Coosa High SchoolRome, Georgia

Instructor: Randy Vice

Created by: Jennifer Bailey, Brandon Miller, Caleb House

HCP WORLD HISTORY PROJECTWorld War I

SECTION ONE: POWERPOINT

SECTION TWO: WRITTEN REPORT

SECTION ONE

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

World War ll

Cause and Effect by Jennifer Bailey

Introduction Lasted between September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945. WWll was the second worldwide conflict, a historical successor to the first

World War. Two separate conflicts formed together to create this outbreak: One beginning in Asia in 1937 as the Second Sino- Japanese War. The other, the 1939 invasion of Poland. The world split into two major powers, the Allies and the Axis. Over 70 million people were killed worldwide in this war making it the

deadliest human conflict in history. This was also the most widespread war in history. Over 11 million people killed were civilians in the Holocaust, conducted by

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The United States and the Soviet Union both emerged as super powers

which set the stage for the Cold War 45 years later.

Dark green shows Allies before the Japanese attack, light green shows Allies after, orange are the Axis powers, and

grey are the neutral countries.

Allied Powers

The main Allied powers to WWll are…

China Great Britain France United States Soviet Union

Axis Powers

The main Axis powers during WWll are…

Japan Germany Italy

Casualties: Allied Military: Over 14,000,000

Civilian: Over 36,000,000

Total: Over 50,000,000

Casualties: Axis Military: Over 8,000,000

Civilian: Over 4,000,000

Total: Over 12,000,000

Points of Interest…

Both powers had certain places they were drawn to. Some of them were:

Southern Europe (resources) Mediterranean Sea (transport) North Africa (shipping)

Lead Up to the War In September 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria under false pretenses and captured it

from the Chinese. In July 1933, Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party was elected the leader of Germany. He

demanded a nationalist foreign policy and by 1937, he demanded the cession of territories that had belonged to Germany long before his time (Rhineland and Gdansk).

In July 1937, Japan invaded mainland China that began with the bombing of Shanghai and Guangzhou and ended by the Nanking Massacre in December.

September 1939, Germany invaded Poland in cooperation with the Soviet Union, which started the war in Europe. France and Great Brittan did not declare war but tried to persuade Hitler to stop. He did not respond.

During the period of the ‘Phoney War’, France and the United Kingdom had declared war but it was very calm, as neither side wanted to engage the other directly.

More Lead Up The spring of 1940, Germany captured Denmark and Norway and early

summer, France and the Low Countries (Netherlands). In 1940, Italy declared war and attacked France just before the surrender. Germany then targeted the United Kingdom and attempted to cut them off

from much need supplies and gain control of the air to make an airborne attack possible.

This failed and enabled the British forces to focus on the Italian and German forces battling in the Mediterranean Basin.

This however was not successful in keeping the Axis powers from conquering the Balkans.

They had more success in the Mediterranean Sea, dealing massive damage to the Italian Naval forces. This also gave them the first victory over Germany when they won the Battle of Britain.

In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union which triggered the Soviet Union to form an alliance with Great Britain. The attack was originally successful but began to stall by winter.

Blitzkrieg (Lightning Warfare) September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland under a ‘faked Polish attack’

on a German post. On the 3rd of the same month, the UK issued an ultimatum to Germany, no

reply was received. Later that day Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, South Africa, Canada, and Nepal all declared war on Germany.

Immediately, the UK began seizing German ships and implemented a blockade.

This was the time called the ‘Phoney War’ because neither side would launch a direct attack. The UK and allies failed to send support for the Poles.

The German military forces ripped through the Polish forces and captured Warsaw on the 8th.

On the 17th, the Soviet Union kept its agreement and invaded Poland from the east. Poland was soon overwhelmed and the last Polish forces surrendered on October 6th.

Continued… Germany paused to regroup during the winter, the UK and France stayed on

the defensive. In April 1940, both German and Allied forces launched simultaneous

operations around Norway over Swedish iron ore. Germany won and gained control over Norway and Denmark. It was at a

heavy cost to their surface navy. This lead to the Norway Debate in London where Prime Minister Neville

Chamberlain resigned, he was replaced by Winston Churchill. Italy attacked France on June 10, 1940 in the Alps. France was

overwhelmed by the sudden attack and was forced to sign an armistice with Germany.

This lead to direct occupation of Paris and two-thirds of France and the establishment of a German Puppet State head-quartered in south-eastern France known as Vichy France.

The Pains of War…

French and British soldiers taken prisoner at Dunkirk during the Battle of France.

Bombed buildings in London during the Blitz.

Battle of the Atlantic (1939-1945) This nautical battle lasted the duration of the war and started right after the

German invasion of Poland. It started due to a German U-boat torpedoing a British liner, the SS Athenia.

The British quickly put into place a convoy act, letting merchant ships sell with protection. Sadly, they were short of convoy ships and many merchants had to sell without protection.

The French navy was removed from the allied force which allowed the German naval forces to use an increased range in their vessels.

