World War II

 On September 1st
,
1939, Germany
invaded Poland.
 Great Britain and
France demanded
that Hitler remove
his military forces
from Poland.
 Hitler refused and on
September 3rd
, 1939,
World War II had
begun.
German Troops marching into Warsaw, the
capital of Poland.

 The Nazis used blitzkrieg
warfare to overtake
Poland.
 Blitzkrieg or “lightning
warfare” is a style used
war using an overwhelming
force of tanks, artillery and
aircraft to rapidly attack
and break through enemy
lines.
 Poland fell to Germany in
about 4 weeks.

Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler review plans of the invasion of Poland.

 The Allies of Great Britain and
France did not attack Germany.
Instead, they decided to wait
for Germany to make its next
move.
 They hoped that the German
army would tire from attacking
Poland.
 The French fortified their
positions along the Maginot
Line which ran along the
French and German border.
 This is sometimes called the
“sitzkrieg” or the “phony war”.

 The Maginot Line was a heavily
fortified wall/fortresses built by
the French along the border of
Germany following WWI. It was
intended to protect France in case
the Germans ever attacked again.

 In April 1940,
Germany invaded
Denmark and Norway.
 Both countries fell
with little resistance.
 This gave Germany
better access to the
sea.
 Germany then sets
it’s eyes on France.

 In late May 1940, the Germans
conquered the Netherlands and
stormed into Belgium.
 France’s main forces were
situated along the Maginot Line;
however, Germany simply
bypassed them by going through
Belgium’s Ardennes Forest.
 The French mistakenly thought
that the thick, forested area
was an impenetrable natural
barrier against armored
vehicles.
 They were wrong.
Ardennes
Forest

 Belgian, British, and French
troops tried to stop the
Germans in Belgium but the
Nazis persisted.
 By early June the Germans had
trapped hundreds of thousands
of British and Allied soldiers at
the French port of Dunkirk.
 The British were forced to
evacuate and leave the
mainland of Europe barely
averting complete disaster.
 The French were now alone.

 On June 10th
1940, Italy
enters the war by
invading France.
 The combination of the
German and Italian
armies proved to be too
much for the French.
 France would fall just
weeks later.
 Despite its fall France
would hold onto a small
portion of the country
known as the Vichy.

 In August 1940, following the fall of
France, the Germans then turn their
attention to Great Britain
 The Luftwaffe–German air force–began a
major bombing offensive against military
targets in Britain.
 The Germans start bombing populated
areas, factories and dock yards.
 Hitler’s intent was to break British morale
then mount an invasion.

 For 57 straight nights, London
was bombed.
 The British suffered severe
losses.
 By the end of 1940, around
15,000 British civilians were
killed in the Blitz and nearly
400,000 people were left
homeless.

An abandoned boy, holding a stuffed toy animal amid ruins following a
German aerial bombing of London in 1940.

 Angered at the fact that Germany was
attacking populated areas such as
London, Great Britain’s Prime
Minister Winston Churchill ordered a
counter-offensive against the
Germans and sent the Royal Air
Force to bomb Berlin.
 The Germans were in disbelief that
bombs were dropping on Hitler’s
capital city of Berlin.
 While the British bombing was not
as effective as the German’s, the fierce
resistance of the British was enough to
hold off Hitler’s invasion of Great Britain.
 Unable to break British defenses, Hitler
called off the attacks.

 Instead of
devastating the
British morale,
it actually had
the exact
opposite effect,
bringing the
British people
together to face
a common
enemy.

 The British asked the
United States for help.
 The United States, once
again, had a strict policy
of isolationism.
 A series of neutrality acts
passed in the 1930s
prevented the United
States from getting
involved in European
conflicts.
 Most Americans feel they
should stay out of the war.

 Though President Franklin D. Roosevelt
denounced the Germans, the United
States did nothing at first.
 Roosevelt wanted to repeal the
neutrality acts and help Great Britain,
but the American people weren’t ready
to send millions of troops to war just
yet.
 However, Roosevelt felt that the
Americans would be forced to fight
eventually if the Allies fell.
 Over time, the laws were slowly
relaxed, and the United States sent
food, ships, planes, and weapons to
Britain.

