14


DiScOvErInG HiStOrY 1945


The Allies continued to bomb German cities throughout this period. In February 1945 135,000 civilians were killed in the German city of Dresden. The Allied troops crossed the River Rhine in March 1945 and the Soviet army reached Berlin by April. On 30 April 1945, Hitler married Eva Braun and then committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin. Just before his death he appointed Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz as head of government. Doenitz agreed to an unconditional surrender on 7 May and the next day was declared VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day).


War in the Pacific Victory had been achieved in Europe but World War II was not over. Japan continued to resist American attempts to push them out of the Pacific. The Japanese navy was badly damaged and would not fight another battle for the rest of the war. However, Japanese soldiers occupied many of the islands in the Pacific and they were determined to cause the American troops large casualties. One new method that the Japanese used was kamikaze (divine wind) pilots. These were pilots who flew old planes full of explosives directly into ships in the hope of sinking them. These pilots knew they would not survive the explosion. Between 4 and 13 January 1945, 17 US ships were sunk and 50 more damaged by kamikaze pilots. After heavy fighting, the Americans took the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in April and June 1945. The Japanese fought to the death with many committing suicide rather than surrender. The USA was concerned that defeating Japan would cost a lot of American lives so a new method of warfare was introduced: the atom bomb.


Hiroshima and Nagasaki


President Roosevelt died in April 1945 and was replaced by Vice-President Harry Truman. Truman decided that in order to ensure maximum impact, two atomic bombs were to be dropped in Japan. On 6 and 9 August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on the cities


Fig 14.20 The mushroom cloud caused by the explosion of an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.


380


Fig 14.18 A soldier flies a Soviet flag over the Reichstag after the fall of Berlin to Soviet forces in 1945.


Fig 14.19 An American soldier stands beside the flag on the island of Iwo Jima, June 1945.


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