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World War II
Chapter 29
The Path to War
Spanish Civil War showed that
German and Italy were allied,
rearming and aggressive
Rome-Berlin Axis 1936
 “Pact of Steel”
 Formal alliance between Italy and
Germany
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The Path to War
Anschluss
 March 13, 1938
 Union between Germany and Austria
The Path to War
Sudetenland
 Germany speaking region of Czechoslovakia
 Mountainous buffer zone
 Contained many military bases and factories
 Annexed by the Germans
Appeasement
The Munich Agreement
 Meeting of Hitler, Mussolini,
Prime Ministers of Britain and
France
Czechoslovakia lost:
 1/3 of its population
 Best military defenses
 Much of its economic strength

British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain declared we have
“peace in our time”
Appeasement
Czechoslovakia becomes part of the Third
Reich in 1939
The Path to War
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Italy invaded and annexed Albania in 1939
Leader of Nazi party in German speaking city of
Danzig (Free City) declared city part of
Germany
British and French declared pledges to protect
Poland
The Path to War
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression
Pact 1939
 Germany offered Russians a free
hand in Finland, Estonia, Latvia
and eastern Poland
 Western Poland was under
German “sphere of influence”
 Two nations would not attack
each other for a period of 10
years
The Path to War
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Sept. 1,1939 Germany invaded Poland
Britain and France mobilized, sent Germany and
ultimatum
Britain and France declared war on Sept. 3, 1939
One year after surrendering democratic Czechoslovakia,
they fought for authoritarian Poland
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Blitzkrieg – “Lightening War”
 Used overwhelming force and speed
 Mechanized forces, tanks, airplanes
 Poland fell in less than a month
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Sitzkrieg- “the sitting war” or the phony war
 Hitler refrained from attacking France
 The French felt secure behind the Maginot Line
 British and French increased the speed of arms
production and mobilization
Maginot Line
The Course of the War 1939-1941
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Germany captured Denmark in a day April 9,
1940
Captured strategic points in Norway
Warm Up:

Contrast the war on the eastern and western
fronts at the outbreak of WWII (1939)?
The Course of the War 1939-1941
The Fall of France
 Germany attacked France without warning on
May 10, 1940
 German troops flooded through the
Netherlands and Belgium
 The Dutch surrendered in 5 days, the Belgians
lasted 18 days
 German troops avoided the Maginot Line
The Course of the War 1939-1941
German troops drove to the English Channel
The Miracle of Dunkirk
 340,000 Allied troops evacuated using naval
vessels, commercial ferries and private sailboats
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The Course of the War 1939-1941
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Germany renewed attack
on June 5th
Paris fell in a week
Mussolini attacked
Southern France on June
10th
France surrendered on
June 16th
The Course of the War 1939-1941
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On the day Germany
invaded France, Winston
Churchill became Prime
Minister
After the fall of France,
Britain stood alone
against Germany
The Course of the War 1939-1941
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Germany prepared plans for
invasion while its air force,
the Luftwaffe, started
sustained bombing attacks

The Blitz

The Royal Air Force inflicted
heavy losses on the Luftwaffe
Aided by radar
Britain survived and endured
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The Course of the War 1939-1941
The Balkans
 Italian troops from Albania invaded Greece
 The Greeks repelled the Italians
 Germany sent reinforcements to the Balkans
 Hungary and Romania joined the Axis
 Invaded and conquered Yugoslavia and Greece
 Italy attacked Egypt from its colony in Libya
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Invasion of the Soviet
Union
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Hitler invaded Russia on
June 22, 1941
Operation Barbarossa
Largest concentration of
military power ever
assembled
Blitzkrieg tactics
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Invasion of the Soviet Union
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Ukraine captured
Leningrad (St. Petersburg) under siege
Sevastopol and Crimea conquered in the South
Advanced to the suburbs of Moscow
Territory held by Germany accounted for 2/3 of
Russian production of Coal, iron, steel and
aluminum
40% of grain and hogs
The Global War 1942-1945
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Tripartite Pact- Japan joined the Axis
powers in 1940
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7th
1941) made the conflict a truly global war
United States joined on the side of the
Allies
Japanese Aggression
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Invasion of Manchuria 1931
War with China starting in 1937
Conquest of French Indochina (Vietnam) 1941
Philippines conquered in 1942
War in the Pacific
U.S. fought Japan to a draw at the battle of Coral Sea and
Midway
 Americans were better able to replace losses
Battle of Guadalcanal 1942-1943
 Raged for six months
 Japanese defeated
 Turning point of the war in the Pacific
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War in North Africa
Germans came to the aid of Italy in North
Africa
 Send Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox”
 Came within 60 miles of Alexandria
Battle of El Alamein Nov. 1942
 British forces, led by General Montgomery
pushed German and Italian forces back to
Tunisia
 Turning point of the war in Africa
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War in The Soviet Union
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As Russian forces retreated, they burned the
land behind them
“scorched earth policy”
Left German army little to live on
Germans pushed toward strategic city of
Stalingrad (Volgograd)
War in The Soviet Union
Battle of Stalingrad
 German supplies dwindled while Russian
amassed forces
 Russian counterattack encircled German army
 Germans surrendered less than 1/3 of its
300,000 men survived
 Turning point of the war in the eastern front
Air Power
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Allies gained air supremacy
in Europe
Began around the clock
bombing
Americans during the day,
British at night
Attacks included both
military and civilian targets
Firebombing of Hamburg
and Dresden
Dresden
Italian Front
American troops landed in Africa joined British
in pushing Axis forces out of Africa
 Invasion of Italy in 1943
- “soft underbelly of the Axis”
 King Victor Emmanuel abdicated
 Italy withdrew from the war
 Northern Italy remained occupied by German
forces
 Rome Liberated in June 1944
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Soviet Union
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After Stalingrad, Soviet army made rapid
advancements
By Feb. 1944 they were at the Polish border
Recaptured Crimea in Spring
Romania, Finland and Bulgaria in the summer
Western Front
D-Day invasion June 6, 1944
 150,000 men
 5,000 ships
 Supported by overwhelming airpower
 Began rapid advance through France
 Joined with French resistance groups
 In Aug. 1944 French Resistance groups led
uprising in Paris
 Free French forces led by Charles de Gaulle
entered the cheering city
German Resistance
V1
V1 rocket – pilot less plane
 V2- first long rang ballistic
missile
Battle of the Bulge
 Last major German offensive
 Each side lost 700,000 men
 German unable to sustain the
offensive
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V2
End of the War
Yalta Conference 1945
 Big Three (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt)
 Agreed to create United Nations
- Big 5 to have veto powers
(U.S., Russia, France, Great Britain and China)
 After war, German was to be divided
 Soviets agreed to enter war against Japan after
Germany defeated in exchange for concessions
Final Months
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Allies advanced on all fronts
Russians took Berlin in 1945
Hitler committed suicide April 30, 1945
Germany officers surrendered 4 days later
War in Asia lasted 4 months longer
Japan surrendered after atomic bombs were
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the
Soviet Union entered the war