Chapter 31 Section 3
The Global Conflict: Allied Successes
Setting the Scene
World War II was fought on a larger scale and
in more places than any other conflict in history. It
was also more costly in terms of human life than
any previous war. Civilians, as well as soldiers,
were targets. In 1941, a reporter visited a Russian
town that had been home to 10,000 people before
the German invasion. The reporter found a lone
survivor: "She was a blind old woman who had
gone insane. I saw her wandering barefooted
around the village, carrying a few dirty rags, a rusty
pail, and a tattered sheepskin.”
From 1939 until mid-1942, the Axis ran up a
string of successes. The conquerors blasted
villages and towns and divided up the spoils. Then
the Allies won some key victories. Slowly, the tide
began to turn.
I. Occupied Lands - Europe
The Axis set out to build a "new order" in the
occupied lands of Europe, Asia and the Pacific
I. Occupied Lands - Europe
The Nazis stripped conquered nations of art,
factories, and resources; “inferior races” to
forced to work as slave laborers
The World Jewish Congress says
the Nazis seized up to $30 billion
worth of art
Slave laborers in the Buchenwald
concentration camp
I. Occupied Lands - Europe
Hitler's policy was to kill all "racially inferior"
people – Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals,
communists, the mentally ill, etc.
Gas Chamber at Auschwitz
Crematoriums at the Nazi
concentration camp in Weimar,
Germany, April 1945
I. Occupied Lands - Europe
Jews were forced into ghettos and
concentration camps; by 1941, Nazis planned
for the "final solution of the Jewish problem"
Jews rounded up after the 1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
I. Occupied Lands - Europe
Hitler had special death camps built in places
like Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka
I. Occupied Lands - Europe
By 1945, the Nazis had murdered six million
Jews and 6 million other "undesirable" people
- the Holocaust
II. Occupied Lands - Asia
Under the slogan "Asia for Asians," Japan
created the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere
II. Occupied Lands - Asia
Japanese killed and tortured civilians, destroyed
cities and towns, and made people into slave
laborers
During the six weeks of the Nanking Massacre, the Chinese were not
simply murdered. They were tortured, humiliated, and raped. The
Japanese used a wide variety of methods of murder.
III. The Allied War Effort
1942: the “Big Three” - Roosevelt, Churchill,
and Stalin - agreed to defeat Hitler first and
then concentrate on Japan
The "Big Three"
Yalta: Churchill,
Roosevelt and
Stalin
III. The Allied War Effort
The Allies were committed to total war governments directed the economy, rationed
goods, and regulated prices and wages
III. The Allied War Effort
Governments limited the rights of citizens,
censored the press, and used propaganda to
win public support for the war
III. The Allied War Effort
As men joined the military, millions of women
built ships, tanks, and planes; produced
munitions; and staffed offices
Rosie the Riveter
by Norman Rockwell
III. The Allied War Effort
Women served in the military, fought in the
resistance, and became soldiers in the Red
Army
Marie-Madeleine
Fourcade
USSR Soldier
IV. Turning Points
1942 and 1943 - the Allies pushed back the
Axis powers and turned the tide of war
IV. Turning Points
British Gen. Montgomery and American Gen.
Eisenhower defeated Rommel in May 1943 at
El Alamein
General Bernard
Montgomery, “Monty”
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Ike”
IV. Turning Points
July 1943, Allies landed in Sicily and moved
into southern Italy, defeating the Italian forces
IV. Turning Points
The Italians overthrew Mussolini and signed
an armistice, but fighting did not end until 18
months later
The bodies of Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara
Petacci were hung by their heels after being killed by Italian
partisans in Milan, April 1945
IV. Turning Points
1943 - After winning the Battle of Stalingrad,
the Red Army advanced into Eastern Europe
IV. Turning Points
The Allies invaded France on D-Day - June 6,
1944; by September all of France was free
IV. Turning Points
The Allies focused on conquering Germany
first before defeating Japan