1936-1939: Spanish Civil War

“Lightning War”

Motorized and coordinated front

Highly mobile

Quick, decisive battles

“New type of war”

Goal: Win before the enemy even mobilizes

“the whole root, the core, and brain of the British Army”

Soldiers cut off after Nazis take France

338,226 soldiers in nine days

“We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” -Churchill

1941-1945

Straddling the line of isolation and intervention

$50.1 billion ($650 billion today) to UK, France, USSR

"I don't say, 'Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it’. I don't want $15 — I want my garden hose back after the fire is over.“ -FDR

By 1944, ¼ of British munitions come through Lend-Lease

Nazi “collaborationist” government

Led by Philippe Pétain

"Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished. Tomorrow, as today, I will speak on the radio from London.” –Chas. De Gaulle

Legitimacy constantly challenged from abroad

Established by armistice

Fought entirely by air

Luftwaffe first attacks RAF bases; ends up running terror bombing raids

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” –Churchill

Operation Sea Lion is DOA

Summer, fall of 1940

Pearl Harbor

Why here?

Why December 7, 1941?

1931: Japan invades Manchuria

1940: FDR moves US Naval fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor

1940-41: Lend-Lease vs. Tripartite Pact

1941: Oil embargo against Japan

WWII in Europe, Africa

Backstory: Late 1940

Suez Canal is key Allied trade route

Italy attacks Egypt

British Army successfully defends

WWII in Europe, Africa

Late 1941

• Attack of Japan must wait; focus on Germany

• FDR, Churchill meet in Washington, DC

January 1942

• USSR, China agree to join Allies, not make separate peace with Axis

WWII in Europe, Africa

Summer 1942

“The Desert Fox” stopped by British at El Alamein

Hitler sends Erwin Rommel to Egypt

Rommel

U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower lands west of German troops

Surrounded, Rommel surrenders in early 1943

With North Africa in hand, Allies can attack the “soft underbelly” of the Axis: Italy

WWII in Europe, Africa

July 1943

Allies land in Sicily, quickly take the island

By September, Allied boots are on Italian soil

Italians overthrow Mussolini, who goes into hiding

WWII in Europe, Africa

Early 1943

Stalingrad, under siege for four months, liberated by Allies in January

• Axis lost 200,000 men

Loss of Stalingrad meant Hitler’s invasion of USSR had failed

Final blow to Axis attack of USSR…

Battle of Kursk July 1943

Huge, 16-day tank battle in the Ukraine countryside

After Kursk, Axis begins a long retreat

WWII in Europe, Africa

Late 1943

Eisenhower put in charge of Operation Overlord

Time is right, Allies agree, to invade German-occupied France

The plan: Massive invasion of NW France

May-June 1942

Ships 200 miles apart, engage via aircraft

Coral Sea: Aircraft carrier vs. aircraft carrier

Midway: Decisive battle in Pacific theater

4 (of 4) Japanese carriers sunk 1 (of 1) cruiser sunk 248 (of 248) carrier aircraft destroyed

Crushing defeat of Japanese Navy

Aug. 1942 – Feb. 1943

First major, coordinated Allied offensive vs. Japan

Pre-empt Japanese airbase construction

“Operation Watchtower”

Mid-1943

MacArthur’s plan in the Pacific

Skip heavily-defended islands

“Operation Cartwheel”

D-Day refers to the Allied invasion of German-occupied France during WWII.

It was the greatest land-and-sea operation in history.

D-Day June 6, 1944

http://_vti_bin/shtml.exe/privateryan/index.html/map

1942: Nearly all of Europe – from Russia to Spain – was occupied by The Nazis.

Great Britain stood alone.

• Commander: Dwight Eisenhower

• Allied forces decided to invade Normandy

• The logical option, Calais, was highly secured by German troops

Just after midnight on June 6th, 23,500 American and British paratroopers landed on the behind German lines.

1,200 transport planes and 700 gliders were used.

