WWII

“The Big One”

Japan Responds to the Depression

• Military leaders elected to power who promote absolute powers for Emperor Hirohito

• In 1931, Japan invades Manchuria: for what?• coal, iron ore, oil.

Weak Responses Encouraged More Attacks

In 1935 Italy seizes Ethiopia.• 1935 troops into Rhineland.• 1936 Axis Pact.• 1936 Japan joins Axis.

Why were the responses to these events so weak? - Why didn’t the League of Nations do anything? ?

The Axis Supported General Franco 1936-39

• Spanish Civil War

• Western volunteers support democracy.

• 1939 Fascist rebel forces prevail.

Munich Pact: Sudetenland

• Sept 1938:What were the results of appeasement?– Promised “last territorial claim”– Neville Chamberlain:

• “Peace in our time”

Appeasement

Hitler Correctly Gauged French and British Response

Why were the British and French reluctant to challenge Germany?

Various Historians have said that the Munich Pact….

1. let Hitler grow stronger.

2. gave Britain time to re-arm.

3. humiliated Britain – no country in central Europe ever trusted Britain again.

4. abandoned millions of people to the Nazis.

5. caused the war, by encouraging Hitler to think he could do anything.

6. gave Britain the morale high ground – when war came, Britons knew they had done everything possible to keep the peace.

7. would never have stopped Hitler, who was determined to go to war.

8. was a fine attempt to prevent the deaths of millions of people in a war.

Blitzkrieg Took

Poland in 1 Month

What is this 1939 political cartoon about?

What is the Deal with the Soviets?

• Secret: USSR-Germany split E. Europe

• Germany wants to avoid a 2 front war…

To the chancellor of the German Reich, Herr A. Hitler.

I thank you for your letter. I hope that the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact will mark a decisive turn for the better in the political relations between our two countries. . . .

J. Stalin*

August 1939

Ribbentrop, Molotov (f), Stalin

Germany Expanded Without A Shot, Until Poland was Attacked

1936

Sept. 1938

March 1939

March 1938

Munich

1936-1939 War Begins inPoland, Sept 1,’39France, GB declare Sept 3

German Reichstag Celebrates Annexation of Austria

The Blitzkrieg Spread• Denmark : 24 hours• Norway’s ports in 2 days• Maginot Line• Netherlands/Belgium/&

France : 5 weeks– Retreat from Dunkirk

• By the end of June, most of Western Europe had been taken.

• Resistance groups• Balkans fall in weeks

“Lightning Warfare”

Germans March into Paris

• June 14, 1940: Humiliated France forced to sign at Compeign in RR car– A new Prime Minister: General Henri Petain

• What did the French have to give up?

– France had to pay 400 Franks/day + 80% of resources + 2/3 of France annexed

– French Jews turned over– French lands in the Pacific given to Japan

• France Split: “Vichy France”

Charles De Gaulle• Vichy Regime becomes

increasingly corrupt and cooperates with Nazis

• Charles de Gaulle – – Created “Free French,” a secret

resistance movement to sabotage Nazis

• FDR recognizes Vichy Regime, but Churchill backed de Gaulle as leader of “Free French”

Battle of Britain: Her “Finest Hour”• Delayed: Hitler was sure Britain would surrender• What is Churchill’s famous quote about this battle?“Never was so much owed by so many to so few”• New Tech?

– Radar– Ultra

Churchill Speech

America’s role in the War• Radio broadcasts brought the war into

American homes• Overcoming Isolationism

– Neutrality Acts in 1935 and 1937

• 1939 – FDR persuades Congress to allow sale of weapons to fighting nations by cash-and-carry policy

• 1940 – Congress approves draft during peacetime

• 1941 Lend-Lease Act – US would lend/lease supplies to countries fighting against aggressors

An Undeclared German/American Naval War

• In 1941 US was arming merchant ships and using navy to protect British ships

• September 4, 1941 German submarine fires on the USS Greer

• FDR orders navy commanders to shoot German submarines on sight after Greer incident

• Germany increasingly used newly developed U-Boats in naval war

A most critical friendship…

The Atlantic Charter: July 1941

• No enlargement of territories after the war;

• No territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;

• Right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live;

• Bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;

– established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;

• Traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance

• These ideas look a lot like what other plan that we’ve seen…?

German Invasion of the Soviet Union

• Soviet Union tempting because it offered additional living space and resources for Germany

• Hitler attacks Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941 to take over the Balkans

• Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary join the Axis

• June 22, 1941 – German uses blitzkrieg against USSR

• Three goals in USSR: Leningrad, Moscow, Ukraine

Hitler’s Biggest Mistake?• Operation Barbarossa

June 22, 1941– Leningrad surrounded,

never surrenders– Moscow never taken

• Stalemate in the snow

• Napoleon retreated, but

• Hitler won’t…“No Retreat” order is given– German troops suffer

stranglehold at

Stalingrad by early 1943.

