Download World War II

World War II
Adolph Hitler came to power in Germany in the 1930’s. He was able to rise
because he was a fantastic public speaker who was able to reach the German
people emotionally. He had originally come on the scene in the 1920’s in
protest against the Weimar Republic (the government of Germany set up after
World War I). In the 20’s he was seen as too radical and maybe even a nut,
because life for many Germans seemed to be getting better while its economy
was improving with the help of American money. However, the US stopped
sending money to Germany in late 1929 when the US economy fell apart and
the Great Depression began. As the US stopped sending money, the German
economy fell apart, unemployment rose dramatically, and people began to lose
hope.
When Germans looked for hope, they found Adolf Hitler. The old “lunatic
trouble maker” now seemed to be a wise leader with ideas on how to move
Germany forward. The basic message of his speeches was that the German
people were the greatest people on earth and they were only having hard
times because of the actions of others. His political party, the National
Socialist or Nazis moved to take over the Weimar Republic government and its
legislature known as the Reichstag. Hitler’s followers were elected to the
Reichstag, and Hitler was named as Chancellor. Once he gained complete
control of the German government, Hitler began to ignore the agreements of
the Versailles Treaty that ended WWI, and began to expand German territory.
Hitler was a proponent of a government system known as Fascism. Fascists
believe in a very strong central government. In fascist countries, everyone
works for the betterment of the country and therefore each other. It is similar
to Communism in that everyone is supposedly equal and working for one goal,
but it is very different from communism in that a very strong government is
necessary for stability and order. Hitler was not the only fascist to come to
power in the late 1920’s and 30’s. Italy was led by the fascist Benito Mussolini
while Japan was led by the fascist Hideki Tojo. As you might expect, the three
fascist leaders joined together to form the alliance known as the Axis Powers,
with Hitler as the unquestioned leader of the group.
Once he gained complete control of the German government, Hitler began to
ignore the agreements of the Versailles Treaty that ended WWI, and began to
expand German territory. One of Hitler’s first actions was to improve the
German military. He began manufacturing tanks, airplanes, ships, and other
military machines. This put Germans to work in factories and also increased
Germany’s strength. While this was against the Versailles Treaty, the countries
of France and England allowed Germany to get away with it. They had a policy
of “appeasement”, which meant that they would allow Germany to get away
with some things rather than re-starting a war. The appeasement policy would
continue for several years.
Once Germany had a strong military again, Hitler began to expand territorially.
According to the Versailles Treaty, a 30 mile demilitarized zone ran along the
banks of the Rhine River between Germany and France. Neither army could
place troops in this region. Hitler sent troops here and nobody stopped him.
Germany took over Austria and other Europeans did nothing. Germany took
half of Czechoslovakia and other Europeans did nothing. Germany took the
rest of Czechoslovakia and other Europeans did nothing. The Appeasement
that was intended to stop war was doing nothing but allowing Germany to do
anything it pleased and get even stronger. Finally, Germany invaded Poland
and England and France were forced to declare war. However it was too late.
Germany had become to strong.
The Germans, with the same fear of having to fight a two-front war as they
had in World War I, signed a “non-aggression” pact with the Soviet Union
saying that neither would attack the other. On August 23, 1939 Hitler and
Josef Stalin made a pledge that Germany and the Soviet Union would never
attack one another again. With the eastern front free from danger, the
Germans began to concentrate on their enemies to the west, France and
England. While the Germans turned west, the Soviet Union began to invade
the Eastern European nations of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland. The
map of Europe was quickly being changed.
Once England and France declared war on Germany, they began to send troops
to the “Maginot line”, an advanced system of fortifications, tunnels,
underground trains and barracks designed specifically to stop the Germans
from invading France. Both armies sat and watched each other for months.
Finally on April 9, 1940 the Germans swept quickly into France and quickly
took over the country by the June 22. They establishing their own French
government. The Germans used a very fast military strategy known as a
“Blitzkrieg” in which they sent airplanes and tanks deep behind enemy lines,
basically surrounding the enemy and then defeating all of the enemy they had
passed.
The Blitzkrieg actions were so fast that the entire armies of France and England
were almost captured in early June of 1940. The armies raced to the city of
Dunkirk, on the French coast of the English Channel. While the German army
closed in, hundreds of British boats were sent to rescue the army. These boats
included large naval ships, as well as yachts, motor boats, paddle steamers,
fishing boats, and rafts. The armies just escaped the Germans and crossed the
Channel to England. In all, 338,000 troops were rescued. These soldiers
remained in England for years, as the Germans tried to invade the island nation
and end the war.
