The Second World War (1936 - 1945)

I.

Appeasement and Triumphs of the Axis

A.

Appeasement
1.
Definition: policy of conciliating aggression in the hope that the aggressor will become
sated and give up his aggression
2.
Why appease Hitler?
a. British responses to the re-emergence of Germany
i. British were first to question whether the terms of Treaty of Versailles were too
harsh; with the U. S., put pressure on France to renegotiate reparations payments
ii. Many British regarded a strong Germany as a crucial means to balance the power of
the Soviet Union in eastern Europe; feared Bolshevism more than Germany
b. Relations with Germany normalized
i. Locarno Pact of 1925 promised the security of French, Belgian, and German borders
against any aggression; British and Fascist Italy joined the agreement, promising to
guarantee borders regardless of who was the aggressor
ii. At this time, Germany also joined the League of Nations, thus assuming the
obligation to settle future disputes peacefully
c. Pacifism and disarmament
i. In France and Great Britain, much of the public had adopted a position of pacifism
following the Great War; the thrust of this was that the suffering of that war must
never be repeated it must be avoided at essentially every cost
ii. In Great Britain (and much of the world), it was believed that universal
disarmament and collective security would assure this; Britain and the U. S. led
the way in promoting disarmament, France held back
iii. In the face of Hitlers rearmament publicly reconstruction of army, navy, and
air force, secretly submarines too the British justified their lack of response by
referring to the unfairness of the Versailles treaty and the right of Germany to
manage their own affairs
iv. Thus by 1936, while the democracies had been disarming, Germany, Italy, and the
Soviet Union were in the process of rearming; alarmed the French, who despairing
of British assistance, maintained Europes largest army by far in 1936
v. Dire warnings about the growing weakness of the Royal Navy and especially the
Royal Air Force (relative to the dictatorships) were being asserted by Winston
Churchill: I dread the day when the means of threatening the heart of the British
Empire should pass into the hands of the present rulers of Germany. . . . I dread that
day, but it is not, perhaps, far distant. . . . It has not come yet . . . but it is not far
distant.
vi. By contrast, British leaders claimed that if Germany was rearming, it was only in
response to their sense of threat; only way to remove this was for Britain and
France to accelerate their disarmament
vii. Churchill and those who agreed with him were usually dismissed and branded as
reckless, paranoid warmongers; the British electorate gave overwhelming support to
the peace government
viii. At best, British leaders proclaimed their determination to ascertain Hitlers
intentions before risking war to stop him but according to Kissinger, The leaders of
the democracies refused to face the fact that, once Germany attained a given level of
armaments, Hitlers real intentions would become irrelevant. . . . They
treated Hitler as a psychological problem, not a strategic danger.
ix. Churchill in The Gathering Storm: The democracies and their dependent states

3.

were still [in 1936] actually and potentially far stronger than the dictatorships, but
their position relative to their opponents was less than half as good as it had been
twelve months before. Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no
match for armed and resolute wickedness. A sincere love of peace is no excuse for
muddling hundreds of millions of humble folk into total war. . . . Doom marches
on.
Rhineland, Anschluss, Munich
a. Remilitarization of the Rhineland
i. Hitler in March of 1936 offered a twenty-five year pact of non-aggression to all of
his neighbors; two hours later he ordered German troops to reoccupy the
Rhineland, demilitarized by the Treaty of Versailles as a buffer zone for France and
Belgium
ii. His generals had strongly discouraged him from doing so; Frances armed forces
alone were sufficient to drive Germany back out by force (500,000 to 20,000), as the
Treaty required; the Locarno Pact, which he had violated, could bring in Britain as
well
iii. Hitler: Had France then marched on the Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs. A retreat on our part would have spelled
collapse.
iv. French were not prepared to move without affirmation that Britain would join
them, but according to Churchill the broad British public opinion, led by the press,
was: After all, the Germans are only going back to their own country. How should
we feel if we had been kept out of, say, Yorkshire for ten or fifteen years?;
they also feared the diplomatic and strategic consequences of decisive action
v. In light of the weakness of the League of Nations (on display since Abyssinia), the
French simply conceded; Hitlers prestige was greatly enhanced as he mocked his
generals lack of faith and touted his own superior intuition
vi. In Parliament, Churchill warned, Herr Hitler has torn up the treaties and has
garrisoned the Rhineland. His troops are there, and they are going to stay. . . . I do
not doubt that the whole of the German frontier opposite to France is about to be
fortified as strongly and as speedily as possible. . . . What will be the diplomatic
and strategic consequences of that?
vii. Meanwhile, German forces worked to build the Siegfried Line, a complex of
fortified positions along Germanys borders with the west; it was complete by 1938
viii. It was, however, this development that also moved British leaders to accept
Churchills judgment that Britain must begin building up its Royal Air Force; by
1940, the modernization of the RAF would be the key to Britains survival
b. Anschluss
i. Austria represented an area of ambiguity for the western Allies: did not wish to see
German power grow, but could not deny power of Hitlers argument for selfdetermination (for all Germans to be ruled in one German state)
ii. Hitler demanded Anschluss, the political absorption of Austria into Germany;
a Nazi party was established in Austria, funded by the German Nazis
iii. As the Austrian Nazis became increasingly disruptive, Chancellor Kurt von
Schuschnigg outlawed the party and began arresting its leaders
iv. In 1938, Hitler summoned Schuschnigg and informed him that if the leaders were
not released and a Nazi appointed as Minster of Security, German forces would
march on Vienna
v. When Schuschnigg argued that this would mean war with the western Allies,