 After putting off the
invasion of Great
Britain, Hitler decided
the next step was to
attack the Soviet Union.
 The British were
expecting Soviet
support so Hitler was
convinced that if he
defeated the Soviets,
Britain would eventually
fall.

 Hitler then invaded the
Soviet Union in June 1941.
 The attack on the Soviet
Union , known as Operation
Barbarossa, stretched out
for 1,800 miles.
 The Red Army, though the
largest in the world, was
not well-equipped or well-
trained.
 The Germans quickly pushed
deep into Soviet land.

 As the Red Army was
forced to retreat, it
destroyed everything left
behind to keep supplies
out of German hands.
 German troops captured
two million Russian
soldiers by November.
 The Germans were within
25 miles of Moscow.

 However, winter came early
in 1941 and, combined with
fierce Russian resistance,
forced the Germans to halt.
 This marked the first time
in the war that the
Germans had been stopped.
 The Germans were not
equipped for the bitter
Russian winter.
 In December, the Soviet
army counterattacked.

 While the Germans waged war in
Europe, Japan had its own
campaigns in the East.
 Japanese military leaders
wanted to establish a New Order
in East Asia.
 The Japanese thought that as
the only modernized country,
they could guide the other East
Asian nations to prosperity.
 They thought that pure Japanese
(Yamato race) were a superior
and everyone else needed
guiding.
Prime Minister Hideki Tojo

 In the 1930’s, Japan had
invaded Manchuria (northern
China) and steadily moved
southward.
 They would eventually occupy
large portions of China and
southeast Asia.
 By the 1940’s Japan had
expanded to control much of
East Asia.
 The United States opposed
Japanese aggression, yet did
nothing about it.

 Being a small, island country, Japan lacks
natural resources and relies heavily on trade
and resources from other countries.
 In 1940, desperate for resources, Japan
demands the right to exploit economic
resources in French Indochina (Vietnam).
 As a response, the United States responded
by imposing economic restrictions on Japan
unless Japan withdraws and ceases
aggression.

 The Japanese badly
needed oil and scrap
metal from the United
States.
 The economic sanctions
were a very real threat.
 In the end, after months
of long debate, Japan
decided to launch a
surprise attack on U.S.
and European colonies in
Southeast Asia.

 Despite talks of peace
just days prior, the
Japanese attacked the
U.S. naval base at Pearl
Harbor in Hawaii on
December 7, 1941.
 2,400 American soldiers
and civilians died and
the U.S. naval force
was severely crippled.

The USS Arizona in 1941
Pearl Harbor attack and
the USS Arizona today.

 On the same day of the
bombing, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
delivers a speech and
urges Congress to declare
war.
 In this famous speech,
Roosevelt declares that
December 7th
, 1941 is “a
date which will live in
infamy”.
 Within the hour of the
speech, the United States
declared war on Japan.

 The Japanese thought that
their attacks on the U.S.
fleet would destroy the U.S.
Navy and lead the Americans
to accept Japanese
domination in the Pacific.
 However, the attack on
Pearl Harbor had the
opposite effect.
 It united the American
people and convinced the
nation that it should enter
the war.

 The Japanese chose to
attack Pearl Harbor
because the U.S. opposed
the Japanese takeover of
countries in Southeast
Asia.
 The Japanese realized that
crippling the U.S. naval
forces would give them the
chance to invade and
conquer those lands that
were rich in resources.
 By 1942, the Japanese
dominated the Pacific.

 Hitler thought that the Americans would be too
heavily involved in the Pacific to fight in Europe or
send aid to great Britain.
 Four days after Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy
declared war on the United States.
 World War II had become a global war.

 The United States was
now forced to fight a
war on two fronts or
theaters, the
European Theater
and Pacific Theater.
 The U.S. splits its
military and sent
troops to opposite
sides of the globe.

 To lead the war in
the Pacific, the
United States
appointed General
Douglas MacArthur.

 To lead the war in
Europe, the United
States appointed
General Dwight D.
Eisenhower.

