World War II
1939-1945
Part I: The Road to War,
1919-1939
Describe the 1920s-1930s.
• In the 1920s the world was troubled following
World War I.
• The Peace Treaty of Versailles (1919) failed:
– Germany was punished;
– It and the Soviet Union were isolated; and
– Democracies were weak.
• Italy turned to Fascism
• Then the Great Depression (1929) hit.
• It heightened Fear of Communism
• The United States turned to isolationism
Describe life in the 1920s and 1930s.
• Troubles grew after the Great Depression began.
• The League of Nations failed to keep the peace when:
– Japan invaded Manchuria (1931).
– Hitler rose to power (1933). His goals included:
• a Third Reich, or larger German-speaking nation with Lebensraum from
Poland;
• Rearmament; and
• To exterminate all Jewish people.
– Italy attacked Ethiopia (1936): and a Rome-Berlin axis
formed.
– The Spanish Civil War began (1936-1939): Fascists ignored
democratic election results and led an army against the
Republic. This war was training ground for the alliances and
tactics used in World War II.
• Instead nations reacted with appeasement.
Guernika by Pablo Picasso
• A training ground for World War II: Aerial
bombardment was used against civilians.
• Bonus: Watch Pan’s Labyrinth.
What were the causes of World War II?
• What does appeasement mean? To give in to a bully to
try to make them stop.
• Appeasement policies:
– Hitler took over Austria through the Anschluss union (1938).
– Hitler occupied the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia (1938).
– The world does nothing.
– At the Munich Conference (1938) Hitler stated “I have no
more territorial demands to make in Europe.” Allied leaders let
him keep the land he had taken over, saying they had achieved
“peace in our time.”
– Within months Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia
(March 1939).
What were the causes of World War II?
• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (August 1939): Secret
provisions for division of Poland and the Baltic states
between Germany and Russia.
What were World War II’s main events?
• War Begins: Blitzkrieg
and the fall of Poland
(September 1, 1939):
– Lightning warfare,
swiftly fought by
German army tanks and
troops backed by
Luftwaffe, led to the fall
of Poland within hours.
What were World War II’s main events?
• The calm before the storm: Sitzkrieg, or the
phony war (September 1939-Spring 1940):
– After Poland fell the western front of the war
remained quiet until spring.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Hitler invades Denmark,
Norway, Belgium, the
Netherlands and
Luxembourg (Spring
1940):
– This removes the buffer
between Germany and
France.
– British and French troops
in Belgium fled to the
English channel.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Failure of the Maginot line
(1940):
– The Maginot line was built by
the French to protect the
Franco-German border.
– It was an imaginary line that
ran from Switzerland to the
Belgian frontier.
– It was exposed on the left
flank when Hitler
remilitarized; Hitler’s march
through Belgium avoided
French defense.
What were World War II’s main events?
• The Fall of France and the
Vichy Regime (1940-1944):
– France fell due to German
invasion from the east and
Italian invasion in the south.
– Less than a week later, France
asked for an armistice.
– The Vichy government that
followed Germany’s
aggression was a source of
national controversy.
– It encouraged an intense
nationalism and anti-
Semitism.
What were World War II’s main events?
• French resistance (1940-
1944):
– Internal resistance to the
Vichy regime developed in
1942, but did not become
large scale until 1944.
– General Charles de Gaulle,
who had fled to Britain, urged
French people to resist Nazi
collaboration.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Prime Minister Winston
Churchill ends Britain’s
appeasement policy (1940):
– After the fall of France, Britain
was isolated.
– Churchill ended appeasement
and went to war against Hitler.
– He bonded with American
President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, and the U.S. aided
Britain before it entered the
war, as evidenced by the
Atlantic Charter (August 1941),
when FDR and Churchill met at
sea and outlined the peace that
they would seek when the war
ended.
What were World War II’s main events?
• The Battle of
Dunkirk (1940):
– British and French
forces evacuated
continental Europe to
Britain from the
beaches of Dunkirk.
– The retreat across the
English Channel
saved thousands of
life and allowed
British-led Allied
forces to fight Hitler
later in the 1940s.
The Battle of Britain
What were World War II’s main events?
• The Battle of Britain (1940):
– Hitler attempted to invade Britain in 1940, aerially bombing
London with his Luftwaffe and destroying much of the city.
