Download World War II

World War II
By Chris Anderson
Italy’s Early Military Attempts
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1935: Benito Mussolini wanted to test his
powers
He “flexed his muscles” by invading Ethiopia
(Africa)
Ethiopian soldiers had no chance against
Mussolini’s mechanized military
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Ethiopians were fighting on horseback with outdated
weapons
By the Spring of 1936, Italy had control over Ethiopia
Japan—Prime Minister Hideki Tojo
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Japan’s government shifted from a civilian
controlled government to a military controlled
government after the world wide depression
struck in the 1920s and 1930s
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The military government was looking to create an
empire for Japan
Japan’s growing population placed heavy strains
on the nation’s resources
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Japan needed to find new places to get the resources
it needed—especially land and raw materials
Japan was also tired of being dependent
on other nations for much of the resources
they needed
 A Pacific Empire would make Japan more
self-sufficient and less reliant on other
nations
 Japan started their quest for an empire
even before their involvement in World
War I
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1895: Japan had gained the island of Taiwan
1904-1905: Japan had gained land in Korea
and parts of Manchuria
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Japan wanted the rest of Manchuria
1931: Japan invaded Manchuria to get its iron
and coal
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Japan also wanted the land in Manchuria so that
Japan could colonize the land to produce agricultural
and industrial goods
By 1932, Japan had control over Manchuria
Japan installed a “puppet government” in Manchuria
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The League of Nations looked down on Japan
for Japan’s taking of Manchuria
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1937: Japan moved its forces into Northern
China
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Japan withdrew from the League of Nations
Japan executed over 200,000 Chinese citizens in
their capture of the Chinese capital—called the
“China Incident”
1940: Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with
Italy and Germany—creating the Axis Powers
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Each nation pledged to help one another if the U. S.
attacked either Japan, Germany, or Italy
By the fall of 1941, Hideki Tojo had
become Prime Minister of Japan
 The U. S. had become very upset at
Japan’s attacks on China
 FDR cut off all fuel and metal shipments to
Japan
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America’s Early Reactions
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The U. S. was witnessing everything going on in
the world
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The U. S. wanted to ensure its non-involvement if war
was to break out again
Congress passed the Neutrality Acts
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The acts prohibited the sale of American weapons to
nations at war
American citizens were advised not to travel on ships
of warring nations
Countries at war had to pay cash for non-military
goods purchased from the U. S.
FDR asked Congress for more $ to spend on the
development of tanks, planes, guns, etc.—in case the
U. S. had to go to war
Rise of Germany and
Appeasement
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1938: Hitler marched into Austria and
proclaimed Austria part of Germany
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6 months later, Hitler’s troops marched
into the Sudetenland region of
Czechoslovakia
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Hitler faced NO opposition in gaining Austria
This region had a large German population
No one in Europe was willing to stand up
to Hitler and challenge his taking over of
Europe
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France and Great Britain took on a policy
of appeasement toward Hitler
France and Great Britain were trying to avoid
war with Hitler
 They would give into Hitler’s demands in an
attempt to keep peace
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September 1938: a conference was held
in Munich
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier
agreed NOT to oppose Hitler’s advance into
the Sudetenland
 The 3 nations signed the Munich Pact—this
allowed Hitler’s conquest of the Sudetenland
to stand
 Chamberlain believed war had been averted
by the Munich Pact—”We have secured
peace in our time.”
