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World
War II
(Ch. 11)
Clockwise from top: Allied landing
on Normandy beaches on D-Day,
the gate of a Nazi concentration
camp at Auschwitz, Red Army
soldiers raising the Soviet flag over
the Reichstag in Berlin, the
Nagasaki atom bomb, and a Nazi
parade in 1939.
The Versailles
Treaty
•
•
•
•
Land.
Reparations.
War guilt.
League of Nations.
The Versailles Treaty
(continued)
• German army
reduced
• Germany barred
from having
tanks, an air
force, or
submarines
• Occupied DMZ
west of the
Rhineland
Map showing German territory lost and the
Rhineland DMZ, 1919.
ALLIED POWERS
U.S.A.
U.S.S.R. England
Pres. Franklin V.I. Lenin
D. Roosevelt


Prime
Minister,
Winston
Churchill
(1940)
Pres. Harry Gen. Secretary,
S. Truman Joseph Stalin
(1922)
(1945)
AXIS POWERS
Germany
Chancellor
Adolf
Hitler,
Fϋhrer
(1933-45)
Italy
Japan
Prime
Minister,
Benito
Mussolini
(1922-45)
Prime
Minister,
Hideki
Tojo
(1941-48)
Italy
Dictator Benito Mussolini addresses his followers
I. The Leaders.
A. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) – Italian fascist.
1.
Fascism – political philosophy that
glorifies the state over the individual;
strong central gov’t led by dictator.
Totalitarian state – gov’t aims to control
the political, economic, social,
intellectual, and cultural lives of citizens.
 Depression, high inflation, and agricultural & industrial strikes in Italy.
 Started out as a socialist, but expelled from party, and then started Fascism.
 In 1919, Mussolini creates political group: the League of Combat.
 Established the first European fascist movement.
2.
“Black Shirts” – armed fascists.
 Want to conquer the minds and hearts of their subjects with propaganda
techniques and high-speed modern communications.
 Led by single person and single party; rejected limited gov’t power and
ignored individual rights.
 Used the “Black Shirts” to attack socialist offices and newspapers and used
violence to break up strikes.
 Middle class fear of socialism, communism, and disorder pushed them to fascism.
 Used Nationalism and patriotic feelings to gain support.
3.
1926, IL Duce “The Leader” in 1926.
 1926, Fascists outlawed other parties.
 1926, established secret police (OVRA) to monitor political
activities & enforce gov’t policies (not as brutal as Nazi’s).
 Controlled all media for propaganda “Mussolini Is Always Right.”
 Rewrote textbooks to reflect fascist propaganda.
 Maintained traditional attitudes to women as “fundamental mission in life.”
 1929, recognized sovereignty of Vatican City and only religion and gave the
Church money (Church also recognized Italy and urged support for fascism).
 Gov’t suspended any publication that criticized the Catholic Church, monarchy,
or the state; given powers to make laws by decree; police given
unrestricted authority to arrest & jail anyone for nonpolitical / political crimes.
 Hitler was student and admirer of Mussolini.
 Never had total control like Hitler/Stalin (Muss retained some old institutions/
independent armed forces were maintained; Victor Emmanuel was still king.
Rise of the Nazis
• Germany’s economic
problems.
• Treaty of Versailles.
• Political instability.
• Fascism.
• National Socialist
German Workers’
Party (Nazi).
Still used by
Hindus today.
Nordic symbol of Thor.
Jade Buddha Temple
in Shanghai, China (Jan 2012).
The Swastika has been used as
religious symbols long before
Hitler used it to represent
Fascism.
Nazi flag.
Rumors about Hitler
 Hitler was in love with his niece, Angela Raubal (whom he
called Geli). When Geli got pregnant by a Jewish man,
she was found dead (gun shot) in Hitlers apartment.
 Hitler’s paternal grandfather was Jewish (documents burned
in Braunau am Inn, Austria, during target practice).
 Samuel Igra’s Germany's National Vice alleged Hitler "had been a
male prostitute in Vienna … from 1907 to 1912, and …in Munich
from 1912 to 1914" (Igra:67).
 Blamed his not getting accepted into the Academy of Arts on the
several Jews on the Admissions board (read anti-Semite authors).
 In beginning, was a bad speaker, but coached by an Austrian Jew.
 Was addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates by 1943.
 Had Parkinson’s disease.
