Download WWII PPT from class

September 1, 1939September 2, 1945
 There
was no fanfare or enthusiasm
 Was a continuation from WWI
 Treaty of Versailles—a direct cause
 Themes:
• New nationalist states
• Failure of collective security (LON)
 Axis
vs. Allies
• Axis stems from Mussolini speech: referring to a
vertical line between Rome and Berlin as “an axis
around which all European states” could collaborate
 Tripartite
Treaty of 1940 extended the
Rome-Berlin Axis to Japan
 USA, Great Britain and France favored
appeasement (Munich)
 WWII was truly a global conflict (unlike
WWI which was fought in Europe)
• Fighting occurred in all major world areas except
the Americas
 Axis
powers enjoyed many early victories
 USA’s entrance and Germany’s failed
invasion of Russia turned the tide
New mechanized warfare and advancements
made it the most deadly conflict in history
 Saturation bombing (fire bombing)—Dresden,
Hamburg
 Atom Bombs—Nagasaki, Hiroshima
 Over 75 million people killed
 Nazi defeat exposed the horrors of the Holocaust
 Accelerated the decline of GB and FRA as world
powers
 USA and USSR emerged as the two superpowers
leading to the ideological conflict of the Cold
War
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 Germany
invaded Poland—Sept. 1, 1939
 Britain and France honored their
agreement to defend Poland and
declared war on Germany—Sept. 3, 1939
 Germany used “Blitzkrieg” or lightening
war
• Tanks, airplanes and trucks were used in all-out
attack (Denmark & Norway /April 1940)
 Germany
easily took Poland in six weeks
 Sitzkrieg
or “Phony War”
• Hitler consolidated his gains in Poland and
equipped his military in preparation for the
coming attack against Europe
 France
remained behind the Maginot
Line/Brits send support
• A series of concrete fortifications
that extended 200 miles along
the Western Front
 Germany
attacked through neutral
Holland and Belgium—going around
Maginot Line (May 1940)
 Germans split Franco-British troops
 Cornered entire British army at Dunkirk
• GB sent all ships to Dunkirk to rescue (Miracle at
Dunkirk—300,000 troops saved)
 Mussolini
sensed an easy victory, so he
declared war on France
 June 22, 1940 Hitler captured Paris
 Germans
set up a ‘puppet state’ called Vichy
France
 Led by Marshall Petain (hero, Premier,
treason)
 French resistance led by Charles de Galle
• Fled to GB and attacked Vichy France throughout the
remainder of the war
 By
1940, Hitler ruled over all of continental
Europe (no UK…Italy—ally…USSR—still
neutral)
 Winston
Churchill (PM 1940-1945, 19511955) refused to surrender to Hitler
 August 15—German Luftwaffe began to
bomb Britain to prepare for invasion
 The RAF used radar to help defend against
attack
 Hermann Goering (head of Luftwaffe)
suggested bombing major cities
 Aug ‘40-June ’41—dusk to dawn
 Oops…by focusing on civilian targets and
not military, the Brits were able to boost
military production and anti-aircraft defense
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Hitler attacked Russia—June 22, 1941
Operation Barbarossa (German King during 1st Crusade)
Hitler wanted to control the Ukraine’s wheat fields and
Caucasus’s oil fields
3 million Germans ‘blitzed’ Stalin by surprise
By October 1941, Leningrad had been surrounded (25
miles from Moscow)
Russian winters are COLD! (-20°)—summer uniforms!
Fuel and Oil froze…no trucks, no weapons
Battle of Leningrad—900 days
1.5 million civilians died (not of hunger!)
This drained Germany’s resources and caused a two front
war
 USA
entered the war on December 8,
1941
• Neutrality declared in 1939
• Broke neutrality to help Churchill during BOB
• Traded 50 old destroyers to GB for military
bases in Newfoundland and the Caribbean
• March 1941: “Lend-Lease Act”
 Lend or sell war materials to any country that was
deemed vital to defense
 FDR: “Arsenal of democracy”
 Hitler: “economic declaration of war”
 August 1941: The Atlantic Charter
• Broad set of peace principals
 Freedom from fear and want
 National sovereignty (self-determination)
 Similar to Wilson’s 14 Points
 Permanent system of general security (later the UN)
 Japan
takes French Indo-china (Vietnam)
and Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)
• USA banned the sale of oil to Japan
 In
retaliation, Japan attacks Peal Harbor
on December 7, 1941
 Sunday morning, December 7, 1941
 Sneak attack
 2,500 dead
 No ‘live’ recording…we interrupt this
program
 December 8, 1941
• FDR…”a date that will live in infamy”…”we will win
through to absolute victory”
• USA and GB declare war on Japan
 December 11, 1941
• Germany and Italy declare war on the USA
 Turned the tide for good!
