Transcript WWII

Characters Involved
Axis Powers

Germany-ADOLF HITLER

Japan-EMPEROR HIROHITO OF
JAPAN

Italy-MUSSOLINI
The beginnings

Mussolini /Italy
 Benito Mussolini returns from World War I
believing his country, Italy, needed a strong
leader and change in government
 1919 he founded the Fascist Party.
○ Nation more important than individual
○ Individualism made countries weak
○ Strong govt led by dictator was needed
○ Anti- Communist
Huge fear of Communism after
Communism took over in Russia
 Fascism was to protect private property
and middle class rights keeping
communism out.
 1922 Mussolini was declared II Duce
“The Leader” and immediately did away
with democracy setting up a
dictatorship.


Joseph Stalin- Russia USSR
 Communist led by Vladimir Lenin and the
Bolsheviks took control 1917. 1922
Renamed Russia the USSR( Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics) Lenin Dies in 1924 after
a long power struggle Joseph Stalin rules
communist USSR by 1926
○ Stalin began massive industrialization and did
not tolerate any sort of opposition

Hitler/ Germany
 Anticommunist and an admirer of Mussolini.
Hitler fought for Germany in WWI.
 He was angered by Germany’s surrender in
WWI
 Hated the Allies from World War I
 Organized the NAZI Party ( National
Socialist German Worker’s Party) but it did
not represent workers.
Hitler was arrested for organizing a
march on the Berlin Capital and while in
prison wrote the Mein Kampf “My
struggle” the autobiography boosted his
party
 Aryans- master race
 1932 Nazi’s largest party in Germany
 1933 German President appointed
Hitler, chancellor, much like the Prime
Minister in England

Fascism-nation requires strong
leadership, country more important than
self, will commit violence to keep
country strong
 Communism- socio-economic system
that stands for a class less, state less
and an egalitarian society

 Difference-Communism state
ownership/fascism state control

Fascism vs Nazism
 Very similar except Fascism did not believe
in racial superiority. All citizen were equally
inferior to the state
 Nazism believed is racism and the
superiority of the Aryan race. Jews were
inferior and the state existed to advance the
“master race”

Japan also was going through difficult
economic times post WWI. Many
blamed the government. Political unrest
began
America hoped to stay neutral and
maintain its Isolationist ideology.
 Neutrality Act 1935 –made it illegal for
the US to sell arms to Germany or Italy.


Germany and Mussolini signed the
Rome-Berlin Axis making them allies.
Japan joined soon after thus they
became the Axis powers
Hitler- Germany
Hirohito- Japan
Mussolini- Italy
Neutrality Act 1937. US says it will still
remain neutral
 Japan attacks China. US helps China
but FDR says it does not violate the
Neutrality Act because war was not
actually declared

The Allies
Great Britain-WINSTON CHURCHILL
 France-CHARLES DE GAULLE
 Soviet Union/ USSR/Russia- Joseph
Stalin
 United States-FRANKLIN D.
ROOSEVELT And HARRY TRUMAN

England- Winston Churchill
Soviet Union- Stalin
China- Chiang Kai-shek
Hitler’s Goals
1- Take over Austria and destroy
Czechoslovakia
2- Take over France and Britain
3- Take over the Soviet Union( USSR) now
called Russia
4- Take over the United States
1- the first offensive to control Austria and
Czechoslovakia was a rather easy
offensive.
 Czech’s strongly resisted becoming
“Germans”
 France supported the Czechs and so did
the Soviet Union along with Great Britain.

 Ended up giving in and gave Hitler the area of
Sudetenland at the Munich Conference in 1938.
Hitler then violated the Munich Conference
by seizing all of Czechoslovakia and then
begins an attack on Poland. Britain and
France would come to the aid of Poland.
 Hitler and Stalin (Soviet Union) agreed to a
Non-aggressive Pact. The Nazi- Soviet
Pact shocked the world ( communism and
nazism were suppose to be totally opposed
to each other.( Secret deal to divide Poland
between Germany and USSR)

Sept 1, 1939 War begins- Germany
invades Poland from the East and Soviets
invade Poland from the West
 Sept 27 the Polish capital of Warsaw fell to
the Germans. By Oct. 5, 1939 Poland had
been defeated.


