Chapter 24 WW2

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Chapter 24- WW2

• Section 1
• Prelude to War

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US Wanted to Maintain Its Neutrality

• We our own economic troubles at home
• WW1 hadnt been the war to end all wars
• Yet it was obvious that democracy was threatened
• Fascism
• Benito Mussolini- Thought Italy had been
  shortchanges in the peace of WW1
• Fascism- Political philosophy that values the
  race or nation above the individual
• Hitler- Poor painter, WW1 vet,

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Adolph Hitler

• Poorly educated- supported himself as a painter
• ¼ Jewish
• Nation was depressed after WW1
• 1919 joined the German Workers Party
• 1920 the GWP changed its name to the National
  Socialist German Workers Party- NAZI

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• 1923- Party tried to seize power in Munich-
  Hitler was jailed for 9 months
• Wrote Mein Kampf- (MY Struggle) which laid out
  his plans for the new nation
• Hitler promised to lead his nation out of the
  shame and economic depression they were suffering
• 1933 he was elected was named Chancellor- he
  quickly squelched opposition and he became Der
  Fuhrer

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• Hitler Continued
• He spread anti-Semitism- hatred of anything
  Jewish
• Jews were blamed for all problems
• Promoted the concept of a superior Aryan race
• 1936- Hitler marched troops west into the
  Rhineland- forbidden in the Treaty of Versailles

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• Hitler then formed an alliance with Mussolini
  known as the Axis Powers
• 1938- Austria was Annexed
• Appeasement- France and GB gave into Hitlers
  demands for more territory to keep the peace
• 1939- Germany signed a non- aggression pact with
  Russia then attacked Poland
• France and GB then declared war on Germany

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Japan Builds an Empire

• In the 1930s Japan was a booming industrial
  empire But lacked raw materials
• Military leaders ran their country and resented
  relying on the US and others
• 1931- Japan Attacked Manchuria
• By 1937 Japan controlled Shanghai, Nanjing,
  Beijing among others

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The American Response

• Many Americans favored isolationism and in the
  1930s passed three neutrality laws
• The Neutrality laws specified that we would only
  be involved with Cash and Carry- pay up front
• In early 1941 a Gallup poll revealed 88 of
  Americans wanted to stay out of the war.

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• Challenges to Neutrality
• Between September 1939 and June 1940 the Axis
  powers defeated Poland, Norway, Denmark,
  Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Japan controlled
  China and many French and Dutch colonies- this
  caused many Americans to feel support for the
  Allies

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The Arsenal of Democracy

• Under FDR the US began to support the British-
  they were the lone democratic Western European
  country
• We traded fifty old warships for bases in the
  Western Hemisphere
• Began the Lend-Lease Act This meant wed give
  them whatever they needed and worry about payment
  later

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The Attack on Pearl Harbor

• The US responded to Japanese aggression by
  terminating many trade agreements with Japan
  including oil, planes, scrap metal and freezing
  all Japanese assets in the US
• The Japanese took matters into their own hands
  and attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
• FDR responded with his famous a date which will
  live in infamy speech- soon after we were
  officially in WW2

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The Military Struggle

• FDR was planning the peace before the war even
  began with his four essential freedoms- freedom
  of speech, worship, want and fear
• After a meeting with Churchill these aims and
  others became known as the Atlantic Charter
• The Allies were on the defensive early and
  decided on defeating Germany first while fighting
  a defensive war with Japan
• The German blitzkrieg- lightning war- gave
  Germany control of Western Europe and they
  relentlessly bombed GB from July 1940 until June
  1941.

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• Germany broke its nonaggression pact with the
  Soviets in 1942 and drove deep into Russia
• Field Marshal Rommel- the Desert Fox- controlled
  much of North Africa- oil
• Not fighting German on the Eastern front caused
  Russian resentment that lasted well after the war
  was over
• Japan had destroyed most of the Pacific fleet
  with the exception of our aircraft carriers and
  controlled most of the Pacific islands- Australia
  looked like the next target.
• Douglas MacArthur gave his famous I shall
  return speech as he was leaving the Philippines

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• Turnaround
• By late 1942 Hitler repeated Napoleons mistake
  and overextended his supply lines in the Soviet
  Union- Stalingrad
• Radar and sonar gave the allies an advantage over
  the Germans in the Atlantic theatre
• Operation Torch- November 1942- signaled the
  Allies aggressive campaign to begin in North
  Africa and work up through Sicily and Italy- the
  soft underbelly
• Led by US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, all
  objectives were accomplished and by July 1943
  paratroopers took Sicily and by 1944 Rome was in
  Allied hands and Mussolini was dead

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War in the Pacific

• The US broke the Japanese codes which gave us a
  distinct advantage
• Colonel James Doolittle launched a psychological
  raid on Japan from the Hornet- many pilots
  perished over China
• May 1942 the Battle of Coral Seas turned the
  Japanese back from Australia
• Japanese Admiral Yamamoto designed a plan to
  smash the Americans at the Midway Islands. We
  knew what they were going to do and a fierce air
  battle from carriers went on for four days.
  Things looked bleak because almost all our planes
  were shot down- but luck won the day when some
  lost dive bombers spotted the Japanese fleet and
  destroyed three of the carriers- the fourth was
  destroyed the next day Japan never was the
  aggressor in the Pacific again

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Pacific Island Battles

• Control of the islands leading to Japan was vital
  for both sides- air cover, re-supply etc
• Guadalcanal was the linchpin in the Pacific-
  Japan felt that this island controlled the fate
  of the war. Consequently this was a brutal
  battle- US prevailed
• Island Hopping became the US strategy to control
  strategic islands and isolate Japanese land
  forces
• These island battles were extremely intense and
  deadly in some instances feet of ground was
  measured by how many dead bodies it cost

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Finishing Off Germany

• The Allied powers agreed to invade across the
  English Channel- D-Day was June 6, 1944
• Fighting was bitter at time Saving Private Ryan
  but the allies prevailed and the Germans launched
  an all out desperation attack known as the Battle
  of the Bulge in December 1944
• Russian troops and the rest of the Allies were
  rushing to take control of Germany

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Holocaust

• Allied soldiers were horrified to discover the
  death camps that were a key element of Hitlers
  Final Solution
• The Nazis killed an estimated 6 million Jews and
  another 5 million undesirables Slavs, Gypsies,
  homosexuals and the physically and mentally
  handicapped

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The End of the War in Europe

• Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in Yalta- in
  the USSR- to discuss the post war world
• They decide to split Germany into peacekeeping
  zones- setting up the cold war
• Harry Truman replace FDR after he died and the
  new Big Three told Japan to surrender or face
  ultimate destruction- this was especially
  poignant after Little Boy and Fat Man
• MacArthur returned to the Philipines

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Chapter 24 Section 3 Americans on the Battle
Fronts