Chapter 26

World War II

1939-1945

World War II marked the beginning of the nation’s role as a superpower. The war also transformed the American economy into an enormously productive and enduringly prosperous economy.” TAJ

Images from Google Images

Objective: Identify the important leaders of World War II and their

involvements in the war.Leaders:

1. Benito Mussolini: Italy

2. Adolf Hitler: Germany

3. Joseph Stalin-Soviet Union (Russia)

4. America

5. Japan

Section 1

The Road to War

Rise of DictatorsItaly

“He who wants to live must fight, and he who does not want to fight in this world, where eternal struggle is the law of life, has no right to exist.”

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf ( My struggle)

Rise to power by taking advantage of people’s anger and suffering.

Benito Mussolini Il Duce (the leader)

Appealed to resentment of Italians who felt they did not win enough in the Versailles Treaty.

Made fascism popular in Italy. Extreme nationalism and racism

His Fascist Party gained enough power to force Italy’s king to declare him head of the government.

Banned all other political parties. Ended democratic rule in Italy.

1935- Sent forces to invade Ethiopia

“God and history will remember your judgment. It is us today. It will be you tomorrow.” (Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassis, appealing to the League of Nations for help.)

Germany

Exploited concern over inflation and unemploymentPlayed upon bitterness over Versailles treaty

Became chairman of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – Nazi Party- 1921

Openly racist Anti-Semitism- hatred of Jews (Blamed them for Germany’s problems)1931-Became chancellor-

chief minister of Germany- ended all democracy and established totalitarian rule

In a totalitarian state a single party and its leader suppress all opposition and control all aspects of people’s lives

1936- Formed an alliance with Italy

Adolf Hitler

“Like a Roman emperor Hitler rode into this medieval town . . . The streets, hardly wider than alleys, are a sea of brown and black uniforms. . .When Hitler finally appeared on the balcony for a moment. . .people looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces transformed into something positively inhuman.”

-American journalist William Shirer

The passion of the Nazis really shocked him, and would eventually shock the rest of the world.

Japan

1930s- Military leaders in Japan rose to power as Japanese became upset with their government for not solving their economic problems during the Depression.

September 1931- Launched an attack on province of Manchuria (NE China). Attack condemned by League of Nations…but no action.

Japan set up a government in Manchuria.

1937- Invaded northern China …moving southward until it occupied most of the country.

Signed a pact of alliance with Germany and Italy.

AXIS

Soviet Union

Rose to power as Communist leader (late 1920s)

Demanded complete

obedience

Controlled by use of force

Joseph Stalin

Executed rivals, ordered deaths of thousands suspected of supporting rivals, sent millions of Russians to labor camps.

American Neutrality

Most Americans wanted to avoid involvement. Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts between 1935 and 1937 (banned sale of weapons to nations at war, allowed trade only with nations that could pay cash and ship their own goods.)

Germany on the March

Hitler began moving forward with his plans for expansion.

1936 – Ordered troops into Rhineland

1938- Sent troops into AustriaTurned to Sudetenland (area of Czechoslovakia where many German-speaking people lived)- Czechs prepared to fight

European leaders- from Britain and France- met in Munich, Germany (1938) to seek a peaceful solution- avoid war.

France and Britain’s leaders tried to avoid war by accepting Germany’s demands- (policy later called appeasement)

Turn Sudetenland over to Germany: Hitler promised not to expand Germany’s territory.1939- Hitler’s army seized

Czechoslovakia

Hitler planned to invade Poland, but worried it would anger Stalin.

Hitler and Stalin signed the treaty called the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact (1939)- Hitler could use force against Poland without fear of Soviet intervention.

Road the War

Objective:

• Describe the events that led the United States into World War II.

1. Atlantic Charter

2. Battles

3. Pearl Harbor

Section 2

War Begins

In a speech delivered by President Franklin Roosevelt, he expressed the feelings many Americans had toward the growing “epidemic of world lawlessness.” (1937) TAJ

“We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure ourselves against disastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement.”

September 1, 1937- Hitler sent his armies to Poland.

Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Poland was split in half by Hitler and Stalin.

Soviet troops moved into eastern Poland (acting on Soviet agreement with Germany to divide Poland.)

World War II had begun.

