April 15 – April 19Chapter 32

The Road to War

• Austria is Annexed by Germany, March 1938• Hitler wanted to Annex parts of Czechoslovakia– Leads to the Munich Conference– Britain and France use “Appeasement”

• Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact– Wouldn’t attack each other– Agreed to divide Poland

• USA adopts isolationism: doesn’t want to get into another European War

World War II Begins in Europe

• Blitzkrieg: Lightning War– Nazis invade Poland, September 1, 1939– Soviet Union invades Poland on September 17– Great Britain and France declare war

• Fall of France– Nazis go around Allied forces, invade Belgium– British troops evacuate France at Dunkirk, May 26 –

June 4, 1940– Paris falls on July 14, 1940– Vichy France (South), Occupied France (North)

World War II Begins in Europe• Battle of Britain– Starting in the summer of 1940, German Luftwaffe (air

force) begins bombing Britain– Was considered a preparation for a possible invasion– Royal Air Force (RAF), although outnumbered, slowly gains

the upper hand– By May 1941, Hitler gives up on taking Britain, turns focus

elsehwere• Eastern Europe– Hitler allies with or takes over most of the Balkans by

spring of 1941– Hitler invades the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 in

“Operation Barbarossa”

World War II in the Pacific

• Japan conquers most of China, Manchuria, and starts attacking European colonies by 1940 (Asia for the Asians)

• US President Roosevelt cuts off oil shipments to Japan in July of 1941

• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941

• Early Japanese Victories:– Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia

and Burma all fall to Japan by spring of 1942.– Bataan Death March: 20,000 Allied POWs killed

Who is Fighting Who

• Axis Powers– Germany– Italy– Japan

• Allied Powers– Great Britain– France– Soviet Union (after 1941)– United States (after 1941)

Tide Turns in the Pacific

• Doolittle Raid: Bomb Tokyo, revenge for Pearl Harbor

• Battle of Coral Sea: New type of naval battle, fought from the air.

• Battle of Midway: Turning point in the Pacific, June 7, 1942

• Battle of Guadalcanal, September 1942-February 1943– Going on the offensive, “Island of Death”

Tide turns in Europe

• Allies open second front:– North Africa in late 1942, Italy in July 1943

• Battle of Stalingrad: August 1942 – February 1943– 99% of the city destroyed– Germans take the city, then surrounded by the

Soviets– Soviets loose over 1 million men but capture the

Germans– After this battle, Germany is on the defensive

Victory in Europe• D-Day Invasion, June 6, 1944

– British and American troops land on the beaches in Normandy, Northern France

– By September of 1944, France has been liberated• Battle of the Bulge

– Last military offensive by the Nazis– December 16, 1944: Germans find weak point in allied lines– Americans eventually turn the tide and push the Germans back

• Germany Surrenders– Hitler commits suicide on April 30, 1945– Germany surrenders on May 9, 1945

• President Roosevelt dies on April 12, Vice President Truman now in charge.

Victory in the Pacific• Philippines liberated in October, 1944• Iwo Jima (March 1945), Okinawa (April 1945)– Fierce fighting, hundreds of thousands killed– Puts Allied forces 350 miles from Japan

• The Atomic Bomb– Allied commanders feared that invasion of Japan

would cost too many lives– First atomic bomb tested on July 16, 1945– August 6, 1945: bomb dropped on Hiroshima– August 9, 1945: bomb dropped on Nagasaki– September 2, 1945: Japan surrenders.