Download Major Events of World War II

Major Events
of World War II
WHII.12a
Many economic and
political causes led to
World War II. Major
theaters of war included
Africa, Europe, Asia, and
the Pacific Islands.
Leadership was essential
to the Allied victory.
Invasion of Poland
• September 1, 1939 Hitler and the Nazis
invaded Poland, going against the
NaziSoviet Pact
– Agreement between Hitler and Stalin saying they
would not go to war with one another, but would just
divide Poland and other lands between USSR and
Germany
• Two days later, Great Britain and France
declared war on Germany—beginning WWII
Miracle of
Dunkirk
Miracle of Dunkirk
• May 1940
• Nazis invaded France through the Ardennes
Forest (had been considered invasion proof)
• Left thousands of Allied troops stranded
between the Nazis and the English Channel
• British sent all available vessels, merchant
ships, fishing and pleasure boats across the
channel to get troops off the beach of
Dunkirk
• 300, 000 troops were rescued
• Raised British morale
Fall of
France
Fall of France
• After Dunkirk Germany headed south
towards Paris
• Italy attacked France from the South
• By June 1940 Germany had overtaken
France and forced a surrender
– Germans occupied Northern France and established a
puppet state in the South with a capital at Vichy
• Britain now stood alone in Western Europe
• France was under control of Germany until
1944
Battle of Britain
A.K.A. Operation Sea Lion
German Air Force vs. Royal Air Force
(RAF)
Battle of Britain
“ The Blitz”
• German Luftwaffe (air force) attacked Britain
and battled against the RAF (Royal Air Force)
• Bombed Britain with nightly air raids
– Operation Sea Lion began in the southern part of Britain
in August 1940
– Attacks soon moved north toward London in September
1940
– Bombings continued for 57 nights in a row then
sporadically until the following May
• Operation Sea Lion was a failure in the end
• Battle united the British more firmly against
Germany
El Alamein
• 1940
• “Desert Fox” under the command of
German General Rommel begins
• Axis plan to take parts of Northern Africa
and Southern Europe
Germany stayed in this area of the
U.S.S.R. for two years and never
went further. Ultimately the
harsh winters turned them away.
German Invasion of
the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation
Barbarossa
• Germany attacked the Soviet Union with 3
million troops
– Stalin was unprepared
– Soviets lost two and a half million soldiers
– As the Soviets were pushed back by the Germans they
destroyed factories and farm equipment and burned crops
to keep Germany from taking supplies
• Invaded as far as Leningrad
• Germans set up a siege for over two years
• The harsh winters stalled the German advance
Lend-Lease Act
• March 1941
• FDR’s way of getting around the
neutrality laws of the US
• Allowed the President to sell war
materials to “any country whose defense
the President deems vital to the defense
of the United States.”
Atlantic Charter
• August 1941
• Churchill and FDR met secretly to
discuss the plan for destroying the Nazis
and the rebuilding the post-war world
– Set goals for the war and post war world
– “The final destruction of Nazi tyranny”
Japanese Attack on
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in order to
force the US into war after the US had
stopped all trade with them in hopes of
ending their aggression in China.
El Alamein
• November 1942
• British forces stopped advance of
General Rommel
• The “Desert Fox” advance was finally
halted
• Rommel’s army surrendered in May 1943
after American and British soldiers
joined forces in Africa
Island-Hopping
• Campaign in the Pacific in which the
Allies planned to recapture certain
islands as stepping stones towards Japan
Italy
• Invaded by British/American army in July
1943
• Italians were defeated
– First in Sicily then in Southern Italy
• After being defeated Italians overthrew
Mussolini
• Invasion weakened Hitler because it forced
him to fight on another front
Stalingrad
• turning point on Eastern front
• Soviet Union defends the city of
Stalingrad and pushed Hitler's army back
into Eastern Europe and out of the
Soviet Union
Battle of the Bulge
• Hitler’s last success
• Slowed the allied advance into Eastern
Europe but didn’t stop it
• Allies continued to push into Berlin
D-Day: Allied
Invasion of Europe
June 6, 1944
D-Day
• June 6, 1944
• Allied invasion of France
• Allies eventually reached Paris and
forced Germans to retreat
• By the end of September all of France
was FREE
V-E Day
• Germany surrenders
• May 7, 1945
• celebrated on May 8
Atomic Bombs
dropped on
Hiroshima and
August 6,Nagasaki
1945 August 7, 1945
Hiroshima &
Nagasaki
• Allies faced a BIG decision– invade vs. bomb
– Japan had shown in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
that they would fight to the death instead of surrender
• The Manhattan Project
• Japan was issued a warning to either surrender
or face utter destruction
– The warning was ignored so the United States took action
• US drops atomic bombs on Japan in an effort to
end the war quickly
V-J Day
• August 10, 1945
• Japan surrenders onboard the USS
Missouri