World War II s1

World War II The Allied Victory 1943 - 45

Beating the Nazis The battle of ______proved to be the turning point of the war between Russia and Germany. Russia’s cold ______and superior ______stalled the German advance and allowed them to surround and capture many of the invaders, who began their long retreat back to Germany.

Victory in Africa & Italy Lacking men and supplies, Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps were finally driven out of Africa by the Allies. The decisive battle was led by British General Montgomery at ______.

The Allies then crossed the Mediterranean and invaded ______. Rome was ______in 1944 and the Italians switched sides against the Nazis. Fleeing for his life, ______was caught and killed by Italians partisans.

Crushing Nazi Germany The US, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union were the main Allied forces and formed the ______. All three nations agreed to fight until Germany and Japan surrendered ______.

The Allied liberation of Europe began with the invasion of ______on June 6th 1944. D-Day was the greatest amphibious landing in history, and forced Hitler to fight a ______war.

Shortly after D-Day the Americans liberated ______, which had suffered four years of Nazi oppression. After freeing France, the Allies encountered fierce Nazi resistance on the way to ______.

The US air force ______German cities by day while the British bombed them by night. The constant bombing crippled German war ______, and broke the Germans’ will to fight.

1 After their victory at Stalingrad, the Russians went on the ______and slowly advanced over the next two years. In the spring of 1945 Soviet troops reached ______from the east as American troops arrived from the west.

Hitler and his wife committed ______in their Berlin bunker as the Allies closed in. On May 8th, 1945, Germany surrendered, and the European war was over.

Crushing Japan After the battle of ______the US took the offensive against Japan. US forces waged an “______” campaign with the goal of recapturing Japanese-held islands that would serve as stepping stones to the Japanese mainland.

______bases were built on captured islands from which US bombers could hit Japan. Territory was gained after bloody battles such as Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, Tarawa ______, and Okinawa.

To end the war, the US dropped atomic bombs on ______and ______. Japan surrendered soon after and WWII was over.

World War II resulted in a total death toll of approximately ______, the most deaths in the history of warfare.