 Chapter Twenty-8

 “World War II”

 The Road to War
 Several factors need to be understood concerning the events
leading to World War II.
 Dissatisfaction with the Versailles Treaty.
 Pacifism of the democratic states of England and France.
 The USSR was distrustful of Germany, Italy, and Japan but due to the
weakness of Anglo-French relations, Stalin enter an agreement with
Hitler in 1939.
 The Course of Events
 Using a Franco-Soviet agreement of the preceding year as an
excuse, Hitler, on March 7, 1936 repudiated the Locarno
agreements and reoccupied the Rhineland.
 The Treaty of Versailles had demilitarized the Rhineland.
 Neither France nor Britain was willing to oppose this moves.

 The Spanish Civil War

 The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) is usually seen as a rehearsal for
World War II because of outside intervention.
 The government of the Spanish Republic caused resentment among
conservatives by its programs, including land reform and anti-clerical
legislation aimed at the Catholic Church.
 Labor discontent led to disturbances in Barcelona and the surrounding
province of Catalonia.
 The Rome-Berlin Axis
 The Spanish Civil War was a factor in bringing together
Mussolini and Hitler in a Rome-Berlin Axis
 Already Germany and Japan had singed the Anti-Communist
Pact in 1936.
 Ostensibly directed against international communism, this
was the basis for a diplomatic alliance between those
 countries and Italy soon adhered to this agreement, becoming
Germany’s ally in world War II.
 Italy’s Invasion of Ethiopia
 Italy, in addition to its involvement in Spain, launched a war
to conquer the African kingdom of Ethiopia.
 The democracies chose not to intervene in this case,either,
despite Emperor Haile Selassie’s plea to the League of
Nations.
 By 1936 the conquest was complete.
 The Austrian Anschluss
 In 1938 Hitler renewed his campaign against Austria which
he had unsuccessfully tried to subvert in 1934.
 Pressure was put on the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnig
make concessions to Hitler, and when this did not work,
German troops annexed Austria, the Anschluss.

 The Sudetenland
 Hitler turned next to Czechoslovakia. Three million persons of
German origin lived in the Sudetenland, a borderland between
Germany and Czechoslovakia given to Czechoslovakia in order to
provide it with a more defensible boundary.
 These ethnic Germans agitated against the democratic government
despite its enlightened minority policy.
 Hitler and the Sudeten Nazi party worked to deliberately provoke a
crisis by making demands for a degree of independence unacceptable
to the Czech authorities.
 Hitler then claimed to interfere as the protector of a persecuted
minority.
 Alliances Form
 In March 1939, Hitler gained control of further Czech
territory.
 With the eyes of Europe on Germany, Italy was allowed to
take over Albania in the Balkans.
 Disillusioned by these continued aggressions, Britain and
France made military preparations.
 Guarantees were given to Poland, Rumania, and Greece.
 Opened negotiations with the USSR.

 Germany’s Attack in Europe

 Polish Invasion (blitzkrieg)
 September 1, 1939 (Britain and France declared war)
 Poland was overrun in 4 weeks
 Destruction of the Warsaw ghetto
 Belgium and France
 France reinforced the Maginot Line (defensive forts on the
German border)
 Germany attacks through Belgium and overruns northern
France in a few weeks
 The British and resisting French troops were trapped at a port
on the North Sea (Dunkirk)
 Every ship available in England (including rowboats) was used to
transport the troops to England
 The equipment had to be left at Dunkirk

 Vichy France
 The aging marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain established a German-
puppet government in Southern France, with headquarters in Vichy
 Vichy France was eventually occupied in 1942

 Britain
 The "Battle of Britain" was an air battle
 Beginning of Hitler’s attempt to invade Britain
 Churchill promises nothing but "blood, sweat and tears"
 When France surrendered, Churchill stated "Let us therefore
brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if
the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand
years, men will say, 'This was their finest hour.'"
 Germany believed it had to destroy the British factories
before it could invade
 Initial German success but eventually the English developed
airplanes (Spitfires) that could fight the German bombers

 British also learned to decode German messages.

 Hitler grew anxious and began to attack British non-military
sites (cities)
 “The Blitz”
 Britain eventually took control of the air and Churchill
praised the Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human
conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

 Balkans
 Hitler attacked Greece, Yugoslavia and forced Hungary,
Romania and Bulgaria into alliances
 Yugoslavia (Tito) resisted tenaciously and slowed the
German advance
 Russia
 Hitler attacked Russia in June 1941
 Wanted Russian land and resources.
 Hitler's innate hatred of the Communists may have led to this move
 Siege of Leningrad (about 2 years)
 As Soviets retreated the practiced a “Scorched Earth” policy.
  US Isolationism
 The US didn't actively participate on either side in the early
war
 Roosevelt realized that long range interests of the US favored
the Allies
 Lend lease (a policy designed to let the Allies buy US goods
on credit)

Japan's Invasions
 China
 Japan had attacked China in 1937
 America had given quiet support with airplanes (Flying
Tigers)
 Pappy Boyington
 Pearl Harbor
 US had imposed an embargo on the sale of vital raw
materials to Japan
 December 7, 1941, surprise attack ???????
 America lost all its Pacific fleet except for three aircraft
carriers
 “A day that will live in infamy.”
 America declared war on Japan

Allied Counterattacks in
Europe
 Soviet Union
 Russian army attacked in 1942 and trapped 300,000 German
troops who fought to a devastating defeat
 The Russian army began a slow push toward Germany

 North Africa
 British armor units (Montgomery) defeated combined
German and Italian troops (Rommel) at El Alamein, Egypt
(1943)
 American forces (Patten) attacked from Morocco and the
Germans were squeezed out of Africa
 May 1943, Allies hold all of N.Africa - ended threat to the
Suez Canal and made the Mediterranean safe for Allied ships

 Battle of the Bulge

 Last gasp of the Germans in the winter of 1944
 Allied troops were pushing near the Rhine River
 Attack through the forests of Eastern France and Belgium
 Germans surrounded Bastogne and trapped Americans
 Rescued by George Patten
 Germans ran out of fuel and were defeated
 Capture of the bridges over the Rhine signaled the end for the
Germans
 Surrender
 Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt agreed on who would capture
what territory (Tehran)
 The three leaders agreed that surrender would be total
 The leaders (now with Truman replacing Roosevelt) divided
up German territory for post-war occupation (Yalta)
 Eastern European governments were to be freely elected
 The governments were guaranteed to be pro-Russian
 Hitler died in a bombing raid of Berlin just as the Russians
were entering the city
 The German forces formally surrendered (May 8, 1945)

Allied Counterattacks in the

Pacific
 Midway
 American aircraft carriers found the Japanese carriers and
sunk them just as the empty Japanese fighters were returning
 June 4-7, 1942
 Major turning point in the war because the Japanese navy no
longer had total control
 Coral Sea
 Ended Japan’s advance towards Australia.

 Japanese Main Islands

 Fighting became more fierce as the Japanese main islands
were approached (Iwo Jima and Okinawa)
 US bombardment of Japan
 Atomic bombs (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 6th and
9th, 1945)
 Surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay
(MacArthur, Nimitz)
 August 15, 1945 VJ-Day

 The War’s Aftermath

 Costs of the War
 Approximately 50 million people died - including 6 million Jews in
Nazi death camps.
 Vast areas of destruction especially in Europe and Asia.
 War Crime Trials
 Several Japanese commanders also tried for war crimes against
humanity.
 At Yalta, the idea of a United Nations was discussed