WWII

1918 Onwards
(Week 9)
 Retrospect

• The instability created in Europe by the First World War (1914-18) set
the stage for another international conflict—World War II
• Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, rearmed the nation and signed
strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of
world domination. Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939
drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking
the beginning of World War II.
• Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy
more land and property around the globe than any previous war.
The rise to power of Adolf Hitler

• political and economic instability in Germany

• lingering resentment over the harsh terms imposed
by the Versailles Treaty
• After becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Hitler swiftly
consolidated power, anointing himself Führer (supreme leader) in
1934
• superiority of the “pure” German race, which he called “Aryan,”
• Hitler believed that war was the only way to gain the necessary
“Lebensraum,” or living space, for the German race to expand.
The rise to power of Adolf Hitler
• In the mid-1930s, he secretly began the rearmament of Germany, a
violation of the Versailles Treaty.
• After signing alliances with Italy and Japan against the Soviet Union,
Hitler sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 and the following year
annexed Czechoslovakia.
• Hitler’s open aggression went unchecked, as the United States and
Soviet Union were concentrated on internal politics at the time, and
neither France nor Britain (the two other nations most devastated by
the Great War) were eager for confrontation.
G erm a n -S oviet N on a g g ression P a ct
• In late August 1939, Hitler and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signed the
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which incited a frenzy of worry in
London and Paris.
• Hitler had long planned an invasion of Poland, a nation to which Great
Britain and France had guaranteed military support if it were attacked by
Germany.
• The pact with Stalin meant that Hitler would not face a war on two fronts
once he invaded Poland, and would have Soviet assistance in conquering
and dividing the nation itself.
• On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later,
France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II.
 The five pha ses
• The Phoney War (September 1939‒April 1940)
• Blitzkreig (April 1940‒June 1940)
• Britain alone (July 1940‒June 1941)
• The tide turns (1941‒1943)
• Victory (1943‒1945)
The Phony War (September 1939‒April 1940)

• The Phony War was a name for the months after Poland was
defeated in September 1939 and before France was invaded in May
1940
• The first six months of the war became known as the 'Phony War'
because there was almost no fighting and no bombs were dropped.
This gave the government more time to protect Britain from an
attack.
• no land operations were undertaken by the Allies or the Germans
after the German conquest of Poland in September 1939.
• no fighting occurred between Nazi Germany and Britain or France.
The Phony War (September 1939‒April 1940)

