Lesson 5: World War II Ends

Lesson Focus

Explore the final years of World War II, as Allied forces turned the tide against the Axis powers. We will examine the key events leading to victory and how the war's conclusion set the stage for the Cold War.

People to Know

Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler

Learning Objectives

• Analyze how key Allied victories in Europe and the Pacific, including the use of atomic bombs, led to the defeat of the Axis powers.
• Explain how postwar political tensions and ideological differences between the U.S. and the Soviet Union resulted in the beginning of the Cold War.

By 1943, the Allies were ready to open a second front to crush Germany.

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Allied forces launched history's largest naval invasion on the beaches of Normandy, France. After breaking through German defenses and surviving the Battle of the Bulge, the Allies advanced from the west while the Soviets pushed from the east.

With Italian partisans executing Mussolini and Hitler committing suicide, Germany finally surrendered on May 7, 1945.

After extremely bloody battles on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, U.S. leaders feared that invading Japan would cause immense casualties.

To force a quicker end to the war, President Truman authorized using a new, secret weapon developed by the Manhattan Project.

In August 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The devastating impact led Japan to surrender on August 14, 1945, ending WWII but starting the Nuclear Age.

With Germany's defeat nearing, the Big Three leaders—Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin—met at the Tehran Conference in 1943 and the Yalta Conference in February 1945.

They agreed to a final strategy against Germany and to partition the country after the war. Pay special attention to their decision that Soviet forces would liberate Eastern Europe.

This set the stage for future disagreements over the region's political alignment and control.

Deep mistrust defined the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, which occurred after Germany's surrender.

President Truman, now representing the U.S., demanded free elections in Eastern Europe, as promised at Yalta.

However, Stalin refused, wanting to install pro-Soviet governments as a buffer against future attacks. This direct clash over self-determination versus security created a major split between the former allies, making the division of Europe seem permanent.

The end of World War II did not bring peace but rather a new ideological conflict.

The United States and the Soviet Union had opposing visions for the world, leading to a period of intense political tension known as the Cold War. The U.S. feared global communist expansion, while the Soviets saw Western policy as capitalist aggression.

This struggle, which Churchill called an “iron curtain” descending across Europe, would dominate world affairs for nearly 50 years.