1. WWII Battles

2. I. Overview of Military & Diplomatic Impacts of WWII:
Global & Total War Bring Unprecedented Devastation
New military techniques & technologies
Examples: Aerial “Fire Bombing”, Paratroopers, Amphibious Invasions, Radar, Flame Throwers, Nuclear Weapons
Civilians across the globe mobilized & targeted
50 million dead/wounded world wide million US dead/wounded

3. World War II Deaths

5. I. Overview of Military & Diplomatic Impacts of WWII:
New World Order Emerges
U.S. ends isolationism & accepts role as world “superpower” during & after war
Traditional European powers influence diminishes as war progresses
US/USSR power struggle (aka “the Cold War”) begins even before WWII officially ends

6. 3 Main “Theaters” of WWII

7. II. North Africa Campaign
1942

8. Gen. George Patton
Had to remove the Bonus Army under command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur (after having refused to give the order to remove them himself, violating orders)—included Joe Angelo the man who had saved his life in WWI
Wounded WWI, saved by Joe Angelo; continued to command in the fox hole for another hour after wounded. When battle was over, filled out hit battle report before reporting to the hospital
“Battle Fatigue”—slapped two soldiers (two different times) for saying they couldn’t fight because of this. Removed from command and didn’t get another till 11 months later.
Germans had more respect for him than the Allied Commanders. Used him as a feint to make Germans think we were landing at Calais.
First minute

9. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander
One of 7 sons
Cheerleader
Injured left leg, infection spread, almost amputated, he refused and had a miraculous healing
Parents Jehovah’s Witnesses (strict pacificists)
Many medical issues: heart attack, stroke, gallbladder problems, Crohn’s disease
Operation Torch proved to be an excellent training school for him
Had never actually fought in battle
Had requested and was denied chance to fiight during WWI (instead he was in charge of a tank training squadron)

10. Italian Campaign

11. III. European Theater

12. An invading army had not crossed the unpredictable, dangerous English Channel since 1688
D – Day
June 6th, 1944

13. Operation Fortitude

14. Six parachute regiments –
5000 vessels
150,000 men
30,000 vehicles
Six parachute regiments –
over 13,000 men
300 planes dropped 13,000 bombs over Normandy in advance of the invasion
By nightfall on June 6, 10,000 Allied soldiers were dead , but more than 100,000 had made it ashore

17. Battle of the Bulge -- December, 1944
Casualties:
American: 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded, 23,000 captured or missing
German: 67,200 to 100,000 killed, wounded/captured/missing
3 min.
3 min.

