World War 2 Notes

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Chapter 4

• World War 2 Notes

2
Causes of the Second World War
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Pan-Germanism

• Pan-Germanists wanted to unify the
  German-speaking populations of Europe in a single
  nation-state known as Großdeutschland (Greater
  Germany).
• In 1891,Pan-German League was formed,and adopted
  openly ethnocentric and racist ideologies, and
  ultimately gave rise to the Heim ins Reich policy
  pursued by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler from
  1938, one of the primary factors leading to the
  outbreak of World War II

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Hitler

• Hitler's Rearmament rally, 1935
• It broke the Treaty of Versailles
• It started a rearmament race
• It divided the nations opposing Germany.
• The Remilitarization of the Rhineland, 1936
• It was the first military action by Hitler and it
  was successful
• France lost the opportunity to stop Hitler once
  and for all.

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What were Hitlers foreign policy objectives?

• Establish Germany as the dominant power in Europe
• Expand Germany, and obtain new territory through
  conquest
• Obtain rich agricultural land by expanding into
  eastern Europe

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The Treaty of Versailles solved nothing

•  
• Reparations left many people in the victorious
  nations feeling guilty.  
• The loss of all that land to other countries
  simply made Hitler's early aggression look
  justified.  
• Self-determination surrounded Germany by a lot of
  small nation states that fell easy prey to
  Germany.  
• Most of all, the Treaty made the Germans angry,
  just waiting their chance for revenge

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The League of Nations failed to keep the peace

• The League of Nations failed to keep the peace  
  
• It was weak from the beginning, and had
  spectacular failures in Manchuria and Abyssinia,
  and it failed to prevent Hitler breaking the
  Treaty of Versailles.  
• It failed to achieve disarmament, which resulted
  in an arms race.  
• Countries left the failing League, and realized
  that they would have to fight a war.
• Britain and France abandoned collective security,
  and turned instead to appeasement

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Appeasement encouraged aggression

•   
• Appeasement encouraged war.   It made Hitler
  think no one dare stop him, which encouraged him
  to go further and further until in the end he
  went too far.  
• The Sudetenland led Stalin to make the
  Nazi-Soviet Pact, because he believed he could
  not trust Britain.

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APPEASEMENT

• - the policy of making concessions to satisfy the
  demands of Nazi Germany prior to World War II

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Questions to Consider

• League of Nations was an organization formed
  after WW1 To keep World Peace.
• Why did Hitler decide to violate the Treaty of
  Versailles?
• 1. To establish Germany as the dominant power in
  Europe.
• 2. Felt the Treaty of Versailles was humiliating
  and designed to keep Germany weak.

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Important Terms to Know
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Aryan

• Aryan- a term used by Hitler to describe
  non-Jewish people, especially those of Nordic
  heritage. Hitler saw these people as a Master
  Race

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Anschluss.

• The union of Germany and Austria . Hitler wanted
  it for two reasons
• 1)an important military advantage-much stronger
  military due to combining both countries
• 2) So that Hitler and his fellow Austrians would
  be officially German.
• LEBENSRAUM- living space
• BENITO MUSSOLINI- the dictator of Italy

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SUDETENLAND

• German speaking part of Czechoslovakia. Hitler
  decided to take over this area by attacking
  Czechoslovakia.

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MUNICH CONFERENCE-

• at this conference in 1938 Hitler,
  Chamberlain(Britain), Daladier(France), and
  Mussolini(Italy) signed the Munich Pact, giving
  Germany the Sudetenland.
• Germany agreed not to make any more territorial
  demands. Czechoslovakia was not even at the
  conference, and had no say in the matter!
• Following the Munich Conference, Chamberlain
  returned to England and said I believe it is
  peace for our time.
• What were Hitlers foreign policy objectives?

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Munich Conference Source

• British Prime Minister Chamberlain, landing at
  Heston aerodrome on 30 September 1938 after his
  meeting with Hitler at Munich. In his hand he
  holds the peace agreement between Britain and
  Germany.

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Nazi-Soviet Pact

• August, 1939 agreement between Germany and Soviet
  Union where each promised not to wage war against
  the other. Secretly they agreed to divide Poland
  when Germany conquered it.
• this agreement also called the non-aggression
  pact shocked the world
• this agreement meant that Germany would not have
  to fight a two front war.
• in essence it only delayed the inevitable clash
  between these bitter enemies

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Questions to Consider

• Activity Examine the picture on page 104 of your
  textbook and answer the following questions.
• 1. What does the cartoon suggest about the
  nature of the Nazi- Soviet Pact?
• 2. What does the corpse represent?

