Download WORLD WAR II (1941

WORLD WAR II (1941-1945)
NEWFOUNDLAND CONFERENCE
 In August 1941, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met
on the Battleship Prince of Wales
 Each wanted the world to know that the English-speaking nations would
stand together
 Churchill had admired FDR for many years. He deferred to FDR because
FDR had been in office longer than he and the U.S. was stronger
 FDR admired Churchill’s eloquence and determination
 The relationship between the two men led to a degree of military
cooperation unparalleled in modern history
 Issued a statement of principles, which became known as the Atlantic
Charter. It stated
1. Right of all people to self-government
2. Economic cooperation among all nations
3. Free access of all nations to trade and raw materials
4. Freedom of the seas
5. An abandonment of the use of force in settling international disputes
RELATIONS WITH JAPAN DETERIORATES
 Japan continued to fight in China, while the U.S. increased its aid to the
forces of Chiang Kai-shek
 Moreover, Japan took advantage in Europe by seizing French, British and
Dutch possessions in Asia
 July 1941, Japanese troops occupied French Indochina
 FDR froze Japanese assets in the U.S. and placed an embargo on oil,
steel, and other essential war supplies that American firms had been
selling to Japan
 FDR issued a warning to Japan---- If they seize any more territory, then
the U.S. would take “any and steps” necessary to protect its national
interests
 Nov 1941, the Japanese government sent a special ambassador Saburo
Kuruso, to Washington D.C.
 The Japanese were demanding that the U.S. would recognize Japanese
conquests in China and Indochina and to stop sending aid to China,
unfreeze Japanese assets and supply Japan with oil
 U.S. demanding that Japan withdraw from China and Indochina,
recognize the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek and sign a
nonagression pact with other Pacific nations
 Secretary of State Cordell Hull was pessimistic because he had special
information. American intelligence agents had broken the Japanese code
and knew from radio messages being exchanged among Japanese
diplomats around the world that the Japanese were planning something.
What was the plan? Americans did not know
 On November 25, 1941, a Japanese fleet had left Japan on a deadly
mission to Hawaii
PEARL HARBOR
 December 7, 1941
 Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto believed that an attack on Pearl Harbor
could deal a fatal blow to American power in the Pacific
 On December 7, 1941, a wave of 183 Japanese divebombers zoomed in
to strike Pearl Harbor
 American ships were lined up like ducks on a pond
 The surprise is complete
 A bomb pierced the armor of the Battleship Arizona, setting afire its
powder magazine, which exploded with such a force that the vessel split
in two
 8 battleships were sunk or badly damaged, 11 other vessels were put out
of action
 2,400 Americans were killed
 1,200 Americans were wounded
 American leaders could hardly bring themselves to believe that the
Japanese had outfoxed them
 However, soon the nation was united as never before
 On Dec.8, 1941, President Roosevelt asked Congress to recognize that a
state of war existed between the United States and Japan
 FDR called December 7, 1941 “a date which will live in infamy.” He
promised to avenge Pearl Harbor. “Always, we will remember the
character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take…
the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute
victory.”
 Vote in Congress--- one no vote against a declaration of war. It was
casted by Rep. Jeanette Rankin of Montana. She also voted against U.S.
entry into WWI. She was the first female in Congress. She said she voted
no because someone ought to vote no.
GERMANY AND ITALY DECLARES WAR ON THE U.S.
 December 11,1941 Hitler declared war on the United States
 Why? “A great power like Germany declares war itself, and does not
wait for war to be declared on it” states Hitler
 Furthermore, Italy declares war on the U.S.
AXIS POWERS
 Japan, Italy, Germany
ALLIES
 49 nations by the end of the war
 Great Britain, China, Soviet Union, United States
The U.S. would concentrate on defeating Germany. The more immediate
danger was in Europe.
JAPANESE AGGRESSION CONTINUES
 Boasted of having reduced the U.S. to the status of a third rate power.
Statement was ridiculous
 Japanese took quick advantage of their success not only in knocking out
the Battle fleet at Pearl Harbor and most America’s heavy bombers at
Manila, but also wrecked the battle squadron at Singapore
 End of December 1941, Japan had captured Guam, Wake Island, and the
British colony of Hong Kong
PHILLIPPINES ARE CAPTURED
 January 1942, Japanese forces occupied Manila
 U.S. and Filipino troops were under the command of General Douglas
MacArthur. He withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula
 There against overwhelming odds, they continued to fight, hoping to hold
out until reinforcements could arrive. Lacking air and sea support
MacArthur evacuated the island to Australia. MacArthur stated “I came
through and I shall return”
BATAAN DEATH MARCH
 The Japanese forced the defeated garrison of Americans & Filipinos to
march 85 miles to board a train for internment in a prisoner-of-war camp.
