1. Unit 6, Section 4
Forward to Victory

2. America Strikes Back Spring of 1942, things don’t look good for Allies
Soviet Union has been invaded, the US Navy has been crippled, the British are bogged down in North Africa, and the Nazi flag flies over Paris.
America is eager for a victory over Japan

3. Doolittle Raid
Lt. Colonel James Doolittle leads a bombing mission over Tokyo
Important boost for United States morale
Shows Japanese they are vulnerable to attack

4. Midway
American Navy surprises Japanese force at island of Midway – June, 1942
Japanese lose more than 300 planes
Also lose all FOUR of their carriers
Midway IS THE TURNING POINT OF THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

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6. Island Hopping
US goes on the offensive after Midway..."Island Hopping“
Island Hopping - strategy of bypassing heavily guarded Japanese islands and focusing on strategically placed, less defended islands.
US wins important victory at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.
Sea, air, and land battle. Fierce, bloody combat between US Marines and Japanese Army Of 36,000 Japanese soldiers, 31,000 are killed

7. Guadalcanal Important Victory: Psychological Victory
Stops Japanese advance
Gives US strategic airfield
USS North Carolina in Pacific Theatre

8. El Alamein
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world...The Battle of El Alamein
British launch a major assault against Rommel in North Africa-Leggo
Rommel's force is driven West into American army led by General Eisenhower
Rommel is trapped between the British and an American force of 100,000 men
Rommel's force is destroyed by May 1943.

9. Battle of Stalingrad Germans have failed to take Leningrad or Moscow.
Hitler sends 6th Army to take Stalingrad - a major industrial city
Battle begins August, 1942.
Bombing reduces city to rubble
Stalin orders city not to surrender at any cost
News

10. Stalingrad as Turning Point in Europe
Soviet troops outside city launch a counter attack, surrounding Germans.
Winter sets in...Hitler forbids surrender
Feb. 2, ,000 German troops surrender (had been 330,000)
Soviets lose 1 Million troops in Stalingrad, but now they are on the offensive
The Turning Point in Europe

11. Taking Italy Italy seen as “soft underbelly” of Europe
Allies land in July, 1943; finally take Rome in June of 1944
Fierce German resistance
Mussolini is captured by Italian partisans in 1945 and shot 2

12. D-Day: The Liberation of France
Since earliest days of war, Stalin has wanted British and Americans to attack in France.
Germans knew attack was coming...they just didn't know where.
June 6, Allies launch invasion at Normandy, France.
Allied Invasion of France is known as Operation Overlord
Shay

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14. Click on the images below for lesson plans and primary accounts of D-Day

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16. D-Day Continued
D-Day Invasion was the largest land and sea assault in history - force of 3 million troops eventually landed. 6

17. Battle of the Bulge
By September, Allies freed France and Belgium from the Germans. Set sights on Germany...
Last German offensive in the West, Battle of the Bulge*, takes place in December of 1944.
Over 89,000 US troops are killed, captured, or wounded.
Allies regroup and drive the Germans back…
By March, Berlin is surrounded...Hitler kills himself in April. Germany surrenders in May of 1945.
*Author Kurt Vonnegut was captured during the Battle of the Bulge, and later wrote about his war experiences in the book Slaughterhoue Five. Click on the link to read a letter to his family explaining what he lived through.

18. End in the Pacific In the Pacific, Americans retake the Philippines.
Japanese begin Kamikaze warfare
Americans win bitter victory at Iwo Jima
Fearing huge casualties from an invasion, President Harry Truman decides to use new weapon on Japan

19. The Atomic Bomb
Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima - August 6, ,000 people are killed.
2nd bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later - 70,000 are killed.
Japan surrenders on September 2nd, 1945
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20. From http://www.history.army.mil