World War II Again the Road to War study guide summary

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World War II Again the Road to War study guide summary

World War II

A. Again the Road to War (1933 – 1939)

1. Dictators Challenge World Peace

a) Japan on the Move

Japanese military leaders and ultranationalists
- empire equal to those of the western powers
seized Manchuria
- 1931
- League of Nations condemned the aggression
- Japan withdrew form the organization
Japanese armies overran much of eastern China
- 1937
- western protests had no effect on the conqueror

b) Italy Invades Ethiopia

Mussolini used his new, modern military to pursue his own imperialist ambitions
looked first in Ethiopia
- Italy’s defeat by the Ethiopians
- battle of Adowa
- 1896
Italy invaded Ethiopia
- 1935
- Ethiopians resisted bravely
- outdated weapons were no match for Mussolini’s tanks, machine guns, poison gas, and airplanes
Ethiopian king Haile Selassie appealed to the League of Nations for help
- League voted sanctions, or penalties, against Italy
- violated international law
- League had no power to enforce the sanctions
Italy had conquered Ethiopia
- early 1936

c) Hitler’s Challenge

built up the German military
- defiance of the Versailles treaty
sent troops into the ‘demilitarized’ Rhineland
- 1936
- bordering France
- another treaty violation
Hitler’s successful challenge won him greater popularity at home
- Western democracies denounced his moves
took no real action
adopted a policy of appeasement
giving in to the demands of an aggressor to keep the peace

d) Appeasement and Neutrality

western policy of appeasement developed for a number of reasons
France was demoralized
- suffering from political divisions at home
- could not move against Hitler without British support
British had no desire to confront the German dictator
- some even thought that Hitler’s actions constituted a justifiable response to the terms of the Versailles treaty
- believed had been too harsh against Germany
both Britain and France
- saw Hitler and fascism as a defense against a worse evil
- spread of Soviet communism
Great Depression sapped the energies of the western democracies
widespread pacifism and disgust with the destruction during the previous war
- pushed many governments to seek peace at any price
United States Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts
- forbade the sale of arms to any nations at war
- outlawed loans to warring nations
- prohibited Americans from traveling on ships of warring powers
- avoid involvement in a European war
- not to prevent such a conflict

e) Rome – Berlin – Tokyo Axis

Germany, Italy, and Japan
- Rome – Berlin – Tokyo Axis
- Axis powers
agreed to fight Soviet communism
agreed not to interfere with one another’s plans for expansion
cleared the way for these anti – democratic, aggressor powers to take even bolder steps

2. The Spanish Civil War

a) From Monarchy to Republic

Spain was a monarchy
- 1920s
- dominated by a landowning upper class, the Catholic Church, and the military
most Spaniards were poor peasants or urban workers
popular unrest against the old order
- 1931
- forced the king to leave Spain
- republic was set up with a new, more liberal constitution
republican government passed a series of controversial reforms
- took over some Church lands
- ended Church control of education
- redistributed some lands to peasants
- gave women the vote
- ended some privileges of the old ruling class
Spanish public opinion was divided
- Leftists demanded more radical reforms
- Conservatives rejected change
- backed by the military
- most Spaniards wanted a peaceful democracy

b) Nationalists Versus Loyalists

conservative general Francisco Franco led a revolt
- 1936
- touched off a bloody civil war
Fascists and supporters of right – wing policies
- rallied to the banner of Franco’s forces
- Nationalists
supporters of the republic
- Loyalists
- included communists, socialists, and supporters of democracy
Hitler and Mussolini sent arms and forced to help Franco
- 37,000 volunteers from Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, and the western democracies
- joined the International Brigades
- fought alongside the Loyalists against fascism
- governments of Britain, France, and the United States remained neutral

c) A Dress Rehearsal

both sides committed horrible atrocities
- almost one million lives
Guernica
- German air raid
- small market town that lacked any military value. April,1937
- dropped their load of bombs
- swooped low to machine – gun anyone in the streets who had survived the first attack
- estimated 1,600 innocent people were killed
attack on Guernica
- Nazi leaders
- identify what their new planes could do
- grim warning of the destructive power of modern warfare
Franco had triumphed
- 1939
- created a fascist dictatorship
- rolled back earlier reforms
- killed or jailed enemies
- used terror to promote order

