1. World War II
(continued)
Created by and used with permission from Dan Ewert,
Friendswood High School

2. One of the reasons Japan did so much conquering (other
than the racism and imperialism) was because Japan is
poor in natural resources and was trying to get them
from elsewhere.
• When they attacked Pearl Harbor, it was to disable the
U.S. fleet in the Pacific because the U.S. was restricting
Japan’s oil supply.
• For a naval power, this was a problem.

3. Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941. YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS DATE!!!
• Japanese forces launch a sneak aerial attack on the
U.S. naval base in Hawaii.
• The goal was to destroy the aircraft carriers, but they
were at sea at the time. The battleships got it instead.
• U.S. casualties were heavy and included 2,403 dead;
1,178 wounded; 5 battleships, 3 destroyers, 3 cruisers,
and 188 planes. Japan casualties, by contrast, included
64 dead, 1 captured, 29 planes and 4 submarines.

14. • Dec. 7th wasn’t just an attack on Pearl Harbor, though.
Japan also launched attacks on Thailand, Malaya, Hong
Kong, and the Philippines on the same day.
• The U.S. bases on Guam and Wake Island were lost
soon afterward.

15. The Bataan Death March
• In the Philippines, around 75,000 Americans and
Filipino allies are taken as POW’s.
• They’re forced to march about 70 miles in the blazing
tropical sun.
• They were given little food or water, if any. Those who
fell behind were killed on the spot, by bullet, bayonet,
or sword. About 10,000 died on the way to the prison
camp.

20. The U.S. was caught off-balance, but regrouped.
• One of the earliest offensives was the Doolittle Raid.
• Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy
Doolittle, 16 modified B-25 bombers took off the
aircraft carrier, USS Hornet.
• The B-25 was a medium bomber and not designed
for carrier use. But they made it work.
• The planes bombed several cities, including Tokyo.
• They encountered light resistance from anti-
aircraft fire or fighters… the Japanese never
thought the U.S. could strike the home islands at
that point.
• The planes crash landed in China and the crews
were helped by Chinese nationalists and civilians.

21. • Results
• Little strategic value since 16 planes carrying
just 2,000 pounds of bombs each can’t do that
much damage. But that wasn’t the point.
• Huge morale boost to the U.S. that we
bombed Tokyo so soon after Pearl Harbor.
• Confused the Japanese and compelled them to
recall a few fighter units.
• In trying to locate the bomber crews in China,
the Japanese slaughtered some 250,000
Chinese civilians in reprisal raids.

25. The turning point in the way was the Battle of Midway
• June 4-7, 1942.
• The Japanese wanted to capture Midway, which was
the last significant holdout in the Pacific except for
Hawaii. The idea was that it would expose Hawaii for
invasion or compel the U.S. to negotiate a peace treaty.
• The Japanese also wanted to lure the remaining
American carriers so they could be destroyed. The
Japanese committed 150 ships to the effort.
• They thought we only had two full carriers left since
the Lexington had been sunk at Coral Sea and they
thought the Yorktown had also been sunk.

26. • The U.S. advantage was that we had broken the
Japanese code and knew what they were up to.
• The U.S. was the one doing surprising.
• Without going into detail, the Japanese made several
critical mistakes. The carriers Enterprise, Yorktown,
and Hornet succeeded in sinking all four Japanese
carriers and downed 228 planes. 3,057 were killed.
• The U.S. lost one carrier (the Yorktown) and planes.
307 were killed.
• It was the first naval battle in history in which the
opposing ships never came within sight of each other.

27. • Midway was a crippling defeat for the Japanese that
broke its naval supremacy in the Pacific.
• Not only did it lose four extremely valuable carriers,
but it lost many skilled, experienced pilots.
• The carriers themselves could not be easily replaced
by the Japanese. In fact, they weren’t replaced until
1945. In that same time, the U.S. launched 24 fleet
and light carriers and even more escort carriers.
• The American victory allowed the U.S. to take the
offensive in the Pacific and start pushing back the
Japanese.

30. Midway
Atoll

40. The United States goes on a island hopping campaign
across the Pacific.
• Guadalcanal
• Leyte Gulf
• The Philippines are retaken.
• Iwo Jima
• Okinawa
• I won’t go into detail about these battles, since you’ve
already watched Hell in the Pacific, but it was terrible,
brutal fighting with many atrocities committed. The
Japanese soldiers, following the Bushido code, were
unwilling to surrender. As a result, the American
soldiers rarely gave quarter.

41. A side note on propaganda
• Propaganda wasn’t just a Soviet or Nazi thing.

42. • The U.S. had it too.

44. My favorite

60. In the Atlantic, U-boats were a problem.
• U-boats were German submarines and they were adept
at sinking allied shipping.

62. • They formed wolfpacks and hunted the ships.
• By 1943, however, new Allied anti-submarine methods
significantly reduced the damage inflicted by the U-
boats as well as significantly increased the mortality
rate of U-boat crews.
• Depth charges, mortars, new radar methods,
aircraft, and the convoy system all played a role.

