Chapter 14 Notes
World War II and Aftermath
Aggression• Japan invades Manchuria and Eastern
China
• Italy Invades Ethiopia
• Hitler defies Treaty of Versailles – built up German military, sent troops into Rhineland
• Policy of Appeasement; Pacifism; US Neutrality Acts
• Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis
Dress Rehearsal for WWII• Spanish Civil War- 1936
General Franco, conservative and pro-monarchy, attempted to overthrow new democratic government. Mussolini helped due to shared hatred of Communists. Hitler also sent aid.
• Soviets supported the republicans who fought for elected government.
• Germans attacked small town, Guernica (as test for new planes and equipment)
• Franco won.
• Annexation of Austria• Anschluss –union of
Germany and Austria. Forced Austrian Chancellor to appoint Nazis to cabinet posts, Hitler sent in army to ‘preserve order’
• Czechoslovakia/ Sudetenland:
• Insisted 3 million Germans in Sudetenland be given autonomy,
• No one was willing to save Czechoslovakia (one of 2 remaining E. European democracies)
• Sudetenland annexed to Germany with promise of German end to expansion
World War II Begins
• 1939- Germany signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviets freeing up the borders and able to place all efforts in invading Poland, dividing the nation between the two countries.
• Sept. 1, 1939- Tanks entered Poland while the Luftwaffe (airforce) bombed cities with the “blitzkrieg” or swift maneuver air strikes.
• Caused France and UK to enter the war because they had agreed to protect Poland.
• Soviets created bases in Baltic states and seized part of Finland
Axis Advances• Miracle of Dunkirk: • German forces evaded
Maginot Line, Allies retreated trapped between English Channel and Nazis. Rescued by available English vessels. Ferried 300K troops to safety
• France Falls:• June 22, 1940 French signed
surrender docs. Germans occupied Northern France.
• Vichy government established in Southern France- “puppet state”
• Operation Sea Lion: Nazi planned invasion of Britain, massive airstrikes.
– August 1940: German daily bombardments of England’s southern coast, and eventually London
– Sept. 1940: Blitz of London begins, destroys most of city. 57 nights in a row and lasted until May
– Hitler unable to take Britain; morale actually strengthened with bombing
Blitz of LondonSeptember 1940- May 1941
Axis Powers invade Africa and Balkans• Italy sends troops from Libya
into Egypt (UK)• UK evaded Italian advances• Hitler sends in Gen Rommel –
Desert Fox• Successes in 1941-42, push
British forces back towards Cairo
• Oct 1940- Italy invaded Greece with German reinforcements– Greece,
Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Hungary added to Axis alliance
Soviet Front
Operation Barbarossa- Nazi invasion of USSR (had non-aggression pact) : Wanted raw materials. Did not prepare for Russian winter.
June 22, 1941. Surrounded Leningrad for 900 days, starving to death ½ million residents. Residents ate most anything- wallpaper; rationed to 2 pieces of bread/day
Sept. 1942- Nazi troops attacked Stalingrad, battle continued around the ruin and rubble of the city for 5 months until Germans surrendered in Jan. 1943.
Soviets hoped for help on the Western front from Britain – Allies were unable to offer the help Soviets requested
Holocaust
• Nazi’s intense hatred of Jews led to the eradication of Jews, known as the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem”.
• Jews were first forced to label themselves with a Star of David
Holocaust
• Next the Jews were forced out of their homes and into ghetto’s where they had to live several families to a room.
• The ghetto’s were eventually liquidated and the Jews were placed on trains to “work” camps
• Once at the camps they were used as slave labor, weak or sickly were killed. Eventually many died of starvation or were gassed or shot.
Holocausteventually more than 6 million Jews and 6 million
gypsies, homosexuals, pow’s, and slav’s were murdered
US Involvement• Lend-Lease Act – March
1941, US ‘neutral’, but act allowed US to sell or lend war materials to “any country whose defense… is vital to the...US”
• “Arsenal of Democracy”
• Atlantic Charter: US and UK August 1941, set goals for war: final destruction on Nazi tyranny, self-determination
• US bans sale of iron, steel, and oil to Japan– Japan viewed it as
interference with their sphere on influence
Attack on Pearl Harbor: Dec 7, 1941
- US declares war on Japan
- Germany, Italy declare was on US
Allies• Total War
– Bonds– Factories– Price regulation– Ended unemployment– Limited rights of citizens– Japanese Internment
• Rosie the Riveter: women helped war effort; Rosie was face of propaganda program
• Pacific Theater:– Japanese suffered loss at Coral
Sea in May 1942; 1st war where aircraft carriers launched attack using planes
– Battle of Midway June 1942; Japanese left unable to launch further offensive operations
• ‘Big Three’: • Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin
focused war on Europe before Asia
• Allies distrusted each other; agreed to let Stalin have boundaries et out by Nazi-Soviet Pact
• Victory in North Africa:• Stopped Rommel at El Alamein
Nov. 1942 • Allies trapped Rommel’s army in
May 1943
• Allies advance through Italy July 1943
• Germans defeated at Stalingrad• D-Day Assault:
– June 6, 1944, Invasion of France
– 156K troops ferried across English Channel
– Allies advance into France as allied forces continue north from Italy
– August 25th Allies liberate Paris
– Battle of the Bulge; Last German offensive, one month battle, terrible losses suffered on both sides
– Italy- guerillas captured and executed Mussolini
• V-E Day: – Victory in Europe, May 8. 1945 one
day after Germany surrendered
Yalta Conference
• February 1945: Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met in Southern USSR
• Planned strategy in atmosphere of distrust
• Agreed to:
– USSR would enter war vs Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender
– FDR and Churchill promised Stalin that Soviets would get Sakhalin and Kuril Islands and part of Korea
– Germany would be temporarily divided into 4 zones, each controlled by British, French, American and Soviet forces
– Stalin agreed to hold free elections in E. Europe
Struggle in Pacific• Bataan Death March- US
POW’s surrendered to Japanese- marched with little food and water, beaten or shot for straying, thousands perished.
• Victory of Guadalcanal• Island Hopping campaign
– islands serve as stepping stones, refueling
• By 1944 US had made progress and was blockading Japan
• War over in Europe allies poured all resources into war with Japan
Bombing of Japan
• Atomic Bomb: Truman had scheduled an invasion of Japan late 1945. July 16, 1945: American scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer successfully detonated the first a-bomb over Alamogordo, NM (Manhattan Project)
• Aug. 6, 1945: dropped single a-bomb “Little Boy” from the Enola Gay on Hiroshima. Killed 100k instantly.
• Aug. 9, 1945: 2nd bomb, “Fat Man” dropped over Nagasaki.
• Aug 14, 1945: Japanese government surrendered.
End of WWIINuremburg Trials: Axis leaders should be tried for ‘crimes against humanity’; Nearly 200 Germans and Austrians were tried, most guilty.
Occupying Allies: Why had Europe allowed Hitler’s “Final Solution”. US felt that democracy would ensure tolerance, Western Allies built new gov’ts in occupied Germany and Japan.
• United Nations– 50 nations
– Each member nation has 1 vote, 5 permanent Security Council members (US, USSR, France, Britain, China) have more say
– Goal to ensure peace
• Beginning of Cold War– Differences grow between Allies– State of tension and hostility
between US and USSR (and their allies)
– Stalin ignored earlier promises for free elections in E. Europe