World War II

1939 - 1945

Totalitarian Governments Italy – Fascist Party - Benito Mussolini

Il Duce – The Leader Blackshirts

Germany – Adolf Hitler Nazi Party Der Fuhrer – The Leader Beer Hall (Munich) Putsch 1923 – attempts to take over

govt. In jail, writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle)

Consolidates power (over Weimar Republic) Black Shirts, Brown Shirts, Gestapo Chancellor in 1933 Terror and intimidation; propaganda (Joseph Goebbels),

Hitler youth, education, media http://www.history.com/videos/hitlers-plans-for-a-new-germa

n-capital

USSR & Japan

Joseph Stalin (Man of Steel) Control over industry, farms 5 Year Plans to industrialize Great Purge – destroys Millions die under forced labor, collective farms, prisons Japan – Emperor Hirohito Heideki Tojo – military Invades Manchuria, China, Territorial expansion

Europe Goes to War

1. 1936 - German troops occupy the Rhineland

2. 1938 – Germany annexes Austria – Anschluss

3. Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) Germany needs lebenstraum Munich 1938 – appeasement Neville Chamberlain gives in

4. Germany takes rest of Czech.

Europe Goes to War

5. Germany signs non-aggression pact (Nazi-Soviet Pact) with USSR 1939

6. Sept. 1, 1939 – Germany invades Poland

WWII begins

Europe Goes to War Blitzkrieg (“lightening

war”) Hitler crushes Poland Stalin takes half of Poland

for USSR (communist) French build up Maginot

Line - defenses April 9, 1940 – Denmark,

Norway, Netherlands, Belgium fall Takes Paris on June 14,

1940 Evacuation (“Miracle”) at

Dunkirk to England

War cont.

Battle of Britain Luftwaffe vs. Royal Air

Force (RAF) Great acts of individual

bravery June 1940 – June

1941 – 30,000 Londoners killed

Winston Churchill rallies England

Hitler’s first defeat

Americans Debate

Was WWI a mistake? Was it about big industries making money off war? Isolationists debate the interventionists Neutrality Act 1939

Cash & carry – nations could buy from U.S. if they paid cash & used own ships (pro ally)

Lend Lease Act - loans to allies Atlantic Charter – deepening alliance w/Britain; self

determination of nations Hitler orders attacks on U.S. ships

Japan

Japan Builds an Empire Invades Manchuria; other Pacific

Islands 30’s & 40’s American Response

FDR moves Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Threatens Japan’s expansion America remains neutral

Embargo; Japanese assets frozen

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 – “a date

which will live in infamy” U.S. enters World War II http://www.history.com/shows/wwii-in-hd/videos

/attack-pearl-harbor

Pearl Harbor

Fighting in Italy and North Africa

German General Erwin Rommel – “Desert Fox”

Leads Afrika Corps Panzer units (tanks) Defeated by GB at

Battle of El Alamein

George Patton takes Sicily; North Africa

“Bloody Anzio”, Italy Italy surrenders Mussolini killed by

anti-fascists

War in the Soviet Union

3.6 million Germans attack in 1941

Operation Barbarossa Scorched earth policy Bitter winter Battle of Stalingrad Red Army launches

massive assault; victory for USSR

Turning point in war

Invasion of Western Europe

Build up of troops in GB D-Day (June 6, 1944)

Operation Overlord Largest landing force in

history invades Normandy, France

Dwight D. Eisenhower – Supreme Allied Commander

http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us/videos/d-day-invasion

Battle of the Bulge 1944 – Hitler’s last chance to

defend Germany Costly for U.S. Patton stops Germans

War Ends in Europe

The Soviets Advance Move on Berlin

U.S. moves from west Soviets move from east

Soviets take Berlin in April 1945

Germany Surrenders Hitler commits suicide

on May 1, 1945 Germany surrenders on

May 8, 1945 V-E Day (Victory in

Europe Day)

War Ends in Europe cont.

The Yalta Conference Stalin, Churchill, and

FDR (the big three) make postwar plans

Potsdam Conference Divided Germany (4

zones) Stalin promised to

enter war in the Pacific

War in the Pacific The Japanese

advance The Philippines fall General Macarthur

forced to leave (“I shall return”)

Bataan Death March The Battle of Coral

Sea First aircraft carrier

battle Prevented attack of

Australia

War in the Pacific

Allied victories turn the tide

The Battle of Midway Destroy Jap. ships

Iwo Jima and Okinawa Key victories http://www.history.com/

shows/wwii-in-hd/videos/battle-iwo-jima

Kamikaze fighters Island hopping to Japan

War Ends in Pacific

The Manhattan Project – secret project to develop an atomic bomb

Los Alamos FDR dies – Truman makes

decision to drop the bomb August 6, 1945 - “Little Boy”

dropped on Hiroshima August 9, 1945 - “Fat Man”

dropped on Nagasaki Sept. 2, 1945 – Japan

signs surrender

Hiroshima

Liberation

Soviet and American troops come upon Nazi concentration camps

World begins to learn about the Holocaust

Genocide http://www.history.com/shows/wwii-in-hd/vid

eos/concentration-camp-liberation