Station #1: The War begins: Two Fronts
Station #1: The War begins: – the Pacific, Africa and Italy
America would have to fight World War II on two fronts (areas) – in Europe against Germany and Italy, and in the Pacific Ocean and Islands against Japan. The war against Japan started poorly for America – losing island after island as the Japanese started out very aggressive and American forces were still weak. However, General Douglas MacArthur was right when he stated “I will return” as his army was retreating from the Philippines.
In Europe, the American and British first fought the Germans in Africa to work their way into Italy. After
6 months, Allied powers fought the Germans and Italians in a back-and-forth war in the deserts of Africa, the Germans retreated to Italy. After invading Sicily (between Africa and Italy); the Americans, British and Canadians slowly re-conquered Italy. The Dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini surrendered, but the Nazis kept fighting to stop the Allies. The fighting in Italy lasted to almost the end of the war and was some of the bloodiest fighting of the war, with 320,000 Allies and 658,000 Germans and Italians dying. However, the Germans were spread out between Italy, the Russians and the new front in France in 1944. The Americans could now also free Southern Europe from their bases in Italy. Benito Mussolini tried to escape but was captured and killed by his own people. In 1945, Italy was freed from the Nazis and returned to its own people.
Allies?
After Hitler invaded Russia, America, England and Russia formed an uneasy Alliance – because Russia was a communist dictatorship and America and England were not communist, the two sides did not fully trust each other. However, to defeat Hitler they put aside their differences. The leaders of the three countries – Roosevelt, Winston Churchill (England) and Joseph Stalin (USSR) became known as “The Big Three.” The Americans and British would fight Germany in the West and South (France and Italy) and the Russians would push to Germany from the East. It became a race between the two sides who would capture Berlin (the capitol of Germany first).
Station #2: Turning Points Europe: Battle of the Bulge and D-Day
By the end of 1944, Germany was badly losing the war, but Hitler wanted to make one final push back at the Allies and try to defeat them instead of retreating into Germany. From December to January 1944-45, Hitler launched the Ardennes Offensive (also called the Battle of the Bulge) to split the Allies in half, and then defeat them one at a time, forcing them to surrender. However, American units held firm (when General Anthony MacAuliffe was told to surrender he replied to the Germans “Nuts!”). The plan started out working, however, the Germans ran out of fuel in their attack and were pushed back by American General George S. Patton’s hard fighting men; severely crippling the German army. It was the single bloodiest battle of the war, as Americans lost 19,000 men – at one point losing 500 men a day.
Although the Americans were losing in the Pacific, the American army, navy and air-force rebuilt and began to re-conquer islands. The First turning point of the war in the Pacific came at the battle of Midway. American and Japanese navy and planes fought each other over the Island of Midway from June 4-7, 1942. At this battle, the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers, which crippled their ability to wage naval and air warfare in the Pacific. In 1944, with the Russians fighting Germany in the East, and the Allies also fighting Germany in Italy, the Allies decided Germany was stretched thin enough to invade France (where Germany’s largest defenses were). Called “Operation D-Day,” the Allied powers launched the largest amphibious invasion (going from sea to land) of all time, with over 175,000 troops landing from over 5,000 ships on 6 June 1944 and in addition parachuting 24,000 soldiers into France. On 6:30 A.M., June 6, 1944, the Allies landed along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches. Americans faced the heaviest fighting attacking Utah and Omaha beaches and suffered the highest casualties.
The operation was the largest total allied casualties (killed, wounded, missing, or captured) which are estimated at approximately 10,000.
However, the Allies were now able to fight their way through France and began liberating the country from the Nazis – and began pushing the Nazis back into Germany!
Station #3: Turning Points In Japan – Iwo Jima & Midway
In the Pacific, the one of the final islands before Japan was the island of Iwo Jima. The Americans bombed the island for several weeks and then fought to control the island for almost a month. The island was considered holy to the Japanese and they fought almost to the last man to defend it. Out of almost 50,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island, close to 48,000 died fighting for the island. Once the Island was captured, America could now use Iwo Jima as a base to “fire bomb” (using napalm – which explodes into fires) Japanese cities and hurt their ability to fight the war.
Battle of the Coral Sea
A battle from May 4–8, 1942, in which U.S. naval forces successfully protected the Allied base at Port Moresby, New Guinea, the last Allied outpost standing between the Japanese onslaught and Australia. The battle, which caused heavy losses on both sides, was the first naval battle in history fought exclusively in the air, by carrier-based planes.
Battle of Guadalcanal
A campaign from August 1942 to February 1943 in which U.S. Marines fought brutal battles to expel Japanese forces from the Solomon Islands, a strategically important island chain in the South Pacific near Australia.
Battle of Iwo Jima
A battle in February and March 1945 in which U.S. forces took Iwo Jima, a small but strategically important island off the Japanese coast. During the battle, an Associated Press photographer took a world-famous photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on the summit of Mt. Suribachi.
Battle of Midway
A battle from June 3–6, 1942, in which U.S. naval forces severely disabled the Japanese fleet at Midway Island in the Pacific. Coming close on the heels of the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway forced Japan into defensive mode and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific theater.
Battle of Okinawa
The last large-scale battle in the Pacific theater, in which U.S. forces invaded the Japanese home island of Okinawa. The battle was very bloody, killing at least 100,000 Japanese soldiers and 80,000 to 100,000 Japanese civilians.
Station #4– V-E DAY!
After Hitler’s failed last offensive (see Station #5 – Battle of the Bulge), Germany was invaded by America and England from the East and Russia from the West. On May 1,1945, Hitler committed suicide and Berlin (the capitol) was captured May 2. Germany surrendered on May 7th and the Allies declared Victory in Europe (V-E Day) May 8th. The War in Europe was over!
In the United States, President Harry Truman, who turned 61 that day, dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died of a cerebral hemorrhage less than a month earlier, on April 12. Flags remained at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period, which ended on May 12.
Massive celebrations of the victory took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and especially in New York City's Times Square
Liberating the Concentration Camps
For over a decade, the Nazis systematically gathered and exterminated the European Jewish population and other “undesirable races.” As the Allied Powers moved through Europe and Germany from East and West, they discovered the Concentration and Death Camps that the Germans used to work to death and blatantly kill millions of people.
Helping the freed people was a tremendous task, as they needed to feed, clothe and relocate these people.
The Allied Powers forced German civilians to come to the camps to help bury the dead bodies and witness what their fellow countrymen did to other human beings.
The discoveries of the Death Camps spread world wide and finally the world was fully exposed to the Holocaust. After the war, United States lawyers and international lawyers helped to create the Trials at Nuremberg to punish the Nazi war criminals for the actions in the Holocaust.
The Holocaust would heavily influence the leading to the creation of the Jewish State of Israel.
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