Lasted from 9/1/1939 to 9/2/1945

Largest war in human history; 61 countries participating

About 60-70 million casualties total(civilian and military)

The Second World WarQUICK FACTS

I. The Prelude to the Second World War

II. The Beginning of the Second World War (1939-1940)

III. The North African and Italian Front (1940-1945)

IV. The Eastern Front (1941-1945)

V. The Pacific Theatre (1941-1945)

VI. The End of the Second World War (1945)

VII. Conferences and Notable People

Outline

I. The Prelude to the Second World WarRise of Fascism in Europe

• Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany in 1933• Benito Mussolini becomes Prime Minister in 1922

German and Italian Expansion• Rebuilds German army in March 1935• Remilitarizes Rhineland in March 1936

• Annexes Austria in March 1938• Occupies Czechoslovakia in October 1938

• Italians invade Ethiopia in October 1935, Albania in April 1939

Czechoslovak Crisis• Hitler encourages discontent among German minority in

the Sudetenland• Neville Chamberlain meets with Hitler in the Munich

Conference of September 1938• France abandons treaty with Czech government and

allies with Britain, pledge to protect Poland• Hitler violates treaty and enters the Sudetenland in

October 1938, claims the rest in March 1939• Appeasement: political concessions to avoid conflict

The Spanish Civil War: Introduction of Blitzkrieg

The Spanish Civil War• Spain declared a republic in 1931, replacing monarchy

• Violence between conservatives and liberals• Leaders of the army launch revolt in July 1936

• Germany and Italians provide aid to the nationalists• Britain and France declare non-intervention

Blitzkrieg, “Lightning War”• Concentration of overwhelming motorized force to break

through enemy lines and prevent counterattacks• Bombing of Guernica, aerial support by Germany

Communist and Nationalist Conflict• Chinese Civil War begins in 1927

• Unable to defeat Communists, who escape north

Invasion of China• Japanese invade Manchuria in September 1931, creates

puppet government in Manchukuo• Sino-Japanese War begins in July 1937

• Communists and Nationalists temporarily end civil war• Americans and Soviets supply China

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis• Rome-Berlin Axis in October 1936

• Japan joins in November 1936• Pledges to stop Communism

United States of America• Led by President Woodrow Wilson• Joined in 1941

Great Britain• Led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill• Joined in 1939

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics• Led by Premier Joseph Stalin• Joined in 1939

France• Led by Charles de Gaulle• Joined in 1939

Nationalist China• Led by Chiang Kai-Shek• Fought against the Japanese since 1936

Nazi Germany• Led by Fuhrer Adolf Hitler• Joined in 1939

Japan• Led by Prime Minister Hideki Tojo• Joined in 1939

Kingdom of Italy• Led by Premier Joseph Stalin• Joined in 1939

Treaties and Alliances of 1939

Demands on Poland• Hitler prepares for attack on Poland

• Britain and France halfheartedly attempt alliance with Soviets• German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact; Poland split

Declaration of War• Germany invades Poland on Sep. 1st, 1939

• Great Britain and France declare war on Germany on Sep. 3

II. The Beginning of the Second World War

The Polish Campaign• Soviets invade on September 17th

• Partitioning of Poland at the end of the month

Soviet Sphere of Influence• Winter War begins in Nov. 1939 against Finland

• Weak Soviet military organization is unable to break through the Mannerheim Line

• Soviets win in 1940, military reformation

The Phony War and Northern Europe

The Phony War (Winter 1939)• British and French expect German attack

• France continues to build the Maginot Line, 200 miles of fortifications with over three million French soldiers

The Scandinavian Campaign• Germany invades Denmark and Norway in April 1940• Reaction in Britain forces Chamberlain to step down,

succeeded by Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill• Becomes Prime Minister after Chamberlain

steps down from office• Boosted morale during the Blitz

Neville Chamberlain• Steps down due to failure in

stopping the German invasions of W. Europe

Germany Britain Russia United States

Japan France

The Western Front

Invasion of France• Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands on May 10th

• Evacuation of French and British troops• Battle for France begins on June 5th, Italy joins on 10th

• Paris captured on June 14th, and armistice signed on 22nd • Vichy France founded in unoccupied France

• General Charles de Gaulle leads Free French Movement

The Miracle at Dunkirk

Technology of WWII

Technology of WWII (continued)

Operation Sea Lion: The Battle of Britain

The Battle Over Britain/The Blitz

• German Luftwaffe attempts to gain control of airspace• RAF inflicts heavy damage; invention of radar

• Tries to crush morale by bombing cities• Even with twice as many planes, Germany is unable to win

Alfred Goering•Founded the Gestapo in 1933•Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe

Operation Sea Lion: The Battle of the Atlantic

Submarine Warfare, Yet Again

• Lend-Lease Act of 1941; “aiding countries necessary for the defense of America.”

