“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” - Keri Russell

1. “Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”- Keri Russell Wolves can smell other animals more than one mile away.

2. World War II Victory!

3. Tehran Conference

4. Tehran Conference • Nov. 28 – Dec. 1, 1943: Meeting among the Big 3: FDR, Stalin, and Churchill. • This conference organized the final strategy against Nazi Germ. and its Allies (Axis). • The major decisions: • Second front in Western Europe: Operation Overlord + an invasion of S. Fr. • A UN Organization was agreed upon. • The S.U. would attack Jap. once Germ. was defeated.

5. Operation Overlord:D-Day June 6, 1944 • Operation Overlord was the Allied invasion of Normandy and was part of the Normandy campaign. • It began on June 6 (D-Day) and ended June 30 (Operation Cobra) • The purpose of this battle was to gain an Allied foothold in Europe from which the Allies could begin to advance into Germ. • This was the first major offensive attack by the Allies against Nazi Germ. and remains the largest seaborne invasion in history.

6. Operation Overlord:D-Day June 6, 1944 • General Eisenhower assembled: • 176,000 soldiers • 600 war ships • 10,000 aircraft • All would cross the English Channel to the beaches of Normandy.

7. Operation Overlord:D-Day June 6, 1944

8. Operation Overlord:D-Day June 6, 1944 • The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious phase began on June 6. • Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on D-Day itself came from: Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. • Substantial Free French and Polish forces also participated in the battle after the assault phase, and there were also contingents from Belgium, Czech, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway. Other Allied nations participated in the naval and air forces.

12. British troops take cover after landing on Sword Beach.

13. Personnel of Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W" landing on Mike Beach, Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead. June 6, 1944.

14. American troops in an LCVP landing craft approach Omaha Beach June 6, 1944.

16. Operation Overlord:D-Day June 6, 1944 • The Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy against heavy Germ. resistance including machine guns and artillery. • Despite Germ. resistance: • June 9: The beaches are secured and linked by the allies. • June 19: Brit. landed 314,547 men, 54,000 vehicles, and 102,000 tons of supplies; Am. landed 314,504 men, 41,000 vehicles, and 116,000 tons of supplies. • July 24: Operation Cobra • July 28: Penetration through Germ. lines.

17. Landing supplies at Normandy

18. The build-up of Omaha Beach: reinforcements of men and equipment moving inland

19. After D-Day • U.S.: 29,000 dead, 106,000 wounded or missing. • U.K.: 11,000 dead, 54,000 wounded or missing. • Can.: 5,000 dead; 13,000 wounded or missing. • Fr.: 12,200 civilians dead or missing. • Germ.: 23,019 dead, 67,060 wounded, 198,616 missing or captured.

20. After D-Day • The Normandy Campaign led to the loss of the Germ. position in most of Fr., and the secure establishment of a new major front from which the Allies launched their offensive against Germ. • Early Aug.: Gen. George Patton moved across N. Fr. • At the same time, in Paris, Fr. resistance fighters rose up against the occupying Germs. • Aug. 25: Allied troops led by the Free Fr. forces enter and liberate Paris.

21. D-Day - June 6, 1944 (02:40)

22. Crowds of French line the Champs Elysees to view Free French 2e DB tanks and half tracks pass before the Arc de Triomphe on 25 August 1944.

23. U.S. 28th Infantry Division parading after the battle on 29 August

24. Eisenhower and de Gaulle in a liberated Paris

25. Liberation of Paris - August 25, 1944 (02:57)

26. The End for Germany • Before D-Day, the Soviets were advancing from the E. and by the summer of 1944, they had pushed Germ. out of Soviet territory. • Dec. 15-26 1944: The Battle of the Bulge – the unsuccessful Germ. attempt to break through the Allied lines on the W. Front. • Jan. 12 1945: Soviets invade E. Prussia.

28. The End for Germany • Jan. 15: Hitler and Eva Braun secured in Berlin bunker. • Jan. 17: Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated by Soviet troops. • Jan. 31: Soviets cross the Oder River into Germany and are now less than 50 miles from Berlin. • Feb. 4-11, 1945: Yalta Conference.

30. The Yalta Conference • The Big 3 (FDR, Churchill, and Stalin) met to discuss post-war concerns: • Fr. and China would join in forming the UN (permanent intl. org. to maintain peace after WWII). • Germ. and Berlin would be divided into 4 zones: Brit., Fr., U.S., and S.U. • Stalin promised free elections in E. Euro; gets E. part of Poland in return. • Stalin promised to declare war on Jap. to help end the war in the Pacific; Stalin gains Kuril Islands.

32. Yalta Conference - February 12, 1945 (02:42)

33. The End for Germany: Part II • Feb. 24, 1945: Massive bombing of Germany by approximately 9,000 bombers. • March 7: Am. crosses the Rhine into Germ. • March 29: Soviets capture Danzig. • March 30: Soviets enter Austria. • March 31: General Eisenhower broadcasts a demand for the Germans to surrender.

35. The End for Germany: Part II • April 12: President Roosevelt dies suddenly. Harry Truman becomes president of the United States. • April 19: The Soviet advance towards the city of Berlin continues and soon reaches the suburbs. • April 20: Hitler celebrates his 56th birthday in the bunker in Berlin. • April 21: Soviet forces launch assaults on the Germ. forces in and around the city of Berlin as the opening stages of the Battle of Berlin.

36. The Battle of Berlin:April 21-May 2, 1945 • 2 massive Soviet army groups attacked Berlin from the E. and S., while a 3rd overran Germ. forces positioned N. of Berlin. • April 25: Elbe Day: First contact between Soviet and American troops at the river Elbe. • April 27: The encirclement of Germ. forces in Berlin is completed by the Soviets.

37. The Battle of Berlin:April 21-May 2, 1945 April 20, 1945, photo of Adolf Hitler with his child soldiers in Berlin.

38. The Battle of Berlin:April 21-May 2, 1945 • April 29: Hitler marries his long-time companion Eva Braun. • April 30: Hitler and his wife commit suicide, he by a combination of poison and a gunshot. Before he dies Adolf Hitler dictates his last will and testament. In it Joseph Goebbels is appointed Reich Chancellor and Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz is appointed Reich President. • April 30: While Donitz ascends to his high office, Goebbels and his wife kill their six children and then take poison in the bunker.

39. www.answers.com/topic/eva-braun

41. Goebbels and Dönitz

42. The Battle of Berlin:April 21-May 2, 1945 • May 2: The Battle of Berlin ended when Germ. General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, unconditionallysurrenders the city of Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. • May 7: Germ. unconditionally surrenders to the Allies. • May 8: V-E Day (Victory in Europe) in the Allied Demos. • May 9: V-E Day celebrated by the Soviets

43. Weidling and Chuikov

45. www.porthalcyon.com/.../starsandstripes.shtml

46. www.britannica.com/eb/art-82296/Ecstatic-crow...

47. Signing of Surrender Documents - May 4, 1945 (03:36)

48. V-E Day - May 13, 1945 (03:02)

50. “Everyone’s a pacifist between wars. It’s like being a vegetarian between meals.- Colman McCarthy • Coffee beans aren’t beans, they are fruit pits.