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Non-Aggression Pact and the
Soviet Union
5 months after the signing of the Munich
Pact, Hitler took the rest of
Czechoslovakia
 August 29, 1939: Hitler signed the NonAggression Pact with Stalin and the
USSR
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The Pact stated that neither nation would
attack the other
 Hitler, could then, avoid a 2-front war—he
could concentrate his efforts on the West and
France
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Invasion of Poland
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Hitler and Stalin had divided Poland between
them in the Non-aggression Pact
With Stalin’s approval, Hitler’s mobile army
moved into Poland on September 1, 1939
Hitler’s Luftwaffe (air force) bombed Polish cities
His Panzer tank divisions stormed into Poland
This swift attack style is called Blitzkrieg
(lightening) warfare
September 3, 1939: France and Great Britain
declared war on Germany—World War II had
begun
Invasion and Fall of France
France had prepared for a German
invasion
 Nearly 1-million French soldiers stood
along the French/German border in an
attempt to protect France
 England had also sent supplies and troops
to help aid the French in a possible
German attack
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May 1940: German tanks stormed across
the French border from Belgium
The Germans went north and swept in behind
the French troops defending the border
 The fortified guns of the Maginot Line were
never fired
 The failure of the Maginot Line to defend
France sucked the life out of many in France
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The massive tank attacks and constant
bombardment by the Luftwaffe caused the
French and British to retreat
By the end of the month, many French
soldiers had given up the fight
 The British had retreated all the way to
Dunkirk—a port on the English Channel
 The British were saved by boarding private
ships that took them back to England
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The evacuation of the British left the
French to fight alone
 June 3: Paris was bombed
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One week later, Italy declared war on France
and attacked Southern France
June 14: Germans marched into Paris
 June 22: France surrendered to Hitler
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Hitler could now focus on Great Britain
Battle of Britain
Hitler now set out to conquer Great Britain
 Great Britain was now led by Prime
Minister Winston Churchill
 Hitler attempted to use his Luftwaffe to
bomb the British
 The British conquered with their Royal Air
Force
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The RAF had better planes and pilots
 The RAF shot down hundreds of German
planes
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Hitler put a ban on the daytime bombing of
Great Britain
 Hitler started attacked Great Britain at
night from Sept. 1940 until May 1941
 Hitler also started using his V-2 rockets to
bomb Great Britain
 Churchill pleaded for the Americans to
give the British some aid against the
Germans
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America’s Response
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Many in the U. S. felt that the nation
should have stayed out of WWI and were
in favor of the Neutrality Acts
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These people were isolationists
Others believed in interventionism and
believed the U. S. should give all possible
support to Great Britain—except a full
scale declaration of war
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FDR remained cautious as not to offend any
groups within the United States
After the French fell to Germany in 1940, FDR
began sending aid to the British
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September 1940: FDR sent 50 American destroyers
to Britain in return for the right to establish U. S. naval
bases on British held lands
FDR also singed into law the Selective Training and
Service Act—the 1st peacetime draft in history
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All men between the ages of 21 and 35 were eligible
Over 1 million men served 1-year terms, but they only served
in the Western Hemisphere
FDR was trying to build an American military in case the U.S.
got involved in the war
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In 1941, after his re-election—FDR
created the Lend-Lease Bill
This was open support for the Allies
 The president had the right to sell, lend, or
lease military supplies to any nations deemed
vital to the defense of the U. S.