“blitzkrieg” “lightning war”- attack was swift and fierce

Stalin forced Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to accept Soviet military bases. Tried to do the same with Finland…they fought back, but eventually surrendered. (1940)

The War ExpandsBritish and French forces settled in the Maginot Line- string of steel and concrete bunkers along the German border from Belgium to Switzerland.

Dutch surrendered, Belgians were also overwhelmed

April- Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway (North)

Hitler attacked Netherlands and Belgium (west)

Netherlands and Belgium asked help from the Allies – Great Britain and France

With the collapse of Belgium allied troops retreated to the port of Dunkirk (NW corner of France) on the English Channel.

Trapped between Germans and French coast.

B

A

A

Withdrawal from Dunkirk

Germans crossed the Somme River and continued into France.

Italy joined the war on Germany’s side and attacked France from the southeast.

Germany, Italy- and later Japan- formed the AXIS POWERS.

June 14, 1940, German troops marched into Paris…Stunned by the blitzkrieg, the French surrendered.

Bad

G. I. Joe

AXIS Powers:

The Battle of BritainDomination of

Western EuropeThe only thing standing between Hitler anddomination of Western Europe was. . .

Great Britain

Hitler had to come up with a plan.

1st- Break British morale

Then, invade Britain.

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Germans bombed: British shipyards, industries and cities.

Destroyed entire neighborhoods …killed many civilians.

Hitler called for Great Britain to surrender.

“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, gave this response:

The Battle of Britain continued on from August until October, 1940- but the Germans never gained control over the skies. The heroics of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) caused Hitler to end the air attacks.

Germany Turns EastFrustrated over his failure in Britain, Hitler decided to turn East to fulfill his dream . . .

Of taking over the Soviet Union.

He attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941- ignoring the pact he’d made with Stalin.

Germans moved into Soviet territory.

The Soviet Union joined the Allies in their fight against the Axis Powers.

Axis Powers

AlliesV.

?

America and the War

America First Committee

Group formed by isolationists; Leaders included Charles Lindbergh (aviation hero) and Henry Ford.

Roosevelt: VOWED TO STAY NEUTRAL

PREPARED FOR WAR

Strengthened the Navy; signed the Selective Training and Service Act (1st peacetime draft in U.S. history- applied to men between ages 21-35.)

New Neutrality Act- Allowed U.S. to sell weapons to countries on a “cash and carry” basis.

The 1940 election

“Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”

-Franklin Roosevelt

With world in crisis, Roosevelt decided to run for a 3rd term …breaking the tradition that had been set since George Washington.

Ran against Democrat candidate- business leader Wendell L. Wilkie of Indiana.

Roosevelt won an easy victory.

U.S. Involvement Grows

Lend-Lease Act

Roosevelt started supporting the Allies openly.

1941, Congress approved:

Allowed America to sell, lend, or lease arms or other war supplies to any country who was considered “vital to the defense of the United States.”

Britain was the 1st to use it; Isolationist argued it would increase U.S. involvement in the war.German submarines had been sinking British ships in the Atlantic- including those carrying supplies from the U.S. American ships started escorting British merchant ships. Germans began firing on the ships. Roosevelt issued a “shoot-on-sight” order to American naval vessels that saw German and Italian ships in certain areas.

The Atlantic Charter

Roosevelt and Churchill drew up the Atlantic Charter (1941.)

Pledged the people that all every nation would be free to choose their own form of government and live free of “fear and want.”

-Urged disarmament- giving up military weapons- and the creation of a “permanent system of general security.”

Planned for a world after the “destruction of the Nazi tyranny.” -TAJ

Pearl Harbor

The Japanese ThreatWhile Hitler and Mussolini were doing damage in Europe…the Japanese were making their conquests in the Far East.

Seized much of China in 1930s.

Seized French colony of Indochina in 1940 (in Southeast Asia.)

Planned to take Dutch East Indies, British Malaya, and Philippines (American territory.)

U.S. supplied economic pressure- freezing all Japanese assets in American banks; stopped the sale of oil, gasoline and other natural resources Japan needed.

Japanese were

outraged!

The United States Responds

Hideki Tojo

1941: Japanese prime minister, Fumimaro Konoye, resigned. (He had been willing to negotiate with U.S. because he felt Japan could not defeat U.S. at war.)

New prime minister, General Hideki Tojo, did not agree.

November 20, 1941, negotiations were open between the U.S. and Japan in Washington.

