THE BREAKDOWN OF PEACE AND WORLD WAR II
Japanese Aggression in China
1. 1931: The Invasion of Manchuria
2. 1937: Chiang Kai-shek and Chinese Communists agreed to halt their civil war -- fear of the Japanese.
3. July 1937: Chinese and Japanese armies met near Peiping -- the Chinese were defeated and Peiping was captured.
4. By 1939: Japan controlled 1/4 of China.
a. Chinese Tactics: scorched earth policy and Guerrilla Warfare.
b. Japan: had lost a million en and had spent $10 million.
5. The United States: a policy of neutrality.
a. Prohibited the sale of munitions to either side.
b. Continued to sell scrap iron and gasoline to both sides.
Italian Expansion
1. Expansion viewed as a means to solve economic problems.
2. Ethiopia:
a. One of a few independent nations in Africa.
b. Italian desire to avenge an Italian defeat in 1896.
3. Border Incident: Italian Somaliland - December 1934.
a. Italian and Ethiopian troops fired upon each other.
b. Mussolini ordered troops from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to invade Ethiopia and restore order.
4. Haile Salassie: appealed to the League for protection.
a. France and Britain were opposed to League action.
b. The US was unwilling to offer any help.
5. October 1935: An Italian Campaign began to colonize Ethiopia.
6. Italy was declared an aggressor by the League.
a. Economic sanctions were imposed.
b. Oil, coal, and other minerals were still sold to Italy.
c. The United States would not sell munitions to belligerent nations, but raw materials were sold.
7. Spring of 1936: Italians entered Addis Ababa -- Victor Emmanuel III was declared Emperor of Ethiopia.
8. Summer of 1936: sanctions were called off (Rome-Berlin Axis was also signed).
9. 1937: Italy withdrew from the League of Nations.
10. The Anti-Comintern Treaty
a. Signed between Japan and Germany -- Italy endorsed it.
b. Purpose: to prevent the spread of Russian Communism.
Spain
1. Nineteenth Century
a. A poor country and there were few mineral resources.
b. The economy was chiefly agricultural with some industry.
c. Most of the land was controlled by the nobility in large estates.
d. The Church: established wealth, and powerful with control over the educational system.
2. Early 20th Century: A Constitutional Monarchy with an elected Parliament called a Cortez.
3. Politically the nation was unstable.
* Violent strikes, political assassinations, military plots, separatist movements.
4. Radical Political Parties: socialists, communists, and anarchists.
5. Opposition to the Church:
a. It was too conservative using its influence to prevent change and reform.
b. The Church could use accusations of heresy against opponents.
6. Post World War I
a. Disorders Continued.
b. 1923: Miguel Primo de Rivera stage a revolt and established a military dictatorship introducing many Fascist practices.
c. King Alfonso XIII remained a figure head.
The Spanish Republic
1. Primo de Rivera: his position depended on the support of the army.
a. 1930: Rivera lost the army’s support.
b. 1931: Alfonso abdicated and Spain became a Republic.
2. General elections -- for a Constitutional Assembly (liberal republicans).
a. It wrote a Democratic Constitution with a one house Cortez.
b. It provided for a President, Premier, and Cabinet -- responsible to the Cortez. Elections: universal suffrage.
3. Rapid Reform:
a. Land was taken from the Church and Nobility.
b. Clergy were prohibited from teaching (no longer paid by the government).
* This policy created intense Catholic opposition to the Republic and the creation of a new Catholic Party (Accion Popular).
c. Workers: given shorter hours, better wages, the right to organize with a voice in management.
4. Conservative Reaction to Reforms: Opposition to;
a. Limitation of Church authority.
b. Seizure of land.
c. Land reforms.
* many wanted a return to a monarchy.
5. Conservatives organized a Fascist Party: the Falange (originally founded by Primo de Rivera’s son).
a. Designed to appeal to workers, stressing the revolutionary, authoritarian aspects of the Corporate State.
* Yet, it had its greatest following among activist students.
b. Cooperation with generals (the Spanish Army) who wanted a regime that would keep order and stay out of military affairs.
Purpose of the Falange: to preserve the power of the army, landowners, and the Church.
6. Communists and Anarchists: demanding more extreme change.
a. Incited strikes and riots which were suppressed by the government.
b. 1933 Elections: produced a more conservative government.
1. The campaign against the Church was halted and agrarian reform was abandoned.
2. Government expenditures were drastically cut and wage regulations ended.
The Civil War
1. February 1936: a Popular Front Government was elected (a coalition of left wing working class parties -- opposed to Fascism).
2. Ring Wing Leaders were jailed; moderates in the Cortez could not control the situation. July - a conservative leader was assassinated.