• Convoy system utilized to protect merchant ships• Roosevelt and Churchill meet secretly, issuing a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter, which encouraged

free trade and self-determination• Later forms the foundation for the Allied peace plan

III. The North African and Italian Campaign

Italian Failures in Africa

• Italy invades Egypt from their colony in Libya on Sep. 1940• Britain fights off Italy, taking Ethiopia and Somaliland by 1941

“The Desert Fox”• Germany dispatches the Afrika Korps, led by Field Marshall

Erwin Rommel, nicknamed “the Desert Fox”• Pushes British back into Egypt in 1941, but lacks

reinforcements due to the beginning of Operation Barbarossa

Erwin Rommel•Decorated officer during WWI•Leads the Afrika Korps in North Africa

Bernard Montgomery•Leads British Eighth Army in Africa•Later plans and directs D-Day invasion in 1944

The Balkan Campaign

Italian Failures in the Balkans

• Seeing German conquests, Mussolini invades Greece from Albania in the October of 1940

• Greece counterattacks, but Italy is saved by Germany in 1941, who captures Greece and Yugoslavia

Battle for North Africa

Rommel’s Advance• Britain pushes back into Libya in late 1941 and early 1942

• Summer 1942, Rommel reaches El Alamein• Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery counterattacks and

forces Rommel to retreat

Operation Torch• General Dwight D. Eisenhower leads invasion of Algeria and

Morocco in Nov. 1942, named Operation Torch• Germans and Italians surrounded, 250,000 Axis troops

surrender in 1943

Invasion of Sicily and Italy

Italy and Sicily• Invasion of Sicily in July 1943

• Mussolini overthrown in the same month• Italian government surrenders in September, but Germany

takes control of two-thirds of the country

Italian Campaign

• Allies take over a year to capture Rome, on Jun. 4, 1944• War in Italy ends in the Spring of 1945

IV. The Eastern Front

Early German Victories• Germany launches Operation Barbarossa on June 22nd, 1941

• Three-front advance to Leningrad, Moscow, and Ukraine• Called for capture of Moscow within four months

• Smolensk captured in July; traditional gateway to Moscow• 900-day Siege of Leningrad begins in September

• 640,000-800,000 Russians die of starvation, cold, and disease• Kiev, capital of Ukraine captured in mid-September

• Jews and partisans are killed by the Nazi SS

Erich von Manstein•Major German strategist and general•Dismissed by Hitler in 1944

Georgi Zhukov•Fights Japanese in Eastern Russia•Appointed to defend Moscow in 1941

Vyacheslav Molotov• Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs• Signs non-aggression pact in 1939

The Winter of 1941

Soviet Counterattack• On Dec. 6, 1941 (one day before Pearl Harbor), Marshal

Georgi Zhukov begins to drive the Germans back • Soviets gain fifty to one-hundred miles by 1942

Battle of Moscow• Germans attempt to surround Moscow beginning in October• Extreme cold freezes troops and vehicles, and grounds planes

• Strong Soviet resistance beats back the Germans• Withdraws to hold defensive line

Operation Blue

Battle of Stalingrad• Hitler sends troops to claim oil-rich regions near Stalingrad in

the Spring of 1942; named Operation Blue• Sends two army groups; one into Caucasus and one toward

the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) • German Sixth Army fights viciously against the Soviets to

capture Stalingrad; descends into street fighting• Most of city is destroyed during the fight

• Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus defies Hitler’s orders and surrenders on Jan. 31, 1943

• 850,000 Germans and 1.1 million Soviets killed

Friedrich Paulus•Commands Sixth Army in Operation Blue•Only German Field Marshal to surrender

Final German Offensive

Battle of Kursk• Field Marshal Erich von Manstein leads final counterattack

against the Soviets in July of 1943• Soviets plan to destroy the majority of German Panzer divisions

• Forces Germans to attack heavily reinforced area• Largest tank battle in history

• Germans lose over a thousand tanks, Russia loses six-thousand• First battle in which Blitzkrieg strategy was defeated

• By end of 1943, Russians regain 2/3 of the territory they had lost during Operation Barbarossa

V. The Pacific Theatre

The Bombing of Pearl Harbor• To contain the Japanese threat, President Roosevelt imposes

embargo on iron and steel to Japan• Pro-war group led by General Hideki Tojo takes power in

October 1941• Japanese aircraft bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941

• 4 battleships sunk, 12 other ships damaged• United States declares war the following day