Allies- Britain and France were facing a
tough challenge. Not only had Poland fell
to the Germans, Hitler wanted France next
Britain and France had been surrounded
by the Nazis.
 Miracle of Dunkirk- Dunkirk , small town
north of France . 338,000 of 450,000
troops escaped. The French would
surrender on June 22, 1940 in the same
rail car that the German’s had
surrendered in after WWI

Britain would not surrender
 Britain had one advantage –Radar. The
British Air Fleet saved Britain from
invasion.

Nazi hatred for Jews
 Wannsee Conference 1942- Nazi
officials met to determine what to do
about the “Jew problem” decision was
the concentrations camps

 Auschwitz 100,000 in 300 prison barracks.
Holocaust-

December 7, 1941 Japanese attack Pearl
Harbor the US harbor in Japan. This goes
back two years prior and FDR’s policy for
helping Britain against Germany ( in 1939
FDR and America wanted to help the
British so to get around the Neutrality act of
1937 they passed the Neutrality act of
1939 saying they could sell weapons only if
the country paid cash and carried them in
their own ships.
FDR Reelected again in 1940 ( 3rd term)
 Lend Lease Agreement- US would lend
or lease weapons to any country
“considered vital to the defense of the
United States.”
 $40 billion in weapons went to aid the
British.


Hitler retreated on his invasion of Britain
but would violate the Nazi-Soviet Pact
and would invade the Soviet Union(
remember they worked together to
invade Poland) So.. Even though Britain
and the US hated Communism they
hated Hitler more. Alliances shifted
German U-boat fired on an American
ship Greer. Roosevelt’s shoot- on -sight
policy was enacted.
 U.S. officially enters the war after the
attack on Pearl Harbor. 21 US ships
sunk or damaged, 188 airplanes
destroyed and 2,403 Americans killed,
1,178 wounded.
 Dec 8, 1941 America declares war on
Japan

December 11, 1941 Germany and Italy
declare war on the United States.
 America’s War Economy Doolittle Raids- April 18, 1942 US
bombs fall on Japan for the 1st time


Battle of Coral Sea-March 1942. US had
broken Japan’s secret code and
intercepted a message about an attack
on New Guinea. Admiral Nimitz( US)
sent two US carriers the Yorktown and
the Lexington to intercept the Japanese
fleet. Lexington sank and the Yorktown
major hits but the Japanese retreated
and were stopped from shutting off
supply American Supply lines

The Battle of Midway- Turning Point of
WWII for Japan. Put Japan on the
defensive
 Japanese General Yamamoto ordered an
attack on the Midway Islands. Yamamoto
used the same code US had already
cracked. Gen. Nimitz ordered an ambush on
the Japanese by air and sea. June 4, 194238 Japanese planes were shot down. 3
Japanese carries were sunk with a 4th sunk
a few hours later. Japan retreated

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor a
fury developed on the west coast.
 Feb 19, 1942 Pres Roosevelt signed an order
allowing the relocation of Japanese Americans to
internment camps. Held them until their eventual
release in early 1945

American forces began to push back the
Germans. Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower(
would become President) commanded
the US troops in Africa to secure the
Suez Canal and George S Patton
captured Casablanca and many other
Moroccan cities. While American and
British forces were fighting the Germans
in North Africa the navy was fighting
submarine warfare.

By 1942 the German’s had sunk 360
American ships. Many of them oil and
gas tankards. Oil had to be rationed and
the first ever oil and gas pipeline was
built by the US govt as a result. 1250
miles long from Texas to Pennsylvania.

Battle of Stalingrad- Turning point of the
war for Germany. Put them on the
Defensive.
 If Germany secured Stalingrad then the
Soviet Union would be cut off of all supply
lines. Retreat was not an option for either
the German’s or the Soviets. The German’s
suffered heavy losses and when the battle
ended 91,000 Germans had surrendered (
only 5000 would survive Soviet
concentration camps)
The Allies( America, Britain and the
Soviet Union) began bombing Germany
heavily. German railroads were
destroyed, there were oil shortages and
the German Air force could not combat
the massive air raids.
 US General Eisenhower was over the
total offensive. U.S.Gen. Patton was
over the tank commands along with
British General Bernard Montgomery


By this time Italy was in a shambles and
its people were tired of Mussolini. July
25, 1943 Mussolini was overthrown and
the new President of Italy , Victor
Emmanuel began negotiating a
surrender to the Allies. Hitler was
enraged by the surrender and sent
German troops in and put Mussolini
back in power.

