Transcript 1941- The Dark Year

1941- The Dark Year
• Rommel was successful in North Africa
• Germany couldn’t take Britain so Hitler
turned East.
• He had said in his book Mein Kampf, that
Russia was to become the Liebensraum
(living room) for Germans to expand into.
• Stalin knew this but hoped that Germany
would wait a few more years
German General
• In June 1941 Germany invaded Russia
and started the largest land war the world
has ever known.
• The invasion was known as
Operation Barbarossa.
• 3 giant thrust were made into Russia.
• The Russians were completely
unprepared (purges of the 30’s).
• The Germans drove deep into Russia,
surrounding and capturing over a million
Russian troops
• Germans were at the borders of
Leningrad, and laid siege to it for the next
900 days.
• They were all the way to the outskirts of
Moscow when the winter set in.
• It was called the Russian Winter – it was
the worst in decades – Germans had no
winter equipment – tanks froze, soldiers
froze
America and Japan
• US was isolationist
• Japan was expansionist
• Japan decided to go after the resources in
the Pacific.
• In order to eliminate their rival in the
Pacific, Japan needed to sink the US fleet.
• Admiral Yamamoto planned the surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor
• Attack on Pearl Harbor fails becasue
Japanese
Admiral
Isoroku
Yamamoto
Pearl Harbor