Transcript World War II German Aggression

World War II
German Aggression

German subs would travel in groups of 10-15
called wolf packs


American ships were targeted





Sunk 2.3 million tons of British shipping in only 5
weeks
May 1941 - merchant ship the Robin Moore
September 1941 - destroyer Greer
October 1941 - destroyer Kearny
October 1941 - destroyer Reuben James
In response, America arms merchant ships and
extends draft by 18 months
The Atlantic Charter

6 main points issued by FDR






1. No territorial expansion
2. No territorial changes without the consent of the
inhabitants
3. Self-determination for all people
4. More free trade
5. Cooperation for the improvement of other nations
6. The disarming of all aggressors
• This charter became the basis for the United Nations
Japanese Action

Japan needed oil to continue running their war
machine
 Japan forced the Vichy government to give it
military bases in Indochina (Vietnam and
Cambodia
 General Hideki Tojo becomes Premier of Japan
in October 1941
 US breaks the Japanese diplomatic code

The US was expecting an attack, but thought it was
coming in the Philippines
Japanese Action

On November 25 a large fleet leaves a
Japanese bases heading toward Pearl
Harbor
 7:55am December 7, 1941, Japanese
bombers strike the American naval base of
Pearl Harbor on Hawaii


170 planes were destroyed
2,400 people were killed (68 were civilians)
FDR “a date that will live in infamy”
 The following day, the US declared war on
Japan
 When Hitler heard the news, Germany and
Italy declared war on the US

America Readies Their War
Machine

By 1944, the US was producing as much war
material as all the Axis countries combined






76,000 tanks
300,000+ planes
2.5 million machine guns
64,000 landing craft
6,500 naval ships
The Selective Service Program provided 16.5
million men to the armed forces

Mostly single men under 30
Japanese Americans During
the War
 Nisei

- Americans of Japanese decent
17,000 enlisted to fight in the war
• 442nd Regiment “Go for Broke” received more
decorations than any other American combat
unit

Japanese Americans sent to internment
camps

The Supreme Court upheld the relocations
as a “military necessity”
America Starts Planning
 The

Commanders
General George Marshall
• US Army Chief of Staff
• People highly respected him

General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Commander of the European theatre of operations
• Strong supporter of the British during the war
America Starts Planning
 The

first big decision
Defeat Hitler, then concentrate on Japan
• There was fear that Germany could defeat the
Soviets and send all of their troops against Britain
• With Germany defeated, the other Allies could join
forces and defeat Japan

The second major decision

Only accept a complete unconditional
surrender
Convoys
 Convoys
- Groups of merchant ships,
troop carriers, and protective escort ships
 By January 1942, German wolf packs
were hunting from New Foundland to New
Orleans
 In five months, they sunk over 382 ships

Brown outs and tighter patrols help lower
the number of losses suffered by
American forces
Stalingrad

The Soviet scorched-earth policy prevented the
Germans from living off the land as the
advanced deeper into Russia
 German armies turned toward Stalingrad to take
the oil fields there (Caucusus Mtns.)
 They besieged the city for 3 months and failed to
take it.
 By November, the Soviets launched a counterattack and surrounded the German army by
December
Stalingrad
 By
December, the German army was
surrounded
 February 2, 1943, 91,000 German soldiers
surrendered. (all that was left of 330,000)
 Soviet losses totaled 1.25 million people,
civilian and military
 This is the turning point of the war

Russia begins to move steadily west
Allies Start in Africa

Stalin wanted the US to enter the war quickly to
take pressure off the Eastern front
 The US responds with Operation Torch




An all-out invasion of western North Africa (El
Alamein – 70 mile west of Egypt) Morocco
Allies land in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers on
November 7-8
By mid-May 1943, General Erwin Rommel, the
Desert Fox, and his Afrika Korps are defeated by
Allied forces- lose 500 tanks, 60,000 men
Axis loses control of the Mediterranean
The Italian Campaign