3. Falangist military officers revolted in Spanish Morocco, the Canary Islands, and Spain.
4. Nationalist: Falangists -------- the leading general was Francisco Franco (b. 1892), whose Spanish Moroccan army was the core of Nationalist strength.
Loyalists or Republicans: supported the Republic -- varied group including moderates, socialists, communists and anarchists.
5. By the end of 1936: there was no end in sight (of the civil war).
Foreign Aid: The Determining Factor
1. Nationalists: war planes from Italy arrived in Morocco as early as June 30, 1936, and then planes from Germany were vital in getting the Moroccan Army to Spain.
a. Mussolini’s Motivation:
1. Create a right wing government based on fascist ideals.
2. To draw French troops from the Italian border.
b. Hitler’s Motivation:
1. To contain communism and to insure Germany a supply of Spanish iron ore.
2. To provide German submarines with a place to refuel and to test the Luftwaffe.
2. By the Autumn of 1936: German forces numbered about 10,000.
November: the famed Condor Legion was assembled in Seville to give the Luftwaffe experience in combat.
3. By mid 1937: Italian forces numbered about 50,000.
Italian aid in supplies and material was valued at $400 million; German aid at about half that sum.
* Control of this aid was in Franco’s hands.
4. Loyalists: Stalin sent aid and attempted to direct the Loyalists through the Comintern.
a. Stalin believed a Nationalist Victory would surround France on a third side with a potentially hostile enemy, freeing Germany to attack Russia.
Additional Consideration: a Republican Victory followed by a socialist revolution might alarm Britain and France (who might be potential anti- fascist allies of Russia).
b. French Communists convinced Stalin to send arms through the Comintern.
Russian and Comintern Aid has been estimated at $440 million.
5. The International Brigade: anti-fascist volunteers from France, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, eastern Europe, Scandinavia (individual citizens not a governmental sponsored policy).
6. Non-Intervention Committee (August-September 1936)
a. Fear that the Spanish Civil War would involve the rest of Europe.
b. Proposed by France: included Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, and a group of lesser nations -- totaled 27 nations. (Italy, German, and Russia - non compliance).
Purpose: to stop the flow of volunteers and supplies to Spain.
1. Stopped most aid to the Loyalists.
2. Little effect on German and Italian aid to Franco.
3. Indication: France and Britain’s unwillingness to stop aggression.
The Fascist Victory
1. 1937: the civil war was at a stalemate.
2. Spring of 1938: Nationalists were prepared for a full scale offensive campaign.
3. Plan: to encircle Madrid and march east to Valencia.
Purpose: to split and divide loyalist held territory.
4. Loyalists: dissension among various groups weakened the Republican Cause.
ie. They were not all communists.
By late 1938 the Soviet Union had begun to cut back on aid.
5. March 1939: Madrid and Barcelona were captured by the Nationalists -- resistance to Franco ended.
6. Spain: Post Civil War
a. Franco took the title of El Caudillo (the leader).
b. Economically devastated/over half a million dead/brutality and torture had been inflicted on both sides.
Germany: By 1936
1. October 1933: Hitler took Germany out of the League of Nations and announced his intention to re-arm Germany.
2. 1935: The Saar Valley -- voted to return to German Rule.
3. The Rhineland: German territory on the French side of the Rhine.
Demilitarized Zone: 1936 Hitler sent troops in and fortified the area.
4. Violations of the Versailles Treaty went unchallenged by Britain and France.
German Aggression
1. Conquest without actual war - played on the fears and desires of opponents.
2. A Nazi Party was established among a German minority where it existed.
3. Propaganda: stories about the mistreatment of German minorities.
a. Encouraged anti-war sentiment -- when action against Germany was encouraged.
b. Create a crisis and then demand a German solution with a readjustment of territory.
c. Mobilize troops -- intimidate the victim nation (use of fear).
Compromise: complete control by a Nazi Dictatorship.
Anschluss - Austria
1. World War I had left Austria in a poor economic state (territorial settlements).
2. Believed their economic future was in a union with Germany (Anschluss).
Anschluss: was prohibited by the treaties ending World War I.
3. A Nazi Party had been formed in Austria during the late 1920’s.
4. 1930’s: Austria had become very conservative politically.
5. By 1938: Austria had included Nazi members in the government (pressure from Mussolini and Hitler).
6. The Austrian Chancellor (Kurt von Schuschnigg) called for a plebiscite on the Anschluss question.
a. Hitler refused to allow the plebiscite and issued an ultimatum.
b. March 11, 1938 - Schuschnigg resigned.
c. March 12th German troops crossed the Austrian border, and the Nazi Chancellor of Austria (Arthur von Seyss Inquart) declared the union on March 13th.
d. The League of Nations took no action, and protests by France and Britain were ignored.
