WWII May 22, 2012

Aftermath of the Munich Agreement (Background on Conference)

Hitler concluded that Western powers would not resist even more aggressive action.

Munich convinced Stalin that the Western powers were weak and they were trying to steer German aggression to the east.

March 1939 Hitler invaded CzechoslovakiaHitler claimed the Czech's could not maintain security of population against ethnic violence

The move = naked aggression

Senses were that the next crisis would be over Poland, specifically the Danzig Cooridor

U.K. and France made formal protest with Berlin and League of Nations.

Chamberlain issued a guarantee to Polandagainst German aggression.

WWII May 22, 2012

Moscow held key to diplomatic situation in summer of 1939

Low level talks between UK, France and USSR were held with no real sense of urgency

Neither viewed any sort of accommodation btwn Third Reich and USSR possible

Both Hitler and Stalin were interested in an agreement

Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 = shocked the worldNon-Aggression pact held secret clauses that divided Poland and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

Pact served both sides:for Stalin:

bought time to rebuild armed forces

pushed Soviet frontier westward adding a buffer zone against further Nazi aggression

A deal with the West was deemed untrustworthy, so this was the more attractive option

for Hitlerpact ended threat of two-front war

hoped it would deter Western intervention in his planned war against Poland

WWII May 22, 2012

German invasion of Poland Sept. 1, 1939

Blitzkrieg = Lightening Warstrategy worked well -

idea was to fight a war of short duration isolating enemies without having to mobilize full mobilization of the economy.

This strategy worked in Poland - and Hitler thought he could bring about a settlement with UK and France

WWII May 22, 2012

Phony War Between fall of Poland in October and German

invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940, no fighting occurred btwn German and western powers

This period was marked by endless attempts to lure allies to a peace settlement.

In May 1940, Germans launched a massive invasion of the Low Countries & France = Holland and Belgium were quickly overrun.

By June - France was overrun. The gov't, led by PM Reynaud and General de Gaulle wanted to continue the war from French N. Africa; however, the French High Command, supported by Marshal Petain, favored immediate armistice.

French military felt anger at the BritishCertainty of German victory made resistance futilePleas from new British PM: Winston Churchill to continue to fight

WWII May 22, 2012

Battle of BritainFailed Operation Sea Lion

RAF v. Luftwaffe

Bombing of Londonsignaled ominous approach to warfare - the bombing of civilians

WWII May 22, 2012

War in the East

Soviet Union had occupied center stage in Hitler's ideological and geopolitical thought.

To gain Lebensraum in the east, Russia would have to be defeated

War against the Soviet Union would be a great crusade against the Judeo-Bolshevism.

Hitler began planning for attack in the fall of 1940

Operation Barbarossa - planning to attack the Red Army in western Russia (deemed weak due to past battles) began in Spring 1941

Invasion was postponed due to unusually wet weather and the need to rescue Mussolini form the debacle in Greece

Operation Barbaraossa would be the largest military operation in human history

WWII May 22, 2012

WWII May 22, 2012

War to the deathGerman soldiers were issued the so-called

Commissar Order, which ordered them to kill leaders of the Communist Party, guerrillas, saboteurs, and Jews wherever they were encountered.

Special commando units of the SS, the Einsatzgruppen, were to follow the troops into the Soviet Union. They were given "special tasks" = the wholesale murder of the the Jews.

Invasion began June, 22, 1941initially the Germans made great strides - cities

fell, until weather caused the Germans to stall.

On December 5-6, the Red Army launched a massive counter-attack before Moscow = Blitzkreig phase was over.

WWII May 22, 2012

World at War

European war soon became a World WarJapanese attack in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in 1941 transformed the war into a global conflict.

Attack on Pearl Harbor drew US into the war

4 days later, Hitler declared war on US

Japan also attacked British, French, and Dutch colonial possessions in Southeast Asia

By mid-December the Japanese war with China had been merged with the German war in Europe and the entire world was at war.

WWII May 22, 2012

1942-43, the tide turns

Early 1942, the Germans continued their victorious march in Russia and they invaded N. Africa

By 1942 fear grew in the Allied camp of a German-Japanese linkup in the Indian Ocean and in the Middle East.

English began a series of engagement with Hitler's Afrika Korps = victory for the English

WWII May 22, 2012

Operation Torch - Nov. 1942Allies launched attacks against French N. Africaand pushed eastward, driving the Germans fromNorth Africa

In early 1943 Allies continued into Sicilyand then mainland Italy.

Italy surrendered, Mussolini was deposed, and German troops rushed to hold the Alliesin Southern Italy.

WWII May 22, 2012

In the east, the battle of Stalingrad (Nov. 1942- Feb. 1943 marked the turning point of the war.

The German 6th army was surrounded and defeated, with more than 300,000 casualties

After Stalingrad, the Germans ceased from launching any other major offensives in the east.

WWII May 22, 2012

Allied Assault on Fortress Europe, 1944-45US and RAF aircraft continuously bombed

German cities

The incineration of Hamburg in the summer of 1943 was a preview of the destruction that strategic bombing would bring to the German home front

WWII May 22, 2012

D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 marked the turning point of the war in the west.

After fighting in Normandy, Paris was liberated in August and Germans were drives from France

the Germans would launch one more major offensive in the West in Dec. 1944 - Battle of the Bulge, ending with a German defeat.

Summer of 1944 Russians also launched a major offensive - driving into Poland and destroying virtually all of Germany's Army Group Center.

WWII May 22, 2012

Costs of War

The dead numbered between 37 million and 55 million. They included 22 million Russians, almost 6 million Germans and 6 to 8 million Jews.

Europe's cities were destroyedParis and Rome had been spared, but London,

Berlin, Dresden, Caen, Warsaw and countless others had been destroyed.

Refugees flooded into Western Europe form the devastated east.

The onset of the Cold War and the division of Europe ensued.