• Germany and Italy declares war on the US on December 11th • Japan takes Hong Kong, Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island

Isoroku Yamamoto• "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping

giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."• Led Attack on Pearl Harbor and Battle of Midway

Hideki Tojo•Prime Minister of Japan during WWII•Called for attack on Pearl Harbor

Franklin Delano Roosevelt•American President from 1933-1945•Succeeded by Harry S Truman after death

The American Offensive

The Battles of Midway and Coral Sea• Two major battles of 1942; Midway and Coral Sea

• Battle of the Coral Sea, May 1942: first naval battle where ships did not directly attack each other, using carrier based planes instead

• Halted Japanese threat to Australia• The Doolittle Raid: Lt. Col. James Doolittle leads bombing of Japan;

pointed out that the Japanese were still vulnerable, raised morale• Battle of Midway, June 1942: most important battle in the Pacific;

American victory, sinking four of six total Japanese carriers

Island Hopping

The Pacific Campaign• Between 1942 and 1944, America carries the war closer to Japan

• Islands of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Twajelein, Saipan captured

Return to the Philippines• General Douglas MacArthur leads recapture of the Philippines• Battle of Leyte Gulf; destroys last of Japanese naval power

• Manila captured in February of 1945Douglas MacArthur•Led Philippines Campaign and managed the Japanese Occupation after the war•Commanded and dismissed during the Korean War

VI. The End of the Second World War

The War in Europe• By 1944, increased American aircraft production leads to increased

bombing of German cities and factories• Allied troops in Italy slowly push their way north, while the Red

Army enters the Baltic States and Poland

Iwo Jima and Okinawa• Marines invade Iwo Jima in February 1945• 7,000 Americans killed securing the island• Okinawa invaded by Army in April 1945

• Kamikazes, or suicide pilots, fly their planes into American ships

Operation Overlord

Operation Fortitude• From 1942 to 1945, Hitler constructs the Atlantic Wall, a line of

fortifications defending against attack from the English Channel• Operation Fortitude tricks Germans to expect an invasion in Pas de

Calais, rather than Normandy; used double agents to deceive

D-Day• 150,000 Allied troops invade Normandy on June 6th, 1944,

commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, fighting against 4,000 troops led by Rommel

• Majority of German defenders had been diverted north• Largest amphibious landing in history

Dwight D. Eisenhower•American Supreme Commander for the Invasion of Europe in 1944•Later became American President, 1953-1961

The Normandy Landings

The Western Front

Advance Through France• Other Allied invasions occur in Southern France, and join the main

force in liberating Paris on August 25th, 1944• Allied troops enter the Rhineland, as the Soviets enter Warsaw

The Battle of the Bulge• Allies meet final German counterattack in the Ardennes forest,

December 1944, named the Battle of the Bulge• Germans push the Americans back, but they are unable to

achieve a breakthrough• Soviets halt forty miles from Berlin in February 1945

Victory in Europe

VE-Day• In March 1945, American troops capture the last remaining

bridge across the Rhine, entering Germany• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies of a stroke on March

29th, succeeded by Harry S Truman• Soviet and American forces meet at the Elbe River on April 25th

• At the end of April, German troops in Italy surrender, and Mussolini is executed on the 28th

• The Red Army enters Berlin on April 19th, and Hitler commits suicide by shooting himself on April 30th

• Successor Admiral Karl Doenitz surrenders on May 7th

Victory in the Pacific

VJ-Day• The Invasion of Japan estimated to result in over a million Allied

causalities, so Truman turns to the Manhattan Project • The secret Manhattan Project, founded in 1942; composed of

Allied scientists researching the possibility of nuclear weapons• Americans drop two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima (8/6), and

one on Nagasaki (8/9), killing over 150,000 total• Soviets declare war on August 8th and invade Manchuria

• Emperor Hirohito plans surrender on August 10th, with the condition of keeping his throne; news is announced on the 14th

• Formal surrender signed on September 2nd, 1945, ending WWII

VII. Conferences and Notable People

The Allied Conferences• Tehran Conference (1943): Stalin shows his interest in expanding

the Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, opposed by President Roosevelt

• Yalta Conference (1945): Soviet agreement to enter war against Japan, in trade for North Korea and Eastern Poland; division of

Germany after the war; foundation of the United Nations• Potsdam Conference (1945): Truman, Attlee, and Stalin;

promotion of demilitarization and denazification in territories

Important People You Probably Should Know

The List.• Chamberlain, Churchill, Montgomery

• Hitler, Goering, Rommel, Manstein, Paulus• Stalin, Zhukov, Molotov

• FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, MacArthur• Hirohito, Tojo, Yamamoto

• Charles de Gaulle