Download WORLD WAR II

WORLD WAR II through the
Gulf War
IN PICTURES
World War II began when German troops invaded
Poland. Freed from the threat of invasion at his
back by Russian troops, Hitler moved swiftly to
invade Poland on September 1, 1939 . On
September 3, France and Britain declared war
on Germany, honoring their treaty obligations to
Poland. Poland fell quickly, with German forces
advancing as much as 40 miles in a single day
A ship burns during the Japanese attack on the U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. That
surprise attack propelled the country into World War II.
The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt would call
President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking the Congress
to declare war on Japan, which it did on December 8,
1941. Adhering to the Tripartite Pact, Hitler then
declared war on the U.S., making it truly a world at
war. The Japanese attack on the American naval and
air bases brought the U.S. into World War II and
shifted the balance of power in favor of the Allies.
The Allied Powers
The main Allied Powers were:
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The United States
Great Britain (United Kingdom)
France
Soviet Union
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, was the U.S.
president for most of WWII. He died in Warm
Springs, Georgia a month before Germany
surrendered.
Winston Churchill, was the prime minister of Great
Britain during the war. Great Britain was one of the
few countries in Europe that Hitler was not able to
conquer, although he bombed the country heavily.
Most of France was taken over by Germany
early in World War II, although a French
resistance force fought alongside the Allies
throughout the war.
The Soviet Union, led by dictator Joseph
Stalin, joined the war on the side of the
Allies after Hitler broke his non-aggression
pact and invaded the Soviet Union
The Axis Powers
The main Axis Powers in World War II were:
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
Germany was led by dictator Adolf Hitler. After
Hitler took power in Germany in 1933, he soon
became a dictator who gained support among
the German people by promising to make
Germany a powerful country once again.
Italy was lead by fascist dictator Benito
Mussolini.
Japan was led by Emperor Hirohito who
was a monarch, although Japan also had
a prime minister, General Hideki Tojo.
One way Americans at home helped the war effort was
by rationing, or using less of certain products. This
picture shows a line for sugar rationing.
Many materials were in short supply and citizens
were asked to conserve and turn in tires and
metal to be reused by the growing defense
industry.
Another way Americans at home helped the war effort
was by buying War Bonds. By buying bonds, Americans
were “loaning” money to the U.S. Government for the
war and would be repaid with interest.
Women helped the war effort by taking over factory
jobs. This poster features a fictional character called
“Rosie the Riveter” that represents the women who
took over factory jobs during WWII.
While women were not allowed to fight in
combat, they joined the military as clerks
and nurses.
Propaganda posters were an important tool for
all the countries in World War II. This Russian
poster says, “Death to the Fascist Serpent!”
Most Japanese citizens were forced to live in internment
camps during World War II, because the government
was worried they might fight against the United States,
even though there was no evidence of this.
The Holocaust
After their victory, the
Allies discovered the
extent of the hideous
Nazi attempt to
exterminate the Jews
and other social
"undesirables" such
as people who were
mentally or
physically
handicapped in an
effort to purify the
German "master
race." This Nazi
policy had been
extended to all of the
countries occupied
by German armies.
The horrors of the Holocaust and the 12
million killed, including 6 million Jews, was
not fully known until after the war ended.
Tuskegee Airmen-An African-American
squadron of pilots formed in 1941; they
were based in Tuskegee, Alabama, and
trained at Tuskegee Institute.
The D-Day invasion across the English Channel, June
6, 1944, along the Normandy coast in France. In
addition to this frontal assault, parachute and glider
troops were dropped behind the German lines during
the night before the invasion. Hitler, having been tricked
into believing initially that the Normandy strike was a
deceptive move to cover a true assault planned for
Calais, did not at first send reinforcements.
The three Allied leaders, Winston Churchill from
Great Britain, Franklin Roosevelt from the U.S.,
and Joseph Stalin from Russia meet at Yalta
shortly before the end of the war.
General Douglas MacArthur going ashore in Lingayen Gulf
on January 22, 1945. When MacArthur landed in Australia
after his flight from the Philippines in March 1942, he made
his famous promise, "I will return," and he did return in
Members of the United States Marine Corps
raise the American flag on Mount Suribachi on
February 23, 1945 after the Battle of Iwo Jima,
one of the most costly battles of the Pacific
campaign during World War II. More than 6,000
United States Marines fell during the capture of
the island.
It is estimated that at least 100,000 people died
when the atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima on August 6, 1945; at least 60,000
died when a second bomb exploded over
Nagasaki three days later, and on August 14
the Japanese agreed to surrender.
The war finally came to end on August 15, 1945 when
Truman accepted the Japanese surrender. This was
known as V-J day for Victory over Japan.
As with World War I, many places in Europe
were devastated after the war. This shows
the aftermath of the war in a city in Germany.
