WWII Battles
Objectives
• Identify the characteristics and
results of the major battles in
WWII
• Identify the Turning Points in
WWII
WWII Begins
Battle of Poland
Date: September 1, 1939
Location: Poland
Tactics: Blitzkrieg – fast moving planes and
tanks followed by infantry
Results:
Poland Surrenders
Sept. 27, 1939
Poland Split between Germany & USSR
Battle of Poland
What did the German air force do to Poland?
What happened after the Battle of
Poland in the winter of 1939 and
spring of 1940?
Phony War or Sitzkrieg
Winter 1939-Spring 1940
France stayed at the Maginot Line,
waiting for the Germans.
Neither side committed to a significant
attack
British and France prepare for war.
Finland
• Soviet Union
• Early 1940-March 1940
• Stalin forced the Baltic republics of Latvia,
Lithuania, and Estonia to accept Soviet military
bases. When he tried to do that with Finland, war
broke out.
• Fins held out until March before the Soviets
forced them to surrender.
• As a result, the Soviets moved their frontier 70
miles west
Where did Hitler plan to attack
next?
Why?
Scandinavia
• Denmark and Norway
• Why?
• Wanted to control the Baltic and North Sea for access to Atlantic
• Claim France and Great Britain are planning to attack
• Hitler’s Demands: accept “protection from the Third Reich”
• Results:
•
•
•
•
•
Denmark accepts
Norway was defeated
Hitler gains access to the Atlantic
Neville Chamberlain (British Prime) Minister forced to resign
Winston Churchill new Prime Minister
Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Belgium
• May 10, 1940
• Massive attacks on the land
• First large-scale airborne attack in the
history of warfare
• Dutch surrendered five days later
•
Hitler Prepares to attack France
• What are his
options?
Maginot Line
• Line of concrete fortifications, tank
obstacles, machine gun posts and other
defenses along the French-German border
Maginot Line
Maginot Line
•300,000 British, French
and Belgian troops
trapped by German
Panzers (Tanks) at
Dunkirk
Miracle of Dunkirk
 Citizen action citizens of Britain bring
850 boats -yachts,
fishing boats, tugs,
trawlers, destroyers and
cruisers to rescue the
trapped soldiers
Battle of Dunkirk
France Falls
• Germans continue sweep toward Paris
• French turn over Paris to the Germans,
rather than see it destroyed
Results of Battle of France
• Northern France - Nazi
Occupied
• Southern France –
• Vichy Government =
Puppet Govt. controlled
by Nazi’s
• led by French Traitor
Henri Petain
• Free French Government set up in Britain under
Charles de Gaulle (French General)
Hitler sets his sights on Britain
What 3 things did Hitler do to try and get the
British to submit?
What did Churchill offer the people of England?
Battle of Britain
Operation Sea Lion
• Hitler’s Plan:
• Knock out British Royal Air Force
• Land 250K soldiers on shores of England
• Summer 1940 Luftwaffe bombs Great Britain’s
factories and airfields
• RAF 2000 planes vs. Germans 4500
• British 3 secret weapons:
• Radar
• Enigma – German secret code machine
• Blackout
The Blitz – Bombing of Civilians
• Sept 7 – Hitler begins bombing London and
other cities
• Why? To break British Moral
• Germans lose 2300 planes vs. British 600
• British citizens are bombed day and then night
Hitler could not defeat the British
The Blitz
Where did Londoner’s stay during the bombings?
How many civilians lost their lives?
Winston Churchill
“Never in the field of human
conflict has so much been owed
by so many to so few.”
Who is Churchill referring to?
Nazi Aggression (1940-1941)
• Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
•
•
•
•
Joined the axis powers in Nov. 1940
Economically dependent on Germany
Provided troops for the invasion of Soviet Union
Allowed Germany to attack Yugoslavia and Greece
• Yugoslavia and Greece
• Delays invasion of Soviet Union by 6 weeks
• April 1941 Yugoslavia and Greece defeated
• British divert troops from North Africa to help– 2nd
Dunkirk
What was the code name for the
Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union ?
Operation Barbarossa
Why?
• Living Space, Oil, Wheat
When?
• June 22, 1941
Who?
• 3 Million German troops attack
along an 1800 mile front
What?
• 3 Pronged attack
• 1. Moscow 2. Kiev
3. Leningrad
How?