At the same time, the Tojo government began to plan an attack on the U.S.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor7:55 Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Ships were anchored in neat rows, airplanes grouped together on the airfield.

“In the Navy housing areas around Pearl Harbor, people couldn’t imagine what was wrecking Sunday morning. Captain Reynolds Hayden, enjoying breakfast at his home on Hospital Point, thought it was construction blasting…Lieutenant C.E. Boudreau, drying down after a shower, thought an oil tank had blown up near his quarters…until a Japanese plane almost grazed the bathroom window. Chief Petty Officer Albert Molter, puttering around his Ford Island flat, thought a drill was going on until his wife Esther called, ‘Al, there’s a battleship tipping over.’ ”-Admiral William R. Furlong

Pearl Harbor was the worst defeat in United States military history. . . yet it united Americans. President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war. He called December 7th a date that would “live in infamy.” Congress approved of the President’s request.

December 11, 1941: Germany and Italy- Japan’s allies declared war on the U.S.

Congress declared war on them as well. The U.S. was now part of the Allies—Great Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union.

Axis Powers

Allies

V.

Propaganda Posters

Section 3

On the

Home

Front

On the Home FrontAmerica Prepares

Attack on Pearl Harbor united Americans.

Started preparing for war!

U.S. had already begun raising an army under the Selective Service Acts of 1940 & 1941. More than 15 million Americans joined the armed forces during the war (both as draftees and volunteers.)

For the 1st time, large numbers of women served in the military. ABOUT 250,000

WACs (Women’s Army Corps) and WAVES (women Appointed for Volunteer Emergency Services in the Navy), women’s units in marines, Coast Guard and army air corps.

To speed up mobilization- military and civilian preparations for war- the government created some new agencies.

War Production Board

Supervised industries as they converted their efforts to war production

Revenue Act of 1942

National War Labor Board

Set limits on consumer prices and rents- prevent inflation

Tried to resolve labor disputes that could slow down war production

Financing the War

The Office of Price Administration

TAXES: Raised taxes on corporations; required all Americans to pay an income tax- Congress approved of a system that withheld taxes from worker’s paychecks

Sold War Bonds

Making Sacrifices

Helping the War EffortVictory Gardens

Wartime AmericaSeparation from loved ones (fearing a telegram that he/she had been killed)

Shortages of consumer goods (with industries focus on war production)

Rationing of resources and goods (consumers could only buy a limited number of some things)

Civil Defense

Children collected scrap metal.

Office of War Information

War had reduced supply of vegetable fats from the Far East. Substitutes were needed., Fat makes glycerine and glycerine makes explosives. Millions of pounds of glycerine was needed. Government appealed to housewives to provide it.

“Don’t throw away a single drop of used cooking fat, bacon fat, meat drippings, fry fats- every kind you use. After you’ve got all the cooking good from them, pour them through a kitchen strainer into a clean, wide-mouthed can. Keep it in a cool dark place . . . . Take them to your meat dealer when you’ve saved a pound or more. He is cooperating patriotically. . .”

U.S. government bulletin posted in meat markets.

Women and MinoritiesWith millions of men joining the armed

forces, there were more women than ever before in the labor force. (doing jobs usually done by men- welders, riveters, etc.)—Rosie the Riveter

Women earned less than men

When war ended and troops came home, many lost their jobs.

It did change opinion about women’s right to work.

African Americans During the War

About one million African- American men and women in armed forces

At first, given low-level assignments; segregated units.

Tuskegee Airmen- 332nd Fighter Group – shot down 200 enemy planes.

Benjamin Davis, Jr. 1st African American general in U.S. Air Force

A. Philip Randolph (1941) Demanded the government band discrimination against African Americans in defense industries

“ . . . There shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin.”

President Franklin Roosevelt

“Yet you say we’re fighting for democracy. Then why don’t democracy include me?”

-Langston Hughes

Hispanic Americans

Native AmericansThousands of Native Americans served in the armed forces.

More than 250,000 served in armed forces.

Mercedes Cubria- 1st Hispanic women officer in Women’s Army corps

Bracero program- recruited farm and railroad workers from Mexico during the war

Special group of Navajo formed the “code talkers” – using their language in radio communication regarding military strategies

Ira Hayes- Native American hero in battle for Iwo Jima

Japanese Americans

Feared and hated by many other Americans even though most were Nisei (born in U.S)

Leaders worried about their loyalty if Japanese forces invaded U.S.

