Chapter 37
Fighting of WWII
War Begins in Europe - Review
• War Begins with the signing of the NaziSoviet Non Aggression Pact (difference
between public and private terms of the
agreement)
• Germany invades Poland – September
1939 (France and Britain declare war on
Germany immediately)
Hitler’s Lightning War
• Hitler introduced the
•
“Blitzkrieg” – or
‘Lightning War’ – as
his principle strategy
Took the enemy by
surprise using fast
moving tanks and
airplanes – followed
by infantry soldiers
Stalin Moves the Soviets
• Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania without a fight
• Forced to fight fiercely against Finland in
brutal 1939-40 winter
• Soviets eventually successful
Hitler Attacks Western Europe
• April 1940 – Hitler
invaded Denmark and
Norway (he wanted
coastline areas to launch
future attacks on Britain)
• May 1940 – Hitler attacks
Holland, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and
eventually France
• France fell in June 1940
• French Gen. Charles de
Gaulle fled to London and
set up a government-inexile
Hitler and his generals in Paris
after the city fell to the Nazis –
June 1940
• P.M. Winston Churchill
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•
•
•
declared that England
would “never surrender”
Battle of Britain: Aerial
Battle between the
German Luftwaffe & the
British Royal Air Force
(RAF)
Germany’s effort began
with bombing campaigns
– first airfields &
factories, then civilian
sections of cities
Britain had radar and a
code-making machine
called the Enigma
The Battle of Britain
continued to June 1941 –
until Hitler decided to put
resources elsewhere
Hitler Attacks Britain
The Battle of Britain
The Eastern Front and
Mediterranean
• Italy and Germany
•
•
wanted to access the
British-controlled Suez
Canal (why?)
Italians first tried – Brits
pushed them back
Hitler sent Gen. Erwin
Rommel (the Desert Fox)
with his new tank unit –
The Afrika Korps
WWII in the Balkans
• Hitler wanted Balkan
•
•
nations – they would
make a Soviet Union
invasion easier
Bulgaria, Romania,
and Hungary joined
the Axis
Germany defeated
Yugoslavia and
Greece in days
Hitler invades the Soviet Union
• “Operation Barbarossa”
• June 22, 1941 – Germany
•
•
invades the Soviet Union
5 million-man Red Army
not equipped nor
prepared for Hitler’s
smaller (3 million), more
mobile troops (tanks)
Germans moved 500
miles into Russia – the
Reds simply retreated
and burned
Problems for Germany in the
invasion of Russia
• Blitzkrieg effective – but fighting soon broke
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•
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down in cities
Size of Soviet Union (easy to invade – but how
do you hold it?)
Germans outran their supply lines
Germans unprepared for winter
Russians started getting help from U.S. Lend
Lease Act
Russia felt “united” after German “betrayal” –
The Great Patriotic War
Battle of Leningrad
• Sept. 1941 – Germans
•
•
surround Leningrad,
isolating it
Hitler wanted to
“starve” the people
(cut off supplies,
bombed food
warehouses)
1 million die – but city
doesn’t surrender
Attack on Moscow
• Discouraged by
Leningrad, Hitler decides
to attack Moscow – Oct.
1941
• Soviet Gen. Georgi
Zhukov had fresh troops
and an early winter
• Germans froze in their
summer uniforms – Hitler
gave the order to never
surrender
• Stalemate ensued west of
Moscow – not until 1943
do the Russians start to
push back
Axis Powers in 1942
Pearl Harbor from the Cockpit
of a Japanese Pilot
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!
President Roosevelt Signs the
US Declaration of War
Farthest Extent
of Japanese Conquests
Axis Powers in 1942
The Allied War Strategy
• Open up a multi-front
•
war on Hitler
N. Africa & Italy in the
South; Russia attacks
from the East; U.S.
and Britain from the
West
Phase #1: The War in Africa
• Germans under Gen.
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•
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Erwin Rommel advanced
to within miles of the
Suez Canal (middle
eastern oil) at the city of
El Alamein
British Gen. Bernard
Montgomery attacked
and pushed Rommel back
Fresh American troops
led by Gen. Dwight
Eisenhower push Rommel
from the west
Rommel’s Afrika Korps
forced out and retreats in
May 1943
The Battle for Sicily:
June, 1943
General
George S. Patton
The Italian Campaign
[“Operation Torch”] :
Europe’s “Soft Underbelly”
 Allies plan
assault on
weakest Axis
area - North
Africa - Nov.
1942-May 1943
 George S.
Patton leads
American troops
 Germans
trapped in
Tunisia surrender over
275,000 troops.
Mussolini &
His Mistress,
Claretta
Petacci
Are Hung in
Milan, 1945
Operation Barbarossa:
Hitler’s Biggest Mistake
Phase #2 – The War in the East
• Germans had attacked Russia, but their
advancements had stalled at Leningrad
and Moscow by late 1941
• Hitler ordered attack on Stalingrad in
August 1942
– Began with blistering bombing raids
– Soviet Union had huge numbers of troops –
but many were poorly equipped
Battle of Stalingrad
• Very Important City for the
Germans and Russians
– Near the oil fields of the
Caucasus Mts.
