Part+III-+The+Global+War,+1942-45+(pg.+19-31)+yipsumw2013+03.06.11

FOUND AWESOMENESS: On 6 August 1945, the Americans dropped a new-invented atomic bomb code-named Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan. This picture shows a watch that stopped working at the moment of impact. We can see that the time the bomb was dropped was at approximately 3:38 pm. Little Boy incinerated 71,379 people and reduced buildings to rubble in a flash of a second.

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This is a video showing Operation D-Day with color footage. Operation D-Day was an important day in World War II because it opened a second front in Europe and took the pressure off the USSR in the North. The invasion of France across the channel was successful and within days Allied forces were pouring in through the boundaries of France.

OWN AWESOMENESS:

I created my own comic illustrating the Battle of the Bulge, a major turning point in WWII. It rendered the Germans unable to make any type of offensive whatsoever due to dwindling sizes in the army and lack of weapons/artillery.



Pictures for comic are cited.

Part III: The Global war, 1942-45

Start of 1942: 26 nations form alliance called the ** United Nations **(from every part of the world) to fight against **the Axis: Germany, Italy, and Japan .** However United Nations had different ideas on how to attack the Axis… eg. Stalin wanted to attack Germany in western Europe, Americans + British wanted to attack Axis in North Africa and Far East….

WAR began with Axis in control of big portion of Europe, **// A. //****//__ CHP 8: 1942: Year of uncertainty __//** 1) The war in Europe  · “Area bombing” of Germany    · As the British were kicked out of Europe in 1940, their only way of attacking was through bombing… went from “precision” bombing to ** area bombing **.    · Area bombing destroyed industry, homes, transport system, power and water supplies, postal, telephone and civic services.    · May 1942: 1000 British aircraft bombed German city, Cologne. Result: 250 factories destroyed, 45,000 turned into homeless    · The raid on Dieppe    · ** Dieppe Raid ** in Aug 1942 proved only area bombing could be used to attack Germany… (4384 Canadians + British killed, 34 ships, 24 tanks, 106 aircraft destroyed. No Germany strongpoints taken, Germans lost 600 men)  2) The war in Africa · Rommel’s advance to El Alamein · 1942: began with the Germans (Rommel) driving the British from Libya back into El Alamein (in July: Africa) · Germans had no more supplies, Montgomery (B) devised Operation Torch and attacked Rommel’s army from behind. · The Battle of El Alamein · Lasted two weeks in early November · Montgomery drives Rommel back to Libya, victory for the Allies · Operation Torch · 3 British-American armies invaded Morocco + Algeria (French). Fought, and then commander started negotiating… · …Which lead to the Germans attacking Allies, and due to rain bogging the vehicles down + lack of supplies, Operation Torch became ineffective and left the Allies at a standstill while the Germans strengthened their army. 3) The war in the Soviet Union  · The German advance to the Caucasus    · 1942: Soviets tried to relieve their besieged cities Leningrad and Sevastopol and attack Kharkov but failed (lost to Germans).    · Germans wanted to capture oilfields in Caucasus, but Stalingrad posed a threat (major city + communications center, 30 km along River Volga)    · The Battle of ** Stalingrad **    · Germans + Soviets struggle for Stalingrad, by November city was in ruins and the Soviets had broken through German lines, trapping 278,000 Germans inside the city à on verge of winning   4) War in the Far East May 1942: Japan had conquered much of Southeast Asia and Pacific · The ** Battle of the Coral Sea ** · Japan invaded Port Moresby (New Guinea, May 1942), American ships caught + sank + damaged 3 aircraft. · The ** Battle of Midway ** · Japan attacked US Pacific Fleet @ Midway (June 1942), 4 Japanese carriers sunk, 296 planes shot down, 3500 Japanese killed. US lost 1 carrier2 · The ** Battle of ** **Guadalcanal** · Admiral Nimitz (US) tried to take back Pacific Islands (Guadalcanal = Solomon Islands), raged for six months, both sides exhausted many resources and many lives · MacArthur’s advance in New Guinea. · Pushed the Japanese out of New Guinea and took over Buna after killing 8500 Allied troops and 7000 Japanese. … 1942 ended with Japan’s expansion halted and a prospect for vicious + bloody fighting