The overland journey proved to be a death march for thousands of men.
They were beaten, starved, and tortured by their captors.
 70,000 soldiers
 10,000 died
 Didn’t have any drinking water
 MacArthur’s words “I shall return” became a battle cry, a pledge that the
U.S. intended to redeem
U.S. ACHIEVE VICTORIES IN THE PACIFIC
 The surviving American fleet in the Pacific was under the command of
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
 On May 7-8, 1942, the U.S. Navy battered a Japanese force heading for
New Guinea, ending the immediate threat to Australia. This encounter
was known as the Battle of the Coral Sea
 It was the first instance in which the Allies had succeeded in blocking
Japan’s lightning-like progress in the Pacific
BATTLE OF MIDWAY
 Turning point of the war
 Because it ended the possibility of a Japanese occupation of Hawaii
These victories lifted the American morale in the spring of 1942
GUDALCANAL
 The Japanese, bent on controlling the South Pacific, began building an air
base on Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) in July 1942. They wanted to
use the base for attacks on New Guinea and Australia and could block
efforts to retake the Philippines
 20,000 Americans were sent to seize the Island in August 1942
 At a heavy cost, we finally cleared Guadalcanal in February 1943
 The hard-earned victory brought a halt at last to the relentless southward
advance of the Japanese
SUBMARINE WARFARE
 The European theater of war was better supplied with both personnel and
equipment
 Nazis---- “Wolfpacks”--- Consisted of 10 U-boats which would circle a
convoy and strike the enemy simultaneously often at night
 In Sept. 1943, the Allies announced that using air patrols had sunk 90 Uboats. The Germans had lost their most experienced submariners and
morale was low
 The U.S. now building merchant ships faster than U-boats could sink
them. The Battle of the Atlantic had been won
RUSSIANS STOP THE GERMAN ADVANCE
 Germans were bogged down in Russia
 Invasion at 1st went well for Germany
 Hitler was so confident of a quick victory that his troops had not even
been supplied with winter uniforms
 Within 4 months, the German army took over 1 million prisoners and
forced the Russians to draw back towards Moscow
 Hitler’s problems
1. His troops were deep inside the Soviet Union when the fierce Russian
winter set in (made supply and communication almost impossible)
2. The Soviet “scorched-earth” policy----- A policy of destroying the
resources of the country as the Red Army retreated made it impossible
for the Nazis to live off the land
 At Moscow and Leningrad the Russians made a stand in the winter of
1941-1942. Not only did they prevent the Germans from capturing those
cities, but they managed to gain back nearly a quarter of the territory they
had lost
 In the summer of 1942, Germans launched an offensive that won control
of the oil fields of the Caucasus
STALINGRAD
 3 months fought the German’s street by street, house by house and room
by room
 Russian reinforcements surrounded the Germans and cutoff their supply
routes
 Feb. 1943, the battered, frozen, starving, and demoralized German troops
surrendered (94,000 & 24 generals)
 Hitler’s Russian campaign was in ruins
AXIS POWERS THREATEN EGYPT
 Africa
 Germans and Italian forces were led by General Erwin Rommel, a hero in
France
 Occupied much of Northern Africa from Tunisia to the Egyptian border
 This posed a threat to the Suez Canal
 The canal was Britain’s lifeline to the oilfields of the Middle East and
India
 Rommel, the Desert Fox, began an offensive to take Egypt. He pushed
the British troops to 70 miles from Alexandria by July
 Mussolini, sure of the outcome had shipped his favorite white horse to
Africa to be ready for a victory parade through Cairo
 Cairo , the Egyptian capital
 Then, at El Alamein, a village on the Mediterranean Sea in northern
Egypt, British troops under General Bernard Law Montgomery
powerfully rallied and stopped Rommel’s advance
 Rommel pulled back at Tunisia in one of the longest retreats in history
ALLIED FORCES IN AFRICA
 On Nov. 8, 1942, American and British units under General Dwight D.
