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Turning Points of WWII

Turning Points of WWII. Battles that made the difference. Fighting in Eastern Europe. Hitler invades the Soviet Union In ‘41 Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union and pushed east but never scored any major victories because of the Stalin’s scorched earth policy

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Turning Points of WWII

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  1. Turning Points of WWII Battles that made the difference

  2. Fighting in Eastern Europe • Hitler invades the Soviet Union • In ‘41 Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union and pushed east but never scored any major victories because of the Stalin’s scorched earth policy • Stalin knew that he could not stand up directly to Hitler’s forces so he pushed deeper into the USSR and burned the cities he abandoned • By ‘42 Hitler hoped to invade the USSR past the Ukraine and take Stalingrad but was held up in the Crimea by Mussolini

  3. Stalingrad • Battle of Stalingrad • Hitler leaves later then he wanted in Nov. of ‘42 and pushes towards Stalingrad along the Volga River • Hitler destroys the city but the Soviets were given the “Not a Step Back” order by Stalin and used bombed out factories as defensive positions and fought • Eventually Hitler’s general Paulus was forced to surrender since they were out of supplies and many of their soldiers had starved in Feb. of ‘43

  4. Fighting in the Pacific • Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941 • Caused in reaction to American assistance via Lend Lease Act of ‘41 and assistance to China in Indo-China • Japanese generals concerned that they needed to push into the United States but HidekeiTojo pulls them back and only angers the Americans • Americans began to fight back but knew that they needed to destroy the air craft carriers of the Japanese in order to control the Pacific

  5. Battle of Midway • Battle of Midway • After decoding information that gave Americans the location of Japan’s 4 main aircraft carriers Americans move our forces north and wait until the planes have left the carriers vulnerable to attack • Our planes get lost and find the carriers in shifts with our two first waves being entirely destroyed • Third wave destroys all 4 giving the Americans the advantage in the Pacific • Douglas MacArthur uses “island hopping” to move closer to Japan for an eventual invasion

  6. D-Day • D-Day (Dooms Day) June 6th, 1944 • After much debate Stalin and FDR decide that they should send their troops through the beaches of Normandy, France and retake France • Dwight D. Eisenhower leads the American forces onto the beaches in a stunning amphibious assault and retakes parts of France. • Rather than just using battleships to attack from a distance small boats send wave after wave of soldiers onto the beaches and planes drop off men via parachute. • This battle was seen as the turning point for the Western side of Europe since Allied forces controlled the beaches and could then bring more troops (2 million)

  7. End of the War with a bang • Harry S. Truman who replaced FDR decides to use the nuke • The Manhattan project was a code for the development of nuclear arms. • We had successfully tested one in early ‘45 but were uncertain of its long term affects on its victims. • After firebombing Tokyo and then destroying the majority of 67 different cities we decide to drop one on Japan before someone else uses one on us.

  8. Hiroshima and Nagasaki • August 6 we drop a nuke on Hiroshima • August 9 we drop one on Nagasaki • August 14th the Japanese surrender • Was it necessary? Was this the right call?

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