Chapter early battles  Some military leaders from the Pacific war:  1. Admiral Chester Nimitz – USA – in charge of the Navy in the Pacific  2. General Douglas McArthur - USA– head of army in Pacific  Admiral Yamamoto – Japan – planned PH attack – head of Japanese Navy

Fall of the Philippines  Japan attacked the Philippines on Dec 7 th also. US and Filipino forces were outnumbered and retreated to the Bataan peninsula.  March 1942 – Allied forces on Bataan surrender (78,000 men)  They are forced to march 65 miles to a prison camp.  10,000 men die on the march due to beatings, sickness, and a lack of food and water.

Doolittle’s raids on Tokyo  Right after Pearl Harbor, people needed to feel like we were striking back at Japan.  We wanted to bomb Tokyo but couldn’t get our carriers close enough to do it  Solution: Use B-25’s bomb Japan – launch them from carriers and have them land in China.  April 1942 – “Doolittle’s raiders” bomb Japan – don’t do much damage but boost US morale and force Japan to change their next attack.

Coral Sea Battle  The US had “broken” the Japanese code and knew they would attack New Guinea.  May 1942 – our carriers and theirs launch air attacks.  We lose 1 carrier but keep Japan out of New Guinea and keep supply open to Australia.

Midway – a turning point  The Japanese use their carriers to launch an air attack on Midway Island in June 1942  US Navy knows they are coming and plans an ambush  US shoots down 38 planes and sink 4 Japanese carriers  This stops the Japanese advance and they lose 3000 men. (we lose 362)

Sending Troops to Europe  FDR wanted to send troops to Europe as soon as possible.  Stalin wanted US troops to attack Western Europe so Germany would have to take troops from the SU to fight there.  Churchill said the best place to attack Germany was in the “soft underbelly” of their empire: North Africa

The battle for North Africa  GB was already fighting Germany in Egypt and trying to push them West.  The US landed troops in Morocco and pushed East in late  The German leader was Rommel, the “desert fox”  After months of fighting, the Germans surrendered in May 1943.

Battles in the Atlantic  German Submarines caused a great deal of damage to US ships in early 1942  We lost 360 ships along our East coast – including many oil tankers.  To stop this we did several things:  1. Blackouts curtains/lights out at night  2.convoys to protect ships  3.Use of sonar, radar, and depth charges  4. We built more new ships and started to win the Battle of the Atlantic by late 1942

Stalingrad  Hitler believed that he could win the war by cutting off supplies to the SU  To do this, he attacked Stalingrad in Sept of  The Germans troops were not equipped for a Russian winter and the Soviets defeated the Germans there by Feb  Each side lost half a million soldiers and Germany was now in a defensive position in the SU