Download Major Conflicts of World War II

World War II
• Standard: Demonstrate an understanding of
the global political, economic, and social
impact of World War II.
• Essential Question: What was the global
political, economic, and social impact of World
War II?
Major Conflicts
• Element: Describe the major conflicts and
outcomes to include Pearl Harbor, El-Alamein,
Stalingrad, D-Day, Guadalcanal, the Philippines
(Leyte Gulf) and the end of the war in Europe
and Asia.
• Vocabulary: Pearl Harbor, El-Alamein,
Stalingrad, D-Day, Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf
World War II
• 1939-1945
• Axis Powers
– Nazi-Germany
– Italy
– Japan
• Allied Powers
–
–
–
–
United Kingdom
France
Russia
United States
Blitzkrieg
• “Lightning War”
• using fast-moving
airplanes and tanks
• followed by massive
infantry forces
• designed to take enemy
defenders by surprise
and overwhelm them
quickly
Blitzkrieg
• Poland: on September 1, 1939 Germany attacked
and took over leading Great Britain and France to
declare war on Germany by September 3
• Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary joined the Axis
powers with force of will by Hitler
• The Phony War: France and Britain stationed
troops at the Maginot Line while German troops
were stationed on the Siegfried Line. No one
tried to cross
Early Victories
• Denmark & Norway: German forces launched surprise
attack on April 9, 1940
• allowed Germany to build bases along the NorwegianDanish cost to launch attacks on Britain.
• Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg: Germans took
control over the Northern border of France in May of
1940 in preparations of an invasion into France
• France: crossed at the Ardennes woodland crossing the
gap of the Maginot Line to push the British and French
army’s out of France at Dunkirk
Rescue at Dunkirk
• French and British forces were pinned in at
Dunkirk
• crossed English Channel with 850 ships from
May 26 to June 4, 1940
• used Royal Navy ships, civilian crafts-yachts,
lifeboats, paddle steamers and fishing boats
• amateur armada carried some 338,000 battleweary soldiers to safety
Stop and Think!
• What was “Blitzkrieg”?
• Why do you think it was so effective in the
early part of World War II?
Fall of France
• Hitler took Paris by June 14, 1940
• Northern France under control of Germany
• Vichy, France and headed by Marshal Petain a
World War I hero for France
– assisted Nazi-German forces
Results of France
• General Charles de Gaulle set up a
government in exile at London for France
– Organized Free French military forces that battled
the Nazis until Frances liberation in 1944
• after Germany took France, Japan seized the
French colony of Indo-china in September
1940
Why do you think the German
occupation of France was so
signficant?
The Battle of Britain
• Operation Sea Lion: plan to invade Great
Britain, the last strong hold in the west
• British Royal Air Force outnumbered and
withheld German invasion
• operation abandoned
• many major cities in Great Britain, including
London were bombarded constantly for
several months until October 1940
Churchill after Bombing
• Throughout the German bombing raids of
London, Churchill kept his country together
by visiting the bombing sites giving hope to
his people through several speeches:
“I would say to the House as I said to those
who have joined this government: 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
long months of struggle and of suffering. You
ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word:
Victory. Victory at all costs — Victory in spite
of all terror — Victory, however long and hard
the road may be, for without victory there is no
survival.”
Stop and Think!
• Read the quote to the
left by Winston
Churchill. Compare his
sentiments to the
British sentiments
during the years of
appeasement before
1939. Why do you think
this change occurred?
• “You ask, what is our
aim? I can answer in
one word: Victory.
Victory at all costs —
Victory in spite of all
terror — Victory,
however long and hard
the road may be, for
without victory there is
no survival.”
Axis Balkan Dominance
• Greece and Yugoslavia: resisted and fell to
Germany in days during April, 1941
• Crete: German forcing Allied powers off of
Europe
• Operation Barbarossa: June 22, 1941
Germans invaded Soviet Union who were not
prepared, Soviets retreated destroying
everything as they retreated
Winston Churchill
“Even though large tracts of Europe and many
old and famous States have fallen or may fall into
the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious
apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in
France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we
shall fight with growing confidence and growing
strength in the air, we shall defend our Island,
whatever the cost may be, 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.”
Japanese Aggression
• Japan threatened
British Malaysia, the
Dutch East Indies, and
the American
Philippines
• Admiral Yamamoto:
leader of the Japanese
navy, saw the U. S.
military base in Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii as a
threat
Pearl Harbor
Description:
• Pacific Theater
• December 7, 1941
• Japanese surprise attack on U.S. Naval Base at Hawaii
Pearl Harbor
Outcome:
• U.S. responded by
declaring war on Japan
• because of Axis alliance
U.S. at war with
Germany and Italy
• U.S. joined Great Britain
and Soviet Union to
form the Allied Powers
Allied Leaders
Winston Churchill
Charles de Gaulle
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Joseph Stalin
Island Hopping
• General Douglas
MacArthur plan to
attack the weaker
Islands closer to Japan
rather than taking every
Island one by one
Guadalcanal
Description:
• Pacific Theater
• May 1942 to February
1943
• land forces Campaign
• Allied forces spotted
construction of an
airfield on Guadalcanal
in the Solomon Islands
Guadalcanal
Outcome:
• first amphibious landing of the war for Allied
forces
• took island over and Japanese forces
evacuated in February 1943
• stopped Japanese expansion
Battle of Midway
•
•
•
•
June 4 to June 7, 1942
Pacific Theater
Naval Campaign
regarded as the most important naval
engagement of the Pacific Campaign
• United States navy defeated an attack by Japan
• Permanently weakened the Imperial Japanese
Navy
Stop and Think!
