Transcript World War II

World War
II
1941-1945
Causes of World War II
• Rise of Dictators
• Anger in Germany over treatment after
WWI.
• The “isms”
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Fascism
Communism
Nazism
Militarism
What was going on in the rest of the world?
• Italy: Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist party.
– Fascism is the belief that the nation is more important
than the individual. Strong government and military;
against Communism
• Russia, under Vladimir Lenin became the USSR
– Communist
– When Lenin died Joseph Stalin became leader, wanted
immediate change..killed more than 40 million people
• Germany
– Hitler: hated Allies
– November 1923- led march on Munich and is arrested
– 1933- Appointed as Prime Minister
• JAPAN:
– taken over by militarists, began attacking China
What did the US do?
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NOTHING
Wanted to be ISOLATIONIST
Signed Neutrality Act of 1935
At the same time war broke out in Spain
during the Spanish Civil War - 1936
• What did Roosevelt do?
– Internationalism
– Arms to China
World War II Begins
• To try to prevent another war, Britain, France,
Italy, and Germany decided to give
Czechoslovakia in order to appease Germany.
• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact: Germany
would go to war against France and Britain but not
the USSR
• Blitzkrieg in Poland: lightning war, very quick
• Fall of France: France waited behind the Maginot
Line, but Germany went around it by invading the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium first.
• Miracle at Dunkirk: Hitler mysteriously stops his
advance, allows Britain time to recover.
Battle of Dunkirk
• Britain maintained its bravery with Winston
Churchill as Prime Minister, “we shall never
surrender”
• Battle of Britain: all out air war after Germans
bombed London. (British pilots had radar)
• The Holocaust:systematic killing of more that 6
million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and people
with disabilities.
• Nuremburg Laws- took all civil rights of Jews
• Kristallnacht: night of broken glass; Hitler’s
secret police, the Gestapo went through breaking
shop windows, torching homes, and arresting
Jews.
• Concentration Camps: worked as slave laborers
• Extermination Camps: killed people in gas
chambers (up to 12,000 a day)
Auschwitz
Auschwitz
Auschwitz
Auschwitz Today
Auschwitz
America at War
• FDR originally supports England
• Due to the need for weapons and supplies,
Americans quickly banded together and
created the most productive and efficient
war making machine in the world, which
also helped bring the US out of the
Depression (Lend-Lease Act)
Pearl Harbor
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December 7,1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Sank or damaged 21 ships
Killed 2,403 Americans
“A Day that will live in Infamy”
The next day, Roosevelt asks Congress to
go to war.
Pearl Harbor
Mobilizing for War
• Converting the economy: In less than four years,
the US was able to fight and win a two front war
against two powerful military empires, forcing
both to surrender unconditionally, how were they
able to do so?
• Industry: by 1942, almost all major industries and
some 200,000 companies had converted to war
production.
• Tanks replaced cars as automobile factories
shifted from making cars to making jeeps
and tanks for the war effort.
• Henry Ford assisted by creating an
assembly line to produce the B-24 bomber.
• Henry Kaiser built the Liberty ship which
was the basic ship used to transport cargo
• War Production Board: created by
Roosevelt to set priorities and production
goals and to control the distribution of raw
materials and supplies.
Building an Army
• Not only do you need supplies to go to war but
you also need soldiers.
• After France surrendered to Germany, two
Congressmen introduced the Selective Service and
Training Act, which re-instituted the draft
• Once in the army, soldiers were given physicals,
shots, supplies, and aptitude tests to see where
they would be placed.
• Promoted a sense of unity across the nation but
African Americans were still segregated.
African Americans in the War
• Disenfranchisement
– African Americans were often denied their right to
vote, but were included in the draft.
• Double V Campaign
– Push for victory against Hitler’s racism abroad and
against racism at home
• In combat
– 99th Pursuit Squadron- Tuskegee Airmen
– Many awards
– As a result of valor in WWII, Truman decided to fully
integrate the military in 1948.
Tuskegee Airmen
Women in the War
• Women were not allowed in combat, so women
took over clerical and administrative positions.
• Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) led by
Oveta Culp Hobby, was created in May 1942, but
women were not happy that they were not part of
the regular army so in 1943, the Women’s Army
Corps (WAC) was created.
• In addition to serving in these organizations,
64,000 women served as nurses in the army and
navy.
The Early Battles
• Fall of the Philippines
– Japan attacked American airfields and outnumbered
American forces. The American commander Douglas
MacArthur tried to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula, but
the lack of supplies badly weakened the soldiers and
they were ordered to evacuate, but before they could
they were forced to surrender, 78,000 prisoners of war
were marched to POW camps, with thousands dying,
this was called the Bataan Death March
• Doolittle Raid
– Led by Col. James Doolittle, this was the first time
bombs had actually fallen in Japan.
Doolittle Raid
• Change in Japanese Strategy
– After the Doolittle Raid, Japanese leaders were
convinced to change their strategy
– The Commander of the Japanese fleet wanted to attack
the island of Midway, since it was the last American
base in the North Pacific, thinking it would lure the
American fleet into battle so they could defeat them.
• Battle of the Coral Sea
– In May 1942, carriers from both sides launched an
attack. Both sides had major losses but American
supply lines to Australia stayed open.
• Battle of Midway
– Nimitz realized that he has an opportunity to ambush
the Japanese fleet, since they had cracked the code and
knew when the Japanese were going to attack.
– June 4, 1942, 38 Japanese planes were shot down, and
4 carriers were destroyed. This was the turning point
Battle of Midway
US in Europe & Africa
• The Struggle for North Africa
– Roosevelt decided to invade Morocco and Algeria to
give the army some experience and they would also be
able to help the British in Egypt which was important
because of the Suez Canal. Under the command of
Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton, on May 13,
1943 the Germans in North Africa surrendered.
