battle of britain and pearl harbor 1940 1941

Battle of Britain and Pearl Harbor 1940-1941

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German planes began to bomb Great Britain in the

summer of 1940.

Winston Churchill replaced Chamberlain as Britain’s prime minister and had to lead his

government from an underground bomb shelter!

Damage done to London during the German Nazi air bombings.

People in Britain had to take shelter in underground subways.

British citizens hid in manholes and pipes in the ground!

British children take shelter in a ditch!

Even some shelters were destroyed!

The damage to the country of Great Britain was enormous!

German bomb planes came at night to avoid British ground gunfire, put fear into the British people and take proper sleep from citizens. To confuse them the British would:

• Blackout all street lights.

• British citizens were told to hang black material over their windows.

• Dig holes in their yards to get into at night.

Britain asked the United States to help!!! But the U.S. people wanted to stay out of the war.

However, the U.S. did agree to send free military supplies to Great Britain.

Many U.S. citizens didn’t like this decision by Roosevelt but he said:

“Definitely there is danger ahead-danger against which we must prepare and face as a nation.”

There were many air fights above Britain between the Nazi German planes and the British planes.

German planes attacked Great Britain from their newly conquered country of France!

FRANCE

GREAT BRITAIN

The Battle of Britain was the first battle in the history of the world to be fought only by Airplanes!!

A rare color photo of German planes preparing attacking Britain.

• 60,000 British civilians (normal people) were killed in the Nazi Germany air attacks.

• Another 87,000 people were injured!

• Over TWO MILLION homes were destroyed!

Churchill told the British citizens: “We are strong! We can take it!”

And take it the British citizens did. For TEN months-almost every day and night!!! People took cover, hoped and prayed. On Sept. 8, 1940,

the government called for a “national day of

prayer” and citizens spent all day praying to God.

They also fought back. The British Royal Air force was ordered to strike at Berlin and other targets in Germany

and did some damage to Germany.

Many movies have been made about this famous battle between the British and Nazi Germans

Hitler was frustrated that Britain wouldn’t give up and he didn’t believe that he could defeat their powerful navy in a

sea and land battle and in May of 1940 the bombings stopped as Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union

instead! Britain had won the battle! Hitler suffered his 1st defeat!

LOOK ON PAGE 346 in your textbook!!

Hitler knew that the U.S. was giving supplies to Britain (Lend-lease) but he wasn’t ready to attack the United States. However, our trouble started

with another AXIS country…

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The U.S. government didn’t like Japan attacking China and other countries in the Pacific and was

worried that they would try to take the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii from us!

JAPAN

President Roosevelt openly criticized Japan for attacking other countries and taking them over.

This caused Hirohito and the Japanese government to get very upset with the U.S.

Japan DID want our lands and they believed we would oppose them as they tried to conquer more lands. Hideki Tojo was the Japanese head General and he decided to

attack the U.S.!

Early on a Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese planes surprised the United States by attacking the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Japan!

Japanese planes bombed ships in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

U.S. soldiers jumped from their beds and ran to their guns aboard the ships but it was too late…

The damage was already done…

U.S. planes were demolished!

Ships were sunk in the harbor!

2,300 American soldiers, sailors and civilians lay dead in just a few hours.

The DEAD continued to wash ashore for days after the attack!

The next day, Americans were SHOCKED by the news headlines!

Americans were furious! They demanded that the U.S. declare

war on Japan!

DOWN WITH JAPAN!!!

President Roosevelt asked congress for war the very next day…These were a few of his

famous words:

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 –a date which will live in infamy-the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of Japan.”

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/sounds/waronjapan.mp3?phpMyAdmin=af0f6b4465fe3f904426eaeb3dc0e3fa

Quickly, Congress voted to declare war on Japan! Immediately, all the AXIS powers: Germany, Italy and Japan declared war right back!

Joining the ALLIES of Great Britain, Canada, Soviet Union, Mexico,

Australia and others, the U.S. was now involved in the biggest battle

the world had ever seen: World War Two!