The King of Italy had arrested Mussolini and had
prepared to hand over Italy to the Allies
 Hitler was one step ahead and sent German
troops to stabilize the Italian front
 It would take 18 months for American forces to
drive the Germans out of the Italian peninsula
 Mussolini would be recaptured by Italian
partisans on April 28, 1945

He was shot and hung in Milan
Allies Invade France
 From
October 1943 - May 1944, the
Americans bombed Germany by day, and
the British bombed them by night
 By June 1944, the Allies owned the skies
by a number of 30 to 1
 It was now time to prepare for Operation
Overlord
Operation Overlord
 June
6, 1944 - D-Day (Demarcation Day)
 Allies land on 5 beaches- 6 mile line





176,000 troops
4,000 landing craft
600 ships
11,000 planes
It took two years of planning to pull this off (if it
failed, would have set back the Allies years)
Operation Overlord
 German






Defenses
250,000 troops
Underwater mines
Tank traps
Concrete fortifications with multiple guns
Canon shot from miles behind the lines
The Allies tricked the Germans though
The Trick and the Success

Americans bombed another location for days
•
Calais was the shortest route across the channel
Patton used as a decoy- cardboard planes, tanks, troops
Rommel doesn’t buy it, but Hitler did.
•
•

The Germans shifted men and equipment to that location
 Even still Allied forces were almost wiped out at Omaha
Beach
 Within a month,



1 million troops had landed
567,000 tons of supplies
170,000 vehicles
Liberation

By September 1944




France was liberated
Belgium was liberated
Luxembourg was liberated
Parts of the Netherlands were liberated
 All of this good military news led to the re-election of
•
FDR and VP Harry Truman (the new Missouri
compromise) who replaced Henry Wallace.
FDR ran against Thomas E. Dewey (Gov. of NY)
The Battle of the Bulge
 Hitler
stakes everything on one last throw
of his reserves



The Germans wanted the Port of Antwerp,
key to the Allied supply operation
The Germans counter-attacked when the
Allies least expected it
Dec. 16, 1944 the Germans attack
The Battle of the Bulge
 The
Germans attacked near the Belgium
border at the Ardennes Forest
 American forces put up a heroic fight at
the city of Bastogne, an important
transportation center in Belgium
 The American forces bent, but never broke
during the two weeks of heavy fighting
 The Battle became known as the Battle of
the Bulge (a bulge in the line)
Meeting at the Elbe

March 1945, the Allies crossed the Rhine River
 April 1945, the Soviets entered the outskirts of
Berlin, driving German forces further into
Germany
 April 25, 1945, Allied and Soviet forces meet for
the first time at the Elbe River
 Advancing American and Soviet forces uncover
the atrocities the Germans tried to conceal
Bye Bye Hitler
 April




30th, 1945
In an underground bunker in Berlin, Hitler
takes his life, and his new wife, Eva Braun,
takes poison
Hitler and Braun’s body are taken outside and
burned.
May 7, 1945, General Eisenhower accepts
the unconditional surrender of Germany
May 8 is V-E Day (Victory in Europe)
Japan Steamrolls

Japanese overrun Hong Kong, French
Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, the Dutch
East Indies, Guam, the Wake Islands, and two
islands in the Aleutian chain in Alaska
 Douglas Mac Arthur and 36,000 troops hold off
Japanese forces for 4 months in the Philippines
before having to evacuate the island

Mac Arthur said “I shall return”
Japan Cont…


Spring of 1942, Japan was on the doorstep of India and
the Pacific coast of the US was threatened
The US sent bombers to raid Tokyo



Why? To lift US morale- scare Japanese
Gen. James Doolittle leads raid- not enough gas to return to the
ship, had to ditch in China (free)
First raid did not do much damage, followed by March 9-10 raid
that gutted a quarter of the city, killed 83,000 people
 American and Australians stop a Japanese attempt to

