Transcript WWII - Elizabeth School District C-1

The European Theater
• Hitler felt that Britain and France would not use military
force to halt his territorial ambitions
• As Hitler looked to expand into Poland, he made an
agreement with Stalin (USSR)
• The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact- stated that both
nations promised not to attack one another.
• Hitler offered Stalin control
of eastern Poland and the Baltic states
• Hitler planned on breaking his
promises but didn’t want a two
front war at this time
• September 1, 1939- Germany invades Poland
• September 3, 1939- Britain and France declare war
on Germany
• After four short weeks Poland was defeated and
divided between Germany and the Soviet Union
• Blitzkrieg- “lightening war”; a swift and sudden military
attack
• April 1940- Hitler takes Denmark and Norway
• May 1940- Hitler attacks the Netherlands, Belgium and
France
• France signs an armistice on June 22, 1940 with German
armies occupying 3/5 of France
• Vichy France – authoritarian regime under German control
that ruled the remainder of France
• August 1940- Germany’s Luftwaffe
(Air force) launched a major
offensive in Britain targeting naval
basis, harbors, communication centers,
and war industries.
• The invention of radar was helpful to
warn Britain of incoming assaults
though the losses were critical.
• September brought a tactical shift
from Hitler who wanted cities to be
targeted over military bases to kill
moral
• Britain was able to recover militarily
however and the invasion of Britain
was postponed indefinitely.
• Hitler convinced himself that
Britain only remained in the
war because it expected Soviet
support.
• Hitler also felt the Soviet army
was pitiful and could be
conquered quickly.
• Hitler seized Greece and
Yugoslavia in April 1941to
secure his exposed southern
flank
• June 1941- Hitler invaded the
Soviet Union
• With armies advancing in the
Ukraine, besieging Leningrad,
and a third approaching
Moscow the Germans were
halted by the harsh Russian
winter and a fierce Soviet
resistance
VIOLATES NONAGGRESSION PACT
• Isolationism- a policy of national
isolation by abstention from alliances
and other international political and
economic relations
• Many Americans felt that the US had
been drawn into WWI due to their
economic involvement and passed
many neutrality acts to prevent the US
from becoming involved in European
affairs.
• With Hitler conquering so much of
Europe however, the US supplied food,
ships, plans, and weapons to Britain
• Dec. 7, 1941
• Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii
• Destroying
• 350 aircraft
• 18 ships
• 3,500 Americans were killed or wounded
• Didn’t destroy*
• US Aircraft Carriers
• US fuel supplies
• Japan also attached
• The Philippines
• The Dutch East Indies
• Spring 1942- Japan controlled
almost all of Southeast Asia and
much of the western Pacific
• Hitler thought the US
would be ineffective in
the European theater
due to their involvement
in the Pacific.
• Dec. 11, 1941Germany
Declares war on USA
• Another European
conflict had turned into a
global war
• Nov. 1942, British and American forces invaded French
North Africa.
• By May 1943 the German and Italian troops there had
surrendered.
• Stalingrad- Hitler wanted to kill the moral of the Soviets,
but over reached and paid the consequences.
• 100,000 Germans died
• 80,000 captured
• Feb. 1943
• General Eisenhower led the air
and sea attack on Sicily in July
1943
• The Allies were met with little
resistance until Messina
• Conquest of Sicily led to
Mussolini’s downfall
• Mussolini was arrested
• The Fascist Party was dissolved
• Italy surrendered
• Germany occupied Rome
• Mussolini was put back in
control of Northern Italy
• June 4, 1944, Allies entered
Rome
• In 1943, leaders of the
three major Allied
Powers (Churchill—
Britain, Roosevelt--US,
Stalin-- USSR)
met in the Tehran
Conference to discuss
plans for defeating
Germany
• At Tehran, the leaders
planned an amphibious
invasion of Normandy
(occupied by Nazis)
named Operation
Overlord –headed by
supreme allied
commander Dwight D.
Eisenhower
• Roosevelt, Churchill and
Stalin met in February,
1945 at the Yalta
Conference to discuss plans
of dividing up Europe
anticipating the defeat of
Germany
• Germany was divided and
most of Eastern Europe
was controlled by the
Soviet Union
• The Allied leaders met
after the defeat of
Germany in July,1945 at
the Potsdam Conference to
discuss plans for defeating
Japan and its unconditional
surrender
• President Truman (who
succeeded Roosevelt after
his death) learned of the
successful tests of the
Atomic bomb while at the
conference
MUST HAVE:
Characters
Symbolism
Action