Chapter 18 Section 2

The Global Conflict: Axis Advances

Setting the Scene

"Hitler will collapse the day we declare war on Germany," predicted a confident French

general on the eve of World War II. He could not have been more wrong. World War II, the costliest war in history, lasted six years—from 1939 to 1945. It pitted the Axis powers, chiefly Germany, Italy, and Japan, against the Allied powers, which eventually included Britain, France, the

Soviet Union, China, the United States, and 45 other nations.

I. Early Axis GainsOn September 1,1939, Nazi forces stormed into Poland in what was known as a blitzkrieg (lightning war)

I. Early Axis GainsSoviet forces invaded Poland from the east and within a month, Poland ceased to exist

I. Early Axis GainsDuring the winter of 1939-40, French and British troops waited behind the Maginot Line for Germany’s attack - the "phony war”

I. Early Axis GainsIn April 1940, Hitler launched a blitzkrieg against Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium

I. Early Axis GainsBritish forces were trapped and Britain sent naval vessels to rescue the troops - the “Miracle of Dunkirk”

I. Early Axis GainsAs German forces headed toward Paris, Italy declared war on France - France surrendered on June 22,1940

I. Early Axis GainsGermany occupied northern France and in the south set up a "puppet state," with its capital at Vichy

French Vichy leader Philippe Petain and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler meet on October 24 1940.

I. Early Axis GainsIn October 1940, Italy invaded Greece and met stiff resistance, so Germany sent reinforcements

I. Early Axis GainsIn 1941 and 1942 German General Erwin Rommel pushed the British back across the desert toward Cairo, Egypt

Rommel, the "Desert Fox"

II. The Battle of Britain and the BlitzHitler planned to invade Britain in Operation Sea Lion and began the London Blitz in August 1940

II. The Battle of Britain and the BlitzAlthough much of London was damaged and 15,000 people were killed, Operation Sea Lion failed

III. Operation BarbarossaIn June 1941, Hitler began Operation Barbarossa - the conquest of the Soviet Union - and caught Stalin unprepared

III. Operation BarbarossaThe Nazis reached Moscow and Leningrad before Russia's "General Winter" stopped the advance

Soviet troop on the offensive

III. Operation BarbarossaMore than a million Leningraders died during the siege and Stalin urged the Allies to open a second front

IV. American Involvement GrowsAlthough the US was neutral, FDR found ways around the Neutrality Acts to aid to Britain and the USSR

President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressing the nation

IV. American Involvement GrowsIn 1941, Congress to passed the Lend-Lease Act, and Roosevelt and Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter

FDR and British PM Winston Churchill

V. Japan AttacksIn 1940, Japan seized Indochina and the Dutch East Indies - the US banned the sale of war materials

V. Japan AttacksJapan’s aims were to create a “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” and felt the US was interfering with their plans

V. Japan AttacksDecember 7, 1941 - Diplomacy failed and General Tojo Hideki ordered an attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

US Battleship Arizona, sunk with the loss of 1177 crew members

In the long run, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor would be as serious a mistake as Hitler's invasion of Russia. But the months after Pearl Harbor gave no such hint. Instead, European and American possessions in the Pacific fell one by one to the Japanese. They captured the Philippines and seized other American islands across the Pacific. They overran the British colonies of Hong Kong, Burma, and Malaya, pushed deeper into the Dutch East Indies, and completed the takeover of French Indochina. By the beginning of 1942, the Japanese empire stretched from Southeast Asia to the western Pacific Ocean. The Axis powers had reached the high point of their successes.