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World War II:
The Western Front
Invasion of Ethiopia
(1935)
to
VE Day (1945)
Underlying Causes of the War
 German Nationalism
– Resentment about Versailles
– Military convinced never beaten, just “stabbed
in back” by politicians in Homeland
 Effects of the Depression/ Economic
Conditions
 Hitler—Mein Kampf
 National Socialism (fascism)
– Anticommunism
– Antisemitism
– Doctrine of racial superiority—Arian race
Sliding into War
 Spanish Civil War (1936)
– Spanish Republic; coalition of Communists, Socialists,
Anarchists, Constitutionalist liberals
– Francisco Franco up from Spanish Africa
– Guernica
– Liberal support “International Brigades” from US,
West, but easily defeated
 1936 Olympic Games
 Brownshirts and Terror
 Dachau
– Gradual removal of “nonpeople”
– Moves against the Jews: Nuremburg Laws
Guernica
Italy vs Ethiopia:Tanks vs Spears
 Defeat of Italy in 1896 left
Ethiopia the only non-colonized
African country
 Mussolini declared war on Ethiopia
in 1935 to avenge the defeat: the
League of Nations was too weak to
stop him.
 Though Emperor Haile Selassie
appealed to the world, no one aided
Ethiopia: Italy bombed the
defenseless country and took over
in 1936
 Consequences: though Europe
declared an embargo of Italy (no
trade), America, with 50% of the
world oil trade, refused, actually
increasing trade with Italy.
Hitler’s first moves at
expansion: Austria
 Lebensraum: (living space) Hitler
justified his territorial takeovers,
saying Germans needed room for
expansion.
 6 million Germans in Austria
gave Hitler an excuse for
takeover, though Versailles forbid.
 After forcing the weaker nation to
put Nazis in key government
positions, after one called for
German “assistance,” Germany
overran the country and united the
two countries, the Anschluss.
Giving Away Czechoslovakia:
“Peace in our time”
 Because of the 3 million
Germans living in the
Sudetenland, Hitler
demanded the territory.
 Europe does not want
war: at the Munich conference
of Russia, Italy, France and England, they trade the
Sudetenland for Hitler’s promise, “I have no more
territorial plans.”
 Chamberlain (Brit PM) goes home with the agreement he
calls, “Peace in our time.”
Kristallnacht: Night of Broken Glass
 A young Jew, outraged at the treatment of his
parents, shot a minor diplomat in the Paris German
embassy.
 This incident gave
Hitler an excuse to
persecute Jews
 For two days, mobs
in Germany/Austria
attacked Jews in the
street and in their homes,
destroying businesses and burning synagogues.
 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to
concentration camps. At least 96 were killed.
Czech Mate: Breaking Hitler’s
Promise to Chamberlain
 Britain, France and the
US ignored Hitler’s
outrages against Jews and
others
 6 months after the
Munich agreement, Hitler
forced the Czech
president to surrender or
face invasion.
 Czechoslovakia
surrendered with no shots
fired.
German/Russian Treaty
 Secretly made between Stalin and
Hitler August 1940
 Public: non-agression pact
 Private
– Stalin gained freedom to take over
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, invade
Finland, divided Poland with Hitler
– Hitler gained supplies of vital
materials such as oil, cotton, iron and
manganese (until he invaded Russia!)
 Reaction: shock! Especially from
Japan, who had expected to ally
with Hitler against Russia.
 Ironies: Hitler came to power as
an anti-communist; Hitler never
gave up plans to invade Russia.
War at Sea: U-Boats
German U-Boats, as in
WWI, sank Allied
shipping, as well as war
ships and troop convoys.
US convoys of Lend Lease
goods, then later troops
and equipment, only got
through because ships
navigated together in
packs guarded by
destroyers and submarines.
Invasion of Poland
 Part of western Poland was
German: Hitler invaded 1
Sept. 1939.
