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Unit 15
PP 2
Chapter 29.2-29.4
The Road to World War II
The US position
 Still viewed all of this as a
“European problem”
– Isolationism
– The Neutrality Acts
– Eventually these were
relaxed and we began to
aid the allies




Lend lease Act
Destroyers for naval bases
The “Arsenal of Democracy”
New Axis Powers agreement
was disturbing (Why?)
Hitler’s Conquests in Europe
 Blitzkrieg (Panzer divisions of 300 tanks)
– Tanks, Infantry and air support
– Use of paratroopers
– Poland falls on September 27th
 April 1940 takes Denmark and Norway
– Netherlands (2 days)
– Belgium (2 weeks)
 Hitler avoided the Maginot Line
– Invades France through Luxembourg (6/10/40)
– The Miracle of Dunkirk: 300,000 saved but all
equipment was lost (DeGaulle and the Free French)
– Germans reach Paris on June 14th 1940
– set up the Vichy government under Henri Petain
Henri Petain
Vichy France
The Battle of Britain
 From August of 1940 until March of 1941 Hitler
bombed England to soften them up for
invasion (15,000 killed in London in 2 months)
– British bomb Berlin and caused the Luftwaffe to
shift focus to London
– Hitler shifts focus to London (allows British industry
to produce)
– Operation Sea Lion (propaganda)
– RAF used radar and US help to fight off the attacks
– Winston Churchill took power in May of 1940
(good relationship with FDR and the US)
– Churchill Speech
THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
 GERMAN U-BOAT FORCE ATTACKS U.S. / BRITISH NAVIES &
MERCHANT SHIPS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC SEA LANES

JUNE 1940 - FEB 41 “THE HAPPY TIME” (WOLFPACKS)
– GERMANS ATTEMPT TO CUT OFF FLOW OF SUPPLIES
FROM U.S. TO BRITIAN
– ATTACKS START CLOSE TO U.S. SHORE
– COMBAT EVENTAULLY MOVES FURTHER INTO THE
ATLANTIC
– U.S. USES SONAR (ASDIC) & RADAR TO HINDER
GERMANS
 RESULTS?
– HEAVY LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES
– BY MID-1943, ALLIES HAVE WON CONTROL OF THE
ATLANTIC
WW II GERMAN U-BOAT
OPERATION BARBAROSSA
THE EASTERN FRONT
 June 22, 1941:
– Operation Barbarossa / Germany invades Russia with
3 million soldiers
 USSR lost 2.5 million men in the first part of the invasion
– Why?
 Lebensraum:
 Nazi Racial Theories
– Wanted to force GB to sign a treaty by eliminating an
important potential ally
 Resources: Land, Food, Oil
– Battle of Leningrad
 2 and a half year siege of the city
 1 million soviet dead
The Final Solution
 Hitler put the SS in charge
of implementing the plan to
eliminate the Jews
– Reinhard Heydrich (SS)
 Ghettos, mobile killing units,
death camps (1942)
– Auschwitz
 The death toll
– 5-6 million Jews
– Another 9-10 million (gypsies,
slavs etc..)
The US Enters the War
March 1941: FDR goes to LendLease Act (Arsenal of
Democracy)
August 1941: Atlantic Charter
July 1941 Japan occupied IndoChina (US oil embargo)
– Freeze Japanese assets
 Pearl Harbor December 7th 1941
 US declares war on Japan (Dec
8th)
 Italy and Germany declare war on
US (Dec 11th)
G.I. Roundtable Series
Early losses
 December 7th 1941 Pearl Harbor US declares war
on Japan
– Doolittle raid (sig?)
 Internment of Japanese Americans
– Japan scores early victories
 The Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea
 MacArthur “I shall return” promise
– Bataan Death March (largest US Army surrender)
 Battle of the Coral Sea
– A tie but saves Australia
– First naval battle where ships do not see each other
PHILIPPINES
80,000 US
VS.
200,000 JAPAN
After 5 MonthsUS Forces:
14,000 KIA
48,000 WIA
http://ghostofbataan.com/image2/deathm1.jpg
They were beaten, and
they were starved as they
marched. Those who fell
were bayoneted. Some of
those who fell were
beheaded by Japanese
officers who were practicing
with their samurai swords
from horseback. The
Japanese culture at that
time reflected the view that
any warrior who
surrendered had no honor;
thus was not to be treated
like a human being. Thus
they were not committing
crimes against human
beings.[...] The Japanese
soldiers at that time [...] felt
they were dealing with
subhumans and animals.[9]
The Tide Turns
Chapter 28 section 3
BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
October 1942 February of 1943
 Stalingrad (Southern Russia)
– German attempt to capture / occupy oil fields in S. Russia
– Then Germans can control important Volga River supply route
 What happens?