Hitler scoffed, England will not lift a finger for Austria. . . . And France? Well, two
years ago when we marched into the Rhineland with a handful of battalions at that
moment I risked a great deal. . . . But for France it is now too late!
vi. Schuschnigg told Hitler that he would not sign Austrias death warrant, but
ultimately relented, as Hitler proclaimed the next day to the Reichstag in Berlin
vii. Schuschnigg then called for a plebiscite among Austrians in a last-ditch effort to
demonstrate to the world that Austria intended to remain independent; this outraged
Hitler and Austria was overrun on March 12
viii. Churchill in Parliament: Europe is confronted with a program of aggression . . .
and there is only one choice open . . . either to submit like Austria, or else take
effective measures while time remains to ward off the danger, and if it cannot be
warded off to cope with it.
c. Sudetenland / Czechoslovakia
i. Approximately one million ethnic Germans lived in the portion of Czechoslovakia
that bordered Germany -- called by Germans the Sudetenland; again Hitler would
invoke even more correctly the principle of self-determination
ii. Hitler proclaimed that these Germans were ill-represented in Czechoslovakias
government and made exaggerated claims of persecution; Nazis in the Sudetenland
stirred the German population to violence
iii. Throughout summer of 1938, Hitler had been hinting at a campaign to seize the
Sudetenland; in September British PM Neville Chamberlain begged to meet with
Hitler
iv. Desperate to avoid conflict, Chamberlain agreed that Czechoslovakia must conduct
a plebiscite in the Sudetenland to determine the will of the people; areas that had a
German majority would become part of Germany
v. A few days later, in a meeting to work out details, Hitler demanded the entire
Sudetenland and threatened to go to war to have it; British and French prepared for
War, but Mussolini called for a third meeting
vi. At Munich, as Czech representatives waited outside, British and French traded the
Sudetenland for Hitlers guarantee that this would be his final territorial demand;
upon Hitlers agreement, the deal was done
vii. In conceding the Sudetenland, Britain and France forced Czechoslovakia to give up
strong defensive fortifications built since the war to protect against a German
invasion; after WWII, German officers noted that they would have strongly advised
against invading Czechoslovakia with those defenses in place and Allied help
viii. Chamberlain returned to Britain, waved his signed agreement with Hitler and
announced, I believe it is peace for our time; Hitler: Our opponents are worms.
I saw them at Munich.
ix. Churchill: We have sustained a defeat without a war. . . . The government was
given a choice between a policy of shame and a policy of war. They have chosen
shame but they shall get war, too! . . . By this time next year, we shall know
whether the policy of appeasement has appeased, or whether it has stimulated a
more ferocious appetite.
x. In March 1939, German forces occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia
xi. Davies: Chamberlains three rounds with Hitler must qualify as one of the most
degrading capitulations in history. Under pressure from the ruthless, the clueless
combined with the spineless to achieve the worthless.
d. Poland
i. Legacy of Appeasement: Hitler must have concluded that western Allies, in spite of
threats, did not have the will to resist his acts of aggression; aggression produces
gains without costs

ii. Legacy of Appeasement, II: Hitlers seizure of Czechoslovakia spent the last of
Great Britains goodwill; inspired commitment to resist with force next time
iii. When Hitlers rhetoric focused on Germans living in Polands Danzig Corridor,
British and French jointly guaranteed integrity of Polands borders; in March 1939
promised war if Hitler invaded Poland
iv. Churchill was astonished: how could the western Allies pledge to defend Poland,
with no means to do so other than to assault Germanys Siegfried Line a suicide
mission?
B.

Outbreak of the War

1.
Nazi-Soviet Pact
a. Problem was that in moving on Poland, Hitler now risked war with a more determined
adversary the Soviets
b. Germans and Soviets signed non-aggression pact; also secretly arranged for partition of
Eastern Europe
2.
Blitzkrieg
a. Invasion of Poland
i. Non-aggression Pact announced August 23, 1939, but Hitler waited for a week in an
effort to probe Chamberlain for a second Munich; Chamberlain was resolved and
signed a formal treaty with Poland guaranteeing its independence
ii. Nazis staged a Polish attack on German radio station near the border, then invaded
on September 1st, in retaliation for Polands aggression; Britain and France
declared war September 2nd, but had no means to help Poland
iii. Germans held advantage in air and armor, strategic advantage of Poles fighting on
two fronts, and ability to launch attacks from north, west, and south (out of
Czechoslovakia)
iv. Two weeks into Germanys attack, with Warsaw under siege, the Soviets struck,
finishing Polands resistance; the Germans and Soviets held a joint celebration of
victory at Brest-Litovsk
v. Both sides engaged in widespread massacres of Polish leaders intellectual,
political, and religious; Allies largely ignored Soviet guilt, and when Germans
invading the Soviet Union in 1941 uncovered a grave 4,500 Polish reservists at
Katyn, British government suppressed the discovery and blamed the Nazis
b. Sitzkrieg
i. German generals informed Hitler that while the Wehrmacht had performed better in
Poland than Czechoslovakia, they were not ready to take on the western Allies;
Hitler granted 6 months before unleashing blitzkrieg on western Europe
ii. British and French were not prepared to take advantage, so sitzkrieg phony
war set in until Spring 1940
iii. During this time, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, and the Finns fought the
Soviets to a standstill until a treaty was signed allowing for Finnish independence
and neutrality; Nazis observed Soviet militarys weaknesses
c. Blitzkrieg of Western Europe
i. Blitzkrieg begins with bombing of target area to paralyze and terrify the enemy;
communication is cut off from rest of world so target area cannot be reinforced
ii. Sometimes paratroops are inserted to secure important crossroads, bridges, etc., that
must not be destroyed since they will be needed by arriving troops
iii. Armored column supported by tactical air support moves swiftly into the target
area, engaging the enemy and clearing the roads
iv. Mechanized infantry move in to mop up and occupy; meanwhile air and armor
have moved onto next target all conducted in close coordination