 At Allied insistence, Poland
did not mobilize:
 Nazis: Poles
1.8 soldiers: 1 million
2600 tanks: 180
2000 aircraft: 420
 Blitzkrieg—”lightening war”
full strike against a weaker
opponent
 6 weeks to conquer (with a 20
day bombardment of
Warsaw), with the USSR
invading in the East Sept. 17
Invasion of Poland: Outcome
 German loss=much less than Poles: 14,000 men killed,
36,000 wounded; 697 planes, 993 tanks and armored
vehicles destroyed. Polish losses: 60,000 men and
25,000 civilians killed; soldiers taken prisoner: 700,000
to Germans, 217,000 to Russians; planes and war vehicles
taken by Germans and Russians.
 1.5 million Poles transported to Siberian labor camps,
officers shot at secret forest sites
 Polish Jews herded into Ghettos to be starved, later shot
or transported and gassed along with Polish gypsies,
Soviet POWs. Over 4 million Polish Jews exterminated
in the concentration camps. 2,000 camps in Poland
 Many non-Jewish Poles transported to Germany as slave
labor or executed (indiscriminately as retaliation for
resistance or underground anti-Nazi activity). Whole
villages liquidated (300 destroyed in Poland.)
Scandinavian Countries Fall to
Hitler
 Hitler took over Denmark as a stepping stone to
Norway. Denmark, without an army, could not
resist the invaders.
 Though surprised, the Norwegian army of 15,000
held off Hitler long enough to allow the king and
his family to escape to London. Germans landed
at Narvik unopposed because foreign minister
Quisling (head of the Norwegian Nazi party who
provided intelligence to Hitler) told the garrison
there not to fight. Allied troops retook the town,
then withdrew, leaving Norway defenseless.
 Norway held out from April 9 to June 9.
Other Small Countries Fall
 Belgium had refused to let
Britain and French troops
deploy there, remaining
neutral. Germany ignored the
neutrality, attacking Belgium.
 Next, attacking from Denmark
and Germany, Hitler’s forces
flattened Dutch cities, taking
the country in four days,
though the queen escaped to
London.
 Though Hitler took Brussels
and Antwerp, main Belgian
cities, Belgium resisted for 18
days, then finally had to
surrender
Churchill Becomes Prime
Minister
 When Denmark fell, Chamberlain
resigned and Churchill lead
Britain.
 He determined that together,
France and Britain had to “rescue
not only Europe, but mankind
from the foulest and most souldestroying tyranny which has ever
darkened and stained the pages of
history.”
 He said the conquered peoples of
Europe would face “the long
night of barbarism…unless we
conquer, as conquer we must; as
conquer we shall.”
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat..
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.
We have before us many, many months of struggle and
suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say. It is to
wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and
with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war
against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark,
lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our
policy”
Churchill before Parliament,
May 13, 1940.
The French are Fried
 The French scattered the
army along the Maginot
Line, a line of guns and
fortress-like bunkers on the
French border facing
Germany
 The French commander
split off his main reserves
to help defend the
Netherlands.
 The Germans launched
their blitzkrieg through the
Ardennes Forest, near
Belgium.
 In only 5 days, the road to
Paris was already open.
Road to Dunkirk
 Churchill sent troops to aid the French; the
US with lend lease sent armaments and
airplanes.
 The Germans, with a 2:1 advantage in
aircraft, continued their advance.
 Britain and France withdrew to Dunkirk
with the Germans following, preparing to
trap the Allied troops, capture them and
defeat the Allies.
 Hitler (or his officers, with his sanction)
then called a mysterious temporary halt (3
days) to German advances. Possible
explanations:
– until the infantry could catch up
– Suffering heavy tank losses in Belgium with a
British counterattack
– because the officers, with success against French
forces so swift and easy, feared a trap
– because tanks bogged down in mud.
Miracle at Dunkirk
 By the time Hitler resumed, British ships had
begun to evacuate Allied forces to England.
 German Luftwaffe staged constant bombing raids
on Dunkirk, but failed to slow or prevent the
operation, because of the heroic RAF.
 Between May 26 and June 4, 1940, nearly
340,000 Allies were evacuated (more than
100,000 French) in more than 800 vessels, from
destroyers to fishing boats and yachts from
Belgium, France, Holland, Britain
– Controversy -- how successful and organized was the
evacuation really? stories of officers pushing enlisted
men away so they could evacuate first, French not even
told til most British were evacuated, French soldiers
hating Britain so much they returned to be imprisoned,
stealing of supplies from Dunkirk
 9 days of bombing: Luftwaffe sank 8 destroyers,
lost 176 aircraft while Britain lost 108. One
million Allies were killed or taken prisoner at a
cost of 60,000 Germans. Obviously, this
“miracle” only deflected the British and French
from the colossal defeat.
