Download Chapter 26 (Main Battles and Events of World War II)

Main Battles and Events of
World War II
Hitler, Mussolini and the Build-Up to World War II
-In both Italy and Germany, Fascist states form in the
years after WWI
-In Italy, Mussolini (Il Duce) and his Blackshirts take over
the government after their March on Rome (Oct. 1922)
-In Germany, the Weimar Republic collapses by 1933 and
the conservative President Paul Von Hindenburg
appoints Adolf Hitler chancellor
-In 1934, after Von Hindenburg dies, Hitler and his
Brownshirts (S.A.) take over the country
-The Nazis begin to imprison their political opponents
and start on a secret program to build up the military
-On The Night of the Long Knives (1934), Hitler purges
his party of some of his political rivals (Ernst Roehm, e.g.)
-In 1938, in the so-called Anschluss, Hitler annexes
Austria
-Hitler also embarks on a program to attack the Jews; in
the Nuremberg Laws(1935), many Jews are restricted in
terms of occupations, etc.; some are even stripped of
their citizenship; on Kristallnacht(9-10 Nov.1938), many
synagogues and Jewish businesses are vandalized
German expansionism and Appeasement
-In foreign affairs, Hitler
insists that Czechoslovakia
turn over to Germany the
Sudentenland, a
strategically important area
comprised largely of ethnic
Germans
-Should Great Britain and
France refuse and risk going
to war with Germany to help
defend Czechoslovakia, or
should they give in and try
to appease the aggressor
(Germany)?
Chamberlain and Hitler at Munich (1938)
-In Sept. 1938 British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain and French
Premier Edouard Daladier meet with
Hitler and Mussolini in Munich to
discuss the Sudentland’s fate
-In the end, Great Britain and France
agree to Germany’s demands
-The Sudentenland is to be handed over
to Germany without a shot being fired
-Hitler is ecstatic; the Czechs are
outraged; but Great Britain and France
are hopeful that this territorial
concession will appease Germany and
that Hitler will fulfill his promise to seek
no more territory; tragically, events will
prove them wrong
-In early 1939, the German army seizes
the rest of Czechoslovakia
The Invasion of Poland
-In August 1939, Hitler and Joseph Stalin, the
Communist leader of Russia, negotiate a
treaty called the Nazi-Soviet NonAggression Pact
-In the public part of this treaty, Germany
and the Soviet Union agree not to attack
each other; secretly, they also agree to
divide Poland up among themselves
-On Sept. 1, 1939, the German army and air
force attack Poland from the west in a
blitzkrieg; simultaneously, the Soviet army
attacks Poland from the East
-In short order, France and Great Britain,
allied with Poland via treaty, declare war on
Germany
-World War II has begun
The Fall of France (1940)
-Poland falls to the Germans and Russians within a
month; attention now turns to the probability of a
German attack on France; for several months, during
the so-called Phony War, neither side attacks the
other
-Then, on 10 May 1940, Germany attacks France
through Belgium (thereby going around France’s
heavily-defended Maginot Line); by 25 June, France
is defeated and British troops are forced to flee via
Dunkirk
-Northern France is occupied by the victorious
German forces; Southern France (the so-called Free
Zone) is soon controlled by French forces loyal to the
ultra-conservative Field Marshall Petain; they
cooperate with the Germans and switch their capital
to Vichy, formerly just a resort town
-Great Britain, led by Winston Churchill, is now
alone; the U.S. remains officially neutral even if its
sympathies are with the British
Fall of France (continued)
The Germans occupy France for
four years
-During this time, a resistance
movement develops
-Some French, however, for
political and other reasons,
choose to cooperate with the
Germans; they are called
collaborators
-General De Gaulle, in exile in
Great Britain, organizes Free
French forces under his
leadership
-
Hitler in front of the Tour Eiffel (in Paris)
Battle of Britain (1940)
In preparation for an
invasion of Great Britain,
Hitler orders an air
assault on Great Britain
-The attack devastates
Great Britain but
ultimately the British
fend off the Luftwaffe
-Hitler is forced to call
off his plans to invade
Great Britain
-
Battle of Britain(continued)
-The Victory of
the Royal Air
Force (or RAF),
although costly
in terms of men
and aircraft,
inspires the
British people
Operation Barbarossa: Invasion of the Soviet Union (1941)
-Hitler next turns his attention
to the East
-In keeping with his low
opinion of the Slavs, he
decides to break his treaty
