Involvement and participation of any two countries of the Americas in the Second World War

• • Thousands killed or captured Hong Kong 1941

    • Hong kong leaders underestimated japanese army and reassured neighboring nations falsely

    • The japanese were very brutal

• North Africa Campaign

  • Fascist Italy declared war on Britain and France

  • U.S. joins (Operation Torch)

  • Axis powers doesn't want the Allied powers to have access to the oil supply in the Middle East

  • It resulted from an uneasy compromise between the Western Allies, and was intended to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union

• Italian Campaign

  • Overview- beach landings as well as battles on land. Starting in Sicily and stretches to the mainland toward germany. Battles of Anzio, Salerno, and Monte Casino are the most famous.

  • Operation Avalanche-The President of the United States FDR and Winston Churchill decided to attack sicily instead of africa

  • they chose Salerno as the main attack due to good sea approaches

  • Wanted to attack Anzio as it was in range of Allied air attack and the best site in striking distance.

  • Monte Cassino- Allies bomb the site taking it down because they thought it was a german observation post even though no german soldiers are harmed but 115 refugees are killed

order of ‘us battle in europe

• Europe: North Africa> Sicily>Italy>France>Battle of Bulge> Germany

order of us battle in pacific

• Pacific: Midway>Guadalcanal>Saipan>Philippines>Iwo Jima>Okinawa

• Guadalcanal

  • The turning point of the US and Japan- US begins their offensive push

  • Planned to first take Guadalcanal Island because: it was the farthest reach of the Japanese expansion, they used it to greatly disrupt communication and supply between Australia, New Zealand, and the US, and could be used for air superiority during the push against Japan

  • In a few days, Guadalcanal was captured, but the rest of the months was defending against Japanese counterattacks because they wouldn’t give up

• Pearl Harbor / Midway

  • The attack on pearl harbor was an attempt at japan trying to weaken the u.s by destroying their military power via destruction of american battleships, which led to declaration of war.

  • The battle of midway was a climatic battle between aircraft carriers in midway island, which was a turning point in the pacific theater of war for the u.s.

• Saipan

  • Why we wanted Saipan: Because it was near Japan and it had a very valuable airstrip that would allow the US to have bombers in the proximity of Japan

  • The Japanese general ordered a Banzai Charge were soldiers gave their last effort and killed American soldiers- they didn't care if they died and fought anyway they could - America still won

• Iwo Jima

  • The only time US casualties were more than Japanese casualties, deaths were not higher though.

  • Very controversial on why they even took the island in the first place as it was not used and there were other islands that would be seen as less costly to take.

• Okinawa

  • Final battle before US would invade the Japanese mainland had the atomic bomb not been dropped.

  • Lasted 3 months before the fighting finally stopped.

  • Was used as an example for President Truman of what would happen if the US chose to invade the mainland. This was what caused Truman to drop the nuclear bomb.

• Instrumental in the Battle of the Atlantic (Corvettes)  most important battle / biggest Canadian contribution)

  • Wolf packs: the German U-boat strategy used against the allies; it was very effective

  • Corvettes: the small, cheap, and quickly produced boats that Canada made for the battle

  • Longest continuous battle of WW2

• Battle of the Scheldt

  • Why? Because the allies needed supplies sent further into Europe and needed a way to access the seized port of Antwerp

  • Considered one of the hardest battles fought because of the swampy terrain around the river

• D-DAY

  • After the Dieppe Raid, The Allies Prepare for D-Day

  • The Dieppe Raid was meant to be a good foothold in the beginning

  • Deception plans

  • The Allies conducted several minor operations designed to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the Allied landings

  • The D-Day Landing Beaches Juno Beach, Omaha Beach, Utah Beach

• Sicily Campaign

  • The Battle of Sicily was a major campaign of World War ll where the Allied forces invaded Sicily and took it from the Axis powers. It began with an airborne campaign and was followed by a land campaign. Mussolini was forced to step down leading to a mass amount of Nazi German soldiers being sent to Southern Europe.

  • The assaults by the Allied powers were to be supported by naval gunfire, strategic bombing, interdiction (forbidding or prohibiting certain commodities), and close air attacks by the two air forces. This operation requires strategic combinations of naval, land, and air forces. Axis powers used grenades and tanks primarily

  • Deception operations (Operation Mincemeat): Allied forces used deception as a key strategy to their success. Operation Mincemeat was used to distract the Axis forces and send them to Greece weakening their troops in Sicily. A british corpse was dressed and disguised as a British Marines Officer carrying a briefcase containing fake legal documents stating that “Operation Husky” has to be help in Greece. This sent many German and Italian troops to Greece and overall weakening their combat strength in Sicily.

  • Allies ultimately were successful and the axis powers surrendered and left their forces before the allies could fight the last battle.

  • Seaborne landings 

    •  Allies were able to advance north because of the limited forces on the shores because of Operation Mincemeat and the disputes between Italy and Germany during their attempt at counterattack

  • Land attacks

    • After the fall of italian leader Mussolini - italian forces removed themselves and attempted to align with the allies weakening the Axis troops allowing the allies to move further north in Sicily

• 1942 Dieppe Raid is a disastrous cross-channel invasion of France

  • Allies planned to draw the German Air Force away from the Russian front, the Dieppe raid was to test the Allies’ abilities to mount amphibious attacks on the Germans

  • It failed 

  • They learned that the Allied Forces needed to have more naval artillery support, dominance over the skies, and heavier firepower. They also needed better intelligence reports of battle ground conditions, better communication between onshore and offshore military, and more specialized landing crafts and tanks