7. An Enlarged Germany:
a. Provided a common border with Italy.
b. Germany almost encircled Czechoslovakia.
c. German Propaganda: Czechoslovakia had become a "dagger aimed at the heart of Germany".
The Sudeten Crisis
1. The Sudetenland: the western rim of Czechoslovakia with more than three million Germans.
a. Created by the peace treaties ending World War I.
b. Natural Defensive Frontier: mountain range dividing Germany and Austria from Czechoslovakia was fortified.
2. The Czech Government: German Rights
a. Allowed to use German in their schools.
b. Proportional representation in the Czech Parliament (including civil service and the army).
c. Nationalism: Sudeten Germans still wanted union with Germany.
3. A Nazi Party had been established and after 1935 it had more votes than any other party, but not a majority.
4. After Austria (Anschluss): the Sudeten Nazis demanded a self governing Sudetenland.
5. Propaganda: oppression of Germans by the Czech government.
a. Riots broke out: September 1938 - martial law was declared.
b. German Solution: Germany threatened to invade to protect their brothers and make the Sudetenland part of Germany.
c. This Action would leave Czechoslovakia vulnerable to a German Invasion.
6. Czechoslovakia: had a defensive alliance with France and the Soviet Union.
a. Soviet aid would only be provided if French aid was given.
b. The French sought British support - a desire to avoid war.
7. The British Position
a. Neville Chamberlain sent a personal representative to investigate and advise the Czech government.
b. Advice: to make every possible concession to avoid war (Appeasement).
Result: increased the independence for the Sudetens.
c. Hitler continued to prepare for invasion.
8. Chamberlain asked for a face to face meeting with Hitler.
a. Two trips on September 15 and 22, 1938.
b. German Ultimatum: the Sudetenland be returned to Germany or they would take it.
Appeasement
1. Hitler suggested a conference to be held in Munich (September 29, 1938).
2. Participants: Chamberlain, Mussolini, Daladier, and Hitler.
3. The Soviet Union: Hitler wanted to split Russia from the rest of Europe.
Czechoslovakia: no representation.
4. Chamberlain and Daladier: accepted Hitler’s demands.
a. Chamberlain: on his return to Britain, "Peace in Our Times".
b. Daladier: France would not honor its alliance with Czechoslovakia.
c. The Sudetenland was occupied unopposed: Hitler: "This is the last territorial demand I shall make in Europe."
5. Hungary and Poland: took similar actions against Czechoslovakia along their borders.
6. March 1939: the Czech area of Czechoslovakia was made a German Protectorate.
a. The rest of the nation: became an independent area called Slovakia -- it was also soon seized.
b. In Six Months: the last democracy in Central Europe disappeared.
Outbreak of War: 1939 - the balance of power and the hope of collective security did not exist.
Memel and Albania
1. Memel: a former seaport city of East Prussia.
a. Surrendered to the Allies by the Versailles Treaty.
b. Taken by Lithuania in 1923, and this action was recognized by the League of Nations (it had been granted considerable self-government by Lithuania).
2. A Nazi Party had been established among the Germans in Memel.
1935: the Nazis gained a majority in the city government. Post Sudetenland Crisis: they demanded annexation by Germany.
* March 1939: Lithuania ceded Memel to Germany.
3. April 1939: Mussolini invaded Albania and conquered it within a few days.
Preparation For War
1. By the Summer of 1939: the British and French realized the need to prepare for war.
2. France gave the Premier dictatorial powers to prepare for war.
3. Chamberlain: a large armaments program and conscription w were passed in Parliament.
4. France had a defensive alliance with Poland.
Britain pledged to help Poland if it were attacked by Germany.
5. France: had a non-aggression treaty with Russia.
a. Britain and France wanted a mutual alliance with Russia against Germany.
b. Stalin’s Reluctance: ie. exclusion of the soviet Union from European Affairs.
c. Russian Demand: an alliance would guarantee the independence of Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
d. Britain and France were in agreement - joint action possible if any one nation was invaded.
6. Opposition
a. Protest from nations involved/feared Russian intervention would be permanent.
b. Negotiations developed into a stalemate.
The Hitler - Stalin Pact: Ribbentrop - Molotov
1. While negotiating with Britain and France, Stalin was secretly negotiating a treaty with German.
2. August 23, 1939: Hitler announced that Germany and the Soviet Union had signed a non aggression treaty.
3. FASCISM ---- COMMUNISM: WHY?
a. Contradicting and Opposed Systems: it was not expected to last.
b. Germany and Russia both wanted more time to prepare for war.
ie. Stalin’s purges had thinned the Russian officer corps badly.
c. Hitler wanted Russian neutrality in order to deal with Britain and France.
4. Publicly: it was pledge to never to attack one another, and to remain neutral if the other were involved in war.
5. Secretly: it divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
a. Germany: would receive Western Poland.
b. Russia: would receive Eastern Poland, the Baltic States, the province of Bessarabia (lost to Rumania in 1918).
