6.6 WWII (D-Day - Atomic Bomb)

June 6 1944 

-General Eisenhower directed and commanded operation overlord. 156,000 Allied troops invaded coast of France at Normandy. The Allied invasion of Normandy was the largest military operations ever staged.

Allies began moving eastward

-Rapidly liberated France and retook Paris. After successful invasion allies moved farther inland and France and marked the beginning of the end for Germany

Germany 

Less than a year after D-Day Germany’s chances of winning comes to an end. They were fighting a war on two fronts. From the East they had to deal with the Soviet Union and from the West they had to deal with the Allies

Hitler

Fearing capture, Hitler committed suicide in 1945. The war in Europe ended on May 8th 1945 - known as VE Day

Soviet Union

Soviets sustained the greatest losses, more than 20 million Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed in WWII

USA

-U.S. regained naval superiority in the Pacific when Navy defeated Japanese fleet at Battle of Midway

-1943 tide begins to turn in the Pacific against the Japanese

Island Hopping

-U.S. troops retook the Pacific through the strategy of “island-hopping” or liberating islands from Japanese control

-Eventually U.S. troops reached close to Japan’s home islands

Manhattan Project

-1939 FDR sets up a committee to look into development of atomic energy

-1942 secret project called the Manhattan Project is approved to develop an atomic bomb

-July 1945 U.S. had developed a successful atomic bomb

-In April of 1945 FDR died - Vice President Harry S. Truman became President

Japan

-By 1945 the Japanese had been pushed back to their own home islands, but still refused to surrender

Invade Japan

-May cost an additional 200,000 - million American lives

-Drag out the war for months and involve block to block city fighting

Drop Atomic Bomb

-Destroy cities

-Innocent people would face death

-Allied Prisoners of war would die

Atomic Bomb is dropped

-Japan was given time to surrender before each bombing

-Harry Truman decided to drop two atomic bombs 

-The extent of the devastation of the atomic bomb was not known before it was dropped

-Nagasaki = 60,000 killed

-Hiroshima = 35,000 killed

Japan surrenders in September

-WWII over

WWII

-70 million people died

-Cities in Europe and Asia destroyed

-Millions of people homeless

-Massive amount of civilians were killed

United Nations

-UN is formed to help prevent another World War

Two superpowers emerged

-United States and the Soviet Union