Chapter 21The SecondWorld War

1939-1945

1936 Italy and

Germany form Axis Powers

Britain and France follow a policy of Appeasement

Britain's Neville Chamberlain

Lebensraum = Living Space

1936 Occupied Rhineland

1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement 1938 Munich

Agreement(Czech Sudetenland)

1938 Annexed Austria

“Many people, no doubt, honestly believe that they are

only giving away the interests of Czechoslovakia, whereas I fear

we shall find that we have deeply compromised, and perhaps

fatally endangered, the safety and even the independence of

Great Britain and France … There can never be friendship

between the British democracy and the Nazi …”

Winston Churchill on the Munich Pact

Long-Term Causes of WWII

French Marshal Ferdinand Foch

"This is not peace. It is an armistice for

20 years."

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That

is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag

the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist

dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you

have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the

country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

-Hermann Goering

Green = Allied PowersOrange = Axis Powers

1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact and the division of Poland

“Poland will be depopulated and

settled with Germans. … After

Stalin’s death … we will break the Soviet Union. Then there will begin the dawn of the German rule

of the earth ...”1939 speech to German generals

Sept. 1, 1939 German Blitzkrieg into Poland

UK and France declared war on Germany

World War II 1939-1945

1940Tripartite Pact

Axis Powers

Later Affiliations = Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Thailand

April-May 1940 Blitzkrieg Denmark, Norway, Netherlands,

Belgium, and Luxembourg

May, 1940 Failure of the French Maginot Line

June, 1940 Italy Invaded France

Battle of DunkirkUK and French retreated to England

June 22, France surrendered rather than be destroyed

Vichy France worked with the Germans

Philippe Pétain

Reasons for German success1. Overwhelming speed of air and amour2. No two front war3. Enemies not fully prepared for war

Charles de Gaulle

(1890-1970)

Leader ofFree France resistance

Involved in battles in Europe, Russia, Africa, and Britain

Guerilla war in France and colonies

July-October 1940Battle of Britain

Winston Churchill

(1874-1965)Prime Minister(1940-1945 and

1951-1955)

Conservative

“Never give in--never, never, never,

never, in nothing great or small, large

or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good

sense. Never yield to force; never yield to

the apparently overwhelming might

of the enemy”

June 1941 Hitler

attacked the Soviet Union

Operation Barbarossa

Soviet General Georgy Zhukov

(1896-1974)

1941-1944Siege of Leningrad500,000 starved to death

“In the Soviet

Army, it takes more courage to retreat than advance”

The Pacific FrontEmpire of JapanExpansion and Recourses

Emperor Hirohito 1901-1989

General and PM Hideki Tojo

1884-1948

1937 Brutal Japanese invasion into China

December 7, 1941Pearl Harbor attacked

The Grand AllianceUSA, Britain, USSR, and resistance

groups throughout Europe

The Allies had 3 policies that led them to victory

1. Europe First (then Japan)

2. Military needs before political differences

3. The principle of “Unconditional Surrender” (1943 Casablanca Conference)

Henri Giraud

Franklin Roosevelt

Charles de Gaulle

Winston Churchill

Allied Advantages

PopulationProductive capacityResourcesControl of the seas

North African Front

Morocco, Algeria,

Tunisia, etc.

1942 USA, British, and colonies battled the Nazis

GermanGen. Erwin

Rommel(1891-1944)

“The Desert Fox”

British Field Marshal

Bernard Montgomery

(1887-1976)

Led soldiers in North Africa, Italy, Normandy,

and Germany

Montgomery with his

puppies Hitler and Rommel

1942 Battle of El AlameinBritish defeated Rommel and Axis powers

pushed out of North Africa by 1943

Eastern Front 1942-1943Battle of Stalingrad

Stalin angered by lack of assistance80% of Axis military attacked USSR

1944 = 228 Axis divisions on E. Front, 61 on W. Front

Bloodiest battle in historyCombined casualties above 1,500,000

A Nazi defeat and a turning point

1943 Soviets begin to

push toward

Germany

1943 Italian Fascists defeatedGermany wont give up Italy

1944 Allies took Rome1945 Mussolini Killed by communist partisans

1946 Kingdom of Italy Ended

1943 Tehran ConferenceUK and US will open a 2nd Front (D-Day)Stalin guaranteed Polish border adjustments

1944 Percentages Agreement divided influence of Eastern Europe

Countries Soviet Union UK/USA

Bulgaria 75% 25%

Greece 10% 90%

Hungary 50% 50%

Romania 90% 10%

Yugoslavia 50% 50%

Operation OverlordJune 6, 1944 “D-Day”

Normandy coast

Liberate France and push back Germans

8-25-1944 Paris Liberated

Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

(1889-1952)

Led French 1st Army in 1944 Operation

Dragoon liberation of S. France

Allies pushed toward GermanyUS & UK from the west and

USSR from the east

Battle of the BulgeDec 1944 - Jan 1945

The Ardennes Forest,

Belgium

Allied VictoryThe road to Germany is open

1945 Firebombing of Dresden

~40,000 Civilian Deaths

90% Of The City

Destroyed

Late April 1945 Berlin surrounded

April 30, 1945 Hitler

killed himself

May 7 Germany SurrendersV-E Day May 8, 1945

Montgomery, Eisenhower, Zhukov and de Tassigny

Why did Germany lose?• Resources• Industrial

production• Multi-front war• Allied

leadership

Pacific Front

Naval Warfare and“Island Hopping”

J. Robert Oppenheimer

(1904-1967)Physicist

The Manhattan

Project

Trinity July 16, 1945

1st Atomic Bomb

Should the USA use the atom bomb?

Pro and Con?

?

Curtis LeMay(1906-1990)

US Air Force General

“There are no innocent civilians.” New York Times, August 1945

Curtis LeMay(1906-1990)

US Air Force General

“Killing Japanese didn't bother me very

much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the

war, I would have been tried as a war criminal”

August 6, 1945The Enola Gay

dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima

70,000+ killed instantly100,000+ died later

August 9, 1945 “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki

40,000+ killed, 25,000+ wounded

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/classic/

“The atomic bomb was more than a weapon

of terrible destruction; it

was a psychological

weapon”

Secretary of War Henry Stimson

Japanese Surrender on the USS Missouri

Aug 14 Japan surrendered

V-J Day Aug 15

• USA: 295,000• UK: 388,000 (62,000 civilian)

• Italy: 410,000 (80,000 civilian)

• France: 810,000 (470,000 civilian)

• Japan: 1,806,000 (300,000 civilian)

• Germany: 7,060,000 (3,810,000 civilian)

• Poland: 6,850,000 (6,000,000 civilian)

• China: 11,324,000 (10,000,000 civilian)

• USSR: 25,568,000 (16,900,000 civilian)

Total Deaths

Peace Conference and SettlementsUnconditional Surrender

Germany• Divided and

destroyed

Japan• Empire ended – Korea

and China evacuated• 1947 democratic

constitution • 1952 occupation ended• 1960 USA Alliance treaty

• Agreed to divide Germany• Russia occupied Poland, Bulgaria,

Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia

• Pro-Russian govts installed in E. Europe–Tension grew and US/UK pushed for free

elections in occupied territories

Feb. 1945 Yalta Conference

“I consider it completely

unimportant who in the party will

vote, or how; but what is

extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how.”

The Eastern

Bloc

• Truman more aggressive–Demanded free elections in the east–Recent Trinity test

• Stalin refused free elections–Wanted security against Germany

• Germany Divided• US wanted to avoid war with USSR

1945 Potsdam Conference

Truman cut off aid to Russia when Stalin’s insisted on communist govts in E. Europe