Transcript World War II as a Total War

World War II as a Total War
More Than World War I
 Governments made every effort to ensure fullest
mobilization and most efficient utilization of human and
material resources
 World War I had shown how important the home front
was, meaning it was attacked heavily in World War II
 Governments used all weapons and developed new
ones, killing far greater numbers of civilians
 Racial hatred led to killing and relocation of civilians in
both theaters
Aims of the Belligerents

Aims were total

Hitler
 Total domination and takeover
of the USSR for living space
 Sought to eliminate races
considered inferior

Allies
 Fighting for the freedom of
Europe and Asia

Racial aspects injected far greater
intensity
 Total victory became only goal
Use of Weaponry
 Major developments
 Radar, U-boat detection
equipment, longdistance bombing, V1
and V2 rockets, atomic
bomb
 Influential on sea
travel, air travel, Cold
War
 Drugs and penicillin
 Techniques for storing
blood and plasma,
plastic surgery
 Synthetic fibers
 Computers
Role of Civilians
 Attacked in new ways
suffered as a result of
rationing and deprivation
 Counted for two-thirds of
deaths
 Mostly due to bombers
 New mobility of war
Deportation and Genocide
 Hitler’s belief that the Jews
and also Slavs were
Untermenschen or
subhuman
 Populations in Poland and
USSR had to be destroyed
for his Lebensraum
 Hitler’s idea to use Eastern
Europeans as laborers
 Soviet people would be
withered away, Jews
exterminated
Deportation and Genocide

Poles and Russians were deported
to factories and mines of the Third
Reich
 Work here meant death

SS squads accompanied the
German Army, mission to kill all
Jews, communists and resisters
 Gypsies and mental patients
also at risk

Had murdered 63,000 by July 1941

Method was time-consuming and
costly
 Began transportation to
concentration camps
Deportation and Genocide
 Soviet government also
deported populations to Siberia
 Dearth tolls in Eastern Europe
and USSR were high
 At least 20 million died in the
USSR
 Poland suffered greatest
proportional loss of life
 6 million out of 30 million
 Only 150,000 in military
action
 6 million Jews in Holocaust
Deportation and Genocide
 Japanese called the
Chinese bacteria infesting
world civilization
 Genocidal treatment at
Nanjing
 Used Filipinos, Indonesians
and Malays as slave
workers
 Allied POWs treated terribly
as well
Civilians as Part of the War Effort
 Much greater effort than in
WWI
 Two-thirds of each
workforce mobilized
 Three-fourths of national
product dedicated to war
 Restricted food and
household goods
 Used different methods to
get the job done
By Nation

Britain
 Military conscription immediately,
left workers in key areas such as
coal mining, women drafted into
industry

Germany
 Too little organization too late,
Albert Speer received little
support
 Regional authorities unwilling
to accept national schemes
 Hitler didn’t want women in the
workplace
 Children, Church, Kitchen
 Also insisted consumer goods
remained a priority
By Nation

Soviet Union
 Centralized nature allowed easy
mobilization, coercion effective
as well
 Workers relocated, wages
decreased, slacking
punished
 Women served in Red Army
 Civilians may have been real
heroes

America
 Women in key war industries,
armed forces

Japan
 Reluctant to be involved due to
culture
Growth of Government Power
 Britain
 Expanded the government’s power during the war, transportation and
mining came under state control, rationing introduced, conscription
 Also improved health care, nursery systems for working mothers, special
provisions for families with young children
 Germany
 Planning remained confused, neither Goebbels or Speer could solve
lack of coordination
 Focused on highly technical items, unlike Allies
 Soviet Union
 Turned into Stalin’s ‘single war camp’, war production the only priority
Growth of Government Power
 America
 War Production Board established
 Car factories now produced tanks and planes
 War Commission recruited workers where they were needed most
 Relied on American business and expertise in mass production and
innovation, gave out big contracts to industries
 Did all this without changing system
 Japan
 Had strengthened government even before Pearl Harbor
 Other parties had gone into ‘voluntary dissolution’ in favor of Imperial
Rule Assistance Association
 Trade unions closed down
 Difficult management due to rivalry between army and navy
Propaganda