3. German Aggression Continues

a) Austria Annexed

Hitler was ready to engineer the Anschluss
- 1938
- union of Austria and Germany
forced the Austrian chancellor to appoint Nazis to key cabinet posts
- Austrian leader balked at other demands
- Hitler sent in the German army ‘to preserve order’
Anschluss violated the Versailles treaty
- created a brief war scare
- Hitler quickly silenced any Austrians who opposed him
- western democracies took no action
- Hitler easily had his way

b) The Czech Crisis

Hitler insisted that the three million Germans in the Sudetenland be given autonomy
- a region of western Czechoslovakia
- set off new alarms among the democracies
Czechoslovakia was one of only two remaining democracies in Eastern Europe
- Finland was the other
- Britain and France were not willing to go to war to save it
- Hitler increased his demands
Sudetenland must be annexed to Germany
Munich Conference
- September 1938
- British and French leaders again chose appeasement
- caved in to Hitler’s demands
- persuaded the Czechs to surrender the Sudetenland without a fight
- Hitler assured Britain and France that he had no further plans to expand his territory

c) ‘Peace for Our Time’

British prime minister Neville Chamberlain
- achieved ‘peace for our time’
- declared to Parliament that the Munich Pact had ‘saved Czechoslovakia from destruction and Europe from Armageddon’
French leader Edouard Daladier
- The fools, why are they cheering?
Czech crisis revealed the Nazi menace
British politician Winston Churchill
- long warned of the Nazi threat
- judged the diplomats harshly
- ‘They had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor; they will have war.’

4. Europe Plunges Toward War

Hitler gobbled up the rest of Czechoslovakia
- March 1939
- democracies finally accepted the fact that appeasement had failed
- promised to protect Poland
- most likely the next target of Hitler’s expansion

a) Nazi – Soviet Pact

Hitler announcing a nonaggression pact with his great enemy – Joseph Stalin
- August 1939
- Nazi – Soviet Pact
bound Hitler and Stalin to peaceful relations
secretly
- not to fight if the other went to war
- divide up Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe
based on mutual need
- Hitler feared communism as Stalin feared fascism
- Hitler wanted a free hand in Poland
- did not want to fight a war with the western democracies and the Soviet Union at the same time
Stalin had sought allies among the western democracies against the Nazi menace
- mutual suspicions kept them apart
- Stalin bought time to build up Soviet defenses
- saw a chance for important territorial gains

b) Invasion of Poland

German forces invaded Poland
- September 1, 1939
Britain and France honored their commitment to Poland
- declared war on Germany
- September 3, 1939
- World War II had begun

B. World War II (1939 – 1945)

1. Axis Advances

a) Early Axis Gains

Hitler’s blitzkrieg
- ‘lightning war’
German planes bombed airfields, factories, towns, and cities
- dive bombers fired on troops and civilians
fast – moving tanks and troop transports roared into the country
Polish army fought back unsuccessfully
Stalin’s forces invaded from the east
- grabbing lands promised to them under the Nazi – Soviet Pact
- Poland ceased to exist
Hitler passed the winter without much further action
Stalin’s armies pushed on
- Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
- seized part of Finland

(1) The ‘Phony War’

French hunkered down behind the Maginot Line
- Britain sent troops to wait with them
- reporters referred to this quiet time as the ‘phony war’
Hitler did not carry out his anticipated offensive against France
nor did the Anglo – French Allies move against Germany
experience in World War I
- French had concluded that in a future war the advantage would lie with the defense
- built the Maginot Line

(2) Hitler’s Scandinavian Campaign

Germans invaded Denmark and Norway
- April 9, 1940
- designed to provide a secure route for the shipment of iron ore
- from neutral Sweden through Norway’s coastal waters to Germany
Germans occupied Denmark almost immediately
Britain’s failure in Scandinavia
- led to a debate in the House of Commons
- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s conduct of the war
- Chamberlain stepped down
Winston Churchill became prime minister
- May 10, 1940
Paul Reynaud had replaced Edouard Daladier as France’s premier
- March, 1940

(3) Miracle of Dunkirk

Germans overran Luxembourg
- May 10, 1940
- invaded the Netherlands and Belgium
- attack on the Low Countries outflanked the Maginot Line
Netherlands fell after five days
Belgium surrendered at the end of May
Allied army was left stranded along the Belgian – French border near the English Channel
- British succeeded in evacuating some 338,000 troops
- May 26 - June 4
- beaches of Dunkirk
- British sent all available naval vessels, merchant ships, and even fishing and pleasure boats across the channel
- ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’