Danzig and the Polish Corridor
1. The Polish Corridor: a strip of land that cut through Germany to allow Polish access to the port of Danzig.
2. Danzig - a free city protected by the League of Nations.
The City Government
a. An elected two house legislature.
b. Executive - a commissioner appointed by the League.
The Commissioner served as a chief justice -- appeals to the League Council or the World Court could also be made.
The Port
a. A commission of a equal number of Poles and Germans.
b. The Chairman - was chosen from a neutral nation.
c. Poland - was guaranteed free use of the port and trade between Danzig and Poland.
3. Nazi Party - had gained control of the city government in 1937.
a. Relations with Poland worsened.
b. Demanded the return of Danzig to Germany.
4. Propaganda
a. Claims: mistreatment of Germans in the Corridor.
b. After the non-aggression treaty with Russia, Hitler demanded a German Solution.
5. Germany and Poland failed to reach a compromise.
6. War:
a. August 31st: the SS faked a Polish attack on a German radio station.
b. September 1, 1939: Germany declared Danzig to be annexed and invaded Poland.
c. September 3rd: Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Question of Aggression: Austria or the Rhineland
World War I/World War II
1. 1919 - 1939: known as the Twenty Year Truce or Armistice.
2. World War II is viewed as a continuation of World War I.
3. Many problems were left unresolved at Paris in 1919.
4. Similarities:
a. Began in Eastern Europe.
b. Germany: faced a two front war.
c. Germany was defeated by an alliance of western nations.
5. Differences:
a. World War I was a war of stalemate and attrition.
b. World War II --- swift movement of forces.
Blitzkrieg: more than a million men used in the invasion of Poland (Lightning War).
Panzer Units: tanks and armored trucks used to divide and encircle the enemy.
c. Civilian Causalities: many non-strategic targets were bombed.
d. World War I: confined mostly to Europe.
World War II: Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
6. 1940: Japan joined the Rome - Berlin Axis (The Tripartite Pact) -- later Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Finland.
7. The Allies: Britain, the United States, France (Free French government in exile), Russia in 1941 - eventually 45 nations.
Western Europe Overrun
1. Reaction to the Polish Invasion
a. France moved its forces to the Maginot Line - a chain of fortifications on France’s eastern frontier(border).
b. British forces landed in Northern France, and the British navy blockaded German ports.
2. Germany massed its troops behind the Siegfried Line - a system of fortifications built in the Rhineland.
The Sitzkrieg or Phony War: seven months after the Fall of Poland when very little fighting occurred.
3. Russian Movements
a. Russian moved into Eastern Poland, secret agreement of the Hitler - Stalin Pact.
* Poland disappeared from the map of Europe.
b. Russia took Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
1. Diplomacy: Russia had already established land, sea, and air bases.
2. Annexation soon followed.
c. Finland:
1. The Finns refused the Russian request to establish bases.
2. November 30, 1939: the Russians attacked --- Russia was expelled from the League of Nations for this action.
* The only nation to ever to be expelled from the League for aggression.
3. March 1940: resistance to the Russians ended.
Territory in Southern and Eastern Finland was given to Russia. The
Finish-Soviet Border was demilitarized.
4. Scandinavia and the Low Countries
a. April 9, 1940: German invasion of Denmark and Norway.
b. Fifth Column: agents worked to secure the help of collaborators -- seized power plants and radio stations disrupting transportation and communication.
1. Under German control by the end of April.
2. Purpose: to provide the Germans with an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.
World War I: the German Navy had been bottled up in the Baltic Sea.
c. This threat to Britain forced Chamberlain to resign as Prime Minister.
Winston Churchill became the Prime Minister -- a critic of appeasement and had warned against Nazi Aggression.
d. May 10, 1940: the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg). Rotterdam - resisted the German advance, a large part of the city was leveled while surrender was being negotiated.
e. Control of the Low Countries: the Germans now outflanked the Maginot Line.
1. German forces moved westward toward the English Channel.
2. Dunkirk: seaport in Northern France -- British, French, and Belgium forces were forced to withdraw.
3. May 27 - June 4: 340,000 men were transported to England. Strategic Error for the Germans: halting the advance of the German Army allowing this evacuation.
5. The Fall of France:
a. Early June 1940 an offensive against France began.
b. Refugees fleeing from Northern France were bombed and machine gunned by German Planes.
c. June 10, 1940: Mussolini declared war on France and Britain.
d. June 14th: the Germans entered Paris and the French Government resigned rather surrender.
e. Henri Petain: formed a new government and assumed dictatorial powers.
Vice Premier - Pierre Laval had urged cooperation with Hitler.
f. Late June: this government signed an armistice with Hitler and Mussolini.