v. Premise is shock and awe to strike so quickly and with such force that ones
opponent does not have time to react; the attack has moved to the next target
vi. Mobile, mechanized war, in which armies advance many miles in a day, as
opposed to the static trench warfare of WWIs Western Front, in which miles of
advance were achieved after months of fighting
vii. Began April 9, 1940: Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and
Luxembourg were absorbed into the Third Reich by May 28 (seven weeks)
viii. Collaborationist government established by Vidkun Quisling in Norway, but all
others were subject to Nazi occupation and political rule as in most cases, the
legitimate government fled to London
ix. Neville Chamberlain resigned as appeasement had proved a disastrous failure; King
George VI called upon Churchill to form a coalition War Cabinet, and Churchill spoke
to the House of Commons for the first time as Prime Minister on May 13, 1940:
I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have
nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the
most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.
You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all
our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a
monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human
crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is
victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and
hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
d. Invasion of France
i. On May 14, 1940, Germans launched second blitzkrieg into northern France;
bypassed the Maginot Line of fortresses along border with Germany by going
through Belgium and by using paratroops
ii. German armor pressed across Flanders into France, cutting off the small British
Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk; British and some French began an evacuation
that lasted 9 days initially painfully slow with only 7,000 evacuated on Day One
iii. Germans, focused on France and waiting for the Luftwaffes bombing to do most
of the work, delayed returning to finish off British at Dunkirk; Churchill made a
special request for owners of every kind of ship to make for the port
iv. As Luftwaffe bombings intensified (checked effectively by the RAF), pace of the
evacuation increased: 60,000 per day by the end so that 338,000 were ultimately
evacuated (but 68,000 French were not and became POWs)
v. Churchill remarked, We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the
attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations. But there was a victory inside
this deliverance, which should be noted
vi. France was, however, not to be spared; as German forces closed in on Paris, the
government capitulated rather than have Paris subject to bombardment as in 1871
vii. French surrendered on June 16 in same railroad car where Great War armistice was
signed; Alsace-Lorraine ceded to Germany, northern 2/3 of France occupied, and a
collaborationist state established at Vichy under Philippe Ptain
viii. France: 300,000 killed and wounded; 1.9 million taken prisoner and deported to
labor camps in the Third Reich
ix. During this time, Soviet forces invaded and annexed Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
x. Churchill on June 18: What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I
expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the
survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long
continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy
must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this

Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of
the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole
world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for,
will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more
protracted, by the lights of perverted science. 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 still say, This was their finest hour.
C.

The survival of the British

1.
The Blitz
a. Hitlers intention was to launch Operation Sealion, the invasion of Great Britain;
success predicated on weakening British defenses & resolve and establishing air
superiority over southern Britain
b. Battle of Britain
i. Germans committed 1,300 bombers to attack strategic targets essential to British
defense; would also lure RAF into the air to be engaged and destroyed by packs of
Luftwaffe fighters, which outnumbered the RAF approx. 2-to-1 at start of the battle
ii. Attacks began on July 10, 1940 and Hitler planned to launch invasion in mid-August
iii. Luftwaffe first hit convoys carrying supplies in the English Channel, as well as
ports across Great Britain; British RADAR proved effective at predicting where
attacks would happen, so the outmanned RAF could be used to its best potential
iv. Luftwaffe then shifted to attacking RADAR posts and airfields, but British proved
effective at repairing and reconstructing as fast as the Germans could bomb them
v. Meanwhile, production of fighter planes and training of pilots had accelerated,
including 10% of RAF pilots who were displaced French, Polish, and Czech
vi. As September closed in, Sea Lion had been postponed twice already; winter would
render the English Channel unfit for invasion; desperate, the Germans turned away
from strategic targets and opted to demoralize the British population through terror
bombing, with London as the main target, beginning September 7
vii. Londoners coped, sending children into the countryside to live with relatives and
huddling in subway stations at night, when the bombing was most intense
viii. The shift to terror bombing further backfired on the Luftwaffe because it allowed
the repair of airfields, production of fighters, and training of pilots to accelerate; by
mid-September the balance of power in the air had tipped in favor of the RAF
ix. At the end of October, the potential for invasion was past, and daylight bombings of
British cities ended, but nighttime raids continued into Summer 1941, with London
suffering the most
x. Germans had lost 2,300 aircraft, and the British about 900; 50,000 British civilians
were killed during the Blitz
xi. Some argue that it was the most important battle of the war: maintained a base from
which a western counteroffensive could be launched, and from which strategic
bombing of the Third Reich could be conducted
2.
North Africa
a. Italian involvement
i. In December, as the Blitz was winding down, 200,000 Italian troops moving out of
Libya attacked Egypt
ii. After initial reverses, badly outnumbered British troops counterattacked and drove
the Italians back into Libya; the Italians were pretty well defeated by spring 1941
b. German involvement
i. Stunned by the Italian losses, Hitler dispatched Erwin Rommel with the Afrika
Korps; though slightly outnumbered by the British, the Germans possessed much

better tanks and anti-tank guns at the outset

ii. Rommel himself was a bold and creative commander; his on-the-spot (he
commanded from a tank) improvisations confused British commanders, and one
after another was sacked as the Afrika Korps moved east toward Cairo
iii. Its goals were to seize the Suez Canal and if possible the Arab oilfields beyond
iv. But Allied air and naval power was successful in disrupting Rommels supply lines
and the Afrika Korps was soon receiving less than 1/3 of its supply requirements,
while the new British commander Bernard Montgomery was receiving full
supplies, including 300 new Sherman tanks that matched the quality of the
Germans tanks
v. In October 1942, Montgomery defeated the Germans at El Alamein; it was the first
major British victory of the war and the turning point battle in North Africa
vi. U. S. troops landed in Morocco and threatened to envelop the Afrika Korps, as
Rommels supplies dwindled to just 10% of those required; Rommel was moved by
Hitler to France to oversee the preparations of the Atlantic Wall coastal defenses,
but the Afrika Korps remained behind to surrender in May 1943

II.

