World War Two

Start of the War On September 1 st 1939 Germany invaded Poland starting the war Germany was able to conquer Poland in weeks using a massive attack of men, tanks and planes known as “Blitzkrieg” or “Lightning War”

WWII Allies France Great Britain Later The Soviet Union (1941) The United States (1941) China Axis Powers Germany Japan Italy

WWII-German Victories In April 1940 Germany invades Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium In May 1940 Germany invades France and by June 1940 Germany controls France

WWII-German Victories During the beginning of the war Germany and the Axis Powers won several quick victories However by 1941 there were main turning points

German Invasion of the Soviet Union In June 1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union During the summer and fall months the Germans move deep into Russia However winter comes early and stops the Germans just outside Moscow German soldiers are ill-equipped for the Russian winters

Stalingrad In 1942 the Germans turn south to try to take the key city of Stalingrad The Soviet Army puts up good defenses and the Russian winter causes the Germans to stop In 1943 the Germans surrender Soon after the Soviet Army is able to drive the Germans out of Russia

Pearl Harbor In the beginning of WWII the U.S. remain neutral The U.S. agreed that Great Britain had to be supported against the Nazi’s and the U.S. did supply weapons to the allies-this was known as the Lend-Lease Act

Pearl Harbor To stop Japanese aggression the U.S. banned the sale of goods to Japan-(oil and steel) Japan became enraged and launched a surprise a military attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor On Sunday December 7 th 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 2,400 people were killed Many of the American naval ships were destroyed Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan –Roosevelt called the attack a Day that will live in Infamy The U.S. entered on the side of the Allies

El Alamein 1942 In 1941, 1942 the Germans took over North Africa Britain was able to stop the German advance at El Alamein By 1943 the British with the help of the U.S. drove the Germans out of Africa

Invasion of Italy 1943 After driving the Germans out of Africa the Allies moved into Italy The Italy Army gave up and Hitler was forced to send troops to fight in Italy-weakening his forces in Europe Mussolini was forced to flee the country

D-day 1944 On June 6, 1944 Allies invaded France at a place called Normandy This opened a second front and Germany was forced to fight a three front war Great Britain and U.S. in France Great Britain and U.S. in Italy The Soviet Union in Poland and the east The Allies were able to move into Paris by August and into Germany by the winter of 1944

Battle of the Bulge This was Hitler’s last attempt to drive the Allied forces away from the German boarders The Germans sent a large amount of men and tanks into battle The Germans did make some advances however the Allies were able to stop the advancement on the ground while superior air power from the allies finished off the German advance

Victory in Europe VE Day By May 7 th 1945 Hitler had committed suicide The German or people did not wish to carry on the war and so sued for peace The war in Europe was now over

The War in the Pacific After the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Japanese were able to take control of most of the Pacific However by 1942 the U.S. had rebuilt its navy

War in the Pacific The Allies/U.S. used a method to take back the pacific Islands called island hopping In 1942 the U.S. caught the Japanese fleets off guard in the Pacific U.S. planes were able to destroy two Japanese fleets-including aircraft carries This badly hurt the Japanese who never recovered from the loses This was known as the Battle of Midway

War in the Pacific By 1944 the Allies/U.S. had moved close enough to Japan to start bombing the Japanese cities However by 1945 Japan refused to surrender It looked as if the U.S. might have to invade Japan-This would have cost a large loss of life

Hiroshima and Nagasaki From 1942 to 1945 the U.S. had been working on creating an atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project The U.S. warned the Japanese in the first week of August that the U.S. had the bomb and if Japan did not surrender the U.S. would use the weapon

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan refused to surrender On August 6, 1945 the U.S. dropped the bomb on Hiroshima The bomb destroyed 4 square miles and killed 70,000 people By August 9 th the Japanese still refused to surrender and the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki killing 40,000 people

Japan On August 10 th 1945 Emperor Hirohito forced his government to surrender The war in the Pacific was over

Total War WWII was a total war meaning that both Allies and Axis Powers targeted civilians The bombing of London by German in 1940 was known as the Blitz Cities were bombed by both sides Products/factories produced goods were military goods not consumer goods

War Crimes In 1937 Japan invades Nanjing (China) and mass shooting of Chinese civilians causes 250,000 to die The Germans were brutal to Russian soldier the chances of survival were 1 in 10

Human Loss WWII killed about 75 million people In Europe 38 million died The Soviet Union suffered the most losses with 22 million killed The brutality of the war was something the world had never seen

Economic Losses Most of Europe had been destroyed Vital farmland was destroyed There was starvation and a large loss of property It would take Europe years to recover

The United Nations WWII resulted in a new international group that would attempt to keep peace in the world The United Nations would take the place of the League of Nations which had failed The United Nations was to give countries a place to discuss world problems before they turned into wars One advantage the UN had was that it did have an army made up of member nations to stop wars