Ch.26, Section 5 “Victory and Consequences”

Ch.26, Section 5“Victory and Consequences”

Germany After D-Day • After D-Day Allied forces swept inland • They had to gain control of enough land to not fear being surrounded and pushed back by the Germans • The main goal then was to liberate Paris from Nazi rule, and essentially free all of France France

Top 3 US Generals in Europe Germany’s Last Offensive • US General George Patton led Allied tank forces through German lines and pushed toward Germany • Hitler drafted every able-bodied German man from age 16-60 and planned one last desperate attack Eisenhower Bradley Patton

Battle of the Bulge • Germany attacked a weak point in the Allied lines in the Ardennes Forest in heavy snow • The Allies were pushed back 65 miles but their lines never broke • Both sides suffered heavy losses • After the attack was pushed back, the Germans were unable to stop the Allied advance into Germany

Closing in on Hitler • While the Soviet Union pushed toward Berlin from the east, the US and its allies pushed in from the west • Allied bombing raids on German cities killed tens of thousands of civilians • In the fire-bombing of one city, Dresden, 35,000 died there alone • Still, Hitler refused to surrender

V-E Day • As the Soviet Union’s forces closed in on the German capitol Berlin from the east and the US led forces advanced in the west, Adolf Hitler committed suicide • A week later Germany surrendered • The Allies celebrated May 8, 1945 as V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) while the war in the Pacific continued on against Japan

Final Solution • As Allied forces pushed into Germany at the end of the war, evidence of atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews and other people became known • Soon after taking power Hitler began blaming the Jews for all of the problems in Germany • He passed laws stripping them of their citizenship and seized their property • On Kristallnacht or “The Night of the Broken Glass” Jewish homes, synagogues, and businesses were looted and destroyed

Many Jews who did not escape the country were imprisoned in concentration camps • The Final Solution was the Nazi German name for the planned genocide (extermination of an entire group of people) of the Jewish people in Europe • Death camps were built with gas chambers designed to kill large numbers of people and ovens to cremate the bodies

Holocaust • Many of the death camps were in German-occupied Poland • The Germans shipped Jews from all over Europe to these death camps • The largest of these was in Auschwitz were over a million people were killed • Over 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust • Over 11 million people total were killed in it, including Gypsies, Slavs, political opponents, and people with disabilities

Pacific War in 1945 Iwo Jima and Okinawa were taken in early 1945 so US could use their airbases to bomb Japan ◄ Okinawa ▲ Iwo Jima Black arrows represent the plans for an invasion of Japan if atomic bombs were not used

Atomic Weapons End the War • in the summer of 1945, Japan continued to fight while the US planned an invasion that could cost 200,000 US casualties and potentially over a million Japanese lives

Manhattan Project • the US’s secret program began right after the start of the war, was led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, that took 3 years to build an atomic bomb

Decision to use the Atomic Bomb • After the successful test of the atomic bomb, President Truman told Japan that if it didn’t surrender it would face destruction • Japan refused to surrender

Hiroshima • The 1st atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, which killed 70,000 people instantly The plane and pilot that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima ▲

The explosion in the sky above Hiroshima by atomic bomb called “Little Boy” ▼ The destruction in Hiroshima after the bomb struck ▼

Nagasaki • US dropped a 2nd atomic bomb on Nagasaki eight days later • Japan surrenders five days later ◄ the second atomic bomb dropped in the war, nicknamed “Fat Boy”

War Ends • Japanese officially surrender on Sept. 2, 1945 aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay

MacArthur (left) and Japanese representative (right) sign the surrender document

President Truman announces to the press that the Japanese have surrendered

End of WWII • Over 50 million people killed (more than half of them were civilians) • The economies of Europe and Asia were destroyed • Millions of people were left without homes, water, food, and jobs • Since the war was fought in other places, US territory and its economy escaped this destruction • The US emerged as the strongest nation on Earth, politically, economically, and militarily

Devastation on Europe • 40 million dead; 2/3 were civilians • Cities were left in ruins from bombings • 50 million lost their homes and were starving • Billions in property damage • People left without water, electricity, and food • Agriculture completely disrupted in many places • Disease began to spread

Devastation on Japan • 2 million lives lost • Major cities destroyed by bombing raids • Atomic bombs completely leveled Hiroshima an Nagasaki • People homeless, without food, and no work available • Japan lost its empire

Ch.26, Section 5 “Victory and Consequences”