WWII

Introduction:

• Most devastating war in human history• 55 million dead• 1 trillion dollars

• Began in 1939 as strictly a European Conflict

• Widened to include most of the world

Causes• Great Depression Rise of Fascist

dictators• WWI and Treaty of Versailles

Germany had to pay reparations and “war guilt” clause.

Italy denied territories it wanted

• Failure of League of Nations• Policy of Appeasement

• World Domination-Extreme Nationalism• Japan victorious but wanted China• Germany wanted to created a “Third Reich” an

empire to last 1,000 years

Rise of Hitler

• Nazi Party organized, 1920s• Nazi party largest in Germany, 1932

• Hitler voted as chancellor, 1933• New parliament created

• 450, 000 members• Larger than German army

German Territorial Gains• Austria – March, 1938• Munich Pact gives part of Czechoslovakia

(Sudetenland) – Sept., 1938• All of Czechoslovakia – March, 1939• Poland – Sept., 1939• By Summer of 1940, Germany Controlled

Most of Europe• World shocked as France falls to Germans

Significant Events of World War II

Dates and Events that changed the world

                                                      

8

Major LeadersAxis Powers

Adolf HitlerNazi Germany

Benito MussoliniItaly

Hideki TojoJapan

Emperor Hirohito

Japan

10

Major LeadersAllies

Franklin Delano RooseveltUS President

Joseph StalinSoviet Leader

Winston Churchill

British Prime Minister

11

Major Leaders

“Big Three”

Harry S. TrumanUS President

September 1, 1939

• Germany invades Poland using the Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”)

• England and France, declare war on Germany

• United States again chooses isolationism and neutrality

Blitzkrieg

Fall of France 1940

May 10, 1940

• Fall of France• France surrenders June

25• Total Victory for

Germany except for:• “Miracle at Dunkirk”

– Germany does not attack with army

– Allows most of the British forces to escape and fight again another day

July 1940

• The Battle of Britain • 9 month air war between Luftwaffe and RAF• Germany suffers a major defeat

Reason’s for British victory:• RADAR• Over home soil

• More gas/time to fight• Easier to save pilots

• Germans change tactics• Attack English cities• Stop attacks on

English air force

December 7, 1941“… a date which will live in

infamy.”• Japan sneak attacks

Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning

• 18 ships sunk or badly damaged

• 188 planes destroyed and 159 damaged

• 2403 U.S. Military killed (1102 Arizona) & 1178 wounded

• America enters war with Allies

Damages

Pearl HarborDec. 7, 1941

USS Arizona

Allies United:U.S.S.R, The U.S., and England.

“The Big Three”

1942: The Tide Turns

• Battle of Midway– Resounding U.S. Naval

Victory over Japan in Pacific

• Battle of El-Alamein– Resounding British Army

Victory over Germany and Italy in Africa

• Battle of Stalingrad– Resounding Soviet Army

Victory over Germany in USSR

September 1943

• Italy signs armistice with Allies (1st Axis country to leave war)

• Germans disarm their allies and take over military defenses

• Germany continues to fight in Italy until 1945

June 6, 1944• D-Day of Operation

Overlord• Led by Supreme Allied

Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Nearly 250,000 men and boys participated in the invasion of Normandy region of France

• The battle for the beachhead lasted nearly 2 months

• This was the beginning of the end for Hitler and Germany

Normandy Invasion,D-Day

D-DayLanding on Normandy Beach

December 1944 – January 1945

• The Battle of the Bulge• Hitler’s army had broken through the allied

line creating a bulge.• U.S. and allied troops had pushed back the

bulge by mid January.

• Germany last desperate attack to win the war

Spring 1945

• April 12 FDR dies in office

• April 30th – Hitler commits suicide

• May 7th – Germany formally surrenders

• Gen. Eisenhower: “The mission of this allied force was fulfilled at 0241 local time, May 7th 1945.”

• May 8th – V-E (Victory in Europe) Day declared

August 1945

• America’s secret development of the A-Bomb = “Manhattan Project”

• President Harry S. Truman and U.S. drop 1st atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing 80,000 people (“Little Boy”)

• August 9th U.S. drops 2nd atomic bomb of Nagasaki killing 70,000 people (“Fat Man”)

August 1945

August 15th Japan surrenders on

battleship U.S.S. Missouri V-J Day (Victory over

Japan) Declared

August 1945

Results of World War II

• America gets out of the Great Depression• Introduction of weapons of mass

destruction (nuclear weapons)• Start of Cold War• United Nations formed (new and improved

League of Nations)• Israel established as country for all Jews

Related Websites

• World War II Timeline

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/ww2Timeline/start.html

• National World War II Memorial

http://www.wwiimemorial.com/• National D-Day Museum

http://www.ddaymuseum.org/

Hitler Gets Busy

• Gestapo Created -- April, 1933• Jewish Boycott – April, 1933• Jewish Books Banned & Burned – May, 1933• 27,000 People in Camps – July, 1933• Kristallnacht (“Night of the Broken Glass”) –

November 1938• Illegal to Leave Germany – October, 1941• French and Britain unsure • U.S. isolationist

February, March, & April 1942

• February 19th – Executive Order 9066Internment of 110,000 Japanese

Americans in 48 states (California)• April 18th – Doolittle Raid

16 B-25 bombers from the USS Hornet fly 666 miles to bomb Tokyo.

• April – Bataan Death March5000-10,000 Filipinos & 500-600 U.S.

Dead5000 U.S. died in Camps.Japan never ratified 1929 Geneva

Agreement