A little after daybreak, 4,000 transports, 800 warships, and an unknown number of smaller boats arrived at the beaches of Normandy with the US and British armies.

http://normandy.eb.com/normandy/photos/onasuex001p1.html

The Allies invaded five beaches:

Utah Omaha Gold Juno Sword

• Omaha Beach was the biggest challenge

• Two American divisions were sent to Omaha

• 2,400 casualties at Omaha on June 6 alone

Defending Omaha Beach:

• Eight concrete bunkers

• 35 pillboxes

• Four artillery batteries

• 18 anti-tank guns

• 35 rocket launching sites

• 85+ machine gun nests

• Countless Germans with sidearms

http://normandy.eb.com/normandy/photos/oomahaa002p1.html

Hitler’s hidden cruelty: The Atlantic Wall

Germans expected an attack on Calais

When Normandy was invaded, it was too late for the Germans to shift focus

Within days, allied forces had control of France

August 1944

Key aid from French resistance, Charles de Gaulle

Folding of Vichy France

Headed by General George Patton

AMGOT vs. de Gaulle

Yalta Conference

February 4, 1945

• Attended by Churchill, FDR, Stalin

FDR: Wanted Soviet support in attacking Japan in the Pacific

Churchill: Pressed USSR to install free elections in Poland, Eastern Europe

• Each premier has own agenda

Stalin: Wanted Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe

Yalta Conference

Would Stalin join war vs. Japan?

Postwar peacekeeping organization?

What should be done with postwar Germany and Poland?

Yes. After Germany surrenders.

United Nations formed in June, 1945

Poland: Independent, “free” elections, and Germany…

April 16 - May 2,1945

Stalin: Berlin has resources, symbolism

Hitler takes his own life, April 30

Soviet Red Army storms the city from the east

V-E Day: May 8, 1945

Potsdam Conference Roosevelt dies in April, 1945

Germany surrenders in May

July 1945: Truman, Stalin, Clement Attlee head to Potsdam, Brandenburg

Postwar plans:

Germany would be split into four occupied zones

Berlin itself would also be split into four zones

Terms of Japanese surrender…

Potsdam Conference

"We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now

the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces,

and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their

good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is

prompt and utter destruction."

-Potsdam Declaration

July 26, 1945

Trinity test bomb July 16, 1945

WAL-MART

HOME DEPOT

GIANT EAGLE BEAVER

COUNTY AIRPORT

BHS

ONE-MEGATON

NUCLEAR AIRBURST

TWO-MILE RADIUS

• All people killed

• All buildings destroyed

• Winds reach 470 MPH

• Point of impact: 50 million degree fireball

ONE-MEGATON

NUCLEAR AIRBURST

THREE-MILE RADIUS

• Nearly all people killed from burns

• All people outdoors are blinded

• All houses destroyed

• All larger buildings damaged or destroyed

• Winds reach 290 MPH

• “Cools” to 11 million degrees

ONE-MEGATON

NUCLEAR AIRBURST

FOUR-MILE RADIUS

• Many dead from radiation

• 5% dead from pressure

• 45% injured from pressure

• All outdoors blinded

• Most buildings damaged

• Pressure will rupture most eardrums

Japanese victim of Hiroshima blast

ONE-MEGATON

NUCLEAR AIRBURST

FIVE-MILE RADIUS

• Most people severely burned

• All outdoors blinded

• All trees blown down

• Winds reach 95 MPH

• Most houses severely damaged

• All buildings damaged

Shippingport Power Plant: roughly 9.75 miles from BHS

Nagasaki

ONE-MEGATON

NUCLEAR AIRBURST

30-MILE RADIUS

• Blast will appear far brighter than the sun

• More than a lethal dose of radiation

• Ten years will pass before inhabitable again

A radioactivity distribution model

Hiroshima August 6, 1945

Nagasaki August 9, 1945

V-J Day: September 2, 1945

Allies (mainly U.S.) would occupy Japan until 1952

New constitution supervised by Allies

Terms outlined at Potsdam Conference