 The U.S. then mobilizes for
war.
 Mobilization is the act of
assembling and making troops
and supplies ready for war.
 While the men were called to
duty, women played an
important role in the
mobilization of the U.S.
military.
 They took up many jobs once
reserved for men only.

 A new coalition was also
formed called the Grand
Alliance (the Allies).
 It included Great Britain,
the Soviet Union, and the
United States.
 The three nations agreed to
focus on military operations
and ignore their political
differences.
 They agreed to fight until
the Axis Powers
surrendered
unconditionally.

 The war was not only fought in
Europe and in the Pacific, it
was also fought in North Africa.
 The Italians first invaded Africa
but were met by heavy British
resistance.
 The Germans sent aid and the
Nazi Afrika Korps under Field
Marshall Erwin Rommel swept
through Africa and advanced
towards Alexandria, Egypt.
 Under Rommel, the Nazis see
much success in Africa.

 Rommel was a very popular and
successful tank commander.
 He led the Nazi Panzer divisions to
many key victories against the
Allies in Africa.
 He earned the nickname, the
“Desert Fox”.
 Rommel was regarded as a
chivalrous and humane officer and
was never accused of any war
crimes.
 Prisoners under Rommel were said
to have been treated humanely.
 He also ignored orders to kill
captured POW’s and Jewish people.
Panzer tank

 The Nazi’s success
was not long lived,
however.
 Nazi commanders
could not agree upon
how to exploit their
success.
 General Eisenhower
orders the invasion of
North Africa in 1942.
 This was known as
Operation Torch.

 Under the leadership of
George S. Patton, British
and American forces would
invade North Africa and
defeat German and Italian
troops at the Second Battle
of El Alamein.
 This was the turning point
in the war in Africa.
 The Axis Powers were
forced to surrender Africa
by late 1942, early 1943.

 After the bombing of Pearl
Harbor, the Japanese took over
the Pacific one island at a time.
 The greatest resistance came in
the American occupied Philippine
Islands where U.S. and Filipino
troops fought together against the
Japanese invasion in early 1942.
 The Japanese proved too strong
and the Americans were forced to
leave the island.

 Despite the retreat of
the Americans, General
Douglas MacArthur
made a promise to
return and liberate the
island from Japanese
control.
 He is quoted as simply
saying, “I shall return.”

 In the retreat, the United
States left nearly 11,000 men
behind in the Philippines.
 Many of these men were
captured and taken in as
prisoners of war by the
Japanese.
 The Japanese were clearly
unprepared for the volume of
prisoners that they were
suddenly responsible for, and
there was no organized plan
for how to handle them.

 After 3 months, the Japanese
decided to move the POW’s to
another location (away from the
Bataan Peninsula).
 By this time, the prisoners were
still treating injuries from
battle, malnourished and
suffering from tropical diseases.
 Despite this, they were
expected to march over 60 miles
to their new location.
 Several thousand soldiers would
die as a result harsh journey.
 This is infamously known as the
Bataan Death March.

 The march was
characterized by wide-
ranging physical abuse
and resulted in very high
fatalities inflicted upon
prisoners.
 Furthermore, Japanese
troops would frequently
commit war crimes as
prisoners that began to
fall behind, or were
unable to walk were
bayoneted or even
beheaded.
 "They were beaten, and they
were starved as they marched.
Those who fell were bayoneted.
Some of those who fell were
beheaded by Japanese officers
who were practicing with their
samurai swords from horseback.
The Japanese culture at that
time reflected the view that any
warrior who surrendered had no
honor; thus was not to be
treated like a human being. Thus
they were not committing crimes
against human beings.

 U.S. propaganda
following the
atrocities of the
Bataan Death
March.

 Back on the Eastern
Front, Hitler ordered the
attack of Stalingrad, a
major Soviet industrial
center.
 The battle lasted for
many months between
1942 and 1943.
 The Germans took the
offensive and bombed
the city, reducing it to
rubble.

 The Soviet losses were
severe and many more
troops were shipped in for
reinforcement.
 At one point, the Germans
controlled up to 90% of the
city, yet the Soviets
continued to fight fiercely.
 Once again, winter came
and the Germans were ill
equipped to deal with it’s
harshness.