(4) France Falls

Battle of France began
- June 5
Italy entered the war
- June 10
- declared its non-belligerency
- Mussolini wanted to share in the spoils of victory
Germans took Paris
- June 14
French government had fled south
French cabinet decided to seek an armistice
- June 16
- Premier Reynaud resigned
terms of the armistice
- Germany occupied northern and western France
- puppet state in south
- signed an armistice with the Germans
- June 22
- forces the French to sign the surrender documents in the same railroad car in which Germany had signed the armistice ending World War I
France’s new government
- Germans set up a ‘puppet state’
- headed by Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain
- capital in Vichy

(5) Africa and the Balkans

Axis armies pushed into North Africa and the Balkans
Mussolini ordered forces from Italy’s North African colony of Libya into Egypt
- September 1940
- British army repulsed these invaders
Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel to North Africa
- ‘Desert Fox’
- string of successes in 1941 and 1942
- pushed the British back across the desert toward Cairo, Egypt
Italian forces invaded Greece
- October 1940
- German troops once again provided reinforcements
- 1941
- Greece and Yugoslavia were added to the growing Axis empire
- Greek and Yugoslav guerrillas plagued the occupying forces
Bulgaria and Hungary
- joined the Axis alliance
Axis powers or their allies controlled most of Western Europe
- 1941

(6) The Technology of Modern Warfare

Nazi advance revealed the awesome power of modern warfare
air power
- prominent role
- Luftwaffe perfected methods
- German air force
Hitler also used fast – moving armored tanks and troop carriers
- parachute troops
- storm through Europe
more deadly bombs
invented hundreds of new devices
radar
- detect airplanes
sonar
- detect submarines
medical advances to treat the wounded
new synthetic products to replace scare strategic goods

b) The Battle of Britain and the Blitz

Britain stood alone in Western Europe
Hitler was sure that the British would try for peace
- Winston Churchill had other plans.
Hitler ordered his general to make plans for Operation Sea Lion
- the invasion of Britain
- launched massive air strikes against the island nation

(1) The London Blitz

German bombers began a daily bombardment of England’s southern coast
- August 12, 1940
British Royal Air Force valiantly battled the German Luftwaffe
RAF benefited from the newly invented radar warning system
- Germans suffered heavy loses
Germans changed their tactics
- attention from military targets in the south to the blitz, or bombing, of London and other cities
German bombers first appeared over London
- September 7
- all through the night
- showered high explosives and firebombs on the sprawling capital
- bombing continued for 57 nights
- much of the city was destroyed
- some 15,000 people lost their lives
London did not break under the blitz
- Parliament continued to meet
- citizens carried on their daily lives
- protection in shelters
- emerging when the all – clear sounded to resume their routines
- British king and queen chose to support Londoners
- joining them in bomb shelters rather than fleeing to the countryside

(2) Failure of the Blitz

British morale was not destroyed
- bombing only made the British more determined to turn back the enemy
Hitler turned to a new target
- the Soviet Union
- decision to invade Russia helped save Britain
- proved to be one of Hitler’s costliest mistakes
Operation Barbarossa
- invasion of the Soviet Union
- scheduled for the spring of 1941
British might soon be forced to make peace on his terms
- would have no choice but to surrender
- once the Soviets had been defeated

c) Operation Barbarossa

(1) The German Advance

Hitler’s armies invaded the Soviet Union
- June 22, 1941
- three million Germans poured into the Soviet Union
Stalin unprepared
- army still suffering from the purges that had wiped out many of its top officers
advancing on three fronts
- Leningrad in the north
- Moscow in the center
- Ukraine in the south
Germans took Smolensk
- mid – July
- traditional gateway to Moscow
siege of Leningrad
- 900 – day
- began in early September
Germans captured Kiev
- mid – September
- capital of the Ukraine
Russians lost two and a half million soldiers
- Russian troops destroyed factories, farm equipment and burned crops
- keep them out of enemy hands
- could not stop the German war machine
German advance stalled
- Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812
- not prepared for the fury of Russia’s ‘General Winter’
- temperatures plunged to -4 degrees
- early December
- thousands of German soldiers froze to death
deterioration of Japanese – American relations
- autumn of 1941
- enabled the Soviets to move troops from the Manchurian border to the defense of Moscow
Soviet forces led by Marshal Georgi Zhukov
- counterattacked and drove the Germans back
- December 6, 1941
- front was stabilized in early 1942