 Most Americans supported the Lend-Lease
Bill
 The U. S. was not physically at war with
Germany, but was in an economic war with
Germany
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March 1941: Congress approved the
Lend-Lease bill
 Summer 1941: German subs sank many
American and British ships carrying
supplies to Great Britain
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FDR ordered the US navy to help track
German subs
 The Navy was ordered to escort British ships
and destroy any subs trying to sink the ships
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Fall 1941: a German sub sank an
American destroyer
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FDR ordered the navy to shoot Axis ships on
sight
October 1941: German subs sank 2
American destroyers killing 100 American
sailors
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Congress responded by repealing the
Neutrality Acts
FDR and Churchill met to talk about what
would happen in the world when and if the
war ended
 The 2 created the Atlantic Charter—
becomes the basis for the United Nations
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German Invasion of the Soviet
Union
1939: Germany and the USSR signed the
Non-aggression Pact
 Stalin still did not fully trust Hitler
 June 22, 1941: Germany invaded the
Soviet Union
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The invasion took Stalin and the Soviets by
surprise
 German troops used Blitzkrieg warfare to take
Leningrad and the Crimean Peninsula
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By November 1941, Germany had the capital of
Moscow surrounded
The harsh Soviet winter helped the Soviet
military push the Germans back
Spring 1942: Germans attacked Soviet oil fields
in SW Russia
September 1942: 300,000 German soldiers
were attacking Stalingrad
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the Battle of Stalingrad lasted 5 months until the
Germans surrendered in 1943
The surrender stopped the German’s advance
eastward
Stalin never forgave the Allies for failing to
support the Soviet’s defense—one reason for the
Cold War
United States Enters the War
Although the US had gone a long ways to
help Great Britain, the US had not officially
entered the war
 Japan had started taking steps that made
FDR upset
 FDR placed further embargoes on Japan
after Japan made an alliance with
Germany and Italy—Rome-Tokyo-Berlin
Axis
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The US continued to use negotiation to deal with
the Japanese instead of taking hostile action
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The US would only reopen trade with Japan if Japan
pulled out of China and Indochina
By November 1941: war with Japan was just
about inevitable—everyone knew it
Japan decided it was time to act
Most Americans believed the attack would come
in Malaysia or the Philippines
The Japanese planned to attack the Americans
at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
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December 7, 1941: the Japanese bomb
Pearl Harbor destroying many American
ships and killing thousands of American
sailors
The attack only lasted 3 hours
 19 ships were destroyed
 188 planes were destroyed
 2400 men were killed
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December 8, 1941: FDR asked Congress
for a declaration of war against Japan
A few days later, Germany and Italy declared
war on the United States
 The US had officially entered WWII
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The US had to prepare for war on 2 fronts
One in Europe
 One in the Pacific
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As soon as war was declared, the draft
was increased in the United States
 Thousands of men and women voluntarily
enlisted in the military
 By 1945, the US had 12 million people in
the military
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About 1 million soldiers were AfricanAmericans
 The military was segregated into black and
white units
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Most black units were commanded by whites
 Many black soldiers were put into cooking or
laboring jobs
 Racial discrimination existed on most military
bases
 Some African-Americans did get to see some
battle action
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Hispanic-Americans and JapaneseAmericans also fought for the US in WWII
 Japanese-Americans were the most
decorated war heroes in World War II
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The War @ Home in the United States:
 Conflict between the different races was
going on in the US while the US was
fighting in WWII
 Segregation was the norm in the southern
states
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1.) African Americans:
Segregation was legal in the 1940s
The war gave many civil rights groups a reason
to protest against segregation
A. Philip Randolph led the movement for black
equality
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Randolph was upset that minorities were excluded
from the high paying industrial jobs in many wartime
plants
Randolph organized the March on Washington
Movement (MOWM)
“We loyal American citizens demand the right to work
and fight for our country.”—A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph
1943: riots broke out in Detroit
 Blacks attacked white workers
 The next day, a mob of whites roamed the
streets looking for any blacks they could
find
 25 blacks and 6 whites were killed
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2.) Mexican-Americans:
Thousands of farm workers form Mexico illegally
entered the US to work—American Southwest
Many of these workers had children in the US
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Those born in American were called Chicanos
