WWII WWII Beginnings and BattlesBeginnings and Battles

OverviewOverview

• Causes of WWII• The Anschluss • Czechoslovakia and Poland Fall• Blitzkrieg of Denmark and Belgium• France Falls• The World at War

CausesCauses

• Appeasement• Failure of the Treaty of Versailles• Great depression (Global Scale)• Rising dictatorships are allowed to flourish• Fear of Communism prevents western powers

from acting earlier• Pacifism and the recent war memories• United States and Isolationism• The League of Nations is powerless

League of NationsLeague of Nationsa “Paper Tiger”a “Paper Tiger”

• Does nothing when Japan invades Manchuria in 1931.

• Ignores pleas from Ethiopia for help when Italy invades in 1935.

• Several nations believe Germany was treated too harshly.

• Even when Germany completely ignores the agreements of the Treaty of Versailles, the League does nothing to intervene.

The Axis PowersThe Axis Powers

• Berlin, Rome and Tokyo sign a treaty agreeing to assist one another and not to interfere with each nations expansion.

• Anti-democratic aggressors now are world powers.

• Germany, Italy and Japan become the Axis Powers

German Aggression StartsGerman Aggression Starts

• The Anschluss – Annexation of Austria. (March 1938)

• Sudetenland – German troops take most of Czechoslovakia (March 1939)

• France and Britain decide to not intervene and begin a policy of appeasement.

• Nazi-Soviet Pact – Stalin and Hitler sign a non-aggression treaty, mostly out of fear for each other. (August 1939)

Invasion of PolandInvasion of Poland

• September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland.

• Germany uses it’s newest weapon of war, the Blitzkrieg “Lightning War” to overwhelm the Polish.

• France and Britain declare war on Germany.

France and Britain RespondFrance and Britain Respond

• Phony War – The first winter, France stayed at the Maginot Line, waiting for the Germans. British troops deploy to France.

• With two armies waiting south, Hitler moves to take Denmark and Norway to the north.

• Germany pushes the British Expeditionary Forces to the English Channel at Dunkirk, Belgium

The British are pushed to theEnglish Canal at Dunkirk. They have no way to escape Onslaught of invading Panzer Tanks.

Amazingly, the GermansDo not destroy the strandedArmy while they wait to beEvacuated from the beach.

British Forces evacuating the beach at Dunkirk.

France FallsFrance Falls

• Germany, after seeing the British flee Belgium, simply moves around the Maginot Line and invades France.

• Germany quickly subdues France and sets up a Puppet Government with it’s capital at Vichy.

The French react to the German Army entering Paris after France surrenders

Hitler tours Paris afterGerman forces sweepPast the Maginot Line And take the country withAmazing speed.

Maginot Line

Rommel in North AfricaRommel in North Africa

• The Desert Fox, the youngest and brightest general in the Wermacht, defeats the British in north Africa, the British are pushed back to Cairo, Egypt.

• The Italians invade Greece and Yugoslavia.• Bulgaria and Hungary join the Axis Powers

in 1941.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

Battle of Britain and the BlitzBattle of Britain and the Blitz

• Hitler orders the continuous bombing of London and the surrounding areas.

• The British Air Force valiantly protect the skies above England this was called the Battle of Britain.

• The citizens of England bravely go about their daily business, refusing to allow Hitler’s attacks to sway them!

• Hitler turns to bombing cities and non-military targets to increase the terror of the “Blitz”. This was called operation Sea Lion.

Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa

• 3 Million German troops advance on the Soviet Union.

• The Russians were initially pushed back, but they practiced a “scorched earth” policy to deny the Germans the use of any land or materials.

• When winter set in, the Germans found themselves facing an enemy they could not defeat, “General Winter” and like Napoleon, the Germans were pushed back at the siege of Leningrad.

German siege guns pound Molensk.

American InvolvementAmerican Involvement• Arsenal of Democracy – lending a neighbor

a firehose when his house is on fire. • The Atlantic Charter. • Attack on

Pearl Harbor

Spurs America to

Join the allies.

Japanese Take the PacificJapanese Take the Pacific

• Needing supplies, raw materials and oil, Japan makes a bid for the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, Burma, Hong Kong, French Indochina and the Philippine Islands.

• A wounded America must decide to regroup it’s naval forces and suffers defeat at Corrigedor and the Philippines. The Bataan Death march still lives in the memories of WWII veterans.

• Thousands of U.S. soldiers are killed along with over 10,000 Philippines on the hot and diseased roads leading to Bataan.

Over 70,000 American and Philippine soldiers are taken prisoner buy the JapaneseAfter surrendering. This is considered a disgrace by the Japanese Code of War And the prisoners are treated without mercy.

Hitler and his “Ultimate Hitler and his “Ultimate Answer”Answer”

• Aryan Race declared the purest of all, allowing other “inferior” races to be annihilated. Jews, Blacks, Gypsies, Eastern Europeans were all seen as these undesirable races.

• Hitler begins his plans to eradicate the Jews by using Death Camps to commit genocide against the prisoners there.