The Soviet Sacrifice and Victory in the East

A.

Soviets on their heels

1.
Operation Barbarossa and Stalin's response
a. Prelude to Barbarossa in the Balkans
i. Italian troops had invaded Greece, but were being manhandled by Greek resistance in
the mountains; by April 1941 needed German assistance
ii. Yugoslavias government, meanwhile, attempted to sign a pact with the Germans
and faced a spirited reaction from its own Serbs, who deposed the government; thus
Germans occupied Yugoslavia before continuing south into Greece
iii. Partisans waged guerilla war for the next three years against the Germans, who
responded effectively by siding with one ethnic group against another most
famously with the Croats, who waged a campaign of extermination against their
own Serb minority and the Serbs to the south
iv. By summer of 1941, Germans occupied Greece
v. As German forces intruded into Eastern Europe, the Soviet military prepared to
attack, but Hitler beat a stunned Stalin to the punch despite his generals pleas that
he wait until Great Britain was defeated
b. Barbarossa
i. 3 million men: 1.25 million infantry; 620,000 artillery pieces; 3,350 tanks; 6,400
aircraft launched invasion of Soviet territory June 22, 1941
ii. Soviets, moving into offensive positions of their own, caught off-guard; Soviet
air force destroyed on ground in a matter of days
iii. Stalin himself stunned; he did not emerge from his apartment for two days, and did
not give orders to coordinate defense
iv. Army Group North (advancing toward Leningrad) surged 50 miles ahead on the
first day of the invasion; Army Group Centers (toward Moscow) tanks launched
major envelopments of the Soviet armies which captured 600,000 Soviet troops in
the first two weeks; slower progress for Army Group South (toward Kiev)
v. In spite of these successes, the root causes of failure can be seen: Hitlers generals
had pleaded for a concentrated attack on Moscow, but Hitler insisted on a broadscope attack to claim as much territory as possible (Baltics and Ukraine)
vi. Hitler then ordered a diversion of tanks from Army Group Center to Army Group

South, which allowed Kiev to be taken (along with 600,000 prisoners), but
weakened the German assault on Moscow
vii. Hitler also failed politically: when German troops moved into the Baltics and
Ukraine, they were hailed as liberators and given gifts; Hitler did not mobilize these
populations against the Soviets but carried out Holocaust against them because they
were Slavic untermenschen (most sent to forced labor camps)
viii. Stalin recovered and ordered that the Red Army retreat, harvesting all crops and
carrying all livestock with them, destroying that which could not be taken so that
it would not fall into German hands; most of Soviet industrial plants had already
been disassembled and moved 500 miles east
ix. Stalin insisted that the Red Army must create an impenetrable line of defense at
Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad; by the end of 1941, Leningrad was under
siege and German troops were 15 miles from Moscow but this was as close as
they would get, as Stalin was able to call in reinforcements from Far East, having
signed non-aggression pact with Japan and the Russian winter set in
2.

Leningrad
a. Encirclement
i. A joint Finnish-German offensive failed to capture Leningrad, but by the end of
August 1941, the Finns had sealed routes into the city from the north, ending
American Lend-Lease aid; Germans eventually took their place
ii. German army sealed routes into the city from the south and southeast, and German
submarines patrolled the waters of the Gulf of Finland upon which Leningrad is
located
iii. The citys defenders began constructing fortifications, and Germans determined that
a siege rather than an assault was the most practical way to capture the city
iv. The Luftwaffe began a protracted bombing campaign and artillery bombardment
against the city and its defenders that would last for much of the duration of the siege
and destroyed many of the citys communication and industrial sites and cultural
treasures; majority of civilians killed were not killed by bombardment
(about 15%)
b. Siege
i. Siege lasted 872 days, but is known as the 900-day siege, the longest in history; at
its beginning the total population was about 2.5 million (1 million military and 1.5
million civilian)
ii. During winter of 1941-42, supplies were brought into the city by way of the frozen
surface of Lake Ladoga, to the east of the city, but only about one-third of the
amount of supplies needed to sustain the population under normal conditions made
it through; no evacuation plan was in place
iii. During summer of 1942 watercraft began evacuating civilian population, and ice
roads the following winter continued this operation, but still only about half the
civilian population escaped
iv. The winter of 1942-43 was devastating: food supply fell to an average of 4.5 ounces
of bread per person, and average total caloric intake was at 10% of its prewar level;
lack of coal meant no electricity or heat, leading pipes to burst during the 40-degree
below zero winter so no plumbing
v. Leningraders ate bread baked with sawdust and wallpaper paste as filler, plus every
kind of animal and probably resorted to cannibalism, but kept many of the citys
vital munitions plants open and kept the Red Army defenders adequately supplied
vi. By the winter of 1943-44, Soviet offensives reopened supply routes into the city and
by spring 1944, the siege was lifted as Soviet forces moved west and threatened to

cut off the German besiegers access to German supplies

vii. It is believed that approximately 1.5 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died
during the siege the largest civilian loss of life in any single city during the war
B.