18. USSR Battles Nazis on Eastern Front – 1942 – 1944

19. Casualties at Stalingrad:
700,000 Axis
1,100,000 Soviets

20. Soviet counter-offensives
Recognizing that German troops were ill prepared for offensive operations during the winter of 1942, and that most of them were redeployed elsewhere on the southern sector of the Eastern Front, the Stavka decided to conduct a number of offensive operations between November 19, 1942 and February 2, These operations opened the Winter Campaign of (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943), which involved some 15 Armies operating on several fronts.
Weakness on the German flanks
During the siege, the German and allied Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian armies protecting Army Group B's flanks had pressed their headquarters for support. The Hungarian 2nd Army was given the task of defending a 200 km (120 mi) section of the front north of Stalingrad between the Italian Army and Voronezh. This resulted in a very thin line, with some sectors where 1–2 km (0.62–1.2 mi) stretches were being defended by a single platoon. These forces were also lacking in effective anti-tank weapons.
Because of the total focus on the city, the Axis forces had neglected for months to even consolidate their positions along the natural defensive line of the Don River. The Soviet forces were allowed to retain bridgeheads on the right bank from which offensive operations could be quickly launched. These bridgeheads in retrospect presented a serious threat to Army Group B.[
Similarly, on the southern flank of the Stalingrad sector the front southwest of Kotelnikovo was held only by the Romanian 7th Army Corps, and beyond it, a single German division, the 16th Motorized Infantry.
Operation Uranus: the Soviet offensive
In autumn, the Soviet generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky, responsible for strategic planning in the Stalingrad area, concentrated forces in the steppes to the north and south of the city. The northern flank was defended by Hungarian, and Romanian units, often in open positions on the steppes. The natural line of defense, the Don river, had never been properly established by the German side. The armies in the area were also poorly equipped in terms of anti-tank weapons. The plan was to punch through the overstretched and weakly defended German flanks and surround the German forces in the Stalingrad region.
During the preparations for the attack, Marshal Zhukov personally visited the front and noticing the poor organization, insisted on a one-week delay in the start date of the planned attack.[24]:p.117 The operation was code-named "Uranus" and launched in conjunction with Operation Mars, which was directed at Army Group Center. The plan was similar to the one Zhukov had used to achieve victory at Khalkhin Gol three years before, where he had sprung a double envelopment and destroyed the 23rd Division of the Japanese army.[40]
On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus. The attacking Soviet units under the command of Gen. Nikolay Vatutin consisted of three complete armies, the 1st Guards Army, 5th Tank Army, and 21st Army, including a total of 18 infantry divisions, eight tank brigades, two motorized brigades, six cavalry divisions and one anti-tank brigade. The preparations for the attack could be heard by the Romanians, who continued to push for reinforcements, only to be refused again. Thinly spread, deployed in exposed positions, outnumbered and poorly equipped, the Romanian 3rd Army, which held the northern flank of the German 6th Army, was overrun.
Behind the front lines, no preparations had made to defend key points in the rear such as Kalach. The local response by the Wehrmacht was both chaotic and indecisive. Poor weather prevented effective air action against the Soviet offensive.
On 20 November, a second Soviet offensive (two armies) was launched to the south of Stalingrad against points held by the Romanian 4th Army Corps. The Romanian forces, made up primarily of infantry, were overrun by large numbers of tanks. The Soviet forces raced west and met on 23 November at the town of Kalach; sealing the ring around Stalingrad.[14]:p.926 The link-up of the Soviet forces, not filmed at the time, was later re-enacted for a propaganda film which was shown worldwide.
Sixth Army surrounded[edit]
German troops as prisoners of war. In the background is the heavily fought-over Stalingrad grain elevator
About 265,000 German, Romanian, Italian soldiers,[41][page needed] the 369th (Croatian) Reinforced Infantry Regiment, and other volunteer subsidiary troops including some 40,000 Soviet volunteers fighting for the Germans (Beevor states that one quarter of the sixth army's frontline strength were HIWIs)[citation needed][42] were surrounded. These Soviet HIWIs remained loyal to the end, knowing the Soviet penalty for helping the Germans was summary execution. German strength in the pocket was about 210,000 according to strength breakdowns of the 20 field divisions (average size 9,000) and 100 battalion sized units of the Sixth Army on 19 November Inside the pocket (German: Kessel, literally "cauldron"), there were also around 10,000 Soviet civilians and several thousand Soviet soldiers the Germans had taken captive during the battle. Not all of the 6th Army was trapped; 50,000 soldiers were brushed aside outside the pocket. These belonged mostly to the other 2 divisions of the 6th Army between the Italian and Romanian Armies: the 62nd and 298th Infantry Divisions. Of the 210,000 Germans, 10,000 remained to fight on, 105,000 surrendered, 35,000 left by air and the remaining 60,000 died, committed suicide[citation needed] in the 11 weeks after being encircled or were unable to surrender when the end was there.[clarification needed]

21. US B-17’s & P-51’s Bomb Germany

22. Dresden & Hamburg Fire Bombed – Spring 1945

23. Allies
Meets USSR
At Elbe River
April, 1945
VE Day – May 8th

24. IV. Pacific “Theater”

25. The Battle of Midway June 1942

27. 52:00-57:00

28. “Island
Hopping”
Strategy

29. IV. Pacific “Theater”

30. Battle of Iwo Jima Feb./March, 1945
36 day assault
11 miles tunnels
Photo—2nd flag raising; first one a couple hours earlier, Sec. Of Navy asked for it
3 of 6 died within next month
After declared secure—3000 remained in caves; 2 surrendered in 1951

31. U.S. 7000 dead, 19,000 wounded Japan 20,000 dead, 1000 captured
1:23-1:29
U.S dead, 19,000 wounded
Japan 20,000 dead, 1000 captured

33. 100,000 killed in firebombing of Tokyo
“Conventional” bombing devastates Japan in spring/summer 1945 (over 60 cities destroyed)
100,000 killed in firebombing of Tokyo
First 1-2 minutes

34. 70 U.S. vessels "sunk or damaged beyond repair“
82-Day Long Battle of Okinawa convinces some American leaders that Japanese leaders will not consider surrender
Kamikaze 神風 Attacks (2,525)
e Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg,[4] was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II.[5][6] The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese.[7][8][9] The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources,[10] mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 149,193 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, more than one third of the total local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting at Okinawa.
70 U.S. vessels "sunk or damaged beyond repair“
Deaths:
Japanese military ,166
U.S. military ,000
Japanese civilians ,000

35. Harry S
Truman
Becomes
President
April, 1945

36. Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer – head scientist
Develops Atomic Bomb – Completed July, 1945
J. Robert Oppenheimer – head scientist
Employed 130,000 people & cost $2 Billion ($27 billion in 2011 dollars)
Original Target Germany. New Target: Japan

37. Potsdam Conference – July 1945 – “Big Three” plan end of WWII
Japan rejects surrender ultimatum
US & UK do not reveal existence of A-Bomb to USSR

39. Hiroshima &
Nagasaki
August 6th & 9th
1945

40. Hiroshima & Nagasaki suffer Atomic Bomb
30 seconds
August, 1945
Hiroshima & Nagasaki suffer Atomic Bomb

42. Japan Accepts Unconditional Surrender
V J Day - September 2, 1945