Hitler had an abusive father who beat him, an adoring mother, had an
inferiority complex, didn’t like his looks, and wanted to be a priest as a child.
B. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945).
1.
Mein Kampf – wrote his ideas in jail.
a)
Aryan – linguistic term ← People speaking
Indo-European
languages.
b)
Anti-Semitism
c)
Lebensraum
 Born in Austria.
 Vienna (1907) to be an artist; rejected by Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
 Spent 4-years on the Western Front in WWI.
 1919, involved in politics.
 1921, forms National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi).
 Beer Hall Putsch (1923) – failed uprising against the gov’t; quickly crushed; jailed.
 LAY-buhnz-ROWM is living space, through expansion.
 Mein Kampf – misused “Aryan” to identify w/ ancient Greeks & Romans and 20th
century Germans and Scandinavians.
Nazi State - Hitler used anti-Semitism, economic policy, terror,
mass spectacles, and propaganda to build Nazi empire.
Aryan racial superiority – (purpose of totalitarian state) to
dominate Europe and the world for generations.
Aryans thought they were
descendants of Gods!
Third Reich – The third German Empire.
 1st Reich was Holy Roman Empire.
 2nd Reich was German Empire of 1871 to 1918.
 3rd Reich was supposed to last 1,000 years
but only lasted during Nazi reign (1933-1945).
At first, Hitler was a terrible public speaker
until he was coached by an Austrian Jew.
Now known as a powerful orator, using
emotion, theatrics, and voice commands
to help in propaganda.
The Nazis
promoted a view
of Germany as
surrounded by
enemies and
threatened on all
sides
2.
1929, Nazi’s had national organization.
“… mass meetings are
important because
individuals who feel weak
and uncertain become
intoxicated with the power
of the group.”
-- Hitler, Mein Kampf
1936 Nuremberg rally
Large Nazi rallies were held to
increase morale and spread ideas.
The Nazis Gain Power
Hitler was
democratically
elected to the
German
Reichstag
Hitler sworn in as
Chancellor, 1933
3.
Feb 28, 1933 
Mar 6 (Elections)
Mar 23 
1933, Hitler made Chancellor.
a) Reichstag Fire Decree – ended civil
rights.
b) Enabling Act – Hitler’s “legal seizure”
of power (dictator).
 Created a militia known as the SA (Storm Troopers, Brown shirts after the color
of their uniform). SA was led by Ernst Rohm & helped Hitler rise to power.
 1932, had 800,000 members & largest party in the Reichstag (German parliament).
 1932, six million Germans unemployed; made extremist parties attractive.
 Appeals of national pride, national honor, and traditional militarism struck an
emotional cord with listeners ( angry over Treaty of Versailles / Depression).
 1933, Hindenburg gave in, Hitler creates new gov’t: “Create a new Germany.”
 Reichstag had little power.
 Enabling Act - ignore the Constitution for 4-years to deal with countries problems.
 Hitler supported by right-wing elites: industrial leaders, landed aristocrats,
higher bureaucrats & military officers to save them from Communism.
The Reichstag fire on
Feb 27, 1933, seven
days before elections
that gave Nazi’s a
majority. The fire was
blamed on Communists.
The SA.
Hitler’s ideas were based on
racism/bigotry and German
nationalism. His totalitarian
state was widely accepted, but
German Jews and minorities
were prosecuted.
 Hitler no longer needed Reichstag or President Hindenburg; was a dictator.
 Moved quickly to bring all institutions under Nazi control.
 Civil Service purged of Jews and democratic elements.
 Trade Unions were dissolved.
 All other political parties were abolished.
May 10, 1933, Nazis in Berlin burned works of
Jewish authors and other considered "un-German."
A few days after the Nazi Youth
organized an attack on the
Institute of Sex Research, their
archives were publicly hauled
out and burned in the streets
of the Opernplatz (Bebelplatz).
Around 20,000 books and
journals, and 5,000 images
were destroyed.
Among the volumes destroyed
were works by Thomas Mann,
Karl Marx, Ernest Hemmingway,
Upton Sinclair, Emile Zola,
H.G. Wells, Signmund Freud,
Helen Keller, Marcel Proust,
and Jack London.
 7-months after Chancellor; totalitarian state.
 Hindenburg died in 1934; president abolished.
 Public officers and soldiers required to take
an oath of loyalty to Hitler as the Führer “leader.”
Also seized were the Institute's
extensive lists of names and
addresses of LGBT people.