Turning the tide

1.
Stalingrad
a. Prelude
i. In December 1941, the Soviets had stopped the Germans 15 miles from Moscow;
as hard winter weather set in, the Germans suffered mightily, as they had not
packed winter clothing, expecting to take Moscow by December
ii. The Soviets launched a major counterattack, driving the Germans back from the
gates of Moscow; lines stabilized 200 miles west; lines stabilized over the summer
iii. Hitler determined to make a push for the oil fields of the Caucasus; again shifted
tanks south to spearhead the drive, while German infantry would take Stalingrad
iv. Increasingly, Hitler proclaimed that Soviet morale would disintegrate once the two
holy cities of communism Leningrad and Stalingrad fell
b. The battle
i. Luftwaffe relentlessly bombed Stalingrad beginning in September 1942; this attack
reduced city to heaps of broken concrete and twisted steel and killed 40,000
civilians
ii. Into this labyrinth the German army was poured, and Soviet reinforcements fought
them for two weeks in what amounted to trench warfare in a ruined urban
landscape; every block even every room, was contested, as one German officer
reported: We have driven them from the parlor, but they are regrouping in the
living room
iii. Marshal Georgy Zhukov began shifting troops from the now-secured Moscow
southward, and broke German lines north and south of Stalingrad; the main
German force was about to be enveloped and cut off from supply
iv. General Friedrich Paulus sought Hitlers permission to abandon Stalingrad and
escape the trap; Hitler refused and commanded Paulus to fight on
v. In January, Hitler elevated Paulus to the rank of Field Marshal, for no German field
marshal had ever surrendered his army; Paulus surrendered February 2, 1943,
leaving 91,000 prisoners to the Soviets
vi. One million troops had been killed and one million wounded in the largest battle in
the history of the world; it was the turning point on the Eastern Front as the
Germans would be on the defensive henceforth
vii. Also dealt a psychological blow to the Wehrmacht, which had grown up with the
idealized image of Hitler as the ideal commander and father; at Stalingrad he had
committed the strategic blunder and inhumane act of leaving his soldiers to die,
rather than allow them to retreat
2.
From Kursk to Berlin
a. The Soviets on the offensive
i. The Germans attempted a final offensive near Kursk in July 1943, with massed
armor which they hurled against the well-entrenched Red Army in relentless waves;
the Soviets absorbed these waves and counterattacked, after which the Germans were
forever on the defensive except for localized counterattacks
ii. From July 1943 through the end of 1944, Soviet forces were on the offensive,
but like the Germans, they did not concentrate their forces for a sharp thrust at
Berlin; rather they attacked on a broad front, aiming to conquer as much eastern
European territory as possible
iii. Thus, Soviet armies, having driven the Germans from the Ukraine, fanned out into:

III.
A.

the Baltics and Poland (former Soviet territory); Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary
(aligned with the Axis); Yugoslavia (occupied by the Germans)
iv. Stalin thus could justify these conquests as liberations for former Soviet/Russian
possessions or actions against the enemies who had invaded the Soviet Union; in
reality he was not liberating anyone, but only causing the people of Eastern
Europe to trade in Nazi tyranny for Soviet tyranny
v. Meanwhile, German army was stretched thin as joint U. S. British invasions of the
Third Reich began: Sicily & Italy in 1943, France in 1944; Stalin often associated
Soviet offensives with the western Allies offensives and with the Battle of the
Bulge to prevent the Germans from reinforcing
vi. By January 1945, the Soviets were ready to cross into Germany
The Anglo-American Partnership and Victory in the West
The Alliance
1.
FDR and Churchill: Lend-Lease and the Atlantic Charter
a. As Britain continued to resist Hitler alone, and as their financial burden became greater,
FDR realized radical measures were needed to preserve Britain; he proclaimed the U. S.
would become "the arsenal of democracy"
b. Lend-Lease Act
i. Authorized the President to lend (i. e. "give") weapons to countries whose survival he
deemed essential to the security of the U. S.; no longer neutral as U. S. will choose
whom to support
ii. Before the war was over, $50 billion in Lend-Lease aid had been made to Allied
countries, including $30B to Great Britain and $11B to the Soviet Union; both
Churchill and Roosevelt pledged full support to the Soviet Union after Operation
Barbarossa began
2.
Escorts and the Atlantic Charter
a. In May 1941 the Robin Moor, an American merchant ship, was torpedoed by German
submarines
b. FDR ordered American ships to convoy with British and offered U. S. naval protection
as far as Iceland
c. FDR and Churchill met face-to-face for the first time as heads of state in August 1941
aboard a destroyer off the coast of Newfoundland
i. FDR pledged to wage undeclared naval war on German submarines by ordering U. S.
escorts to "shoot on sight" any German submarine
ii. Sense of backing Hitler into a corner (as Lincoln did with the Confederacy at Fort
Sumter): Germans would have to choose between allowing convoys to go
unmolested and thereby give up the Atlantic without a fight, or attack American
ships and give FDR the moral authority needed to with the public to get a
declaration of war
iii. Established the Atlantic Charter: agreed upon war aims and strategies (even though
the U. S. was not yet in the war!)
iv. Churchill had declared, "Nothing is more certain than that every trace of Hitler's
footsteps, every stain of his infected, corroding fingers will be sponged and purged
and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth.
d. German reaction continued to attack American ships; yet events in the Pacific, not
the Atlantic, ultimately brought the U. S. into the war
e. When he learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Germanys subsequent declarations
of war on the U. S., Churchill declared, Hitlers fate is sealed. Mussolinis fate is
sealed. As for the Japanese, they shall be crushed to powder!
2.
Strains of the alliance

a. The Anglo-American alliance

i. The U. S. and Great Britain shared values (as free-market democracies) and heritage,
and Roosevelt and Churchill personally liked each other; frequent face-to-face
meetings
ii. U. S. and Great Britain thus engaged in full partnership, with joint command under
Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower
b. Relations with Joseph Stalin trickier
i. His values and personality differed from those of Churchill and Roosevelt
ii. Suspicious of him because of initial non-aggression Pact with Hitler
iii. He was a deliberately subtle and secretive person
c. Stalins demand for a second front
i. By Summer 1942, the Soviet Union had already suffered at least 5 million killed or
captured and sent to concentration camps
ii. Stalin demanded the immediate establishment of second front in Europe (meaning
an invasion of German-occupied France) to relieve his forces
iii. Americans agreed, but Churchill believed that in 1942 insufficient forces were
available and that to attempt a landing in France would be doomed to fail; he
argued that such a failure would allow Hitler to throw everything he had at the
Soviets and leave nothing to defend France because he would realize that the
Allies could not make a second attempt for at least 6-12 months
iv. Churchill's alternative: attack the "soft underbelly of Europe" -- via North
Africa and Italy; U. S. and Soviets agreed to this, though Stalin did so reluctantly
and remained suspicious of Churchill's intentions
v. Proved to be a solid strategy as Hitler overextended his army by invading Greece
and garrisoning Italy
B.