President ordered army to relocate more than 100,000 West Coast Japanese Americans to detention centers or internment camps

Internment camps were crowded and uncomfortable. They had only days to get ready to move. They left many things behind; abandoned homes and businesses (or sold at a loss)

Many stayed at the camps for 3 years.

“After all those years, having worked his whole life to build a dream – having it all taken away . . . . He died a broken man.”

-Japanese American Peter Ota (whose family were sent to an internment camp in Colorado) recalled how his father suffered.

1944- In Korematsu v. United States, Supreme Court upheld the order for relocation of Japanese Americans.

1988- Americans acknowledged the injustice. Congress issued a formal apology and gave each survivor $20,000 ( token of the nation’s regret).

Section 4

War in

Europe

and

Africa

North African Campaign“On January 1, 1942 – three weeks after Pearl Harbor- the United States joined Britain, the Soviet Union, and 23 other Allied nations in vowing to defeat the Axis Powers.” -TAJ

Stalin and many American Military leaders wanted to launch an attack on continental Europe- forcing Germans to defend their own empire.

Churchill argued that it would be too difficult. Roosevelt agreed.

Allies planned to attack North Africa. November 1942- British turned Rommel back at El Alamein- preventing Germans from capturing Suez Canal

American, British and Canadian troops, led by American general Dwight D. Eisenhower. Landed in Algeria and Morocco (Nov. 8, 1942. The inexperienced troops met defeat in Tunisia.

Erwin Rommel- “Desert fox” German general in command of Axis forces.

May 1943: Backed by the British air and naval power, American general George Patton, closed in on Rommel and drove the Germans out of North Africa.

The Invasion of Italy

Using bases in North Africa, Allies launched an invasion of southern Europe.

Took island of Sicily (Summer 1943):

Landed on Italian mainland in September.

Italians overthrew dictator, Benito Mussolini, and surrendered to the Allies. German forces in Italy continued to fight.

Although Allies met fierce resistance in town of Monte Cassino and were pinned down on the beaches of Anzio by German forces for 4 months, they finally broke through German lines and advanced toward Rome. They liberated Rome in June 1944.

Air War Over Germany

Fighting rages in North Africa and Italy.

Allies launch an air war against Germany.

Summer of 1942: British and American Air Forces launch a massive bombing campaign against Germany.

Hundreds of American bombers pound German factories and cities by day.

British bombers pound them by night.

Massive destruction- deaths of thousands of German civilians.

Raids on port of Hamburg created a tower of fire that engulfed the city- More than 30,000 people died in the raids. Germany still was determined to win the war.

The Eastern Front

The Invasion of France

The Tide Turns in EuropeSoviets and Germans locked in ferocious combat. Soviet Union taking main force of Germany’s European war effort for months.

September 1941- Germans surrounded Leningrad- Began a siege (military blockade) that lasted nearly 900 days.

After Germans won Stalingrad (spring 1942), Soviet forces surrounded the city, cutting off German supply lines.

Cold and starving, the troops fought until February 1943, and the army finally surrendered.

While the Soviets pushed toward Germany from the east, the Allies planned a massive invasion from the west- into France.

Operation Overload- Commander of Allied forces- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

“All southern England was one vast military camp, crowded with soldiers awaiting final word to go.” -Eisenhower

Planned to land troops on the French coast of Normandy on June 5. (rough seas forced a delay)

June 6, 1944 – D-Day – Allied ships landed on coast of Normandy.

Within a few weeks, Allies had landed a million troops in France. They pushed across France. On August 25, French and American soldiers marched through joyful crowds and liberated Paris.

Victory in Europe

Germany

Germany fought for survival on two fronts.

December 16, 1944- Germans mounted a last, desperate offensive- a surprise attack along the 50 mile front in Belgium.

Battle of the Bulge- Germans drove troops and artillery deep into a bulge in the Allied lines; Allies pushed Germans back.

This battle resulted in more than 100,000 casualties.

Marked the end of serious German resistance.

By mid-April 1945- soviets surrounded Berlin (German capital.)

Hitler (who had spent the final months of the war in an underground bunker) realized the situation was hopeless and committed suicide.

May 7, 1945- Germany signed an unconditional surrender- ending war in Europe.

May 8- “V-E” Day- Victory in Europe.

