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Explanation:
World War II
GOOD TO BEGIN THIS STORY ABOUT THE SECOND WORLD WAR WE HAVE TO KNOW SOME DATA TO BE ABLE TO HELP US UNDERSTAND THIS STORY
Axis Powers  vs.  Allied Powers
Japan   Russia (USSR)
Italy   USA
Germany  Britain
Germany
•Hitler (Der Fuhrer) – Dictator of Nazi Germany, Â
Italy
•Mussolini (Il Duci) – Dictator of Fascist Italy. Â
Japan
•Hirohito – Emperor of Japan.  He was a figurehead and remained Emperor under US Occupation
Great Britain
•Churchill – Prime Minister of G.B. beginning in 1940.  He motivated Great Britain’s to defeat Hitler during the Battle of Britain proving Hitler could be beat.  He remained prime minister throughout WWII.
United States
•Roosevelt (FDR) – President of the United States during the Great Depression and WWII.  He convinced Congress to declare war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor leading the U.S. into WWII
•Truman – Succeeded Roosevelt as President.  Responsible for the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan
•Eisenhower – Supreme Allied Commander of Allied forces in Europe and North Africa.  He was responsible for allied forces during Operation Torch (N. Africa) and D-Day (France).  All Allied Generals in Europe and North Africa reported to Eisenhower.  He became President of the United States in 1957.
•MacArthur – Commander of U.S. troops in the Pacific.  Defeated the Japanese at Midway, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa using the strategy of Island Hopping.  Japanese surrender to MacArthur September 2, 1945 after of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Important Battles in WWII Â
1.Battle of Poland – Spark that started WWII.  Hitler uses blitzkrieg (lightning war) to defeat the Poles
•Blitzkrieg (lightening war) – surprise attacks using fast moving tanks, airplanes and infantry
2.Battle of France – Â
•North – German occupation by Nazi military
•South – Vichy France.  Vichy France collaborates with Nazi’s to fight Allies in N. Africa and deport Jews to concentration camps
•Free French Government – General Charles De Gaulle flees France and establishes the French resistance and assists the Allies in defeating Germany
3.Battle of Britain – British Royal Air Force (RAF) vs. German Luftwaffe
4.Battle of the Bulge - Called “the greatest American battle of the war” by Winston Churchill, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. . The German troops’ failure to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies.
5.Pearl Harbor – Japanese surprise attack on the Hawaiian Islands
•3 Reasons Japanese attack
oAngry at U.S. for stopping shipments of oil and metal -saw this action as a threat to their national security
oBelieve U.S. will interfere with their plan to expand in the Pacific
oWant to destroy the U.S. fleet in the Pacific
oUS enters WWII*
6.D-Day – Operation Overlord = Invasion of France by Allies to push German’s out of France
•Eisenhower, Montgomery, De Gaulle vs. Rommel
•Largest amphibious invasion in history
•Allies invade 5 beaches in Normandy France – Omaha*(US), Utah (US), Sword, Juno and Gold (Canadian, British, French).  *most casualties
7.Hiroshima and Nagasaki – U.S. drops the first atomic bombs on Japan to end the war in the Pacific
Yalta Conference – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet in Feb 1945 to discuss the Post War world
Holocaust – 6M of 10M European Jews exterminated
•Hitler convinces Germans that Jews are to blame for Germany’s problems
Midway could have been used as a staging point for future attacks on Pearl Harbor.
Airplane combat decided the BATTLE AT MIDWAY. After the smoke had cleared, four Japanese aircraft carriers had been destroyed.
Island hopping was the strategy used by the United States command. Rather than taking every Japanese fortification, the United States selectively chose a path that would move U.S. naval forces closer and closer to the Japanese mainland.
The capture of IWO JIMA and OKINAWA cleared the way for an all-out assault on Japan. Â
On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), Â first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Â Three days later, A-bomb on Nagasaki,
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with spearheading the construction of the vast facilities necessary for the top-secret program, codenamed “The Manhattan Project ” (for the engineering corps’ Manhattan district).
At noon on August 15, 1945 (Japanese time), Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender in a radio broadcast. The news spread quickly, and “Victory in Japan” or “V-J Day” celebrations broke out across the United States and other Allied nations.
