World War II The Years of Axis Triumph

1939 through 1942

1. Hitler Invades Poland

2. Hitler Invades France

3. Great Britain Stands Alone

4. Hitler Invades Russia

Interactive Historical MapsEurope 1919-1935

Essential Question

To what extent was the world already at war in

1939?

Map ApplicationWrite this Map Key on Side 1:

Axis Powers: Shade Color _____

Allied Powers:Shade Color _____

Neutral Nations: Shade Color_____

Occupied by Hitler: Xs

List Dates of Occupation by the Axis 1942

Battle Sites: Axis Offensives: Color Arrow ______

Allied Offensives: Color Arrow _____

Attack on Poland, Sept 1 1939 Blitzkrieg Strategy

Lightening Warfare Swift Attacks with tanks,

artillery, planes Practiced in Rhine Land,

Soviet Area and Spanish Civil War

Norway, Poland, France Poland Surrenders in 1

Month Film USHMM Film Polish Refug

ees On Map:

Xs on Poland, List Poland Occupied 1939, Arrow for Axis Offensive into Poland

Poland Cavalry vs German Armored Divisions

Germany’s: 6 Armored 4 Motorized Divisions, 1600 AircraftVSPoland's: 1 Armored and 1 Motorized Brigade, 935 planes

Phony War 1939-1940

1939 - 1940 WinterVery little

warfare7 month calm

Stockpiling Resources

Wait and See

France’sMaginot Line

Maginot Line Website

Map: Axis Offensive

1940 Fall of France April Germany attacks

Norway and Denmark Iron ore supplies

Invade Belgium and Netherlands instead of France

6 Weeks for France to Fall Hitler went around the

Maginot Line Pessimism military and

politics WWI Style Fighting Supposedly most advanced

army after WWI

Hitler’s Invades FranceBBC Film

Battle of France May 10, 1940 Germans fight their way west

through France East into the Netherlands West through Belgium

Allied counterattacks Failed Brits get separated from the

French on May 20 Germans trap Brits and French Hitler paused outside of

Dunkirk May 24 (Mao Battle) General Lord Gort

Evacuate Brits May 25-28

Hitler in Paris

Vichy France vs Free France Marshal Petain: Vichy

Won Battle of Verdun WWI Pull France from WWII Authoritarian govt in South

while Germans occupied the north

French resistance called Marquis

Charles de Gaulle: Free France General who ran away to

London, founded “Free French” force

French Army in Colonies Vichy reacts by collaborating

with Germans

Great Britain during WWII“blood, toil, tears, and sweat” Hitler’s Misjudgment Brits would make peace

with Germany after France fell

Brits similar to Aryans

Winston Churchill Early Critic of Appeasement Inspirational Refused to Surrender

Battle of Britain 1940 Map: GB Ally, Battle of

Britain in London, Axis offensive to London

Churchill’s Quotations “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it” “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of

government except all the others that have been” “The price of greatness is responsibility” “Those who can win a war well can rarely make a

good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war”

“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour!”

The Battle of Britain“The War in the Air”July to Sept.

1940Newsreel during Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain July-Sept 1940Germans

Planed to destroy Britain with bombs then invadeGerman Luftwaffe more planes and pilotsLed by drug addict Hermann Goring (morphine)Goring decides to change targets from airbases to cities

Backfires and gives Brit RAF time to recoverHitler turns from Brits in 1940 to invade USSRGoring was wealthy, important leader in Nazi military

BritishBritish spitfires and hurricanes were better planesBrits had RADARBrits manage to get to Berlin and bomb it

BattleDogfights, not one sided, int volunteers into the RAF

Aircraft Technology

Wright Brothers 1903 Fighters, bombers,

transports, jet aircraft by 1945 Boeing, Lockheed, Bell

Trend Powerful engines More armor More weapons Larger fuel tanks

More Info: http://www.acepilots.com/

planes/main.html

Von Hindenburg fire/crash May 6, 193797 people on board, 62 got out alive. There were 36 dead: 13 passengers, 22 aircrew, and one American ground crewman.

Visuals of the War in the Air

USSR and Germany Compete for Territory in Eastern Europe

Territory + USSR 1940: 1/2 of Poland Finland, Estonia, Latvia,

Lithuania Germany + Territory

1941: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece

Why were these areas important strategically?

