Heroes in CombatMinority Groups

• Tuskegee Airmen• 92nd Infantry

Division• 141st Regiment of

the 36th Division• 100th Battalion• 442nd Regimental

Combat Team• Navajo Code

Talkers

http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airrole.htm

http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm

http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/story.asp?S=1127695

http://www.goforbroke.org/history/history_historical_veterans_442nd.asp

http://bingaman.senate.gov/features/codetalkers/

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2179393nView Tuskegee Airmen Story at link above

Tehran Conference

• Meeting between Churchill, FDR, and Stalin

• Discussed the invasion of Western Europe for the Spring of 1944 to be timed with the Soviet offensive

Invasion of Normandy

• Equipment and American troops flood southern England in preparation of the Invasion of Normandy

• Operation Overlord – Code Name

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-100.jpg

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-99.jpg

www.history.com

D-Day

• 5 Beach heads were designated for invasion– Sword - British– Gold - British– Juno - Canada– Omaha – U.S.– Utah – U.S.

http://www.military.com/ContentFiles/dday_maps_3c.htm

http://www.wtj.com/articles/normandy/index_map_sealand.htm

http://www.wtj.com/articles/normandy/

D-Day

• Eisenhower the Supreme Commander• June 5,1944 day set to launch invasion • Bad weather prevents launch• Last possible day to go and coincide with the

tides is June 6, weather still not great but the launch is ordered.

• Germans know an invasion is imminent but do not know where. They are surprised.

• Germans believed invasion would happen in Calais, across the Strait of Dover.

D-Day

• The largest land-sea-air operation in army history

• Mulberry Harbor – enormous concrete ports towed across channel (see map 575)

• 1,200 fighting ships• 4,126 landing craft• 804 transport ships• 10,000 planes• 132,500 soldiers• 23,000 airborne troops• 10,000 American Paratroopers dropped into

France

http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blydday12.htm

Patton’s Third Army

• Patton a tank commander in Africa, Italy, and France

• Old Blood and Guts• Always in trouble with his

superiors• Loses command until the

invasion of France where his Third Army steams over the German defenses at an unheard of pace

• German commanders admired and feared him

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-101.jpg

http://www.generalpatton.com/gallery.html

http://www.generalpatton.com/gallery.html

Liberation of Paris

• Liberation of Paris by August 1944

• Paris was to be burned by Hitler’s orders but they order was not carried out

• Allies rush to liberate France, Belgium, and Luxembourg by September 1944

http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-104.jpg

Battle of the Bulge

• Ardennes Offensive launched Dec. 1944

• Germans launch the last major German offensive of the war

• Hitler’s last ditch attempt to win the war

• Germans mass large force and throw everything they have at the Allied lines in the Ardennes

• American troops, inexperienced and overstrained, hold the line although a dangerous bulge occurs

• The line holds, but the Allies suffer heavy losses, 19,000 Americans killedhttp://www.history.army.mil/reference/bulge/images.htm

View slide show @http://home.att.net/~j.lepse/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html

Battle of the Bulge

• Hitler’s Last Ditch Attempt– Nazi’s best commanders– Coincides with the weather– Selected the weak spot in the line– Created confusion with English speaking Nazi soldiers in

U.S. uniforms• Real Significance

– Caused war to be 6 months shorter• Germans used most of reserves (lost 100,000 troops killed,

wounded, captured, plus 600 tanks and guns, and 1600 planes)– Soviet Union attacks at same time in the Eastern Front

and they move into Germany sooner than expected. Nazis had pulled troops from Eastern Front to man the attack. Soviets will occupy most of Eastern Europe.

Unconditional Surrender

• April 25, 1945 – Soviet troops move into Berlin

• Hitler marries his girlfriend, Eva Braun• Hitler and Eva commit suicide and Hitler

orders their remains burned• V-E Day – Victory in Europe Day

– May 8th, 1945– Eisenhower accepts Germany’s Unconditional

Surrender

Nuremberg Trials

• 24 Nazi leaders were put on trial for numerous crimes– Crimes against humanity– Crimes against peace– War Crimes

• 12 of the 24 were sentenced to death– Others sent to prison

• Established the idea that individuals are responsible for their own actions, even in times of war

Roosevelt Dies

• April 12, 1945 FDR dies of a stroke at his home in Warm Springs, Georgia

• Harry S. Truman, FDR’s Vice – President becomes the nation’s 33rd president

Funeral Procession for Roosevelthttp://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/vofdrdeath.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Truman