In the midst of the burning,
Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda
Minister, gave a political
speech to a crowd of around
40,000 people.
4.
Schutzstaffeln
Heinrich Himmler –
Set-up & directed the SS.
a) Concentration camps –
Large prisons.
People sent to the camps:
- Communists
- Political opponents / critics
- Jews
- Slavic people
- Jehovah Witness
- Dissenting clergy
- Gypsies (Romani people)
- Gay men
- Immigrants / People of Color
- Forced laborers
- Criminals
- Mentally / physically challenged
Heinrich Himmler
Over 400,000 people
were medically sterilized
by the Nazis!
 His chief goal was to further the German master race.
 Leading organizer of the Holocaust; officer in charge of the concentration camps.
 Directed medical experiments on gay prisoners (homophobic).
“…The time of personal happiness is over.”
-- Adolf Hitler
1939
SS Troops
 SS (Schutzstaffeln, Gestapo “Guard Squadrons”, black shirts) –
originally as Hitler’s bodyguards.
 Controlled the secret police force (Gestapo) and regular police force.
 Based on 2 principles: terror and ideology.
 Terror included repression and murder – secret & regular police,
concentration camps, and later had execution squads & death camps.
 Found guilty of war crimes during the Nuremburg trials.
Heinrich Himmler was in
charge of all the concentration
camps and organized
the Holocaust.
5.
Nuremberg Laws(1935) – Took
German Jews citizenship away.
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were denaturalization laws passed
by the government of Nazi Germany. They used a pseudoscientific
basis for racial discrimination against Jews.
People with four German grandparents (white circles on the chart)
were of "German blood", while people were classified as Jews if
they descended from three or more Jewish grandparents (black
circles in top row right). One or two Jewish grandparents made
someone "mixed blood." The Nazis used the religious observance
of a person's grandparents to determine their race.
1935 chart from Nazi
Germany used to explain
the Nuremberg Laws.
II. Path to War
A. Violate the Treaty of Versailles.
German troops march into the
Rhineland, supposed to be
demilitarized by the Treaty of
Versailles.
 Created new air force: Luftwaffe (Mar 9, 1935).
 Began military draft and increased army from 100,000 to 550,000 troops.
 Sent troops to the Rhineland (Mar 7, 1936); demilitarized per Versailles.
 No country would use force to stop Hitler due to distraction of Depression.
Hitler’s theory of Aryan racial domination laid the foundation
for aggressive expansion outside Germany.
Wehrmacht is the name of the armed forces of
Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. During World
War II, it consisted of the army (Heer), the navy
(Kriegsmarine), the air force (Luftwaffe), and
Waffen SS (Combat arm of the SS).
German Panzer VI; Porsche Design.
A stylized version of the
Iron Cross, the emblem
of the Wehrmacht.
Day of the Wehrmacht
The Luftwaffe
German Stuka (dive bomber)
Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Me 264 (long range bomber)
Messerschmitt
Bf 162 (light
bomber)
Jesse Owens at 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
Owens won 4 Gold medals (100m, 200m,
long jump, & 4x100team).
Hitler refused to acknowledge American
Jesse Owens after his win.
The Invasion of Ethiopia
1935
Emperor Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia
2.
Rome-Berlin Axis (1936) – Italy &
Germ partnership.
Hitler and
Mussolini
3.
Anti-Comintern Pact (1936) –
Germ and Japan agree to
fight communism.
 Mussolini wanted to create a new Roman Empire, so invaded Ethiopia.
 After fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in Oct 1935, England and France
condemned action and pushed Italy to become closer to Germany.
4.
Kristallnacht – Night of Broken Glass;
violence against Jews.
Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht), was against Jews throughout Germany and
parts of Austria on November 9–10, 1938. Jewish homes and stores were
ransacked in a thousand German cities, towns and villages, as ordinary citizens
and stormtroopers destroyed buildings with sledgehammers, leaving the streets
covered in smashed windows — the origin of the name "Night of Broken Glass.“
Jews were beaten to death; 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration
camps; and 1,668 synagogues ransacked or set on fire.
White
Crucifixion, by
Marc Chagall
(1938).
Discrimination
leads to
persecution.
Christ is
symbolic of all
human suffering,
lit by a divine
light.
5. ‘Anschluss’ – Austria annexed by
Germany (1938).
March 12,1938: Nazis open
the crossing point and
Austria no longer exists.
Hitler in the streets
of Vienna 1938.
