Chapter 8, Lesson 3 The World at War

Mister Julian’s 5th Grade Class

Essential Question



What were the major battles that were the turning points in World War II?

 Normandy, France  Iwo Jima, Japan  Hiroshima, Japan

Places

 Chester Nimitz  Dwight D. Eisenhower  George S. Patton  Douglas MacArthur  Harry S. Truman  Anne Frank

People

 Battle of Midway  Battle of Stalingrad  Battle of the Bulge  Concentration Camps  Holocaust

Vocabulary

American Soldiers

 More than 16 million Americans served in the military during World War II  Thanks to the Navajo language our codes were never broken.

Major Turning Points

 The Battle of Midway was the turning point in the war against Japan.  Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander of the Pacific, was informed from code breakers that an attack would happen at Midway.  After the battle Japan’s navy was no longer strong enough to take over new lands.

Major Turning Points

 Another turning point came when the Soviet army stopped the German army from advancing at the Battle of Stalingrad .

 The German army, for the first time, had to retreat.

Victory in Europe

 By the Spring of 1944, the Soviet army had pushed the Germans out of the Soviet Union.

 The Allies had defeated the Axis forces in North Africa and Italy.

 American General Normandy, France Dwight D. Eisenhower , commanding Allied forces Europe, chose as the location of the Allied invasion.

Victory in Europe

 On June 6, 1944 the largest invasion in history would begin with 175,000 soldiers and 6,000 ships.

 The battle had heavy Allied loses but they were victorious.  The Allies began liberating towns on their way to Germany.

Victory in Europe

 The German’s final attack happened at the Battle of the Bulge , in Belgium.  Both sides had heavy loses but when General victory.

George S. Patton’s Third Army came into position, the battle ended with an Allied  As the Allies were approaching German from the west, the Soviet Union attacked from the east.

Victory in Europe

 The Soviets captured the capital city of Berlin and reported that Hitler had killed himself.

 On May 8, 1945 Germany surrendered.

 The Allies named May 8 - “VE-Day” for Victory in Europe.

Victory in Asia

 As the war was nearing the end in Europe, the battle for the Pacific still raged on.

 General Douglas MacArthur’s plan to victory was called “island hopping.”  The idea was to slowly capture valuable islands closer and closer to Japan.

Victory in Asia

 In February 1945 the United States Marines landed on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, Japan .

 The battle was the most costly of the entire war.

 Following the victory the Americans landed on the island of Okinawa.  American losses were nearly 50,000 and the Japanese were even higher.

Victory in Asia

 On April 12, 1945, President Roosevelt suddenly died.  Vice President Harry S. Truman sworn into office. was  Truman had the biggest decision any President has ever had to make, use the atomic bomb or not.

Victory in Asia

 If we did not use the atomic bomb, American losses were projected well over 1,000,000 in taking Japan.

 However, if we used the “bomb” it would unleash a force never seen before.

 On August 6, 1945 an Air Force bomber named the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan .

Victory in Asia

 Three days later the U.S. dropped another atomic bomb over Nagasaki, Japan.

 The two bombs killed over 150,000 people.

 Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.

 This was called “VJ-Day” or Victory over Japan.

The Holocaust

 When Adolf Hitler came into power he hated the Jews and blamed them for all of Germany’s problems.

 The Nazi government passed laws that limited the rights of Jews.

 Soon these laws required all Jews to report to work camps.

The Holocaust

 These work camps were actually concentration camps where the people were treated harshly.

 Many of the people were killed when they arrived and others were tortured, starved, and used as slave labor.

 As the allies liberated Europe these camps were discovered to the horror of the troops.

The Holocaust

 The Nazi’s murdered about 6 million Jews and about 6 million non-Jews.

 This period in history is called the Holocaust .

 A Jewish girl named Anne Frank an area of Europe that was taken over by the Germans in 1942. lived in

The Holocaust

 Anne and her family hid from the Germans instead of going to the concentration camps.

 Anne was 13 when she went into hiding.

 In 1944, the Germans found the hiding place and sent her, with her family, to the camps.

 She died just 2 months before the camp was freed by the Allies.

The Cost of War

 World War Two was the bloodiest war in the history of the world.

 Between 40 and 50 million soldiers and civilians died in the conflict.

 The only war where more Americans died was the Civil War.

 The world now had a new threat, the atomic bomb.

 The bomb will change the world forever!

Timeline

 June 1944 - Allied forces began liberating Western Europe  May 1945 - Germany surrenders  August 1945 - After two atomic bombs, Japan surrenders.

Writing Response

 Explain one major turning point in world War II.