History - Pacific Theater and End of WW2 Quiz

Pearl Harbor

• December 7, 1941

• Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor

• Naval base for american ships and large oil reserves

• Japanese came in three waves

• Surprise attack, started 6 am Sunday morning, (more prone for maximum damage)

• Seen as worst attack on American soil for 60 years until 9/11

Bataan Death March

• (Apr 9, 1942) - Prisoners in Philippines were forced to march  50 miles from one prison to training area

• Prisoners beaten, starved, forced to sit in hot sun, when asked for water, dead bodies driver over

Battle of Coral Sea

• Japanese and Allies fought in air, no ships (aerial fighting)

• Allies won

Battle of Midway

• Turning Point of the War

• Americans win

Battle of Guadalcanal

• 6 month land/sea battle

• lots of japanese casualties

• nicknamed island of death

Battle of Alamein

• In Egypt, North Africa

• Eisenhower ends Rommel’s Afrika Korps

• Germans defeated by America

Heavy War in Europe

Mussolini overthrown and killed by Italian revolutionists

Battle at Stalingrad

90% of city destroyed

winter was hard on both sides

D-day

June 6, 1944

Allies storm france normandy

Battle of Bulge

• Allies attacked on ground and overhead and defeat Germans even though both sides struggling

• during wintertime - took toll on both sides

• largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States

End is near

• Truman takes over for FDR after death

• Germany collapsed when Berlin fell

• Hitler commits suicide ending German threat

• May 7, 1945 - Germany surrenders to Eisenhower

• May 8 - Allies celebrate VE day (Victory in Europe Day)

Battle of Iwo Jima

• Allies fired ships, invaded on land

• Allies win

• Huge island to gain because it was one step closer to Japan

Battle of Okinawa

• Same result as Iwo Jima, but more American casualties

• Ships damaged by Japanese Kamikaze fighters (suicide bombers)

• Japan surrenders with heavy losses leaving Americans a gateway into Japan

Potsdam, Germany

meeting place of USA, USSR, and Britain

word of atomic bomb

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

major bombing sites killing many japanese

VJ Day

Aug 15, 1945 - Victory in Japan Day

Results of WW2

• Deaths - 70 million total

  • USSR lost most with about 26 million

• Cost - $1 trillion American dollars

• USA now considered as a superpower

• Germany split into East and West Germany w/ control divided by USSR, USA, and Britain, (creation of Berlin Wall)

• Eastern Bloc created (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)