World War II

1939 - 1945

The Rise of Fascism

Fascism is a nationalistic political

philosophy which is anti-democratic,
anti- communist, and anti-liberal. It puts
the importance of the nation above the
rights of the individual.

Fascism

Fascist dictators
began to take over in
parts of Europe in
the 1920s and
1930s due to bad
economic conditions
created by WWI and
the Great
Depression.

Italy

Benito Mussolini became the Prime

Minister of Italy in 1922. He used this
position to outlaw all non-fascist
political parties and soon became and
dictator.

Germany

Adolph Hitler became

the Chancellor of
Germany in January,
1933. Through a variety
of manipulative actions,
Hitler soon dismantled
the German government
and became a dictator.

Europe Moves Toward War

1936: German troops
moved into the Rhineland.
This was prohibited by
the Treaty of Versailles.
1936: Hitler and Mussolini
signed an alliance, creating
the Axis.

The Spanish Civil War

1936-39: Spanish Civil War: Fascist

forces aided by Italy and Germany take
over Spain. (WWII dress rehearsal).

More Steps Toward War

March 1938: Germany annexed Austria.
Sept. 1938: Munich conference: Hitler
forced the British and French to give him
the Sudetenland in return for a promise not
to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia.
March, 1939: Hitler took over
Czechoslovakia.

War in Europe Begins

March 31, 1939: Britain and France agreed to
protect Poland in case of a German invasion.
August, 1939: Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression
Pact
Sept. 1, 1939: Hitler invaded Poland, starting
WWII.
Sept, 3, 1939: Britain and France declared war
on Germany and Germany and Italy declared
war on them.

The Japanese Empire

Japan wanted to expand to meet the land
needs of a growing population and to
obtain more raw materials and markets for
its industries.
1931: Japan seized Manchuria
1937-40: Japan seized most of E. China
Sept. 1940: Japan joins the tripartite pact,
becoming an ally of Italy and Germany.

America and WWII

America initially stayed out of the war,
but began a naval build up in the Pacific
to counter the expansion of Japan.
1939: FDR moved the Pacific fleet from
San Diego to Pearl Harbor.
Disillusionment from WWI and the Great
Depression contributed to the popularity
of isolationism in America.

American Involvement Grows

Neutrality Acts of the mid to late 1930s
made it impossible for the US to give
loans to nations at war or to allow any
combatant to buy on credit.
FDR had to find other ways to help out
the British and the French in their fight
against Fascism.
March 1941: Lend-lease began.

The Atlantic Charter

August 1941: FDR and Winston Churchill
met secretly on a ship off the coast of
Newfoundland to agree on war goals, since
both foresaw US joining the Allies, soon.
They agreed to ensure national sovereignty
for all nations and drew up the outline for
the United Nations. This was the Atlantic
Charter.

America gets closer to war

Mid 1941: Japanese forces seized French
territories in Indochina.
In response, the US froze Japanese assets
in the US and cut off all trade with Japan.
Americans began to crack the Japanese
secret code and intercepted messages
saying that Japan was planning to seize
more islands in the Pacific.

Problems in the Pacific

October 1941: General Tojo became Prime
Minister of Japan and wanted war with the
US.
Nov. 1941: The US intercepted messages
showing that a Japanese force was moving
towards SE Asia to take more land.
FDR demanded that it be recalled and that
Japan withdraw from conquered territories.

Pearl Harbor
Japanese negotiators agreed to meet with US
diplomats.
While they met, the Japanese decided to sent
a fleet to Pearl Harbor to destroy the US
Pacific fleet.
Dec. 7, 1941: Japanese forces attacked
Pearl Harbor killing 2,400, wounding 1,200,
and destroying 300 Am. Planes, 18 warships,
and 8 of the 9 US battleships.

WAR

Dec. 8, 1941: FDR delivered a war

message to Congress. Within 3 days, the
US was at war with Japan, Germany, and
Italy.

A Grim Future for the Allies

In Jan. 1942, the Axis powers had a big
advantage in Europe. By then, Britain
was almost defeated, the Axis
controlled almost all of continental
Europe, and German troops had
captured most of North Africa.
German subs were trying to keep food
and supplies from reaching Britain.

The Battle of the Atlantic

American and British
ships fought to
maintain control of the
Atlantic and protect
Britain from defeat.
Allied ships used
Sonar to locate and
attack German subs.

Casablanca Conference
January 1943: FDR and Churchill met
in Casablanca, Morocco.
They agreed to win the war in Europe
before concentrating on the Pacific.
They agreed to demand only an
unconditional surrender from all of the
Axis powers.