•
take Australia in May ’42- Battle of the Coral Sea- all sea
battle
June ‘42, the Japanese suffer a critical defeat at Midway
Won by planes from Aircraft carriers- sank 4 Jap. Carriers- wipes out
the A team
Island Hopping

Japan was protected by 3,000 miles of water
and hundred of fortified islands
 Leyte Gulf –Oct. 23-26, 1944- greatest sea
battle of all time- US wins- Jap. loses 60 ships
 Mac Arthur decided to leapfrog around the
islands


Attack only selected islands and allow the Australian
and New Zealander forces to clean up the rest
This island hopping strategy was very effective
Guadalcanal and the
Philippines
 American
offensive begins in August ‘42
 The US lands on Guadalcanal in the
Solomon Islands


All transport ships were sunk by the Japanese
after troops landed
American Naval forces defeats the Japanese
navy and forces their army to leave
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal and the
Philippines
 The
Japanese fought a tough battle at the
Battle of the Philippine Sea (Leyte Gulf)




The Japanese suffered huge losses to their
navy that they would never recover from
Mac Arthur went back to the Philippine
mainland and said “I have returned.”
Cost the US 60,000 men
Kamikaze
New President
 FDR
has a stroke and dies on April 12,
1945
 Harry Truman took office
The Bomb

Iwo Jima and Okinawa



Two islands the Japanese fought fiercely to defend,
but would end up losing- US lost 84,000 men
Many were worried that the defense of Japan it self
would be brutal.
“a million American lives and half that number of
British”’ - Churchill

Luckily, the US was working on the Manhattan
Project
•
So secret even Truman did not know about it until he became Pres.
The Bomb

August 6, 1945 at 8:15:30 am. The Enola Gay
dropped the bomb “little boy” on the city of
Hiroshima



August 9, “fat man” was dropped on
Nagasaki


It killed 71,000 people and injured 68,000
The city was destroyed
Killing 80K and injuring 40K
August 14, Emperor Hirohito surrenders,
despite opposition from his military leaders

The formal surrender was September 2, 1945
aboard the battleship Missouri
Postwar Plans

Cairo Early November 1943




FDR, Chiang Kai-shek of China, and Churchill meet
Agree that Korea would become independent
Taiwan would be returned to China
Teheran Late November 1943



FDR, Churchill, and Stalin
FDR and Churchill promise to open 2nd front
Stalin promises to attack Japan after Germany is
defeated (never did, until last few days)
Postwar Plans
 Yalta






February 1945
FDR, Churchill, and Stalin
Germany to be split in 4 military zones
Japanese and German leaders will be tried as
criminals for their atrocities
Agreed to set up the United Nations
US and Britain agree to let Poland be set up
as a Communist state
Stalin promised free elections in Poland (he
lied)
Postwar Plans

San Francisco April 1945




50 nations meet to set up UN
Soviet Union wants all 15 republics represented
individually
Ukraine, Byelorussia, and the Soviet Union would
have representation in the UN
Potsdam July 1945





President Truman was there
Stalin said no free elections in Eastern Europe
6.5 million Germans would be moved out of
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland and into
Germany
Ultimatum to Japan- surrender or be destroyed
Decide on war-crime trials of Nazi leaders
The UN

The UN was officially established in June 1945
 There was a General Assembly for all of the
nations
 Security Council



US, GB, France, USSR, and China would have
permanent seats
6 other nations would be elected on a rotating basis
The Big Five had veto power over any council
actions
The Occupation of Japan
 US
occupation of Japan lasted for six
years- MacArthur helps reshape Japan
 Japan received freedom of the press, no
more secret police, women suffrage, and
union rights- New Constitution
 Farmers were freed from their landlords
 September 1951, the UN and Japan
agreed on a peace treaty that ended the
occupation of Japan
War Crimes Trial
 1945
and 1946 Nazi leaders were on trial
in Nuremberg, Germany
 Defendants were charged with:



Waging aggressive war
Violating accepted rules of prisoner treatment
Thousands would be found guilty of war
crimes