British morale grew during this time and united the nation
against Hitler. On the domestic front Britain’s government and
people organized for victory and eventually succeeded.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Operation Barbarossa (May 1941):
– Hitler overturned the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact and turned toward
the eastern front next, hoping that a Blitzkrieg victory against Russia would
demoralize the Allies. War was supposed to begin May 15 and intended to
subdue Russia before winter.
– Yet Italy, Germany’s ally, felt jealous and attacked Britain in Egypt.
Despite initial Italian successes, soon after Allies pushed back and Hitler
was forced to redirect his attention to Africa.
– This moved Barbarossa back by six weeks. Although Germany was
extremely successful in Russia through the summer, in August Hitler
paused outside Moscow. This cost him the eastern front--Russian winter
decimated Hitler’s army.
– Russians view WWII as the great patriotic war--they suffered most. 16
million died, cities and villages were destroyed and Russia lost half its
transportation and industry. Its totalitarian leader, Stalin, used the war to
consolidate power further.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Pearl Harbor (December 7,
1941):
– The Americans joined the war
after Japan, an Axis member,
bombed the U.S. naval base at
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
– This changed the U.S.’s
previous isolationist policy.
– The next day, the U.S. and
Britain declared war on Japan;
three days later Germany
declared war on the U.S.
– By January 1942 the U.S.,
Britain and Russia allied to
fight the Hitlerreich, Italy and
Japan-- and to form a United
Nations afterward.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Island Hopping: Allied Landings in Africa, Sicily,
Italy and the Pacific
– In 1942 and 1943, the Allies fought campaigns in North
Africa and in the Pacific.
– After gaining initial footholds in North Africa and the
Pacific, Allied forces began island hopping closer to Italy
and Japan.
– In 1942 Allies gained control of the Mediterranean Sea,
and in 1943 they conquered German-controlled Italy,
gaining the new leader of the government as an ally against
Germany.
What were World War II’s main events?
• The Battle of Stalingrad
(1942):
– In the battle of Stalingrad,
the Russians lost more
soldiers than the United
States did during the entire
war, but they prevailed
against Germany and
Hitler’s army was
destroyed.
– Allied forces began to
aggressively bomb German
cities (strategic bombing).
What were World War II’s main events?
• D-Day (June 6, 1944):
– On D-Day, British, Canadian and American
troops landed on the German-occupied French
coast at Normandy and penetrated the German
defense. France was liberated by September.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Battle of the Bulge
(December 1944):
– Although the battle
resulted in heavy Allied
losses, the Allies pushed
on and crushed German
resistance.
– This battle allowed
Allied forces to push into
Germany toward the
capital, Berlin.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Yalta (1945):
– In this February 1945
conference, the Big
Three (Churchill of
Britain, FDR of the
United States, and Stalin
of Russia) planned for
Europe’s future after the
eminent German defeat.
Strategic bombing:
• Meanwhile Allies
conducted a campaign of
strategic bombing against
German military and
industrial targets, further
disabling their military
power.
• Psychologically this led to
many Germans realization
that contrary to the
Hitlerreich’s message they
were losing the war.
• Dresden was hurt most.
What were World War II’s main events?
• The Fall of Berlin (May
1945):
– By May 1, 1945, the
German resistance was
completely defeated and
Berlin was occupied by
Allied troops.
– Hitler and his cronies
committed suicide.
– Germany surrendered and
victory was declared in
Europe on May 8, 1945.
– Denazification,
disarmament and division
by the Allies followed.
What were World War II’s main events?
• The Potsdam Conference (July
1945):
– The last conference of the war by
the Big Three (Stalin, Truman
and Attlee), Potsdam resolved
how to divide Germany and
Central Europe between the
Allied Powers – leading to the
Cold War.
– During this meeting Truman was
made aware of the atomic bomb.
– The Big Three disagreed on
numerous issues and eastern
European nations were also
dissatisfied with the peace--
foreshadowing the Cold War to
come.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Meanwhile in the Pacific
Allied forces continued
to recapture Pacific
islands and move toward
Japan. Despite
devastating battles like
Iwo Jima and Okinawa,
Japan refused to
surrender.
• Hiroshima (August 6,
1945):
– The United States’s war
planes dropped an atomic
bomb on the Japanese
city of Hiroshima, killing
a third of its residents.
What were World War II’s main events?
• Nagasaki and the Fall of
Imperial Japan (August 8
and 14, 1945):
– Two days later the United
States dropped a second
atomic bomb on the
Japanese city of Nagasaki.
– The Japanese government
under Emperor Hirohito
surrendered on August 14,
1945.
– Victory in Japan was
declared on August 15,
1945. World War II was
over.