Terms of the Armistice
1. Occupation of Northern France (including Paris) and a strip of land along the Atlantic Coast to Spain.
2. The French Navy was disarmed and kept in port.
3. Petain’s government was moved to Vichy, France.
4. The Vichy Government
a. Fascist Collaborators.
b. Control of French Colonies in Northern Africa and the Near East.
g. Charles de Gaulle: established the Provisional French National Committee (Free French Government) headquarters in London.
h. Within France: an Underground Resistance Movement was formed to oppose the Germans -- members called the Maquis.
* use of sabotage against the Germans.
* tortured and executed when resistance members were caught.
The Ultra Secret and the Enigma Machine -- explain the importance in terms of the ultimate Allied Victory.
The Battle of Britain
1. Operation Sea Lion: to weaken Britain prior to invasion and conquest.
2. Hitler offered a negotiated peace settlement - it was rejected -- German bombing increased.
3. Targets
a. Railroad and Industrial Centers.
b. Population Centers (use of terror).
4. Heaviest Bombing: August - November 1940 -- this period is referred to as the Battle of Britain.
5. Coventry - almost burned to the ground. ie. it was allowed to be destroyed to protect the Ultra Secret.
6. The Royal Air Force (RAF)
a. Smaller, better quality planes.
b. Volunteers: from France, Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
c. Radar: (developed by the British) could detect enemy aircraft at great distances.
Summer and Fall of 1940: heavy German loses of aircraft.
7. The Germans continued night bombing raids for the next two years.
Middle of 1941: air warfare was at a stalemate.
8. German Blockade of British shipping was a serious threat (use of submarines - the wolf pacts).
United States Involvement
1. Neutrality Act of 1937: Americans were forbidden to sell war equipment to belligerent nations.
Purpose: to prevent involvement in future foreign wars.
2. September 1939: opinions were divided -- as the war progressed there was more concern over fascism and its danger to the United States.
3. Neutrality Act of 1939: allowed the sale of munitions to belligerent nations on a cash and carry basis only.
Britain: control of the sea routes between the United States and Britain ------- limited sales to Britain only.
4. September 1940: President Roosevelt transferred 50 old American destroyers to Britain.
* Received long term leases on British naval and air bases in Newfoundland, West Indies, and British Guiana.
5. 1940: Congress passed the first conscription law in peace time.
6. March 1941 - The Lend Lease Act was passed to supply war materials to Britain on credit.
7. May 1941: a German submarine sank an American Merchant Ship.
President Roosevelt froze all German and Italian assets in American banks.
The Atlantic Charter: to avoid the problems of secret agreements of World War I --war aims of the democracies (Britain and the US).
1. Neither nation to seek territorial gains.
2. Territorial changes to be made only by the people concerned.
3. All people had the right to choose their own form of government.
4. Nations: equal right to trade and obtain raw materials.
5. Economic cooperation to insure a decent standard of living for all.
6. Peace: security and freedom from want and fear.
7. Freedom of the seas, and nations to give up the use of force.
World War II: Fall of 1940
1. Germany: controlled almost all of Western Europe.
* Atlantic Coastline: Norway to Spain.
2. German submarines were allowed to use Spanish ports.
Franco: Spain was a "non neutral/non belligerent".
3. September: Japan joined the Axis.
4. Britain: Gibraltar, islands of Malta and Cyprus, Alexandria, and some British troops in Egypt and Palestine.
Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean
1. Mussolini: Italian troops were ineffective in France -- showing their apparent weakness.
2. Fall of 1940: Mussolini wanted control of British Somaliland, Egypt, and Greece.
a. Italian invasion of Greece easily defeated by the Greeks.
b. The British stopped the Italian advance into Egypt.
c. The British took Tobruck, a port city in Libya.
d. Attack on British Somaliland failed. A British counter-attack drove the Italians out of Ethiopia.
3. Germany:
a. Moved in and seized control of Rumania.
b. March 1941: the Germans occupy Bulgaria.
c. November 1941: Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary are allied with Germany.
d. April 1941: Hitler invaded Yugoslavia -- gaining access to Greece (less than two weeks).
e. Greece: conquered by Germany and the British were forced to withdraw to Crete.
f. Germans parachuted into Crete -- the End of May the British withdrew to Egypt.
g. June 1941: Germany and Turkey signed a treaty assuring Turkish Neutrality.
h. Suez Canal - objective: attack from North Africa and from Syria and Palestine.
1. Pressure to force Turkey into the war had failed.
2. British and Free French forces held Iraq.
3. July 1941: Vichy French driven out of Syria.
4. August 1941: Allies occupied Iran.
i. Germans in North Africa:
1. 1941: Italians and Germans put under the command of General Erwin Rommel in Libya.