(2) Siege of Leningrad

Russians suffered appalling hardships
two – and – a – half – year siege of Leningrad began
- September 1941
food
- rationed to two pieces of bread a day
- boiled wallpaper scraped off walls
- paste was said to contain potato flour
- leather briefcases boiled and eaten
more than a million Leningraders died during the German siege
- survivors struggled to defend their city
Stalin urged Britain to open a second front in Western Europe
- Churchill could not offer much real help
- two powers did agree to work together

d) American Involvement Grows

United States declared its neutrality
- war began in 1939
- isolationist feeling remained strong
- many Americans sympathized with those who battled the Axis powers
President Roosevelt
- found ways around the Neutrality Acts
- provide aid, including warships, to Britain as it stood alone against Hitler

(1) The Arsenal of Democracy

FDR persuaded Congress to pass the Lend – Lease Act
- early 1941
- allowed him to sell or lend war materials to ‘any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States’
United States would not be drawn into the war
- become ‘the arsenal of democracy’
- supplying arms to those who were fighting for freedom
United States gave fifty old American destroyers to the British
- September 1940
- in exchange for ninety – nine – year leases on British bases in the Western Hemisphere
- American ships began to convoy British ships in the North Atlantic

(2) Atlantic Charter

Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly
- August 1941
- warship in the Atlantic
- issued the Atlantic Charter
- set goals for the war
- ‘the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny’
- and for the postwar world
- pledged to support ‘the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live’ and called for a ‘permanent system of general security’

e) Japan Attacks

(1) Growing Tensions

Japan had been trying to conquer China
- occupied much of eastern China
- Chinese would not surrender
war broke out in Europe in 1939
- Japanese saw a chance to grab European possessions in Southeast Asia
- rich resources of the region
- oil, rubber, and tin
- immense value in fighting the Chinese war
Japan advanced into French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies
- 1940
- United States banned the sale to Japan of war materials
- iron, steel, and oil for airplanes
- angered the Japanese
Japan and the United States held talks
- ease the growing tension
- extreme militarists were gaining power in Japan
- hoped to seize lands in Asia and the Pacific
- United States was interfering with their plans

(2) Attack on Pearl Harbor

General Tojo ordered a surprise attack on the American fleet
- Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
- December 7, 1941
- damaged or destroyed 19 ships
- smashed American planes on the ground
- killed more than 2,400 people
President Roosevelt told the nation that December 7 was ‘a date which will live in infamy’
- asked Congress to declare war on Japan
Germany and Italy
- Japan’s allies
- declared war on the United States
- December 11

(3) Japanese Victories

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor would be as serious a mistake as Hitler’s invasion of Russia
- months after Pearl Harbor gave no such hint
European and American possessions in the Pacific fell one by one to the Japanese
captured the Philippines
seized other American islands across the Pacific
overran British colonies of Hong Kong, Burma, and Malaya
pushed deeper into the Dutch East Indies
completed the takeover of French Indochina
Japanese empire
- 1942
- Southeast Asia to the western Pacific Ocean

2. Allied Successes

a) Occupied Lands

(1) Nazi Europe

set up puppet governments in Western European countries
- peopled by ‘Aryans’ or related ‘races’
Slavs of Eastern Europe
- considered to be an inferior ‘race’
- shoved aside to provide more ‘living space’ for Germans
occupied lands were an economic resource
- stripped conquered nations of their works of art, factories, and other resources
sent thousands of Slavs and others to work as slave laborers in German war industries
resistance movements emerged to fight German tyranny
- Nazis took savage revenge
- shooting hostages and torturing prisoners