• How did the war in the Pacific theater begin?
• How was the war in the Pacific different from
the war in Europe?
Stalingrad
Description:
• European Theater
• August 23, 1942 to February 2, 1943
• Germany invaded Soviet Union with 300,000
soldiers
• almost took capital at Moscow and Stalingrad
• by February 2, 1943 remaining 90,000 frostbitten,
hungry German soldiers surrendered
Stalingrad
Outcome:
• USSR’s Red army and
Russian winter turned
Germans back
• high death rate and
increased destruction of
the Soviet Union
• Stalin pleaded with
Great Britain and U.S. to
invade western Europe
Stop and Think!
• Why was the Battle of
Stalingrad significant?
• Can you think of any
other instance in world
history when invading
Russia didn’t work?
Why do you think this is
the case?
El Alemein
Description:
• European Theater
• October 23 to November 4, 1942
• invasion of Africa
• Allied forces led by General Bernard “Monty”
Montgomery of Britain
• German Army led by General Rommel
El Alemein
Outcome:
• attack in Africa relieved
pressure on the eastern
front in the Soviet
Union
• Allied forces took Africa
and invaded into Italy
• toppled Mussolini from
power by September 3
Stop and Think!
• Why was the El-Alamein
significant?
D-Day
Description:
• European Theater
• June 6, 1944
• Operation Overlord was a false operation at
Calias to draw attention from Normandy
• largest amphibious (land and sea) invasion
D-Day
Outcome:
• a month later additional
troops landed under
General Patton
• punched through
German defenses by
July 25
• by August the Allies
were back in France
Stop and Think!
• Why was D-Day so important for the Allies?
Leyte Gulf
Description:
• Pacific Theater
• October 23, 1944
• Naval Campaign of the Philippines
• Allied forces led by General Douglas
MacArthur of the U.S.
• took four days
Leyte Gulf
Outcome:
• Japanese navy had lost,
eliminating it as a
fighting force
• last Japanese naval
battle of the war
Stop and Think!
• Why was the war in the
Philippines significant?
Battle of the Bulge
• December 16, 1944
• European Campaign
• Germans attacked at
the Ardennes
• the allies were caught
off guard
• pulled back together
and pushed back the
Germans
V-E Day
Description:
• European Theater
• Fall of Berlin
• by March, 1945 Allied
forces crossed the Rhine
river into Germany
• on April 25 Soviet forces
surround Germany capital
of Berlin and bomb it with
artillery fire
V-E Day
Outcome:
• Hitler marries his long-time girlfriend Eva
Braun then they both commit suicide on April
30, 1945
• Hitler’s body was carried outside and burned
• May 7, 1945 V-E day, Victory in Europe Day
• the Third Reich Germany offer General
Eisenhower their unconditional surrender
V-E Day
It is believed that Hitler shot himself in
the head while simultaneously biting
down on a cyanide pill. He had his dog,
Blondi, put to death as well.
How did the war end in Europe?
• Write a one sentence summary describing the
end of the war in the European theater. Be
prepared to share 
Fighting still in the Pacific
Iwo Jima:
• February to March 1945
• Pacific Land Forces
Campaign
• American Marines took
island 760 miles from
Tokyo
Fighting still in the Pacific
Okinawa:
• April 1 to June 21 1945
• Pacific Land Forces Campaign
• American troops moved to this island about
350 miles from southern Japan
• the bloodiest land battles
• Japanese lost 100,000 troops
• America lost 12,000
Einstein’s letter to the President
Einstein was one of several foreign
scientists that recognized the danger of
German scientists working on an Atom
bomb. In this letter Einstein urged
President Roosevelt to begin the
Manhattan Project, which would lead to
the first Atom Bomb.
Victory in Asia
Description:
• Pacific Theater
• Land Forces Campaign
• President Truman of the U.S. approves to drop
an atomic bomb on Japan
• on August 6 the first is dropped on Hiroshima
• on August 9 the second and final is dropped
on Nagasaki
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Between 140,000 and 150,000 people
died, almost all instantly, because of
these 2 bombs. The bomb dropped on
Hiroshima was dropped by the Enola
Gay.
Victory in Asia
• V-J Day
• Japanese unconditional
surrender to General
MacArthur September
2, 1945
V-J Day, Sep. 2, 1945
How did the war end in the Pacific
theater?
• Write a one sentence summary describing the
end of the war with Japan. Be prepared to
share 