Lecture 13-World War II Allies Against Axis

Hitler Germany

• 1930s: Germans still
  bitter over WWI defeat

  • Global humiliation

  • Depressed economy

• Adolf Hitler: 1933 Dictator of Führer, Founded National Socialist “Nazi” party

  • Promised revival of German strength & dignity

  • German people idolized him

• Mein Kampf – Hitler’s book

  • Taught superiority of Aryan (native German) race
    & inferiority of Jewish race

Europe in Danger

• Hitler’s Goal: German world domination

  • Brit/France wanted peace

  • US isolationism

  • Nazis free to gobble up territory

• Dictator in germany

  • basic freedoms revoked, abuse of Jews, extermination plans

• Initial Foreign Aggression

  • built up huge army, annexed small nearby territories like Czechoslovakia and Austria

Italy & Japan

• Italy—facism

  • Mussolini: Dictator

  • army invaded Africa to gain colonies

• Japan—goal of Asian domination

  • invaded China, tortured/killed thousands

  • eye on nearby Pacific islands

• Axis powers

  • Germany Italy and Japan signed treaty to support each other in war

  • USSR and Germany pledged mutual support & had common goals

  • Stalin planned to split Poland w Hitler

  • Jews sometimes persecuted during Stalin era

War in Europe

• Appeasement Attempt 1938—Brit PM Chamberlain allowed Hitler’s conquest of Czechoslovakia, said lil when they took Austria

• diplomacy failed 1939—nazis seized Poland

  • Brit/France declared war on Germany

  • Germans took Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands

  • 1940 France fell

  • Brit stood alone

FDR & Churchill

• FDR quietly supported Brit

  • cash/carry sale of war material

  • traded 50 destroyers for naval base access

  • 1941 Lend-Lease Act: pay after war

• PM Winston Churchill

  • knew Brit couldn’t last long

  • Battle of Brit—Nazis bombed London every night for months

  • told ppl “never, never give up”

  • pleaded w FDR for US involvement

Pearl Harbor

• US pacific naval bases threat to Japan (Japan goal to takeover Asia)

• Sun Dec 7 1941—183 Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor

  • 2,400 US dead, 1,000 wounded, sunk/disabled 18 ships

• FDR “day in which will live in infamy”

  • US mourning

  • congress declared war on Japan

  • Hitler/Mussolini (Axis) declared war on US

  • German U-boats prowled US Atlantic seaboard

US to War

• 16 mill served

  • most young men

  • WACS & WAVES—army and navy noncombat branches for women

• home front

  • rationed food/war materials

  • sold war bonds

• Rosie the Riveter

  • women who worked in defense industries and filled traditional male jobs, women in workforce rose from 25% to 50%

• economy boomed again

  • manufacturing equip

  • more jobs than workers by 1945

Pacific Theater

• US territories taken (Guam, Wake Islands, Philippines)

• Bataan Death March—Japan took US and Filipino soldiers to concentration camp

  • 1000s died on march, 16,000 in camp

• Battle of Midway 1942—gave US supremacy in Pacific, Japan continued to fight US until 1945

Euro Scene

• allied forces

  • US personnel greeted

  • fought campaigns in Africa & Italy, protected Brits

• Soviets

  • communist—basic freedoms denied, mill of citizens killed

  • dictator Stalin broke Nazi alliance after Hitler invaded Russia

  • FDR & Churchill against communism

    • desperate, allowed Soviets to join team

  • soviets fought Germany on eastern front

• the big three

  • FDR, Churchill, Stalin met to make war decisions

US Leadership

• FDR Four Freedoms

  • freedom of speech & worship, freedom from want & fear

  • war goal—restore four freedoms to ppl dominated by Germany/Japan

• “Ike” Eisenhower

  • military man from Kansas, major war planner in DC

  • liberated Africa & Italy, Supreme Allied commander in Europe

  • planned/executed D-day

  • US pres 1953-1961

Operation Overlord

• French Invasion Plans

  • 2yrs of prep by US & Brit

  • suprise attack crucial

• Ike managed 3 touchy generals (Bradley, Patton, Montgomery)

  • they trained soldiers for the invasion

• planned elab decoys

  • built structures at other locations

• other tasks

  • stockpiled supplies

  • strategic bombing of France

  • checked weather forecasts

D-Day: June 6, 1944

• Ike Countdown to D-Day (2004): accurate film starring Tom Selleck

• departed from England—175,000 troops, 50,000 vehicles

  • Ike feared death toll 70%

• landed in Normandy

  • Germans astonished

  • despite gunfire troops gained ground

  • beachheads est.

  • mill of allied troops entered continent

  • allied death toll 20%

• strong french base

  • aug. liberated Paris

Victory in Europe

• Battle of the Bulge—2 month series of battles, Nazi men and supplies fatally depleted

  • allies invaded Germany

• Berlin in Allied grip

  • US/Brit in West, Soviets in East

  • Apr. 30 hitler suicide

  • soviets invaded Berlin

• May 7 Germany surrendered

  • Ike set up military rule over W Germany

• discovered many concentration camps

  • mill of Jews tortured and killed

  • Ike documented Holocaust so ppl wouldn’t deny it in future

Pacific Theater (Continued)

• Japan refused to surrender

  • cultural tradition of suicide “Kamikaze” warfare

  • death tolls didn’t stop them

• planned possible invasion of Japan

  • knew civilians would sacrifice themselves to fight Allies

  • Allied & Japanese death tolls would be huge

  • secret alternate plan

• atomic bomb development

  • scientists secret base, successfully tested bomb in New Mexico, had power to destroy city

Bomb on Japan

• Pres Truman faced decision

  • grieved ab destroying entire city

  • informed that approx 1mill ppl, Americans, & Japanese would die in an invasion of Japan, chose bomb due to lower death toll

• Truman warned Japan to surrender

  • Japan refused, Aug. 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed, 175K deaths, Japan surrendered after

  • controversy still

Victory at Last

• Aug 1945 war over

  • allied nations rejoiced, much rebuilding ahead, Europe destitute and in ruins

• US world power

  • isolationism over forever

• death toll

  • Brit—450,900

  • US—419,000

  • Soviet—27,000,000

  • world total 60 Mill