**// B. //****//__ CHP 9: Turning points of 1943 __//** 1) The ** Casablanca Conference **  · Jan 1943: President Roosevelt (US) + Churchill (Britain) met @ Casablanca to decide what their next move was.    · Wanted to force Germany, Italy & Japan into unconditional surrender    · Reassured Stalin they would not make peace with Germany, HOWEVER at the same time didn’t do what Stalin wanted: no front in Europe    · Wanted to continue Operation Torch until Axis out of nAfrica, then invade Europe through Sicily + Italy   2) The German defeat at Stalingrad · Germans were short of ammunition and food · Jan 1943: German Commander von Paulus surrenders (against Hitler’s orders) as cold, hunger and disease made fighting impossible · Hitler had to give up plans to invade Caucasus, Germans = weakened position 3) The Allied victory in North Africa  · Because Operation Torch halted @ end of 1942, Axis had more time to prepare and took longer to be driven out (May 1943).    · Allies were in control of North Africa + Mediterranean after 3 years of fighting, decided to invade Sicily instead (July 1943, 0.5 million went à Italian mainland)   4) The Allied invasion of Italy · SUCCESSFUL à Italian leader Mussolini forced to resign (people were sick of war + key factories were weakened by worker strikes) · Mussolini replaced by General Badoglio · Allies were bound to win Italy but more German forces arrived and slow progress was made + halted at the German ** Gustav Line **, 100 km from Rome. 5) The Allied bomber offensive  · Britain continues to bomb Germany.. switched attention from Ruhr Valley to Hamburg, dropped 165,000 bombs on it in less than 2 weeks    · Bombs created a fire storm which tore up trees, turned cars over, set streets on fire, incinerated people à killed 50,000 people and sent a million running away as refugees.    · Germans also bombed Britain but only 0.01 times as intense.   6) The Battle of Kursk · Soviets prepared strong defense around Kursk after they were informed that Germans were going to attack · ** Battle of Kursk ** : lasts for a week from July 5 · 300+ German tanks destroyed – Red Army prevented Germans from advancing more than 30 km, Hitler called for retreat. · TURNING POINT: Germans lost too many men and tanks to launch a serious offensive on the eastern front. As Soviets made continuous attacks, they were driven back further and further. **// C. //****//__ CHP 10: Total War __//** WWII à ** total war ** à involved both armed forces + civilians 1) The displacement of the people  · Many people fled from their homes because of aerial bombing    · In Sunkiang hardly anyone remained from population of 100,000    · Millions were forced away… 5 million to do labor in Germany (many died of slavery), 400,000 German ppl sent from USSR to Siberia in case they tried to help Germany, 10 million Soviet workers taken   2) Concentration camps · People forced from their homes had to live in concentration camps: · Primary objective: slave labor, but also ELIMINATION of human races: · Used tactics such as : hunger and starvation rations, sadism, inadequate clothing, medical neglect, disease, beatings, hangings, freezing, forced suicides, shooting · Murdered randomly · Jews were targeted mostly 3) The “Final Solution”  · Jews had been targeted by Hitler and German Nazis since 1933    · Germans occupied Poland in 1939 which gave them power over 3 million Polish Jews.    · Were forced to live in ** ghettoes **(walled off sections of a city where too many people were forced into too little room) (eg. Warsaw: 0.5 million squeezed into small area and kept on starvation rations)   · 1942: Nazis begin “** the Final Solution **” à the plan to exterminate all Jews once and for all.    · Jews forced to five concentration camps where thousands at a time were killed with poison gas…    · 5 million died between 1942-5 throughout Europe.   4) Partisans and Resistance · Occupied countries tried to resist invaders, eg. Soviet Union à ** Partisans **, France and Low Countries à ** Resistance ** · Fought guerilla war against Axis… blew up railways, roads, telephone lines, ambushed convoys, set supplies on fire… · Partisans caused 140,000 German troops to remain in Yugoslavia · Reprisals carried out on villages suspected of Partisan activity (ex. All men shot, all women in concentration camps and all children in children’s camps in a Czech village Lidice when the Czechs killed Nazi leader Heydrich) 5) The war and employment  · More space was open for employment as men were fighting.    · Effects of Great Depression disappeared as American, Canadian, British, and other Allied industries expanded to provide goods + weapons   **// D. //****//__ CHP 10: Germany in retreat, 1944 __//**  1) The Italian campaign · Jan 1944: Allies attack Gustav Line, but had to go through ** Monte Cassino ** (hill + monastery), bombed it into rubble but German defenders + reinforcement troops kept them until May 1944 · Germans retreated to second defense zone, the Gothic Line. Allies took half a year to smash through this line (autumn 1944-April 1945) for bad weather + fierce resistance. · Italian campaign … mistake? But it kept German troops tied down against ** Operation Overlord ** (also by Allies) in June 1944 2) Operation Overlord  · Transported Allied army from England à France, cross-channel invasion of coastline.    · Day of invasion (6 June 1944) code-named ** D-Day **    · 4000 ships + 176,000 soldiers were protected by 600 warships and 2500 bombers and 7000 fighter planes, landed on 5 beaches, after fierce fighting broke through coast defenses and poured inland.    · June + December 2.1 million Allied soldiers à nFrance.    · Invaded sFrance in August à ** Operation Anvil ** à opened another front.    · Sep: Germans = out of France   3) The V-weapon bombing of London · New bombing offensive à ** V-1 aircraft ** à pilotless plane carrying a tonne of high explosive · V-2 à four tones of high explosive · 900 England civilians killed + 35,000 injured from 6,800 V-1s and V-2s between August 1944 – May 1945 4) Allied bombing raids on Germany  · Allies were able to increase bomber attacks in Germany as long-range fighters protected them. The RAF (Royal Air Force, Britain) and USAF (us air force) had lost many bombers @ start of 1944    · Allies started to control skies over Germany    · Allies stopped fuel supplies, destroyed railways, made “thousand bomber raids” on Germany   5) The Battle of the Bulge · Allied armies in France were going to invade Germany but failed when they were cut back trying to cross River Rhine (commanded by General Montgomery, ordered slow advance) · Dec 1944: Germans invaded weakly defended Ardennes mountains, drove Allies back to bulge-shaped area in Belgium, ** Battle of Bulge ** (6 weeks long), Allies halted Germans and drove them back to starting point.. · Germans lost 120,000 men, 600 tanks, 1600 aircraft… could no longer launch any offenses, can only defend. 