1. Causes, Major Battles and Turning Points
World War II
Causes, Major Battles and Turning Points

2. Overview
Fought from
Involved soldiers from over 56 different countries
There were over 60 million causalities (2.5% of the worlds population)
The United States entered the war in 1941
Over 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the war
The main ALLIED powers-Great Britain, the U.S., France, and the Soviet Union
Main AXIS powers- Germany, Italy, Japan

4. Causes of World War II
Resentment over the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I
Worldwide economic depression
Led to the rise of fascism (an authoritarian type of government) to cure economic ills and promoted the greatness of their countries
Expansion of militaries across Europe
Military expansion of Japan across Asia to secure raw materials
European appeasement to avoid another war (policy to give in to German demands prior to 1939)
American isolationism (U.S. did not want to get involved in another war and thought that the oceans would protect them)

5. Major World Leaders during World War II

6. Timeline of Events 1938 Germany begins annexing “historical territory”
Britain and France turn a blind eye
1939- Germans and Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact to divide and conquer Eastern Europe
1939 Germany invades Poland (official beginning of WWII)
1939 Nazis begin to move Jews to ghettos across Europe
1940 Germany invades and defeats France
1940 Battle of Britain (Germans are defeated)
1941- Germany invades Soviet Union

7. Timeline of Events
1941- Nazi leaders begin “final solution” of Jews across Europe
1941 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and U.S. enters war
Late 1942 U.S. halts Japanese naval and territorial expansion across the Pacific (Battles of Guadalcanal and Midway)
Mid-1943 U.S. and British forces defeat Germans and Italians in North Africa and invade Southern Europe at Sicily
June 6th, 1944 Allies land in Normandy , France (D-Day), this turns the war in favor of the Allies

8. Timeline of Events
December 1944 Battle of the Bulge, last major German offensive of the war
March 1945 Allies enter Germany
April 1945 Concentration Camps discovered by Allies
April 1945 Allies reach Berlin and Hitler commits suicide
May 1945 Germany surrenders
August 1945 Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan surrenders

10. D-Day June 1944 Know as the beginning of the end of the war in Europe
Officially called Operation Overlord
Included naval bombardment before the battle, and an airborne and amphibious assault on the Normandy region in France
160,000 Allied troops participated in the attack and there were over 10,000 casualities
Within one year the Germans were defeated and the war was over

15. Battle of the Bulge December 1944 Last major German attack of the war
Hitler wanted to stop the Allied advance and take the supply port at Antwerp, Belgium
Attack took the Allies by surprise
Weather kept the Allied air force from helping during the battle
Largest battle that American troops participated in during the war (600,000 soldiers)
Attack failed because the Germans ran out of gas, literally

18. Battle of Coral Sea and Guadalcanal
May 1942
First battle between aircraft carriers
Battle stopped Japanese expansion across the Pacific
Guadalcanal
August 1942
Island in the South Pacific
Major turning point in the Pacific War
Beginning of long Japanese retreat

19. Battle of Midway
June 1942
Midway Island was home to an important American airfield
Americans knew Japanese were coming they had broken their code
American were outnumbered four ships to one
Japanese wanted to destroy the American fleet
American navy sank fourJapanese aircraft carriers and crippled the Japanese navy for the rest of the war

21. Iwo Jima and Okinawa March and April 1945
Islands within 500 miles of Japan
Japanese put up fierce resistance
Bloodiest land battles of the war
Battles convinced Americans of possible losses of invasion of Japan
Last solider surrendered on Iwo Jima in 1949, four years after the war was over

22. Dropping the Atomic Bomb
August 1945
Military leaders determined that an invasion of Japan would cost 500,000 lives
President Truman wanted a quick end to the war and ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped on Japan
Within day the Japanese surrendered
Manhattan Project
Began in 1939
Top secret project to build the atomic bomb
U.S. government wanted to beat the Nazis in developing one first