• Blitzkrieg
Soviet Invasion
Scorched earth policy - Stalin’s order to destroy anything
of value (land, materials )that can be used by the
Germans
• By November - Nazis control 40% of Soviet population
and are near Moscow
• Hitler’s Big Mistake
• Generals say take Moscow
• Hitler spits his troops and sends
some to Leningrad and Stalingrad
Soviet Invasion
• Stalin’s Plan: 3 Russian Generals - Time, Winter,
Distance
• Nazi Problems: Thin Supply lines, Exhausted troops
• Lack of winter clothing
• By December Nazi’s are 20 miles from Moscow
• General Zhukov arrives with reserves (freed
prisoners) from Siberia & winter sets in
• Nazis unable to take Moscow
Soviet Union
• Siege of Leningrad ( Nov. 1941-Jan. 1944)
• 1 Million Russians trapped inside Leningrad
die of starvation, cold, disease
Battle of Stalingrad
•Hitler Reasons - Destroy Russian Morale, Oil
•Stalin - Hold city at all costs
•Russians counterattack in Nov. 1942 – Why?
“General Winter”
•Russians encircle German army
•Hitler refuses to allow troops to retreat
Battle of Stalingrad
Turning point
1st major defeat for Hitler
broke the German Military - lose 20
Generals, best soldiers and equip.
Germany no longer on the offensive on
Eastern Front
U.S. Involvement - Europe
• Neutrality Acts (1937) – prohibited
sale of arms to warring nations
• Destroyers for Bases (1940) – gave
England WWI destroyers in
exchange for naval bases
• Cash-n-Carry (1940) – cash for
supplies
• Lend Lease (1940) – lend war
equipment to Britain
• Atlantic Charter (1941) – FDR &
Churchill called for destruction of
Nazi’s
Pacific
•Japanese Attack French
(Indochina) and British
(Singapore) Colonies in SE
Asia.
•Why? French and British
occupied with Hitler
•U.S. Retaliates
•Bans sale of scrap metal,
oil, and freezes Japanese
Assets in U.S.
•
Why did the Japanese Attack Pearl
Harbor?
• To retaliate for cutting off oil supplies
• U.S. will try and prevent Japanese
Expansion
• Destroy U.S. Pacific Fleet and avoid US
naval interference in the Pacific
• Yamamoto - masterminded surprise attack
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
• 6am on a Sunday Morning
• Surprise Attack
• 19 American ships
destroyed
• 188 Airplanes destroyed
• 2400 people killed
USS Arizona – 1100 die
North Africa
• Importance
• Control of Mediterranean Sea,
Suez Canal, Straights of
Gibraltar
• Access to oil fields in the
Middle East
• Open a Second Front
North Africa
• Who:
• Vichy French controlled
Algeria, Morocco,
Tunisia
• Italy controlled Libya
• British controlled Egypt
• German forces
• American forces
• What
• 1940 - Italy attacked
British in Egypt • 1942 Hitler sent Erwin
Rommel a.k.a “the
Desert Fox” to help
Battle of El Alamein
• El Alamein – British (Montgomery) attack
German’s (Rommel)
• German’s are pushed out of Egypt to Libya and
defeated in Jan. 1943
• Turning Point – beginning of the end for
Nazi in N. Africa
Operation Torch
• Allies “Pincer Strategy” – Advance from
east and west to squeeze the Nazi’s out of
North Africa
• US (Eisenhower) from the west; British
(Montgomery) from the east
• May 1943 – Allies have all of N. Africa
• What does this set up?
**Allied Control of
Mediterranean Sea - Can
launch attack on
Southern Europe
Battle of North Africa
Invasion of Italy
• Allies attack Sicily
• King Victor Emmanuel III
fires Mussolini and has him
arrested
• New Italian government
signs armistice
• Allies meet tough
resistance from Germans on
Italian Peninsula
End of Mussolini
• Mussolini tries to
escape to
Switzerland, but
instead….
End of Mussolini
The Jewish Problem
• First Solution – Emigration
• 1933 Boycott of Jewish Business – purpose to isolate
Jews socially and economically;
• 1933 Camps and Deportations of German Jews forced emigration of Jews from Germany begins
• 1935 Nuremburg Laws – Deprived German Jews of
Citizenship ; identification of Jews through yellow star
of David
• 1938 Kristallnacht – campaign of terror against German
Jews
• Second Solution - Isolation
• Ghetto’s – designated/isolated areas in towns and cities
• Deportations of Jews throughout Europe
Identifying the Jews
Nuremburg Laws
Polish Ghetto
The Final Solution
• Final Solution - code word for destruction of
all European Jews
• Genocide – deliberate destruction of a race,
religious, or ethnic group
• concentration camps
• Mass Shootings
• Starvation
• Poison gas
Concentration Camps
Images of Auschwitz
Largest Concentration Camp
1 million die
6 Million Die – Only 4 Million
Survive
Country
Killed
Survive
Original
Poland
3M
10%
3.3M
USSR
1.3 M
30%
2.85M
Germany &
Austria
Netherlands
200K
16%
240K
104K
25%
140K
Czech
271K
14%
315K
Which country lost the most Jews?