 During the dead of
winter, the Soviets
went on the
counterattack.
 They surrounded the
Germans and cut off
their supply lines.
 In May 1943, the
Germans were forced
to surrender.

 The Soviets were victorious but
not without a price.
 Both sides suffered severe
casualties.
 The Nazis lost some of their best
troops, over 800,000 soldiers.
 The USSR lost around 1.1 million.
 Hitler knew that he could not
defeat the Soviet Union.
 This battle is considered the
turning point of the war in
Europe.
A Soviet soldier waves a red
flag signifying the victory.

 Vasily Zaytsez was a famous
Soviet soldier during WWII and
perhaps the most famous
sniper of all time.
 He is said to have around 600
sniper kills.
 He gained notoriety in the
battle of Stalingrad which he
was said to have around 250
kills.
 His exploits are portrayed by
Jude Law in the movie
“Enemy at the Gates”.

 Later that year, 1942, the
Allies had their first
successes in the Pacific.
 In the Battle of the Coral
Sea in May, American
naval forces stopped the
Japanese and saved
Australia from invasion.
 However, the Battle of
Midway Island was the
turning point in the Pacific
war.

 Midway is a very small island in the Pacific yet
held strategic importance.
 The battle took place between a small American
force and a much larger Japanese fleet.
 During the battle, the U.S. was able to sink 4
Japanese aircraft carriers, 1 destroyer and over
250 aircraft were demolished.
 The U.S. suffered minimal losses.
 The severe losses suffered by the Japanese was
irreparable and permanently weakened their
naval forces, giving clear supremacy to the U.S.
and Allies in the Pacific.

 By early 1943, the tide had turned against
the Axis Powers.
 The Germans and Italians had surrendered
Africa and were also dealt a devastating
blow at the Battle of Stalingrad.
 The Japanese had also suffered a severe
defeat in the Pacific at the Battle of
Midway.

 Following the Axis Powers
surrender of Africa, the
Allies turned their
attention back to Europe.
 Knowing that Italy had a
much weaker military, the
Allies mounted an invasion
of Italy from the south.
 Winston Churchill famously
referred to Italy as “the
soft underbelly of Europe”.

 The Allies invade the southern
part of Italy.
 The invasion was successful.
 Mussolini and the Italians
were all but defeated.
 Mussolini narrowly escaped as
German forces came to his
rescue.
 However, the damage had
been done.
 Italy had fallen and the Allies
begin their advance north
through Italy.

 While the Allied invasion of Italy was
successful, they met fierce German
resistance and were unable to push out of
the peninsula of Italy.
 The Allies were planning another invasion;
however, one that would establish a
foothold on mainland Europe.
 They planned to invade France from Great
Britain across the English Channel.

 On June 6th
, 1944, under the direction of
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allies
invaded the beaches in Normandy France.
 They called this invasion, D-Day, also known
as Operation Overlord.

 Though the Germans were expecting the
invasion to take place in another location,
there was still heavy resistance.
 However, because the Germans thought the
invasion was a diversion, they were slow to
respond.
 This gave the Allies the chance take the beach.
 The operation was the largest amphibious (sea
to land) invasion in history.
 Over 175,000 American, British and Canadian
troops landed on the beach that day.

 The Allies lost around 12,000 men in the
invasion; however, their sacrifice helped the
establish a permanent foothold on the mainland
of Europe once again.
 Soon after D-Day, more than two and a half
million men and a half million vehicles had
landed on the beach.
 The Allies were now gaining momentum and
started pushing the Germans back and out of
France.

 Now that the Allies had
established themselves on the
mainland of Europe, they started
to move eastward, sweeping
through France, towards Germany.
 By late 1944, France had been
liberated by the Allies from Nazi
control.

 Not everyone was happy with Hitler,
especially now that the war was shifting
towards the Allies’ advantage.
 In fact, there were many plots to kill or
overthrow Hitler during the war from
within the Nazi regime.
 The most famous plot to kill Hitler and take
control of the government was known as
Operation Valkyrie.

