The end of WWII

Italy  Allies win in North Africa – July 1943 – Target Italy  Sicily is taken – Italian king arrests Mussolini – surrenders to the Allies  Mussolini is rescued by German – Leads puppet government in northern Italy.

Mussolini’s Demise  Allies march into Milan – Mussolini tries to flee the country disguised as a German soldier  Italian partisans stop the convoy & demand all Italians be turned over. – Mussolini & his mistress were handed over  April 28,1945 both were shot & taken to Milan for public display – Hung upside down

The score…  North Africa once again controlled by the Allies  USSR once again controlled by the Allies  Italy once again controlled by the Allies  Britain STILL controlled by the Allies – Let’s keep going !

D-Day

Normandy… D-Day Invasion  Thousands of planes, ships, tanks and landing crafts  3.5 million troops  June 6th 1944 – five beaches – 150,000 US, Canadian and UK troops. – 23,000 parachuted

Normandy…D-Day Invasion  Losses…Allies 12,000. Germans 9,000.  By late summer 1944, Paris is liberated.  All the Allies move towards Germany.

Battle of the Bulge  Begins on December 16, 1944 in the Ardennes Forest (N. France/Belgium)  Germany attacks with the hopes of dividing the Allies to force a peace treaty favorable to the Axis – Remember: the Germans used this strategy once before  Germany concentrated its fighting in the center of the Allied line due to its apparent weakness…causing a “bulge” effect which gave the battle its name

Battle of the Bulge

Hitler’s Downfall  Allies move to Berlin – Hitler refuses to surrender  Hitler relocates to the bunker under the Chancellery in Berlin on winter of  As the Soviets enter Berlin in April 1945 – Hitler marries Eva Braun – two days later commits suicide – his body is burned afterwards  The German army surrenders May 7 th, War in Europe is over!

War comes to an end in Japan

Cost of War  Iwo Jima= – US casualties 25,000 – only 216 of the 25,000 Japanese soldiers surrendered.  Okinawa= – US casualties 50,000 – only 7,200 of the 100,000 Japanese defenders surrendered.  Japan resorts to desperate measures using Kamikaze pilots who would fly their planes into Allied ships killing themselves in the process.

Invasion or the Bomb?  May 8 th, 1945 V-E Day (Victory in Europe)  By mid-1945, most of the Japanese navy & air force destroyed. – BUT—Japanese still had 2 million soldiers. 1944—More Japanese men become kamikaze or suicide pilots. – The Japanese would fight to the death!

 Iwo Jima & Okinawa – Critical bases – bombers could reach Japan  ESTIMATED: – Taking Japan would cost 200,000-1 million US lives and ½ million British lives Option #1: Invasion

Option #2: Manhattan Project  1939—Albert Einstein writes a letter to FDR warning him that Germany might create an atomic bomb.  US starts Manhattan Project – Headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer In Los Alamos, NM – First test bomb detonated July 1945 near Alamogordo, NM Shattered windows 125 miles away.

National Crisis…  FDR died unexpectedly on April 12, 1945  Truman becomes the 33 rd president.  Truman is made aware of the Manhattan Project

Decision to use the Atomic Bomb  President Harry S. Truman orders the use of the Atom Bomb to force Japan to surrender. – He argues it will save the lives of American soldiers. – He warns Japan to surrender or face “utter and complete destruction.” Japan ignores the USA

Hiroshima  August 6, 1945 – US dropped Little Boy over Hiroshima – an enriched uranium bomb code-named “Little Boy”enriched uranium  Japan refused to surrender—they thought the US only had 1 bomb!

Nagasaki  Three days later, “Fat Man”, a plutonium bomb, was dropped on Nagasakiplutonium  Japan finally surrendered

The War is OVER!!!  Japan officially, unconditionally surrenders on September 2, WWII is over.

Japan after the War  2 million lives had been lost!  Many of the major cities were destroyed  Allies had taken all of Japan’s colonies

US occupation of Japan  Japan’s emperor has to step down and they have to create a democracy – They are forced to create a constitution that looks like the US – Japan is only allowed to use a small military (provided by the US)

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