3rd Reich Before the D-Day
Invasion
Invasion of France
• Challenges
• Atlantic Wall – series of coastal
fortifications along the Atlantic coast built
by the 3rd Reich to prevent invasion
• English Channel
Operation Overlord
• Operation Overlord - Code name for
Invasion of France
• Purpose – open up the Western Front
and drive the Nazi’s out of France
• Date – June 6, 1944
Deception at Calais
• Elaborate Plan by Allies to Deceive Hitler
into thinking attack would be at Calais,
France, NOT Normandy
• Discouraged Germans from reinforcing
troops at Normandy
Sherman Tank made of
Inflated Rubber
D-Day Invasion
• Why? __________________________
• June 6, 1944 D-Day Invasion on the Normandy
coast of France.
• Allied paratroopers dropped in behind enemy lines
to help secure the beaches.
• 176,000 allied troops landed on Omaha, Utah,
Gold, Sword and Juno beaches marking the largest
amphibious assault in history
Images from D-day
D-Day Results
• 3,000/150,000 Americans
die on 1st day
.
• 1 Million additional soldiers
arrive within 1 month
• September 1944, France is
Liberated
Battle of the Bulge
Significance - Last German Offensive
• Germany army tries to break through Allied
forces which creates a “bulge” in the Allied
defenses
Battle of the Bulge
V-E Day
Victory Europe
• V-E Day – May 8, 1945
End of War in Europe
• Hitler and Eva Braun
committed suicide in his
command bunker.
• April 12 Roosevelt died Who was president?
Japanese Take the Pacific
• Why? Need supplies, raw materials and oil
• What? Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, Burma,
Hong Kong, French Indochina and the
Philippine Islands.
• U.S. chooses to make
Hitler a Priority
• Strategy in Pacific –
Defensive not Offensive
Battle of Midway
• U.S. Secret Weapon
• Broke Japanese Code
• U.S. Ambush
• Japanese lose aircraft
carriers and planes
• Turning Point –
1. Japanese defeat
2. Ends Japanese
Control of Pacific
What is Island Hopping
• Island Hopping - Attack
only strategic locations
to get closer to Japan
• By-passed Japanese
islands would be cut-off
from supply lines
Iwo Jima
• March, 1945
• 660 Miles from
Tokyo
• Japanese start with
23,000 troops, end
with 1,000
• U.S. losses high
• Indicated expected results of
invasion on
Japanese mainland
Okinawa
• June 1945
• 350 Miles from Tokyo
• Close enough to
launch an invasion of
Japan
• One of bloodiest
battles in the Pacific
• U.S. losses – 12,000
• Japanese losses –
110,000
What happened at the Yalta
Conference?
•
Who - Roosevelt, Stalin,
Churchill
• When - February, 1945
• What - Discuss Post
War World
1. Divide Germany and
Berlin between Allies
2. Soviets agree to help
defeat Japan in
exchange for territory
3. Soviets agree to join UN
What happened at the Potsdam
Conference?
•
Who? Churchill, Truman
Stalin
• When? August, 1945
• What? Discuss post war
world
1. Ultimatum to Japan Unconditional surrender
2. Divide Germany and
Berlin into 4 zones
3. Demilitarize Germany
Truman’s Choices
•
•
•
•
•
Invasion of Japan
Get Russia to attack
Continue bombing Japan
Change conditions of surrender
Drop the Atomic Bomb
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Estimates of Casualties
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
Pre-raid population
255,000
195,000
Dead
66,000
39,000
Injured
69,000
25,000
Total Casualties
135,000
64,000
Images of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
Atomic Bomb
V-J Day
Victory Japan
• V-J day August 15, 1945 – End of fighting
in Pacific
• Emperor Hirohito Quits - Symbolic to get
military to stop fighting
• No longer need to fight to the death for him
• Japan Surrenders to MacArthur –
September 2, 1945
Effects of WWII
• Largest Civilian and Military Casualties in History
– 55Million, 22M Russians
• Most Costly War in History
• Map of Europe Re-drawn
• War Crimes Trials
• Nuremburg
• Japan
• 12 Million homeless
• More Destruction than any other war