2. Summer of 1942: the British were driven into Egypt.
3. El Alamein: German offensive began to slow down.
* 70 miles from Alexandria/the Germans lacked necessary supplies needed to continue their advance.
Invasion of Russia
1. Russia considered the Balkans their sphere of influence.
ie. Resentment over German control of Rumania and Bulgaria.
2. Soviet - German Conference: November 1940
a. Stalin: demanded Bulgaria, Istanbul, and the straits (as spheres of influence).
b. Hitler: Germany should have all of Europe, Russia could have a sphere of influence in Asia with an outlet to the Indian Ocean.
3. June 22, 1941: Invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa)
a. Germany aided by Hungary, Italy, Rumania, and Finland. Franco even sent a division of troops.
b. 2,000 mile front: Churchill - Russia should receive help. The United States was willing to provide Lend-Lease aid to Russia.
Defense of Russia
1. Little resistance to the Germans at first.
2. Both Moscow and Leningrad were under siege.
3. It quickly became apparent that it would not be an easy quick victory.
Russian Tactics:
a. Scorched Earth Policy.
b. Guerrilla Warfare making it difficult for the Germans to control conquered territory.
4. Winter: Hitler decides to stay in Russia.
5. German troops poorly equipped for a Russian Winter.
a. Russian counter - attack.
b. Germans had to retreat - first time in the war.
6. End of 1941: Germans were deep in Russia territory.
7. Spring of 1942
a. Germans move south to cut the supply line from Iran.
b. Moving toward Stalingrad.
c. Caucasus: oil producing region of Russia.
Germans: failed to reach their goal of the Port of Baku.
Japanese Aggression in the Pacific
1. Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere: eastern Asia and the Pacific to be dominated by Japan for the benefit of Japan.
2. Early 1939: the island of Hainon and small islands off the coast of French Indo China - route from Hong Kong to Singapore was cut.
3. After the Fall of the Netherlands and France:
a. Netherlands’ East Indies was placed under Japanese protective custody.
b. Vichy France allowed French Indo China to become a Japanese Protectorate.
4. United States Reaction:
a. Protests: violation of the Nine Power Treaty.
b. Continued assistance to Chiang Kai-shek in China.
c. Embargo on oil and scrap iron sold to Japan (US had already moved most of the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii).
5. 1941: Relations Worsen
a. Japan and Russia signed a five year non aggression treaty.
b. Militarist government of Premier Hideki Togo came to power.
c. Late 1941: Japan sent a special representative to Washington.
American Entrance into World War II
1. December 7, 1941 (Sunday Morning): surprise attack on Peal Harbor using aircraft and submarines.
2. Over 2300 Americans were killed in this attack.
3. December 8, 1941: Congress declared war on Japan - the British Parliament took the same action.
Three Days Later: Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
4. The Philippines were attacked on December 8, 1941 and eventually occupied by the Japanese.
Luzon, Guam, and the Wake Islands were taken within a month. With three months:
Burma, Thailand, Malaya, and Singapore were conquered.
5. Eventual Island Empire: included most of the Netherlands’ East Indies, the Philippines, and the Gilbert Islands.
6. Only Australia remained in allied hands in the South West Pacific.
THE YEAR 1942 CAN BE VIEWED AS A TURNING POINT IN THE ALLIED WAR EFFORT.
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT ALSO MADE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION OF A EUROPE FIRST POLICY.
The Battle of Stalingrad
1. The German Offensive - 1942: pushed the Russians back to Stalingrad.
2. The Battle: lasted six months with Germans fighting house to house - street to street.
3. November 1942: Russian counter attack encircled the German troops in the city.
4. Hitler ordered his troops to fight to the death - he had earlier prevented a strategic retreat which might have saved the army.
January 31, 1943: the remaining German forces surrendered (under the command of German General von Paulus).
5. Through 1943 - the Russians forced the Germans to continue their retreat.
6. By 1944: the Germans had been forced back into Poland.
The War in North Africa
1. Late Summer 1942: allied reinforcements were sent to El Alamein.
October 1942: Rommel’s forces wee defeated by General Bernard Montgomery.
2. Germans were forced westward across Libya into Tunisia.
3. November 1942: Operation Torch - American and British forces under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in Morocco and Algeria.
a. Admiral Jean Darlan, Vichy France, resisted the first landing. A truce was eventually arranged.
b. Resulted: in more Nazi control of Vichy France including German occupation.
4. West - Eisenhower
joint movement toward Tunisia.
East - Montgomery
5. Middle of May 1943: Germans were forced to surrender.
a. Italy’s African Empire disappeared.
b. Free French Government held French Colonies in Africa.
c. The Suez Canal under Allied Control -- making naval operations in the Mediterranean much easier for the Allies.