Finishing off France
 British intelligence revealed Hitler’s immediate
plans were to conquer the rest of France.
 Churchill tried to get France to fight on, but
couldn’t supply more planes because he felt he
would need all the planes he could get to defend
Britain
 General de Gaulle was promoted to
undersecretary of war in early June and tried to
overcome the defeatist attitude of the military and
political leaders.
 Then Mussolini, with France on the verge of
defeat, invaded France; the invasion was a
debacle with Italian forces losing 5,000 to French
8 casualties.
Defeat of France
 French appealed to Roosevelt to declare war against
Germany, but Roosevelt refused.
 The Germans captured Paris, festooning the Arc de Triomphe
with a giant Nazi flag.
 The Maginot line was still intact, but surrounded by
Germans—only one section of blockhouses was captured in a
German attack.
 France surrendered in the same train coach where Germans
had signed the armistice of 1918.
 In retaliation for Versailles, Hitler’s humiliating terms:
German rule of N. France, Italian of S, reduction of French
army to 100,000, prisoners of war held by Germany, fine of
$120 million, far exceeding German reparations payments.
 Hitler left central France as a collaborationist republic called
Vichy, ruled by Marshall Petain. De Gaulle refused to
surrender and escaped to London, then set up in Chad, N.
Africa, as leader of the Free French.
Battle
of
Britain
 June 18,1940: Churchill declared the Battle of




Britain would be Britain’s “finest hour.”
Germany lacked landing craft to transfer troops to
England.
Hitler sent the
Luftwaffe to
destroy the RAF,
bombing British
ports, shipping,
airfields, factories,
cities for 5 months.
Hitler’s plan to take Britain, “Operation Sea Lion,”
met with resistance from generals who feared a
two-front war (Britain and USSR) like WWI.
Hitler decided to bomb Britain into submission.
Battle of Britain
 Luftwaffe fighters inflicted devastating losses on the
RAF, downing 450 planes, (70%) in the first few
months.
 Then the British began inflicting losses on the
Germans: in one attack, Germans lost 144 of 1,000
attacking planes, while the RAF lost 18.
 Shifting from targeting air bases, the Germans began
bombing residential areas to “break” Britain’s will to
fight.
 In retaliation the RAF bombed Berlin. Though damage
was light, the psychological impact was great.
Battle of Britain becomes the
Blitz (one story)
 Hitler’s plan: destroy RAF, then eventually invade
Britain (or just threaten, then take over the government)
 Churchill vow: if Germany bombs our civilians, we will
bomb Berlin
 Story of two German fighters who did not release bombs
over their military target (in blackout, couldn’t find it);
released over what they thought was the Channel: it was
a suburb of London.
 Churchill had RAF bomb Berlin—made Hitler furious,
so
 Ordered bombing of London; Hitler vowed to level it.
He though it would demoralize England: it didn’t.
One ray of light: Enigma
Churchill’s Response
“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the
landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the
streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never
surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment
believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated
and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed
and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the
struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with
all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the
liberation of the Old.”
Meanwhile, Back in the USA
 Roosevelt is reelected,
partially with promise not
to fight a European war
 Inaugural speech: 4
Freedoms: speech and
expression, worship God
in own way, from want,
from fear (reduce arms)
 Because of
Hitler/Japanese threat, US
rearms, lifting US from
Depression as US
produces 40% of world’s
arms.
Lend Lease: Arms on the
Installment Plan
 1941: Allies’ economy broken
by war, could not pay
US for more arms
 Roosevelt: Allies don’t expect us
to fight their wars, but must help
out: “democracy’s arsenal”
 Congress passes Lend/Lease: we
supply tanks, guns, ships; they
give them back after war ends
 Opponents: like giving back
used gum
Afrika Korps: Desert Fox
 British and Italian troops clashed
in Libya, Egypt with some success
for Italians in Kenya.