Eisenhower made landings in the French colonies of Morocco and
Algeria
IKE
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Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969)
Commander of all United States forces in Europe
Born in Texas and raised in Kansas
Had an open manner and an infectious grin
Descendant of Germans who had settled in Penn. in the 1730’s
1911 attended West Point where he was popular and in the top1/3 of his
class
He was a major and then promoted to brigadier general in 1941
Helped prepare Europe’s battle plan
Commander of the theater of operations
Genius for bringing men together
Qualities included sincerity, genuine friendliness, humanity and a sense
of dedication
In 1943 , he took the Island of Sicily and led the invasion of Italy in
September and the signing of an armistice with the defeated Italians
Dec. 1944, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army
GENERAL GEORGE C. MARSHALL
 Chief of staff
AFRICA
 Men of Rommel’s famed Afrika Korps put up tremendous resistance, but
were doomed to failure. Cut off from their supply lines by Allied sea and
air power, they were caught between and advancing armies of
Eisenhower from the west and Montgomery on the east
 On May 12, 1943, after 7 months of intense fighting, the last of
Rommel’s forces finally laid down their arms
 55,000 men surrendered that day in Tunisia. They were some of the best
fighting men in the German army
 Axis had lost control of North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea
ARMED FORCES
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Vastly expanded immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor
Most of the draftees were under the age of 30
10 million people were drafted
All men between 18-64 were required to register
5 million Americans volunteered for duty including women
1st time armed forces established women’s branches of the armed forces
Women worked as ambulance drivers, mechanics, pilots, radio operators,
clerical workers and nurses
 GI’s ---- Government Issue
U.S. INDUSTRY GEARS UP FOR WAR
 January 1942, FDR created the War Production Board to mobilize the
economy. The board supervised American industry to ensure the country
would meet the needs of the Allied troops
 Car industry--- Switched to the production of tanks, airplanes, trucks and
other military vehicles
 Goods were rationed---- sugar, coffee, meat and gasoline
FINANCING THE WAR
 One way the government borrowed money was through the sale of war
bonds
 Millions of workers at home and soldiers in the field purchased bonds
 1941-1946 the sale of bonds raised $6 billion
JAPANESE-AMERICANS
 After Pearl Harbor, many people feared that there might be some
Japanese-Americans whose loyalty lay with Japan rather than the United
States
 Especially on the West coast
 FDR convinced that the Japanese-Americans were a threat to national
security
 Feb 1942, FDR authorized the forcible relocation of 100,000 people of
Japanese ancestry (2/3 were U.S. citizens)
 With little warning, these people had to leave their houses and businesses
which resulted in heavy financial losses
 They were moved to isolated camps and held there for the duration of the
war
 Japanese-Americans remained loyal to the Allied cause
 Not one single Japanese-Americans was convicted of espionage
 Some were given the opportunity to enlist in the armed forces. More than
1,200 did so
BENJAMIN O. DAVIS
 1st African-American to be a major general
 Commanded a black unit, the 332nd Fighter Group in Italy
 1944, black officers were being commissioned at the rate of 200 a month
ELECTION OF 1944
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Though aging and tired, FDR consented to run again
Running mate was Harry S. Truman
Republicans nominated Thomas Dewey, the governor of New York
People were convinced that this was no time to elect a president
inexperienced in the management of foreign affairs
 FDR is re-elected
 53% of the popular vote and 432 electoral votes out of 531
By the end of 1942, the terrifying successes of Germany and Japan had
ceased. The Allies were now ready to go on the offensive
CASABLANCA
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Morocco
Churchill and Roosevelt met in January 1943
Met to discuss their next moves
Stalin was invited but declined which annoyed FDR and Churchill
No American president had ever left the country during wartime, but
FDR was convinced that it was essential for him to see his commanders
and troops
 They decided that as soon as the fighting in Africa ended, the Allies
would invade Italy
 Also, they decided it was time to send enough men and supplies to the
Pacific to allow MacArthur and Nimitz to launch an offensive against the
Japanese
 Finally, they decided to accept nothing less than unconditional surrender
from the enemy
INVASION OF ITALY (JULY 1943)
 U.S. and British troops of 160,000 men landed on the Italian island of
Sicily
 By mid-August they had secured the island
 Loss of Sicily led to the overthrow of Mussolini
 A new Italian government ordered the arrest of the “Caesar”. Two
months later, a daring German rescue party freed Mussolini and took him
to Northern Italy where he was put in charge of a puppet government
 September 3, 1943, Allies set forth from Sicily to conquer the rest of
Italy
 German soldiers were brought into Italy
 Allies now faced veteran Nazi troops
 GI’s were under General Mark Clark and entered the city of Naples.
