WORLD WAR II HIS 121 Part II

Italy Remained neutral during Hitler’s attacks in Europe until late 1940 September 1940 – attacked Egypt October 1940 – attacked Greece British pushed the Italians out of Egypt Greeks pushed the Italians out of Greece Hitler was unaware of Mussolini’s plans showing an uncoordinated effort Hitler stepped in to help

Spring 1940 – Germans moved in on North Africa under the command of Irwin Rommel, the Desert Fox; Germans fought for 2 years before being defeated Hitler did defeat Greece and Yugoslavia

Operation Barbarossa Soviets felt they were partners with Hitler because of the Nazi-Soviet Pact However, Hitler had only used the Soviets so that he wouldn’t have a 2-front war like in World War I After Hitler subdued western Europe, he turned on the Soviets in Operation Barbarossa 22 June 1941 – 4 million Germans crossed into Soviet Russia Within 2 weeks the Germans were 2/3 of the way to Moscow

Germans felt they were winning Then winter hit, Russia’s best defense Winter halted the Germans 20 miles from Moscow Hitler lost 750,000 men in the first year of fighting in the USSR

Japan The third member of the Axis powers and part of the Tri-Partite Pact with Italy and Germany Overcrowded set of islands Few raw materials Attacked China in 1931 mostly for economic reasons, but also because of their increased militarism Japan wanted more control of the Asian trade Their attack on China caused President Franklin Roosevelt to impose an embargo on scrap metal and weapons on Japan in 1940

This embargo was extended to include oil and steel in 1941 when the Japanese took over Indochina The embargo would be lifted if Japan withdrew from China They did not The embargo made Japan feel antagonistic towards the United States because they needed the oil and the raw materials So Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941

This attack damaged much of the Pacific fleet of the United States Causes for the Disaster at Pearl harbor:  Secrecy surrounding the Japanese strike force  Racist overconfidence of the United States  Habits of peacetime routine This ended U.S. isolationism

The United States declared war on Japan Germany then declared war on the United States The U.S., in response, declared war on Germany The United Sates joined in the Grand Alliance with Britain and the Soviet Union

The tide of war changed by June 1942 favoring the Allies as they were called Immediately after Pearl harbor, the Japanese under Admiral Yamamoto quickly took:  Malaya British Singapore  Hong Kong Burma  Philippines Dutch East Indies  Java  Guam  2 of U.S. Aleutian Islands

Yamamoto wanted to establish a defensive perimeter around Japan But the U.S. began a campaign of island hopping pushing the Japanese from one island and then the next The Japanese were on the run Germans surrendered North Africa in May 1943 Hitler then ordered the total occupation of France In the battle at sea, Germans were on the run by March 1943

Hitler and the Jews Hitler and the Nazis had always wished to remove their “inferiors” from Europe – either to slave camps to work in German industry or to death camps where most Jewish women, children, the elderly, and also the disabled, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and gypsies were shot or gassed and then cremated 12 million human beings were killed Of those 12 million, 6 million were Jews

Victims & Crematory

Shoes

Defeat Italy was the first to fall in September 1943 Germany surrendered in May 1945 and only after D-Day 6 June 1944 Operation Overlord or D-Day brought together the Allied on 6 June 1944 with an invasion of France; they landed on the beaches of Normandy After a long fight, France was back in Allied hands Admitting the war was lost, Adolf Hitler married his mistress, Eva Braun, and then shot himself; Eva took poison

D-Day

Hitler left a note blaming the Jews for Germany’s defeat Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945 He left Admiral Karl Doenitz in charge; he surrendered in early May 1945 The Japanese surrendered only after the dropping of 2 atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945; formal papers were signed in September 1945

Hiroshima

The end of the war marked the beginning of the Cold War primarily between the United States and the USSR