The U.S. and the Second World War
The United States was involved in two major areas of conflict, the struggle in Europe and the battle in the Pacific Theater. Opting to first prevent the complete takeover of Europe, the United States hoped that after Germany was defeated, the Allies would concentrate on the Japanese threat. From bases in England and Africa, the Allied forces hammered at the Italian and German lines. Island hopping proved to be the only way the United States could retake the Pacific from the Japanese.
Eisenhower, General; MacArthur, General: Eisenhower led the D-Day invasion with great success, and was highly respected by his peers in the armed forces. General MacArthur was credited for the great successes that the Americans had in the Pacific wars. He was the strategist behind the Pacific Wars.
Marshall, George Catlett: An American military commander who was Army Chief of Staff during World War II. He became Secretary of State for President Truman, and as such played an important role in aiding the postwar economic recovery of Europe with the Marshall Plan, which provided assistance to war-torn Western Europe.
Operation Torch: Undertaken in November 1942, it employed an allied army of more than 100,000 troops. Led by General Eisenhower, the troops landed in Morocco and Algeria and pressed eastward to entrap the German forces being pushed by British forces in Libya. Surrounded, the Germans surrendered in May 1943.
Invasion of Sicily: Stalin pleaded for a second front in Russia, but Churchill objected and Roosevelt agreed for a plan to invade Sicily in the summer on 1943. In roughly a month, allied forces seized control of Sicily. Italian military leaders surrendered to the allied forces on September 8 1943.
Battle of Midway: In 1942, the Japanese were determined to wipe out any remaining ships of the decimated American fleet when they sailed toward Midway. But, Japanese codes were decoded and Admiral Nimitz knew the exact plans and location of the Japanese ships. In a clever move, he ordered dive-bombers to destroy the ships.
Genocide, "Final solution": Hitler persecuted Jews in Germany and sought to rid Germany of them. During WWII, he set up many concentration camps, where Jews were methodically executed by means of poisonous gas or other forms. By the end, 6 million perished.
second front: The plan that was going to be used to aid the Soviet Union in fighting the Germans. Roosevelt was convinced by Churchill to delay the second front from 1942 to a later date, when the allies were better equipped to fight, and have forces in Africa to protect English colonies since Germany was attacking Africa.
D-Day, June 6, 1944: In the first 24 hours, 150,000 allied troops landed on the beach of Normandy. An additional million waded ashore in the following weeks, and allies reached inland in July, arriving in Paris by August. By summer’s end British secured Belgium and the Americans recovered France and Luxembourg.
Stalingrad: The site of one of the bloodiest battles during WWII. Thousands of soldiers died at the hands of German and Russian armies during the battle of Stalingrad.. The Russians were victorious at the battle, and thus were able to launch a counter-offensive against Germany and drive the Nazis from Russia.
Churchill, Winston: British Prime Minister during WWII, member of the Big Three. The Big Three was compromised of Stalin, FDR and him and were the major parties involved in allied conferences. When Germany first began attacking Britain, he asked for assistance from the U.S. in the form of equipment and arms.
Casablanca Conference, 1943: In the middle of the North African campaign, Roosevelt and Churchill met at Casablanca and resolved to attack Italy before invading France. They also vowed to pursue the war until the unconditional surrender of the Axis power, and tried to reduce Soviet mistrust of the west.
Cairo Conference, 1943: FDR met with Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek, the head of the Chinese government. FDR promised Chiang that Manchuria and Taiwan would be returned to China and that Korea would be free with the hope that Chiang would fight until Japan surrendered unconditionally.
Teheran Conference, 1943: FDR met with Stalin and Churchill and set the date for the invasion of France for May or June 1944, to coincide with the Russian offensive from the east. They agreed to divide Germany into occupation zones, to impose reparations on the Reich, and Stalin promised to fight Japan after Hitler’s defeat.
"unconditional surrender": Term used by the allied powers to describe what kind of surrender they wanted from Japan-one without negotiations. After the A-bomb fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan surrendered, but with the explosion of the A-bomb, the Cold War Era had just begun.
Okinawa: The island of Okinawa was secured by the Americans after the battle of Iwo Jima. Okinawa was 350 miles from Japan and a key area for staging the invasion of Japan by the American troops. The assault forces suffered nearly fifty thousand casualties in the battle before being able to subdue Japanese resistance.
Battle of the Bulge: As the allies prepared for an attack on Germany after penetrating up to Germany’s border, Hitler threw the last of his reserves to fight against the allied troops in December of 1944. On Dec. 25, the allies stopped the last German counter-attack and within a month, drove the Nazis back to Rhine.
V-E day: As Russia pushed the Germans back into Germany and reached the suburbs of Berlin, the new German government surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1943, Americans celebrated this Victory in Europe day with ticker tape parades and dancing in the streets. Afterward, U.S. turned its full attention to the War in the Pacific
Manhattan Project: Because Nazi scientists were seeking to use atomic physics in a harmful manner, in 1941 FDR launched a secret program to produce an A-bomb before the Germans. In 1943 and 1944, the Manhattan Engineering district worked to stockpile U-235 and in 1945 attempted to use it in a bomb.
Oppenheimer, J. Robert: The scientific director of the Manhattan project, which the U.S. had undertaken to build the atomic bomb before Germany, and did was by relying on Nazi scientists. Oppenheimer was later employed by Harry Truman to work on building a more destructive weapon known as the Hydrogen bomb.
Atomic bomb: The atomic bomb was successfully built in 1944 and was employed in bombing the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb unleashed terrible fury on the two cities, killing hundreds of thousands of people through the incinerating heat and radiation poisoning. There was also debate on whether such a potent and powerful weapon should have been unleashed before proper tests were conducted on the long-term effects.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki: The 1st A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. in 1945 after Japan refused unconditional surrender. Some 80,000 people died immediately and 1000s more died of radiation poisoning in later years. The next day a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing, which obliterated the city.