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The War Begins

• WWII 1939-1945

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Important Terms

• Blitzkrieg German term for lightning war. The
  use of swift massive strikes from the air coupled
  with rapid tank invasions on the ground.
• Phoney War period of time from Oct. 1939 to
  April 1940 when there was a lull in
  fighting.Maginot Line elaborate set of
  defensive fortifications, built by the French,
  along the French German border.
• Kamikazes The suicide missions of Japanese air
  force pilots who crashed their aircraft into
  enemy targets during World War II.

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The Alliances of WWII

The Allied PowersThe United StatesThe Soviet
UnionBritain France The Axis
PowersGermanyItalyJapan
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Allied Powers
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Central Powers
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Alliance System
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USA Isolationist
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German Successes Early in WWII- Hitler Seemed
Unstoppable!

• Poland was pleased to learn that France and
  Britain would help defend Poland against German
  attack. Germany could now be defeated. Within 4
  weeks Poland was crushed at the cost of just 8000
  German dead. The British and French had hardly
  fired a shot.
• What had happened? The answer is Blitzkrieg. The
  principle behind this strategy was that the best
  way to defeat an enemy is to throw a massive
  assault against the enemys weakest point and cut
  them off from all supplies and communication.

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Blitzkrieg was achieved

• 1st enemy headquarters and communications were
  bombed by artillery and bombers. Parachutists
  dropped behind enemy lines to cause panic.
• 2nd tanks and infantry punch a hole in the
  weakest part of the enemy frontline encircling
  enemy strong points.
• 3rd troops following up cut the enemy off from
  reinforcements thus forcing surrender.

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Key Events in WWII

• Dunkirk Evacuation
• Battle of Britain
• Operation Barbarossa
• Dieppe
• Battle of El Alamein
• Battle of Stalingrad
• Battle of the Atlantic
• Pearl Harbour
• Battles of Midway and Coral Sea
• The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Normandy invasion (D-Day)

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The Fall of France and the Miracle at Dunkirk

• In World War II, France fell to Germany in just
  over a month. Hitler penetrated through the
  Ardennes Forest (the weakest area in the Maginot
  Line) and divided the troops, and pushed them to
  the sea and the beaches of Dunkirk.
• This was a severe blow to the Allies because now
  all of continental western Europe was under
  Hitlers control
• In 1940 the Germans forced British and French
  troops to retreat to the west, and pinned them
  down on the beaches at Dunkirk in northern
  France.
• If Hitler had gone in right away, he could have
  won a terrific victory. However, as he tried to
  decide if the army or air force should have the
  final honour, thousands or ordinary citizens and
  the British Navy rescued the Allied troops on the
  beaches. Their efforts resulted in the rescue of
  330 000 troops. Now that Hitler has France, he
  turned his attention to the invasion plans for
  Britain.

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Operation Sea Lion- German invasion plan for
Britain
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Luftwaffe- the German Air Force
32
The Battle of BritainIn the summer of 1940,
Hitler dominated Europe his one remaining active
enemyBritainThe new prime minister, Winston
Churchillvowed to continue fighting. The
British army had left most of its weapons on the
beaches of Dunkirk. The Germans hoped to defeat
the British by starving them out. In June 1940
they undertook the Battle of the Atlantic, using
submarine warfare to cut the British overseas
lifelines. Invasion was the quick way to finish
off Britain, but that meant crossing the English
Channel Hitler would not risk it unless the
British air force could be neutralized
first.The Battle of Britain was fought in the
air, not on the beaches. In August 1940 the
Germans launched daylight raids against ports and
airfields and in September against inland cities.
The objective was to draw out the British
fighters and destroy them.
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The Battle of BritainThe Germans failed to
reckon with a new device, radar, which greatly
increased the British fighters' effectiveness.
Germans losses were so high they had to switch
to night bombing at the end of September. Between
then and May 1941 they made 71 major raids on
London and 56 on other citiesThe damage wrought
from these attacks was too indiscriminate to be
militarily decisive. On September 17, 1940,
Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely,
thereby conceding defeat in the Battle of
Britain. So Hitler turned his attention east to
Russia.
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Invasion of Russia

• On June 22, 1941 Hitler invaded Russia in
  Operation Barbarossa. This was possibly his
  biggest mistake of WWII.
• It split his troops, who now had to fight on two
  fronts (East against the USSR and West against
  Britain)
• Hitler had signed an agreement with Russia, but
  in truth he hated communism and needed Russias
  oil and wheat.
• The cold Russian winters and fierce Russian
  resistance took its toll on German troops. Over
  250 000 would die on the Eastern front.

