Transcript The Battle of Coral Sea

World War II
The Other War to End All Wars…
For now….
We hope….
Leading up to the War
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World War I
Great Depression
Rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism
Appeasement
Failure of the League of Nations
Civil War in Spain (warm-up for war)
The U.S. at the Beginning of WWII
• Isolationist
– Sick of war
– Kellogg-Briand Pact
outlawed war
• Passed laws so that they
would not sell weapons to
ANY country at war.
– Neutrality Act of 1936
to stay out of war.
Key Players in the War
Axis Powers
• Adolf Hitler (GER)
• Benito Mussolini (ITA)
• Hideki Tojo (JAP)
Allied Powers
• Neville Chamberlain (GBR)
• Winston Churchill (GBR)
• Charles De Gaulle (FRA)
• Franklin Roosevelt (USA)
• Harry Truman (USA)
• Joseph Stalin (USSR)
Axis Powers
(and Germany)
The Painful Lesson
• Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany meet in Munich on
September 28, 1938.
• Hitler has been aggressive in taking land west of Germany
• GB and FR try to appease Hitler by giving him the
Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, in hopes that Hitler would
cease.
• “agreement” is a failure.
• Hitler invades the “demilitarized” Czechoslovakia and
promptly breaks Munich Pact
• By the end of 1939 both Hitler and Mussolini had conquered
more territory in Europe and made plans for further wars.
• Becomes famous as the “Lesson of Munich”
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Appeasement
• “My good friends,
for the second time
in our history, a
British Prime
Minister has
returned from
Germany bringing
peace with honour.
I believe it is peace
for our time.”
Neville Chamberlain
Non-aggression pact
• Germany and Soviet
Union sign in 1939.
• Agree not to attack one
another.
• This shocked the world:
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WHY? Fascists and
communists work together.
• Secret provision was
the dividing of Poland.
• However, Hitler knew he
would eventually invade
Soviet Union.
September 1st, 1939
Germany invades Poland
officially beginning World
War II
• On September 1, 1939
Germany and the USSR
launched a full-scale invasion
of Poland.
• Britain and France declared
war on Germany and WWII
had begun.
• Germany and the Soviet
Union divided Poland into
two zones.
• One month later Germany
invaded France
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France
• Germany invaded through Belgium around the
Maginot Line (heavily fortified section of the
German-French border) in June of 1940.
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Took Paris 9 days later
France was completely occupied within 6 weeks.
Renamed “Vichy France.”
HOWEVER- Denmark was taken in several HOURS
Europe 1940
Britain
Who’s Next?
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Battle of Britain
Summer of 1940
Germany began to bomb
Britain’s cities to keep
them out of the main
fight.
Britain had been a tough
opponent in WWI and the
Germans knew this.
OPERATION BARBAROSSA
Operation Barbarossa was a three pronged
invasion of the Soviet Union. The goal
was to seize all of the USSR up to the Ural
Mountains including the major cities of
Odessa, Kiev, Moscow, Leningrad and
Stalingrad.
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1941- Germany broke pact with USSR
German invasion of USSR
Soviets used a “scorched earth” policy to slow down the Germans, burning
as they retreated (Remember Napoleon, anyone?).
Battle of Stalingrad
• July 1942 – February 1943
• Bloodiest battle in the history
of warfare
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2 million casualties
• German commander Paulus
surrendered in Jan 1943.
• Importance of German loss:
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Turning point of the war in
Eastern Europe
Germany would never go on
offensive again against the
USSR
Turning Point in Europe
• Battle of Normandy
• Largest marine
invasion ever.
The Pacific Theater
• Japanese expansion (1895-1938)
• Attempted to take over Asia as the new imperial power
• (1938-1945) During the war, Japanese
had to protect oil shipments (no domestic
oil resources).
• U.S. was the lead power in the Pacific to
fight Japan, U.S. supported China.
• All other allies were finishing up in Europe.
Embargo Against Japan
Japan continued its aggression against
China causing relations to erode with
the US.
Japan joined Germany and Italy in an
anti-Soviet treaty.
Despite US warnings to stay out of
Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia) Japan took control of the
Asian territory.
• Japan wanted the US to stop sending aid to China, and
restore trade with Japan. Diplomatic talks in November
1941 failed, and during the meetings, Japan planned an
attack on the United States.
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•The surprise
attack
Pearl
Harbor
•onOn
December
Dec.
7, 1941 7, 1941 at
7:55 AM,
destroyed
18Japanese
bombers188
attacked the US
warships,
fleet atand
Pearl
Harbor,
aircraft
killed
Hawaii.
2,403
servicemen
at a Glance
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Kamikaze
• Means “Divine Wind”
• Suicide attacks by
warplanes from the Empire of
Japan against Allied naval
vessels in the closing stages
of the Pacific campaign.
• First used at Battle of Leyte
Gulf (Philippines)
• A total of 57 ships were sunk
by the Kamikazes.
The Battle of Coral Sea
• The Battle of the Coral Sea
was fought between the
Japanese and Allied navies
from May 4 through May 8,
1942 in the Coral Sea,
about 500 miles northeast
of Australia.
• Occurring only six months
after the surprise attack at
Pearl Harbor, it was one of
the first naval battles
fought in the Pacific
during World War II.
Battle Of Midway
• Decisive US victory –June
1942 at Midway Atoll
• American codebreakers were
able to determine the date
+ location of attack.
• Four Japanese aircraft
carriers were sunk in
exchange for one American.
• The heavy losses in carriers
and aircrews permanently
weakened the Imperial
Japanese Navy.
Maps of the devastation and the weapon
that caused it
First Atomic
Bomb
Format of the
First Atomic
Bomb
Perspective on Bombings
• A ground invasion of Japan would have cost
between ½ million and 2 million American
soldiers’ lives, according to military studies.
• 150-200 thousand Japanese total casualties for
both bombings.
• 600,000+ had been killed by conventional
bombing in the months prior to the A-bombs.
Meetings at Yalta and
Potsdam
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Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met.
Established a “plan” for the end of the war
Included how new governments would be set up.
Stalin assured others that democratically-elected
governments would be set up.
Occupation of Japan and
Germany
• Both countries rebuilt
• Economies and industries rebuilt
• U.S. made no territorial claims to either country
Results