Transcript World War II - MCC World History

World War II
On to war!
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March 1939 – Br and Fr agree to help Poland if
invaded
Aug 1939 – Hitler and Stalin agree to a ten year
Non-Aggression Pact (secret document attached
about how to divide up E. Europe)
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Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland
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Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact
Blitzkrieg, Poland down in a month, Holocaust begins
in Poland
Stalin seizes E. half of Poland
Sept. 3, 1939, Br and Fr declare war on
Germany
Taking over Poland
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September 1, 1939
Falls very quickly (3 wks)
Poland split between
Nazis and Soviets
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Soviets – imprison many
people
Nazis –
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Goal to turn Poles into
unskilled workers
Begin arresting and
imprisoning Poland’s large
Jewish population
Blitzkrieg
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“Lightning War”
Three pronged attack
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Luftwaffe
Tanks
Infantry troops
Britain and France Declare War on
Germany
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Sept. 3, 1939
Neville Chamberlain
(Britain’s PM)
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/rams/worldwar2audioclip
slibrary_clip01.ram
Evacuation of
the Children
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Britain immediately begins
evacuating children from their
cities
1.5 Million relied on gvt for
evacuation
2 Million made independent
arrangements
Princess Elizabeth’s
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Message from
the future
Queen
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/rams/worldwa
r2audioclipslibrary_clip06.ram
Gas Mask Precaution
1940 - A Year of Success for
Germany
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April 9th – Invades and Occupied Denmark and
Norway
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Denmark offers little resistance
Norway puts up a fight
May 10th – France, Belgium, Netherlands,
Luxembourg
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France is attacked and invaded
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So much for the Maginot Line
Belgium receives a fullscale Blitzkrieg attack
Netherlands attacked by air
Battle of the Atlantic
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1939 – 1945
Germany’s fight against the Allies
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U-boats and armed merchants
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Wolf pack attacks
Try to block supply routes and convoys
Miracle at
Dunkirk
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British and French forces
become trapped at Dunkirk
Number of men rescued (in
chronological order):
27 May (7669 men)
28 May (17,804 men)
29 May (47,310 men)
30–31 May (120,927 men)
1 June (64,229 men)
2–4 June (up to 54,000
men)
Paris Falls With the Rest of France
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Paris falls June 14
Occupation divided between Germany and Italy
Germany can now focus efforts on Britain
Battle of Britain
German Luftwaffe v. Britain’s RAF
If we can stand up to him, all Europe
may be freed and the life of the world
may move forward into broad, sunlit
uplands. But if we fail, then the whole
world, including the United States,
including all that we have known and
cared for, will sink into the abyss of a
new Dark Age made more sinister,
and perhaps more protracted, by the
lights of perverted science. Let us
therefore brace ourselves to our duty
and so bear ourselves that, if the
British Empire and its Commonwealth
last for a thousand years, men will still
say: "This was their finest hour" '
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/rams/worldwar2audioclipslibrary_clip08.ram
Spotter on London Rooftop
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/rams/worldwar2audioclipslibrary_clip02.ram
Strategies
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Britain took
advantage of a new
technology: radar
Air raid sirens
Blackout curtains
Bomb shelters
Fire Fighters*
Blitz lasted for 57
nights
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'Never in the field of
human conflict has so
much been owed by
so many to so few.'
Most intense bombing
occurred between
June 10 – Oct 31
Lasted through May
1941, when Germany
turned towards
Soviets
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/rams/worldwar2audioclipslibrary_clip19.ram
So to recap…
April 9, 1940 – Hitler takes Denmark and
Norway
 May 10 – Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, France to British Channel
 June 10 – Fr govt flees
 June 14 – Germans take over Paris
 Aug 1940 – Luftwaffe hits London hard
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British Royal Airforce, Chamberlain – “Never
in the field of human conflict was so much
owed by so many to so few”
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler’s attempt to conquer the Soviet
Union
 3 million Germans pour into the Soviet
Union – Blitzkrieg attacks
 Soviets initially lose about 2.5 million
soldiers (caught off guard – missing their
purged generals)
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Scorched Earth Policy
Soviets destroyed their own crops, farm
equipment and factories to prevent the
Germans from using them
 General Winter slows German
advancement
 September 1941 – siege of Leningrad
begins
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Total War
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What does a war like this mean for the
civilian population?