 Hitler didn’t plan to conquer
Africa, but Mussolini’s success
and France’s Vichy government
cooperation in Algeria encouraged
him.
 German General Erwin Rommel
went to N. Africa (Tripoli) to lead
Hitler’s forces (Afrika Corps) to
victories in Libya on the way to
the Suez Canal in Egypt.
 Rommel’s skill lead to his
nickname: Desert Fox
El Alamein
 Decisive battle in North Africa between Montgomery
(British) and Rommel (German) 150 mi w of Cairo: Allies
had to stop Germans from reaching Suez canal where they
could stop supplies and men transported from Asia to Europe
 Defeats in France and Russia, U-Boat destruction of Allies
on the Atlantic made Churchill desperate for a victory
 Montgomery knew Rommel’s plans and supply lines
because German codes broken (Enigma). Cut off supplies:
Rommel got only 33%, bombed Rommel’s forces at attack.
Sandstorm let Rommel approach British positions; then RAF
continued strafing.
 Germans= 110,000 men and 500 tanks, some inoperable.
Italian tanks could not match new US Shermans, + short of
fuel. The Allies = 200,000 men, 1000 tanks, also six-pound
artillery guns highly effective up to 1500m. Between armies
= ‘Devil’s Garden,’ German mine field 5 miles wide,
littered with anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, a nightmare
for the Allies.
El Alamein (continued)
 Montgomery : “Operation Bertram” with dummy tanks, a
dummy pipeline to convince Rommel of main Allied attack
in the south and that Allies were in no hurry to attack.
“Monty’s army in the north also had to ‘disappear’ with
tanks covered to appear as non-threatening lorries.” Rommel
became convinced that Allies would attack in the south.
 M. tried to move tanks across minefield, but engineers
couldn’t clear it fast enough (mines all hooked together)tanks bogged down, destroyed by German air attacks.
 Australians attacked from Mediterranean (N), deflecting
German forces; allies (then able to attack from South)
overwhelmed Germans. Though Hitler ordered him to stand
and fight, Rommel withdrew his forces.
 Germans lost 25,000; Allies 13,000, and Germans did not
take the Suez canal: Churchill got the victory he needed to
encourage Britain in its fight.
US Joins the Allies: Pearl Harbor
 Yamamoto plan to cripple the US fleet, only real threat to
Japan in the Pacific: carried out by Cmdr Fuchida and
Adm Nagumo. Assumption: US would withdraw,
Japanese conquest would be complete before US could
recover.
 Success: total surprise, destroying much of Pacific fleet,
aircraft; around 2400 US dead
 Miscalculations:
–
–
–
–
–
Left the navy’s 3 carriers untouched: not in the harbor
Sunday (so very little resistance), so few sailors there to be killed
Left many of oil tanks, repair docks untouched: recovery quick
Harbor shallow: many vessels didn’t sink completely, repairable
Public reaction: united vs Japan, no longer war in distant places
Japanese Aggression in the
Pacific
 Simultaneously with Pearl Harbor, the Japanese
attack American installations in the Philippines,
and other places.
 After prolonged battles, the Japanese take Guam,
the Philippines (resulting in the infamous Bataan
Death March), adding these conquests to their
gains over British and Dutch Pacific Island
holdings.
 Dominating much of the Pacific, the Japanese
work their way to New Guinea, threatening
British Australia and New Zealand
Hitler Invades USSR: Barbarossa
 Hitler’s reasons for invading Russia: territory, antiCommunism, large Jewish population, scorn of Slavs
 Stalin is warned of German plan to attack, doesn’t believe,
prepare.
 June 22, 1941 Luftwaffe destroyed ¼ Russian air force; three
pronged ground attack across 1000 mile front.
 Germany took Lithuania, Latvia, rest of Poland, heartland of
the Ukraine where surrounded and captured 660,000 Russian
troops in the Ukraine (largest mass capture ever)
 Allies bomb German cities to draw forces away from Russia.
 German atrocities: slaughter army and civilians, starve
besieged cities, executed many.