 One of Hitler’s goals of reuniting his native Austria w/ Germany: Anschluss.
 The new Austrian gov’t quickly invited German troops to enter Austria and “help”
in reinforcing law and order.
 The next day, after his triumphant return to Austria, he annexed Austria to Germany.
6.
Munich Conference (1938) – Hitler
wanted Sudetenland.
a)
Allies agreed to demands
(appeasement).
“We have achieved
peace for our time”
Neville Chamberland,
Prime Minister of
England, 1938.
Goering, Mussolini,
Hess, Hitler, Ciano,
Himmler and Keitel
at the Munich
conference, 1938.
Appeasement to Germany to avoid another war.
 Sudetenland (northwest Czechoslovakia with large population of Germans).
 Hitler expressed willingness to risk “world war” to achieve his objectives.
 German troops would occupy Sudetenland (Czechs abandoned by the West).
 British prime minister Neville Chamberlain boasted “peace for our time.”
 Hitler broke agreement and annexed all of Czechoslovakia.
 Hitler proclaimed in Prague (Mar 15, 1939) that he would be known as
“the greatest German of them all.”
 Slovakia became a puppet state controlled by Nazi Germany.
Czechs in Sudetenland
angrily greet the Nazis
in 1938.
The Wehrmacht in
Prague, Czech, 1939.
7.
Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact –
(1939) – Germ & USSR agree not to
attack each other.
a) Germ invades Poland (Sep 1, 1939).
b) UK & Fr declare war on Germ.
 Hitler wanted Polish port of Danzig & didn’t think West would fight for Poland.
 Hitler wanted to avoid a 2-front war; Planned on breaking the Pact later.
 He promised Stalin the eastern part of Poland and the Baltic states.
 Nonaggression Pact shocked world – gave Hitler the freedom to attack Poland.
 UK & France declare war on Germany two days after invasion of Poland.
The
Nazi-Soviet
Nonaggression
Pact
German Advances, 1939
The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
Japan
War in Asia (July 1937 – Sept 1939)
The Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, when Japan attacked deep
into China from its foothold in Manchuria (occupied Manchuria since 1931).
Nanking Massacre - The infamous war crime incident committed by the
Japanese military in and around Nanking, China, after it fell to the Imperial
Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. The period of carnage lasted for
six weeks, until early February 1938, as approx. 300,000 civilians were raped
and murdered as Nanking was looted and burned.
8.
Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis (1940) –
Japan joins Germ & Ita.
In 1940, during World War II, the military alliance of Italy and
Germany—the so-called Rome-Berlin Axis—was extended to
include Japan and became the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. The three
countries and their allies, known collectively as the Axis Powers,
fought against the Allied Powers in the war. Here, Japanese and
Italian emissaries accompany German dictator Adolf Hitler.
III.
The Course of WWII.
Poland surrenders
A.
Poland invaded (Sep 1, 1939). in 4-weeks.
1.
Blitzkrieg – “lightening war.”
2.
Poland divided between Germ &
USSR on Sep 28.
► The Germans launched their attacks
on Poland with air assaults. German
Stuka bombers were instrumental in
leading the assault and forcing the
eventual surrender of Warsaw.
► England and France declare war on
Germany on Sep 3, 1939.
 Used armored columns, called panzer divisions, supported by airplanes.
 Each panzer division was a strike force of 300 tanks with support forces.
 Europe is shocked at the speed and efficiency of attack on Poland.
 Waited through the winter “phony war.”
Kracow, Poland
In 1940.
Soviet and German officers meeting
after the invasion of Poland.
1939, Poland
caught between
Germany and
Soviet Union.
One of the defining characteristics of what
is commonly known as "Blitzkrieg" is close
cooperation between infantry and tanks.
German troops storm into
Poland just over a week after
the Nonaggression Pact was
Signed, starting World War II.
Soviet forces take over the
Baltic states and invade
Finland. Stalin's treaty serves
to keep Moscow out of the
greater war, while the Nazis
conquer much of Western
Europe.
B.
Invasion of France (1940).
1.
Through Luxembourg & Ardennes
Forest.
a)
Skipped “Maginot Line.”
 Invasion of Netherlands, Belgium, and France started on May 10, 1940.
 Germans broke through weak Fr defenses and swept across northern France.
 Hitler went around, not through, the Maginot Line (series of concrete and steel
fortifications with heavy artillery along Fr/Germ border).
