The End of the War

The Battle of the Bulge

The Germans launched a counterattack on December 16, 1944 that was supposed to

divide the Allied armies

German troops pushed the Allied line back, but were unable to break through

By Christmas the Allies had stopped the German advance and began pushing them

back

The Germans lost 100,000 men and much of the Luftwaffe

The Yalta Conference

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met at Yalta from February 4-11, 1945 to discuss their plans for after the war

They agreed to:- Russian participation in the Pacific War- Division of Germany into occupation zones- Denazification of Germany, including war crimes trials- Free elections in Europe

The Surrender of Germany

Allied troops were deep within Germany

by April 1945

The Soviets captured Berlin on April 30, the same day that Hitler committed suicide

Germany surrendered unconditionally on

May 7, 1945

The Potsdam ConferenceHeld from July 17-August 2, 1945 between Stalin, the new British PM Clement Attlee,

and the new American president Harry Truman

Most of the plans made at Yalta were confirmed

Germany’s borders were changed, and it was agreed that the German economy be

changed to prevent rearmament

Poland was placed under the control of a Soviet puppet government

The Potsdam Declaration:

- Japan was to be occupied, and its conquests taken away- Japan was to be disarmed- Japan would be made into a democracy- Japan’s industries were not allowed to build military products

Developing the Atomic Bomb

The British were the first to work on it, but the Americans made much quicker

progress

The project was code named the Manhattan Project

On July 16, 1945 the first test was carried out (code named the Trinity

Test)

America decided to drop the bomb on Japan both to end the war quickly and

to intimidate Russia

Hiroshima

Hiroshima was selected as the first target

On August 6, 1945 Hiroshima became the first city to be attacked with a nuclear weapon

70,000-80,000 people died from the blast, and thousands more

have died in the years since from illnesses related to the bomb

Nagasaki

Japan did not surrender immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima

Russia entered the war as planned on August 9, 1945

The decision was made to drop a bomb on Nagasaki

to force Japanese surrender and to prevent the

Russians from conquering too much territory

40,000-75,000 people died from the blast

The Surrender of Japan

America planned more bombings in

case Japan still refused to surrender

On August 15, 1945 the Emperor made a radio broadcast telling his people that Japan had surrendered

Japan signed formal surrender

documents on September 2