World War 2

• Italy attacks Ethiopia in 1935
• Axis powers are formed
• Spanish civil war
  • Popular unrest against old order -> forced the king to leave spain
  • The national front (nationalist) vs the ____
• German bombers struck the town of Guernica  to test their new weapons
• Germany Invaded the Rhineland in 1936
• Hitlers plan was to bring all German speaking people into the third Reich – annexes Austria
• League of Nations is ineffective
  • No control of major conflicts
  • No progress in disarmament
  • No effective military force
• Annexation of the Sudetenland
  • The policy of appeasement – chamberlain and Hitler meet at the Munich conference 1938
• Czechoslovakia becomes part of the 3rd Reich
  • Hitler broke the Munich agreement
• The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact 1939
• Germany invaded Poland
  • Britain and France declare war on Germany in turn (allied powers)
  • Blitzkrieg – flash lightning fighting by Germany
• Nye Committee concluded that ww1 was a result of the greed of bankers and military contractors
  • US needed to adopt a policy of isolationism to avoid war in Europe
  • Paved the way for the US neutrality acts
• US Neutrality Acts
  • Prohibited US travel on ships of fighting countries
  • Prohibited loans and credits to nations at war
  • Prohibited arms sale to nations at war
  • Cash and carry act: the US would sell arms to nations at war but ships must meet merchant ships and nations must pay at time of delivery
  • "Good Neighbor" Policy – undoing the tension of the Roosevelt corollary. With he threat of the US intended to gain Latin American support if war broke out.

THE WAR BEGINS

France Surrenders June 1940

• Poland fell in 16 days
• Norway and Denmark fell in 1 day in April 10, 1940
  • Norway had mines they wanted
  • Denmark had German speaking ppl and hitler wanted all german speakers under 1 reich
  • Also for convenience to invade Britain
• Luxembourg in 1 day, may 11 1940
• Netherlands in 5 days, may 16 1940
• Belgium in 10 days , may 30, 1940
• France in 14 days, june 30, 1940

Dunkirk Evacuated: June 4

• When Germans invade France
• Allied troops trapped
• Rescue mission from England
• 240000 men to safety

France Divided: Germans set up a puppet state

• Vichy France was the new French govt after German occupation led by henry Petian

The French Resistance

• They made the free French flag
• General charles degaulle led resistance from HQ in London
• The french resistance fought to free themselves of nazi occupation and also fought against the vichy govt

Now britain is all alone

• Winston Churchill becomes the new prime minister

Battle of Britain: "The Blitz"

• In the summer and fall of 1940
• German and british air forces clashed in the skies over the UK locked in the larges sustained bombing compaign to that date
• A lot of ppl hid in the London "tube" during the Blitz air raid

The Royal Air Force

• The Luftwaffe

Lend-Lease Act

• US transfers arms or any other defense materials to ""the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the US
• Made america the "great arsenal of democracy"
• Lent weapons to the US, USSR, africa, middle east, china, india, etc

The Atlantic Charter

• Roosevelt and Churchil treaty of friendship
• Solidifies alliance
• Final destruction of a nazi tyranny and a permanent system of general security
• Collective war strategy -> long term plans for US and GB

US Response to Japanese Aggression

• Gunboat panay, japan apologized
  • During raping of nanjing, japan though chinese ppl were trying to escape on US ship so they bombed it but later apologized and paid off the US
• Strategic arms embargo act – US stopped selling oil and scrap metal to japan
• 1941 US froze all Japanese financial asses within the US

Pear Harbor

• Attack on Pearl Harbor proves that a single event can impart the publics opinion
• The next day, FDR called congress to declare war against Japan
• Following pearl harbor, japanese americans were suspected of being potentioal spies and terrorists
• Executive order 9066: FDR ordered the army to round up citizens and aliens of japanese ancestry on the west coast and put them in replacement centers (internment camps)
• In 1988 congress apologized for wartime mistreatment and voted to pay 20000 dollars