Millions of soldiers and civilians were killed
in World War II
The United Nations, or the UN, was officially
brought into being in 1945. Fifty-one member
countries approved its charter by October of
that year. The UN has almost 200 countries
now that work together to try to keep peace
between countries.
The capital of Germany, Berlin, was divided after WWII, with
the eastern (communist) half controlled by the Soviet Union,
and the western (free) half controlled by the US, UK, and
France. In 1948, Russia announced a blockade, cutting off all
ground access to the city of Berlin. Being wholly within Russiancontrolled East Germany, West Berlin depended upon
American supplies for its survival. Truman answered this threat
by an airlift, which began in July 1948 and lasted until May
1949, at its height flying in 12,000 tons of food, fuel and other
supplies daily.
In the aftermath of the Berlin crisis, the
U.S. solidified its commitment to
containment of communism by joining with
ten other western democracies in the
creation of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, NATO, on August 24, 1949
A map of Europe after WW II. Territory gained by the Soviet
Union is in purple; territory lost by Germany in dark blue;
and the areas occupied by the Allies after the war, red.
During the war, the Allied powers had agreed only on
unconditional surrender by Germany. Truman had demanded
free elections in Eastern Europe, but Stalin refused, saying
"A freely elected government in any of these Eastern
European countries would be anti-Soviet, and that we cannot
allow." Neither the U.S. nor its allies were willing to go to war
over this, so the Iron Curtain (a term coined by Winston
Churchill) divided both Germany and Europe
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy raised the anti-communist
fever in a campaign of "red-baiting" has been known
since as "McCarthyism." Beginning in February 1950,
McCarthy accused many people of being communists,
using guilt by association and documentation taken out
of context to accuse people at all levels of government
of communism. His accusations were made in the public
forum of a committee hearing where normal courtroom
protections for witnesses were not observed.
In 1945, after World War II, Korea was partitioned
along the 38th parallel into communist and noncommunist zones. The communist North, supported
by the Soviet Union, invaded the South in 1950, and
under the leadership of the United States the UN
responded by authorizing its member states to aid
South Korea. The war ended with the country of Korea
staying divided into North & South Korea.
The Soviet Union was Cuba's ally, sending missiles and other military
supplies to Cuba. When U.S. spy planes photographed this missile
site under construction in Cuba in October, 1962, Pres. John F.
Kennedy’s advisors suggested that the president order a preemptive
strike to destroy it; instead, he informed Soviet premier Nikita
Khrushchev that the U.S. had established a blockade against the
shipment of military equipment to the island. From October 26 to 28,
as the U.S.S.R.'s ships headed toward Cuba, it looked as if the two
superpowers were on the brink of nuclear war. Then Khrushchev
offered a compromise: in exchange for a U.S. promise not to invade
Cuba, he ordered the ships to return to Russia and agreed to the
removal of the missiles and the crisis was averted.
The assassinations of Pres. John F. Kennedy
in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights
leader, and Sen. Robert Kennedy, who was
running for president, in 1968 shocked the
nation.
The Vietnam War
American troops were withdrawn in 1973,
and hostilities ended in 1975 after North
Vietnam captured the South Vietnamese
capital of Saigon, ending twelve years of
warfare.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the
leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. The
March on Washington, shown here, was one of
many peaceful protests and demonstrations
working to get equal rights and treatment for
African Americans.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus
seat to a white man, African Americans in
Montgomery, Alabama boycotted the bus
system, often walking instead. A little over a
year later, the boycott was successful and the
bus company stopped forcing African
Americans to sit at the back of the bus.
In 1954, the Supreme Court in the Brown vs.
Board of Education case unanimously ruled that
segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
The NAACP's chief counsel (lawyer),
Thurgood Marshall, won the case of Brown
vs. the Board of Education. In 1967, he
became the first African-American Supreme
Court Justice.
In the postwar period, beginning in the
1950s, television became the world's most
popular medium for entertainment and
education.
On July 20, 1969, many families gathered
around their televisions to watch American
astronaut Neil Armstrong become the first man
to walk on the moon. During the Cold War, the
United States and the U.S.S.R. had been in a
“space race.” A Soviet astronaut had been the
first person in space, so the U.S. was excited to
The first personal
computers came out
in the late 1970searly 1980s. Those
early computers
cost around
$10,000.
Computers have become more and more
powerful and prices have dropped as
technology improves. The Internet, where
many people get much of their information
today, did not become accessible to most
people until the 1990s.
The Persian Gulf War
In August of 1990, Saddam Hussein of Iraq
invaded the neighboring oil-rich state of Kuwait,
but was forced to withdraw after a military
coalition led by the U.S. defeated Iraq’s army
with a month-long air war and a four-day
ground campaign in January-February 1991