Transcript World War II - Cloudfront.net

World War II
Lightning War
The Non Aggression Pact
August 23, 1939
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Deal between Germany and the USSR
Promised not to fight each other
Divided up Poland
USSR also gets Finland and the Baltics
Sept. 1, 1939
• Germany invades Poland
• Blitzkrieg
– “Lightning War”
– All out attack led by planes and tanks,
then a massive amount of infantry
(soldiers)
• Sept. 3, 1939 Britain and France declare
war
• Poland overrun within weeks, before
others can help
• USSR takes the east, Germany the west
The Phony War
• “Sitzkrieg”
– 7 months of silence after declaration of war
– Both sides sit at the Maginot Line and wait for
the other to do something
• April 1940 Germany attacks again
• Denmark falls in four hours
• Norway two months later
The Battle Begins
• Germany attacks Netherlands, Belgium,
and Luxembourg to gain attention north.
• Send massive force through the Ardennes
– Forrest area of Rhineland
– Thought to be difficult to send mass numbers
• Combine with forces in Belgium
• Easily push back allies to the sea
Dunkirk
May 1940
Operation Dynamo
• Germany had the Allied forces surrounded
• Takes little lifeboats, fishing boats,
whatever, to get out to the main ships at
sea
• Save 338,226 French and British soldiers
• Miracle that becomes legend and brings
hope to the fight.
Hitching a Ride at Dunkirk
The Fall of France
• June 1940 Germany walks into Paris
• Northern France under direct German
control
• Charles DeGaulle leader of the Free
French movement against the Germans
• Vichy Government
– Puppet government in Southern France
controlled by Germany
– Henri Petain leader of the Vichy Government
Battle of Britain
(Summer of 1940 until May of 1941)
•Germany
•Britain
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RAF (Royal Air Force)
2900 planes
Well trained pilots
Enigma machine
RADAR
VS.
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Luftwaffe
Operation Sea Lion
4500 planes
Pound airstrips and
then civilians
• Plans to invade with
250,000 soldiers
North Africa
• Italy made a play for Egypt
• Britain hammered the Italians, capturing
130,000 troops
• Germany sent in Erwin Rommel “The
Desert Fox”
– Afrika Korps
– Fought with the British and Americans for the
next few years
Operation
Barbarossa
• Hitler backstabs Stalin and
invades the USSR
• Within weeks, Germans
500 miles into USSR
• Russians use same old
“Scorched Earth Policy”
Leningrad
– Germany quickly surround the
city
– People hold out, eating
anything to survive
– One million of the 2.5 million
Russians die
– Hold out long enough for
Hitler to turn away
Moscow
• Germany get to outskirts of city
• USSR general Zhukov
counterattacks
• Germans in summertime gear
• Hitler refuses to surrender
• Germany loses 500,000 troops
Where’s America
• Americans wanted to stay out of the war
• President Roosevelt felt America must begin to
support the Allies
• Lend Lease Act (1941)
– Allowed allies to buy weapons and supplies from the
U. S.
– Loan $50 billion
• Atlantic Charter
– U. S. and Britain support free trade
– Later used to create United Nations
• September 4, 1941 Germany shoots at a
U. S. destroyer
• Roosevelt gives the order to shoot any
German sub on site.
• December 7, 1941……….