Chapter 28
The Era of the
Second World
War,
1939–1949
Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki,
August 9, 1945
When this photo was taken, from
an observation plane 6 miles up,
thirty-five thousand people on the
ground had already died.
p803
German Dominance
• September 1939
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–
–
–
–
Germany invaded Poland unprovoked (used Blitzkrieg attack)
France & Britain declared war but failed to aid Poland
Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east (non-aggression pact)
Soviets invade Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania (Baltic States)
Soviets invade Finland – Finns beat Russians – Finland allies w/ Germany
• German Successes were caused by:
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–
–
–
Innovations in tank warfare (Panzer's)
Blitzkrieg (Lightening war)
Effective use of air power
Coordination of different types of weaponry
• Phony War
– After declaring war on Germany --- Britain & France WAITED to be attacked –
took 6 months winder of 1939 to spring of 1940 before Hitler invaded the west
using his Blitzkrieg tactics
– Weeks overran Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Northern France
• Southern France – Vichy French – under Marshal Petain
• Free French – in London – under General Charles De Gaulle (they escaped w/ the British from
Dunkirk
German Dominance,
1939–1941
• The Blitzkrieg strategy
– Use of fast-moving armor with air support
– Made its debut in Poland
– Allowed quick victories in Denmark and Norway after the “Phony War”
• Fall of France
– Blitzkrieg led to defeat of France in six weeks
– Creation of the Vichy government under Petain
– Charles de Gaulle and the Free French in London
• Vichy France
– At first Marshal Petain enjoyed widespread support
– The Vichy gov’t had a goal to carry out a “national revolution” (pg. 812)
– The Vichy regime:
• rounded up workers for forced shipment to German factories
• Hunted down members of the Anti-German Resistance
• Picked up Jews to be sent to the Nazi extermination camps
– After the war, Petain & other Vichy officials were tried on treason charges
The Miracle of Dunkirk
Battle of Britain
• Battle of Britain was a rare setback for the Germans
– German bombers bombed RAF airfields and Radar stations
– After RAF bombed Berlin, Luftwaffe ordered to start bombing
London
• Bombing of London gave RAF fighters time to regroup and attack German
bombers in the air. (see following 2 slides)
• Spread of the war
– Italy began to intervene, first in France, then in Greece
– Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria joined the Axis
– Balkan (German invasion) and North African campaigns (Rommel, the Desert
Fox vs. Bernard Montgomery, Monty) (Monty wins the 2nd Battle of El
Alamein)
Winston Churchill
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/battleofbritain/11428.shtml
B. With the Fall of France Great Britain stood alone & almost
defenseless. WINSTON CHURCHILL replaced Neville
Chamberlain as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
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–
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Churchill promised the British that they would NEVER SURRENDER.
He said “WE SHALL DEFEND OUR ISLAND, WHATEVER THE COST
MAY BE… WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER… IF GREAT BRITAIN ITSELF
SHALL FALL THEN OUR EMPIRE BEYOND THE SEAS… WOULD
CARRY ON THE STRUGGLE UNITL IN GOD’S GOOD TIME, THE NEW
WORLD…STEPS FORTH TO THE RESCUE & LIBERATION OF THE OLD”
Hitler planned the invasion of Great Britain (OPERATION SEA LION).
This plan was contingent on the German Air Force – the Luftwaffe –
controlling the air space over England.
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN – began in August, 1940 – German
bombers attacked Great Britain. The entire battle took place in the
skies over England
»
»
»
Luftwaffe was winning the battle until Hitler ordered that the attack switch from
RAF airfields and installations to bombing of London. This gave the RAF time to
rebuild their airfields and get their fighters up in the sky.
Even though outnumbered the RAF WON the Battle of Britain & Hitler could not
invade.
Churchill said after the battle “Never in the field of Human conflict was so much owed
by so many to so few”
At the
height of
the
German
bombing
of Britain
in 1940,
Winston
Churchill
and his
wife,
Clementine
, survey
the
damage
in
London.
p805
The Battle of Britain
German Reversals,
1941-1942
• Operation Barbarossa (see map on next slide)
– Surprise German invasion, violating 1939 non-aggression pact
– Expected to end in quick Soviet defeat
– Delays in Balkans (Operation Retribution) and North Africa forced
German army to confront the Russian Winter
– Failed to take Moscow
– Significant defeat at Stalingrad, 1942-1943 (turning point of war)
• Soviets push back
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A population mobilized for the “Great Patriotic War”
Construction of a new industrial base beyond the Urals
Hitler’s refusal to order a strategic retreat
German miscalculation
Soviet Union had lost its grain fields in the Ukraine, its’ oil fields in the
Caucasus, the Nazis were in Stalingrad & laying siege to Leningrad.
Before they pushed back like a giant spring.
