GDWW - World War II Lesson

World War II

Major Events of World War II

Many battles were fought between the Allied nations and the Axis powers from 1939 to 1945. World War II was truly a world war, with the entire Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans as battlefields, and combat taking place on nearly every continent. This changed the way the whole world looked at war. Review the following details of four major World War II events. Additionally, view this chart on major World War II conferences Links to an external site..

Click on the dropdown arrows in the activity below to learn more about major events during World War II.

Adolf Hitler was in Berlin during the battle and, before it ended, he and many of his followers committed suicide. The city's defenders surrendered on May 2, but fighting continued outside the city until the war ended on May 8. Much of the continued fighting was due to the Germans trying to move westward so they could surrender to the Americans or British instead of to the Soviets.

Atom Bomb

Allied leaders planning the war against Japan knew that once they had defeated the Japanese Navy in the Pacific Ocean they would still have to invade Japan itself to end the war. They knew Japan still had a huge army that would defend every inch of the homeland, and both sides could possibly lose millions of people in the process. President Truman decided there was only one way to avoid an invasion of Japan and still defeat them. He would use a brand new weapon that no one had ever seen before, the atomic bomb. The American government had developed two atomic bombs in a secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The bombs were dropped on Japan in early August 1945. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese surrendered, and World War II was finally over. The project's code name was "The Manhattan Project."

The implications of developing and using atomic bombs in World War II were enormous. From a military standpoint, it was clear that, not only did the United States have a powerful weapon that no other country had, but the American government was not afraid to use it. The Soviet Union quickly began developing an atomic bomb of its own, an act that helped begin the Cold War. Also, nuclear power would soon be used to power aircraft carriers and submarines. Scientifically and economically, the atomic bomb led to nuclear power for civilian use, such as generating electricity for homes and businesses. Nuclear power is also used in technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) scans, used by physicians to study the workings of the human body, including brain functions.

 

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