1. importance of geographic factors.
Start of WWII Lecture 2
Identify and locate the Allied and Axis powers on a map and discuss the major
turning points of the war, the principal theaters of conflict, key strategic decisions,
and the resulting war conferences and political resolutions, with emphasis on the
importance of geographic factors.
Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the European
Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the Holocaust that resulted in the murder of six million Jewish civilians.

2. What You Will learn Axis battle strategy Vichy France
German Invasion of the USSR
Lend Lease Act 1941
Pearl Harbor

3. Invasion of Poland Sept. 1, 1939
Hitler unleashes his blitzkrieg, lightening war
He used all of his best technology
Tanks, dive bombers

4. Luftwaffe, or German Air Force bombed out factories, towns
Fast tanks and troops pushed into Poland
Stalin attacked poor Poland from the east while Hitler attacked from the west
By October Poland did not exist
Stalin took Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

5. Dunkirk 1940 Hitler launched a blitzkrieg against Denmark and Norway
Then Hitler attacked Belgium
British sent naval vessels over to pick off stranded troops of the cost
More than 300,000 troops were saved

6. France Falls Is this a surprise to France?
June 22,1940 France surrendered to Germany
Germans set up a “puppet state” in Vichy
Charles de Gaulle went to England

7. “Peace in our time.”

8. London Under Attack With France occupied Britain stood alone
Winston Churchill replace Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister
Sept. 7, 1940 Germany launches the Blitz
For a month the Royal Air Force battled the Luftwaffe
“Never had so few done so much for so many”

10. Battle Of Britain Winston Churchill new leader of GB
Germany tries to take over GB
August 1940 to June of 1941 German planes bomb ports, industries, and cities
Most people escaped to the north
Those who remain in London slept in the subways
GB asked for Americans help

12. Royal Air Force
“ Never was so much owed by so many to so few”. Winston Churchill
Aided by radar
2300 German planes downed Vs.
900 British planes downed
Instead of storming the British beaches the Germans instead attack Russia

14. Now Britain Is All Alone!

15. Germany Invades Soviet Union
Honeymoon is over
June 1941 Operation Barbarossa
Why: raw materials for war
And: to crush communism
Unleashed Blitzkrieg on USSR

16. Operation Barbarossa Human cost Soviets lost 2 ½ million soldiers
Hitler men’s froze in December to death
Thousands of German soldiers died

17. Leningrad Sept. 1941 a 2 ½ year siege began
Food was rationed to two pieces of bread a day
Leningrad residents ate anything they could
1 million Leningraders died during the siege

19. By the time the U.S. entered WWII Germany controlled all of western Europe and N. Africa, Except Great Britain.

20. Japanese Brutality Japan controlled Asia and Pacific
Goal: Japanese empire in Asia
Conquered people suffered
Tortured, killed civilians
Destroyed cities, towns and villages
Made locals into slaves

21. Japan v. U.S Japan wants raw materials in Southeast Asia
Wanted OIL, rubber and tin
U.S banned sale of iron, steel and OIL to Japan
Japan saw this as an attempt to stop them and their goal of an empire
Talks led to growing tension

22. American Involvement Lend – Lease Act 1941
Allowed FDR to sell or lend war materials to any country “whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States

23. Lend-Lease

24. U. S. Lend-Lease Act, 1941
Great Britain $31 billion Soviet Union $11 billion France $ 3 billion China $1.5 billion Other European $500 million South America $400 million The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000

25. U.S. enters the war U.S. stop’s trading with Japan
Japan needs natural resources
Imperialism
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor

26. A date which will live in infamy!
Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941
A date which will live in infamy!

27. Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941 Big mistake = to Hitler invading the USSR
Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941
Results
2,500 dead
8 battleships severely damaged
6 cruisers destroyed
288 planes damaged or destroyed
US Declares War on Japan
Germany and Italy declare war on US

28. USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor

30. President Roosevelt Signs the US Declaration of War

31. The North Africa Campaign: The Battle of El Alamein, 1942
Gen. Ernst Rommel, The “Desert Fox”
Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery (“Monty”)

32. Africa
Mussolini attacks Libya into Egypt, British military stops the Italians
Hitler then sends in General Rommel “Desert Fox” pushed the British back into Egypt