The Chicanos began getting jobs in industry—
willing to work for less than poor whites and
blacks
In Los Angeles, the discrimination against the
Chicanos and Hispanic-Americans turned into
hatred
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Many Hispanic teenagers wore “Zoot Suits”—a
long jacket with padded shoulders and pleated
pants
The Zoot Suiters and white sailors squard off in
LA
The sailors blamed Zoot Suiters for stabbing and
robbing a group of white sailors
The sailors roamed the Hispanic neighborhoods,
beating up any one in a zoot suit
The police arrested the zoot suiters, NOT the
sailors
3.) Japanese Americans:
 1942: many Japanese Americans were
taken from their homes and placed in
internment camps
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Many in the US government feared the
Japanese Americans were going to try to
sabotage the US from within—helping Japan
win the war
Over 100,000 Japanese Americans were
placed in internment camps even though
they showed NO signs of disloyalty
The people were eventually released and
a public apology was given to them by the
US government
 Ironically, Japanese American soldiers
were the most decorated of all American
soldiers in WWII
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How the War Changed Home Life:
 As soon as the US officially entered the
war, the US began to change
 Factories were converted over to produce
materials for war
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Planes
 Tanks
 Weapons
 Uniforms
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The War Production Board (WPB) was
created to oversee the transformation
Production of non-essential materials was
cut back
 The government paid businesses to build
new plants and factories to produce war
materials
 Industrial production nearly doubled—
helping the economy
 The war and its need for materials caused
the American economy to grow
 The nations GNP (Gross National Product)
rose from $90 billion to $211 billion in 1945
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17 million new jobs were created
 Crop prices doubled between 1940 and
1945
 With more money, people looked to spend
$ on stuff
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This need to spend caused prices on
consumer goods to inflate
FDR wanted to stop the inflation in prices
 FDR began freezing people’s wages
 FDR created the National War Labor
Board (NWLB) to control wages and
monitor inflation
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Workers said that if wages were to freeze,
the prices on goods should also freeze
 1942: Congress allowed the Office of
Price Administration (OPA) to fix a
maximum price on goods
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the OPA instituted rationing—limiting how
much of something the people could buy
 Local rationing boards were created
 Each family had a quota on their rationing
coupons
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Since most men were out fighting, women
were needed to work in the factories
Welding
 Carpentry
 Heavy construction
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The women had a job, but the job security
was only temporary
 The women were paid less than men
 After the war, most of the women lost their
jobs to the soldiers returning home
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To help pay for the war, the government
began selling war bonds
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The government was borrowing $ from the US
people
People would buy a bond and, in a few
years, they buyer would get their $ back
plus interest
 The bonds also helped to control inflation
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European Front
The Allies were in a jam early in the war
with France surrendering and Hitler
bombing Great Britain
 The Allies decided they had to fight an
offensive war to have any chance of
defeating Hitler
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Allied Offenses:
Nov. 1942: the US and Great Britain landed
troops in Northern Africa
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Trying to get Africa so the Allies could enter Europe
through the back door
The Allies marched into Morocco and Algeria
The Allies faced the German tank commander
Erwin Rommel
The British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery
defeated Rommel at El Alamein
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the Allied victory marked the turning point in the war
The Allies had control over Northern Africa by 1943
From North Africa, the Allied launched an
invasion of Southern Europe
 July 1943: the Allies landed in Sicily
 August 1943: the Allies had driven the
Germans out of Sicily
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Mussolini’s fascist party fell out of power in
Italy
 The Allies invaded Italy from Sicily
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September 8, 1943: Italy surrendered to
the Allies
 June 4, 1944: the Allies finally liberated
Rome
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D-DAY:
June 6, 1944: General Dwight D. Eisenhower
launched the largest land-sea-air attack in
history—Operation Overlord
175,000 Allied soldiers came ashore on the
coast of Normandy, France
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The Allies established a beach head, but
suffered heavy casualties
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The Allies were trying to gain a foothold in Hitler’s
Europe
2245 killed
1670 wounded
From Normandy, the Allies began to launch an
invasion into Europe to drive the Germans back
to Germany
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Near the End:
The Allies proved their superiority in the skies
over Europe
With control over the skies, Allied ground troops
