APUSH Notes of 4/1

World War Two in Europe September 1939-1940

-            Following Soviet-Nazi Invasion of Poland Hitler turned his attention to shoring up his Northern Flank

-            Invasion of Denmark

-            Invasion of Norway

The Soviet Invasion of Finland, 1939

-            The Soviet Invasion of Finland is known as the Winter War. Though the Soviets did gain parts of Finland, they may have lost as many as 380,000 casualties.

-            This would also embolden Hitler to invade the USSR ahead of his planned time-table.

The Nazi Invasion of the Low Countries and France May-June 1940

-            After a brief period of calm that the media called “sitzkrieg” the Blitzkrieg fired back up with a direct assault on France

-            In only 47 days the French army collapsed, and British forces evacuated at Dunkirk. Why had the French performed so poorly?

The Fate of France

-            Vichy France was pro-Nazi

-            Charles Degaulle

Operation Sea Lion: The Battle of Britain June-October 1940

-            With France defeated, Hitler now planned to finish off Britain but he faced the same problem as Napolean did…

-            The Luftwaffe began a huge bombing campaign but met their match in the RAF

Hitler Strikes the Soviets

-            Hitler, as part of his idea of lebensraum always planned this attack. His plan was to seize the Ukraine and drive south to the Crimean Oil fields.

-            To a large degree the Red Army was on the edge of total collapse.

Racial Extermination in the Ukraine

-            As the Wehrmacht stormed across Ukraine “General plan Ost” was initiated by special forces called Einstazgruppen

The Battle of Stalingrad: August, 1942- February 1943 The Turning Point!

-            Joseph Stalin fought very hard to keep Stalingrad because it was named after him

-            Hitler wanted to take this city because it was named after Stalin, and so he threw 1 million German Soldiers, and there was house-to-house fighting

-            It was a bad winter, and many German soldiers died.

-            The Germans end up withdrawing from USSR

The US Enters the War

-            On December 7^th, the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor was followed up by attacks against Singapore and Hong Kong, and Malaysia…

The Soft Underbelly

-            Churchill believed that the best approach to defeat the Axis was to land in North Africa. This would allow a base to then move on to Italy and a direct assault on Mussolini.

-            The Problem…

-            Gen. Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps was the best

-            Gen. George Patton (sort of the equal to Rommel)

The Fall of Italy: 1943-1944

-            This was the final step

-            Mussolini was on his decline

-            Winston Churchill understood that there would be less support for Mussolini under pressure

-            As forces went up the peninsula, the Italians did not fight (unless they were Nazi, in which case they fought very hard)

-            By 1943, one third of the Axis power collapsed