Battles of WWII
Mildred Lopez Salazar
The Pacific Front
The Bataan Death March
After the U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942 -- in which Douglas MacArthur was Commander of the US armed forces in the Far East -- on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers walked this trail in intense heat and were treated harshly by the Japanese guards. Thousands died in what became known as the Bataan Death March.
The "Two-Pronged Attack" Stategy
The Battle of Midway
Island Hopping
The Battle of Iwo Jima
Beginning on February 1945, US marine divisions landed on the island of Iwo Jima, which had about 23,000 Japanese army and troops protecting it. After about a month of fighting the US troops were able to defeat the Japanese in a hard terrain as the Japanese were in caves, dugouts, tunnels, and underground installations. The winning of Iwo Jima was essential to the fight against Japan as the island would provide the perfect place for bombers to attack Japan, and would help push Japan even further inland.
The Battle of Okinawa
As part of the effort to invade Japan by the Allied forces, troops invaded Okinawa on April1, 1945, and encounter Japanese resistance shortly after they landed. Intense gunfire and shelling gave the battle its nickname "The Typhoon of Steel." On July 21, 1945 after 82 days of fighting Okinawa falls to the allied powers, less than two months later Hiroshima, and Nagasaki are bombed with the atomic bomb and Japan surrenders.
The Flying Tigers
The European/African Front
Closing in on Hitler from Three sides Strategy
The Battle of the Bulge
The Navajo Code Talkers
The Tuskegee Airmen
The Invasion of Normandy (D-Day)
The drive to liberate France from the Axis powers in what was the largest invasion by sea in history on June 6, 1944 was achieved by British, Canadian and US forces under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower who secured several beachheads on the Normandy coast some which were mobilized by Lieutenant Omar Bradley to Utah beach and Omaha beach. After this bloody attack the Allied forces succeeded and by the end of August Paris was liberated. By the end of September the Allied troops crossed the German border and were headed towards Berlin.