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World War II
Chapter 29
The Path to War
Spanish Civil War showed that
German and Italy were allied,
rearming and aggressive
Rome-Berlin Axis 1936
“Pact of Steel”
Formal alliance between Italy and
Germany
The Path to War
Anschluss
March 13, 1938
Union between Germany and Austria
The Path to War
Sudetenland
Germany speaking region of Czechoslovakia
Mountainous buffer zone
Contained many military bases and factories
Annexed by the Germans
Appeasement
The Munich Agreement
Meeting of Hitler, Mussolini,
Prime Ministers of Britain and
France
Czechoslovakia lost:
1/3 of its population
Best military defenses
Much of its economic strength
British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain declared we have
“peace in our time”
Appeasement
Czechoslovakia becomes part of the Third
Reich in 1939
The Path to War
Italy invaded and annexed Albania in 1939
Leader of Nazi party in German speaking city of
Danzig (Free City) declared city part of
Germany
British and French declared pledges to protect
Poland
The Path to War
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression
Pact 1939
Germany offered Russians a free
hand in Finland, Estonia, Latvia
and eastern Poland
Western Poland was under
German “sphere of influence”
Two nations would not attack
each other for a period of 10
years
The Path to War
Sept. 1,1939 Germany invaded Poland
Britain and France mobilized, sent Germany and
ultimatum
Britain and France declared war on Sept. 3, 1939
One year after surrendering democratic Czechoslovakia,
they fought for authoritarian Poland
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Blitzkrieg – “Lightening War”
Used overwhelming force and speed
Mechanized forces, tanks, airplanes
Poland fell in less than a month
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Sitzkrieg- “the sitting war” or the phony war
Hitler refrained from attacking France
The French felt secure behind the Maginot Line
British and French increased the speed of arms
production and mobilization
Maginot Line
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Germany captured Denmark in a day April 9,
1940
Captured strategic points in Norway
Warm Up:
Contrast the war on the eastern and western
fronts at the outbreak of WWII (1939)?
The Course of the War 1939-1941
The Fall of France
Germany attacked France without warning on
May 10, 1940
German troops flooded through the
Netherlands and Belgium
The Dutch surrendered in 5 days, the Belgians
lasted 18 days
German troops avoided the Maginot Line
The Course of the War 1939-1941
German troops drove to the English Channel
The Miracle of Dunkirk
340,000 Allied troops evacuated using naval
vessels, commercial ferries and private sailboats
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Germany renewed attack
on June 5th
Paris fell in a week
Mussolini attacked
Southern France on June
10th
France surrendered on
June 16th
The Course of the War 1939-1941
On the day Germany
invaded France, Winston
Churchill became Prime
Minister
After the fall of France,
Britain stood alone
against Germany
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Germany prepared plans for
invasion while its air force,
the Luftwaffe, started
sustained bombing attacks
The Blitz
The Royal Air Force inflicted
heavy losses on the Luftwaffe
Aided by radar
Britain survived and endured
The Course of the War 1939-1941
The Balkans
Italian troops from Albania invaded Greece
The Greeks repelled the Italians
Germany sent reinforcements to the Balkans
Hungary and Romania joined the Axis
Invaded and conquered Yugoslavia and Greece
Italy attacked Egypt from its colony in Libya
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Invasion of the Soviet
Union
Hitler invaded Russia on
June 22, 1941
Operation Barbarossa
Largest concentration of
military power ever
assembled
Blitzkrieg tactics
The Course of the War 1939-1941
Invasion of the Soviet Union
Ukraine captured
Leningrad (St. Petersburg) under siege
Sevastopol and Crimea conquered in the South
Advanced to the suburbs of Moscow
Territory held by Germany accounted for 2/3 of
Russian production of Coal, iron, steel and
aluminum
40% of grain and hogs
The Global War 1942-1945
Tripartite Pact- Japan joined the Axis
powers in 1940
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7th
1941) made the conflict a truly global war
United States joined on the side of the
Allies
Japanese Aggression
Invasion of Manchuria 1931
War with China starting in 1937
Conquest of French Indochina (Vietnam) 1941
Philippines conquered in 1942
War in the Pacific
U.S. fought Japan to a draw at the battle of Coral Sea and
Midway
Americans were better able to replace losses
Battle of Guadalcanal 1942-1943
Raged for six months
Japanese defeated
Turning point of the war in the Pacific
War in North Africa
Germans came to the aid of Italy in North
Africa
Send Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox”
Came within 60 miles of Alexandria
Battle of El Alamein Nov. 1942
British forces, led by General Montgomery
pushed German and Italian forces back to
Tunisia
Turning point of the war in Africa
War in The Soviet Union
As Russian forces retreated, they burned the
land behind them
“scorched earth policy”
Left German army little to live on
Germans pushed toward strategic city of
Stalingrad (Volgograd)
War in The Soviet Union
Battle of Stalingrad
German supplies dwindled while Russian
amassed forces
Russian counterattack encircled German army
Germans surrendered less than 1/3 of its
300,000 men survived
Turning point of the war in the eastern front
Air Power
Allies gained air supremacy
in Europe
Began around the clock
bombing
Americans during the day,
British at night
Attacks included both
military and civilian targets
Firebombing of Hamburg
and Dresden
Dresden
Italian Front
American troops landed in Africa joined British
in pushing Axis forces out of Africa
Invasion of Italy in 1943
- “soft underbelly of the Axis”
King Victor Emmanuel abdicated
Italy withdrew from the war
Northern Italy remained occupied by German
forces
Rome Liberated in June 1944
Soviet Union
After Stalingrad, Soviet army made rapid
advancements
By Feb. 1944 they were at the Polish border
Recaptured Crimea in Spring
Romania, Finland and Bulgaria in the summer
Western Front
D-Day invasion June 6, 1944
150,000 men
5,000 ships
Supported by overwhelming airpower
Began rapid advance through France
Joined with French resistance groups
In Aug. 1944 French Resistance groups led
uprising in Paris
Free French forces led by Charles de Gaulle
entered the cheering city
German Resistance
V1
V1 rocket – pilot less plane
V2- first long rang ballistic
missile
Battle of the Bulge
Last major German offensive
Each side lost 700,000 men
German unable to sustain the
offensive
V2
End of the War
Yalta Conference 1945
Big Three (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt)
Agreed to create United Nations
- Big 5 to have veto powers
(U.S., Russia, France, Great Britain and China)
After war, German was to be divided
Soviets agreed to enter war against Japan after
Germany defeated in exchange for concessions
Final Months
Allies advanced on all fronts
Russians took Berlin in 1945
Hitler committed suicide April 30, 1945
Germany officers surrendered 4 days later
War in Asia lasted 4 months longer
Japan surrendered after atomic bombs were
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the
Soviet Union entered the war