(2) Nazi Genocide

Allies advanced into Germany in the final months of the European war
- enormity of the Holocaust became evident
- Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe
Final Solution of the Jewish Question
- Heinrich Himmler
- head of the SS
Einsatzgruppen
- special SS murder squads
- followed the advancing German army into the Soviet Union
- 1941
- rounding up and murdering Jews
concentration camps
- originally had been established for German political prisoners
- converted into death camps
- new extermination camps were built
SS rounded up Jews throughout Nazi – occupied Europe
- shipped them to these camps
- often in cattle cars
Jews reached the camps
- stripped of their clothes and valuables
- heads were shaved
- anything to take away their humanity
- separated men from women and children from parents
- young, old, and sick were targeted for immediate killing
- herded into ‘shower rooms’ and gassed
- worked others to death
- used them for perverse ‘medical’ experiments
Auschwitz
- located in Poland
- most notorious of the camps
Dachau
- southern Germany
Buchenwald
- central Germany
Mautheausen
- Austria
SS often found recruits among the local populations
- especially in areas that had a powerful tradition of anti – Semitism
- Baltic states, Poland, the Soviet Ukraine, and Rumania
friends, neighbors, or strangers protected Jews.
- Sugihara Chiune
- Japanese diplomat in Lithuania
- saved some 6,000 Jews by writing exit visas until he was ordered home by the Japanese government
numbers Germans had killed is a range
- most common number is 6 million
- 11-17 million when including other non Jew inferior races
- targets included Slavs, Gypsies, and the mentally ill

(3) The Co – Prosperity Sphere

Japan expanded across Asia and the Pacific
- donned the mantle of anti – imperialism
‘Asia for Asians’
- Great East Asia Co – Prosperity Sphere
- self – proclaimed mission was to help Asians escape western colonial rule
- real goal was a Japanese empire in Asia
Japanese treated conquered people with great brutality
- Chinese, Filipinos, Malaysians
- killing and torturing civilians throughout East and Southeast Asia
- seized food crops
- destroyed cities and towns
- made local people into slave laborers
- nationalist groups waged guerrilla warfare against the Japanese invaders

b) The Allied War Effort

United States entered the war
- Allied leaders met periodically to hammer out their strategy
Big Three agreed to finish the war in Europe before turning their attention to Asia
- 1942
- Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin
Allies distrusted one another
- Churchill thought Stalin wanted to dominated Europe
- Roosevelt felt that Churchill had ambitions to expand British imperial power
- Stalin believed that the western powers wanted to destroy communism
- Stalin urged Roosevelt and Churchill to relieve the pressure on Russia by opening a second front in Western Europe
- British and Americans argued that they did not have the resources
- Stalin saw the delay as a deliberate policy to weaken the Soviet Union

(1) Total War

directed economic resources into the war effort
- ordering factories to stop making cars or refrigerators and to turn out airplanes or tanks instead
rationed consumer goods
- shoes to sugar
regulated prices and wages
ended the unemployment of the depression era
governments limited the rights of citizens
- censored the press
- used propaganda to win public support for the war
many citizens of Japanese descent lost their jobs, property, and civil rights
- United States and Canada
- lost their freedom
- were forced into interment camps after governments decided that they were a security risk
British took similar action against German refugees
both the United States and Canada apologized for the wartime policy
- provided former internees with reparations
- payment for damages caused by the imprisonment

(2) Women Help Win the War

millions of women around the world replaced men in essential jobs
built ships and planes
produced munitions
staffed offices
served in the armed forces in many auxiliary roles
- driving trucks and ambulances
- delivering airplanes
- decoding messages
- assisting at antiaircraft sites

c) Turning Points

(1) El Alamein

Germans dispatched the Afrika Korps
- early 1941
- commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
- nicknamed the Desert Fox
Rommel’s troops and their Italian allies renewed the attack
- April 1941
- pushing the British back into Egypt
Hitler was committed
- in the Balkans
- preparing his assault on the Soviet Union
reinforcements were not sent to Rommel
- unable to follow up on his successful advance
British again moved into Libya
- late 1941 and early 1942
- Axis counterattack pushed them back
Rommel had reached El Alamein
- summer
- sixty miles west of Alexandria
- serious threat to the Suez Canal
- Hitler was deeply involved in a new offensive in Russia
- reinforcements were not sent to Rommel
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s British Eighth Army counterattacked
- late October
- forcing Rommel’s forces to retreat

(2) North Africa

Operation Torch
- Anglo – American forces, commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower
- November 8, 1942
- invasion of Morocco and Algeria in French North Africa
German and Italian defenders were caught in a squeeze
- Eisenhower’s forces advanced from the west
- British pressed forward from the east
remaining 250,000 Axis defenders surrendered in Tunisia
- May 1943