Battle of Stalingrad
Fighting
From
House
to
House
• Soviet victory at Stalingrad cost over 1.5 million deaths in
the city. Overall the Soviets lost 20 million people because
of the German invasion of Russia.
Vasily Zaitesev
Sharpshooter
Battle of Stalingrad
See films Enemy at the Gates
Stalingrad
On June 23, 1941, the day after
Nazi Germany attacked the
Soviet Union, the London Daily
Mail published this cartoon
depicting Hitler’s betrayal of his
1939 pact with Stalin.
p807
German Occupation of Europe
• In the West
– Germany sought collaborators in the west
• Vichy French
– Rounded up Jews
– Nations collaborated with the Germans to achieve their own national
interests
• In the East
– Germany waged a brutal campaign of exploitation & ethnic cleansing
• Jews and Slavs
– Hitler’s plan was to resettle millions of Germans on land from which
Poles & Slavs had been removed by murder or expelled.
Much of Europe saw
fighting during World
War II, although
different fronts were
important at different
times. What proved
decisive was the
fighting that ensued
in the vast expanse
of the Soviet Union
after the Germans
invaded in June
1941.
Map 28-1 p804
The Holocaust
• Evolution from forced emigration to extermination
– The creation of Ghettos in Poland
• Ghetto – confined & closed areas of cities which saw forced resettlement of
Jews
– Developing plans for extermination
• SS troops in Eastern Europe assigned to execute communists and Jewish men
– Reinhard Heydrich – architect of the “Final Solution”
• As executions broadened to include women and children, morale problems
emerged
• Emergence of Death Camps
– Gas chambers and crematoria to depersonalize killing
• Death Camps were for exterminations whereas concentration camps were more like
mass prisons.
– Bureaucratized and government-sanctioned murder
• The process of transport and “selection”
• Forced labor and extermination
• The problem of complicity: Battalion 101 of the “order police”
– Along with Jews, victims included Poles, Gypsies, Communists,
homosexuals
Holocaust con’t
• Reactions:
– Disbelief, in part due to the false stories of
German atrocities in the 1st World War
– Skepticism, because it was known that in
some Jewish camps, the inmates were not
killed
– Appeals for concerted action that never came
– Roosevelt refused pleas from Jewish leaders,
wishing to concentrate on victory instead
At the zenith of its power in 1942, Nazi Germany controlled much of Europe. Concerned most
immediately with winning the war, the Nazis sought to coordinate the economies of their satellite
states and conquered territories. But they also began establishing what was supposed to be an
enduring New Order in eastern Europe. The inset shows the locations of the major Nazi
concentration camps and the six extermination camps the Nazis constructed in what had been
Poland.
Map 28-2 p809
In April 1943, many of the sixty thousand Jews remaining in the Warsaw ghetto revolted against
the occupying Germans rather than face shipment to the extermination camps. As many as
14,000 died in the ensuing fighting or in the fire that the Germans set in the ghetto. Almost all
the rest were captured and sent to their deaths at Treblinka. Before it was put down in May, the
uprising killed at least three hundred Germans.
p811
From September 1942 until the German surrender early in
February 1943, STALINGRAD on the Volga River saw some
of the heaviest fighting of World War II. The Soviet victory, in
the face of incredible casualties, was arguably the turning
point of the war in Europe.
p813
Lukow, Poland
July, 1942
p814
Lomazy, Poland
August 1942
Read the
“Visual
Record”
pages 814815
For more
on these
Holocaust
Snapshots
p815
Collaboration and Resistance in Nazi Europe
• German treatment of conquered territory
– In the West, military occupation along conventional lines
– In the East, unprecedented efforts to subjugate, colonize and
even exterminate conquered populations
• Different nations respond differently to Nazi Jewish policy
– Many in Croatia enthusiastically collaborated
– Many in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands resisted
• Vichy France
– Petain claimed he was protecting French sovereignty
– The fascistic “National Revolution” as response to defeat
– Pierre Laval’s (Petain’s 2nd in Command) collaboration after
1942 (read pg 812)
A Global War, 1941-1944
• Japan
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Expanded into China and Southeast Asia
Military alliance with Germany and Italy, 1940
Growing tensions with the U.S. over China
U.S. led economic sanctions led to Pearl Harbor attack
• Main cause of Japanese expansionism seems to have been economic
– British & Dutch joined US in the boycott against Japan
• The United States
– Allied w/ China before War broke out
– The Lend-Lease Act – Congressional authorization for the
President to provide armaments to combatants
– Pearl Harbor – U.S. declared war on Japan after they bombed us and
Germany & Italy declared war on U.S. after we declared war on Japan
– Turned tide of Pacific war against Japan at Midway, 1942
– U.S.-British-U.S.S.R. military alliance, 1942
– READ: The Global Record: Japan’s “Pan-Asian Mission”
After a series
of conquests in
1941 and 1942,
the Japanese
were forced
gradually to
fall back before
advancing U.S.
forces.
