Transcript WWII_PPT.military

World War II
1939 - 1945
Europe Moves Toward War
1936: German troops
moved into the
Rhineland. This was
prohibited by the Treaty
of Versailles.
 1936: Hitler and
Mussolini signed an
alliance, creating the
Axis.

More Steps Toward War
March 1938: Germany annexed
Austria.
 Sept. 1938: Munich conference: Hitler
forced the British and French to give
him the Sudetenland in return for a
promise not to invade the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
 March, 1939: Hitler took over
Czechoslovakia.

War in Europe Begins
March 31, 1939: Britain and France
agreed to protect Poland in case of a
German invasion.
 August, 1939: Nazi-Soviet NonAggression Pact
 Sept. 1, 1939: Hitler invaded Poland,
starting WWII.
 Sept, 3, 1939: Britain and France
declared war on Germany and Germany
and Italy declared war on them.

The Japanese Empire
Japan wanted to expand to meet the
land needs of a growing population and
to obtain more raw materials and
markets for its industries.
 1931: Japan seized Manchuria
 1937-40: Japan seized most of E.
China
 Sept. 1940: Japan joins the tripartite
pact, becoming an ally of Italy and
Germany.

America and WWII
America initially stayed out of the war,
but began a naval build up in the Pacific
to counter the expansion of Japan.
 1939: FDR moved the Pacific fleet from
San Diego to Pearl Harbor.
 Disillusionment from WWI and the Great
Depression contributed to the popularity
of isolationism in America.

American Involvement Grows
Neutrality Acts of the mid to late 1930’s
made it impossible for the US to give
loans to nations at war or to allow any
combatant to buy on credit.
 FDR had to find other ways to help out
the British and the French in their fight
against Fascism.
 March 1941: Lend-lease began.

Pearl Harbor
Japanese negotiators agreed to meet
with US diplomats.
 While they met, the Japanese decided
to sent a fleet to Pearl Harbor to destroy
the US Pacific fleet.
 Dec. 7, 1941: Japanese forces
attacked Pearl Harbor killing 2,400,
wounding 1,200, and destroying 300
Am. Planes, 18 warships, and 8 of the 9
US battleships.

WAR

Dec. 8, 1941: FDR delivered a war
message to Congress. Within 3 days, the
US was at war with Japan, Germany, and
Italy.
A Grim Future for the Allies
In Jan. 1942, the Axis powers had a big
advantage in Europe. By then, Britain
was almost defeated, the Axis
controlled almost all of continental
Europe, and German troops had
captured most of North Africa.
 German subs were trying to keep food
and supplies from reaching Britain.

The Invasion of Italy
July, 1943: Am. Troops commanded by
General George Patton attacked Sicily.
 38 days later, Sicily fell and Mussolini
was overthrown by a disillusioned Italian
population.
 Hitler captured Mussolini and set up a
fascist state in N. Italy, and Italian and
German troops continued to fight the
Allies in Italy.

War in Italy
Sept. 1943: Italy surrendered to the
allies, and many Italians began to fight
against Mussolini and Hitler.
 Sept. 1943 - Jan. 1944: US forces are
stalled by Hitler’s troops .
 Finally in January, the US landed forces
behind the German lines at Anzio, just
South of Rome.

War in the Soviet Union
June, 1941: Germany attacked the
Soviet Union with 3.6 million German
soldiers.
 The USSR asked the US for lend-lease
help, but FDR refused, afraid to be
caught helping a communist nation.
 Eventually, the USSR repelled the
German attack, but this was only a
temporary victory.

Map of the
1942
German
Invasion of
the USSR
The Battle of Stalingrad
From September to November, 1942,
the Germans shelled and attacked the
city of Stalingrad.
 The USSR refused to surrender the city
and house - to - house fighting saved
the city from defeat.
 By late November, the USSR launched
a counteroffensive and began to win the
battle.

A Turning Point
Jan. 31, 1943: 90,000 surviving
German soldiers surrendered to the
Soviet army in Stalingrad.
 This was the turning point of the war in
the east: after this the USSR never lost
another battle, and the Germans did not
launch any more offensives in the east.