Invasion of Italy
1. 1942: Russia demanding that Britain and the United States open a second front in Europe.
a. Allies argued that they were not yet prepared for a land invasion of Europe.
b. After North Africa was secured, Stalin renewed his demands.
2. Churchill: wanted an invasion into the "Soft Underbelly of Europe" (Italy and the Balkans).
Political View by Churchill to deny access to Eastern Europe to Russian troops.
3. July 1943 - Operation Husky: Allied Forces landed in Sicily, it was taken in little more than a month.
4. Bombing of Italy in preparation for invasion.
a. Mussolini was forced to resign.
b. Pietro Badoglio became Premier and dissolved the Fascist Party.
5. September 1943: Allies landed in Italy.
a. Italians surrendered unconditionally.
b. Italy declared war on Germany - Italy became a co-belligerent not an ally.
6. Some of the fiercest fighting of the War in Italy.
a. Anzio - to establish a second beach head in central Italy.
b. Advance was very slow- Monte Casino, the Germans held out for three months.
c. Mussolini had been rescued by the Germans and he retreated with them.
War In the Pacific
1. May 1942: Japanese Fleet heading toward Australia was defeated at the Battle of the
Coral Sea (five days). -Explain the importance of Australia to the War effort.
2. June 3 - 6, 1942: The Battle of Midway (explain the importance of the Magic Secret).
a. Midway Islands - carrier based planes used.
b. Stopped the Japanese Advance in the Pacific.
3. Diversion to the Midway Threat:
a. Japanese landed at Kiska and Attu in the Aleutian Islands.
b. Japanese also bombed the American Naval Base at Dutch Harbor.
4. August 1942: the Americans landed on the Solomon Islands and seized the airfield on Guadalcanal - the Japanese attempted four times in the next four months to regain it.
The American Offensive: 1943
1. Island Warfare: Americans aided by forces from Australia and New Zealand.
2. Japanese driven completely out of the Solomon Islands.
3. Tarawa - one of the Gilbert Islands after savage fighting.
4. Regained Kiska and Attu in the Aleutians.
5. Island Hopping: left some Japanese held islands isolated and without supplies.
6. 1944: American Navy enlarged and stronger than the Japanese.
a. Japanese forced out of the Marshall Islands, New Guinea, and the Marianas.
b. Saipan and Tinion in the Marianas were used for long range bombing against Japan.
c. October 1944: Americans under General Douglas MacArthur landed at Leyte in the Central Philippines.
* MacArthur had promised "I shall return" when the Japanese had invaded.
* Six months of fighting he had liberated the Philippines form the Japanese.
China and the Burma Road
1. The China War 1940-43: had become a deadlock.
2. 1944: the truce between Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists had broken down.
3. The China Coast and the Burma Road were under Japanese control.
The Burma Road: was the chief supply route into China.
* A Chinese Offensive seemed uncertain.
4. India’s refusal to help Britain open the Burma Road.
a. Indian Independence Movement.
b. Hindu-Moslem Hostility with India.
* India National Congress (Gandhi) demanded self government.
* Moslems demanded a separate state.
Victory In Europe
1. November 1943: Roosevelt and Churchill revealed their plans to establish a second front to Stalin at Teheran.
2. Operation Overlord: Planned invasion of the Normandy Peninsula in France.
3. D-Day: June 6, 1944
a. 175,000 men involved in the initial invasion.
b. Route - across the English Channel.
c. Within a month - more than a million men had landed in France.
* Explain the significance of Ultra and Patton (conflict in German attitudes between Calais and Normandy).
4. Hitler sent troops to meet the invasion.
a. By 1943: Hitler had been forced to use young and inexperienced troops.
b. Allies: had more resources and man power ----- role of the US
5. German Defense
a. Bottle up the Allies on the Normandy Peninsula.
b. Strike at Britain with V-1 and V-2 Rockets (pilotless bombs - rocket propulsion).
6. Allies
a. Broke out of Normandy and moved into Northern France.
b. Landed on the Mediterranean Coast of France and moved northward.
c. August 25, 1944: Allies entered Paris.
d. By September - Allies faced the Siegfried Line.
Eastern Front
1. June 1944: Major Russian Offensive.
2. By the end of 1944: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Bulgaria, and
Albania were controlled by the Red Army.
3. British Aid: Germans were driven out of Greece.
4. Partisan Troops: Marshall Tito had liberated Yugoslavia.
5. July 1944: Russians were now approaching Warsaw, Poland.
DISCUSS THE STAUFFENBERG PLOT (JULY 20, 1944)
The Western Front
1. October 1944: Allies broke through the Siegfried Line.
Port Cities in France and Belgium -- allied troops were now more easily supplied.
2. Prior to Christmas: Germans made a 50 mile wedge into Allied Lines.
The Battle of the Bulge: 10 day battle -- Americans turned back the German offensive --- costliest battle in US History.