– Major industrial city
– Named after Stalin
– Hitler began with
constant bombing raids
– Stalin ordered “not one
step backward”
– Germans caught inside
city during winter of
1942-43
– Hitler orders “no retreat”
More with Stalingrad
• Germans were caught inside Stalingrad – which
•
•
•
was 99% destroyed at this point
Through winter 42-43, only 90,000 German
troops are left (of original 300,000) – most are
starving and frost-bit
Soviets lose over a million men – plus hundreds
of thousands of civilians
BUT… The Soviets are now on the offensive
against the Germans
Battle of Stalingrad:
Winter of 1942-1943
German Army
Russian Army
1,011,500 men
1,000,500 men
10,290 artillery guns
13,541 artillery guns
675 tanks
894 tanks
1,216 planes
1,115 planes
Europe at the time of the D-Day
invasion – June 6, 1944
Gen. Eisenhower Gives the Orders
for D-Day [“Operation Overlord”]
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
Normandy Landing
(June 6, 1944)
German Prisoners
Higgins Landing Crafts
July 20, 1944 Assassination Plot
Major Claus von
Stauffenberg
July 20, 1944 Assassination Plot
1. Adolf Hitler
2. Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel
3. Gen Alfred von Jodl
4. Gen Walter Warlimont
5. Franz von Sonnleithner
6. Maj Herbert Buchs
7. Stenographer Heinz Buchholz
8. Lt Gen Hermann Fegelein
9. Col Nikolaus von Below
10. Rear Adm Hans-Erich Voss
11. Otto Gunsche, Hitler's adjutant
12. Gen Walter Scherff (injured)
13. Gen Ernst John von Freyend
14. Capt Heinz Assman (injured)
US & Russian Soldiers Meet at
the Elbe River: April 25, 1945
Hitler Commits Suicide
April 30, 1945
Cyanide & Pistols
The Führer’s Bunker
Mr. & Mrs. Hitler
Asia for Asians!
Allied Counter-Offensive:
“Island-Hopping”
Battle of Midway Island:
June 4-6, 1942
Battle of Midway Island:
June 4-6, 1942
Japanese Kamikaze Planes:
The Scourge of the South Pacific
Kamikaze Pilots
Suicide
Bombers
Gen. MacArthur “Returns” to
the Philippines! [1944]
US Marines on Mt. Surbachi,
Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]
• Iwo Jima and
Okinawa –
– Final battles for US in
the Pacific
– Japanese defend
islands to the death
Yalta: February, 1945
 Allied conference to discuss post-war world
 FDR wants quick Soviet entry into Pacific
war.
 FDR & Churchill concede Stalin needs buffer,
FDR & Stalin want spheres of influence and a
weak Germany.
 Churchill wants
strong Germany
as buffer
against Stalin.
 FDR argues
for a ‘United
Nations’.
Potsdam Conference:
July, 1945
 FDR dead, Churchill out of office as Prime
Minister during conference.
 Stalin only original.
 The United States
has the A-bomb.
 Allies agree Germany
is to be divided into
occupation zones
 Poland moved
around to suit
P.M. Clement President
Joseph
Atlee
Truman
Stalin
the Soviets.
Tinian Island, 1945
Little Boy
Fat Man
Enola Gay Crew
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
© 70,000 killed
immediately.
© 48,000 buildings.
destroyed.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning &
cancer later.
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
© 40,000 killed
immediately.
© 60,000 injured.
© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning
& cancer later.
Post-War Misery
• Cities across Europe and
•
Asia were in ruins – some
completely destroyed
(Berlin, Dresden,
Warsaw, London,
Leningrad, Stalingrad,
Tokyo, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki)
WWII was another
TOTAL WAR – Civilians
are seen as legitimate
targets
WWII – “Total War”
• Industrialized nature of 20th century wars
• Factories, infrastructure, and people were
deemed legitimate military targets
• Examples:
– Bombing of London and other English cities
– Destruction of Jewish ghettos / Holocaust
– Internment and labor camps (Germany & U.S)
– Bombing of Japanese cities
Dresden, Germany after the
firebombing
Japanese A-Bomb Survivors
Hiroshima Memorials
V-J Day (September 2, 1945)
V-J Day in Times Square, NYC
WW II Casualties: Europe
Each symbol
indicates 100,000
dead in the
appropriate theater
of operations
WW II Casualties: Asia
Each symbol
indicates 100,000
dead in the
appropriate theater
of operations
Post-War Japan
• U.S. undertook
•
•
•
complete occupation
of Japan
U.S. then
“demilitarized” Japan
– took away their
armed forces
Executed war leaders
U.S. then wrote
Japan’s new
constitution
The U.S. & the U.S.S.R.
Emerged as the Two Superpowers
of the later 20c
7 Future American Presidents
Served in World War II
U.S. involvement – The Early Years
• Be able to answer:
– Why did the U.S. pass a series of Neutrality
Acts between 1935 and 1937?
– Why did FDR ultimately let the Allies buy
materials from the U.S.? Why did he say they
must pay for the supplies in cash and carry
them on their own ships?
– What was the Lend Lease Act?
– What was the Atlantic Charter?