 Germans going through Ardennes split the Allied forces.
The Western
Front, 1940.
2.
Battle of Dunkirk – Fr & UK
forces surrounded & evacuated
from beach.
Allied evacuation
at Dunkirk.
 “Miracle at Dunkirk” due to the heroic actions of the 861 British Royal Navy and
private boats rescued 350,000 Allied troops (mostly British); 40K surrendered.
 England asked the U.S. for help.
 What If… the Germans didn’t halt their Panzer attack at Dunkirk??
Dunkirk
Troops cheer with relief
when they arrive in Dover,
England, after the perilous
Channel crossing, where
they faced attacks by
German planes, U-boats
and mines.
3.
German troops
enter Paris,
France.
France signs armistice on June
22, 1940.
The Franco-German armistice, or Vichy regime,
was the Nazi-subordinate French puppet government
Between 1940 – 1944. The Franco-German armistice
divided France into two zones: one under German
military occupation and one under nominal French
control (the SE two-fifths of the country). The Vichy
regime willfully collaborated with Nazi Germany, and is
the only state of Europe which did so in such a voluntary
extent: raids to capture Jews and other "undesirables"
were organized by the French police.
Compiegne, where the French
surrendered to Hitler in 1940.
Hitler in Paris, France.
The Face of
War, by
Salvador Dali
(1940).
Sometimes
called the
“Medusa’s
Gaze.”
Although
Spanish, Dali
never spoke
out against
Spain’s
Fascist
Franco or
WWII.
After France
fell to Hitler,
he fled to the
U.S.
Hitler’s “Operation Sealion”
for invading England.
The Battle of Britain (July 9 to October 31, 1940) was the attempt by the
German Luftwaffe to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF),
before a planned sea and airborne invasion of Britain during WWII. The RAF
needed to be neutralized before Germany could launch a successful
amphibious assault on the British Isles.
The Battle of Britain
A London air raid shelter.
A German Heinkel He 111 bomber over
London on Sep. 7, 1940.
The German
Messerschmitt
ME-109 only
had 20 min’s
over England.
C.
Battle of Britain (July-Oct, 1940) - Germ
planes bombed UK targets (Blitz).
 Start of WWII, both sides restricted bombing cities.
 British had effective radar system for early warnings; navigation problems at night.
 Germ bomber accidentally hit city of London, so British bombed Berlin for 3
nights – not much damage but a blow to German morale and security.
 The Blitz - In retaliation, Hitler began massive bombings of London and other
British cities to crush morale (bombed every night but one for two months).
 Public shelters in subway tunnels; 2 mill children evacuated to the countryside.
 England was able to rebuild their air strength and inflicted heavy losses
on the Luftwaffe bombers.
1 out of 7 Londoners slept in
The subway shelters.
Customers calmly search the
shelves of a bombed-out
bookshop in London.
London on Sep. 7, 1940.
“We shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing
grounds, in the fields, in the
streets, and in the hills. We
shall never surrender.”
- Winston Churchill
Bawdsey Radar
System.
American Foreign
Policy, 1932–1941
• Isolationism.
• Neutrality Acts
(1930’s).
• Lend-Lease
(Mar 11, 1941).
• The Atlantic Charter
(Aug 14, 1941).
Churchill and FDR at sea during
the Atlantic Charter talks
D.
Lend-Lease Act (1941) – U.S. provided
Allies with war materials.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signs H.R. 1776, the Lend-Lease
Act to give aid to Britain and China.
The Neutrality Acts (1930’s) were a series of laws passed by the US in
response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that led to WWII.
They were spurred by the growth in isolationism in the US following its
costly involvement in WWI, and sought to ensure that the US would not
become entangled again in foreign conflicts, especially in Europe.
The Lend-Lease Act (1941) was the program under which the US supplied
Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with
$50.1 billion (nearly $700 billion at 2007 prices) of war materials between
1941 and 1945. It began in Mar 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor.
E.
U-Boats – Patrolled in “Wolfpacks”
(groups).
Canadian ship
rams German
U-boat caught
in the open!
The Enigma
Machine.
 HMS Bulldog disabled U-110 (dead in the water); German captain
thought Bulldog was going to ram her so they left secret material
onboard; British got the enigma machine and code books; Germans never
knew of security breach. Movie: U-571.
 Movie: Imitation Game; Alan Turing breaks Enigma, shortening war by 2
year, saving 14 million lives, beginning of computers, and gay.