– Retreat

Civilians at War

Pacific Campaign: Japan Threatened American Interests

• Japan attacked China, a friend of US– Civilians at War Video

• US demands Japan withdraw from China or face embargo– FDR bans sale of scrap iron, steel, oil– Japan got 80% of fuel and scrap iron from the US– Prime Minister Tojo orders an attack on the US…

Before Pearl Harbor Happened…

1. Like Hitler, the Japanese saw Allies as weak– Negotiations dragged out by Japanese

2. Japanese code was broken– What did President Roosevelt know on Dec 6?

• Philippines a likely target

3. US Army orders in Hawaii not taken seriously

Pearl Harbor: Sunday morning Dec. 7, ‘41

6 Jap aircraft carriers w/ 400 planes

“…a day which shall live in infamy.” - F. Roosevelt

2403 Americans died1000 wounded18 ships damaged; 8 battleships but no aircraft carriers

Japanese overran Western Pacific 1939-42

But then…

Coral Sea, Midway 1942

Guadalcanal 1942

American Island Hopping Campaign

Before D-Day, the Allied Air War was Key

British began night bombing Germany in ‘42 using American built bombers– Flying Fortress B-17– Liberator B-24

• The most built plane of the war (19000)

• American units joined with B-17s and B-24s by 1943– High level daylight bombing of industrial areas

Allies To Europe by way of…North Africa: Why Africa?

1942 hit Morocco• For oil and canal: Gen

Montgomery defeats Gen Rommel near Suez Canal at El Alamein, Egypt

• Churchill and FDR met at Casablanca to plan…– Unconditional surrender

demanded from Axis– And in ’43 hit Europe from the

south

• Sicily, then Italy in ’43– Why was Stalin unhappy?

General George Patton

The Desert Fox

1943-44: Allies Fight Their Way Up the Boot

• Sicily is a preview of D-Day in Normandy

• Uprising: Mussolini arrested and Imprisoned– escapes to Germans

• Civil War in Italy• German troops pour in

What Happened to Mussolini?

• Sets up Italian Socialist Republic in German-held northern Italy. – In April, 1945, he

would again be captured by Italians, and …….

April 1945

Big Three decide at Tehran in ‘43 to launch 3rd front in France

But not til next year

Normandy Landing: June 6, ‘44

Largest amphibious invasion ever undertaken

Animated Map of Normandy Battle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4UoQNHfPQ8

Allies Race Across France

Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton

The Battle of the Bulge:

German counterattack Dec 1944Newsreel

Yalta, Soviet Union, 1945

Reds and Yanks Meet West of Berlin

April 25, ’45

• Tensions between allies evident

Cold War coming

Japan’s Atrocities

• In China 1937-• Massacre of Nanjing– 200,000 civilians killed– 20,000 raped

Beheading POWs

"'Incredible Record' (in the Contest to Cut Down 100 People) Mukai 106 – 105 Noda—Both 2nd Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings".

Kamikaze Warfare: 1944-45

May 1945: USS Bunker Hill hit and loses 372 sailors

“Divine Wind”

2500 kamikaze pilots sacrificed

Sunk 34 ships, damaged 300 othersClaimed 5000 deaths, 10,000 casualties

Defeating Japan with atoms August 1945

• Hiroshima Aug 6• Nagasaki Aug 9• VJ Day Aug 15, 1945

Why drop the bombs?

1 Million casualties predicted if invaded– using Normandy-like invasion

• Manhattan Project– So secret even VP Truman

didn’t know

What did it take to achieve the surrender of Japan Aug. 1945???

• Generals MacArthur and Wainright Aboard the USS Missouri

Picasso’s “Guernica”

Civilians targeted

Civilian dead in Kerch, Ukraine, USSR, killed by German forces…

Kerch was the site of fierce fighting and exchanged hands several times, Germans killed or deported about 30,0000 civilians here

Using High Estimates, Total Approximate Deaths*

Country Pop. Killed/Missing   Wounded  Total(Military)  CivilianGermany 78m 5.5 million 2.6 million 8.1 million 1.6million

Italy   44m 330,000 Poland  35m 130,000 200,000 330,000 2.5 millU.K.  48m 400,000 300,000  700,000  67,000France  42m 250,000 350,000 600,000 270,000Australia  7m 30,000 40,000 70,000India  360m 36,000 64,000 100,000U.S.S.R. 194m 10.5 million 18 million 28.5 million 12 mill.U.S.A. 129m 400,000 600,000 1,000,000Dutch E I 69 mill 3-4 millJapan 71m 2.1 mill 600,000China 3-4mill 7-16

millRoughly, 47 million military deaths, and maybe 25 million civilian

If 72 mill, By Side: Allies: 61 millionAxis: 11 million

*Numbers vary widely…Totals from 50 to 72 million dead!

70 million deaths

The statue “Goodness” overlooking bombed out Dresden 1945…

The Incomprehensible Death Count

• 50 – 70 million people

• 20-28 million of these were Soviets

• USA: 400,000 – + 600,000 wounded casualties

Hitler’s End

• Soviet Approach – withdraws into Berlin bunker under Imperial Chancellory

• Marries Eva Braun April 29• Gets word of Mussolini’s death• April 30, 1945 –

– gives cyanide poison to Eva– Poisons and shoots self– Bodies are doused with kerosene, burned and buried

• May 4 – Remains dug up by Soviets– VE Day - May 8, 1945

Hitler’s Remains

• Soviet soldiers bury and dig up remains several times ‘45-46

• Soviets finally bury body in Magdeburg, E. Germany

• KGB take skull and jaw to Moscow

• Remains in Germany burned and ashes thrown into river, 1970

• Verification by Western scientists in 2003

What were the Effects of WWII?

• Immediate

• Long Term