America’s Involvement
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Lend-Lease Act
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FDR persuades Congress to sell or lend war
materials to “any country whose defense the
President deems vital to the defense of the US”
Atlantic Charter – goal for the war – “final
destruction of the Nazi tyranny”
“A day that will live in infamy”
Pearl Harbor is bombed December 7, 1941 –
United States declares war on Japan the next
day
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Germany and Italy declare war on US
Allies meet and agree to target Europe, then Asia
North Africa
Campaign
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwt
wo/launch_ani_north_africa_campaign.shtml
German forces led by Erwin Rommel the
“Desert Fox”
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Hitler wanted Suez Canal
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Access to ME’s oil fields
Cut off the India-Britain supply line
Axis and Allies battle back and forth through
1940 and 1941
1942 – Rommel aggressively takes N. Africa
October 23, 1942 – 2nd Battle of El Alamein
– led by British General Bernard
Montgomery
2nd Battle of El Alamein
October 23, 1942 – 2nd Battle of El
Alamein – led by British General Bernard
Montgomery
 Allied troops provide reinforcements
 N. Africa liberated by Allies, victory May
13, 1943
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Australian Troops Attacking
El Alamein War Cemetary
American tank destroyers in Tunisia pass a farm on their way to battle Erwin Rommel's
Afrika Korps in 1943
Onto Italy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/ww
two/launch_ani_italy_campaign.shtml
 Allies invade Italy on July 10, 1943
 Described as the “Beginning of the End” in
Anne Frank’s Diary
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Meanwhile…
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Battle of Stalingrad
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Hitler is determined to capture
Stalin’s namesake city; Stalin
determined to defend
Germans surround the city, Russians
encircle the Germans…
Winter sets in
Germans surrender early 1943 and
lose over 300,000 men; one of the
costliest battles of the war
Red Army launches a counter attack
immediately after and pushes the
Germans out of the Soviet Union –
the retreat begins
D-Day
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/la
unch_ani_overlord_campaign.shtml
June 6, 1944
The 5000-vessel armada stretched as far as the
eye could see, transporting over 150,000 men
and nearly 30,000 vehicles across the channel
to the French beaches. Six parachute regiments
-- over 13,000 men -- were flown from nine
British airfields in over 800 planes. More than
300 planes dropped 13,000 bombs over coastal
Normandy immediately in advance of the
invasion.
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War planners had projected that 5,000 tons of gasoline would be
needed daily for the first 20 days after the initial assault. In one
planning scenario, 3,489 long tons of soap would be required for the
first four months in France.
By nightfall on June 6, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or
wounded, but more than 100,000 had made it ashore, securing
French coastal villages. And within weeks, supplies were being
unloaded at UTAH and OMAHA beachheads at the rate of over
20,000 tons per day.
Captured Germans were sent to American prisoner of war camps at
the rate of 30,000 POWs per month from D-Day until Christmas
1944. Thirty-three detention facilities were in Texas alone.
Success of D-Day
Paris is liberated on August 25, 1944
 All of France is freed
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Soviets Begin Advancing East
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After Battle of Stalingrad, Germans began
to continually lose ground
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A group of German officers and civilians concluded in July that getting rid of Hitler offered the last
remaining chance to end the war before it swept onto German soil from two directions. On July 20,
1944 they tried to kill him by placing a bomb in his headquarters in East Prussia. The bomb
exploded, wounding a number of officers-several fatally-but inflicting only minor injuries on Hitler.
Afterward, the GESTAPO (q.v.) hunted down everyone suspected of complicity in the plot. One of
the suspects was Rommel, who committed suicide. Hitler emerged from the assassination attempt
more secure in his power than ever before.
10 minute challenge – go!
Use pages 966-972
 Create a propaganda poster that illustrates
one of the concerns of France, Germany,
Britain, or Russia during WW II
 *Insert Class Discussion of Domestic
Challenges during the War here* 
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Bombing Germany
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For two years the Allied
forces mercilessly
bombed German military
bases, factories, railroads,
oil depots, and major
cities
 Hamburg – 10 day
bombing nearly levels
the city
 Dresden – 135,000
people killed February
1945
Hamburg Before the Bombing
Hamburg After
Dresden in Ruins
Battle of the Bulge
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Germany’s last major stand
Began December 16, 1944
Known as the The German
Ardennes offensive or the
Battle of the Bulge
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The Americans were taken
completely by surprise
Resisted and held Saint-Vith and
Bastogne
German effort was doomed after
December 23, when good flying
weather allowed the
overwhelming Allied air
superiority to make itself felt.