The British navy was very stretched. Based in the English channel to protect against the German forces, fighting in the Mediterranean Sea to back up the losses in the French fleet, and helping to escort the merchant ships.

The US then struck the Destroyers for Bases Act which allowed the US to use British bases in exchange for fifty destroyers. These were used to carry out the convoy duties.

U-boats had a huge success and were put into mass production. Also this lead to the development of the wolf pack technique (mass attacks).

Continued…

An allied tanker torpedoed in 1942.

A German U-boat under attack by Allied aircraft in 1943.

Continued (again)… Germany’s navy was severely weakened by the capture of Norway. They

lost heavy tankers like the Graf Spee and the Bismarck. Because of the loss of the Bismarck, Hitler ordered all heavy surface

vessels to Norwegian waters to protect from a possible Allied attack on Scandinavia.

In May 1941, British forces captured a German Enigma machine (a cipher machine used to encrypt and decrypt messages) which greatly assisted in breaking German codes to help evade U-boat attacks.

In 1941, the Soviet Union joined the war on the side of the Allies but lost much of their equipment and manufacturing base due to the German invasion.

The Western Allies tried to help this by sending Arctic convoys which were faced with much harassment by German forces.

When the US entered the war in December, they did not take precautions against German submarines which dealt a great loss to shipping. The Germans refer to this as the “Second Happy Time”. Informally, of course.

Continued (again…again)… In June, the Leigh light allowed Allied aircraft to illuminate U-boats that had

been detected by their radar. Soon, the Germans found a way to negate this by developing Metox, a radar

that gave them full notice of when an aircraft like that was near. In American waters, the institution of shore blackouts resulted in a drop in

attacks. This resulted in the U-boats shifting back to the mid-Atlantic by August.

In December, a very powerful German naval force attacked a an Arctic convoy on its way to the Soviet Union: they failed to destroy a single merchant ship.

This led up to the resignation of Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, the supreme leader of the Kriegsmarine.

He was replaced by the Commander of Submarines Karl Donitz. He switched all naval building priorities to the U-boats.

The Battle Turns… In January 1943, the British developed the H2S radar. This was

undetectable by Metox. The Germans, once again, developed a counter, the Naxos radar detector.

This allowed German fighters to focus in on Allied forces using the H2S system.

In the spring, the Allies began to take the war in their favor. Black May, as it is called, showed that there were fewer losses in the Allied naval force and the German forces lost 25 % of their active U-boats.

That December, the German forces lost their last active battle cruiser in the Battle of North Cape. The Kriegsmarine was unable to ever gain another hold like they had. The Allied forces had proved that their tactics were effective and they were truly powerful.

Sights of War…

A British crusader tank passes a burning German Panzer lV in the Western Dessert Campaign.

US soldiers battle a machine gun nest in the Italian Campaign.

Battle of Calabria… A naval battle between the Italian Navy and the Royal British and

Australian navies. It occurred 30 miles to the east of Punta Stilo on July 9, 1940. Both sides claimed to have a victory. In truth it was a tie and both

sides retreated to their bases as quickly as they could. Soon after the battle, the Allies used their infamous propaganda to

try and convince the Italians that the battle had been an Allied victory.

Of course, this worked both ways. The Italians used their propaganda to try and convince the same.

Casualties and Losses for the Battle of Calabria…

1 Battleship Damaged1 Heavy Cruiser Damaged1 Light Cruiser Damaged

1 Light Cruiser Damaged2 Destroyers Damaged

Casualties

2 Battleships6 Heavy Cruisers8 Light Cruisers16 Destroyers

1 Aircraft Carrier3 Battleships5 Light Cruisers16 Destroyers

Strength

Inigo CampioniAndrew CunninghamCommanders

ItalyUnited KingdomAustralia

Combatants

AxisAllied

The Holocaust

This is the period of time during World War ll that approximately 9 to 11 million people, Jewish or not, lost their lives in death camps.

Most people believe that it was only Jews that were taken to these camps. This is a common misconception. This is a list of who was targeted.

Jews Homosexuals Disabled Catholics Mentally ill Freemasons Jehovah’s Witnesses Mormons Soviet POWs

“We only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down.” –Adolf Hitler-

Mouth of Hell…

Continued… The whole thing was carried out by the National Socialist German Workers

Party, led by Adolf Hitler. Though many types of people were killed in the Holocaust, many scholars

do not consider them part of the actual event. It is general referred to as the Genocide (destruction) of the Jews.

Jews were massacred in many ways. They were removed from power in government right before the war. Many were captured and forced to work in the concentration camps until they died of exhaustion or disease. And the Einsatzgruppen (intervention groups) murdered political opponents and Jews in mass shootings while the Third Reich did its job conquering new territory in Europe.

Everyone was loaded into a ghetto before being transported to the death camps. If they survived the ride, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers.

Every branch and arm of Germany’s government was in on this. This leaves history to call them a ‘Genocidal Nation.’

