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World War II
1939-1941
Gearing Up…
1933- Soviet Union recognized by the US
– Non-Aggression Pact w/Germany
• Secret agreement to divide E. Europe
– G: western Poland & parts of Lithuania
– S: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Most of Lithuania, Eastern Poland &
East of Danube River
1938- Munich Conference
– Policy of Appeasement
• France & UK agree that giving in to demands of Germany in
an attempt to avoid a larger conflict is best
Neutrality Laws (somewhere over the ocean)
• Prohibited the shipment of U.S. supplies to warring nations
(in own ships)
Fascist Aggression
1935: Hitler denounced the Versailles Treaty &
the League of Nations [re-arming!]
Mussolini attacks Ethiopia.
1936: German troops sent into the Rhineland.
Fascist forces sent to fight with Franco in Spain.
1938: Austrian Anschluss.
Rome-Berlin Tokyo Pact [AXIS]
- Italy, Japan & Germany allign
Munich Agreement  APPEASEMENT!
1939: German troops march into the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact.
It’s ON!
• September 1, 1939: German troops march into
Poland
blitzkrieg – lightening war (learned from Brits)
French became active – “Maginot Line”
Line of fighting between Fr & G
British had “brotherly agreement with Poland
Treaty of Mutual Assistance
 WW II begins!!!
• September 3, 1939: Br. & France declare war
on Germany- nothing happens for almost 1
month
Belgian Forts
French
Reserves
Ardennes Forest
Maginot
Line
http://www.looksmart.com/r?page=/search/frames/index.html
French Defense
Expect the Germans through Belgium again
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1491/
Maginot Line today
Next to FAll
Scandinavia
(Denmark
and Norway)
Holland and
Belgium
Stuka dive
bombers
gave close support
to ground troops
http://www.looksmart.com/r?page=/search/frames/index.html&isp=fy&name=www.wt.net&bcolor
German Panther Tank
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz4.htm#panther
• US Lee
Tank
German tanks were matched only by the Soviet T34
Who’s next?
• France
– 6 weeks into war
– G march into Paris
• French lay down guns so that G’s won’t destroy
their beautiful landmarks & city
– Divided France into 2
• Free France
• Vichy France
– Established “portable” German Government
– Armistice with G
How’d they do it?
Germans go around the
“impenetrable”
Maginot Line.
Dunkirk
Maginot
Line
http://www.looksmart.com/r?page=/search/frames/index.html
German Plan
attack through the Ardennes and surround
French army
Allies were trapped
against the sea at
Dunkirk, but rescue
338,000 men via sea
France divided
• Northern
France
occupied
• France
surrenders
nd
June 22 ,
1940
Southern France
becomes a
puppet of Nazis
(Vichy Government
led by Henri Petain)
http://history.acusd.edu/cdr2/WW2Pics/81640.jpg
Free Francegovernment
in exile in
England led
by Charles
DeGaulle
http://history.acusd.edu/cdr2/WW2Pics/81640.jpg
Hitler celebrates
victory over
France
Hitler in Paris
Now on to Britain….
• Winston Churchill – Prime Minister &
Military Leader
– Stand for nothing but “victory”
“….the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain
is about to begin, upon this battle depends the
survival of Christian civilization, upon it depends
our own British life and the long continuity of our
institution and our Empire”
Winston Churchill, June 18, 1940
“Finest Hour” speech
The
Battle of
BritainThe Blitz
Summer of
1940
Massed bombing raids,
defeated by the RAF
Battle of Britain
• Greatest Air battle of the war
• Nightly air raids from 9-7 to 10-31 on
London
• New….RADAR
– Heavy losses for Germany
• And the winner is…. Great Britain!
US Neutrality- WWII
FDR’s “I hate war” Speech
(1936)
Neutrality Acts: 1935, 1936,
1937
When the President proclaimed the existence of a
foreign war, certain restrictions would automatically
go into effect:
 Prohibited sales of arms to belligerent nations.
 Prohibited loans and credits to belligerent nations.
 Forbade Americans to travel on vessels of nations at
war [in contrast to WW I].
 Non-military goods must be purchased on a “cash-andcarry” basis  pay when goods are picked up.
 Banned involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
This limited the options of the President in a crisis.
America in the 1930s declined to build up its forces!
1939 Neutrality Act
In response to Germany’s invasion of Poland.
FDR persuades Congress in special session to allow the
US to aid European democracies in a limited way:
The US could sell weapons to the European democracies
on a “cash-and-carry” basis.
FDR was authorized to proclaim danger zones which US
ships and citizens could not enter.
Results of the 1939 Neutrality Act:
Aggressors could not send ships to buy US munitions.
The US economy improved as European demands for war
goods helped bring the country out of the
1937-38 recession.
America becomes the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
“America First” Committee
Charles Lindbergh
“Lend-Lease” Act (1941)
Great Britain.........................$31 billion
Soviet Union...........................$11 billion
France......................................$ 3 billion
China.......................................$1.5 billion
Other European.................$500 million
South America...................$400 million
The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000