On the offensive
1.
The "Soft Underbelly"
a. Conquest of Italy began with Operation Husky: Allied forces drove 225,000 Axis troops
from Sicily
b. Italian Campaign proved more difficult than initially expected
i. U. S. troops landed at Salerno and would work northward up the west coast of Italy
toward Rome; British forces landed at Taranto and would drive up the east coast
ii. King Victor Emmanuel told Mussolini he was through; arrested him and began p
peace talks with Allies
iii. Hitler's advisors told him to cut Mussolini and Italy loose (because could not afford
to divert forces from Soviet Union or France) but Hitler regarded Mussolini as a
model and said, "We owe it to Il Duce to rescue him. He showed us the way."
iv. For Americans, will thus face determined and battle-hardened Germans rather than
half-hearted Italians as they push northward toward Rome
v. Operation Avalanche: Allied troops pinned down at Salerno when Germans
reinforced Italy; three weeks and 12,000 casualties later, German forces withdrew
to Naples (October 1943)
vi. From Naples to Rome, U. S. troops had to fight over ridges & valleys with each
ridge expertly defended by Germans and roads thick with mud by day and frozen
by night; they suffered from frostbite & trench-foot, and the best American
commanders had departed for Overlord, leaving mediocre Mark Clark in command
vii. Attempt to land in German rear at Anzio and create breakout failed as Americans
were pinned down as at Salerno; months of effort finally dislodged Germans
viii. Rome finally liberated by Americans June 5, 1944
2.
Strategic bombing

3.

a. Designed to destroy German capacity to supply its army, and to destroy German
defensive capabilities
i. Primarily targeted factories, warehouses, bridges, railroads, ports, oil refineries
ii. Sometimes did target cities in effort to "de-house" German factory workers (seen as
strategic targets by British)
b. U. S. and Great Britain differed in view of how to bomb
i. U. S. insisted on "precision" (only 7% of bombs hit within 1,000 feet of intended
target) bombing by day
ii. British preferred night bombing as it would be harder for antiaircraft gunners to see
and hit bombers
iii. U. S. countered that if the target was not hit, would have to return repeatedly and
thus increase probability of being shot down
iv. Agreed to bomb round-the-clock: U. S. by day and British by night
c. Results
i. 1.4M sorties dropped 2.7M tons of bombs on Third Reich targets
ii. 40,000 bombers and fighter escorts lost; 160,000 personnel killed
iii. Hard to assess exactly how effective it was at degrading Germany's industrial and
defensive capacity, but thought to have significantly slowed German growth and
had a devastating effect through the destruction of oil refineries according to Albert
Speer
From Overlord to the Elbe
a. Air & naval bombardment of Normandy defenses
i. In weeks leading up to invasion, 12,000 Allied aircraft attacked, pounding German
defenses and smashing German air force to gain air superiority over France
ii. Over 1,100 warships closed to within firing range of the Normandy coast in the
hours before the invasion, pounding German defenses with shells
iii. Both air and naval bombardment called off as troops in landing boats approached
the shore to avoid hitting them accidentally
b. Airborne assault
i. 10,000 Airborne forces dropped by parachute and in plywood gliders landed starting
at midnight to night of the invasion; largest airborne assault in history
ii. Their mission: secure key points behind the beaches to prevent German
reinforcements and to secure paths for Allied troops once ashore
iii. Airborne forces suffered greatest number of casualties, with U. S. suffering 2,500
and Britain suffering 1,500 airborne casualties
iv. Followed up with 35,000 more who brought 500 artillery pieces, 100 light tanks,
and large stores of supplies to support landing operations
c. Landings
i. Beaches divided into Utah and Omaha (American); Gold, Sword, and Juno (British
and Canadian)
ii. Originally planned for June 5, weather was too bad and Eisenhower decided to wait
one day; German intelligence told Rommel that weather would be too bad June 6,
too, so he traveled to Germany to celebrate his wife's birthday
iii. From 6:30 - 8:00 AM 50,000 troops arrived by landing craft on all five beaches
iv. British beaches Gold and Sword (as well as U. S. beach Utah) taken with
relatively few casualties; U. S. beach Omaha saw 3,000 casualties and Canadian
beach Juno 1,200
v. All beaches secured by 8:00 PM
d. Follow-up
i. Mulberry harbors constructed to move troops and supplies into Normandy