with Stalin and to attack Russia
in June 1941
-At first, his forces are very
successful
-Much Soviet territory is
conquered by the Wehrmacht
(or German army)
-However, by the time winter
sets in, Hitler’s forces are
stalled at Leningrad in the
north of Russia and at
Stalingrad in the south
-Eventually, many people,
Soviet and German, will lose
their lives in these battles
before the Wehrmacht is
finally defeated
Attack on Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941)
-In the Pacific, the Japanese decide upon a risky strategy
towards the United States
-After defeating British, French and Dutch forces in the
region, the Japanese launch a surprise attack on the U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii
-This surprise attack is militarily successful but fails to
achieve the knockout blow that Japanese military planners
had hoped for
-The Japanese occupation of the Philippines is also
successful in the short-term but eventually it too is not
permanent
-Within the next two years, the U.S. will defeat the Japanese
navy at Coral Sea (May 1942) and Midway (June 1942)
-Many historians consider the Battle of Midway the turning
point in the war
-The U.S. fight a series of brutal land battles with the
Japanese as they take back islands that had fallen under
Japanese control
-Eventually U.S. marine, army and naval forces will bypass
some fortified islands (in a strategy called island-hopping) as
they approach the Japanese home territory
General Hideki Tojo
-This
Japanese leader, prime
minister from 1941 to 1944, had
ordered his men to stand fast and
defend Japanese-held islands to the
last man
-The brutal fighting on Iwo Jima and
Okinawa, undertaken by Tojo’s
successors, reflects this policy
-Tojo also sanctioned atrocities
where militarily expedient
-Eventually Tojo was forced to give
up power
-After the war, Tojo was convicted as
a war criminal and executed by the
Allies (in 1948)
D-DAY (6 June 1944)
-The Allies launch an
amphibious landing in
Normandy, France
-This attack is succesful
-In less than a year, the
Allies take back France,
Belgium, and Holland, and
advance on Germany
-Other allied armies
advance on Germany from
Italy and from the East
Yalta Conference (February 1945)
-”The Big Three” – Churchill
(U.K.), Roosevelt (U.S.) and Stalin
(U.S.S.R.) had met at Yalta (a
resort in the U.S.S.R.) to discuss
the fate of Europe and Asia in the
event of an Allied victory, which
now seemed likely
-Roosevelt (aka FDR) was
physically very weak at this time
and would die within two
months; he was replaced as U.S.
leader by Harry Truman,
Roosevelt’s vice president
-After Nazi Germany’s defeat,
Churchill, Truman and Stalin will
meet at Potsdam
End of war in Europe
-The Allies will
converge on
Germany
-Hitler orders no
retreat but
eventually he is
surrounded in
Berlin and
decides to
commit suicide
on 30 April 1945
V-E Day (8 May 1945)
The fighting in Berlin
and other parts of
Germany is very
bloody but Nazi
Germany is
compelled to
surrender
-Victory in Europe is
declared on 8 May
1945 (V-E Day)
-
The Holocaust and Concentration Camps in Europe
-After
the War, the full
extent of Nazi atrocities
becomes known
-A network of
concentration camps,
including death camps, is
discovered
-In these camps and in
other parts of Europe,
approximately 6 million
Jews were killed
-The systematic and
purposeful execution of
the Jews, a genocide, was
part of Hitler’s plan;
leading Nazis referred to
it as The Final Solution
The Pacific Theater of WWII (including Island Hopping)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
-U.S. President Harry
Truman issues Japan an
ultimatum to surrender
unconditionally
-The Japanese reject the
ultimatum
-Truman orders the
dropping of atomic bombs
on Hiroshima (on 6 August
1945) and Nagasaki (on 9
August 1945)
Atomic Bomb
The U.S. atomic bomb
resulted from
researchers involved in
the top-secret
Manhattan Project
-The Soviets, however,
knew of the project from
their network of spies
(Klaus Fuchs, e.g.)
-
Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989)
After the two atomic bombs
fell, the emperor, revered by
the Japanese as divine, ordered
his countrymen to lay down
their arms and surrender
-General Douglas MacArthur
took over in Japan as
commander of U.S. occupying
forces
-
Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946)
-German
leaders accused
of war crimes were put on
trial after the war
-Many were found guilty
and sentenced either to
death (Joachim von
Ribbentrop, e.g.) or to long
prison terms (Rudolf Hess
and Albert Speer, e.g.)
-Similar war crimes trials
were conducted in Tokyo
after the war