Chapter 14 Notes

World War II and Aftermath

Aggression• Japan invades Manchuria and Eastern

China

• Italy Invades Ethiopia

• Hitler defies Treaty of Versailles – built up German military, sent troops into Rhineland

• Policy of Appeasement; Pacifism; US Neutrality Acts

• Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis

Dress Rehearsal for WWII• Spanish Civil War- 1936

General Franco, conservative and pro-monarchy, attempted to overthrow new democratic government. Mussolini helped due to shared hatred of Communists. Hitler also sent aid.

• Soviets supported the republicans who fought for elected government.

• Germans attacked small town, Guernica (as test for new planes and equipment)

• Franco won.

• Annexation of Austria• Anschluss –union of

Germany and Austria. Forced Austrian Chancellor to appoint Nazis to cabinet posts, Hitler sent in army to ‘preserve order’

• Czechoslovakia/ Sudetenland:

• Insisted 3 million Germans in Sudetenland be given autonomy,

• No one was willing to save Czechoslovakia (one of 2 remaining E. European democracies)

• Sudetenland annexed to Germany with promise of German end to expansion

World War II Begins

• 1939- Germany signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviets freeing up the borders and able to place all efforts in invading Poland, dividing the nation between the two countries.

• Sept. 1, 1939- Tanks entered Poland while the Luftwaffe (airforce) bombed cities with the “blitzkrieg” or swift maneuver air strikes.

• Caused France and UK to enter the war because they had agreed to protect Poland.

• Soviets created bases in Baltic states and seized part of Finland

Axis Advances• Miracle of Dunkirk: • German forces evaded

Maginot Line, Allies retreated trapped between English Channel and Nazis. Rescued by available English vessels. Ferried 300K troops to safety

• France Falls:• June 22, 1940 French signed

surrender docs. Germans occupied Northern France.

• Vichy government established in Southern France- “puppet state”

• Operation Sea Lion: Nazi planned invasion of Britain, massive airstrikes.

– August 1940: German daily bombardments of England’s southern coast, and eventually London

– Sept. 1940: Blitz of London begins, destroys most of city. 57 nights in a row and lasted until May

– Hitler unable to take Britain; morale actually strengthened with bombing

Blitz of LondonSeptember 1940- May 1941

Axis Powers invade Africa and Balkans• Italy sends troops from Libya

into Egypt (UK)• UK evaded Italian advances• Hitler sends in Gen Rommel –

Desert Fox• Successes in 1941-42, push

British forces back towards Cairo

• Oct 1940- Italy invaded Greece with German reinforcements– Greece,

Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Hungary added to Axis alliance

Soviet Front

Operation Barbarossa- Nazi invasion of USSR (had non-aggression pact) : Wanted raw materials. Did not prepare for Russian winter.

June 22, 1941. Surrounded Leningrad for 900 days, starving to death ½ million residents. Residents ate most anything- wallpaper; rationed to 2 pieces of bread/day

Sept. 1942- Nazi troops attacked Stalingrad, battle continued around the ruin and rubble of the city for 5 months until Germans surrendered in Jan. 1943.

Soviets hoped for help on the Western front from Britain – Allies were unable to offer the help Soviets requested

Holocaust

• Nazi’s intense hatred of Jews led to the eradication of Jews, known as the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem”.

• Jews were first forced to label themselves with a Star of David

Holocaust

• Next the Jews were forced out of their homes and into ghetto’s where they had to live several families to a room.

• The ghetto’s were eventually liquidated and the Jews were placed on trains to “work” camps

• Once at the camps they were used as slave labor, weak or sickly were killed. Eventually many died of starvation or were gassed or shot.

Holocausteventually more than 6 million Jews and 6 million

gypsies, homosexuals, pow’s, and slav’s were murdered

US Involvement• Lend-Lease Act – March

1941, US ‘neutral’, but act allowed US to sell or lend war materials to “any country whose defense… is vital to the...US”

• “Arsenal of Democracy”

• Atlantic Charter: US and UK August 1941, set goals for war: final destruction on Nazi tyranny, self-determination

• US bans sale of iron, steel, and oil to Japan– Japan viewed it as

interference with their sphere on influence

Attack on Pearl Harbor: Dec 7, 1941

- US declares war on Japan

- Germany, Italy declare was on US

Allies• Total War

– Bonds– Factories– Price regulation– Ended unemployment– Limited rights of citizens– Japanese Internment

• Rosie the Riveter: women helped war effort; Rosie was face of propaganda program

• Pacific Theater:– Japanese suffered loss at Coral

Sea in May 1942; 1st war where aircraft carriers launched attack using planes

– Battle of Midway June 1942; Japanese left unable to launch further offensive operations

• ‘Big Three’: • Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin

focused war on Europe before Asia

• Allies distrusted each other; agreed to let Stalin have boundaries et out by Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Victory in North Africa:• Stopped Rommel at El Alamein

Nov. 1942 • Allies trapped Rommel’s army in

May 1943

• Allies advance through Italy July 1943

• Germans defeated at Stalingrad• D-Day Assault:

– June 6, 1944, Invasion of France

– 156K troops ferried across English Channel

– Allies advance into France as allied forces continue north from Italy

– August 25th Allies liberate Paris

– Battle of the Bulge; Last German offensive, one month battle, terrible losses suffered on both sides

– Italy- guerillas captured and executed Mussolini

• V-E Day: – Victory in Europe, May 8. 1945 one

day after Germany surrendered

Yalta Conference

• February 1945: Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met in Southern USSR

• Planned strategy in atmosphere of distrust

• Agreed to:

– USSR would enter war vs Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender

– FDR and Churchill promised Stalin that Soviets would get Sakhalin and Kuril Islands and part of Korea

– Germany would be temporarily divided into 4 zones, each controlled by British, French, American and Soviet forces

– Stalin agreed to hold free elections in E. Europe

Struggle in Pacific• Bataan Death March- US

POW’s surrendered to Japanese- marched with little food and water, beaten or shot for straying, thousands perished.

• Victory of Guadalcanal• Island Hopping campaign

– islands serve as stepping stones, refueling

• By 1944 US had made progress and was blockading Japan

• War over in Europe allies poured all resources into war with Japan

Bombing of Japan

• Atomic Bomb: Truman had scheduled an invasion of Japan late 1945. July 16, 1945: American scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer successfully detonated the first a-bomb over Alamogordo, NM (Manhattan Project)

• Aug. 6, 1945: dropped single a-bomb “Little Boy” from the Enola Gay on Hiroshima. Killed 100k instantly.

• Aug. 9, 1945: 2nd bomb, “Fat Man” dropped over Nagasaki.

• Aug 14, 1945: Japanese government surrendered.

End of WWIINuremburg Trials: Axis leaders should be tried for ‘crimes against humanity’; Nearly 200 Germans and Austrians were tried, most guilty.

Occupying Allies: Why had Europe allowed Hitler’s “Final Solution”. US felt that democracy would ensure tolerance, Western Allies built new gov’ts in occupied Germany and Japan.

• United Nations– 50 nations

– Each member nation has 1 vote, 5 permanent Security Council members (US, USSR, France, Britain, China) have more say

– Goal to ensure peace

• Beginning of Cold War– Differences grow between Allies– State of tension and hostility

between US and USSR (and their allies)

– Stalin ignored earlier promises for free elections in E. Europe