Transcript WWII - Historyforsmarties

World War II
BLITZKRIEG
• Sept. 1st , 1939: Germany invaded Poland
using a battle technique called...
BLITZKRIEG: (lightning war)
• - a combination of an aerial attack,
parachute troops, tanks, motorized infantry.
• - Objective: overwhelm the enemy with
strength & speed.
• British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain
– sent Hitler an ULTIMATUM....get out of
Poland by September 3rd
– Hitler ignored it...
• Sept. 3rd, 1939: Britain & France declared war
on Germany.
• Sept. 10, 1939 - Canada declared war.
• FALL 1939 to SPRING 1940: the
“Phoney War”....no new fighting. (known
as Sitzkreig)
BLITZKRIEG AGAIN !!!
• April - June 1940: Germany invades:
Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands
and France.
• Late June, 1940: Germans begun
preparation for OPERATION SEALION
(Invasion of Britain).
The Battle of Britain
(Operation Sealion)
• The Battle of Britain was unique because it
was the FIRST battle fought entirely in the
air.
• Germany attacks :
– A) British coastal shipping
– B) Airfields
– C) London
• - changed his tactics - night time raids on
British cities.
• - Hitler thought Britain was about to fall.
• actually helped Britain as it was harder for
German pilots to see their targets.
• attempted to terrify and demoralize civilians.
• failed to do this or gain control of airways.
• tactic actually pulled people together.
• Britain would later become the
“springboard” for allied invasion to free
Europe.
• British - able to decode German tactics
decoding machine called the ULTRA
• Hitler cancels assault on Britain, thinks its
going to fall soon.
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC
• Atlantic is a ‘lifeline’ for Britain.
– Weapons and supplies are sent from the
US and Canada.
• Convoys of supply ships assemble in
Halifax to make the trip across the Atlantic.
– They are easy prey for German U-Boats
(submarines). Destroyers accompany
supply ships to provide protection.
The Battle of the Atlantic is being lost !
The reason’s why:
1. German U-boats, German bombers and the German fleet sink and seriously
damage between them every month a total of 700 000 to 1 million tons of
British and allied shipping.
2. All attempts at finding a satisfactory means of defense against the German Uboats or the German bombers have failed disastrously.
3. Even President Roosevelt has openly stated that for every five ships sunk by
Germany, Britain and America between them can only build two new ones. All
attempts to launch a larger shipbuilding programme in America have failed.
4. Britain is no longer in a position to secure her avenues of supply. The
population of Britain has to do with about half the ration that the population of
Germany gets. Britain, herself, can only support 40% of her population from
her own resources in spite of the attempts made to increase the amount of
land under cultivation. If the war is continued until 1942, 60% of the population
of Britain will starve !
All this means that starvation in Britain is not to be staved off. At the most it can
be postponed, but whether starvation comes this years or at the beginning of
next doesn’t make a ha’porth of difference. Britain must starve because she is
being cut off from her supplies.
Britain’s losing the Battle of the Atlantic means
• Decides to invade the USSR (The Soviet
Union) in Operation Barbarossa.
• Biggest mistake – he now had to fight on
two fronts. He also enters the USSR in
the winter.
• Battle of Stalingrad ... turning point on
the Russian front...
• - January, 1943: 100 000 Germans
surrendered against Hitler’s orders.
• GERMAN RETREATS (1943 – 1944) pushed out of USSR
• USSR - Red Army ‘liberate’ Poland,
Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, etc.
PEARL HARBOR - 1941
• - USA joins the war after Japan attacks
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
• - Germany declared war on the USA on
December 11, 1941.
The JAPANESE
• showed outstanding skill and military
• superiority in defeating the Allies.
• middle of 1942 - cut off to the Burma Road
to China (not far from India.)
• threaten to invade India & Ceylon.
• bomb North Australia & occupied the
Aleutians.
• difficult to defend the large areas they had
conquered. (because mostly islands)
DIEPPE - 1942
• - ‘Operation Jubilee’, the attack on
Dieppe, France.
• 6000 men - Royal Marine Commandos and
Canadian infantry regiments.
• Canadians made several attacks to capture
Dieppe.
• the Germans defeated every attack.
• 3379 Canadians died.
THE INVASION OF NORMANDY
• Code name for the Allied invasion of
Normandy was ‘Overlord’.
• Also known as D- Day.
• Invasion began on June 6, 1944.
War Coming to an End
• March 24, 1945 - the Allies had entered
Germany and by April they met the
advancing Red Army of Russia.
• April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler shot himself.
• May 8, 1945 - V-E Day (Victory Day) Germany’s defeated - war in Europe
officially over
Battle of Midway
• See video clip
HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI
• August 6, 1945 - the USA drops an
atomic bomb on Hiroshima
• 1st atomic bomb used in warfare...trying to
‘force’ Japan to surrender.
• August 8, 1945 - USSR attack Japanese
Manchuria and Korea.
Atomic Bomb Blast
Hiroshima
Aftermath of the Atomic Bomb
The Effects of the Atomic Bomb
•
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• August 9, 1945 - the USA drops an
atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
• 2nd atomic bomb...the Japanese
surrendered unconditionally & the war
was over.
• August 14, 1945 - V-J Day....the war is
over !!!
End of an Era
• President Roosevelt
died before the war
ended.
• (April 12, 1945)
• He had been president
for 4 terms.
• Vice President Truman
took over.
• It was his decision to
drop the Atomic Bombs
on Japan.
President Truman
• Truman would win the election after the
war and remain President from 1945 –
1953.
• During which time he introduced a
champagne against Communism through
his “Truman Doctrine”.