It took the Allies 5 months to break
through the German lines in Italy but the
Germans were finally forced to retreat in
April of 1945. Very bloody conflict with
the Allies losing 300,000 troops

Roosevelt meets Stalin in Tehran before
invading France( Controlled by Germans
now)
 Stalin promises full scale war against
Germans.
 Both agree to break up Germany so it will
never again be a threat to world peace
 Soviet Union would help the US defeat
Japan once Germany is defeated
 Both agree to an international peace
organization
Normandy- France
1944 1.5 million American Soldiers,
12,000 airplanes, and 5 million tons of
equipment had been sent to England.
 Invasion had to be at night and at low
tide.

 Window of opportunity June 5-7 1944
 D-Day. Eisenhower’s staff referred to any
date of an attack by the letter D. That is how
it became known as D day

7000 ships carrying 100,000 soldiers set
sail for the coast of Normandy on June 6,
1944. 23,000 paratroopers were dropped
on the island east and west of the beaches.
 The Americas landing on Utah Beach went well
 Omaha Beach was quite different. Germans
Immediately fired on troops 2500 died while
attempting to storm the beach
 By the end of the day over 35,000 American
troops had landed on Omaha beach and 25,000
had landed on Utah beach. Over 75,000 British
and Canadian troops were on the shore as well.
General Douglas MacArthur begins
campaign in the Southern Pacific while
Admiral Nimitz attacks the Central Pacific
 The battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest
naval battle in history and was the 1st time
the Japanese use Kamikaze attacks
 MacArthur’s attempt to recapture the
Philippines was a success but at the cost
of 100,000 civilian Filipino dead. 80,000
Japanese died. 1945 Japan surrendered

Battle of the Bulge

Nazi German tried one last stand. US
forces had broken through German lines
in June of 1944. Hitler attempted to cut
off supply lines of the Allies in Antwerp,
Belgium. Just before dawn Dec. 16,1944
German troops caught Americans by
surprise. As the German troops pushed
west their lines bulged outward-hence
the name.

Germans intended to capture the town
of Bastogne which was being held by
the Allies. Gen. Eisenhower instructed
Gen Patton to attack the Germans.
Patton’s troops slammed German lines
and two days later they were in the
Bastogne and forced a German retreat..
On January 8, Germans began to
withdraw
Soviets attack German troops in Russia. By
the time the Battle of the Bulge ended
Soviets had driven Germans forces out of
Russia and back across Poland. Soviets
attacked Germany from the East and
American forces attacked from the West.
 By April 16 Allied forces had reached the
interior of Germany

V- E Day
Victory in Europe
 April 30, 1945 Adolf Hitler committed
suicide in a German Bunker.

Japan is defeated

President Roosevelt would not live to
see the defeat of Germany. April 12,
1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
suffered a stroke and died. VicePresident Harry S. Truman would
become President.
Truman faced tough decisions. On Nov.
24 1944 bombs fell on Tokyo- the first
time since the Doolittle raids.
 Iwo Jima was chosen for attack because
of geography. The US bombers had
enough fuel to fly there, drop the bombs
and return. Feb 19, 1945 60,000 US
marines landed on Iwo Jima. Very
gruesome and bloody 6,800 died before
the island was captured.


Firebombing/ napalm
 Killing over 80,000
 Okinawa- April 1, 1945 American troops
landed. Cave fighting, gruesome warfare.
12,000 Americans died.
Manhattan Project-1939 Leo Sziland,
physicists learned that German scientist
had split the Uranium atom. Sziland and
the famous Albert Einstein sent a letter to
Pres. Roosevelt detailing the information.
Roosevelt agreed to begin testing the new
Atomic Bomb.
 First Nuclear Reactor built in 1942 at the
University of Chicago.
 July 16,1945 the worlds first atomic bomb
was detonated near Almogordo, New
Mexico

Pres. Truman ordered Japan’s surrender.
Japan did not reply.
 August 6, 1945 an B-29 bomber Enola Gay
dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed the
little boy on Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. 43
seconds later heat, radiation, and an
enormous shockwave slammed
Hiroshima.76,000 buildings destroyed
80,000-120,000 people died instantly.
Thousands more died later from burns and
radiation.

3 days later the Soviet Union declares
war on Japan and the US drops the
second atomic bomb Fat Man on
Nagasaki killing between 35,000- 75,000
people
 August 15, 1945 Japanese Emperor
surrender called V-J day.
 United Nations would be formed
