Beginning of World War II

Lsn 22

ID & SIG:

• appeasement, Bataan Death March, blitzkrieg, Finland, Hitler’s rise to power, Japanese imperialism, Manchuria, Poland, Russian-Germany Non-aggression Pact, Pearl Harbor

Agenda

• Europe– Hitler’s Rise to Power– Poland– Finland– Denmark and Norway

• Pacific– Imperialism– Manchuria– Pearl Harbor– Philippines

Rise of Hitler

• Treaty of Versailles was very punitive to Germany

• Unemployment and other issues created conditions conducive for Hitler to rise to power

Dec 21, 1931

Rebirth of Germany

• Hitler reinstituted conscription (after France doubled the length of its conscripts’ service) and in March 1936 was strong enough to reoccupy the Rhineland

• In June 1934, Hitler purged many of his paramilitary and the SS rose up to replace them

Germany’s Increasingly Militaristic Approach

• In Nov 1937, Italy joined Germany in an alliance against the Soviet Union

• In Mar 1938, Hitler forced Anschluss (union) with Austria

• On Sept 29-30, the British and French foreign ministers attempted to appease Hitler by acquiescing to his demand for the Sudentenland under the understanding Hitler would make no more territorial demands– In March 1939 Hitler seized the

western part of CzechoslovakiaNeville Chamberlain

Continued Aggression

• Britain and France now knew appeasement would not stop Hitler and they pledged to defend Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and Poland against German aggression

• On Aug 22, 1939, Russia and Germany signed a non-aggression pact– In the event of a German-

Polish war, Russia could annex eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania

• On Sept 1, Hitler invaded Poland

Poland

• The German offensive included heavy air attacks against Polish air bases and military targets in Warsaw– Collateral damage and civilian casualties were high

• Britain and France honored their promise to the Poles and declared war on Germany– Hitler had thought Britain and France would not go to

war– He had said, he had seen his “enemies at Munich and

they were worms”

Poland• Germany bounded

Poland on three sides so it was easy for the Germans to quickly envelop Poland

• Furthermore, Poland was one big flat plain with its only defensible terrain feature, the Bug River, lying too far east to be of any use

• The Poles choose to use a forward defense which allowed the Germans to divide the Polish Army and defeat it piecemeal

Poland

• Using blitzkrieg tactics, the Germans broke Polish resistance within a week– The Poles lost 70,000 killed,

133,000 wounded, and 700,000 taken prisoner

– The Germans lost only 11,000 killed, 30,000 wounded, and 3,400 missing

• To make matters worse, the Soviet Union moved into eastern Poland on September 17 to “protect” the local population

Poland

• From the very beginning, the Germans began implementing Hitler’s ideological atrocities against the Poles– The Polish ruling and

intellectual elite was liquidated– Polish cultural symbols were

destroyed– The Catholic Church was

suppressed– Jews were sent to

concentration camps such as Auschwitz

Poland

• The Allies were unprepared to launch an offensive into Germany at this point in the war

• Instead of trying to relieve Poland, the British and French concentrated on mobilizing and preparing to halt the Germans when they turned toward the west

• The failure to exert any real pressure on the Germans allowed Germany to continue building its industrial might and prepare for its 1940 offensive

Russia and Finland

• In the meantime, the Soviets demanded that the Baltic States allow Red Army garrisons on their territory

• Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia acceded• Then Russia made similar demands of

Finland• The Finns agreed to cede some territory

but refused any terms that compromised their independence

Russia and Finland

• On November 30, Russia attacked Finland, but instead of the expected swift victory the Russians met stiff resistance

• Only after massive artillery bombardments and human wave attacks did the Russians finally compel the Finns to surrender on March 12, 1940

Finnish infantry passing a destroyed Russian tank

Russia and Finland

• The Russian Army was plagued by shortages in leadership and initiative that resulted from the purges of 1937-1939

• The poor performance made Hitler think the Russians would not be much of a challenge if Germany invaded

