1. WWII Strategies and Major Battles

2. Allies - Strategy
Members: Britain, [France – taken over really early in the war by Germany, so they aren’t able to do much fighting], Soviet Union (switches sides later), China, United States
Main Strategy: “Defeat Hitler First”
The Allied strategy to “Defeat Hitler First” represents the realization that Hitler’s Germany posed the greatest threat to the Allies in Europe. The Allies decided to target military resources in Europe first, and then in Japan.
Strategy in the Pacific: “Island Hopping”
When the Allies decided it was time to use resources to target Japan in the Pacific, they used a strategy of “Island Hopping.” This meant that the Allies would seize islands closer and closer to Japan and then use them as bases for air attacks to further their influence in the Pacific. An additional strategy was to cut off Japanese access to supplies, through submarine warfare.

3. Axis - Strategy
Members: Germany, Italy, Japan, Soviet Union (switches sides later)
Germany’s strategy was to defeat the Soviet Union quickly. With the Soviets out of the way, Germany could gain control of valuable oil fields in the Middle East. Then, they could force Britain out of the war with bombing and submarine warfare before the United States’ industrial and military strength could get involved.
Japan’s strategy was to invade the Philippines and Indonesia. Then, they planned to invade Australia and Hawaii. These acquisitions would help them in one of their larger goals – getting the United States to accept Japanese predominance in the Pacific.

4. El Alamein – Location: North Africa
In the deserts and mountains of North Africa, the British had been fighting the Germans and Italians since The Allied powers believed that focusing on attack in North Africa would pave the way for an invasion of Italy (a goal of the Allies). German forces threatening to seize Egypt and the Suez Canal were defeated by the British. In October 1942, the British won a major victory at El Alamein in Egypt, and were able to push westward. This defeat prevented Hitler from gaining access to Middle Eastern oil supplies and potentially attacking the Soviet Union from the south. The next month, Allied troops landed in Morocco and Algeria and began to move east toward key German positions. An energetic American officer, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commanded the Allied invasion of North Africa.

9. Stalingrad – Location: Europe
Germany had attacked Russia in June 1941, sending one army north toward Stalingrad, a second east toward Moscow, and a third south toward Stalingrad. Although Hitler’s forces penetrated deep into Soviet territory, killing or capturing millions of soldiers and civilians, they did not achieve their main objective of conquering the Soviet Union. Soviet resistance and a brutal Russia winter stopped the German advance.

10. Stalingrad – Location: Europe
In 1942, Hitler focused his sights on southern Russia’s Caucasus oil fields. To achieve this, Hitler would have to capture the city of Stalingrad, but the struggle would be ferocious. German troops advanced slowly, fighting long battles and gaining very little. Hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were killed or captured in a months-long siege of the Russian city of Stalingrad. Yet Hitler refused to allow his army to retreat. Starving, sick, and suffering from frostbite, the surviving German troops finally surrendered on January 31, This defeat prevented Germany from seizing the Soviet oil fields and is considered the turning point of the war in Europe. It ended any realistic plans Hitler had of dominating Europe. Nazi armies were forced to retreat westward back toward Germany.

14. Normandy Landings (D-Day) – Location: Europe
In November 1943, the Big Three (FDR, Churchill and Stalin) met at what became known as the Tehran Conference. They decided to invade France and begin their march toward Germany, opening a second, western front. The massive Allied invasion of France was given the code name Operation Overlord. The Supreme Commander of Overlord was Dwight D. Eisenhower. It involved landing 47 total divisions from America, Britain, Canada and Poland on a 50-mile stretch of beaches in Normandy, and the largest fleet ever assembled – 4,400 ships.

15. Normandy Landings (D-Day) – Location: Europe
The plan was based around the deception of Germans to believe that the Allied attack would come from Calais, where the Allies had set up a fake headquarters with wood and cardboard tanks, ships and detectable radio traffic. The deception worked, as Hitler sent his top tank division to Calais. 
On June 6, 1944, American and Allied troops under Eisenhower landed in German occupied France. At Omaha beach, one assigned to American troops, Germans fired heavy artillery, and covered the beaches with deadly guns and mines. Despite intense German opposition and heavy American casualties, the landings succeeded and the liberation of western Europe from Hitler had begun.

