Start of World War II

How the WWII Starts Hitler of Germany and Mussolini of Italy both rose to power and began to become aggressive in taking land. Mussolini evades Ethiopia while Hitler demands Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia. France and Britain hope to appease Hitler by letting him have these areas. Hitler now wants Poland but the Poles refuse!! Hitler invades Poland in September 1939 and starts World War II

Women enter the workforce as the men go off to fight in WW II.

The War in Europe The German Army uses a new type of warfare called “Blitzkrieg”- using fast moving planes, tanks, and motorized troop carriers to overwhelm enemies. The Germans take over Poland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and France by 1940. Great Britain is the only holdout of the war. Hitler was unable to defeat Great Britain due to it’s resilience.

Germany invades the Soviet Union Germany had conquered all of Western Europe except for Great Britain. Now he turns his attention to the east and the Soviet Union. Hitler saw the Russian people as inferior, the same view he had about the Jews. Hitler launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. The Germans had early success but the winter of 1941 took it’s toll on the German army. Much of the German equipment froze before they could reach Moscow, the Soviet capital. The Soviets turned back the Germans but lost 21 million soldiers and civilians.

D-Day and the end of the war in Europe The Allies knew that a two- front war was needed to defeat Germany in Europe. An attack from the west and east would split the German Army. The United States and Great Britain launched the largest amphibious (water) assault known as D-Day in June 1944. The Allied troops landed on the northern beaches of Normandy, France. The Soviet Union attacked Germany from the east through Poland. The Allies from the west and east would meet in Berlin, the capital of Germany by 1945. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide. Soon after the German Military surrenders to the Allies.

The War in the Pacific Japanese aggression began 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria, a northern province of China. By 1937, Japan invaded the rest of China. The United States begins an embargo of war supplies to Japan. Hideki Tojo, the prime minister of Japan, decides to launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The Japanese quickly take over islands in the Pacific. In 1943, the U.S. began to regain islands with “Island- Hopping”- liberating islands from Japanese control one at a time. By 1945, Japanese armies began to retreat back to their homeland.

The Atomic Bomb Ends the War Albert Einstein, a German Jewish physicist, encouraged the U.S. to develop a new type of powerful bomb called the Atomic Bomb. On August 6, 1945 an American atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The effects of the atomic bomb would last many years after due to radiation poisoning. Japan surrenders bringing an end to World War II.

The Holocaust The Holocaust refers to the attempted genocide of the Jews of Europe during World War II. Genocide Is an effort to murder an entire people or nationality. Hitler decided to execute all European Jews under the cover of war. Many Jews were marched out of towns and killed. Later, large Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz were created all over Europe. Many Jews were subjected to experiments, starvation, and execution. An estimated 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.