Standard(s)

SSWH18 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the global political, economic, and social impact of World War II.

a. Describe the major conflicts and outcomes; include Pearl Harbor, El-Alamein, Stalingrad, D- Day, Guadalcanal, the Philippines, and the end of the war in Europe and Asia.

Essential Question

EQ: How does WWII still affect the politics and economics of today’s world?

Agenda

• Activator• Vocabulary Quiz/Quick Check• War in Europe Notes

First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a

communist. Then they came for the socialists,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Pastor Martin Niemoller

War in Europe

The Belligerents

• The Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, & other minor countries

• The Allies: UK & Commonwealth Nations, France, USSR, Netherlands, Belgium, China, later U.S. , & over 30 minor countries

In general, the war was the result of a failure of the League of Nations to deal with Hitler•Battle of Poland

– Poland defeated in 4 weeks

– Germans and Soviets split Poland in ½

•Russo-Finnish War (Nov. 1939)

– Soviets invaded Finland– USSR expelled from the

League of Nations

• German invasion of Denmark & Norway (April 1940)– Denmark defeated in one

day– Norway fell with in one

month• Winston Churchill replaced

Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of Great Britain (May)

Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat Speech

Very little action on the Western Front between September and April 1940 – “Sitzkrieg”

• Battle of France– May 1940: German invasion

of Netherlands, Belgium, & Luxembourg

– Germans invaded France through Belgium AGAIN through a 50 mile gap in the Maginot Line

– France surrendered in 6 weeks on June 22

France divided into 2 parts– German-occupied

France (most of the country

– Vichy France – SE France, a puppet government.

• General Charles de Gaulle headed Free France from London & organized resistance movements

Battle of Britain (Aug – Oct 1940)– Operation Sea Lion: the

German plan to invade Britain

– Luftwaffe began bombing of English cities: intentional targeting of civilians (The Blitz)

– RAF launched attacks against German planes•Germans lost 2375 vs.

800 British•British had advantage

of radar

– Destruction of cities devastating, but Germans abandoned plans of invasion

– First military defeat for the Germans: turning point of the early war

U.S. increasingly giving support with weapons & planes in exchange for bases in Britain

U.S. implements first peacetime draft

Develops plan to fight Germany and then concentrate on Japan if at war with both

Balkan & Italian Front– Mussolini invaded Greece in

Oct. 1940; Greek resistance was too great

– Yugoslavia was resisting joining the Axis: Germany invaded & defeated

– Germans invaded Greece to relieve Italians, by April 1941 Greece is under Axis control

African Campaigns 1940-43– Italians initially invaded to secure a source of

oil for the Axis nations– Germans came to help losing Italians– Italian-German forces under Gen. Rommel (the

Desert Fox)– British-American forces under Gen.

Montgomery– Rommel ran out of supplies because Hitler

wanted to focus on Stalingrad– Montgomery crushed the Italian-German troops

General Erwin Rommel - a German Field Marshal of World War II. Popularly known as The Desert Fox for his battles in Northern Africa, he earned the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought.

The Invasion of the USSR

• Called “Operation Barbarossa”

• A surprise invasion & Hitler’s greatest mistake

• 3 million troops attack a 3 points (Leningrad, Stalingrad, Moscow) along a 2000 mile front

Initially successful, but offensive was stopped by – Soviet “Scorched Earth”

Policy– over-extended supply lines– poor roads– Russian WINTER!!

Russian Counter-Offensive (42-45)– 17 month siege broken at Leningrad– Entire German army of 330,000

surrendered at Stalingrad– Considered the turning point of the war

4 million Axis soldiers dead, 30 million Soviets dead

The Defeat of the Axis in Europe

• Defeat of Rommel in Africa eliminated that front

• Russian Counter-offensive knocked Romania, Bulgaria, & Finland out of the war

• U.S. now involved in the war

The Collapse of Italy

–Americans invaded Sicily in July 43–Mussolini dismissed by the king – Italy surrendered in Sept–Germans attempted to regain Italy – failed after several major, deadly battles

–Mussolini seized & executed without a trial by Italians in April 45

Benito Mussolini an Italian politician and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country from 1922 to his ousting in 1943. In 1926 Mussolini seized total power as dictator and ruled Italy as Il Duce from 1930 to 1943.