Because it was an island nation, England could only be invaded by the sea. The
British had the advantage of a strong navy, so this was not going to happen.
Instead the Germans decided to simply bomb the British into submission.
Daily bombing runs were carried out over the cities of England in the hopes of
forcing British surrender. Germans were not concerned with attacking military
targets. They wanted to crush the spirit of every day citizens so they bombed
large cities such as London. This bombing was known as the “Battle of Britain”.
It was very successful in destroying property, but the British, led by their new
Prime Minister Winston Churchill refused to give up, while they continued to
look westward across the Atlantic for help from the United States, who wished
to stay out of another European war.
Germany also formed an alliance with Italy and its leader Benito Mussolini.
With France taken over, Germany and Italy began to take over all of Europe
except island nation of England, and the massive Soviet Union. They tried to
take England and wanted to keep the Soviets out of the fighting. All in all, the
first year of the war was a total victory for the Germans and their allies.
Germany controlled pretty much all of mainland Europe, as well as the middle
east and northern Africa.
Even though the Americans did not want to get involved in another European
war, we did not want the Germans to take over all of Europe. The “lend-lease”
program was started, in which the US would “loan” military supplies to the
English to help them fight. Items loaned included airplanes, bullets, antiaircraft guns and other weapons. With our help the British were able to hold
off the Germans.
Even though they were dominating the fighting in Europe, the Germans were
running out of fuel and were forced to attack the Russians to get to oil fields in
the middle east. In “Operation Barbarossa” the Soviet Union was invaded.
This caused the Soviet Union to also enter the war against Germany on June
22, 1941. Germany now had the possiblitiy of a two front war. They made an
alliance with Japan in the hopes of keeping the US out of the war.
While the Germans were fighting in Europe, the US was having
disagreements with Japan in the Pacific. Japan is an island nation with very
few natural resources. In order to grow economically, Japan needed
resources from outside countries. However, many of the areas that Japan
wanted resources from, were controlled by the US or traded with the US.
Japan wanted to take over these small islands so that they could control their
trade. This caused major arguments between Japan and the US. Japan knew
that in a fight with the US that they would eventually lose
Japan’s only chance of defeating the US was to fight a very fast war that
crippled the US. Their plan was a sneak attack at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to
knock out the US Navy. On Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941, the
Japanese attacked and wiped out several American ships and killed over 3000
Americans. It was a devastating attack, but not enough to destroy the US fleet
of ships. The US was able to recover and War was declared against Japan and
Germany. US factories went to work building military weapons and the war
was on. The US now had a two front war with Japan and Germany, while
Germany had a two front war of its own now.
In Europe, Germany was being attacked on two sides. While the Russians were
fighting in the East, the US and England were fighting in the West. To gain
ground and weaken the Germans, the Americans and its allies first started
fighting against the Germans and Italians in Northern Africa. Led by American
commander George Patton and British commander Bernard Montgomery, we
took the lands of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya, and then jumped across
the Mediterranean and began fighting in Italy, and working our way north.
Strangely, in a move similar to that of World War I, in September of 1943, the
Italians overthrew Benito Mussolini and swapped sides from the Axis Powers
to the Allies.
The main fighting in Europe began at Normandy in France on D-Day, June 6,
1944. The Americans, English, and French (under the leadership of Allied
Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower) invaded the beaches and began pushing
the Germans back. Over the next few years the Americans, French, and
English began pushing from the west, while the Soviets moved from the east
and eventually met in Germany forcing the German surrender.
The fighting in the Pacific was mostly between the Japanese and the
Americans. The Americans had a plan called “island hopping” in which they
would fight on some islands and jump past others on their way to Japan.
Several hundred thousand Americans died in the Pacific before the Americans
were about to reach Japan. President Harry Truman (who had taken office in
April 1945 after the death of Franklin Roosevelt) decided to drop atomic
bombs on Japan rather than invade and have over a million people killed.
After two bombs, nicknamed Fat Man and Little Boy, were dropped, Japan
surrendered. VJ day was on August 15, 1945 when the Japanese officially
surrendered to the United States.