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1939-1945 European and Pacific Theaters
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Axis Powers Japan, Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union Why will the S.U. leave this treaty? Treaties/Pacts Pact of Steel Italy and Nazi Germany Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis Non-Aggression Pact Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union Allied Powers France and Great Britain Agree to protect the sovereignty of Poland When does the US join? Why isn’t the United States involved?
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German ground forces overwhelmed the Polish defenses. Invaded on September 1 st Warsaw capitulated on September 28th. Military opposition ended October 6th, 1939. 65,000 Polish troops were killed in the invasion. Hundreds of thousands were captured/wounded.
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Concept of Blitzkrieg is born What does Blitzkrieg involve?
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Lightening War Combine tanks, planes, trucks, and infantry in concentrated attacks How is this a different form of warfare than WWI?
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October 11, 1939 The town is crowded with Germans. They are quartered in all the larger houses. Most of them are from Austria and some from Vienna. In general the Germans are trying to clean up the city. For this work they are using only Jews. Jews must sweep the streets, clean all the public latrines, and fill all the street trenches. Plastered everywhere are German notices giving an idea of what we can expect in the future. We must return all arms. We must record all contagious diseases. The police curfew is from 10 P.M. until 5:30 A.M. The restrictions applying to Jewish shops change from day to day. Sometimes the Jews are allowed to open their shops, and sometimes they are not. It seems that most of the orders are aimed at the Jews. February 18, 1940 I met a woman, an official of the Zamoyski estate. She had just arrived from Chelmo. For some time I've been receiving alarming information about the execution of the mentally ill patients of the psychiatric ward at Chelmo Hospital. I asked her if this happened. She verified that it was true. All the mentally ill were shot with machine guns, but under penalty of death the hospital personnel are forbidden to talk about this crime. It is so hard to believe anything as terrible as this. What are the Nazis doing in occupied territories?
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Phony War Period of no fighting between Oct. 1939 and June 1940 Why wouldn’t the Allies attack? Invasion of France 1940 Dunkirk – Over 300,000 Allied soldiers evacuated France defeated in 6 weeks Battle of Britain Hitler’s attempt to defeat GB RAF and Radar saved the British from invasion Hitler’s plans for Western dominance put on hold
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Northern France and its government under complete control of the Nazis Turn in Jews to Nazis Vichy (Free) France led by Marshall Petain WWI hero Treason Resistance movement led by Charles de Gaulle PM post WWII
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"We shall not flag or fail. 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.“ What is the purpose or intention of Churchill’s speech? "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Who is Churchill referring to?
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Enigma MachineRadar Unit
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World War II has become a total war with the bombing of London Why would Hitler bomb London?
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Europe 1941
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Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union Need for Lebensraum Why would his invasion ultimately fail? What are his three targets or objectives?
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Soviet citizens trying to survive by melting ice into potable water
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The first deaths from starvation were recorded only a few weeks after the ring of the siege closed, and by midwinter it was common to see corpses lying in the streets. A dance teacher at the Mariinsky ballet school noted a dead man who leant for months against a lamppost opposite the Philharmonia: 'With his back to the post a man sits in the snow, wrapped in rags, wearing a knapsack... For two weeks I passed him every day as I went back and forth to the hospital. He sat 1. Without his knapsack 2. Without his rags 3. In his underwear 4. Naked 5. A skeleton with ripped out entrails.'
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Why would Hitler order Army Group South to attack Stalingrad? Over 1.1 million Soviet casualties Over 800,000 German causalities Hitler’s war machine permanently crippled
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German Account Panzergrenadier officer - "We have fought for fifteen days for a single house, with mortars, machine guns, grenades and bayonets. The front is a corridor between burnt-out rooms...The street is no longer measure in metres, but in corpses. Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke; it is a vast furnace lit by the reflection of the flames. And when night arrives -- one of those scorching, howling, bleeding nights -- the dogs plunge into the Volga and swim desperately for the other bank. The nights of Stalingrad are a terror for them. Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure" Russian Account Nikolai Nikulin, Russian soldier: "During the night I crawled twice to a shell crater for water. It was as thick and brown as coffee, and smelt of explosives and something else. In the morning, I saw a black crooked hand protruding from that crater. My tunic and trousers are as stiff as cardboard with mud and blood, the knees and elbows holed by crawling on them. I have thrown away my helmet -- not many people wear them here; one normally shits into a helmet, then throws it out of the trench. The corpse near me stinks unbearably; there are so many of them around, old and new. Some turn black as they dry, and lie in all sorts of postures. Here and there in the trench one sees body parts trampled into the mud - a flattened face, a hand, all as brown as the soil. We walk on"
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Bombers flying a sortie and street fighting
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1941-1945
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Gas extermination van“The Last Jew in Vinnitsa”
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SS Mobile Killing SquadsUndressing prior to execution
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Offensive to reestablish an offensive in Europe Stalin needed it – why? Largest amphibious invasion in history Why was it so risky? I SPY – What do you see?
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“The Big Three” Points of Discussion Poland – Communist buffer Free elections in Eastern Europe Division of Germany United Nations
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British and American forces sweep through France toward Germany from the West Soviet forces sweep through Eastern Europe toward Germany from the East
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Japanese occupation of Manchuria – 1931 Invasion of China – 1937 Policy of Island-Hopping What is it? War of attrition What does Japan acquire when it takes over territory?
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Battle of Midway Turning point Japanese lose multiple aircraft carriers
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The last stop before the Japanese home islands
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Dresden, Germany “The fire storm transformed thousands of individual blazes into a sea of flames, ripping off the roofs, tossing trees, cars and lorries into the air, and simultaneously sucking the oxygen out of the air-raid shelters. ”Most of those who remained below ground were to die painlessly, their bodies first brilliantly tinted bright orange and blue, and then, as the heat grew intense, either totally incinerated or melted into a thick liquid sometimes three or four feet deep.” “Seventy percent of the Dresden dead either suffocated or died from poison gases that turned their bodies green and red. The intense heat melted some bodies into the pavement like bubblegum, or shrunk them into three-foot long charred carcasses. Clean- up crews wore rubber boots to wade through the ‘human soup’ found in nearby caves. In other cases, the superheated air propelled victims skyward only to come down in tiny pieces as far as fifteen miles outside Dresden.” Tokyo, Japan – 100,000
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Demilitarization of Japan Rise of communism in Eastern Europe Soviet Bloc Increase in weapons spending Cold War Decrease in colonialism Independence movements
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