The END

of the War

D-Day (1944)• code name “Operation Overlord”

• purpose of the attack was to free parts of France from Axis control, then move into and destroy Germany

• Attack came in three phases – paratroopers, airplanes dropped bombs, and then infantry landed on the beaches

• Allies were successful and began to slowly gain back control of France (had been controlled by Germany for 4 years)

• Germans now had enemies coming at them from three fronts!

Island Hopping Campaign• American strategy in the Pacific

• began after the Battle of Midway

•Allies ‘leapfrogged’ their way towards the Japanese home islands

•Should prevent the war from taking a decade to end

Battle of the Bulge (1944)• following the Allied capture of the first German city, Hitler ordered a last

desperate counterattack

• Germans attempted to divide the Allied lines in half

• battle lasted for a month, with an eventual Allied victory

• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, and 1,600 planes

• Germany could no longer effectively attack, could only defend themselves

• simultaneously the Soviets were continuing to push westward towards Germany

Yalta (1945)

•War will clearly be won by allies at this point

•Stalin, Churchill, and FDR met

• Started to Plan Post War World…

• Germany & Berlin would be split into four zones

• Stalin will allow free elections in Eastern European countries he has liberated from Hitler

• Stalin will aid in war with Japan – attack from the west

V-E Day (1945)

• Soviet troops entered Berlin with Americans approaching from the West

• Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker

• A week later, on 8th of May 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally

• war is over in Europe – Victory in Europe Day (VE Day)

Battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945)• Very important battles. Why?

•These islands were close enough to allow easy bombing of home Japanese islands

•Were part of Japanese empire before Pearl Harbor

•Japanese goal

•Fight so desperately that the U.S. will negotiate a peace rather than try an assault on Japanese home islands (Kamikaze!)

• Eventually the Allies succeeded in taking the islands

• only about ~200 Japanese soldiers survived the battle

•Estimated that an invasion of Japanese home islands would cost at least 1 million American casualties

•

FDR Dies (1945)• FDR dies of a stroke

• Vice President Harry Truman assumes office of the President

The Death of FDR • Reading- FDR’s death • Would you want to be Harry

Truman at this moment? – He had only been FDR’s VP for a year

and was not in FDR’s ‘inner circle’ (in other words, he wasn’t completely in the loop regarding FDR’s plans)

• So all he has to deal with is (sarcasm?)– Finish off Japan– Decide whether to use the Atom

Bomb – Rebuild the world after the largest war

in history• U.S. as the dominant superpower for

the first time in history• What to do about Stalinist Russia,

which now has armies spread over ½ of Europe?