64. • It also helped when the British captured the devilish
German Enigma machine allowing them to break the
German ciphers.
• And yes, it was the
British who got it,
not the Americans,
despite what the
movie U-571
portrays.

65. Back in Europe, the Allies invaded Sicily and then Italy in
July and September of 1943, respectively.
• Italy formally surrendered on 9/8/43, but Germany
didn’t and those troops continued to fight. Italy was
not completely taken until April, 1945.
• Italy surrendered after Mussolini was overthrown. He
was later killed in April, 1945, and his body and that of
his mistress were hung upside-down on meat hooks
and displayed to the crowds.

66. In good times.
And bad.

67. D-Day
• June 6, 1944. You should know this date too.
• The Allies finally open up a western front by invading
France in Operation Overlord.
• The plan was to drop paratroopers behind the German
lines the day before to soften up defenses.
• The main invasion force would come in the morning on
the beaches of Normandy.
• The invasion fleet consisted of 6,938 vessels from 8
different navies. This included 1,213 warships and
4,125 landing craft and other support ships.
• The Germans had lost of time to prepare for an
invasion.

69. • They actually thought the invasion would come at
Pas de Calais (the closest point of France to Britain).
• This was aided by cunning deception on the parts
of the Allies who stationed a phantom army
opposite Pas de Calais, complete with inflatable
tanks, false radio traffic, and George Patton in
command (Patton wasn’t happy about it).

74.  Saving Private Ryan
 Caution: This is bloody and violent
and you may hear some bad
language in the background, but,
according to the people that were
there, this is the most realistic
depiction of the Battle of Normandy.

75. The Holocaust
• As we know, the Nazis were virulently anti-Semitic.
But the concentration camps didn’t happen overnight.
There was a lead up to them.
• They started with rollbacks of rights. Initially, they
wanted to compel Jews to emigrate. Many did, and
many, many more tried.
• During Kristallnacht, the night of Nov. 9, 1938, mobs,
led by the Nazis, destroyed Jewish businesses.
• 91 died, 7500 businesses and 1000 synagogues
were destroyed. Another 30,000 Jews were
arrested.

77. • By 1939, the Nazis started implementing the Final
Solution to the “Jewish problem.”
• Jews were arrested, rounded up, and confined to
ghettos.

78. • By 1941, the killings began.
• They first used firing
squads. Men would be
forced to dig a pit and
then would be shot so
they’d tumble into them.
• There were special death
squads. Some were
soldiers, others were
natives of the region.
• This process began to be
frowned upon only
because of the ammo
cost and the fact that it
had negative
psychological effects on
the executioners.

79. • Then, true to German
form, they
industrialized the
process.
• Gas was much more
efficient.
• The first efforts were
with auto-exhaust.
Then they used a
cyanide gas called
Zyklon B.

80. • Men, women, and children would be separated upon
entering the camp where they’d be separated by
doctors.
• The healthy were sent to the labor side, where
they’d be worked to death or until they were too sick
to work.
• The rest would be sent directly to the gas chambers.
• The condemned would be told to strip for a shower.
Once they got into the room with the false
showerheads, it would be sealed and the gas would
start.
• Clothes and other valuables would be taken by the
state. Even gold teeth were extracted so that the
gold could be melted down.

81. • The bodies would then be burned in crematorium
furnaces.
• The Nazis set up multiple concentration camps. Jews
from all the conquered territories were transferred
there.

89. • They also committed disgusting medical experiments.

95. Germany continued to resist the Allies advances.
• They made one last-ditch effort with the Battle of the
Bulge.
• Being squeezed by the Americans, British, and French
on the west and the Soviets on the east, though, was
too much.
• Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker and
Germany formally surrendered on May 8, 1945.

96. Hitler takes the easy way out
• In his underground headquarters, Hitler prepared for the
end.
• April 29, 1945:
• Marries Eva Braun
• Writes out his address to the German people
• Blames the Jews and his Generals for losing the war
• April 30, 1945
• Hitler commits suicide, his wife swallows poison
• “Oh love of my life, Happy Honeymoon, dear. Here’s your
cyanide capsule”
• As ordered, Hitler’s soldiers carried their bodies outside,
soaked them with gasoline, and burned them
• May 8th, 1945
• Allies accept the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich
• Celebrate V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)
• The War in Europe was over

97. The war continued in the Pacific.
• Brutal fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa convince
President Truman to use the new atomic weapons.

98. The Atomic Bomb
 Americans knew that the Japanese would
never surrender.
 Truman decided to use the Atomic Bomb
to end the war instead of sacrificing
innumerable American lives.
 A-Bomb was well kept secret
 First tested on July 16, 1945 in
Alamogordo, NM
 Known as the Manhattan Project- led by J.
Robert Oppenheimer

99.  August 6, 1945
• The Enola Gay released the atomic bomb,
nicknamed “Little Boy” over Hiroshima.
• Japan still hesitated to surrender
• 3 days later, “The Fat Man” was dropped on
Nagasaki
• Estimated 200,000 died of injuries or radiation
poisoning by the end of the year
• Japanese surrendered on September 2nd