–
–
–
–
–
Aug.-Oct.: German 6th Army seizes Stalingrad
Oct.-Nov.: Russians surround / cut off Germans
Nov.-Feb.: German Army starved / casualties high
Feb: German 6th Army surrenders 91,000 prisoners
***Russian casualties (military & civilian):
1,250,000 (more than US in the entire war)
 STALINGRAD: Turning point in European
Theatre
NORTH AFRICAN (NOV. 1942)
UNITED STATES SUPPORTS GREAT BRITAIN IN NORTH
AFRICA (OPERATION TORCH)
– U.S. : GEORGE PATTON
– BRITISH: BERNARD MONTGOMERY
– GERMAN AFRIKA KORPS: ERWIN ROMMEL (THE
DESERT FOX)
 WHY IMPORTANT?
– CONTROL OF MEDITERRANEAN SEA AND SUEz CANAL
– ALLIES THOUGHT IT WAS “SOFT UNDERBELLY” OF EUROPE
 BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN:
– TURNING POINT IN NORTH AFRICA (BRITISH VICTORY)
Italy Surrenders
 July 1943: Allies invaded
Sicily to open a second front
in Europe (Operation Husky)
– Mussolini deposed and
arrested in the Spring of 1943
– Germans divert troops to bail
out Italy, rescue Mussolini and
restore him as the leader in
German controlled N. Italy
 Eventually caught fleeing and
executed in April of 1945
The tide turns in the Pacific
 Battle of Midway Island (June 1942)
– Commander Pacific Fleet Chester Nimitz
– 4 Japanese carriers sunk to 1 US
– Why strategically important?
 Douglass MacArthur
– Island hopping
– Leytee Gulf (re-conquest of the Philippines)
 Kamikaze tactics
Battle of Midway
http://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/_images/photos/battlefield/doolittle/11.jpg
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/science/9806/04/yorktown.found/midway.island.lg.jpg
 Admiral Chester Nimitz, US Commander
 US uses intercepted/decoded Japanese messages re:
invasion fleet of 110 ships
 Nimitz sets trap, destroys 332 planes, 4 aircraft
carriers, and many experienced Japanese pilots
Unit 15
Chapter 29 section 4
The End of the War in Europe
 D-Day invasion June 6th 1944 (2 million men
in 100 days) (Pvt. Ryan clip)
– Led by Dwight Eisenhower overall commander
allied forces Europe
 Last German offensive was the Battle of
the Bulge December 1944
 February 1945: Yalta Conference
 March 1945 allies cross the Rhine River
 April 30th Hitler commits suicide
 May 8th V-E Day
D-Day Map
YALTA: February 1945
•Last meeting of the Big Three
•Stalin joins fight against Japan
•USSR gets Manchuria, Kuril, Sakhalin
•Founding of the United Nations, based on Atlantic Charter
What is it?
Pact? Agreement? Sell-out?
Is it Versailles?
Is it Munich?
Or…?
Island Hopping
 By-pass Japanese
strong-points
 Seize small,
unfortified islands
 Build airfields on
them
 Use air power to
destroy Japanese
supply lines
 Starve out Japanese
strong-points
 Repeat
Map: Closing the Circle on Japan, 1942-1945
Closing the Circle on Japan, 1942-1945
Following the Battle of Midway, with the invasion of Guadalcanal (August 1942), American forces began the costly process of
island hopping. This map shows the paths of the American campaign in the Pacific, closing the circle on Japan. After the Soviet
Union entered the war and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
The end of the War in the Pacific
 Marines advance to Iwo Jima and Okinawa
– Iwo Jima (21,000 Japanese. 200 taken alive)
 Begin bombing Japanese cities
– 100,000 killed in Tokyo in 1 night (250,000 total)
 President Truman and J. Robert
Oppenheimer complete the “Manhattan
Project”
– Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August of 1945)
– You tube A-bomb
 V-J Day Aug 15th 1945
Island Bases in Marianas
and on Iwo Jima provided
strategic staging areas
for the bombing of Japan
and dropping of the bomb.
http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/potsdam_decision.
Harry Truman
J. Robert Oppenheimer
The Nuremberg Trials
The charges
 19 defendants (1 absent)
– 2 acquitted (Franz Von Papen, Hans Fritzsche)
– 12 condemned to death
– They attempted to use the trial as a platform to justify
their actions
 4 Counts
–
–
–
–
–
Conspiracy to commit the crimes listed below
Crimes against peace
War crimes
Crimes against humanity
You tube PBS