6) War in the Soviet Union  · 1944: Germay retreated from Soviet Union    · Jan: Soviet forces ended 890-day siege of Leningrad (killed nearly a million people) by driving Germans out of Baltic area    · Red Army drove Germans out of Ukraine back into Romania    · June (same as D-Day), Soviet army drives Germans back into Warsaw (Poland), taking 200,000 prisoners in Belo-russia    · Romania + Bulgaria ditches Germany and joins Allies    · Soviets advance to Yugoslavia, Greece, surrounded Budapest (Hungary’s capital) by November 1944   1944: ENDS WITH SOVIET TROOPS READY TO ATTACK GERMANY MAINLAND.  **// E. //****//__ CHP 12: Japan in retreat, 1943-44 __//**  1) “Victory disease” · Japan had captured 1/6 of the world within 5 months of 1941-1942, had to control 350 million Asians living on thousands of islands separated by 100 million km^2 of ocean · Had suffered two major defeats @ sea (Battle of Coral Sea + Battle of Midway) · Even Japanese thought they had taken too much for their own good 2) The “island hopping” campaign  · Allies divided forces into three areas of command (Admiral Nimitz, Admiral Halsey and General MacArthur)    · Carried out “** island hopping **” campaign, drove Japanese back from island to island    · ** South-East Asia Command ** created in India by Allies under Lord Mountbatten to drive Japanese from India (most valuable part of Britain’s empire) back to Burma   3) Economies at war · US and Japanese output compared o 1930s: Japan lacked food, US had plenty o Japan created 62795 aircraft in whole of war while US made over 100,000 per year o Although Japan took over Manchuria + resources it never produced as much weapons as US   o Japan built twenty new aircraft carriers over war, USA had built 100 by 1944 · Effects of US submarine attacks o America successfully sank mass amounts of Japanese ships (transferring materials + resources) (sank 6 million tones out of seven of Japanese shipping by end of war) … Japan had virtually protection, US submarines o Building new ships was not fast enough to replace the old ones. · Effects of US air-raids o Capture of Mariannas Islands in 1944 allowed USAF to bomb Japan mainland o Bombers attacked Tokyo and other Japanese cities starting November 1944 o Bombings destroyed factories + homes, industrial output + production of war materials dropped even further. 4) Japan’s determination not to surrender  · Japanese soldiers literally fought to the end.    · Examples:    o June 1944: 435 Japanese aircraft sent to attack US 5th fleet, attack only called back when 35 aircraft remained.    o Tarawa Atoll: 17 of 4700 defenders were left alive    o Aniwetok: not one of 2000 defenders were left alive    o Saipan: nearly all 2700 Japanese were killed, others suicided to avoid capture.    · Few Japanese soldiers were taken as prisoner because they commit //hara-kiri// (suicide by disembowelment à cutting open and removing internal organs) as they believed that surrender was dishonorable    · Those who were captured were only captured because they were too badly wounded to commit hara-kiri    · others fled to remote areas and stayed there for the rest of war (ex. Last soldier came out of hiding @ Tinian Island in 1960, 15 years after war ended)   · ** Battle of Leyte Gulf ** (largest naval battle in history!!) Japanese used //kamikaze// aircraft… Japanese pilots + high explosive would make suicide dives onto American ships    · End of 1944: Japanese in retreat, however US knew that attacking Japan itself would be even bloodier than usual, had to plan out its next move   **// F. //****//__ CHP 13: The defeat of the Axis, 1945 __//**  Start of 1945: Both Germany + Japan retreating  War drags on for five more months in the Middle East before Japanese surrender.  1) Victory in Europe · Allied advances into Germany o Allied forces cross River Rhine in March o Allies break through Gothic Line in April and advance into France and Austria · ** Operation Thunderclap ** o February 1945: designed to ruin German’s will to fight. o 0.5 million bombs were dropped on a mostly wood-built village, Dresden. 35,000 people died. o not enough living to bury the dead · The Surrender of Germany o April: Allies had destroyed nearly ever city so stopped bombing as bombing had cost lives of 160,000 Allied airmen and 305,000 and Germans o Germans still wanted to fight, economy still alive, had not won, therefore armies had to defeat it on the ground o 11 April: western Allies reach River Elbe o 16 April: Soviets are at Berlin and encircle it on the 25th o Hitler commits suicide on 30 April o April 31: Germany’s military leaders start to negotiate peace w/ Allied, surrender on 7 May. 2) The defeat of Japan  · Island hopping continues    o Americans continue to “island hop”, British push Japanese from India to Burma    o ** Luzon ** – 200,000 Japanese killed in desperate often suicidal fighting.    o ** Iwo Jima ** : 200 of 22,000 defenders left alive    o ** Okinawa ** : Japanese lost 107,000 against 7384 Americans dead    · US air-raids    o March à September 1945, 275 km^2 of Japan’s cities were destroyed    o ¼ of all homes were destroyed    o 22 million people (1/4 of population) = homeless    · The Economic collapse of Japan    o Food ran out in 1945, causing many to search for food in countryside and ditching work.    o 4/5 workers missing after air-raids    o absenteeism à reduced industrial output    - steel: 7.8 million tones à 1 million tons    - aircraft: -33.33%    - oil: 43 million barrels à 4 million barrels    · The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki o HOWEVER even in this situation still 4 million in army ready to fight to the end. o Home Army ready with 4800 kamikaze aircraft, 600 kamikaze boats. o Americans estimated too many more lives would be further lost, therefore on 6 August 1945 they dropped an atomic bomb on ** Hiroshima ** (killing 71,000 citizens), and a bomb later on ** Nagasaki **(killing 40,000 citizens) · The surrender of Japan o EMPEROR Hirohito proposed surrender, some military leaders commited hara-kiri, but the rest reluctantly agreed. o 7 September 1945: surrender to General Douglas MacArthur in Tokyo.


