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President Roosevelt Declares War
Just after Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt met at the White House to develop a joint war policy. The Allies would weaken Germany on two fronts before dealing a deathblow. At first, Roosevelt was torn, but ultimately he agreed. -
Government Propoganda
On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued an executive order calling for the internment of Japanese Americans because they were considered a threat to the country. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Luftwaffe went on nightly bombing raids that set much of the city ablaze and reduced the rest to rubble. The situation looked desperate. Nonetheless, Stalin had already told his commanders to defend the city named after him to the death. -
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The Battle of El Alamein
The roar of about 1,000 British guns took the Axis soldiers totally by surprise. They fought back fiercely and held their ground for several days. By November 4, however, Rommel’s army had been beaten. He and his forces fell back. -
Soviets Win
Some 90,000 frostbitten, half-starved German troops surrenderedto the Soviets. These pitiful survivors were all that remained of an army of 330,000. Stalingrad’s defense had cost the Soviets over one million soldiers. The city was 99 percent destroyed. However, the Germans were now on the defensive.with the Soviets pushing them steadily westward. -
Invasion of Italy
Roosevelt and Churchill decided to attack Italy first. On July 10, 1943, Allied forces landed on Sicily and captured it from Italian and German troops about a month later. The conquest of Sicily toppled Mussolini from power. -
D-Day
At dawn on that day, British, American, French, and Canadiantroops fought their way onto a 60-mile stretch of beach inNormandy. The Germans had dug in with machine guns, rocket launchers, and cannons. They sheltered behind concrete walls three feet thick. Not surprisingly, the Allies took heavy casualties. Among theAmerican forces alone, more than 2,700 men died on the beaches that day. -
Battle of the Bugle
On December 16, German tanks broke through weakAmerican defenses along a 75-mile front in the Ardennes. Thepush into Allied lines gave the campaign its name—the Battleof the Bulge. Although caught off guard, the Allies eventuallypushed the Germans back. -
The Atomic Bomb
President Truman then warned the Japanese.He told them that unless they surrendered,they could expect a “rain of ruin from the air.”The Japanese did not reply. So, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a Japanese city of nearly 350,000 people. Between 70,000 and 80,000 people died in the attack.