The Invasion of Italy

July, 1943: Am. Troops commanded by
General George Patton attacked Sicily.
38 days later, Sicily fell and Mussolini was
overthrown by a disillusioned Italian
population.
Hitler captured Mussolini and set up a fascist
state in N. Italy, and Italian and German
troops continued to fight the Allies in Italy.

War in Italy
Sept. 1943: Italy surrendered to the
allies, and many Italians began to fight
against Mussolini and Hitler.
Sept. 1943 - Jan. 1944: US forces are
stalled by Hitlers troops .
Finally in January, the US landed forces
behind the German lines at Anzio, just
South of Rome.

War in the Soviet Union

June, 1941: Germany attacked the Soviet
Union with 3.6 million German soldiers.
The USSR asked the US for lend-lease
help, but FDR refused, afraid to be caught
helping a communist nation.
Eventually, the USSR repelled the German
attack, but this was only a temporary
victory.

The Battle of Stalingrad

1942: Germany again attacked the
USSR, this time concentrating its
attacks in the Southern part of the
country.
Sept. 1942: the Germans attacked
Stalingrad, a major oil and railroad
center.

The Battle of Stalingrad

From September to November, 1942, the
Germans shelled and attacked the city of
Stalingrad.
The USSR refused to surrender the city and
house - to - house fighting saved the city
from defeat.
By late November, the USSR launched a
counteroffensive and began to win the battle.

A Turning Point
Jan. 31, 1943: 90,000 surviving
German soldiers surrendered to the
Soviet army in Stalingrad.
This was the turning point of the war in
the east: after this the USSR never lost
another battle, and the Germans did not
launch any more offensives in the east.

War in W. Europe
The US began to bomb Germany in 1942
using carpet bombing tactics.
In 1943, the amount of bombs dropped in
Germany doubled.
By 1944, the US was bombing Germany
24 hours a day.
The bombing of Dresden was one of the
most famous campaigns of the air war.

D-Day
June 6, 1944: Allied troops
commanded by Eisenhower landed on
the beaches of Normandy and began
the invasion of W. Europe and the
liberation of France.
Despite brutal German resistance, 2
million allied soldiers occupied France
by July.

The US Frees W. Europe

American forces
continued to defeat
the Germans and
freed Paris by
August, 1944. In
Sept., Belgium and
Holland were freed
from Nazi control.

The Battle of the Bulge

Dec. 1944: Germany launched its last
offensive in the war attacking Americans
in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Patton arrived a few days later with
250,000 men.
This was the largest battle ever fought by
the US army and the largest battle of
WWII.

The Battle of the Bulge

The US won the battle. Over 800,000
Americans fought here and 80,000
Americans died.
Germany fought with over 2 million
soldiers, and lost about 200,000 men.
After this battle, the Germans realized
the war was lost.

German Surrender
The Americans continued to bomb
Germany and attack from the Western
front, while the Soviets continued their
attacks on Germany from the East.
May 8, 1945: V-E Day: Germany
surrendered.

May
8,
1945:
V-E
Day

The Yalta Conference

Feb. 1945: The Big Three met at

Yalta in the USSR to plan the post-war
world.

Yalta Conference
All agreed to split Germany into 4 zones
of occupation and to also split the capital
city, Berlin.
Stalin promised to allow free elections in
the nations his army liberated from
Germany.
Stalin agreed to enter the war against
Japan soon after the German surrender.

War in the Pacific

On Dec. 7, 1941, about one-half of General
MacArthurs air force was destroyed on the
ground at Clark Air Field in the Philippines.
Within days, a large Japanese force landed
in the Philippines and MacArthur withdrew
to the Bataan Peninsula on Manila Bay.
There he set up defenses, hoping the US
Navy could evacuate his men to safety.

The Philippines
By March, 1942, FDR ordered General
MacArthur to escape to Australia. He
left with the words: I shall return.
On May 6, 1942, 11,000 Americans and
Filipinos surrendered. When the
Bataan Peninsula fell, approx. 76,000
Filipinos and Americans became
prisoners of war.

Bataan Death March

Japanese soldiers split the prisoners into
groups of 500-1000 and marched them 60
miles to a railroad.
About 10,000 prisoners died during the 6 -12
day march and some were shot by the
guards.
Those who survived were shipped to prison
camps where they were held captive for the
rest of the war.

Bataan

The Japanese
general responsible
for organizing the
march was one of 6
Japanese executed
for war crimes after
the war.

Japanese Expansion
Japanese forces continued to expand
and were not stopped by allied forces
until the Battle of the Coral Sea in May,
1942.
This battle fought entirely with planes
from aircraft carriers. Enemy ships
never came within sight of one another.