ii. By July 4, 1944, 1M men, 171,000 vehicles, 566,000 tons of supplies had come into
Europe
iii. Allied forces had begun to lay PLUTO (Pipeline under the ocean) to supply Allied
forces with gasoline
iv. U. S. forces captured Cherbourg, a true port on the Cotentin Peninsula
e. The Hedgerows
i. Germans benefited from fact that Normandy had been farm country for centuries;
farmers built up hedgerows to separate their fields and Germans used these as
ready-made defensive structures
ii. American and British forces faced heavy resistance and sustained high casualties as
they had to force the Germans from field-to-field; Germans had pre-measured all of
the entrances to fields and wreaked heavy damage on Allied armor
iii. U. S. forces suffered 10,000 casualties in moving the Germans just 7 miles; taking
on characteristics of WWI-style static warfare which favored Germans
iv. British under Montgomery slowly worked toward Caen, drawing the bulk of
German attention
f. Patton's Operation Cobra
i. Recognizing German overcommitment to fighting the British at Caen, George Patton,
now given command of a real army, Third Army, launched rapid armor attack
against Germans' western flank
ii. After several fits and starts, Allied forces began to breakthrough German lines, and
with powerful air support, caused Germans to break; they retreated across the Seine
and into Germany
g. The liberation of Paris
i. Allied forces liberated Paris August 25, as French forces were granted honor of
entering the city first
ii. Wild celebrations erupted when Americans entered the city, with millions of
civilians welcoming them
h. Casualties of the Battle of Normandy (June 6 - August 25, 1944)
i. For Allies 45,000 dead and 173,000 wounded
ii. For Germans 50,000 dead and 350,000 wounded or taken prisoner; thousands of
tanks and artillery pieces destroyed or captured
i. Hitlers Ardennes Offensive: why and how
i. Hitler hoped that British forces moving up coast and American forces moving across
countryside toward the Rhine could be split and defeated individually
ii. Also hoped to capture Antwerp, which had become Allies' chief port for importing
war supplies
iii. He threw all of his reserves into a surprise counterattack in the dead of winter;
objective to drive a wedge between British and American armies in Ardennes
Forest of Belgium and northern France
j. Battle of the Bulge; the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne
i. German forces attacked December 16 and achieved near full surprise; American
forces driven back as a day later, American commanders still not sure how to
interpret the attack (local counterattack or major offensive)
ii. Two full regiments of U. S. Infantry forced to surrender as Germans drove a "bulge"
into American lines; most American casualties suffered in these first days
iii. Germans not able to dislodge 101st Airborne Division from Bastogne, a major
crossroads; surrounded it and demanded surrender to which Gen. Anthony
MacAuliffe simply replied, "NUTS!"
iv. Gen. Patton shifted his armored attack from west to north in relief of Bastogne and
as weather cleared, the 101st received air-dropped supplies; German momentum

stalled and attack failed

k. The American victory and the consequences for Germany
i. By Christmas Day 1944, the American lines had stabilized and German forces were
again in retreat; U. S. had suffered 81,000 casualties including nearly 20,000 killed
ii. Germans suffered 84,000 casualties; their reserves had been thrown into this effort
and crushed, so there was little left other than boys and old men to defend Germany
iii. According to British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the good fighting
qualities of the American soldier had turned the tide of the war: I take my hat off
to such men. I salute the brave fighting men of America -- I never want to fight
alongside better soldiers. I have tried to feel that I am also an American soldier
myself.
C.

Close of the War in Europe

1.
The Elbe
a. Wehrmacht was in a state of collapse; Allied troops were streaming eastward, barely
stopping to process German prisoners
b. Agreed to stop at the Elbe River, as Soviets would take Berlin
c. Battle for Berlin
i. By agreement with the Americans and British, the Soviets were given the assignment
of taking Berlin; the armies of the western Allies stopped at the Elbe
ii. Nazi propaganda had informed German civilians that if captured by the Soviets, they
would be raped, tortured, murdered and there were atrocities inflicted on German
officers and soldiers; impact was not greater resistance, but a flood of German
refugees and deserters headed west
iii. Those recruited into Hitlers Volkssturm were the last holdouts of resistance:
schoolchildren aged 14 and up, aged men, and invalids; the Soviets ordered that
everyone in a German uniform be exterminated
iv. German resistance stiffened at Berlin, however, where the last German holdouts,
including civilians armed at Hitlers orders forced the Soviets forced to fight streetto-street as Hitler and the Nazi high command huddled in the underground bunker
v. After two weeks, German resistance collapsed and Soviet forces captured the city
as Hitler committed suicide on April 30; the citys defenders finally surrendered
two days later
2.
V-E Day was declared on May 8-9, 1945
a. The war on the Eastern Front killed 10.5 million Soviet soldiers and 5 million Axis
soldiers, including 75% of all German casualties
b. The war on the Western Front killed 1.5 million Allied soldiers and 800,000 Axis
soldiers
c. Civilian dead (not counting Holocaust): Axis 3.5 million, Soviet Union 13 million,
other Allies 6.5 million

IV.

Hitler's European Holocaust

A.

Foundations
1.
Why the Jews and Slavs? And others?
a. Hitlers racial theories and plans
i. Hitler regarded Jews and Slavs as untermenschen subhuman; Europe was to be
made Jew-Free, and Slavs were to be reduced to a state of serfdom, forced to
provide agricultural labor to feed the growing German nation
ii. Hitler regarded Judaism as egalitarian / leveling (and associated Jews with Marxism
and liberalism) because of the Jewish emphasis on moral behavior; this conflicted

2.

