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Pearl Harbor
Trouble between Japan and the US had been brewing for years and Japan resented any threat to their authority in the Pacific region. President Roosevelt then placed an embargo on Japan's important naval and aviation supplies and the Japanese attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Japanese aircrafts were launched from six aircraft carriers. Four battleships and two destroyers were sunk, and eleven ships were damaged. Ultimately, thousands were killed and injured. -
Doolittle Raid
After Pearl Harbor, the US planned a night attack for Tokyo. The planes were detected early, so Colonel James Doolittle led the bombers and bombed Tokyo during the day. Throughout this attack, fifty Japanese civilians were killed, and 100 buildings were damaged. Pilots flew to China and crash landed and there was minimal military gain, but it boosted the United States' morale. -
Battle of Coral Sea
Japan moved to take New Guinea, so the US sent two aircraft carriers to fight. On May 7-8, the US fought, but the ships never actually saw each other, so planes engaged in the battle. The battle was a draw, but Japan called off their attack of New Guinea, which shifted the momentum to the US for the first time. -
Battle of Midway
Midway was an American naval base in the Central Pacific vital to the defense of Hawaii. Losing Midway would force American defenses back to the California Coast. Admiral Chester Nimitz knew the Japanese plans for Midway and concentrated his forces there. The attack began on June 4, 1942. The US defeated Japan and sank four aircraft carriers. It was the turning point of the war in the Pacific. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This was the turning point of the war in Europe. In November, the Soviets gathered and made a counter attack and trapped the German army inside of Stalingrad. Eventually, the Germans began to run out of food and suffered the conditions of the cold, harsh winter. The Nazis retreated to Germany and surrendered on February 2, 1943 in this brutal battle. It ended any realistic plans for Hitler dominating Europe. -
D-Day
The Allied invasion of Northern Europe opened up a second front that forced Hitler to send forces west. The Allied forces began the invasion by landing a huge army at Normandy Beach in France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded "Operation Overlord" in which the Allies landed at five beaches in Normandy with the code names of: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. -
Liberation of Paris
After D-Day, Germany faced a hopeless two-front war. Soviets pushed the Germans west and the Allied Armies pushed them east. The Allies then liberated Paris and Hitler ordered his generals to destroy the "city of lights", but they disobeyed him. The mood became hopeless in Germany and Rommel and other leading generals plotted to overthrow Hitler. -
Battle of the Bulge
This was Hitler's counter attack where he almost succeeded. The Germans caught the Allies by surprise, created a bulge in the American line, and captured several key towns. The Americans held the line despite frost-bite and brutal german assaults in Bastongne. Allied bombers attacked and steadily pushed the Germans out of France. The Battle of the Bulge was a desperate attempt to drive a wedge between British and American Forces. -
Hiroshima
Advances in technology, as well as troops, helped to end WWII. The atomic bomb was invented during the Manhatten Project and Truman was told that an invasion of Japan would cost the US one million lives, so he decided to use it on Japan. US pilots dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima (Little Boy) and it exploded at 9:14 a.m. Within two minutes, 60,000 of Hiroshima's 344,000 residents were killed. -
Nagasaki
Japan debated whether or not to surrender. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria. Then the US dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing an additional 35,000 residents (Fat Man). Truman enforced all of this in hopes of saving American lives.