Map?

Hitler’s Invasion of USSR Why invade? Soviet Nonaggression Pact

1939 (2000 mile border) Plan 8 weeks spring invasion Had to delay because of Greece

and Italy June 29, 1941 3 Million Men

invade Same obstacles of Nappy Almost got to Moscow Dec 41

Leningrad, (Petrograd), Sept. 8 1941-January 1944

Stalingrad August April 1942-January 1943 Stalemate Map?

USSR vs Axis

Turning Points

What were the turning points of 1939-1941 in Europe?Fall of FranceBattle of BritainInvasion of USSR

and Moscow counter attack

World War II Europe

Synthesizing WWII in Europe 1939-1941 Axis Triumph

To what extent and with what strategies was Hitler successful from 1939 to 1941 in Europe?

Discuss Bell Ringer 1.11.11

1. List three reasons 1942 was a turning point.

2. List two specific government actions on the homefront during WWII.

3. EC: Which country was invaded by the Allies first, Italy or France?

During WWII, what were the turning points between 39-42?

Invasion of Poland 1939Which moment and for which side?

Fall of France 1939Which moment and for which side?

Battle of Britain 1940Which moment and for which side?

Invasion of USSR, 1941Which moment and for which side?

Pearl Harbor 1941Which moment and for which side?

Battle of Alemain“There never was a victory before it, nor a defeat after it.

Year of the Turning Point: 1942

1. USSR Reacts to Invasion

2. Battle in the Atlantic

3. Battle of Alemain

USSR Survives 1942

Scorched Earth Policy Army moved factories Burned everything Guerilla Units industrial

and transportation sites

Hitler stays in Stalingrad loosing .5 million in 3 months

Arial Attacks on Germany

Why did the Allies wait to invade Europe until 1944?

Instead 1941-1944 Great Britain bombs German Cities

Why bomb cities instead of military targets?

Battle in the Atlantic 1942

Why was the Atlantic important strategically? Mobilization of 12 million US

soldiers and supplies to Europe

Submarine Warfare GB lost 18 months GB lost 1/3 of

prewar merchant tonnage Late 1942 radar ad escorts

destroyed 41 German submarines

USA could make boats faster than Germany could destroy them

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Battle of Alamein

Years of Allied Advance: 1943-1945

1. Homefront at War

2. Invasion of France

3. Invasion of Italy

4. Closing in on Germany

The Holocaust

What were the aims of the Nazis in the Final Solution?

What were the methods the Nazi’s used for the Final Solution?

Who perished in the Final Solution? Jewish People 6 million (2 of every 3 in Europe) millions of ‘racially inferior’ (Gypsies, Poles, Slavic

people, disable, communists, socialists, jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, mentally retarded individuals, Soviet POWS)

Homefront

How did governments coordinate resources and effort during the war? Draft Price Controls Mandatory work Women in factories and farms Compulsory savings Control over Factories Centrally Planned Economies and

close work between business and government

22 million Soviets conscripted

Axis struggles to Coordinate Strategy

Mussolini North Africa and Greece (Hitler did not know)

Japan Pearl Harbor (Hitler did not know)

Hitler USSR (Japan did not know)

Hitler’s Strategic Blunders

Delaying USSR InvasionChoosing Stalingrad over MoscowNorth Africa El AlameinPearl Harbor

Invasion of Italy

Why invade Italy first?Sicily July 1943Italy surrenders in

Sept ‘43Mussolini arrested

German Puppet StateSlows invasion until

1945

Invasion of France Stalin Frustrated at Delays of

‘second front’ June 6th 1944 D-Day

Operation Overload Normandy Million Men

Saturation Bombing Last German Attempt

Jet Aircraft Robot Flying bombs 1 ton warheads

April 30, 1945 Hitler and Mistress suicide

May 6, 1945 Germany Surrenders

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Why did the Allies win WWII in Europe?

Supply lines protected Suez Canal and Atlantic OceanLend Lease to USSR and Great Britain

Vichy France Weakness in North Africa

Homefront Mobilization and ProductionGerman invasion of USSRTank Strategies during battle

World War II Images