War in W. Europe
The US began to bomb Germany in
1942 using carpet bombing tactics.
 In 1943, the amount of bombs dropped
in Germany doubled.
 By 1944, the US was bombing Germany
24 hours a day.
 The bombing of Dresden was one of the
most famous campaigns of the air war.

D-Day
June 6, 1944: Allied troops
commanded by Eisenhower landed on
the beaches of Normandy and began
the invasion of W. Europe and the
liberation of France.
 Despite brutal German resistance, 2
million allied soldiers occupied France
by July.

The US Frees W. Europe

American forces
continued to defeat
the Germans and
freed Paris by
August, 1944. In
Sept., Belgium and
Holland were freed
from Nazi control.
The Battle of the Bulge
Dec. 1944: Germany launched its last
offensive in the war attacking
Americans in Belgium and Luxembourg.
 Patton arrived a few days later with
250,000 men.
 This was the largest battle ever fought
by the US army and the largest battle of
WWII.

The Battle of the Bulge
The US won the battle. Over 800,000
Americans fought here and 80,000
Americans died.
 Germany fought with over 2 million
soldiers, and lost about 200,000 men.
 After this battle, the Germans realized
the war was lost.

German Surrender
The Americans continued to bomb
Germany and attack from the Western
front, while the Soviets continued their
attacks on Germany from the East.
 May 8, 1945: V-E Day: Germany
surrendered.

The Yalta Conference

Feb. 1945: The “Big Three” met at
Yalta in the USSR to plan the post-war
world.
Yalta Conference
All agreed to split Germany into 4 zones
of occupation and to also split the
capital city, Berlin.
 Stalin promised to allow free elections in
the nations his army liberated from
Germany.
 Stalin agreed to enter the war against
Japan soon after the German surrender.

War in the Pacific
On Dec. 7, 1941, about one-half of
General MacArthur’s air force was
destroyed on the ground at Clark Air
Field in the Philippines.
 Within days, a large Japanese force
landed in the Philippines and MacArthur
withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula on
Manila Bay. There he set up defenses,
hoping the US Navy could evacuate his
men to safety.

Japanese Kamikazes
Japanese kamikazes were suicide pilots
who crashed their planes which were
heavily loaded with bombs into allied
ships.
 During the war, the US experienced
about 4,900 kamikaze attacks which
destroyed 57 American ships and
damaged about 650 others.

A
Kamikaze
Pilot
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The battle for this 14 square mile island
was one of the bloodiest battles of the
war.
 25,000 Japanese protected the small
rocky island and it took over 110,000
Americans to defeat them. Only 216
Japanese surrendered--the rest died.
 More US medals of honor were given
for this battle than any other single
battle of the war.

Marines Raising the US Flag
at Iwo Jima
American Offensives
Iwo Jima was located about 700 miles
from Japan. Its capture was another
step toward an eventual invasion of the
Japanese home islands.
 The next island to fall to the Americans
was Okinawa, which was located about
350 miles from Japan.

The Bombing of Hiroshima


August 6, 1945: On
President Truman’s
orders, the Enola
Gay dropped an
atomic bomb on the
city of Hiroshima.
It destroyed about
90% of the city and
killed about 140,000
people.
Nagasaki
When the bombing of Hiroshima did not
elicit a surrender from the Japanese
government, a 2nd atomic bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki on August 9,
1945.
 The bomb on Nagasaki was equally
destructive and led to a Japanese
surrender.

V-J Day
August 14, 1945: Japan agreed to an
unconditional surrender.
 The formal surrender was signed on
September 2, 1945 on the USS
Missouri in Tokyo Bay, officially ending
WWII.

The Results of the War
After the defeat of the Axis powers, all
territories that had been taken over by
Japan were returned to their pre-war
status.
 All of the German-occupied territories
were supposed to be given free
elections, but only the W. European
nations became democratic. Stalin
refused to honor the Yalta agreements
and made E. Europe into a series of
Communist dictatorships.

World War II Allied Deaths
Nation
Military
Civilian
Total
France
122,000
470,000
592,000
Britain
305,800
60,600
366,400
US
405,400
0
405,400
USSR
11,000,000 6,700,000
17,700,000
World War II Axis Deaths
Nation
Military
Civilian
Total
2,350,000
5,600,000
226,900
60,000
286,900
1,740,000
393,400
2,133,400
Germany 3,250,000
Italy
Japan