 * //__ SUMMARY: __//**

Three fronts were created to attack the Axis powers: the Eastern front in the Pacific, the Southern Front in Africa, and the Western Front in Europe. 1942-3 proved two years full of turning points, where the Axis powers suddenly felt as if the tide were turning against them (For Japanese: Battles of Coral Sea and Midway halted their expansion; For Germany: the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk; For Italy: defeat at Sicily and resignation of Mussolini). Soon, WWII became total war with civilians being forced into concentration camps, the Final Solution traumatizing millions of others, and with most civilians involved in the weapon-making industry of many countries. However with the Allies launching battles and operations on key areas and strongholds (ex. Monte Cassino, Operation Overload, Operation Anvil, Battle of the Bulge) and their nonstop aerial bombing, 1944 saw Germany being pushed back to the German l mainland. On the Eastern Front, American continued to island-hop, each battle being bloody and vicious with the Japanese unwilling to surrender. The war ended on the Western Front as Allies surrounded Berlin (Hitler suicided and military officials surrendered May 7 1945) and on the Eastern front as the Japanese surrendered to General MacArthur following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2 Sep 1945).

1. What is the significance of the Battle of the Bulge? 2. Why did America have the upper hand on Japan in the war? 3. Why were Japanese soldiers hard to capture? 4. What was the Final Solution? 5. How was WWII similar to WWI?
 * //__ Questions __//**