Death of a President

February 1945- president Franklin Roosevelt had traveled to Yalta in the Soviet Union to meet with Churchill and Stalin.

He died suddenly after returning home- April 12, 1945

When Vice President Harry S. Truman asked Eleanor Roosevelt if there was anything he could do for her, she said:

“Is there anything we can do for you? You are the one in trouble now.”

The Holocaust

In Remembrance

As the Allies liberated areas that had been under German control, they found evidence of Nazi brutality.

Concentration camps – prison camps for civilians

“I watched a family of about eight persons . . . [A soldier] instructed them to go behind the earth mound. . .They went down into the pit, lined themselves up against the previous victims and were shot.”

-Witness of massacre of Russian Jews

“Across the sandy clearing is the incinerator, but it ran out of fuel. A rough record by the chief burner of bodies records 17,000 burned last month. They say each body was roughly clubbed as it went in.”

-British Reporter, R.W. Thompson

In the largest camp, Auschwitz (Poland) Nazis killed between 1 and 2 million people; As many as 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. (Others included Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, Gypsies, and people with handicaps.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC; National WWII Memorial- dedicated to all who served during the war.

Section 5

War in

the

Pacific

Pacific Front

Philippines Fall

On December 7,, 1941- The same day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor- Japanese bombers struck American airfields in the Philippines, and on islands of Wake and Guam- key bases in the Pacific.

Then, they invaded Thailand and Malaya and captured Guam, Wake Island and British colony of Hong Kong.

Japanese troops had landed in Philippines and taken the capital of Manila.

Filipino and American troops- commanded by American general Douglas MacArthur- had to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula west of Manila and an island called Corregidor.

After months of fighting, Allied troops in Bataan surrendered. Allies on Corregidor held out for another month.

Japanese forced their Bataan prisoners to march to a prison camp more than 60 miles away.

Bataan Death MarchAbout 76,000 prisoners started out, only 54,000 reached the camp.

“Anybody that could walk, they forced ‘em into line . . . If you fell out to the side, you were either shot by the guards or you were bayoneted [stabbed] and left there.” -Survivor of the Bataan Death March

“Two months before the surrender, General MacArthur had left for Australia to take command of the Allied forces in the Pacific. MacArthur promised the Filipinos, ‘I shall return.’ ” -TAJ

Island Hopping

The Advance on Japan

Because of the many victories of the Japanese, American morale was low.

The U.S. was ready to go on the offensive against Japan.

Commanders General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz- adopted a strategy known as island hopping.

Attacking and capturing certain key islands. Then, the U.S. could use these islands to “leapfrog: to others- moving closer to the Philippines and to Japan.

Between August 1942 and February 1943, Americans engaged in one of the most vicious campaigns of the war- to take control of Guadalcanal- June 1944, Americans captured Guam and other nearby islands. Guam provided a base for launching bombing strikes on Japan. In Battle of Leyte Gulf (Biggest naval battle in

history) in the Philippines- Americans destroyed most of the Japanese Fleet.

American forces seized island of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. American bombers pounded Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Japanese sent out kamikazes – suicide pilots- that crashed planes loaded with explosives into American ships.

The Atomic bomb

Japanese refused to surrender. Their refusal led the U.S. to use a powerful new weapon.

After German-born physicist, Albert Einstein warned President Roosevelt that the Nazis might use the energy of an atom to build an “extremely powerful bomb”, Roosevelt had created the Manhattan Project- to build such a bomb.Allies issued the Potsdam

Declaration- warned the Japanese that if they did not surrender, they would face “prompt and utter destruction.”

They did not surrender, so Truman ordered the use of the bomb.

August 6, 1945, an American bomber- the Enola Gay- dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

The destruction was so overwhelming that Japan surrendered.

Enola Gay and the Atom Bomb

More Destruction

Effects

The War Ends

The Cost of the War

.

Japanese agreed to surrender: August 15, 1945.

V-J Day- “Victory over Japan”

Japan signed the formal surrender on September 2 aboard the battle ship the U.S.S. Missouri.

World War II had finally ended.

In years after the war, Allies put Nazi and Japanese leaders on trial in Nuremberg, Germany and Tokyo. (Nuremberg Trials)

The most destructive conflict in history.

More than 40 million died- more than half were civilians killed by bombing, starvation, disease, torture and murder.

American casualties- about 322,000 dead- 800,000 injured; soviet Union suffered more than 20 million deaths.