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Operation Barbarossa

• Germany invaded the USSR on June 22, 1941,with
  more than 3 million troops. The Soviet army had
  2.9 million troops on the western border and
  outnumbered the Germans by two to one in tanks
  and by two or three to one in aircraft.
• German Success Hitler and his generals had agreed
  that their main problem was to lock the Soviet
  army in battle and defeat it before it could
  escape into the depths of the country. To Hitler,
  the land and resources of the Ukraine and the oil
  of the Caucasus were most important.
• German plans indicated a victory in about ten
  weeks, which was significant because the Russian
  summer was the ideal time for fighting in the
  USSR.
• By the end of the first week in July Germany had
  290,000 prisoners and by August 5, having crossed
  the Dnieper River, the last natural barrier west
  of Moscow they had another 300,000 Russian
  prisoners. On reaching Smolensk, the German army
  had covered more than two-thirds of the distance
  to Moscow.

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Battle of StalingradOn July 28 Stalin issued
his most famous order of the war, Not a step
back! While threatening severe punishment for
defeatists, he called on the troops to fight a
patriotic war for Russia. In late August he
called on his two best Generals Vasilyevsky and
Zhuchov to deal with the situation at Stalingrad.
They proposed to wear the enemy down by locking
its troops in a bloody fight for the city while
they assembled the means for a counterattack.
The German advances to Stalingrad and into the
Caucasus had added about 1100 km to their line.
No German troops were available to hold that
extra distance, so Hitler had to use troops
contributed by his allies Romania, Italy and a
Hungary Serious weaknesses existed in these
armies.
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Battle of StalingradOn the morning of November
19, in snow and fog, Soviet army hit the
Romanians west and south of Stalingrad. Within
three days the Soviets had encircled most of the
German Sixth Army, about half of the Fourth
Panzer Army, and a number of Romanian units.
Hitler ordered the Sixth Army to hold the
pocket and promised air support which never
arrived. The Sixth Army was doomed if it did not
attempt a breakout, which Hitler refused to
permit. The Russians pushed in on the pocket from
three sides in January 1943, and the head of the
Sixth army General Paulus surrendered on January
31. The battle cost Germany about 200,000
troops. In the aftermath of Stalingrad the
Germans were forced to retreat from the Caucasus
and back approximately to the line from which
they had started the 1942 summer offensive.
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The Pacific Conflict

• The United States and Japan

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Japanese invasion of Manchuria

• In 1931, the Japanese alleged that Chinese
  saboteurs had threatened to blow up the south
  Manchurian railway, so they moved into Manchurian
  on the pretext of guarding the railway. They were
  really there because Manchurian had an abundance
  of minerals and timber, resources which Japan
  wanted.
• China appealed to the league of nations for help
  and the league recommended that Japan withdraw
  from Manchuria instead Japan withdrew from the
  league.
• In 1937 Japan launched an all-out attack against
  Beijing, Shanghai, Nanking, and many coastal
  areas, the LON condemns Japan but takes no
  action.
• Japan signs the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi
  Germany in 1936, the two countries agree to
  co-operate against the world communist movement
  led by Stalin and the USSR (the USSR is now
  threatened on 2 fronts)

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China
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The U.S is still not in the war, but trying to
reign in Japan.
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What steps did the US take against Japan in
1930-40?

• 1) announced its intention to cancel its
  commercial treaty with Japan, which would now
  allow the US to impose trade restrictions against
  Japan.
• 2) issued repeated warnings to Japan against
  further aggression,
• 3) imposed an embargo (stoppage) on aviation
  fuel, petroleum, steel, iron, and industrial
  machinery.
• 4) froze all Japanese assets in the US.

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How did Japan respond?

• Events in Europe in 1939 (Hitler!)created new
  opportunities the focus was not on what Japan
  was doing, but on Hitler.
• Japan occupied the northern part of French
  Indochina in 1940, now posing a direct threat to
  the British naval base in Singapore, and the vast
  oil supplies in the Dutch East Indies.
• The US reinforced warnings to Japan, requesting
  that they withdraw from all territories taken.
  The Pacific Fleet was stationed in Pearl Harbour.
• The Japanese refused to buckle to US pressure and
  announced a new foreign policy called the Greater
  East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere (designed to
  eliminate Western influence in Asia)
• They attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941.
  During this attack, 2400 military and civilians
  were killed, 19 ships were destroyed or disabled
  and 150 planes were lost. This event brought the
  United States into World War II.