– Einsatzgruppen, execution squads made up of psychopaths and
criminals, sent in after army, would round up all Jews, local leaders,
religious, those who might cause trouble for occupying forces and
execute them, often in town squares or next to mass graves they
forced their victims to dig
Germany vs Russia (continued)
 Germans prepared to take Leningrad and Kiev;
 BUT 3 months of fighting =86,000 lost German
soldiers; supply lines stretched to point nothing
much getting through; railroads didn’t help
because Russian gauge wider than Germans, so
for German trains to travel in Russ, had to
replace track first; scorched earth policy denying
Germans supplies from captured Russian lands.
 Tried to capture Caucasus oil fields; USSR army
stopped them.
 Decided to attack Moscow, but “General Winter”
came to the rescue: 60 below zero weather:
sentries froze to death, had to light fires under
tanks to warm engines to operate; 100,000 cases
of frostbite (2,000 amputations), guns jammed
after a few shots, flesh stuck to steel
 Russ General Zhukov saved Moscow,
counterattacking Germans with fresh army of
troops (1 million) back from fighting Japan in E:
disciplined and skilled survivors
Maximum Axis Control (Sept 1942)
Leningrad
 “Hell on earth” Worst bombardment
of the war trapped 3 million people;
16,000 miles of trenches surrounding
to defend city dug by aged, women
 Hitler ordered city leveled,
population shot, starved, driven out
 Besieged and starved, ½ citizens of
the city died; only way for supplies
to get in--100 miles of lake
 Held out 900 days: much of the city
destroyed
 Hitler’s troops defeated by winter,
lack of supplies
 30 Soviet divisions trapped in
Leningrad, but reprieved when Hitler
pulled out troops for fight vs
Moscow
Stalingrad: Turning Point
 By 1942, 2.8 million of the 3.9 million Russian POWs were
dead from execution, horrible conditions—Germans left
POW’s to starve, freeze to death with no supplies—hardened
resistance of Russians. (Of course, Russians who took
POW’s treated them in much the same way, transporting
many into the Russian heartland or Siberia to work them to
death, starve them, or just execute them immediately.)
 Summer German offensive against Stalingrad; bombing by
Wehrmacht destroyed much of city and killed over 40% of
inhabitants: by Nov. German forces encircled the city,
cutting off most food and water; bombing and attacking hand
to hand, building to building gained 90% of city, so German
press ready to announce city fallen to them
 Surprise winter offensive by Genera Zhukov: Russians
surrounded the Axis forces, now trapped around the outskirts
of a city without food, supplies.
Russian troops + Winter =
German Defeat
General Winter again helps defeat Russia’s
enemy (Charles XII, Napoleon)
 Hitler would not allow his commander, Paulus, to
break out and escape the circle; assured by air
force they could fly in supplies, but airfields had
been destroyed, and Zhukov had too much control:
 Sent elite SS troops to rescue, but didn’t want to
risk casualties to break through Russ perimeter
forces, told Paulus to break through from city, but
troops weakened, no ammo or supplies, so SS left.
 HAD to surrender (first time a German field
marshall had ever surrendered—Hitler expected
him to commit suicide); much of the army captured
 TURNING POINT: public humiliation; myth of
German invincibility shattered,; Germans lost
150,000; 90,000 captured; 30,000 wounded.
 Hitler blamed incompetent generals.
Tehran Conference
 Roosevelt desperate to secure Russian
cooperation against Japan, so met at Tehran
 Gave concessions to Stalin: border with
Poland, favor to Yugoslavian insurgents,
invasion of France
 Roosevelt wanted to argue from position of
strength, but bad health.
Operation Torch: Hitler’s defeat
in North Africa
 Churchill convinced America: fight European
war first, then concentrate on
Japanese/Pacific war
 British plan over American objections: take
North Africa, then invade Italy through Sicily.
Fighting back and forth between Rommel and
Montgomery (Monty)
 Americans fought badly at first and suffered
2,000 casualties; change of command to
Patton and Bradley helped, but Montgomery
never trusted American command again.
 Allies swept through Libya dn linked with
American and British troops in Tunisia. Axis
troops tried to evacuate from the tip of
Tunisia, but only 800 (including Rommel)
escaped
Panzer
Sherman
Allied Campaign in Italy
 Invasion of Sicily by Allied
troops was successful.