with Nietzsche and Haeckels view that the nation could only achieve its maximum
power by discarding ideologies that restrain this natural impulse / will to power
iii. Hitler regarded Christianity as even more radical and undesirable, and declared that
the elimination of Christianity would be the final task of the Nazi Party, but
acknowledged that this task must wait: logistically much more challenging since
Christianity could not be associated with a self-identifying nation of people like the
Jews and because Christians were so numerous in Europe
iv. Nevertheless, Hitler transformed the Jews from a self-identifying nation into a race,
and did the same with the Slavs, proclaiming both to be genetically inferior and
therefore subject to extermination in an effort to preserve the purity of Aryan blood
v. Nazi Party Constitutional Principles: The Reich is as state [founded ] on racial
principles: . . . The purity and the continued health of German blood is the
prerequisite for the existence of the German people and the Reich. Only the
German and his racial kin has a right to determine the future fate of the German
People.
vi. Hitler on the Slavs (via Martin Bormann): The Slavs are to work for us. In so far
as we dont need them, they may die. . . . As for food they wont get any more than is
absolutely necessary. We are the masters. We come first.; and (via Alfred
Rosenburg): The [Slavic] territories will have to serve . . . for the feeding of the
German people. We see absolutely no reason for any obligation to feed also the
[Slavic] people . . . We know that this is a very harsh necessity . . . The future will
hold very hard years in store for the [Slavs].
vii. Hitlers plan was for Slavs to be shipped to slave-labor camps or employed in the
fields and deliberately starved; leaders and intellectuals among them were to be
immediately exterminated while millions died in the long run
b. Other victims
i. Hitler adopted the idea of eugenics: believed that persons with physical deformities
or mental handicaps should be immediately executed to prevent reproduction and
the passing on of genetic defects to the next generation; 72,000 were euthanized
from 1939-40 the first of Hitlers victims
ii. Homosexuals as sexual deviants and non-producers of children were victimized
(as many as 10,000 estimated)
iii. Gypsies because they were regarded as an unwanted nation (up to 400,000 killed)
iv. Jehovahs Witnesses and Freemasons because of the insular or secretive nature of
their organizations were declared conspirators against the state (2,000 Witnesses
and 80,000 - 200,000 Freemasons killed)
The Nuremburg Laws
a. Nuremburg Laws on Reich Citizenship (September 15, 1935)
i. A Reich citizen is a subject of the State who is of German or related blood.
ii. Only way possible to be recognized as a Reich citizen was to receive a certificate
from the government
iii. Political rights taking part in elections, serving in office were only available to
Reich citizens; also allowed for confiscation of property and assets of non-citizens
b. Nuremburg Law for the Protection of German Blood & German Honor (Sept. 15, 1935)
i. Marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans were prohibited
ii. Jews prohibited from flying German or Nazi flags; may only display Jewish colors
iii. Penalties included prison sentences with hard labor
c. After these, Hitler went nearly silent on the matter of the Jews; deliberately hid
evidence of persecution during 1936 Olympics and sought to portray himself as
reasonable and responsible as he negotiated for concessions from Britain and France

B.

Execution
1.
Beginning
a. There is no record of Hitler giving an explicit order for the Holocaust to begin
b. Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass)
i. In reprisal for the murder of a German embassy official in Paris by a Polish Jew,
Hitler unleashed a night of violence in which Jewish businesses and synagogues
were vandalized; it was November 9-10, 1938
ii. Hitler blamed the Jews for this wave of violence and fined them as a group $400
million to be seized from banks and businesses; must also wear identifying
Star of David
c. In his statements, became more violent and ominous: If the international Jewish
financiers . . . should again plunge the nations into a world war the result will be the
annihilation of the Jewish race throughout Europe (January 30, 1939)
d. Poland
i. As Germany occupied Poland, home to the largest population of European Jews,
portions of cities were cordoned off and reserved for Jews; these were called
ghettoes and the most crowded was that of Warsaw, where 400,00 Jews
occupied a space once populated by 120,000
ii. Due to inadequate food and health care and the deliberate massacre of political
and community leaders, the death rates in the ghettoes were high, but did not
approach the level of extermination to be seen starting in 1942
2.
The initial Final Solution
a. Final Solution was the euphemism for the systematic extermination of Europes
Jews and Slavs
b. Original plan was to herd them into camps and work them to death
i. First camps were set up in Germany and occupied Poland; conditions were
deliberately horrid as in the ghettoes with the policy being to kill the prisoners
through disease, malnutrition, or exhaustion
ii. Massive logistical problem of arranging transport: 7-8 million prisoners were
shipped to these camps with initial focus being Polands 3 million Jews, then
Jews from the Balkans, Hungary, and Western Europe, and Slavic non-Jews
c. Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Groups)
i. When providing transportation for all proved impossible, extermination squads
called Einsatzgruppen began process of killing Jews and Slavs
ii. From testimony at Nuremburg Trials: The Einsatz unit would enter a village or
town and order the prominent Jewish citizens to call together all Jews for the
purpose of resettlement. They were requested to hand over their valuables and
shortly before execution to surrender their outer clothing. They were transported to
the place of execution . . . in trucks always only as many as could be executed
immediately. . . . Then they were shot, kneeling or standing, by firing squads in a
military manner and the corpses thrown into the ditch.
iii. Near the Babi Yar ravine in the Ukraine, one mass grave was opened to reveal
70,000 Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Einsatzgruppen
2.
Extermination camps
a. Opened in 1942-43, when the labor camps and Einsatzgruppen were seen to be too slow
and inefficient
i. Tide of the war turned against the Germans (loss at Moscow, stalled at Stalingrad,
defeated in North Africa, U. S. now in the war); Hitler sought to finish the work
ii. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in January-April 1943 demonstrated the capability of

captive populations to acquire weapons; Warsaw Ghetto liquidated with all remaining
occupants killed, but fear of future uprisings also prompted acceleration of the Final
Solution
b. Six were opened whose specific purpose was extermination: Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Belzek, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka (all in Poland); all adjacent
to a labor camp
c. Process
i. Victims arrived via rail and spot-checked by Nazi doctors for fitness; those who
were deemed fit for labor were directed to labor camp, those not directly to the
extermination camp; families separated
ii. Once in extermination camp, were de-clothed and told they were to be de-loused,
which would have been a common experience from the labor camps
iii. De-lousing took place in gas chambers designed to look like shower rooms;
crystallized prussic acid was dropped into chambers where it would dissolve into air
iv. Victims often figured it out and began to try to break through the sealed doors; led
to violent stampedes and clawing to escape, so not a peaceful death that one might
associate with death by gas chamber
v. Sonnerkommando were inmates who knew what was going on, and were given
better housing and food to pull apart the bodies and collect strategic materials
including gold teeth, jewelry, hair
vi. Victims bodies were incinerated in crematoria and the remains usually trucked to a
nearby river and dumped; as Allied forces closed in, camp leaders gave up as it took
too long and simply piled the bodies, as they were often discovered when Allied
troops discovered the camps in 1945
d. 11 million people were killed; six million Jews and five million non-Jewish Slavs
3. Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunals held following the war took testimony of Nazi leaders,
which remains as compelling refutation of Holocaust deniers