Battle of the Coral Sea

Although both the US and

the Japanese navy lost
about 1/2 of their forces,
this battle stopped the
Japanese from
establishing the bases
they needed to invade
Australia.

The Battle of Midway

June 4, 1942: This battle was also
fought entirely from the air.
The US destroyed 3 of the 4 Japanese
aircraft carriers while they were still
loading bombs in their planes. This
carried with it the loss of 250 Japanese
planes.
This was the last Japanese offensive.

Battle of Guadalcanal
1st US offensive of the Pacific war.
August 1942: 11,000 US Marines landed
at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
and about 2,200 Japanese fled into the
jungle. They fought there for 3 months.
Feb. 1943: Japan abandoned
Guadalcanal.

Island-Hopping
From February 1943 on, the US forces
began to selectively attack enemy-held
islands in the Pacific.
The Japanese fiercely defended their
positions and both sides suffered heavy
casualties.

American Offensives
The US first captured the rest of the
Solomon islands and then the Gilbert
islands.
After seizing the island of Tarawa in the
Gilbert islands, it was used by US
Admiral Nimitz to launch bombing raids
on Japanese bases in the Marshall
islands.

More US Offensives
By Feb. 1944, the US had crippled
Japanese air power and seized the
Marshall islands.
By June, 1944, the US captured parts of
the Mariana Islands.
The Mariana Islands were important
because they enabled US planes to
bomb Japanese cities.

The Philippines
Mid-October 1944: US forces invaded the
Philippine island of Leyte. Although the US quickly
captured the island, a huge naval battle ensued.
The Japanese used kamikaze pilots for the 1st
time in this battle.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest in Naval
history, engaging more than 280 warships. As a
result of the battle, the Japanese navy was virtually
destroyed.

Japanese Kamikazes
Japanese kamikazes were suicide
pilots who crashed their planes which
were heavily loaded with bombs into
allied ships.
During the war, the US experienced
about 4,900 kamikaze attacks which
destroyed 57 American ships and
damaged about 650 others.

A
Kamikaze
Pilot

The Philippines
After securing Leyte, the US invaded
Luzon in an attempt to capture Manila,
the capital city of the Philippines.
In one months time, 100,000 Filipinos
died, 80,000 Japanese died, and 27,000
Americans also perished.
The US did not fully secure the
Philippines until June, 1945.

The Battle of Iwo Jima

The battle for this 14 square mile island was
one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
25,000 Japanese protected the small rocky
island and it took over 110,000 Americans to
defeat them. Only 216 Japanese
surrendered--the rest died.
More US medals of honor were given for this
battle than any other single battle of the war.

Marines Raising the US Flag

at Iwo Jima

American Offensives
Iwo Jima was located about 700 miles
from Japan. Its capture was another
step toward an eventual invasion of the
Japanese home islands.
The next island to fall to the Americans
was Okinawa, which was located about
350 miles from Japan.

Battle of Okinawa
April-June 1945: In another bloody battle,
nearly 100,000 Japanese defended the island
from an allied force of 180,000 soldiers and
1,300 warships.
Japanese kamikazes launched nearly 2,000
attacks against the British and American fleets.
This was the single bloodiest battle of the
Pacific war with nearly 50,000 allied deaths
and 93,000 Japanese deaths.

Okinawa

The Bombing of Hiroshima

August 6, 1945: On
President Trumans
orders, the Enola
Gay dropped an
atomic bomb on the
city of Hiroshima.
It destroyed about
90% of the city and
killed about 140,000
people.

Nagasaki
When the bombing of Hiroshima did not
elicit a surrender from the Japanese
government, a 2nd atomic bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki on August 9,
1945.
The bomb on Nagasaki was equally
destructive and led to a Japanese
surrender.

V-J Day
August 14, 1945: Japan agreed to an
unconditional surrender.
The formal surrender was signed on
September 2, 1945 on the USS
Missouri in Tokyo Bay, officially ending
WWII.

The Results of the War

After the defeat of the Axis powers, all
territories that had been taken over by Japan
were returned to their pre-war status.
All of the German-occupied territories were
supposed to be given free elections, but only
the W. European nations became democratic.
Stalin refused to honor the Yalta agreements
and made E. Europe into a series of
Communist dictatorships.

World War II Allied Deaths

Nation

Military

Civilian

Total

France

122,000

470,000

592,000

Britain

305,800

60,600

366,400

US

405,400

405,400

USSR

11,000,000 6,700,000

17,700,000

World War II Axis Deaths

Nation

Military

Civilian

Total

2,350,000

5,600,000

226,900

60,000

286,900

1,740,000

393,400

2,133,400

Germany 3,250,000
Italy
Japan