WORLD WAR I I

HIS 121Part II

Italy

Remained neutral during Hitler’s attacks in Europe until late 1940

September 1940 – attacked EgyptOctober 1940 – attacked GreeceBritish pushed the Italians out of Egypt Greeks pushed the Italians out of GreeceHitler was unaware of Mussolini’s plans

showing an uncoordinated effortHitler 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 islandsFew raw materialsAttacked China in 1931 mostly for economic

reasons, but also because of their increased militarism

Japan wanted more control of the Asian tradeTheir 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 notThe 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 runGermans surrendered North Africa in May 1943Hitler then ordered the total occupation of

FranceIn 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 killedOf those 12 million, 6 million were Jews

Victims & Crematory

Shoes

Defeat

Italy was the first to fall in September 1943Germany surrendered in May 1945 and only

after D-Day 6 June 1944Operation 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 1945He left Admiral Karl Doenitz in charge; he

surrendered in early May 1945The 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