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WWII Battles
2
Transcript
Order of Surrender for WWII
Who Fought?
- The main combatants were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China).
The Battle of Midway
- The war in the Pacific turned against Japan during the Battle of Midway (June 3–6, 1942), an American victory that destroyed the Japanese first-line carrier force.
- Japan’s Navy wanted to remove the U.S. out of the picture in the Pacific operations at Midway. Just like in their prior attack on Pearl Harbor that pushed the U.S. into war, the Battle of Midway was meant to remove America's presence in the Pacific Ocean.
- The consequences of this battle for the Japanese were quite significant. In the blink of an eye, Japan lost 4 of its most important carriers which were of great importance in the Pacific campaign. They also lost a large number of their experienced crewmen in the battle.
Midway Location/Ships
Operation Torch
- Operation Torch was an Allied invasion of what was then French North Africa that lasted from November 8th through 10th in 1942.
- It marked the first time the British and Americans had worked together on an invasion plan, and the first time that American forces fought alongside their European counterparts.
- Operation Torch was aimed at opening the Mediterranean for Allied shipping by opening up a way to access southern Europe through north Africa. It was also intended to take some of the pressure off of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Front. The Allied Forces were joined by the Eighth Army that drew forces from India, Canada, Australia, and other countries part of the British Commonwealth.
- Operation Torch was ultimately successful. It was also significant for marking the first time that Americans saw the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe first-hand.
Italy Surrenders First
- On September 8, 1943, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower publicly announced the surrender of Italy to the Allies.
- With Mussolini deposed from power and the earlier collapse of the fascist government in July, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, the man who had assumed power in Mussolini’s stead by request of King Victor Emanuel, began negotiating with Gen. Eisenhower for weeks.
- Weeks later, Badoglio finally approved a conditional surrender, allowing the Allies to land in southern Italy and begin beating the Germans back up the peninsula.
D-Day
D-Day Quick Facts
- D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in military history.
- According to the D-Day Center, the invasion, officially called "Operation Overlord," combined the forces of 156,115 U.S., British and Canadian troops, 6,939 ships and landing vessels, and 2,395 aircraft and 867 gliders that delivered airborne troops.
- The idea behind the ruse was to trick the Nazis into thinking that the invasion would occur at Pas-de-Calais, the closest French coastline to England. The Allies used fake radio transmissions, double agents, and even a “phantom army,” commanded by American General George Patton, to throw Germany off the scent.
Germany Surrenders Second
- By the end of D-Day over 150,000 troops had landed in Normandy. They pushed their way inland allowing more troops to land over the next several days. By June 17th over half a million Allied troops had arrived and they began to push the Germans out of France.
- Days after D-Day, almost 3 million soldiers arrived in Europe. They started to push the Germans Eastward, out of France. At the same time the Soviet Union was moving into German territory as well.
- When the Allies made it to Berlin, they had discovered that the leader of the Nazi army, Adolf Hitler, killed himself. On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered.
Japan Surrenders Last
- By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands.
- On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The bomb was known as "Little Boy", a uranium gun-type bomb that exploded with about thirteen kilotons of force.
- Three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9 – a 21-kiloton plutonium device known as "Fat Man.”
- Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.
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