Transcript Background WWII

World War II
(1941-1945)
Players
Axis Expansion: Japan, Germany,
Italy areas of occupation in red
(map)
Axis Powers 1942 – Areas of
occupation in red.
Chronology
• 1933 Hitler elected Chancellor of
Germany
• 1939 Germany invades Poland; Italy
invades Albania
• 1939 Britain, France, Australia, New
Zealand declare war on Germany
• 1940 Italy joins Germany
• 1941 US & Britain declare war on
Japan
Germany declares war on US
• 1942 Air Attack on Germany
• 1943-44 Allied push into North Africa &
Sicily
• Sept 1943 Italy surrenders
• June 1944 D-Day at Normandy
• May 1945 VE German surrenders
• Aug 1945 A-Bombs dropped on Japan
• Sept 1945 VJ Japan surrenders
Japanese Holdings in Pacific –
from Korea south to Dutch East
Indies, approaching Australia
Allied Pacific
Plan was to
begin at the
southernmost
extension of
Japanese
holdings and
push north.
Southernmost
point was the
Solomon
Islands where
its airstrip
made
Guadalcanal
most
significant.
Guadalcanal – photos
Burials in Pacific were many in
1942
Axis Powers 1942 – note the expansion of
German to the south and east.
Stalingrad, a Russian city on river
Volga
Important for
trade and
communication,
for shipping
resources to the
north. Also, it
was named after
Stalin, and its
capture would
have beem a
blow to Russian
morale.
Eastern Front in
September – notice
the movement of
German attacks to the
east at all points:
Latvia, Belorussia, and
Ukraine, down to the
Black Sea and Crimean.
Attack on Stalingrad – arrows mark the line
of Germany’s attack on the city.
German fighting into (left map) and
surrounded out of (right map) Stalingrad.
Arrows above mark the attacks of the Russian
counter-offensive movements in the south and
around Stalingrad.
WWII Toll (Europe)
•
•
•
•
Total Deaths
% Prewar Pop
US
500,000
.4
France
810,000
1.9
Germany 6,805,000
9.5
Russia 20,000,000
10.4%
Overall dead: 52,199,262