 Operation Valkyrie was
headed by Colonel Claus
von Stauffenberg and
involved many high
ranking officers.
 Stauffenberg had reached
a rank and position to
where he was a trusted
member of Hitler’s inner
circle.

 The plan was for Stauffenberg to get close
to Hitler during a meeting and leave an
explosive charge that would kill Hitler and
his top men.
 Once Hitler was dead, the conspirators
would use the reserve army to take control
of the government buildings in Berlin.
 Once in power, they would sign a treaty
with the Allies and end WWII once and for
all.

 On July 20th
, 1944 Stauffenberg met with
Hitler’s top men at “the Wolf’s Lair”, a secret
military headquarters.
 To his disappointment, Heinrich Himmler was
not present at the meeting.
 He decided to proceed with the plan anyway.
 Stauffenberg placed his briefcase with
explosives underneath the table in which they
were meeting and then excused himself.
 Minutes later, the bomb detonated.
 Operation Valkyrie was on.

 Stauffenberg phoned the other conspirators
and told them that Hitler was dead and to
proceed with the plan.
 Using the reserve army, they captured the
government buildings and arrested members
of the SS so there would be no resistance.
 They then started to take control of the
armies in the field by letting the generals
know that Hitler was dead and they were now
in charge.

 Hitler; however, was not dead. He was
barely injured from the explosion.
 The blast was ineffective for several reasons;
one being that the conference table in which
the briefcase was placed under was so thick
and heavy that it protected Hitler from the
explosion.
 Word started to get out that Hitler was alive.
 The plan had failed and by the end of the
day, the conspirators, including Stauffenberg,
were arrested and executed.

 When it was all said and done, over 7,000
supposed conspirators were arrested by the
Gestapo and over 5,000 were executed!
 Perhaps the most notable conspirator was
Germany’s finest and most popular officer,
General Erwin Rommel.
 Because of his prestige, Rommel was allowed to
commit suicide rather than stand trial and be
executed. He was buried with full military
honors.
 This was the final attempt on Hitler’s life
within the Nazi regime.

“Here in 1944, General
Erwin Rommel was
forced to commit suicide.
He took a cup of poison
and offered himself to
Hitler in order to protect
his family.”

 The story of
Operation Valkyrie
was brought to life in
the 2008 movie,
Valkyrie.
 Tom Cruise played
the lead role of Claus
von Stauffenberg.

 The British and the Americans
advanced through France towards
Germany in the west.
 In the east, following the victory at
Stalingrad, the Soviets started
advancing into Poland and closed in
on Germany.
 It was only a matter of time until
the Allies had surrounded Germany.

 The Allies were met by German resistance when they
reached the Ardennes Forest in Belgium.
 Fierce fighting took place from December 1944 to
January 1945 in very harsh, cold, wintery conditions.
 This was known as the Battle of the Bulge.
 This was a key battle in WWII.

 The Allies defeat the Germans
leaving their units severely
depleted of soldiers and
equipment.
 German casualties are around
120,000.
 Nearly 90,000 Americans die
during this battle making it the
deadliest battle fought by
Americans.
 However, the significance was
that the Germans were forced
to retreat to within the boarders
of their own country.

 By January 1945, Hitler had moved into an
underground bunker in Berlin.
 Surrounded on all sides by the Allies, the end
for Hitler’s Third Reich was near.
 In early April, Soviet troops had entered
Berlin.
 Ignoring the facts, Hitler held onto the hope
that the SS could fight off the enemies and
protect Berlin.

 On April 20th
, Hitler celebrated
his 56th
birthday holed up in an
underground bunker.
 The Soviets advanced through
Berlin, moving closer and
closer to Hitler.
 By April 27th
, Berlin had been
completely cut off from the
rest of Germany.
 On April 30th
, 1945, Hitler
committed suicide.
 In the end, he blamed the
Jews for the war.

The subway rush hour is brought to a standstill in New York City, May 1, 1945 as the
report of Hitler's death was received. The German leader and head of the Nazi Party
had shot himself in the head in a bunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945.

