• After 6 weeks, Allied forces liberated Paris.• The Germans had one last attack….

In Northern France

French Hedgerow Liberating Paris – Aug 1944

Battle of the Bulge

• Last major German offensive (counter attack)

• Largest battle of the war in Western Europe.

• Signaled the end of the war for most Nazis

101st Airborne Division is trapped at Bastogne, France.

•Brutal Cold

•Lack of food, water, shelter, warm clothing, medical supplies, weapons.

•Situation almost appears hopeless where 101st would have to consider surrender.

•General Patton to the rescue!

•Patton marches his 3rd Army 100 miles in the snow in three days to rescue the U.S. troops.

IWO JIMA & OKINAWA…The last two…

• *600 Miles from Japan, great bombing bases.

Battle of Iwo Jima• February 19th –

March 26th

1945

18,500 Japanese KIA6,800 American KIA; 25,000 wounded

Battle of OkinawaApril 1st – June 22nd 1945

• 110,000 Japanese killed• 12,500 Americans killed• 100,000 civilians died in the fighting.• Japanese were fighting until the death (no surrender)• Japanese soldiers were forcing civilians to strap explosives

to themselves to be blown up while surrendering.• Convinced American politicians and military that an invasion

of the home islands of Japan would be the bloodiest conflict that the U. S. would be involved in during WW2.

• Maybe another way to end the war can be found….

Yalta Conference , February 1945

• Germany is divided into occupied zones

• Stalin promises– Enter the war in the

Pacific vs. Japan

– Hold free elections in occupied territories

•U. S. forces faces less and less resistance the further into Germany they travel.

•U. S. Government urges General Eisenhower to race toward Berlin to capture as much of Germany as possible before the Russians took too much.

•Once Ike saw the Nazi death camps, he moved the U. S. forces south into Bavaria.

•He left Berlin to the Russians.

•He knew what the Russians were doing to the Germans.

•Ike wanted the Germans punished.

Last Days of the War in Europe

Germany Surrenders

• Hitler commits suicide as Berlin is surrounded

• Germany surrenders on May 8th, 1945 known as V-E Day.

• FDR died about a month before.

MANHATTAN PROJECT• After taking office,

Truman learns of a secret project: the atomic bomb

Manhattan Project

• Most expensive war project.

• Led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer

• Scientists were conflicted about the use of the bomb on Japan.

• Tested in New Mexico on July 16th, 1945.

• An invasion of the Japanese home islands scheduled for November 1945 and April 1946 could cost millions of lives.

DID TRUMAN HAVE OPTIONS?

• Could he use as a bargaining tool? (End war or we will…)

• Demonstrate the bomb in Tokyo bay, then ask for Japanese surrender?

• Invasion of Japan?• Use bomb to save

lives?

POTSDAM CONFERENCE-JULY 1945

• Allies discussed post-war rule of Germany and Japan.

• Truman demands that Stalin allows all eastern European countries to have free democratic elections (self determination)

• Stalin agrees but will never live up to the bargain. He wants a buffer zone between the U. S. S. R. & Germany.

•Truman hints about A-bomb to Stalin.

•Stalin already knows about bomb from his spies in New Mexico.

Col. Paul Tibbits

• Truman decides to use the bomb to save American lives.

• It will also save millions of Japanese lives.

• TRUMAN WARNS JAPAN OF DESTRUCTION AND ASKS FOR SURRENDER, NO REPLY FROM JAPAN.

• Japan probably wondered what else we could do to them after firebombing their cities.

Friendship Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan: the Enola Gay’s aiming point for bomb.

HIROSHIMA - AUGUST 6TH, 194590,000 to 140,000 Dead

NAGASAKI - AUGUST 9TH, 194540,000 to 70,000 Deaths

AUGUST 14, 1945

• V-J Day • Formal

Surrender September 2, 1945-aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, formal surrender is signed.

Aftermath…• 55 million

soldiers and civilians died

• 30-50 million from the Soviet Union alone (unknown total)

• U. S. S. R. loses the most lives of any country.

• 405,400 American dead

• 670,000 more Americans wounded