Chapter 31 Section 3

The Global Conflict: Allied Successes

Setting the Scene World War II was fought on a larger scale and

in more places than any other conflict in history. It was also more costly in terms of human life than any previous war. Civilians, as well as soldiers, were targets. In 1941, a reporter visited a Russian town that had been home to 10,000 people before the German invasion. The reporter found a lone survivor: "She was a blind old woman who had gone insane. I saw her wandering barefooted around the village, carrying a few dirty rags, a rusty pail, and a tattered sheepskin.”

From 1939 until mid-1942, the Axis ran up a string of successes. The conquerors blasted villages and towns and divided up the spoils. Then the Allies won some key victories. Slowly, the tide began to turn.

I. Occupied Lands - EuropeThe Axis set out to build a "new order" in the occupied lands of Europe, Asia and the Pacific

I. Occupied Lands - EuropeThe Nazis stripped conquered nations of art, factories, and resources; “inferior races” to forced to work as slave laborers

The World Jewish Congress says the Nazis seized up to $30 billion

worth of art Slave laborers in the Buchenwald

concentration camp

I. Occupied Lands - EuropeHitler's policy was to kill all "racially inferior" people – Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, communists, the mentally ill, etc.

Crematoriums at the Nazi concentration camp in Weimar,

Germany, April 1945Gas Chamber at Auschwitz

I. Occupied Lands - EuropeJews were forced into ghettos and concentration camps; by 1941, Nazis planned for the "final solution of the Jewish problem"

Jews rounded up after the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

I. Occupied Lands - EuropeHitler had special death camps built in places like Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka

I. Occupied Lands - EuropeBy 1945, the Nazis had murdered six million Jews and 6 million other "undesirable" people - the Holocaust

II. Occupied Lands - AsiaUnder the slogan "Asia for Asians," Japan created the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

II. Occupied Lands - AsiaJapanese killed and tortured civilians, destroyed cities and towns, and made people into slave laborers

During the six weeks of the Nanking Massacre, the Chinese were not simply murdered. They were tortured, humiliated, and raped. The

Japanese used a wide variety of methods of murder.

III. The Allied War Effort1942: the “Big Three” - Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin - agreed to defeat Hitler first and then concentrate on Japan

The "Big Three" Yalta: Churchill, Roosevelt and

Stalin

III. The Allied War EffortThe Allies were committed to total war - governments directed the economy, rationed goods, and regulated prices and wages

III. The Allied War EffortGovernments limited the rights of citizens, censored the press, and used propaganda to win public support for the war

III. The Allied War EffortAs men joined the military, millions of women built ships, tanks, and planes; produced munitions; and staffed offices

Rosie the Riveterby Norman Rockwell

III. The Allied War EffortWomen served in the military, fought in the resistance, and became soldiers in the Red Army

Marie-Madeleine Fourcade

USSR Soldier

IV. Turning Points1942 and 1943 - the Allies pushed back the Axis powers and turned the tide of war

IV. Turning PointsBritish Gen. Montgomery and American Gen. Eisenhower defeated Rommel in May 1943 at El Alamein

General Bernard Montgomery, “Monty”

General Dwight D. Eisenhower “Ike”

IV. Turning PointsJuly 1943, Allies landed in Sicily and moved into southern Italy, defeating the Italian forces

IV. Turning PointsThe Italians overthrew Mussolini and signed an armistice, but fighting did not end until 18 months later

The bodies of Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci were hung by their heels after being killed by Italian

partisans in Milan, April 1945

IV. Turning Points1943 - After winning the Battle of Stalingrad, the Red Army advanced into Eastern Europe

IV. Turning PointsThe Allies invaded France on D-Day - June 6, 1944; by September all of France was free

IV. Turning Points

The Allies focused on conquering Germany first before defeating Japan