Operation Overlord & the creation of a Second Front

•Stalin had been asking for a real western front to relieve some pressure in the east•Churchill & Roosevelt wanted to avoid casualties

Winston Churchill a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.

Eisenhower named Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Western Europe – Jan. 44D-Day – June 6, 1944

– Invasion of Normandy, France by American, British, Canadians

– 1 million troops landed in France within 1 month

– Paris liberated – Aug. 24

Dwight D. Eisenhower a general in the U.S. Army during WW II, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; planned and supervised the invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45 from the Western Front. 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961.

Battle of the Bulge• Hitler’s last major offensive – winter ’44• Fought in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium

& France• Hoped to recapture France• Allies caught off-guard, but stopped

Germans at Bastogne • Germans on the retreat from this point on

Battle of the Bulge – Hitler’s last major offensive. It was fought in the Ardennes Forest.

Battle of Germany (1945)– Soviets advancing from the east,

US/British from the west– Soviets reached Berlin 1st - April 20– April 30 – Hitler kills himself in his

underground bunker– Berlin falls – May 2nd with the official

surrender on May 7th – V-E Day – May 8, 1945

Activator•What is Blitzkrieg?•Do armies still use Blitzkrieg?

•Is it easier or harder to use Blitzkrieg in warfare today?

Put the following events in Chronological Order

• ____ : Hitler annexed Austria

• ____ : Mussolini invaded Ethiopia

• ____ : German-Russian nonaggression

pact

• ____ : Germany and Italy form an alliance

• ____ : France surrenders

Bliztkrieg• Define Blitzkrieg.

• What was the Blitzkrieg based on?

• What was the effect of the civil population

• What were the effects on the defenses?

• What were the results?

Attack on Pearl Harbor• The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred

on December 7, 1941 without warning.

• The attack lasted 110 minutes, from 7:55 a.m. until 9:45 a.m.

• A total of 2,335 U.S. servicemen were killed and 1,143 were wounded. Sixty-eight civilians were also killed and 35 were wounded.

• The Japanese lost 65 men, with an additional soldier being captured.

• Japan and the Attack on Pearl Harbor• Plans for a surprise attack against the United

States were begun as early as January of 1941.• The Japanese used the codename "Operation

Hawaii" for the attack on Pearl Harbor. This later changed to "Operation Z."

• The Japanese specifically chose to attack on a Sunday because they believed Americans would be more relaxed and thus less alert on a weekend.

• The Japanese attack force stationed itself approximately 230 miles north of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

• The Japanese launched their airplanes in two waves, approximately 45 minutes apart.

• The first wave of Japanese planes struck Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. The second wave reached Pearl Harbor around 8:40 a.m.

• When Japanese Commander Mitsuo Fuchida called out, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" ("Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!") upon flying over Pearl Harbor, it was a message to the Japanese navy that they had caught the Americans by surprise.

• The main target of the Japanese was to be the aircraft carriers; however, since all three U.S. aircraft carriers were out to sea, the Japanese focused on the battleships.

• There were eight battleships at Pearl Harbor that day, which included all the battleships of the U.S. Pacific fleet except for one (the Colorado).

• Seven of the U.S. battleships were lined up in "Battleship Row."

• To aid their airplanes, the Japanese sent in five midget subs to help target the battleships. The Americans sunk four of the midget subs and captured the fifth.

• All eight U.S. battleships were either sunk or damaged during the attack. Amazingly, all but two (the Arizona and the Oklahoma) were eventually able to return to active duty.

• When the Japanese left Pearl Harbor at 9:45 a.m., the Americans didn't realize the attack was actually over. They expected another wave to hit.

• The day following the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that December 7, 1941 would be "a date that will live in infamy."

• The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Three Biggest Mistakes an Attack Force Ever

MadeAdmiral Chester A. Nimitz

“On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. 

Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection and defeat, you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war. On Christmas Day, 1941, Adm. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters every where you looked.

  As the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, “Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?” Admiral Nimitz’s reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, “The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make.” Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, “What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?”

Nimitz explained . . . .

Mistake number one: The Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk–we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.

Mistake number two: When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired. As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America. And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.

Mistake number three: Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply. That’s why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or God was looking out for America.