A Second Great War LoomsWWII (Sept. 1, 1939 – Sept. 2, 1945)

Causes of the War

Totalitarianism

Unhappy over peace settlements: Jap, Ita, Ger

Stalin and the USSR

Mussolini in Italy

Nazi Germany

Invasions

Militarism

Dictators Hungry for More

Benito Mussolini

• Italy

• Facism

• Outlaws political parties

• Controls press

Adolf Hitler

• Germany

• Anti-Semetism

• Wanted world domination

Joseph Stalin

• U.S.S.R.

• Great Terror

• False Propoganda

League of Nations

A failure without U.S. joining

Japan invades Manchuria and leaves the League (Rape of Nanjang)

Italy invades Ethiopia; League does not enforce sanctions

Policy of

Appeasement

Granting concessions to a potential enemy in hopes of reparaing relations

FDR – Good neighbor policy with Latin America

Isolationism – a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially other countries

Munich Pact – Germany gains Sudetenland (West Czech)

War Begins in Europe

Germany on the war path

Britain and France back Poland in case of Nazi attack

Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

Blitzkrieg of Poland (Sept. 1, 1939) falls within a month

April 9, 1940: Denmark & Norway

May 10, 1940: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxenbourg

Rail Gun AKA Big Bertha

Germany Attacks

France

Maginot Line elaborate defensive barrier in northeast France constructed in the 1930s and named after its principal creator, André Maginot, who was France’s minister of war in 1929–31.

338,000 British and French escape from Dunkirk back to Britain

Occupied France (Northern France)

Winston Churchill

• British Prime Minister (May

1940)

• POW (1899 in Africa)

• Had Steel resolve that

previous Prime Minister

Neville Chamberlain

lacked

• Warned about rising Nazis

• Referred to the U.S.A. in

many of his speeches

against Nazi Germany

Operation Sea Lion

Hitlers codename

Battle of Britain

Fought above the English channel

1,000 planes lost by Britain

1,700 lost by Germany

Month long bombing campaign known

as "The Blitz" in England

Meanwhile, in America

Isolationists

Majority opinion

Remain Neutral

Referred to WWI death toll and

$$$

"Merchants of Death" - Big

Business

Charles Lindbergh – Feared USSR

and Japan

Interventionists

Wanted to at least aid the Allies

Anti-Nazi

Neutrality act of 1939 (cash &

carry)

Ed Murrow – CBS - "This is London"

FDR trades Britain ships for bases

without congressional consent

Tripartite Pact

Forms Axis Powers

Germany

Japan

Italy

U.S. Reactions

FDR elected to 4th term

(1940)

Four Freedoms

Lend-Lease Act (economic

declaration of war)

Atlantic Charter (FDR and

Churchill secretly meet)

Hitler orders U-Boats to attack

U.S. ships in 1941

Germany also invades Soviet

Union

Pearl Harbor

Dec, 7th 1941

"A date which will live in infamy"

Hideki Tojo – Japan Prime Minister

6 carriers, 360 planes, submarines

U.S. Sides with the Allies

Allied Powers

United States

Soviet Union (U.S.S.R)

Britain

France

China

Axis Powers

Germany

Japan

Italy

America Mobilizes

Mobilization - the action of a

country or its government

preparing and organizing troops

for active service

Patriotism

U.S. Forces double in size

Segregated army

Womans Army Corps (WAC)

"The Production Miracle"

End of Great

Depression

Unemployment rate:

19% in 1938 – 1.2% in

1944

Ford builds

planes/tanks

"Liberty Ships" - Large

merchant ships built in

4 days or less

For America, War Starts in the

Pacific

The Pacific Theatre

Dogfights & naval

battles

Kamikazes

Macarthur endures

heavy losses in

the Phillipines

(Retreats)

Bataan Death March

Battle of Coral Sea

European Theatre

Big 3 (Churchill, Stalin,

Roosevelt)

Nov. 1943: Stalin proposes a

2nd front west of Germany (occupied France)

General Dwight D.

Eisenhower plans invasion of

Normandy (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword)

June, 6 1944 D-Day

Forced Germany to fight on two fronts

Battle of the Bulge

• Hitler's Attempt to counter the Allied Victory at Normandy

• Blitzkrieg style to divide the Allied forces

• Germany loses reserve troops and resources

V-E Day

President Roosevelt passed on April 12,

1945

Hitler commits suicide on April 30, 1945

V-E day: May 7,1945

Newly sworn in president Harry Truman

Not Finished Yet

Japan still warring with U.S. Forces in the Pacific

Battle of Midway

Navajo Code: never broken by Japanese

Iwo Jima (23k)

Okinawa (50K)

After securing these islands the U.S. had a clear path to bomb Tokyo

Manhattan Project

Atom Bomb

Einstein wrote FDR

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Truman's finger on the button

Invading Japan would have cost an estimated 1,000,000 American

lives

Drop the World

First successful test off

the coast of Mexico

Hiroshima (Little Boy)

Nagasaki (Fat Man)

Plutonium charged

bombs out of modified

b-29 bomber named

Enola Gay

Japan Surrenders Aug.

15, 1945