 Allied troops moved up the
Italian “boot.” Defeated
Italians, wanted to surrender.
Hitler moved Germans into Italy
stopping Allies 100 miles south
of Rome.
 January 1944: Allies landed
American troops at Anzio 30 miles
south of Rome. They successfully
surprised the Germans, (landed
36,000 troops at a loss of 13) but had
to wait for artillery, tanks, so couldn’t
follow up. Fierce fighting drove
them to the beach, but they held on
until Allied troops broke through
from the South, 6 months later
Monte Cassino
 Allies pressing toward Rome had to
pass through the town of Cassino,
overlooked by a Benedictine
monastery.
 The Allies bombed heavily then
attacked 3 times Jan-March, 1944,
each time fought off by Germans.
 In May, bombing by 3,000 planes
plus a week of heavy fighting
captured the monastery, allowing the
troops to break through and relieve
the troops at Anzio.
 Some information suggests the
monastery didn’t need bombing: that
the Allies killed only civilians hiding
there with the bombing, that no
German troops were there until
AFTER the bombing in the ruins..
Polish soldiers
climbing the Mount
to take the Abbey.
D Day Preliminaries
 Well planned: Eisenhower in charge over Free French,
British, Canadians, Americans, others. Decoys and
plants deceived Germans as to where the landing would
occur.
 The assault was conducted in two phases:
– an airborne assault landing of 24,000 British,
American, Free French, Canadian paratroopers
shortly after midnight, and
– an landing of Allied infantry and armored divisions
on the coast of France commencing at 6:30 AM
 5 Beach invasion—
– 2 British --Sword, Gold
– 1 Canadian (+British) Juno
– 2 American –Omaha, Utah
D-Day/Normandy
Invasion/Operation Overlord
US, British and
Canadian forces
 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104
destroyers, and 71 large landing
craft of various descriptions as
well as troop transports, mine
sweepers, and merchantmen —in
all, nearly 5,000 ships of every
type, the largest armada ever
assembled.
 The naval bombardment began at
0550 that morning detonating
minefields along the shoreline and
destroying enemy defensive
positions.
 In the hours following the
bombardment, more than 100,000
fighting men swept ashore
 To one correspondent, reporting from the
deck of the cruiser HMS Hillary, it sounded
like "the rhythmic beating of a gigantic
drum" all along the coast.
a "mighty
endeavor,"
President
Franklin D.
Roosevelt
described it to
the American
people, "to
preserve … our
civilization and
to set free a
suffering
humanity."
After D Day
 From Normandy, Allied Forces slogged
through France, pushing the Germans in
front of them, as Russia worked her way
from the East toward Germany:
 Highlights
– Patton’s amazing march of his army through
France from Normandy bypassing Paris to
Germany
– The free French army was allowed to liberate
Paris.
Vistula/Oder Offensive: Russia
 Russian victories on E front (Poland) through last half of
1944 pushed German forces back into Germany. Mid
1944 Germans lost one million soldiers, running out of oil
and supplies; poorly armed and equipped.
 Hitler’s first priority still eradicating Jews.
– (During Warsaw ghetto uprising, Russian forces not far away, but
remained inactive.)
– As Russian forces under Zhukov advanced across Poland,
Germany forced marches emptied the death camps.
– Used railroads to ship Jews to death camps as the German armies
were fighting Russians and needed transport and supplies.
 By end of January 1945, Russians 60k from Berlin at
Oder R, but at loss of 150,000 killed, almost 70,000
captured by Germans.
Yalta Conference
 Feb. 1945 meeting of Stalin,
Churchill, Roosevelt
 So. Ukraine on Black Sea
because Stalin reluctant
 Overall strategy for defeat of
Germany/ Japan and post war
 Divide Berlin into 3 zones:
ended up 4 (French carved
from British/US)
 UN: Russia wanted a seat on
the Assembly for each of 16
republics—got 3
 Division of Europe: Russia
already there
Battle of the Bulge
 Allies surprised, thought
Hitler’s forces were through
 (underground factories; more
men than Allies knew)
 Dec 16, 1945-Jan 28, 1946
 30 German divisions vs 16
Allied; N. France/ Belgium
 Germans pushed Allied front
50 miles, surrounding units
and taking many prisoners
 Costly: 81,000 US Casualties
(1900 dead) 1400 British (200
dead) 100,000 German dead
Battle of Berlin
 One of bloodiest battles in history
 Berlin = German captital; Hitler there, along with center
of German atomic research.