Attempting to outflank the Germans, they landed at Anzio (South of
Rome)
 They ran into a relentless German defense and suffered heavy casualties
 June 1944, Clark finally entered Rome
 Italy was not liberated until May 1945
 Mussolini was captured and eventually executed by anti-fascist Italians
PLANS TO INVADE FRANCE
 Germany would be caught in the middle as Soviet forces pressed
westward and American and British forces pushed eastward
 Greatest secrecy, Allied strategists laid their plans, the most elaborate in
the history of warfare
 Operation Overlord--- code name
 Commanded by Ike
 Over 2 millionU.S., British, and other Allies were given special training
in Britain
 Allied planes in the meantime bombarded the French coast, attempting to
destroy Nazi lines of communication and transportation
 Germans were well entrenched
 Allies took special care to mislead the enemy. They established dummy
installations in Britain and used false radio signals to convince the Nazis
that plans were to invade Calais
LIBERATION OF FRANCE
 June 6, 1944 D-Day (Operation Overlord) began
 3 divisions of paratroopers dropped silently behind German lines to
sabotage transportation and communication systems
 Allied ground forces were under the command of General Omar Bradley
who was called the GI’s General
 Casualties on the Normandy beaches were high
 Allies succeeded in establishing 5 beachheads where they could land
more men and supplies
 Toughest fighting took place on Omaha Beach. There the Allies
encountered a German division that had been moved into that position
 By nightfall of D-Day 155,000 men were ashore
 Within 1 month a million Allied troops had landed in Normandy, along
with 172,000 vehicles and more than ½ million tons of supplies
 Invasion was a success
 August 25, 1944, after 3 months of fighting, Allied troops moved into the
French capital
 Meanwhile on August 15, a combined force of American, British and
French soldiers landed at Toulon on the southern coast of France and was
racing northward along the Rhone Valley
 General George Patton commanded the 3rd Army and was heading with
his armored units in a spectacular advance from Normandy through
Brittany and northern France
 By November the Germans had been cleared out of France
GERMANS LAST OFFENSIVE
 Hitler personally directed one last desperate counteroffensive
 On December 16, 1944, taking the Allies off guard, the Nazis attacked
along a 50 mile front in the thinly held area around the Ardennes Forest
in Belgium
 Hitler hoped to cut the Allied forces in two, leaving the northern half
without supplies
 Allies were driven back 65 miles which created a bulge in their line of
defense
 Battle of the Bulge
 Allied troops stood their ground at the town of Bastogne in the freezing
winter weather
 Surrounded by Nazi troops, the Allies were led by an airborne
commander Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe
 By the end of January 1945, the Germans had lost every inch of territory
they had taken and 120,000 men
 The Americans paid a huge price. We had 77,000 casualties
YALTA CONFERENCE
 February 1945 at Crimea on the Black Sea
 Big Three attended--- FDR, Churchill and Stalin
 They discussed strategy for ending the war and agreed on postwar
settlements
 Concluded plans for the unconditional surrender of Germany
 Germany would be divided into 3 zones
1. United States
2. Britain
3. Soviet
 France given a zone out of the U.S. and British zone
 City of Berlin which was deep inside the Soviet zone would be split into
3 zones as well
 East Prussia would be divided between Poland and the Soviet Union
 Announced that a meeting would be held at San Francisco to established
a new organization for keeping peace (United Nations)
 Stalin made several commitments
1. Promised to declare war on Japan within 3 months after Germany
surrendered
2. Poland and other East European nations would have free elections
(where Russian troops were in or occupied)
3. He promised to sign a friendly pact with the Chinese government of
Chiang Kai-shek
 FDR and Churchill made concessions
1. Russia would gain control of the Japanese Islands off the Pacific coast
of the Soviet Union
2. Occupy Outer Mongolia
3. U.S.S.R. would receive half of any war reparations that Germany
would be forced to pay
 Yalta agreements ----- It was foolish to trust Stalin
FDR DIES
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When FDR returned from Yalta he was exhausted
Went to Warm Springs, Georgia for a rest
On April 12, 1945, he suddenly died of a stroke
Churchill later said that he sat speechless for 5 minutes after hearing the
news. In a eulogy to Parliament he called Roosevelt “the greatest
champion of human freedom who has ever brought help and comfort
from the New World to the Old.”