could move against the Germans
August 25, 1945: Paris was liberated from the
Germans
By the end of the summer other European
nations had been freed from German control
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France
Belgium
Luxembourg
The Allied navy began using SONAR to
track and destroy German U-boats
 The Allies also used naval convoys to help
transport goods across the Atlantic
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Battle of the Bulge:
Hitler launched one last ditch effort to help him
win the war
He launched a counter-offensive in the Ardennes
Forest of Belgium
German troops drove a bulge 80 miles long and
50 miles deep into the Allied lines
After a week of fighting, the Allies were able to
drive the Germans back
The Battle of the Bulge was the final German
offensive of the war
the Allies could now advance toward Germany
Yalta Conference :
 Just before the end of the war in Europe,
the big three nations met at Yalta in the
Soviet Union
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Great Britain—Winston Churchill
 United States—FDR
 Soviet Union—Joseph Stalin
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These nations and their representatives
became known as the “Big Three”
Churchill wanted to save the British empire
 Stalin wanted to protect his borders and
rebuild the USSR
 FDR wanted a worldwide spread of
democracy and free trade
 FDR wanted the Soviets to help him
defeat Japan
 The Big Three met for a week in Yalta
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Stalin agreed to help the US against Japan, but
only after the war has been over for 2 or 3
months
For his help, Stalin would get some territory in
Asia
All 3 disagreed on what should be done with
Germany after the war
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Each nation agreed to divide up Germany once the
war was over
Stalin wanted to have power in
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Romania
Poland
Bulgaria
Austria
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
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Holocaust:
After arriving in Germany, the Allies met with
something they had never expected
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The troops witnessed what Hitler was doing with the
Jews
1942: Hitler began to round up Jews, 1st in
Germany, then in the rest of Europe
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Jews were shipped to concentration camps to do
slave labor or face medical experiments
Many Jews were beaten or starved or killed
The bodies were burned or buried in mass graves
1945: the Allied forces liberated many of
the concentration camps and were
shocked at what they saw
 About 6 million Jews were killed
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Victory in Europe:
 The British and US were moving east
through Germany, the Soviets were
moving west through Germany
 April 12, 1945: FDR died leaving VP
Harry Truman as president
 April 30, 1945: Hitler committed suicide
 May 2, 1945: Berlin fell
 May 7, 1945: Germany surrendered to the
Allies
 May 8, 1945: V-E day
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War in the Pacific
While the war in Europe was over, it still
raged on in the Pacific against Japan
 The war in the Pacific was fought
differently than the war fought in Europe
 Very early in the Pacific theatre, Japan
was victorious
 May 1942: the Americans were having
more success against the Japanese
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the US kept Japan from taking Australia
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June 1942: Battle Midway Island
The Americans sank 4 Japanese carriers and
destroyed 300 Japanese planes
 A great victory for the US
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Japan still held a lot of strategically
important islands in the Pacific
 The US adopted a strategy called island
hoping
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A way of capturing key islands
 Once captured, military bases were built on
the islands
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August 1942: the Marines landed on
Guadalcanal
The Americans were trying to destroy a
Japanese military base
Early 1945: the US fought Japan at Iwo Jima
and Okinawa
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the US gained the islands, but suffered heavy losses
The US pulled within 700 miles of the Japanese
islands
The battles also proved that an all out assault on
Japan would cost millions of American lives
Convinced Truman to use the Atomic bomb
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Atomic Bomb:
The US was secretly working on a new
weapon—the atomic bomb
The name of the project to build the bomb was
called the Manhattan Project
the project was led by J. Robert Openheimer
Truman had scheduled an invasion of Japan for
late in 1945
July 16, 1945: scientists successfully detonated
the 1st atomic bomb in New Mexico
Truman decided to use the Atomic bomb
instead of sending in millions of Americans
to their death with an invasion of Japan
 August 6, 1945: “Little Boy” was dropped
on Hiroshima
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100,000 people were killed on impact
 100,000 more died from burns, radiation, or
wounds
 The bomb was dropped by the Enola Gay
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August 9, 1945: Japan had still not
surrendered
 The US dropped another atomic bomb on
Nagasaki—40,00 killed instantly
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August 14, 1945: Japan finally
surrendered to the US—V-J Day
 WWII was now over
 Now members of both Japan and
Germany were placed on trial for war
crimes committed against the Jews and
other people in the war
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