Transcript The World At War: 1939-1945

THE EUROPEAN THEATER
 1937
– Japan joins with Germany and Italy
• Supposedly to fight communism
• Created Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis or AXIS POWERS
 March
1938 – Hitler forced Austria to
unite with Germany
• Claimed all members of German race belonged
to one country
 March
1939 – Germany seizes
Czechoslovakia
 Great Britain and France do nothing
 September
1, 1939 – German tanks rolled
into Poland
 Britain & France declare war on Germany
 Hitler conquers Poland in 2 months
• Declares himself dictator of Third Reich
 WORLD
WAR II STARTS


Two days after Hitler ordered
his armies into Poland, Great
Britain and France declared
war on Germany.
• The British and French thus
ended their policy of
“appeasement”
But before the British and
French could send help to
Poland, the German
“blitzkrieg”- lightening war overran the country
 After
the fall of Poland, the German war machine
swept through northern and western Europe,
Denmark and Norway surrendered, then Belgium,
Luxembourg, and The Netherlands. Allied forces in
France found themselves in a desperate situation.



Benito Mussolini announced
that his country was entering
the war on Germany’s side.
May 1940 – Germany crosses
over Maginot Line – line of
defense along the French
border with Germany
Soon afterwards, France
surrendered .





Fortifications along
French-German border
Troops sent to Belgium
border
Germans countered
through Ardennes
Italy entered war and
invaded France from the
South
6/7/40: France
surrendered to Germany



Great Britain was the only
remaining Allied nation in
Western Europe.
May 10, 1940: Winston
Churchill becomes Prime
Minister
June 10: Italy declared war
on France and Great Britain




1939: Roosevelt wins bid for 3rd term
Begins to view U.S. involvement as unavoidable – prepares
U.S. defenses for conflict
1940: U.S. supplies flow into Great Britain
• Britain has no money for war materials
Congress passes LEND-LEASE ACT – lease arms and other
supplies to non-Axis countries
• $7 billion for ships, planes, tanks and other supplies

In July 1940, the “Luftwaffe” –
the German air force – began
bombing British airfields and
ports.
• Hitler hoped to force the
British to surrender.
• But Prime Minister
Winston Churchill vowed
that his country would
never give up.

Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF),
carried on a massive aerial
bombardment.

Nightly raids were made on
London and other cities. Yet
the British kept up a
determined resistance.



The RAF shot down more than
2,000 German planes and
forced Hitler to abandon his
plan for capturing the British
isle.
The Battle of Britain, as it
came to be known, was one of
the turning points of World
War II.
Not only was Great Britain
saved, but the British showed
that the Luftwaffe could be
defeated.


Meanwhile, the Germans and
Italians gained new territories
in Eastern Europe and Africa.
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,
and Yugoslavia joined the Axis
Powers.
Hitler sent the “Afrika Korps”,
a highly motivated and heavily
equipped army under Gen.
Erwin Rommel, to help the
Italians seize lands in North
Africa.
 Roosevelt
issues “shoot on sight” order to U.S.
warships in North Atlantic
 Atlantic Charter
• Roosevelt & Churchill meet in August 1941
• Pledge U.S. & Great Britain to forego territorial expansion
• Affirmed their respect for right of every nation to choose
own government
• Called for freedom of international trade & equal access
to raw materials for all countries
• Once war over – all aggressors disarmed – rid world of
fear and want

Joseph Stalin believed that
Germany would not invade the
Soviet Union until Britain and
France had been conquered.
• Stalin's own calculations,
this would not be until the
summer of 1942.
• Then, in the summer of
1941, 3 million Axis troops
invaded Russia.


Hitler expected a quick victory
that would give him control
over Russia’s vast supplies of
food, petroleum, and other
raw materials.
But as the Russians
retreated, they burned or
destroyed their own factories,
dams, railroads, food supplies,
and other resources in order
to prevent them from falling
into German hands.