 Had occupied the White House for 12 years
 Harry S. Truman becomes President
 Truman confessed to having doubts. The day after taking office he said to
the press corps “when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt
like the moon, the stars and all the planet had fallen on me.”
GERMANY SURRENDERS
 Germany’s cities were under heavy bombardment and its borders were
being overrun from the east and from the west
 In chaos, its leaders were holed up in an underground bunker in the
capital and its people were dazed and dispirited
 Hitler commits suicide on April 30, 1945
 Berlin falls two days later
 On May 8, 1945 V-E Day
NAZI ATROCITIES
 The Nazis had set up enormous concentration camps for the purpose of
murdering human beings
 Extermination of Europe’s Jews ----- 2/3
 6 million Jews died in these camps
 Known as the Holocaust
 Millions of other Europeans were murdered including Poles, Russians,
and opponents of Nazism
 Hitler believed that Germany had lost World War I because the disloyalty
of the Jews on the homefront
 In 1945-46, Allied courts tried German’s accused of war crimes
 Hundreds were executed
ALLIES PREPARE FOR THE INVASION OF JAPAN
 3 Objectives
1. Recapture the Philippines
2. Cut Japanese lines of transportation and communication
3. Set up bases from which Japan itself could eventually be attacked
 These objectives would be accomplished through a strategy called
“island-hopping”
 Allied troops would capture strategic islands
 Admiral Nimitz’s forces was to move on Japan from the central Pacific,
taking the Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana Islands
PHILIPPINES ARE LIBERATED
 October 1944, General MacArthur fulfilled his longstanding promise to
liberate the Philippines
 After two years of slogging their way up from New Guinea and fighting
one bloody engagement after another his men ashore on Leyte (Lay-tay)
located in central Philippines
 Battle of Leyte Gulf
* Greatest naval engagement of all-time
* The Allies smashed the Japanese fleet once and for all
* March 9, 1945, after 3 months of fighting the Japanese forces surrender
to the Americans
AMERICAN TROOPS ADVANCE TOWARD JAPAN
 A fleet under the command of Admiral Bull Halsey was beginning to
roam at will along the coasts of Japan
 In February 1945, U.S. Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima. It was
selected because it was close enough to Japan and would be used as a
base to step up efforts to bomb Japanese cities
 Push forward to Okinawa
 Kamikazes--- Japanese pilots who flew their planes into ships. In essence
they were on suicide missions. All told they destroyed 200 ships
SCIENTISTS DEVELOP THE A-BOMB
 In 1938, scientists had known it was possible to split the atom
 August 1939, Albert Einstein, the most brilliant scientist of the century
and recently arrived in the U.S> as a refugee from Germany. He wrote to
FDR about the possibility to produce a very powerful bomb
 In 1940, work began on the project
 It was called the Manhattan Project. The project was established at Los
Alamos, New Mexico (work done in secrecy)
 July 16, 1945, the first test took place in the desert
 July 26, 1945, the Allied leaders issued this warning to Japan. “The
alternative to surrender is prompt and utter destruction.” Japan does
nothing
 Truman was convinced that Japanese military forces would never
surrender unless American troops actually invaded and conquered their
homeland
 Military strategists estimated that it would take at least 18 months and the
loss of one million lives to reach the objective
 Truman ordered the bomb dropped in order to save thousands and
thousands of American lives
ATOMIC WEAPONS END THE WAR
 On August 6, 1945, a B-29 carrying an atomic bomb took off from
Tinian Island in the Marianas and headed for Hiroshima
 Bomb had a force of 20,000 tons of TNT
 78,000 people killed and another 70,000 were wounded
 Japan still did not give up
 On August 8 the Soviet Union declares war on Japan
 On August 9, 1945 the U.S. drops another bomb on Nagasaki which
killed 240,000
 Finally, on August 14 Japan surrenders unconditionally
 V-J Day September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay on the board of the U.S.S.
Missouri with General MacArthur the peace treaty is signed. World War
II had ended
5 STAR GENERALS DURING OR AFTER THE WAR
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Douglas MacArthur
George Marshall
Dwight Eisenhower
Omar Bradley
Hap Arnold