 Churchill
to Roosevelt: Europe first, then the
Pacific
 El Alamein, May ‘42: Gen. Bernard
Montgomery (GB) and Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower (USA) combined forces to
destroy Gen. Erwin Rommel’s (The Desert
Fox)—kept GB’s control over Suez Canal.
 Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of
Midway, May-June ‘42: Established U.S. naval
supremacy in the Pacific. U.S. defeated
Japan and prevented another attack on Pearl
Harbor
 Guadacanal, August ‘42: Gen. Douglas
MacArthur led the Marines in their first
offensive in the Solomon Islands. This was
the first attack in the ‘island-hopping
campaign’ (selective targets) toward
invading mainland Japan.
 Stalingrad, August ‘42-February ‘43: After six
months of house to house fighting, the
Soviets defeated the German army. This
was the turning point in the European
theatre.
 Casablanca,
January ‘43: Roosevelt and
Churchill: let’s attack Sicily and Italy and
fight until the Axis “unconditionally
surrender”
 Invasion of Sicily, July ‘43-August’44: Gen.
George S. Patton (USA) and Gen.
Montgomery invaded Sicily then mainland
Italy. Mussolini resigned and Italy
surrendered until German troops sent
reinforcements, reinstated Mussolini and
fought Allied troops until the end of the war
in Europe.
 Tehran, Iran: November
28-December 1,
1943:
• Agreed on postwar occupation of Germany,
demilitarization of Germany and creation of an
international peace organization (UN)
• Churchill and Roosevelt promise to open a
second front in France.
• Russia had dibs on “liberating” Eastern
Europe—major Cold War implications!
 D-Day/Invasion
of Normandy/Operation
Overlord, June 6, 1944: Eisenhower
directed the largest amphibious assault
of the war. By August, Paris was liberated
and by 1944, all of France was liberated.
 Battle of the Bulge, December 1944:
Germany’s last offensive of the war. Axis
created a ‘bulge’ in the Allies front line,
but did not break it.
 January
1945: Russia successfully
marches through Poland
 February 1945: Allied firebombing of
Dresden killed 135,000
 Yalta
(Southern Russia), February 4February 11, 1945: the Big Three drew up
the structure of postwar Europe.
Germany—divided into four zones of
occupation
 Stalin agreed to hold free elections in
Eastern Europe (Poland) and declare war
on Japan in return for land lost to Japan
during the Russo-Japanese War.
 Battle
of Iwo Jima, March 1945: vicious
fight leading to 26,000 U. S. troops killed.
 Firebombing of Tokyo led to 80,000
deaths.
 Battle of Okinawa, April 1945: U.S. was
now on Japan’s doorstep
 Mussolini
tried to escape with his
mistress but was caught, beaten, killed
and hung upside down on April 28, 1945.
 Hitler married his mistress on April 29
then committed dual suicide in a Bunker
in Berlin on April 30.
 May 8, 1945—Victory in Europe Day (VE
Day)
 Potsdam
Conference, July/August 1945:
Churchill (then Clement Atlee), Stalin and
Harry Truman met in Potsdam, Germany.
 The issue of postwar Germany and free
elections in Eastern Europe were addressed
again.
• Truman demanded that Stalin carry out free
elections in E. Europe. Stalin refused…the seeds of
distrust are planted!
 Truman: “We
 Stalin: I
know
have the bomb”
 Hiroshima, August
6, 1945: Pilot Paul
Tibbets flew the Enola Gay over
Hiroshima dropping “Little Boy” …the
first atom bomb dropped in war.
 Approximately 70,000+ were killed
immediately with 40,000+ dying in the
weeks that followed.
 90% of the city was destroyed.
 Nagasaki, August
9, 1945: The U.S.A
dropped the second (and last) atom
bomb in war…. “fat man” killed 40,000+
immediately and another 70,000+ in the
weeks the followed.
 On the same day, Russia declares war on
Japan and invaded Manchuria.
 September 2, 1945—Victory in Japan
Day (VE Day)
 World War II is OVER