 Operation Drumbeat – German U-Boats patrolled Am east coast
(JanAug, 1942), sunk 609 ships (1/4 of all ships sunk by subs
in war and lost
only 22 U-boats), “second happy time.”
 Germany lost 789 U-Boats, 70% of subs during war.
 Sunk approx 3,000 Br and Am ships during war.
An aerial view of an
Allied convoy during
the Battle of the
Atlantic (April 1941).
Officers on the bridge of an escorting
British destroyer keep a sharp look out
for enemy submarines, October 1941.
Hitler and Regent Horthy of Hungary
observing U-Boat maneuvers in 1938.
North Africa
-- British and American forces invaded North Africa and forced
the German and Italian troops to surrender in May 1943.
-- Opened door for Allies to attack the “soft underbelly” of Europe.
Japanese Aggression
Locations of Japanese forces in November 1941
General Hideki Tojo
 1940 – U.S. blocks resources from going to Japan; Japan signs pact w/ Germany.
Isolationism,
1941.
Pearl Harbor
Dec 7, 1941
Japan launched
a surprise attack on
the U.S. naval base at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
At the time, the base
held nearly the entire
U.S. Pacific fleet.
18 American ships
were sunk, including
eight battleships,
decimating America’s
naval capability. Over
2,400 Americans were
killed, and another
1,000 wounded.
Photo taken from a Japanese plane during
the attack shows vulnerable U.S. battleships.
USS Arizona, 3 days later.
The USS Arizona
Memorial
F. Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941) – U.S.
attacked by Japan.
1.
FDR declares war on Dec 8th.
“December 7, 1941,
a date which will
live in infamy."
-- FDR
FDR signs the
declaration of
war against Japan
on Dec 8, 1941.
FDR appears before a joint session
of Congress appealing for a declaration
of war against Japan in Washington D.C.
on Dec. 8, 1941.
 Japan hoped its lighting strike at Pearl Harbor
would destroy Am Pacific fleet.
 Unified America (up until now, most Americans
wanted to stay neutral).
 Attack brought the US with its vast industrial and
military resources into the war.
The Japanese turned countless peaceful
villages into
rubble.
Victorious
Japanese
troops march
through
Singapore,
Feb 15, 1942.
December 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; also attack
the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Malaya, Thailand, Shanghai
and Midway.
December 8, 1941 - U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. Japanese
land near Singapore and enter Thailand.
December 10, 1941 - Japanese invade the Philippines and also seize
Guam.
December 11, 1941 - Japanese invade Burma.
December 16, 1941 - Japanese invade British Borneo.
December 18, 1941 - Japanese invade Hong Kong.
December 22, 1941 - Japanese invade Luzon in the Philippines.
December 23, 1941 - General Douglas MacArthur begins a withdrawal
from Manila to Bataan; Japanese take Wake Island.
December 25, 1941 - British surrender at Hong Kong.
December 27, 1941 - Japanese bomb Manila.
Germany Invades The U.S.S.R.
“Operation Barbarosa”
Hitler tearing
the Nonaggression
Pact, 1941 poster.
G.
Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43) –
Bloodiest battle of war.
1.
Turning point of WWII.
The Battle of Stalingrad was
a battle between Germany
and the Soviet Union for the
Soviet city of Stalingrad that
took place between August
21, 1942 and February 2,
1943, as part of WWII. It was
the turning point of WWII in
Europe and was arguably
the bloodiest battle in human
history, with combined
casualties estimated above
1.7 million. The battle was
marked by brutality and
disregard for military and
civilian casualties on both
sides.
Stalingrad is a major industrial
center on the Volga River.
“Soldiers will fight harder for a
live city than an empty one.”
-- Josef Stalin
Soviet soldiers fighting in the
ruins of Stalingrad, 1942.
The Battle
of Stalingrad.
-- The Battle of Stalingrad (199 days) resulted in an estimated total of 1.7 to 2 million
Axis and Soviet casualties, making it by far the deadliest in human history.
-- Soviet losses were so large that life expectancy of a newly arrived soldier was
less than a day.
 The Battle of Kursk (July 5-12, 1943) was the greatest tank battle of
WWII.
 The entire German Sixth Army (considered the best Germ troops)
surrendered.
By spring of 1943,
Hitler knew that the
Soviet Union would not
be taken.
Germany never
recovered from the
losses in the Soviet
Union.