When the war
abruptly ended
in August
1945, however,
the Japanese
still controlled
much of the
territory they
had conquered.
Map 28-3 p817
• A Second Front in Europe
– Russians wanted a second front in Europe –
Churchill wants us to open a second front in Africa
then Italy (“the Soft Underbelly of the beast”)
– We follow what Churchill wants
• See following slide
• North Africa
• Italy (fighting horrible against Germans who invaded
Italy – continues until very end of war)
• Then France – D-Day June 6, 1944
• Nov. 7-8, 1942 – A large
naval task force arrived off
the coast of North Africa.
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

British landings took place at
ORAN & ALGIERS on the
Mediterranean side
American landings took place
at CASABLANCA on the
Atlantic side of Morocco
Ams. Were defeated at the
Kasserine Pass in Tunisia but
Patton regrouped and began a
strong counter-offensive
From Victories in North
Africa Allied invasion of
Sicily was Planned
From Sicily Allied invasion of
Italy was planned
General George S. Patton
“Old Blood & Guts”
D-Day, 1944 Allied forces land at Normandy, early in the morning of June 6, 1944, at last opening a
major second front in Europe.
p820
As a result of World War II, the Soviet Union expanded its western borders and Poland shifted
westward at the expense of Germany.
Territorial changes added to the wartime disruption and produced a flood of refugees.
The cold war division of Europe did not depend on immediate territorial changes, but soon
Germany itself came to be divided on east-west lines.
Map 28-4 p822
Deciding the Future of Europe
• The United Nations
– Idea that gradually took shape in the final years of the war
– First formalized at the Dumbarton Oaks conference, 1944
• The Yalta Conference, February 1945
– The “Big Three”: Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill
– Established conditions for Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe
– Bolstered France to create a new balance of power
• The Potsdam Conference
– Divided Germany
– Reconfigured Poland
– Established the battle lines of the Cold War
• The Nuremberg Trials and the question of war guilt
– “crimes against humanity” was a vague concept
– The accused were judged by laws made after the fact
– International law was generally binding only on states not
individuals
– Several high German officials were found guilty and were
executed.
WARTIME DIPLOMACY
• During the course of the War there were
“conferences” held that set forth the post war
world and led to the era of the Cold War.
CASABLANCA CONFERENCE – January 1943
Churchill & FDR met in North Africa and agreed
the war would end only with UNCONDITIONAL
SURRENDER.
Many historians believe this meant
the war lasted longer than necessary.
French Gen. Henri Giraud, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gen.
Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill
• YALTA CONFERENCE – Feb. 1945 – FDR, CHURCHILL &
STALIN met in the southern Soviet Union at Yalta in
the Crimea. Decisions were made here that changed
the map of Europe for the future.
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United nations would be formed with HQ’s in NYC (Very important to
FDR which is why he made other concessions –see below)
Germany would be divided into 4 military zones (US, Britain, France &
USSR)
Big 3 (US, GREAT BRITAN & USSR) would support free elections in
Poland & throughout Europe.
Stalin promised USSR would go to war w/ Japan within 3 months
AFTER the war against Germany was over.
Stalin was promised all the lands taken from Russia by Japan in the
Russo Japanese War of 1904-05 (Kurile Islands, Southern ½ of Sakhalin
Island, Occupation zone in Korea & certain rights in Manchuria.
Did the U.S. & Great Britain betray east-central Europe @ Yalta? (Soviet Union
was not carrying out its agreements from Yalta but the U.S. could do nothing about it
while still in war with Japan. Soviets occupied Poland & most of Eastern Europe --- no
free elections would take place until the 1980’s )
Post War World II Europe --- Notice the occupation zones
in Germany
•
POTSDAM CONFERENCE – July 1945 in Potsdam
Germany – Harry Truman, Clement Attlee & Joseph Stalin
(FDR was dead, Attlee replaced Churchill as PM before the
conference – but Churchill was there as Attlee’s guest).
Additional decisions were made by the Big 3
•
For Germany:
–
Polish control of German territory EAST of the Oder-Neisse Line as
compensation for Soviet annexation of eastern Poland
–
Zones of occupation in Germany
–
De-Nazification program
–
Demilitarization of Germany
– POTSDAM ULTIMATUM – was issued to Japan
• They must surrender UNCONDITIONALLY &
• Japan itself must be OCCUPIED BY ALLIED ARMIES
• All Japanese conquests since 1895 had to be returned.