19. Midway – Location: Pacific
Before the Americans could retaliate for Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sought to destroy American aircraft carriers in the Pacific. They turned their attention to Midway, an American naval base in the Central Pacific that was vital to the defense of Hawaii. Losing Midway would force American defenses back to the California coast.
The Japanese commenced their attack on June 4, In the “Miracle of Midway,” American naval forces defeated a much larger Japanese force as it prepared to seize Midway Island. Coming only a few months after Pearl Harbor, a Japanese victory at Midway would have enabled Japan to invade Hawaii. In the most important naval battle of World War II, the United States dealt Japan a decisive defeat. Torpedo planes and dive bombers sank 4 Japanese aircraft carriers, along with all aircraft on board and many of Japan’s most experienced pilots. America lost only one aircraft carrier.

20. Midway – Location: Pacific
The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war in the Pacific. The American victory ended the Japanese threat to Hawaii and began a series of American victories in the “island hopping” campaign that carried the war closer and closer to Japan. Japan still had a powerful navy, committed troops and fortified positions. But it would never again threaten Hawaii or Pacific domination. Japan was now on the defensive end of the war.

23. Iwo Jima and Okinawa – Location: Pacific, Japan
One of the fiercest battles in the island-hopping campaign took place in February and March On Iwo Jima, United States Marines faced a dug-in, determined enemy. In 36 days of fighting, more than 23,000 Marines became casualties, but they took the island. The famous photograph of six marines planting the American flag on Iwo Jima symbolized the heroic sacrifice of American soldiers.

24. Iwo Jima and Okinawa – Location: Pacific, Japan
The fight for Okinawa in April 1945 was even deadlier. Okinawa contained a vital air base, necessary for the planned invasion of Japan. The attack required half a million troops and 1,213 warships. U.S. forces did take the island of Okinawa, but at the cost of 50,000 casualties.
The American invasions of the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa brought American forces closer than ever to Japan, but both invasions cost thousands of American lives and even more Japanese lives, as Japanese soldiers fought fiercely over every square inch of the islands and Japanese soldiers and civilians committed suicide rather than surrender.

30. Dropping of the Atomic Bomb – Location: Pacific (Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Japan)
In the early 1930s, development began on an atomic bomb. Early in the war, Albert Einstein signed a letter than alerted FDR about the need to proceed with atomic development. In 1942, FDR gave the highest national priority to the development of the atomic bomb. The program, code-named the Manhattan Project, cost several billion dollars and employed tens of thousands of people. Two primary leaders of the project were General Leslie Groves and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Security on the project was extremely tight – people worked on small parts of the puzzle, and few of them actually knew the whole picture. The first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, The flash of light was clearly visible 180 miles away, and the sound was heard from 100 miles away.

31. Dropping of the Atomic Bomb – Location: Pacific (Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Japan)
The decision to use the bomb fell directly on the shoulders of Harry Truman. The new President fully understood the ethical issues presented by using the bomb, especially against civilians. At the same time, he knew the Axis powers also had nuclear scientists who were capable of developing their own bomb. Ultimately, Truman’s chief priority was to save American lives. His military advisers estimated that an invasion of Japan might cost as many a million American casualties. Facing the prospect of horrendous casualties among both Americans and Japanese if American forces had to invade Japan itself, President Harry Truman ordered the use of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force the Japanese to surrender.
On August 6, 1945, U.S. pilots dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Within two minutes, more than 60,000 of Hiroshima’s 344,000 residents were dead or missing. Over the next three days, Japanese leaders debated whether to surrender or continue to fight. Then, on August 9, two events rocked Japan. First, the Soviet Union declared war against Japan and invaded Manchuria. Next, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 35,000 residents. Debate continued at the highest levels of Japanese government. Finally Emperor Hirohito made the decision to surrender. On August 15, the Allies celebrated V-J Day (Victory in Japan). Japan officially surrendered on September 2 aboard the USS Missouri.

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