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WWII Part I The Road to War There were SEVEN world superpowers by the 1930s France United Kingdom Soviet Union Japan The United States Germany Italy In 1932, Japan invaded a part of China called Manchuria with huge success The League of Nations sent a group of officials to study the problem in Manchuria After a year of study, the League of Nations asked Japan to leave China Japan refused and left the League of Nations in 1933 Mussolini noticed this, and in 1935, his Italians invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia and Somalia) The African soldiers fought bravely under their leader Haile Selassie but only had old guns and arrows They could not stop the Italian tanks and planes, and Italy easily conquered Abyssinia Even though Selassie had called on the League for help, they secretly made a pact with Italy and gave them Abyssinia instead Mussolini decided in 1937 to leave the League of Nations completely, which showed how useless the League had become Germany had left the League in 1933, and once Italy left in 1937, they formed their own alliance Japan also joined the alliance, and the Axis Powers were formed In 1937, Hitler demanded that Germany’s Western land, which the Treaty of Versailles gave to France, be returned France and the UK agreed and returned the land, hoping to satisfy Hitler Hitler then set his sights on Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia's army was strong, and its president wanted to fight against the NAZIS with the help of France, the UK, and Russia Instead, the leaders of the UK and France met with Hitler They made a deal and gave Hitler half of Czechoslovakia (Sudentenland) The process of making deals with an aggressor in order to stop war is called appeasement The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, returned home and said…. "My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.” In 1939, Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia, and the rest of the world began to realize that appeasement was not going to work. WWII Part II New Alliances and the Beginnings of War France and Britain believed that the Soviet Union would help them if war broke out against Germany Instead, the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, signed a peace treaty with Germany Hitler and Stalin had secretly agreed to split Eastern Europe Britain and Poland signed a “Mutual Assistance Pact” on August 25, 1939, promising to help each other if attacked Five days later, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland Great Britain, France, New Zealand, and Australia declared war on Germany World War II Began…. Hitler and his generals developed a new style of war called the blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg means “Lightning War.” This is where bombers and tanks attack together against one target. Blitzkrieg The war happened so fast that Great Britain and France were unable to send any help Poland’s army was crushed in two weeks, and Warsaw was in ruins. Stalin was stunned by how fast the Germans defeated Poland, and he quickly sent the Soviet army into Eastern Poland Stalin and Hitler divided Poland Stalin then invaded Finland on November 30, 1939 Finland expected that the Soviets would attack it, so Finland set up a huge landmine field for protection Eventually the Soviet Union defeated Finland The Nazi war machine’s next targets were Denmark and Norway, which they invaded on April 9, 1940 They were easily crushed and conquered by Germany WWII PART III France’s Defeat, Churchill’s Victory By April 1940, France and Great Britain had still not sent a single soldier to fight the Germans, and Hitler was now turning his attention to France. France’s army was the largest and most advanced in the world France planned on fighting a defensive war with trenches, like in World War I The bulk of the French army was sent to the border of Belgium and France France believed that the Ardennes Forest in Luxembourg was not crossable with tanks and did not defend it The Nazis secretly passed through it in days and crushed the French army. Next, they headed for Paris. Italy also entered the war and started to attack France from the south The Allies were surrounded in their positions at the Belgian border and were forced to evacuate from Dunkirk, across the English Channel French armies were crushed by blitzkrieg – Germany conquered Paris In six weeks, Hitler’s army had defeated the largest and most powerful country in the world France was Hitler’s by June 22, 1940 Embarrassingly, France surrendered in the same railcar where Germany signed the WWI armistice Only the United Kingdom stood in the way of complete Nazi control of Europe Hitler did not want to fight Britain and believed that Britain would beg Germany for peace The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was Winston Churchill Churchill made it clear that Britain would NEVER SURRENDER! Part IV Aerial War, Territory Take Over, Betrayal of Alliances Britain is an island country, and in order for Germany to get its soldiers to Britain, they needed to use ships The problem was that Britain’s navy was the best in the world In order for Germany to defeat Britain’s navy, they would need to use their air force, the Luftwaffe. In order for Germany to destroy the UK’s navy, they first had to destroy the RAF and control the air Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF – This is known as the Battle of Britain The battle lasted for months over London. While the fighters fought, the German bombers bombed London London’s people hid in the underground subways The RAF put up a great fight, and Hitler was forced to admit that the Luftwaffe could not defeat Britain London was in ruins, but Britain did NOT SURRENDER! The battle was the United Kingdom’s finest hour! Hitler ordered most generals in the Luftwaffe to be hanged The German blitzkrieg had been motionless for months, and Hitler grew impatient The Nazi armies invaded Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria The Germans easily won with their blitzkrieg Mussolini and his Italian army invaded Greece The Greek army fought well, and the Italians were embarrassed. They were forced to retreat Hitler was furious because his soldiers now had to go to Greece and save Mussolini The Germans crushed the Greek army But the fighting cost Hitler three precious weeks…. Because Hitler had now decided to invade the Soviet Union It was now early September, and Hitler knew that he had to completely destroy the Soviet Union before winter Stalin’s generals warned him that Hitler was going to betray the Soviet Union and attack Stalin refused to believe this and did nothing The Soviet Union had untrained and poorly equipped soldiers, but they had huge amounts of them, and they were able to defeat the Nazis Part V America Enters the War On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed the USA at Pearl Harbor The US declared war on Japan Germany and Italy honored their alliance to Japan and declared war on the United States Roosevelt thought that Germany was the greater threat and should be defeated first The USA and UK invaded Sicily The Allies defeated the Italians in Sicily and then invaded the Italian mainland The Italian army was crushed, and the Allies took control of Southern Italy American soldiers captured Mussolini Hitler quickly sent his best soldiers into Italy; they found and freed Mussolini Part VI Hitler put Mussolini back in charge of Italy, but the Nazis entered Italy to fight the US and Britain The Nazi army was able to stop the Allies. Britain and the US waited for more soldiers Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met several times They were known as the Big Three Stalin demanded that Britain and the US launch a major attack on Western Europe at the same time that he attacked Eastern Europe 1 . R u s The US and Britain agreed, and on June 6, 1944, they invaded France This attack was known as D-Day – it was the Day of Decision in Europe D-Day was a major success, and the Nazis were forced to retreat Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was gaining huge amounts of ground, but Hitler refused to send reinforcements The Allies continued to march up through Italy The Italian people had a revolution. They captured Mussolini and hanged him, along with many other fascist leaders. Italy was out of World War II Hitler knew that he could no longer win the war, but he chose to fight until the bitter end Britain and the US stormed towards Berlin from the west, and the USSR stormed towards Berlin from the east The Soviet Union reached Berlin first, and Hitler had children as young as 13 fighting to defend it…. The Soviets took over Berlin with huge losses. They began to search for Hitler Hitler then committed suicide rather than allowing himself to be captured by the Soviet Army Without Hitler ruling over the German armed forces, Germany was finally free to surrender to the Allied forces Finally, on May 8, 1945, the War in Europe was over!