wwii may 22, 2012 - weebly
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WWII May 22, 2012
Aftermath of the Munich Agreement (Background on Conference)
Hitler concluded that Western powers would not resist even more aggressive action.
Munich convinced Stalin that the Western powers were weak and they were trying to steer German aggression to the east.
March 1939 Hitler invaded CzechoslovakiaHitler claimed the Czech's could not maintain security of population against ethnic violence
The move = naked aggression
Senses were that the next crisis would be over Poland, specifically the Danzig Cooridor
U.K. and France made formal protest with Berlin and League of Nations.
Chamberlain issued a guarantee to Polandagainst German aggression.
WWII May 22, 2012
Moscow held key to diplomatic situation in summer of 1939
Low level talks between UK, France and USSR were held with no real sense of urgency
Neither viewed any sort of accommodation btwn Third Reich and USSR possible
Both Hitler and Stalin were interested in an agreement
Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 = shocked the worldNon-Aggression pact held secret clauses that divided Poland and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
Pact served both sides:for Stalin:
bought time to rebuild armed forces
pushed Soviet frontier westward adding a buffer zone against further Nazi aggression
A deal with the West was deemed untrustworthy, so this was the more attractive option
for Hitlerpact ended threat of two-front war
hoped it would deter Western intervention in his planned war against Poland
WWII May 22, 2012
German invasion of Poland Sept. 1, 1939
Blitzkrieg = Lightening Warstrategy worked well -
idea was to fight a war of short duration isolating enemies without having to mobilize full mobilization of the economy.
This strategy worked in Poland - and Hitler thought he could bring about a settlement with UK and France
WWII May 22, 2012
Phony War Between fall of Poland in October and German
invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940, no fighting occurred btwn German and western powers
This period was marked by endless attempts to lure allies to a peace settlement.
In May 1940, Germans launched a massive invasion of the Low Countries & France = Holland and Belgium were quickly overrun.
By June - France was overrun. The gov't, led by PM Reynaud and General de Gaulle wanted to continue the war from French N. Africa; however, the French High Command, supported by Marshal Petain, favored immediate armistice.
French military felt anger at the BritishCertainty of German victory made resistance futilePleas from new British PM: Winston Churchill to continue to fight
WWII May 22, 2012
Battle of BritainFailed Operation Sea Lion
RAF v. Luftwaffe
Bombing of Londonsignaled ominous approach to warfare - the bombing of civilians
WWII May 22, 2012
War in the East
Soviet Union had occupied center stage in Hitler's ideological and geopolitical thought.
To gain Lebensraum in the east, Russia would have to be defeated
War against the Soviet Union would be a great crusade against the Judeo-Bolshevism.
Hitler began planning for attack in the fall of 1940
Operation Barbarossa - planning to attack the Red Army in western Russia (deemed weak due to past battles) began in Spring 1941
Invasion was postponed due to unusually wet weather and the need to rescue Mussolini form the debacle in Greece
Operation Barbaraossa would be the largest military operation in human history
WWII May 22, 2012
WWII May 22, 2012
War to the deathGerman soldiers were issued the so-called
Commissar Order, which ordered them to kill leaders of the Communist Party, guerrillas, saboteurs, and Jews wherever they were encountered.
Special commando units of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen, were to follow the troops into the Soviet Union. They were given "special tasks" = the wholesale murder of the the Jews.
Invasion began June, 22, 1941initially the Germans made great strides - cities
fell, until weather caused the Germans to stall.
On December 5-6, the Red Army launched a massive counter-attack before Moscow = Blitzkreig phase was over.
WWII May 22, 2012
World at War
European war soon became a World WarJapanese attack in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in 1941 transformed the war into a global conflict.
Attack on Pearl Harbor drew US into the war
4 days later, Hitler declared war on US
Japan also attacked British, French, and Dutch colonial possessions in Southeast Asia
By mid-December the Japanese war with China had been merged with the German war in Europe and the entire world was at war.
WWII May 22, 2012
1942-43, the tide turns
Early 1942, the Germans continued their victorious march in Russia and they invaded N. Africa
By 1942 fear grew in the Allied camp of a German-Japanese linkup in the Indian Ocean and in the Middle East.
English began a series of engagement with Hitler's Afrika Korps = victory for the English
WWII May 22, 2012
Operation Torch - Nov. 1942Allies launched attacks against French N. Africaand pushed eastward, driving the Germans fromNorth Africa
In early 1943 Allies continued into Sicilyand then mainland Italy.
Italy surrendered, Mussolini was deposed, and German troops rushed to hold the Alliesin Southern Italy.
WWII May 22, 2012
In the east, the battle of Stalingrad (Nov. 1942- Feb. 1943 marked the turning point of the war.
The German 6th army was surrounded and defeated, with more than 300,000 casualties
After Stalingrad, the Germans ceased from launching any other major offensives in the east.
WWII May 22, 2012
Allied Assault on Fortress Europe, 1944-45US and RAF aircraft continuously bombed
German cities
The incineration of Hamburg in the summer of 1943 was a preview of the destruction that strategic bombing would bring to the German home front
WWII May 22, 2012
D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 marked the turning point of the war in the west.
After fighting in Normandy, Paris was liberated in August and Germans were drives from France
the Germans would launch one more major offensive in the West in Dec. 1944 - Battle of the Bulge, ending with a German defeat.
Summer of 1944 Russians also launched a major offensive - driving into Poland and destroying virtually all of Germany's Army Group Center.
WWII May 22, 2012
Costs of War
The dead numbered between 37 million and 55 million. They included 22 million Russians, almost 6 million Germans and 6 to 8 million Jews.
Europe's cities were destroyedParis and Rome had been spared, but London,
Berlin, Dresden, Caen, Warsaw and countless others had been destroyed.
Refugees flooded into Western Europe form the devastated east.
The onset of the Cold War and the division of Europe ensued.