Genocide…

List of Camps with Death toll…

870,000Treblinka250,000Sobibor65,000Maly Trostinets

360,000Majdanek600,000Jasenovac320,000Chelmno600,000Belzec

1,400,000AuschwitzKilledCamp Name

The Liberation… The Holocaust was finally ended when word had escaped about the

death camps. The first large camp, Majdanek, was discovered by a force of

advancing Soviets on July 23, 1944. In January of 1945, Auschwitz was liberated, also by the Soviets.

Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec were never liberated but were destroyed by the Nazis in 1943.

7,000 inmates were found at Auschwitz which includes 180 children that had been experimented on by doctors.

60,000 thousand prisoners were discovered at yet another camp, Bergen-Belsen, by the British 11th division.

13,000 corpses went unburied and another 10,000 died over the next few weeks from Typhus or malnutrition. The British forced the remaining German soldiers to bury the corpses in mass graves.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, a Japanese carrier fleet caught the US of guard and launched a surprise air attack on the ‘sleeping’ battleships stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

This destroyed most of the American Aircraft stationed there and took the American Battle Fleet out of action, temporarily.

Three battleships were sunk and five more were heavily damaged. Only the USS Arizona and the USS Oklahoma were lost permanently. The other ships were eventually retrieved, repaired, and returned to fight.

Luckily, the dock and main supply were repaired quickly. The main fuel storage facilities, which could have left the fleet powerless, were left untouched.

The very next day, December 8th, both the US and the UK declared war on Japan.

The Re-Group… The Allies were officially formed on January 1, 1942 by the

Declaration of United Nations. In May, 1942 the Japanese implemented Mo Sakusen (Operation

Mo) to take Port Moresby located in New Guinea. The Yorktown was severely damaged and the Lexington was

completely sunk. The Japanese lost their light carrier Shoho and the heavy carrier Shokaku was damaged. The aircraft carrier Zuikaku lost half of her planes and was unable to participate in the upcoming battle at Midway.

It was a victory on both sides in the end. For the Japanese, a tactical victory. The Americans lost more than the Japanese. For the Americans, a strategic victory. The Japanese attack had been deflected and they had completely immobilized two large threats to the navy, Shokaku and the Zuikaku.

The Philippines General MacArthur’s troops liberated the Philippines landing on the island of Leyte on

October 20, 1944. The Japanese had prepared themselves for a

rigorous battle and used the last of their naval forces to launch a failed attempt to destroy the invading attack in the Battle of Leyte Gulf from October 23 through October 26. This was (arguably) the largest naval battle in history.

Japanese Home Islands The US captured Iwo Jima in February. This island was very psychologically important because it was traditionally Japanese

territory. It was rich with underground entrenchments but was eventually taken by Marines after the capture of Mount Suribachi, a keystone of defense.

This was a valuable capture due to the two airfield that could be used for emergency landings of B29s and it was close enough to provide a fighter escort to the Japanese homelands.

With the subsequent capture of Okinawa, the Japanese homeland was in easier reach of the US air force. The Japanese defended the island with everything from ground forces to kamikaze to even the suicide mission of the battleship, Yamato. It was sunk by American dive-bombers.

Among other Japanese cities, Tokyo was fire-bombed and about 90,000 people died from the initial attack. The density and wooden structures contributed heavily to the loss of life.

End of the War in Asia The last Allied conference of the war was held at Potsdam, outside of Berlin, from

July 17 to August 2, 1945. Here, it was decided that there would be nothing less than an unconditional surrender from Japan.

President Harry Truman decided that the new atomic weapon should be used to end the war as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay dropped the nuclear weapon, dubbed Little Boy, on Hiroshima. It destroyed the city.

On August 9, 1945, a B-29 named Bockscar dropped the second atomic weapon, dubbed Fat Man, on the port city Nagasaki.

Two days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Soviet Union attacked the weakened Japanese forces, ignoring their nonaggression pact with Japan and carrying out the Yalta pledge to attack Japan three months after the end of the war in Europe.

Within two weeks, the Japanese army in Manchuria, which consisted of over one million men, was destroyed by the battle-hardened Soviets.

The Japanese Surrender The atomic weapons that were dropped prompted Emperor Hirohito

to intervene and end the war. When he did his radio address, he never did mention the Soviet

invasion but ordered his troops to lay down their weapons and cease fire. He stressed relationship between Soviet entrance into the war and his decision to surrender.

He omitted any mention of the atomic weapons that were used. The Japanese officially surrendered on August 15, 1945, or V-J

Day, signing the Japanese Instrument of Surrender of September 2. The Japanese soldiers in China formerly surrendered to the Chinese on September 9, 1945.

In Conclusion… That was WWll in a nutshell. The Allied powers won due to the atomic

weapons that caused enough damage to flatten two cities. This was the only time in history that these weapons have been used.

The new technology developed during this time of war have developed more powerful weapons that contribute to current wars and battle strategies that lead to swift victories and tragic enemy losses.

The Sequel to the War to End All Wars…

That was WORLD WAR 2!!

References… Wikipedia.org

World Book

The World History text book

Coach Vice’s lectures

Coach Ross’ lectures

SECTION TWO

HANDWRITTEN

REPORT