(3) Invasion of Italy

victory in North Africa led to the Anglo – American decision to invade Sicily and Italy
invasion of Sicily
- July 1943
- followed by the Italians’ overthrow of Mussolini the same month
American and British armies invaded Italy
- beginning of September
new Italian government surrendered
- September 3
- signed an armistice
Germans had anticipated the surrender
- quickly took control of about two – thirds of the country
Allies pushed slowly up the Italian peninsula
- next 18 months
- suffering heavy losses against stiff German resistance
Allies took Rome
- June 4, 1944
- two days before the invasion of Normandy
war in Italy lasted until the spring of 1945
- ending only a few days before the final German surrender

d) The Red Army Resists

(1) Stalingrad

Germans launched a new offensive
- spring of 1942
- directed toward two objectives
- oil – rich Caucasus, lying between the Black and the Caspian Seas
- city of Stalingrad on the Volga River
Battle of Stalingrad
- one of the costliest of the war
- Hitler was determined to capture Stalin’s namesake city
- Stalin was equally determined to defend it
Germans surrounded the city
Russians then encircled their attackers
winter closed in
- bitter street – by – street, house – by – house struggle raged
soldiers fought for two weeks for a single building
German commander finally surrendered
- trapped, without food or ammunition and with no hope of rescue
- early 1943
Germans lost approximately 300,000
- killed, wounded, or captured soldiers

(2) Counterattack

Red Army took the offensive
- after the Battle of Stalingrad
- drove the invaders out of the Soviet Union entirely
Hitler’s forces suffered irreplaceable losses of both troops and equipment
Soviet troops were advancing into Eastern Europe
- early 1944

e) Invasion of France

Allies were at last ready to open a second front in Europe
- 1944
- invasion of France
Eisenhower
- supreme Allied commander
Allied bombers flew constant missions over Germany
- targeted factories
- destroyed aircraft that might be used against the invasion force
- bombed a number of German cities
- increased American aircraft production made it possible for the United States Army Air Force to put thousands of heavy bombers and escort fighters into the skies over Germany
- Americans specialized in daylight, high – altitude precision bombing
- The British Air Force (RAF)
- concentrated on night area bombing
Allies chose June 6, 1944
- D – Day
- for the invasion of France
- Operation Overlord
- invasion of Normandy
- largest amphibious operation in history
Allied planes dropped paratroopers behind enemy lines
- midnight
thousands of ships
- dawn
- 176,000 Allied troops across the English Channel
- troops fought their way to shore amid underwater mines and raking machine – gun fire
- clawed their way inland through the tangled hedges of Normandy
- broke through German defenses
- advanced toward Paris
- other Allied forces sailed from Italy to land in southern Paris
French resistance forces rose up against the occupying Germans
- Paris
Germans retreated
Allies entered Paris
- August 25
all of France was free
- within a month

3. Toward Victory

a) The Nazis Defeated

(1) The Allies Advance

European war
- might be over by the end of 1944
- proved to be optimistic
- discounted both the determination and the ability of the Germans to continue their resistance
Allied forces battled toward Germany
Germans launched a powerful counterattack
- against the advancing Americans
- Ardennes Forest
- Belgium
- December 1944
Battle of the Bulge
- Germans pushed the Americans back
- not able to achieve a breakthrough
- lasted more than a month
- both sides took terrible losses
- delayed the Allied advance
- Hitler’s last success
Hitler’s support within Germany was declining
- already survived one assassination attempt by senior officers in the German military
Soviets took Warsaw
- mid – January 1945
- Red Army’s advance continued
- halting temporarily when it reached the Oder River
- forty miles from Berlin
- first days of February
American troops captured the last remaining intact bridge across the Rhine at Remagen
- early March 1945
- Allied forces were now pouring into Germany
eastern front
- Red Army moved through Hungary
- into Austria
- seizing Vienna
- April 13
American and Soviet forces met on the Elbe
- April 25
Germany’s armies in Italy surrendered
- end of April
- Italian partisans seized Mussolini
- murdering him
- April 28

(2) The End in Europe

Red Army entered Berlin
- April 19
Adolph Hitler committed suicide in his bunker beneath the city
- April 30
Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz
- successor
- surrendered to the Allies
- May 7
war in Europe ended the next day
- May 8, 1945
- proclaimed V – E Day
- Victory in Europe