• The Battle of the Atlantic
– By August 1942, German submarines has sunk 360
American ships
– So ships began traveling in convoys (in groups with
navy warships as escorts.
• Battle of Stalingrad- Soviet soldiers forced the
Germans to fight house to house, exhausting the
Germans, which led to this battle being the turning
point in the European theatre.
Life on the Homefront
• Women and Minorities gain ground
– War finally ended the Great Depression,
creating 19 million jobs, because men were in
the military, women and minorities were hired
to do the same jobs
– “Rosie the Riveter”
– Executive order made it illegal to discriminate
on the basis of race.
– Bracero program- guest workers from Mexico
that helped in the Southwest.
• A Nation on the Move
– There was a problem finding homes for all of the new
workers, so many people ended up living in tents or
trailers. More than 2 million people lived in
government housing during the war.
– When the war began, “The Great Migration” of African
Americans to the North resumed.
– Riots began in Detroit, killing 34.
– The Zoot Suit Riots: caused by racism against the new
Mexican laborers.
– Japanese American Relocation: everyone of Japanese
ancestry was moved to 10 internment camps. Not all
moved quietly, but in the case of Korematsu v. the
United States the Supreme Court ruled that it was
acceptable to move them since it was based on military
urgency and not on race.
• Daily Life in Wartime America
– Roosevelt created the Office of Price
Administration (OPA) to regulate prices and
wages to protect against inflation
– Blue Points, Red Points- food was rationed to
make sure enough was left for military use.
Every month, families would pick up ration
books. (Blue was for processed foods and red
was for meat and oil)
– Victory Gardens- Americans planted gardens
for vegetables and fruit so that farmers could
produce for the soldiers.
– Paying for the war: raised taxes and sold bonds.
Pushing the Axis Back
• The first invasion by Allied troops in North Africa
had proven that and attack by sea was possible.
• Strategic bombing on Germany
• Invasion of Sicily (Italy surrenders Sicily on
Sept.8, 1943)
• Operation Overlord: Germany believed that the
Allies would land in France at Pas-de-Calais. The
Allies encouraged that idea by putting decoys
there. The real target though was Normandy.
• June 6, 1944: D-Day, Allied troops stormed the
beaches and by the end of the day had succeeded
in driving the Germans back.
D-Day
Island Hopping in the Pacific
• Many of the islands in the Pacific were very small
and difficult to manuever.
• Look at the map on p. 636
• Forces under Gen. MacArthur began to move their
way back to the Philippines beginning with
Guadalcanal. Eventually the Philippines were
invaded with 160,000 troops
• Japanese responded with kamikaze attacks, in
which pilots would crash their planes into Allied
ships to try to destroy them.
The War Ends
• Battle of the Bulge: German troops raced to
ambush American soldiers demanding their
surrender. They refused and 3 days later, Gen.
Patton sent troops to attack the Germans.
Although it lasted for 3 weeks, the US won and
left the Germans with little protection.
• V-E Day: the Soviets and American forces
decided to attack Germany from two sides. The
Soviets attacked from the east and the Americans
from the west.
• Deep inside his bunker in Berlin, Adolf Hitler
knew the end was near, so he committed suicide.
Before that he appointed Grand Admiral Doenitz
to be his successor. Doenitz tried to surrender to
the US and Britain but they refused until the
• Eva Braun had always known that
when the time came she would
willingly die with her Fuehrer.
Midafternoon on April 30, they both
entered Hitler's living room.
According to those who entered the
room an hour later, Hitler and Eva
were found sitting on this couch.
Hitler was slumped over, and blood
spilled over the arm of the couch.
Eva was sitting at the other end.
Hitler had killed himself by biting
down on a cyanide capsule while
pulling the trigger of a gun aimed
at his head. Eva only used the
cyanide capsule. Her pistol still lay
on the table before her.Here,
American soldiers take a close look
at the couch. Bloodstains are
visible on the arm.
• Japan is defeated
– Roosevelt did not live to see the surrender of Germany,
he died on April 12, 1945 (V-E Day is May 8) and left
Harry Truman as President
• Iwo Jima
– American military planners decided to invade Iwo Jima
halfway between the Mariana Islands and Japan. On
Feb. 16, 1945; 60, 000 Marines landed crawling inch by
inch to take it over due to the difficult landscape.
– “Uncommon valor was an common virtue”
• Use of Napalm
– Jellied gasoline that would explode on contact, caused
many deaths, and destruction of property.
• Okinawa
– 350 miles from Japan, American troops kept fighting
until they took it over, now they could launch attacks
from much closer.
• Manhattan Project
– American project headed by General Leslie Groves
organized a team of engineers and scientists to build the
first atomic bomb at a secret lab in New Mexico
– Led by Robert Oppenheimer, the team detonated the
first bomb in Alamogordo, NM
– Decision to drop the bomb even before it was built,
began to debate how to use it.
• The A-Bomb
– On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Bomber called the Enola
Gay dropped the first atomic bomb code named “Little
Boy” on Hiroshima, somewhere between 80,000 and
120,000 Japanese died instantly.
– Later that day, the US dropped another bomb code
named “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki, killing
more than 50,000 people.
– On Aug.15, 1945, the Japanese surrendered (V-J Day)
Building a New World
• Creating the United Nations
– Pres. Roosevelt had believed that creating a new
international political organization could prevent
another world war
– In 1944, 39 countries met to create the new
organization that would be called the United Nations,
and would be able to settle international disputes and
propose settlements.
• Putting the enemy on trial
– There was a military tribunal created by the US, France,
Britain, and the Soviet Union in order to punish
German and Japanese leaders in the Nuremberg Trials.