3. Russia: launched a large scale offensive -- moved 265 miles into German territory in three weeks.
4. Early Spring 1945: German defenses collapsed.
5. April 25, 1945: Russian and American troops met at Torgau.
* It had been agreed that the Russians would take Berlin.
6. End of April: The German Army in Italy had surrendered.
* Mussolini had been shot and his body was displayed in public.
7. May 1st: it was learned that Hitler had committed suicide.
Grand Admiral Karl Donitz became the new head of the German Government.
May 2nd: The Russians took Berlin.
8. May 8, 1945: the German High Command surrendered unconditionally.
New Order and Final Solution
* As the war came to a conclusion - German Atrocities were revealed as Concentration Camps were liberated by Allied and Russian troops.
1. Invasion was part of Hitler’s master plan for Europe and Germany.
2. Europe: was to be organized into a single political and economic unit ruled by Germany.
3. Russia: was to serve Germany as a producer of food and raw materials.
Human Loss - was of no concern. The Russians were Slavs and racially inferior - to serve as slave labor for the Germans.
4. 1941: "The Final Solution"
a. Hitler had ordered the extermination of the entire Jewish population of Europe.
b. Concentration Camps in Germany and Poland.
* Dachau and Buchenwald in Germany.
* Treblinka and Auschwitz in Poland.
(ie. examples)
c. Slave labor --- poison gas and use of crematoriums.
d. Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe aided this program.
e. Six million Jews and almost as many non Jews were killed in these camps.
5. Program: hurt the German war effort - cost and resources needed to maintain it.
Defeat of Japan
1. From Saipan: Industrialized cities in Japan began to be bombed.
2. Ryukyu Islands:
a. Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
b. Heavy Fighting - 250 ships damaged by suicide attacks (Kamikaze).
3. Japan: blockaded - their navy had been immobilized - bombing continued - though Japan continued to refuse to surrender.
4. Japanese troops in Korea and Manchuria --- might continue to fight with Japan itself conquered.
ALTERNATIVES???????????????????????
a. President Franklin Roosevelt had died on April 12, 1945 - less than a month before the German surrender.
b. The US was ready for the invasion of the home-islands of Japan.
c. US Military Leaders advised President Harry Truman that it would take another year of fighting and thousands of American lives.
d. President Truman decided to use the newly developed Atomic Bomb.
5. Collapse of Japan
a. August 6, 1945: Hiroshima was bombed with more than 160,000 people killed or injured.
* The Enola Gay dropped the bomb (equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT.
b. August 8, 1945: with victory near Russia declares war on Japan -- faced very little resistance in Manchuria and Northern Japanese islands.
c. August 9, 1945: a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
d. The next day Japan offered to surrender with only one condition.
* The Emperor be allowed to remain on his thrown - the Allies agreed on the condition he be subject to the Allied Commander.
e. Victory over Japan was declared on August 14, 1945.
Official Surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri on September 2, 1945.
Preparation For Peace
1. Atlantic Charter - August 1941
* War aims of the democracies drawn up between Churchill and Roosevelt.
* Problem - in meetings between war time leaders that followed a distrust of the Soviet Union began to emerge.
2. 1943 - Casablanca: between Churchill and Roosevelt.
* "unconditional surrender" was the only basis for stopping the fighting.
3. November 1943: The Big Three - Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Teheran, Iran.
a. A second front was promised in Western Europe by Churchill and Roosevelt.
b. The Big Three promised to cooperate and work together in war and peace.
4. Moscow 1943: Foreign Ministers from the United States, Britain, and Russia.
a. Austria should regain its independence.
b. An International Court would be established to try war crimes after the war war over.
c. An organization would be established to replace the League of Nations.
5. In 1944: Americans, Russians, Chinese, and Russians met near Washington, D.C. to draw up suggestions for the form and structure of the United Nations.
6. Yalta Conference: 1945
* Participants: Britain, United States, and Russia.
a. It was agreed that all those who had fought on the Allied side would be invited to meet in San Francisco (April 25, 1945) to form the United Nations.
b. It was agreed that Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation (US, Britain, Russia, and France).
* Berlin would also be divided into four zones of occupation.
c. German factories were turned over to the Allies - most went to Russia because of loses during the Nazi invasion of Russia.
d. German puppet states were to become independent and decide what kind of government they would have by free elections.
* Did the US give up too much?
e. Poland was given German land on the west for Polish land on the east taken by Russia which it would not surrender.
7. Potsdam Conference: July 1945
* Truman, Clement Atlee, and Stalin
a. Agreed on the peace settlement with Germany.
b. Drew up plans for Japan’s surrender and occupation.
* What kind of World after the War - relations between the United States and the Soviet Union?