World War 2--1937-1945

1. World War 2--1937-1945 • Why did WW2 happen? • What was WW2? • Why did the allies win? • Who “won” WW2?

2. The bloodiest war ever: 50-85 million dead, mostly civilians from bombing, starvation, genocide, and mass murder “Tonight the sun goes down on more suffering than ever before in the world.”

3. Fighting across the world on land, sea, air, and under water…in deserts, jungles, arctic freeze, cities

4. What caused WW2? • Complicated, but many think that WW2 in Europe was really a continuation of WW1.

5. WW2 was not really one war, but was several conflicts lumped together • 1937: Japan invades China • 1939: Germany invades Poland • 1939: Soviet Union attacks Finland • 1940: Italy attacks Greece • 1941: Germany invades Soviet Union • 1941: Japan attacks U.S. (Pearl Harbor) • Many countries switched sides during the course of the war • Numerous civil wars (Italy, Yugoslavia, China)

6. OPPOSING SIDES • AXIS POWERS vs • Germany + Austria • Japan • Italy • Hungary • Romania • Finland • ALLIED POWERS • Soviet Union • Britain • U.S. • France • China • Belgium • Holland • Poland • Yugoslavia • Greece • Australia • Canada • New Zealand

7. Germany invades Poland Sept. 1, 1939 • Surprise attack “Blitzkrieg” use of armor and swift attacks • German warplanes invaded Polish air space, bomb Warsaw, capital • France and Britain declare war and mobilize • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWappeasement.htm

8. Germany and Soviet Union Divide Poland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8dW3zSd4EA&feature=related

9. April-June 1940, German “blitzkrieg” through: Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France British retreat from Dunkirk Pro-Nazi French puppet gov’t set up in city of Vichy (Vichy France) Germany conquers Europe

10. France falls in six weeks

11. Germans outnumbered-even early in WW2 • When Germany attacked France in May 1940, British and French had more, troops, more artillery, more tanks • Germans concentrated their armor, more powerful, more mobile • Germans also had more planes

12. Battle of Britain, summer of 1940. British Royal Air Force victorious, averts German invasion of Britain 60,000 civilian dead Nazi Luftwaffe attacks Britain

13. April 1941 Germany overruns the Balkans • Italy and Greece fighting; not going well for the Italians… • Hitler steps in to save the Italians, German occupies Yugoslavia and Greece. • Few casualties but… • German invasion of USSR is delayed…

14. Operation Barbarossa: June 1941, Germans attack USSR, • The Eastern Front over 2,000 miles long • 6 million Soviet troops vs. 3 million Germans, Hungarians, Romanians, Finns • By December 1941, 6 months into the war, Soviets had lost 4 million soldiers, 8,000 aircraft, 17,000 tanks • By the end of the War of 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died • 10 million Germans killed, wounded or captured

15. January 1942 “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” SS Head Heinrich HimmlReinhardHeydrich

16. Russo-German War 1941-45; largest war in history 5-6 million Soviet POWs--more than 3 million died 2 million Germans captured, more than a 1 million disappeared. Only 5,000 of 90,000 Germans captured at Stalingrad in 1943 ever returned

17. …it was incredibly brutal

18. …atrocities were widespread

19. War in Asia: Japanese Expansion Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

20. 1937 Japan invades China • 1931 - Invades Manchuria • December 1937 “Rape of Nanjing” 250-300,000 Chinese dead, at least 20,000 raped. 50% of the population • People were bayoneted, buried and burned alive, beheaded.

21. The Pacific War • In 1940, United States and Great Britain reacted to Japanese expansion with an oil boycott (Japan got 80% of its oil from West). • In December 1941, Japan attacked the Allied powers at Pearl Harbor and several other points throughout the Pacific, destroying much of the US navy. • The turning point in the Pacific War was the battle of Midway in June 1942. From then on, the Allied forces slowly won back the territories occupied by Japan including Saipan. In 1944, intensive air raids started over Japan. • In spring 1945, US forces invaded Okinawa in one of the war's bloodiest battles.

22. Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941“A date which will live in infamy” -FDR • American losses: • 8 of 8 battleships destroyed or damaged • More than 2,400 military dead • Nearly 350 aircraft destroyed or damaged

23. 1942: Tide of Japanese conquest • Philippines U.S.) • Hong Kong (British) • Singapore (British) • Burma (British) • Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) • Numerous islands in the Pacific • Indo-China (French) • Attu (Aleutians)

24. Bataan Death March 1942 76,000 Americans and Filipinos captured in the Philippines Marched 80 miles to POW camps, thousands are killed

25. 1942: Full American support to Britain, France, Russia Strategic bombing of Germany and Europe begins and intensifies British and Americans push back German forces in North Africa Russians counter-attack at Stalingrad 1942, back in Europe, the Allies counterattack

26. 1943: The Allies invade Italy • July, allies take Sicily and attack mainland • September, Italy surrenders • Germany invades, civil war in Italy. Fascists under Mussolini against communists, socialists and other partisans • Bloody fighting last nearly 2 years. Mussolini executed April 1945

27. D-Day June 6, 1944 • British, Americans, Canadians land in Normandy • Largest armada ever assembled, 12,000 allied planes vs. 170 German planes • Germans put up fierce resistance, but landing is successful • Within 3 months, Americans are at the borders of Germany, then are stopped

28. German submarine strategy to cut off allied supplies, fails • Convoy system works • 80 % of all German submariners die

29. End of the war 1944-1945 • but Germany faced overwhelming allied armor and weapons • German units, ½ strength, often composed of wounded soldiers, old men and boys • 2 million Allied troops in the West alone • Germans had almost no air force and so little fuel that oxen were used to tow airplanes to the runways

30. Russians push Germans from Poland Auschwitz liberated in January Russians capture Berlin in a battle that kills another 300,000 people Fall of the Axis Powers 1945

31. May 1945-Germany Surrenders

32. Europe is devastated

33. In the Pacific TheaterJune 1942: Tide turns Battle of Midway • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHfm7GX3tHY&feature=related

34. Americans “island hop” toward Japan • Battles were bloody • Japanese fought to the death (suicide over surrender)

35. Japanese POWs • “Never live to experience shame as a prisoner. By dying you will avoid leaving a stain on your honor.” • -Senjinkun, Japanese “Code of Battlefield Conduct” • Very few surrendered at first, more as war wore on and it was clear Japan would lose.

36. By the end of 1944, Japan is basically finished • U.S. submarines cut off Japan’s oil supply • U.S. bombing devastates Japanese mainland • Japan resorts to desperate tactics

37. Japanese kamikaze (“Divine Wind”)

38. Battle of Iwo Jima: Feb-Mar 1945 • 2 months of Allied bombardment on island only 4.5 miles x 2.5 miles. • Allies land 2,400 casualties in the first day • Nearly 7,000 Americans killed and 19,000 wounded • Only 216 of the 19,000 Japanese defenders surrendered; the rest died. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_LXObnCj8&feature=fvsr “The most professionally skilful army of modern times,”

39. U.S. drops atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima August 1945

40. Japan surrenders September 1945

41. Japanese War Crimes • Medical experiments • Treatment of POWs • mass executions (Nanjing) • rape and forced prostitution (Korean “comfort women”)

42. Why did the Allies win? • Industrial and economic power overwhelmed outnumber German and Japanese forces, plus allied air power and strategic bombing disrupted German and Japanese production • The German army was “The most professionally skilful army of modern times,” but Hitler made huge strategic blunders, particularly attacking the Soviet Union and insisting that his soldiers not retreat. • The Soviet Union “took one for the team” with 25 million dead; at times faced 98% of German forces • Japan and Germany lacked oil and in the end their militaries couldn’t function without it.

43. Legacies of World War II • Increased nationalism amongst colonies -> decolonization • Unleashing of new technology-> nuclear arms race • International Human Rights (UDHR, Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials) • Creation of buffer zone for the Soviet Union (eastern Europe) • Cold war -> avoidance of a global (nuclear) war through proxy wars

45. Famous Quotations from the Munich Pact • “I believe that it is peace for our time…and now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds ~Neville Chamberlain, British PM • “Thus we begin our march into the great German future ~Adolf Hitler • Britain cannot go to war over “A quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.” ~Chamberlain

46. Books and Movies about WW 2 MOVIES • “Schindler’s List” • “The Best Years of Our Lives” • “Stalingrad” (German) • “Saving Private Ryan” • “Das Boot” (German) • “The Great Escape” • “Letters from Iwo Jima” • “Midnight Clear” BOOKS • Midnight Clear • Correlli’s Mandolin • Love and War in the Apennines (NF) • Schindler’s List (NF) • Night (NF) • Hiroshima (NF) • An Artist of the Floating World