 Germans 45,000 troops defending Berlin, but included
Volkssturm (over 60 year olds) and Hitler Youth; regular
troops on their way from W front
– Americans stopped at Elbe
– Ike let Soviets take Berlin: wouldn’t waste men on area to be under USSR
influence after war as agreed; afraid of mutual deaths if both forces in at once)
– Allies bombed the capital before Soviets arrived—US several large daytime
raids; RAF 36 consecutive nights
 Russians under Zhukov surrounded the city before
German regulars arrived;
– bombed the city center (more bombing than all Allied)
– Cut off supplies and German armies from city.
 Fierce fighting, especially around Reichstag.
– Hitler ordered armies to surround and engage Soviets
outside city, but armies had neither troops nor armaments
to do it.
 Russians took Berlin.
– Russians held south and east of Germany; allies North and
West;
– Most of transport destroyed, one million homeless in
Berlin, alone; starvation and disease major problems.
– Though Russia tried to feed Germans under their control,
killed or captured all in uniform
and many atrocities of rape and
pillage.
Hitler Escaped Berlin, BUT
 As Allied troops approached Hitler’s hideway
bunker at Berchtesgaden in 1945, Hitler
– Married his mistress Eva Braun
– Committed suicide, taking poison and shooting
himself in the mouth with a pistol (Eva also
committed suicide then).
 Still obsessed with destroying the Jews, his last
act was to write a proclamation urging “merciless
opposition to the universal poisoner of all
peoples, international Jewry.”
Aftermath: Victory, but
 The Allies fought from the west through
Germany as the Russians rushed through
Eastern Europe and the eastern portion of
Germany
 Both forces met at Berlin, partitioning the
city as agreed after the Battle of Berlin.
 After the victory, the Allies learned of the
horrors of the Nazi war
The “Final Solution”
 As Germany conquered E. Europe and Russia (Ukraine,
particularly), einsatzgruppen, patrols of armed thugs, beat and
executed hundreds of Jews and Slav untermenschen:
government leaders, teachers, doctors and other elite of these
countries. Survivors were shipped to Germany to work as
slave labor and live in deliberately humiliating conditions in
concentration camps where many died of disease and
starvation.
 The destruction, of the Jews, particularly, wasn’t fast enough.
Already established concentration camps in Poland and
Germany were equipped as killing factories with large
“showers” where Jews were gassed in great numbers,
crematoria for obliterating bodies.
 Even after Germany was defeated, the trains from occupied
lands were given priority to get them to the camps to try to
complete the genocide before Allies arrived to stop it. Total
killed; 6 million Jews, 6 million mentally and physically
handicapped, religious leaders and other Nazi opponents,
gypsies, homosexuals, others.
Holocaust: 12 Million Murders
The door of a gas chamber
at Birkenau.
The sign on the door say
"Lebensgefhar" - danger of
death
“Arbeit Macht Frei” —
“Labor makes you free”
K.L. Auschwitz:
prisoner n° 31849.
Her name and the
date of the photo are
unknown.
Mass graves gave
witness of the work
of the
Einsatzgruppen.
Nuremberg Trials
Photograph of the defendent's box at the Nurember Trial. Göring and
Hess are in the front row, extreme left. Photo from the
National Archives
Defendants, tried for their war crimes, all
declared, “We were only following orders.”
Forgotten Consequences:
Changed Lives
Robert, who was once very social , funny , and often
described as the 'life of the party', had changed. He no
longer wanted to participate in social gatherings or
celebrate, and never explained his distant feelings to
anyone, not even his own children. He rarely shared any
of his stories about the march across Europe from 1943 1945, however; near the end of his life he took the time to
share his scrapbook from World War II. He often said, '' I
want you to see these pictures and be reminded of what
we fought for in the hope that something this terrible will
never happen again ".