b) War in the Pacific

Japanese won an uninterrupted series of victories
- controlled much of Southeast Asia
- many Pacific islands
Japanese had gained control of the Philippines
- May 1942
- killing several hundred American soldiers
- some 10,000 Filipino soldiers
- during the 68 – mile Bataan Death March
Battle of the Coral Sea
- fought on May 7 and 8, 1942
- first naval battle in history in which ships did not directly engage one another
- all of the fighting was done by carrier – based airplanes
- battle ended in a draw
- removed the Japanese threat to Australia
Battle of Midway
- June 3 to 6, 1942
- fought in the Central Pacific
- resulted in an American victory
- eliminated the threat to Hawaii
United States took the offensive
- summer
- MacArthur’s command
- United States Marines landed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
British
- pushing Japanese forces back
- jungles of Burma and Malaya
marked the beginning of an ‘island – hopping’ campaign
- goal of the campaign was to recapture some Japanese – held islands while bypassing others
- captured islands served as steppingstones to the next objective
- American forces gradually moved north toward Japan itself
United States Navy was blockading Japan
- 1944
- commanded by Admiral Chester Nimitz
- American bombers pounded Japanese cities and industries
troops commanded by General Douglas MacArthur landed in the Philippines
- August 20, 1944
Battle of Leyte Gulf
- late October, 1944
- resulted in the destruction of most of what was left of Japan’s naval power
- gave the United States full control of the sea around the Philippines
campaign in the Philippines ended
- fall of Manila to the Americans
- February 1945

c) Defeat of Japan

(1) Invasion Versus the Bomb

bloody battles
- Iwo Jima and Okinawa
- Japanese had shown that they would fight to the death rather than surrender
kamikaze pilots
- 1944
- suicide missions
- crashing their explosive laden airplanes into American warships
- hoped these efforts would stop the Allies
- save their nation from defeat
Japan could be defeated only by an invasion
- scheduled to begin about November 1, 1945
- estimated that this invasion would cost as many as 1 million American casualties
scientists offered another way to end the war
- splitting the atom
- create an explosion far more powerful than any yet known
- Allied scientists, some of them German and Italian refugees, raced to harness the atom
- successfully tests the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico
- July 1945
Harry Truman
- taken office after Franklin Roosevelt died unexpectedly on April 12
- atomic bomb was a terrible new force for destruction
- decided to use the new weapon against Japan
Potsdam, Germany
- Truman was meeting with other Allied leaders
- issued a warning to Japan to surrender
- face ‘utter and complete destruction.’
- Japanese ignored the deadline
- United States took action

(2) Hiroshima & Nagasaki

American plane dropped an atomic bomb
- August 6, 1945
- mid – seized city of Hiroshima
bomb flattened four square miles
- instantly killed more than 70,000 people
months that followed
- many more would die from radiation sickness
- deadly aftereffect from the exposure to radioactive materials
Soviet Union declared war on Japan
- August 8, 1945
- invaded Manchuria
- Japanese leaders did not respond
United States dropped a second atomic bomb
- August 9, 1945
- city of Nagasaki
- more than 40,000 people were killed in this second explosion
Japanese cabinet argued
Emperor Hirohito intervened
- August 10, 1945
- action unheard of for a Japanese emperor
- forced the government to surrender
formal peace treaty
- September 2, 1945
- signed on board the American battleship Missouri
- anchored in Tokyo Bay

(3) An Ongoing Controversy

atomic bomb
- quick end to the war
- unleashed terrifying destruction
- people have debated whether the United States should have used the bomb
Why did Truman use the bomb?
convinced that Japan would not surrender without an invasion that would result in an enormous loss of both American and Japanese lives
hoped that the bomb would impress the Soviet Union with American power
American forces occupied the smoldering ruins of Japan
Germany
- Allies had divided Hitler’s fallen empire into four zones of occupation
Allies faced difficult decisions about the future

C. Racism and the Holocaust*

1. The Destruction of the Polish Jewish Community*

2. Polish Anti-Semitism Between the Wars*

3. The Nazi Assault on the Jews of Poland*

4. Explanation of the Holocaust*

D. The Domestic Fronts*

1. Germany: From Apparent Victory to Defeat*

2. France: Defeat, Collaboration, and Resistance*

3. Great Britain: Organization for Victory*

4. The Soviet Union: The Great Patriotic War*

E. Preparations for Peace*

1. The Atlantic Charter*

2. Tehran: Agreement on a Second Front*

a) Churchill and Stalin*

b) Germany*

c) Eastern Europe*

3. Yalta*

4. Potsdam*

Source : http://www.bradwynne.com/ap-euro/notes/ap-euro-3-unit-x-notes.docx

Web site link to visit: http://www.bradwynne.com

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