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The End of WW II. The Downfall of Hitler and Mussolini. By 1944, the Allies occupied Europe at Normandy on the French coast ( D-Day ) German cities were being destroyed by bombing Allied armies were taking back land taken over by the Nazis
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The Downfall of Hitlerand Mussolini • By 1944, the Allies occupied Europe at Normandy on the French coast (D-Day) • German cities were being destroyed by bombing • Allied armies were taking back land taken over by the Nazis • Italy, Germany's major ally under the leadership of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, had fallen. • A few days before the surrender of German and Italian troops in Italy, Italian rebels captured Mussolini trying to make his escape to Switzerland. He was executed, along with his mistress, Clara Petacci. Their bodies were taken to Milan, desecrated, and hung upside down on public display.
June 6, 1944 (D-Day) What was the date the Allies invaded the German-held French beaches of Normandy (the largest military operation in US military history)?
D-DAY: THE ALLIED INVASION OF NAZI OCCUPIED WESTERN EUROPE • D-Day Statistics • General Dwight D. Eisenhower Allied supreme commander • Nine allied divisions invaded on D-Day, 3 airborne and 6 infantry, 150,000 soldiers • 12,000 planes • 5,000 ships escorted the invasion force • 20,000 troops were landed by air either parachute or gliders to protect the flanks of the invasion force from German counterattacks Shoulder sleeve insignia are of the American units, division and above, that were involved in the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944.
US TROOPS ADVANCE OFF THE INVASION BEACHES AFTER DEFEATING THE GERMAN COASTAL DEFENDERS
A HEAVY PRICE WAS PAID FOR BY US SOLDIERS IN THE SUCCESSFUL INVASION OF FRANCE
US TROOPS MARCH IN A VICTORY PARADE AFTER THE LIBERATION OF PARIS IN LATE AUGUST 1944
Several attempts were made on Hitler's life during the war, but each plot was foiled The war for Germany appeared to be inevitably lost as the US and its allies surrounded and then invaded Germany after the last German Offensive (The Battle of the Bulge) Hitler’s hand-picked lieutenants, seeing the futility, defied his orders or committed suicide Hitler’s 2nd in command Heinrich Himmler committed suicide after capture Hitler's Last Days/ End of WW II
The Battle of the Bulge • Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (in English: "Operation Watch on the Rhine") • 19,000 Americans killed, the Battle of the Bulge was the single largest and bloodiest battle that American forces experienced in World War II • British losses totaled 1,400.
Hitler's Last Days • On April 30, 1945, as the Battle of Berlin raged above him and realizing that all was lost, Hitler killed himself. • His long-term mistress and new bride, Eva Braun, joined him in suicide • Adolf was found with gunshot wounds to the head and both Eva and Hitler with traces of cyanide poisoning • Aside them laid Hitler’s dead German Shepherd Blondi The front cover of Time magazine, May 7, 1945. Although he had committed suicide on April 30 and German radio reported Hitler had died in battle on May 1, his death was widely presumed but not yet confirmed.
Hitler and Blondi- During the Fall of Berlin, before Hitler committed suicide, he ordered his physician Dr. Stumpfegger to test his cyanide pills on Blondi to ensure they worked
What happened to the Hitlers’ bodies? • Several witnesses stated that on April 30th he Hitlers dead bodies were carried up to ground level through the bunker's emergency exit to a small, bombed-out garden behind the Chancellery where they were doused with gasoline and set on fire by members of Hitler's personal SS bodyguard. The SS guards and Linge later noted the fire did not completely destroy the corpses, but Russian Soviet shelling of the bunker compound made further cremation attempts impossible and the remains were later covered up in a shallow bomb crater after 18:00. • On May 2 the remains of Hitler, Braun and two dogs (thought to be Blondi and her offspring Wulf) were discovered in a shell crater by Ivan Churakov of the Russian 79th Rifle Corps
The Nazis Surrender • Roosevelt(USA),Churchill(Britain), and Stalin (Russia) made arrangements for post-war Europe at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 • American, British, French and Russian forces eventually surrounded Berlin in late April of 1945 • On May 7th, the Nazis surrendered; VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day)
FDR’s Death Break for homefront video • About 2 weeks before Hitler committed suicide, around noon on April 12, 1945 FDR was being served lunch when he stated "I have a terrific headache" and then collapsed of a massive Cerebral Hemorrhage. • Vice President Harry S. Trumanwas sworn as President • FDR never saw the end of WW 2
The Surrender and Defeat of Japan • During the Potsdam Conference of July 1945, the Allies gave Japan an ultimatum- unconditional surrender or face destruction • The Allies also agreed to divide up Germany • Japan –refused to surrender despite nightly firebombing of its cities such as Tokyo and Yokohama • The Allies were planning a massive 2-part invasion of Japan code-named Operation Downfall to begin on X-Day, November 1, 1945 and end with Y-Day on March 1, 1946 The invasion would have included troops from the USA, Canada, Britain and Australia
The Russians were planning to invade from the north-they had already taken over the Kuril Islands by early August
Why did Truman decide to drop the Atomic Bombs on Japan? • To bring the war to a swifter end. • The battle for Okinawa had shown that an D-Day type of invasion of the Japanese mainland (planned for November) would result in large numbers of American casualties. The official estimate given to the Secretary of War was 1 million Allied casualties, though some historians dispute whether this would have been the case. • Invasion would also have meant the death of tens of millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians, who were being trained as militia. • The Japanese were refusing to surrender (to surrender is a dishonor)-break for Pacific scene from Okinawa
What 2 Japanese cities were the Atom bombs dropped on? • Hiroshima (August 6) • Nagasaki (August 9) • 5 days after the 2nd bomb was dropped, the Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945, or V-J day, signing the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on September 2. • The Japanese troops in China formally surrendered to the Chinese on September 9, 1945. • Japanese military leader General Tojo was executed by hanging for war crimes in 1946
THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB WAS DROPPED ON THE CITY OF 1.HIROSHIMA AUGUST 6TH, 1945, 70,000 KILLED AND EVEN MORE WOUNDED
A SECOND ATOMIC BOMB WAS DROPPED ON 2. NAGASAKI AND THE JAPANESE SURRENDERED AUGUST 9TH, 40,000 KILLED
V J DAY, AUGUST 14, 1945 WORLD WAR II ENDS Break for Civilians @ war video
The Results of the War 1. The Holocaust: US and Allied soldiers discovered gruesome sites when liberating Nazi Occupied Europe: the victims where Jews and other of Hitler’s ”enemies”_were being systematically massacred by the Nazis 2. The Russian Soviet communists took over all of Eastern Europe- the Cold War followed as a competitive arms race between the United States and The Soviet Union (Russia)
The Results of the War • 3. Germany was rebuilt and split into East (controlled by the Russians) and West (controlled by Britain, France and the USA) • 4. The formation of the United Nations (UN) an international organization made up of all nations to prevent further wars • 5. The Jewish people were finally given their own country by the UN- Israel
The Results of the War • 6. European colonies in Asia and Africa granted independence. • 7. Japan (who fought the Allies on Germany’s side) along w/ Germany was occupied and rebuilt by the USA. • 8. The USA becomes the most powerful nation in the world
The Results of the War • 9. Women gain even more rights by working in the factories building weapons to help the war effort. (Rosie the Riveter) • 10. US Isolation/neutrality ended • 11. Due to massive war production in the factories, the United States’ recovered completely from the Great Depression.
