WW2 (SOL Review #7)

Causes of ww2

• Failures of Treaty of Versailles 

  • Ended ww2 but Germans saw it as unfair 

• Appeasement

  • Goal: Giving in to some of Hitler’s demands to avoid another war

  • In reality: Encouraged Hitler to become more aggressive

• Hiter’s diplomatic revolution

  • Isolated opponents and prepared Germany for expansion.

• Munich Conference: Meeting in Munich to discuss Hitler’s demand for the Sudetenland

  • Showed the failure of appeasement and encouraged further aggression by Hitler

• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact: united two ideologically opposed powers and removed the biggest obstacle to German expansion in Eastern Europe.

Key events of 1939-1940

• September 1: Beginning of ww2

• Scandinavian Campaign (April-June): First direct land confrontation between the Allied forces and Nazi Germany during World War II

  • Invasion of Denmark and Norway

    • Goal: Secure Iron ore supplies from Sweden and gain naval bases 

  • Invasion of Benelux 

    • Goal: bypass maginot line and attack France from the north

• May 10, 1940: Nazi Germany launched its western offensive and ended the Phony War

• Dunkirk Evacuation (May 26- June 4): Successful rescue of over 338,000 allied troops trapped by German forces in France during ww2

• June 22, 1940: France surrenders to Germany and Henri Petain establishes Vichy France 

• Battle of Britain: Germany’s attempt to defeat Britain with air attacks 

  • RAF (Royal Air Force) defends Britain from German bombing

  • Radar: warned Britain when aircrafts were near

• Nazi use of Blitzkrieg

  • Quick attacks using tanks and airplanes 

• To what extent was the United States a neutral power in 1939-1940 ?

Key Battles of WW2

• Leningrad: prolonged military blockade by axis powers 

  • 900 day surge in soviet union

  • Massive suffering and starvation

• Stalingrad (aug 1942- feb 1943): Stopped Germany’s advance into the Soviet Union and shifted the momentum of the war in favor of the Allies.

  • Soviet victory against Germany (who retreated)

• Normandy/D-Day (June 6, 1942): Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France

  • Opened a 2 front in western Europe 

• Okinawa (June 4, 1942): US navy destroyed 4 Japanese aircraft carriers

• Midway: Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific 

Heroic Actions in events 

• French resistance

  • Collection of different groups that fought Nazi occupation and Vichy regime 

• Dunkirk Evacuation

  • Massive military rescue of about 338k allied soldiers after German forces trapped British expeditionary force in Battle of France 

• Covert Action

  • Strategies used both by Allies and Axis to gather intelligence, sabotage enemy infrastructure and conduct psychological warfare 

• Operation Jedburgh

  • 3-man allied teams parachuted into occupied France, Belgium and Netherlands to sabotage German Forces

Key Leaders of WW2

Technologies the Impacted WW2

• Naval Power: control of the seas

• Radar: detected enemy aircraft and ships using radio waves.

• Capacity Magnetron: greatly improved detection of enemy submarines and aircraft, especially in the Atlantic.

• ENIAC: helped improve weapons effectiveness and made military calculations much faster and more accurate

• Antibiotics: allowed soldiers to survive wounds that were previously fatal

The Holocaust

• Causes

  • The Rise of the Nazi Party

  • Kristallnacht

  • Establishment of Ghettos

  • Rise of antisemitism after  the defeat of Germany in ww1

• The Final Solution

  • Concentration and Death camps

    • Nazi camps built for mass murder

    • Zyklon B: Poison gas

  • Einstatzgruppen: mobile killing squads

    • Rounded up Jews in villages and executed and burned them in mass graves 

• Victims of Hatred and racism

  • Poles

    • Millions killed or used for forced labor to create living space for Germans

  • Jehovah Witnesses 

    • Persecuted for refusing to swear allegiance to Nazi State 

  • Soviet POW’s 

    • Millions died from execution, starvation and disease 

  • Homosexuals

    • Arrested and sent to camps because they were seen as a threat to the German birth rate 

  • Trade Unionists

    • Represented organized labor and political opposition to nazi total control over workforce 

  • Political Dissidents 

    • Communists and socialists 

• Porajmos

  • Genocide of the Roman and Sinti people by Nazi Germany

• Evian Conference

  • 32 nations discussed Jewish refugee crisis caused by Nazi Germany but ultimately failed to act

Nuremberg War Crime Trials

• Trying Nazis for war crimes 

• Robert H. Jackson

  • “Grave responsibility of justice”

The Division of Europe as a result of ww2

• NATO

  • Alliance led by the US protecting other countries from soviet attack

• Warsaw Pact

  • Military alliance by soviet union to maintain military control and influence over Eastern Europe

• Marshall Plan

  • Provided billions of dollars in aid to Western European countries

  • Rebuilt factories, roads, railways, and cities damaged during WWII

  • Allied reconstruction of Germany

    • Eventually split into West Germany and East Germany because of Cold War tensions

  • Allied reconstruction of Japan

    • Mainly occupied by the US alone (Mcaurther)

      • Helped create a democracy

      • Demilitarized