The War Goes Global

Japanese Advances in Asia

Reasons for Attack

• In response to the oil embargo placed on Japan in 1940 by Britain and the United States, the Japanese government prepared for war against the Western powers

• With less than a years oil reserves, the Japanese decided to respond with force

• Plans to seize the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and British Singapore and Malaysia were set in motion

December 7, 1941

Japan’s New World Order• Similar to Nazi ambitions in Western

Europe, the Japanese wanted to establish a “Greater-South-East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” under Japanese leadership

• Pearl Harbour

• A task force of 6 Japanese Aircraft Carriers and other ships cross 3400 miles in secrecy and attack the American fleet

•

Pearl Harbour• While laying in port, the Japanese air

forces struck the U.S. navy with 180 planes (bombers and fighters)

• In less than an hour, the U.S. lost over 200 planes, 2000 men, 6 battleships, 3 cruisers and 3 destroyers

• The Japanese lost only 29 planes

December 7, 1941 (S.S. W.Virginia)

Collapse in Malaya and Singapore• Prior to the war, the British army had stationed

130,000 British, Indian, and Australian troops in the region

• Against them, 90,000 Japanese troops landed in Malaysia and quickly captured the British air fields

• With control of the skies, the Japanese quickly destroyed the British positions and forced a retreat to Singapore

• At the end of March 1942, the Japanese controlled Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya and the Philippines + 200,000 captured Allied POW

Why such a collapse?• Due to feelings of racial superiority, the

Allies were unprepared for war with Japan

• When a British general was told of the landings in Singapore and Malaysia, he responded by saying “push the little yellow men off.”

• They felt that the Japanese could not fly their planes properly because of “the differences in their eye structures”

Japanese Advance to 1942

1943The Allies

Strike Back

Africa

• By 1943, with the Americans now fully engaged in the war, a Europe first policy prevailed at crushing Germany before Japan

• Prior to 1942, Italian forces had been attacking British forces in Egypt (200,000 vs. 30,000)

• Italian army was ill trained, and unable to defeat British with superior numbers

• American and British forces now decided to push the Germans out of Africa in order to attack Italy

African Defeat

• With the British approaching from Egypt, the Americans from North West Africa, the Germans were squeezed between these two armies

• While the German and Italian forces put up fierce resistance, they surrender in May of 1943

• 275,000 German soldiers surrendered

Into Italy• Much debate now raged as what to do

next for the Allies• The Soviet Union wanted a second front to

relieve their troops in the East• The United States wants a cross channel

invasion into France• British PM Churchill wanted to attack Italy

and knock them out of the war• What they received was a difficult fight in

the Italian hills and mountains

• July 10 – 1943

• Allies invade Sicily and capture the island after a month of heavy fighting

• Two weeks later, Mussolini is removed from power and imprisoned in N. Italy

• September 3 – 1943

• Allies invade mainland Italy after months of intensive bombings to force a surrender

• September 8 – 1943

• Italian government surrenders

German Response

• German troops seize control of cities in north and central Italy, including Rome

• German commander withdraws all troops from the south and fortifies his positions around the central mountain region

• Over 300,000 Allied troops and 500,000 Germans would become casualties in the heavy fighting that would continue until the German surrender in 1945

Operation Overlord

• June 6, 1944• Allies began invasion with dropping 5000

pounds of bombs and 21,000 paratroopers on key areas to secure the night before

• With 5000 ships and 150,000 men, the Allies land across the channel in France

• With total allied air superiority, the Germans were unable to launch a serious counterattack

• The Retreat to Germany had now begun

Post D-Day• By the next day, over 150,000 Allied were

ashore in Normandy, France• By D-Day + 20, the Allies had over 1.5

million men in France• 50,000 German soldiers were killed and

200,000 taken prisoner• By August 26, General Charles De Gaulle

liberated Paris with his Free French forces (They had fought in Africa and Italy with the Allies)

Road to Surrender• With the Allies now firmly in Western

France, and the Soviets advancing in the East, the defeat of Germany was now approaching

• 1944 – Albert Speer (German War minister)

• Ordered full mobilization• All women under 50 now mobilized for

production• All men between 12-50 now in militia

Casablanca Conference• 1943

• British and U.S. agree to round the clock bombing of all German targets

• “Systematic obliteration, one by one, of the centres of German war production”

• British Air Marshall Harris

• Orders “saturation bombing” of large towns and cities to cause as much loss of civilian life as possible

Dresden Firestorm- 35,000 killed

Allied Bombing Effects

• Hamburg – 30,000 dead, 80% destroyed

• Dresden – 35,000 dead

• Totals: (1943-45)

• 500,000 German civilians killed

• 100,000+ children

Battle of the Bulge

• Last German offensive of the war

• 250,000 men and 1000 tanks attempt to drive a wedge between the British and American armies

• Ironically, it was through the Ardennes forest

• Despite early success with newest Tiger II tanks, the attack failed due to lack of fuel and Allied air power after 6 weeks

Defeat and Division

January 30, 1945• Hitler gives his last speech to Germany

• Orders a ‘scorched earth policy’ and urges a fight to the end

• Privately, he tells his close ministers that the German people deserve their fate for ‘betraying’ their Fuhrer

The End at Berlin• When the Western Allies crossed the

Rhine river in March of 1945, over 500,000 Germans surrendered after the Allies crossed the Rhine River

• While Hitler ordered a fight to the death, his 1 million soldiers were no match, and many were now old men and young boys

• Many lacked any training, but were determined to fight due to stories of Soviet revenge on civilians

Battle of Berlin• Mid-April, 1945, Soviet forces surrounded

Berlin with:

• 2.5 million men

• 6000 tanks

• 45,000 artillery guns and rocket launchers

• April 16, 1945: Day 1 of Attack

• Soviets fire more than 1 million shells and order a full scale bombing raid

• April 21, 1945 – Soviets breach German defences

• April 30, 1945 – Hitler kills himself

• May 2, 1945 – Berlin surrenders

• May 8, 1945:

• Germany surrenders unconditionally

• War in Europe Ends

Yalta Conference• February 4, 1945• Meeting of the “Big Three” - many agreements

made• Consisted of U.K. P.M. Churchill, Stalin and U.S.

President Roosevelt• Applied the principal of the Atlantic Charter to

liberated nations• Poland – boarders and future agreed upon

• There was an agreement that the priority would be the unconditional surrender of Germany. After the war Germany would be split into four occupied zones.

• Stalin agreed that France would have a fourth occupation zone in Germany

• Berlin would be split into 4 zones. • Germany would undergo demilitarization and

denazification. • Stalin agreed to enter the fight against Japan after the

defeat of Germany. • UN was agreed upon