Denmark and Norway

• Germany quickly moved into Denmark, but had a more difficult time capturing Norway

• In April, British destroyers inflicted severe losses on the German Navy at Narvik, including sinking half of Germany’s destroyers

• These losses would make it impossible for the German Navy to adequately support any upcoming invasion of the British Isles

Agenda

• Europe– Hitler’s Rise to Power– Poland– Finland– Denmark and Norway

• Pacific– Imperialism– Manchuria– Pearl Harbor– Philippines

Imperial Japan(Review from Lsn 18)

• Japan had been becoming increasingly imperialistic and increasing powerful– In 1894 it won the Sino-Japanese War over

control of Korea– Its victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904)

gained Japan recognition as a major imperial power

– In 1936 Japan withdrew from the Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty and began pursuing naval parity with the US and Britain

Imperial Japan

• This aggression against China came to a head in the 1930s when for the most part civilians lost control of the government and the military in Japan

• In 1937 Japan engaged in a full-scale yet undeclared war in northern China

• After the capital city of Nanking fell on December 13, the Japanese Army embarked on six weeks of unspeakable atrocities that came to be known collectively as the “Rape of Nanking”

A Chinese baby cries amid the rubble of the Japanese bombing of Shanghai

Invasion of Manchuria

• The Rape of Nanking remains a contentious topic but many sources estimate 300,000 Chinese were killed and some 20,000 women raped

• One American who was in Nanking at the time wrote, “There probably is no crime that has not been committed in this city today”

Chinese man being beheaded

Imperial Japan

• Japan continued to see the US and others as a threat to its influence in Asia

• In May 1940, the main part of the US fleet was transferred to Pearl Harbor from the west coast

• The Japanese began developing plans to destroy the US Navy in Hawaii

Pearl Harbor

Japanese Navy

• The Japanese Navy became one of the best peacetime navies in history

• It had detailed plans and training exercises for a war against the US in the Pacific

• On the other hand, the US had recognized as early as January 1941 that in the event of a war against Germany, Italy, and Japan, the main effort would be in the Atlantic and against Germany and Italy, rather than in the Pacific against Japan

Pearl Harbor

• On Dec 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor– “a date which will live

in infamy”• Americans were

taken completely by surprise

• The first attack wave targeted airfields and battleships

• The second wave targeted other ships and shipyard facilities

Tactical Damage

• Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk

• Three light cruisers, three destroyers, three smaller vessels, and 188 aircraft were destroyed

• 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians were killed

• 1,178 were wounded – 1,104 men aboard the

Battleship USS Arizona were killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated into the forward magazine causing catastrophic explosions.

Broader Results

• In spite of the tactical success, the attack on Pearl Harbor was an operational and strategic failure for the Japanese– The attack failed to

destroy the American aircraft carriers, fleet repair facilities, or fuel reserves

– The “sneak attack” galvanized American support for entry into the war

Fall of the Philippines

• Shortly after Pearl Harbor the Japanese made initial landings on Luzon, then made their main landings on December 22

• On December 24, MacArthur ordered his forces to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula

• By April Bataan surrendered

• By early May Corregidor surrendered

Douglas MacArthur in his headquarters tunnel at Corregidor

in March 1942

Bataan Death March

• President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to relinquish command to Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and MacArthur escaped to Australia

• 25,000 Americans and Filipinos died on the Bataan Death March to captivity

Centrifugal Advance

• The Japanese attacked Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Wake, Guam….

• Instead of halting, establishing a defense, and pressuring the US to sue for peace (the prewar plan), the Japanese decided to extend their control over the Pacific, planning operations in New Guinea near Port Moresby and against Midway (1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu)

• US achieved a moral victory with Doolittle’s Raid on the Japanese home islands on April 18, 1942– Caused minimal damage but humiliated the Japanese

high command and led them to advance the date for their attack on Midway

Next

• World War II– Blitzkrieg in France– The Eastern Front