1. The World At War
And the end of WWII

2. Reflection
 “Peace is absurd: Fascism does not
believe in it.” - Benito Mussolini, Fascist
Dictator

3. Thought quote
a. “They saw human skeletons and skulls in the ovens of
the crematorium. In the yard outside, they saw a heap
of white human ashes and bones… [The] dead were
stripped of their clothing and lay naked, many stacked
like cordwood waiting to be burned at the crematory. At
one time 5,000 had been stacked on the vacant lot next
to the crematory… At headquarters of the SS troops
who ran the place were lamp shades made from human
skin… Often, the guide said, the SS wished to make an
example of someone in killing him… They used what I
call hay hooks, catching him under the chin and the
other in the back of the neck. He hung in this manner
until he died.” -German Captain Luther Fletcher after
being showed what his country had been doing

4. Turning back the German
Army
 1942 victories won
in Europe as well
 Stalin used the
lend-lease act to
his advantage
 Churchill believed
that attacking the
edges could lead
to more victories

5. Big Three Diplomacy
 While allied cooperation gained military
victories in both Europe and the Pacific,
negotiations over the postwar peace
proved more difficult
 Churchill thought only stable Europe and
not an organization could preserve peace
 Staling wanted to annex certain lands to
protect Soviet peace
 Roosevelt wanted to balance power under
the “Four Policemen” (USSR, US, UK and
China

6. Battle of the Atlantic
 Once the US entered the
war the German
submarines had a hey-
day with their ships
 Allied oil was rationed
 Navy set up a convoy
system
 New technology

7. Operation Overlord
 Operation Overlord was the name of the plan to invade
to take France back
 General Eisenhower was in command of the invasion
 Hitler thought (though he wasn’t sure) that the Allies
would enter France in Pas-de-Calais
 In order to trick them the Allies placed inflated rubber
tanks, empty tents, and dummy landing crafts
 The Allies had planned on not Pas-de-Calais but
Normandy
 The invasion started under the call of night
 It was known as D-Day

8. D-Day
 D-Day took place on June 6, 1944
 paratroopers, artillery and bombers helped the troops to get
there
 Omaha beach: Intense German fire almost led to an American
retreat
 General Omar Bradley was in charge of Omaha beach and he
almost made plans for the evacuation
 Eventually however enough troops landed that they were able
to push forward
 over 35,000 troops landed at Omaha, 28,000 at Utah beach
with over 75,000 British and Canadian as well
 May 7th, 1945 Germany surrendered unconditionally after
Battle of the Bulge
 May 8th, 1945 was declared V-E Day or “Victory in Europe”

9. Tehran and Yalta
 November 1943  Feb 1945 in Yalta
 Italy had  Allied differences
surrendered, war on how to deal
was going well with Poland and
against Germany Germany
 Teheran  They did agree to
Conference turn attentions to
 First meeting Japan after
together of big Germany was
three defeated

10. Iwo Jima and Okinawa
 in order to be effective the Allies needed to capture an
island that was closer
 geography
 dormant volcano volcanic ash
 vast numbers of caves and bunkers connected
by miles of tunnels
 February 19,1945 troops landed on Iwo Jima
 difficult to get through the soft ash, lots of death
 Invasion of Okinawa
 April 1, 1945 troops landed
 Japanese took up the defensive position and
dug in
 June 22, 1945 with the death of 12,000 marines
were able to take Okinawa

11. Death of Roosevelt
 Many people were critical of the results
of the Yalta Conference
 April 12, 1945 Roosevelt while sitting for
a portrait he complained of a “terrific
headache” then fell unconscious and 2
hours later he was dead
 Harry Truman replaced FDR. Truman
was very decisive in comparison to FDR

12. Potsdam Conference
 July 1945 at Potsdam (just outside
Berlin)
 President Truman met Churchill and
Stalin for the first time
 Two topics: Germany’s political fate and
how much they should pay in reparations
 Stalin insisted on $10 billion in
reparations
 US and UK lowered theirs

13. The Manhattan Project
 Project to build an atomic
bomb
 July 16, 1945 the first bomb
was detonated in
Alamogordo, NM
 Underground detonation
 When Truman found out
he “told the Russians
just where they got on
and off and generally
bossed the whole
meeting” in Potsdam

14. Stalin and the bomb
 Few scientists recommended against
using the bomb
 Rather than tell Stalin directly about the
bomb, Truman mentioned that the US
had a weapon of “awesome
destructiveness”
 Privately Churchill and Truman decided
to drop the bomb with only a veiled
threat of “inevitable and complete”
destruction if Japan didn’t surrender
unconditionally

15. Stalin and the bomb
 Some experts believed that a combat
demonstration of the bomb would shock
Stalin into behaving less aggressively in
postwar negotiations
 Most evidence points to the face that
Truman wanted to end the battle quickly as
Japan promised to be a bloody conflict

16. Drop the Bomb
 August 6th 6 B-29s left to drop two atomic
bombs on Japan
 August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay dropped the
bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima
 Another atomic bomb named “Fat Man” was
dropped on Nagasaki on the 9th of August
 About 140,000 died in the blast
 The Japanese emperor ordered that his
government surrender.
 August 15, 1945 was declared V-J Day.
 The war was finally over.

18. Debate to drop the bomb!!!
 You should have all read your research.
 Divide into 4 groups

19. Review for the Exam
Jeopardy next class
 Dictators
 “How Democracy Failed” reading
 Japanese plans and why angry with the
US
 German plans
 Turning points in the war
 Comic/propaganda analyzing