THE PACIFIC THEATER

• Japan takes the Philippines and US surrenders
• General Douglas Mac Arthur forced to retreat to Australia, leaving army behind
• Thousands of soldiers captured
• Forced to march 65 miles to a concentration camp
• A lot of ppl died on the way and ppl also died in the camps

Battle of Midway Island

• Yamamoto wants to annihilate the US fleet on midway island
• US intelligence team found out what the japanese ppl were doing
• The US got their carrier ships in place
• Bombers kept getting shot down by the japanese and then they got lost twice
• Americans then found japanese and bombed them all sinking them

Turning point of war

• Crushing defeat for the japanese and is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of ww2
• Permanently weakened the Japanese Navy, costing them over 200 naval aviators
• Allowed US navy the seize initiative and go offensive

Island hopping

• War strategy of US to cross ocean toward Japan for a mainland invasion fighting the japanese at every island shrinking their territorial control

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AFTER EUROPEAN THEATER

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Gen MacArthur "returns" to the Philippines

US Marines Iwo Jima

• Strategic ally victory
• Used volcanic island as fueling place

Kamikaze Pilots: Terror of Okinawa

• One of the bloodiest battle sin the pacific

• Kamikaze pilots are suicide bombers

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THE EUROPEAN THEATER

Operation Barbarossa

• Hitler broke non-aggression pact by invading soviet union
• Soviets are officially at war with the axis powers
• 4million troops spread over 2,000 miles
• Nazis are now fighting too many fronts
• Support of Nazi regime starts to decline

Casablanca Conference

• Churchill and FDR met in Morocco
• Decision was made to deal with Europe first
• Allies would attack Italy because it is the weakest part of axis powers
• Accept nothing less than unconditional surrender of the axis powers

The Italian campaign

• Germany sends troops to help Italy
• Allies plan assault on weakest axis area
• Cin C of AFHQ Eisenhower, Henry Wilson  and Harold
• Result – Mussolini was forced to resign

The "Big Three" at the Tehran conference

• FDR, Winston Churchill and Stalin agree to invade Europe across the English channel

Operation Overlord

• Drive Germans out of France
• D-Day the largest amphibious invasion in history
• Planned by general Dwight D Eisenhower
• The allies landed over 1 million men and liberated France and Belgium by August

The Liberation of Paris

• Allies landed over 1 million men
• Allies liberated France and Belgium

Assassination Plot

• Major Claus von Stauffenberg
  • Was not ok with what Germany was doing
• "Operation Valkyrie"

Election of 1944

• Roosevelts 4th Term
• Americans did not want to switch leaders in the middle of the war
• Harry S Truman is the VP

Battle of the Bulge

• Germany launched one last attack against allies
• The allies won and now had a clear path to Germany
  • Soviets pushed into Germany from the East
  • US pushed into Germany from the West

Yalta Conference

• BIG THREE
• Agree to free elections in Eastern Europe
• Stalin demands influence in Eastern Europe…scares US b/c of communist expansion
• Split Germany into 4 occupation zones
• US convinces Soviets to fight in Asia
• Discussed First UN Meeting place of San Francisco
• US and British troops meet Russian soldiers in Germany in late April 1945

Hitler Commits Suicide

German Prime Minister also commits suicide

V-E Day

• On may 8, Germanys unconditional surrender took effect, and the European war came to a close.
• American soldiers and civilians celebrated V-E Day (Victory Day)

Potsdam Conference

• Stalin only original
• The United States has the A-bomb
• Japan must surrender or face destruction

The Manhattan Project:

• The Manhattan project was the secret research and development of the atomic bomb
• "Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds!"

Hiroshima

• 70,000 killed immediately
• Buildings destroyed
• Ppl dies of radiation poisoning and cancer later

Nagasaki

• 40,000 killed immediately
• 60,000 injured
• 100,000 died of radiation poisoning and cancer later

V-J Day

• Japan formally and unconditionally surrendered

RESULTS of WW2

The destruction of Europe

• The Marshall plan was instituted by the US to rebuild war-torn Europe

• Economic plan to rebuild and reestablish trade

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