End of January, the last of the
80-km- (50-mi-) deep "bulge" in
the Allied lines is eliminated.
Allied advance into Germany
resumed in February
Soviet Successes
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By December 1944
 Soviets have forced the Nazis out of Belarus,
Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria,
Romania, and half of Hungary and Poland
Liberation of Majdanek – July 23, 1944
Fighting in Budapest
Warsaw Uprising – Summer 1944
By the end of the war
 Soviets have also liberated Czechoslovakia, Poland,
the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps, and
parts of Germany
Liberation of Majdanek
Former Inmates After Liberation
By December 1944
Warsaw Uprising
http://www.warsawuprising.com/photos.htm
Allies Successes
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Through the Spring of 1945
 Liberated the Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxembourg,
Denmark, Norway, Austria,
 Occupied portions of
Germany
 April 1945 – FDR dies
suddenly
 April 30, 1945 – Hitler
commits suicide
May 8, 1945
VE Day
 Victory in Europe!
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Yalta Conference
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Yalta – Feb 4 to Feb 11, 1945
Big Three
Begin making post-war plans
Roosevelt – wants Soviets to
help in the Pacific
• Churchill – pushed for
importance of democratic gvts
and free elections in Eastern
Europe after the war
• Stalin – demands that Eastern
Europe become a Soviet sphere
of political influence for the
USSR’s protection
• Discuss how to handle Germany
Conclusion of War
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FDR dies April 12, 1945
Adolf Hitler commits
suicide April 30, 1945
Unconditional surrender
from Germans on May 7th
at General Eisenhower's
post
VE Day – Victory in
Europe – May 8, 1945
Unconditional surrender
from Germans on May 9th
in Soviet occupied Berlin
Potsdam
Conference
• July-August 1945
• Truman, Stalin, Churchill, and
Atlee
• Issue ultimatum to Japan of
“prompt and utter
destruction” if they don’t
agree to unconditional
surrender
• **Truman receives word of
successful atom bomb test**
• Truman tells Stalin that the
USA has a new powerful
bomb
• Agree to partition Germany
and work on
• demilitarization,
democratization,
• de-nazification, and
decentralization
Casualties of WW II
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Picture
Partitioning Germany
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Germany is divided up
into four parts
Britain, United States,
France and the Soviets
The democratic states
become West Germany
Soviet state becomes
East Germany
The Eastern Bloc
Soviets refuse to give up Poland and
cling onto the countries they had
liberated from Nazi Germany
 Soviet Red Army hand picked dictators
that would be allegiant to the Soviet
Union
 Eastern European countries forcibly
become communist
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opposition is eliminated
 noncompliant states are threatened to be
“crushed with Soviet tanks”
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Eastern Bloc states forced to have communist leadership
and have “loyalty” to Soviet Union
NATO established April 1949, still exists
 North Atlantic Treaty Organization
 Today: 26 member states, 14 allies
Soviet Union successfully tests the atom bomb August
1949
Warsaw Pact established to counter NATO
 Officially Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation,
and Mutual Assistance
 Signed May 1955, not disestablished until 1991
 Founding members: Albania (leaves 1961), Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, and later
East Germany
Rebuilding Europe
• Europe is in ruins
• Aerial attack abilities devastated most of the
major cities of Europe
• Rebuild buildings, railroads, and infrastructure
• Where do you start?
– brick by brick
Warsaw in Ruins
Hamburg, Germany
Marshall Plan
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European Recovery Plan
Secretary of State – George Marshall
Reconstruction plan offered in July 1947
Intended to help foster stability and rehabilitation to
European countries
4 year plan of economic and technical assistance – 13
billion US Dollars
West takes advantage
Eastern bloc offered same deal if the Soviets were willing
to make political reforms and allow for some external
controls – Deny help
Marshall Plan
Extremely successful!
 Restores countries to even better status
than before the war
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United Nations
April 1945 50 countries met
 Charter and purpose developed
 Save future from war
 Promote national self-determination
 Promote respect for human rights
 Help nations solve problems
 Headquarters- New York City
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Advantages Over
League
No
major power refused
to join
UN peace keeping force
Armed
group to enforce
decisions
Overall…
 UN
more effective socially,
economically not politically
 1948 Universal Declaration of
Human Rights Protect from oppression
 Preservation of rights