• Hitler conquered Poland. There was no other major activity on land,

although there were actions at sea. Historians believe that this period
saw very little action as all countries involved were biding their time
and waiting for the other to make the first move.
• ery little of military significance happened that was noticeable.
However, all countries were developing their military bases and new
technologies.
B litzkreig (April 1 9 4 0 ‒ J u n e 1 9 4 0 )
• blitzkrieg, (German: “lightning war”) military tactic calculated to
create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy
forces through the employment of surprise, speed, and superiority in
matériel or firepower.
• German Military tactic for quick success on The Battle Fields in 1939,
1940 and early 1941. The Tactic is to use mobile forces such as tanks
and armored cars to advance as quickly as possible
• On June 14, 1940, Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-
accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being
imposed for 8 p.m. that evening as German troops enter and occupy
Paris.
B litzkreig (April 1 9 4 0 ‒ J u n e 1 9 4 0 )
• Bombing (strategic locations)
• Dive bombers (low flying planes that shot at civilians)
• Tanks.
• Troops.
• In Poland in 1939 and in Western Europe in 1940 and Belgium, the
Netherlands, and France in 1940 the German army defeated its
enemies quickly. This tactic worked immensely well and was almost
completely successful.
B litzkreig (April 1 9 4 0 ‒ J u n e 1 9 4 0 )
• The Nazis conquered Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France.
The British Expeditionary Force was trapped at Dunkirk, but managed
to withdraw by sea back to Britain.
• On 4th June, 1940, Winston Churchill delivered one of the most
famous speeches of all time to the House of Commons in
Westminster. In it, he warned about the possibility of a German
invasion of Britain and said to the inspiration of many: 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 on the
fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never
surrender.
B rita in a lon e (J u ly 1 9 4 0 ‒ J u n e 1 9 4 1 )
• Britain did not stand alone for two years during the second world war.
It fought through the war together with troops from the empire,
including 2.5 million from India alone – the largest volunteer army in
history.
• Britain withstood the German Airforce (July‒September 1940).
• Britain was alone, and in great danger of losing the war.
B rita in a lon e (J u ly 1 9 4 0 ‒ J u n e 1 9 4 1 )
• The Luftwaffe bombed London for 76 nights running (the Blitz), then
other cities such as Coventry. People took cover in air raid shelters;
some were made of corrugated iron in gardens; others were located
inside train stations and tunnels.
• The British were driven out of Greece and most of North Africa.
• The British ran out of money, and had to sign the Lend-Lease
Agreement with America (America sold arms to Britain, to be paid
back after the war).
The tide tu rn s (1 9 4 1 ‒ 1 9 4 3 )
• In June 1941, Hitler invaded Russia, known as Operation Barbarossa. This
brought Russia back into the war, this time against Germany. The failure of
Operation Barbarossa was the first major German defeat.
• In December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This brought
America into the war.
• As a result the Allies gradually began to win the war:
• In June 1942 the Americans defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Midway.
• In November 1942 the British won the Battle of El-Alamein in Egypt.
• In January 1943 the Russians defeated the Nazis at the Battle of Stalingrad.
V ictory (1 9 4 3 ‒ 1 9 4 5 )
• In 1944, the Nazis launched V-1 rockets, known as doodlebugs, which fell
randomly in southern Britain.
• After D-Day on 6 June 1944, Germany was gradually driven back in Western
Europe by the British, Americans and their allies.
• The Americans and British continued the strategic bombing campaign on
German cities.
• The Russians advanced in Eastern Europe and in April they reached Berlin.
Hitler committed suicide.
• Germany surrendered and war came to an end in Europe shortly afterwards
and VE Day was announced on 8 May 1945.
• On 6 August 1945, the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima,
and again on Nagasaki on 9 August. Within weeks Japan surrendered, and
VJ Day was announced 15 August 1945.
Holoca u st
• Holocaust—came to fruition under the cover of World War II, with
mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of
occupied Poland. Approximately six million Jews and some 5 million
others, targeted for racial, political, ideological and behavioral
reasons, died in the Holocaust. More than one million of those who
perished were children.
• Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators
systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-
occupied Europe
Holoca u st
 Holoca u st
• Concentration camps
• The Nazis set up huge prisons called concentration camps - where prisoners
were starved, often tortured those who the Nazis felt were a threat.
• starvation and diseases were very real dangers.
• When in 1945 British troops entered the concentration camp at Bergen-
Belsen in Germany, they found 60,000 starving survivors and many
thousands of unburied dead bodies.
• Extermination camps
• In 1942 the Nazis set up six extermination camps in Poland which used
specially-built poison gas chambers to kill people.
Adolf Hitler com m its su icide
• On April 30, 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in
Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule
and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany
unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces
C a u ses of WWII
• The major causes of World War II were numerous;
• Impact of the Treaty of Versailles following WWI
• the worldwide economic depression
• failure of appeasement
• the rise of militarism in Germany and Japan
• the failure of the League of Nations.
C a u ses of WWII
• Germany invaded Poland.
• Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on
September 3.
• The war between the U.S.S.R. and Germany began on June 22, 1941,
with Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
• The war in the Pacific began on December 7/8, 1941, when Japan
attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor and other
American, Dutch, and British military installations throughout Asia.
M a jor Actors
• The main combatants were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and
Japan)
• Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and,
to a lesser extent, China)
Im plica tion s of WWII
• World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history in terms of total
dead
• 75 million people casualties including military and civilians
• around 3% of the world's population at the time.
• Many civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-
bombings, disease, and starvation.
• having poorer health later in life
• much of the European industrial infrastructure had been destroyed.
• Homelessness
• the war secured America's position as a major global supplier of branded
and consumer goods