Transcript world war ii

World War II
1. The Invasion of Poland
►Hitler
signed nonaggression pact with
Stalin to split Poland in half (aka NaziSoviet Pact). Viewed as a joke by the
world because Hitler hated communists
►Hitler will break the pact by invading
Poland in Sept. 1939
►This will start WWII!! Britain and
France will join Soviet Union in fight to
stop Hitler
2. The Invasion of France
► June
1940
► Easily taken by Germany
► French army and air force never have time to
mobilize due to Hitler’s blitzkrieg (lightening
war)
► France still in WWI mode
► A Nazi government is set up in southern France
in Vichy under Marshal Petain
► 300,000 French soldiers escape from the North
coast across the English Channel to England
3. The Battle of Britain
► Aug
1940
► Nazi Luftwaffe (air force) led air raids
against English cities, mainly London
► British Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill, inspires the English people
to endure
► Air raids are a failure due to:
invention of radar by British
Scientists, skill of British Royal Air
force pilots, home field advantage
Britain Cont’d
►English
people lived in subways and
basements
►Sent all children to live in the country
where raids were nonexistent
4. The Battle of Stalingrad
► June
22, 1941 Hitler invades Soviet Union
w/ massive force
► Germans drove deep into S.U. cutting up
unorganized Soviet troops
► Much like Napoleon, Germans get trapped
in Stalingrad and cut off from retreat
► Germans became victims of the Harsh
Russian winter
► Germans surrender in Feb. 1943
► Changes the tide of battle
5. Attack on Pearl Harbor
►Dec
7, 1941 “The day of Infamy”
►America suffers total defeat
►Destroyed 188 planes, 2,403 killed, 17
ships sunk
►Brought US into war
►Why did Jap bomb Hawaii? Wanted its
resources (imperialism), strategic
location half way from Japan to US
6. D-Day Invasion (Normandy)
► June
6, 1944
► Massive force of 2 mill men and 5,000 ships
► Surprised German defenses on beach in
Northern France
► Securing of the beach opened a pathway
into France for Allied troops
► By mid August Paris will be liberated
► Downfall of Germany
7. Atomic Bombing of Japan
►August
6, 1945-Hiroshima-80,000 dead
►August 9, 1945-Nagasaki-40,000 dead
►Prez. Truman chose to use the bomb
because he felt it would cost US thousands
of more lives to invade mainland Japan
►Forced Japan to finally surrender (Germany
surrendered May 7th)
►US occupied Japan under General
MacArthur to ensure Jap became
democratic not communist
►Begins
the nuclear arms race- other
countries will hurry to develop nuclear
technology (mainly the soviet union) to
compete with the US
►Island-hopping- strategy used by the
US to take over islands that were not
as heavily guarded by Japanese so
they could attack the ones that were.
Also wanted to island-hop closer to
mainland Japan so it could be bombed
The bomb dropped that day had been in the making at top-secret
laboratories, by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, since December
1941, before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. This $2 billion crash program,
code-named Manhattan Project, began in the United States at the
suggestion of physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard, refugees from Nazi
Germany. The scientific community feared that Nazi scientists were
mastering new technology in physics necessary to manufacture such a
weapon.
The single weapon ultimately dropped on Hiroshima, nicknamed Little Boy,
produced a yield of approximately 20,000 tons of TNT, roughly seven times
greater than all of the bombs dropped by all of the Allies on all of Germany
in 1942. It produced an airburst approximately 1,000 feet above the city,
creating a fireball with a diameter greater than the length of three football
fields. The temperature at ground zero reached 5,000 degrees centigrade.
The shock wave and its reverse effect reached speeds close to the speed
of sound. A mushroom cloud rose to 20,000 feet in the air, and 60 percent
of the city was destroyed.
8. The Holocaust
►“The
Final Solution to the Jewish
Problem”
►8 million dead
►1.5 million were children
►90% of children in German occupied
territory were killed
►An example of Genocide – the attempt
to exterminate a race of people
►Also considered Crimes against
Humanity
Why the Jews?
► Have
been discriminated for thousands of
years by many (Hitler not the first)
► Claim no allegiance to a Nation although
they may live there (wanderers)
► Different ethnicity and religion from the
Majority
► Many Jewish men were successful
professionals (bankers, Drs, etc)
► Easy scapegoats to blame problems on
► Also
murdered: Slavs, Catholics, gypsies,
homosexuals, mental/physical disabled,
intellectuals, political enemies
► It was a Process:
 Nuremburg Laws-discriminated against Jews
►Wear
star of David, forbidden from public places such
as parks and theaters, couldn’t work as professionals,
couldn’t intermarry non-jews
 Forces Jews into Ghettos- walled off sections of
cities
 Concentration Camps-selected to either work or
die
 Genocide
► The
process involved thousands of people to
coordinate and carry out Hitler’s plan
6,000 Jews waiting to be disinfected before
entering Conc. Camp. They stood here for
over 24 hrs and 140 died.