Invasion of Poland

France

The Battle of Britain

Churchill ‘We shall never surrender’.

Operation Barbarossa

• But as they retreated they carried a scorched earth policy (burning everything that the enemy could use).

• This made it difficult for the Germans to get the supplies they needed.

Operation Barbarossa

• Many Russian cities fell to Germany but Hitler had not expected the conquest of Russia to last into winter.

• The German soldiers did not have winter clothing and many froze to death.

• By November 1942 the tables were turning and the Russians won their first victory against Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad.

Operation Barbarossa

USA Joins the War

After the attack on Pearl Harbour, the USA declared war on Japan.

The Allies Push to Victory

• From 1943 onwards, the Allies advanced towards Germany from the east, south and west.

• The Liberation of France• On 6th June1944 (D-DAY) under General

Eisenhower, the British and Americans invaded France.

• They landed on 5 beaches in Normandy• On 18th August they liberated France and

made their way towards Germany.

The American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach holds the remains of 9,383 people

•In the spring of 1945 Allied armies entered Germany

•From the west came the Allied armies of the US,

Britain and France

•As Soviet troops entered Berlin on 28 April,

Hitler committed suicide

•From the east came Stalin's Red Army

• The Allied countries had more soldiers than Germany.

• America and the Soviet Union had huge industries to produce more arms than Germany

• Allied air forces were better than the Luftwaffe.

Why the Allies Won the War

The End of WW2

• Japan refused to surrender. • On 6th August 1945 US

President Harry Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

• Three days later the US dropped another bomb on Nagasaki.

• Japan surrendered• WWII was over.

Killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki

Effects of WWII• Europe was divided between the area

occupied by the Soviet army and the area occupied by the western allies.

• It was the most destructive war in human history.

• 55 million people were killed.• Cities and industries were destroyed.• The US and USSR emerged as

superpowers after the war.• They became rivals and this led to the

Cold War

Junior Cert 2007

(i) Explain the meaning of two of the following:Blitzkrieg; Lebensraum; Scorched Earth; Final

Solution; U-boat. (ii) Write an account of one of the following

military operations from World War II: (a) The Battle of Britain. (b) Operation Barbarossa. (c) Operation Overlord.