•
Japan formally rejected the ultimatum on July 29, 1945
Atlee, Truman & Stalin
Churchill,
Truman,
& Stalin
The War’s Final Stages
• Delayed Allied attempt to open a second front
– North Africa as staging ground for invasion of Italy
– Germany’s successful effort to hold northern Italy, 1943
– Allied Bombing of German held territory & Germany itself
• Destroyed Dresden & 60,000 of its civilian residents
• The Soviet Role
– Bore the brunt of the fighting and casualties
– Went it alone in Eastern Europe while U.S. and U.K. focused on the West
• The conclusion of the war
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D-Day invasion as Soviets pushed westward
Soviet troops met U.S. troops at the Elbe in Germany
Hitler commits suicide April 30, 1945
German surrender, May 7, 1945
• In the final years of the war Germany suffered shortages of oil & military personnel
but NOT armaments
– Atomic bomb caused Japanese capitulation, August 1945
Soviet troops reached Berlin in April 1945. After a day of heavy fighting and
bombardment, the Soviets took the Reichstag building, in the heart of the devastated
German capital, on April 30.
Here two Soviet sergeants, Yegorov and Kantariya, plant the Soviet flag atop the
Reichstag, symbolizing the Soviet victory in the decisive encounter of World War II
in Europe.
p824
Results of WWII
• WWII caused 60 million deaths & made another 60
million homeless or refugees
• Britain, France & Italy suffered fewer casualties in
1939-1945 than they did in WWI
• The highest casualty figures were in the Soviet
Union, Poland, & Germany
• A wave of anti-German feelings developed
• Decolonization
• A division of Europe
• The Cold War
• The Creation of Israel
Resistance Movements
• Resistance movements were involved in
guerilla war against the Germans and their
collaborators.
• The largest, best organized resistance was in
Poland, Yugoslavia, & the Soviet Union
• Communists played important roles in Italy &
France’s resistance movements
• The resistance movements in Western Europe
had a major influence on postwar politics
Beginnings of the Cold War
• The Atomic Bomb
– Great Britain first to initiate an atomic weapons program
– Manhattan Project – the American project to build the atomic bomb
– A-bomb development kept SECRET from ally Soviet Union
• The growing importance of the United Nations
• The emergence of a bipolar world
– The decisive military presence of the Soviets in Eastern Europe
– Soviet desire to exploit Germany’s resources, US desire to rebuild its
economic power
– Stalin’s goal: buffer states to protect the USSR from Western powers
– Civil War in Greece, 1946-1949
• Soviet-supported Communists vs. U.S. and U.K. supported
monarchy
• Contributed to the formulation of the Truman Doctrine
– 1949: Soviets announce the development of an atomic bomb
Into the Postwar World
• Indian Independence
– States of India and Pakistan granted independence, 1947
– Revealed the toll the war had taken on British power
• Creation of Israel
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–
–
–
Zionism and ongoing Jewish immigration to Palestine
British, who controlled Palestine, wanted to curtail that immigration
Growing tension led to British withdrawal
First Arab-Israeli war and creation of Israel in 1948
• Communist takeover in China
– Mao Zedong’s rise to power, 1949
– Sparked new anxieties about global spread of Communism
Truman & the spread of Communism
• Once China became Communist, fear of communism
spreading (Domino Theory)
• Truman’s strategy of containment maintained that:
– It was possible to contain the expansion of communism
– Successful direct dealing w/ Soviet Union required calm
& restraint
– Successful containment of the Soviet Union would lead to
a collapse of communism from within
– A vigilant application of counter force against the Soviet
Union had to be maintained
• Truman Doctrine was a policy aimed at
checking the spread of communism
throughout the world beginning w/ Greece
The state of Israel
• Was created in Palestine
• With a conviction that the Jews deserved a
homeland after the Holocaust
• Many European Jews had no place to live &
refused to live as a minority in Europe
• British HQs in Jerusalem was blown up by
Jewish terrorists
• British troops withdraw from Palestine
The Proposed Partition of
Palestine and the Birth of
the State of Israel
In November 1947, the United
Nations offered a plan to
partition the British mandate
of Palestine, but complications
immediately arose.
The Jews of the area won their
own state, Israel, but the
Palestinian Arabs were left
stateless.
Thus, tensions continued in the
area.
Map 28-5 p831
Anti-Colonialism in Asia
• Anti-colonialism in Asia was aided by:
– The sudden ending of the war in the Pacific
– Japanese encouragement during the war
– The Japanese helped local nationalists create
patriotic militias
– Dutch influence on the Indonesian nationalist
movement
Gandhi and Anticolonialism
An apostle of nonviolence,
Mohandas Gandhi
became one of the most admired
individuals of the century as he
spearheaded the movement for Indian
independence.
He is pictured (center) in December 1942
with the British statesman Sir Stafford
Cripps (left),who had come to India to
offer a plan for Indian self-government.
Despite the good spirit evident here,
Cripps’ mission failed; Gandhi and his
movement held out for full independence.
p831