World War II

1
World War II

• History and Legacy
• Global History II
• Spiconardi

2
The Belligerents

• Axis Powers
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan

• Allies
• Great Britain
• France
• USA
• USSR

3
Causes

• German Aggression
• Rebuilding of military
• Extreme nationalism
• Invasion of Poland in September 1, 1939
• Britain and France declare war on Germany
• Italian invasion of Ethiopia
• Japanese Expansion
• Manchuria 1931
• Rape of Nanjing

• Policy of Appeasement
• Europe did not want another world war
• Politicians feared being voted out of office in
  they supported war
• Had domestic problems (depression) to deal with
• Weak League of Nations
• Rise of Totalitarianism

4
The Phony War

• Other than Germanys invasion of Poland there is
  no fighting between Germany its allies and
  Great Britain and France
• War really begins in April of 1940 as Nazi forces
  invade Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and
  Belgium

5
Occupation of France

• German invades France on May 16, 1940
• Within two weeks Nazi forces are marching in the
  streets of Paris
• Charles de Gaulle flees to England and sets up
  exile government
• Hitler establishes a puppet government in
  southern France called the Vichy Government
  under Henri Pétain

• How did Germany defeat France so easily?
• Blitzkrieg (Lightening War)
• Massive bombings via planes, trucks, tanks all at
  high speed
• Hitler only invades half-way, which allows for
  evacuation of troops and resistance to Vichy
  government in southern France

6
Dunkirk Evacuation

• England needs to evacuate 338,000 soldiers
• Sends 860 boats to rescue British troops in
  German occupied France
• Miraculously the British evacuate all troops
  without a single loss of life despite being
  attacked, but all supplies left behind
• Moral boost to British

7
Bombings of London and Berlin

• Hitler contemplated invading England
• Decides to bomb London instead
• Britain had most advanced radar system, which
  limits losses
• Angry over bombing of London, Churchill orders
  bombing of Berlin, which is big blow to Hitler

8
Turning Point U.S. Enters War

• U.S. enters war after bombing of Pearl Harbor on
  December 7, 1941
• U.S. declares war on Japan
• Italy and Germany declare war on U.S.
• Tripartite Pact Germany, Italy, Japan agreed
  to declare war on U.S., if one of them was
  attacked by U.S.
• Britain had wanted U.S. to enter war
• Britain desperately needed U.S. aid

9
Turning Point Crypto-Analysis

• Britain able to break Germanys Enigma Code
• Britain also breaks Japans Purple Code
• U.S. uses Navajo Indian language as their code
• Unbreakable because there is no written Navajo
  language

10
Turning Point Stalingrad (1942)

• Hitler goes back on Non-Aggression Pact and
  invades the Soviet Union in 1941
• Get rid of Russia and you get rid of Jewery.
• Invasion of Russia harder than expected
• No roads ? hurts supply routes
• Scorched Earth Policy
• Russians blow up everything in retreat
• Harsh Russian Winter
• Germans ill-prepared

• Battle of Stalingrad
• Germans outnumber Soviets 31
• Urban Warfare
• Stalin orders no retreat
• Germany supplies must travel 100 miles
• Soviet supplies come across the river
• Germans surrender Stalingrad
• Germany has 3 days of national morning

11
Battle of El-Alamein

• Gen. Erwin Rommel
• The Desert Fox
• Germanys top general
• Led troops in Northern Africa Front
• Hitler accuses Rommel of partaking in plot to
  kill him in 1944
• Two options
• Suicide with heros funeral
• Treason Trial

• Battle of El-Alamein (1942)
• See-Saw battle in Africa
• British eventually win with U.S. aid
• Rommel wanted to surrender earlier, but Hitler
  made him stay until last man standing

12
Invasion of Italy

• Allies invade Italy in 1943
• Hitler forced to send troops into Italy
• Takes troops away from other areas in Europe
• Mussolini surrounded
• Hitler sends helicopters in and rescues Mussolini

• End of Mussolini and Fascism in Italy
• Mussolini hides in German convoy with girlfriend
• He is discovered and arrested
• Taken to be shot, but girlfriend jumps in front
  of bullet
• Bodies hung in a Milanese market

13
D-Day Liberation of France

• U.S. leads invasion of Normandy beaches in France
  (June 6, 1944)
• Allies break through German defenses
• Advance to Paris
• From Paris the Allies invade Germany

14
Yalta Conference

• Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt meet
• Plan for a post-World War II World
• Germany would be divided into zones (temporarily)
• Stalin would oversee creation of new government
  in Eastern Europe
• Agreed to create United Nations

15
The War Ends Europe

• Germany Surrenders
• Soviets reach Berlin first
• End of Hitler
• Hitler is surrounded by Allied Forces
• Hitler hears small gun fire
• Marries mistress
• Writes out will, which bashes Jews
• Wife takes cyanide pill
• Hitler shoots himself

• V-E Day
• May 8, 1945

16
The War Ends The Pacific

• Warfare in the Pacific theater was brutal and
  slow
• Hot, humid, rough terrain, island hopping
• Mainly USA vs. Japan with some British help
• USSR declares war on Japan day after atomic bomb
  is dropped

• The Atomic Bomb
• Hiroshima bombed 8/6/1945
• 70,000 killed
• Nagasaki bombed 8/9/1945
• 40,000 killed

V-J Day September 2, 1945
17
Impact of World War II

• Human Losses
• 75 million dead
• 38 million Europeans
• 22 million Soviets
• Economic Losses
• England, Germany, and Japan hardest hit
• Marshall Plan
• US gives aid to rebuild Europe

• Nuremberg Trials
• 22 Nazi leaders put on trial for war crimes
  against humanity
• Many fled to South America
• Occupied Nations
• Western nations occupied West Germany and Japan
  to promote democracy
• USSR occupied East Germany and eastern Europe to
  promote Communism

18
Impact of World War II

• Beginnings of Cold War
• Europe divided into
• West ?Democracies
• East ?Communist
• Arms Race
• Questioning of Humanity
• Writers and Movies explore evils of humanity
• Brutality that had
• not been witnessed
• before

• The United Nations
• New international body that provides
• Place to discuss world problems
• Develop solutions to world problems
• General Assembly
• All nations members and get one vote
• Security Council
• 15 members (5 permanent US, Russia, France,
  Great Britain, China)