 Two days after Hitler
committed suicide,
Italian resistance
fighters assassinated
Benito Mussolini and
surrendered.
 On May 7th
, 1945,
German commanders
surrendered and the
war in Europe was
over.

 Following the Battle of
Midway, the Allies go on a
series of offenses to take
back control of the
Pacific.
 With the Japanese fleet
disabled, the Allies were
able to score key victories
such as the Battle of
Guadalcanal to establish
naval superiority in the
Pacific.

 General Douglas MacArthur
led a campaign to take back
New Guinea and the
Philippines.
 MacArthur had kept his
promise as the Allies defeated
the Japanese and liberated
the Philippines from its
Japanese oppressors as well
as rescuing the prisoners from
the Bataan Death March.
 The Allies would continue to
score victory after victory as
they moved towards Japan.

 The liberation of the
Philippines was
achieved largely in
part due to the
Filipino Resistance
fighters.
 Filipino fighters used
guerilla warfare and
were so effective, that
by the end of the war,
it was said that the
Japanese had only
controlled about 12 of
the 48 provinces!

 The Allies kept advancing
through the Pacific towards
Japan in mid 1945.
 Another key battle took place
at the small, uninhabited
island of Iwo Jima.
 The battle produced some of
the fiercest fighting in the
Pacific.
 The Allies were able to score
a key victory and take control
of the island’s airfields which
were just 700 miles away
from the mainland of Japan.

 As the Allies approached the mainland of Japan,
President Truman and his generals discussed plans for an
invasion of Japan, code named Operation Downfall.
 When planning the attack, they assumed it would use
upwards of 1.5 million soldiers with another 3 million in
support.
 It was estimated that the U.S. would lose anywhere from
250,000 to over one million men in an invasion of Japan.
 In addition, the estimates had millions of Japanese lives
lost through fierce fighting, or suicide.
 Some historians believed that the invasion of Japan would
be the single greatest loss of life in human history.
 This was simply not an option.

 Hoping to avoid an invasion of Japan,
President Harry S. Truman made the decision
to drop the newly developed atom bombs on
Japanese cities.
 The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on
August 6th
, 1945.
 The second was on Nagasaki three days later.
 Both cities were completely destroyed.
 Tens of thousands of people died instantly and
many more thousands died later from the
effects of radiation sickness.

On Monday, August 6, 1945, a mushroom cloud billows into the sky about one hour
after an atomic bomb was dropped by American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay,
detonating above Hiroshima, Japan. Nearly 80,000 people are believed to have been
killed immediately, with possibly another 60,000 survivors dying of injuries and
radiation exposure by 1950.

This picture made shortly after the August 9, 1945 atomic bombing, shows workers
carrying away debris in the nuclear devastated area of Nagasaki, Japan.

 On August 14, 1945,
Japan signed their
unconditional surrender
aboard the USS Missouri.
 The Missouri was a
battleship that had been
sunk in the attacks on
Pearl Harbor but was
raised and used again.
 The war was officially
over!

 Seventeen million soldiers had died in battle
during World War II. (More than the total
number of people killed in WWI)
 However, it is estimated that a total of
roughly 50-70 million people, including
civilians, died worldwide making it the most
deadliest conflict in world history.

 World War II cost
millions of human
lives and billions upon
billions of dollars in
damages.
 The war leaves Europe
and Japan in ruins as
large cities like
London, Berlin and
Tokyo are reduced to
rubble.

 Atrocious acts of barbarism
and war crimes were
committed by soldiers on all
sides.
 Nightmarish new instruments
of death—gas chambers,
unmanned rockets, atomic
bombs—were invented and
deployed for use against
human beings.
 This makes any sort of peace
very uneasy for years to come.

 Many people
displaced by war
and peace
agreements.
 Lack of food,
destruction of
roads, factories
lead to hardship.
 Many people suffer
from hunger,
disease after war.

 World War II was, quite simply, the most deadly
and destructive conflict in human history. Not
only did it have a profound effect on the countries
involved, it would forever change the course of
history, politics, economics, etc.

World War II

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World War II

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