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Attack on Pearl Harbour

• The Japanese knew that they needed a quick and
  decisive victory over the US because they would
  lose in a long war due to Americas industrial
  powerhouse.
• The plan was to attack Pearl Harbour because by
  eliminating this naval fleet Japan would have the
  supremacy in the western Pacific Ocean.
• The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in a surprise
  attack on December 7, 1941.
• 2400 military and civilians were killed, 19 ships
  were destroyed or disabled and 150 planes were
  lost. This event brought the United States into
  World War II.
• Japans early successes in the Pacific were short
  lived. Within a yea almost all US vessels were
  back in service in action against the Japanese.

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Attack of Pearl Harbor
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Battle of the Atlantic

• The Battle of the Atlantic was Canada's longest
  military engagement of the Second World War,
  lasting from September 1939 to May 1945. This
  battle was fought by the men and women of the
  Canadian Merchant Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy
  and the Royal Canadian Air Force. More than 4,600
  courageous service men and women lost their lives
  at sea.

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Battle of the Atlantic

• The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest
  continuous military campaign in World War II,
  running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in
  1945. The convoys, coming mainly from North
  America and predominantly going to the United
  Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for
  the most part by the British and Canadian navies
  and air forces.

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Battle of the Atlantic

• At its core was the Allied naval blockade of
  Germany, announced the day after the declaration
  of war, and Germany's subsequent
  counter-blockade.
• The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and
  other warships of the Kriegsmarine (German navy)
  and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)
  against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, and
  Allied merchant shipping.

52
Battle of the Atlantic

• As an island nation, the United Kingdom was
  highly dependent on imported goods. Britain
  required more than a million tons of imported
  material per week in order to be able to survive
  and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic
  was a tonnage war the Allied struggle to supply
  Britain and the Axis attempt to stem the flow of
  merchant shipping that enabled Britain to keep
  fighting.

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Dieppe

• this was a massive Allied attack on the Germans
  at the French coastal resort on August 19, 1942.
• It was an incredible disaster for the Allies,
  especially for the Canadians.
• They were dumped onto the open beaches, where
  they were easily picked off by well-hidden
  Germans.
• Tanks bogged down in the stony beach, and sea and
  air support was insufficient.
• 5000 Canadians landed at Dieppe 900 were killed,
  1000 were wounded, and 1900 were taken prisoner.

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Battle of El AlameinItalian forces and the Nazi
Afrika Korps entered Egypt in a drive for the
Suez Canal in June 1942. The British 8th Army
held fast at El Alamein, about 60 miles southwest
of Alexandria. On October 23 British infantry
cut through the Axis lines in a bayonet charge
that opened the way for an armoured breakthrough.
The attack forced the Axis back 1,300 miles
across the desert.
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BATTLE OF CORAL SEA

• May 1942 off the coast of Australia.
• It was the first naval battle in World War II
  where the ships didnt even catch a glimpse of
  each other.
• American spy planes had observed a huge fleet of
  Japanese ships in the Coral Sea and ordered two
  of their carriers to intercept the fleet.
• Fierce fighting erupted, with losses on both
  sides. The Americans and Japanese withdrew from
  the Coral Sea at about the same time, but the
  Americans were starting to slow down the Japanese
  expansion.

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BATTLE OF CORAL SEA
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BATTLE OF MIDWAY

• Midway Island is in the central Pacific. The
  Japanese had decided to take over more islands,
  including Midway Island and islands off Alaska,
  in order to establish an outer defence line.
• The Battle of Midway was decisive naval battle of
  World War II that demonstrated that bombers from
  aircraft carriers, properly utilized, could
  defeat a superior surface force.
• This victory by the United States over Japan in
  June 1942 ended the Japanese advance in the
  Pacific Ocean.
• After Midway, the Japanese fleet withdrew, never
  again to regain the offensive.

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Midway
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Allied Bombing of Dresden A British and
American aerial bombing attack on the city of
Dresden, the capital of the German state of
Saxony. Germany would be forced to surrender
three months after these bombing raids.In four
raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy
bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and
527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)
dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive
bombs and incendiary devices on the city. The
bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed
over 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) of the city centre. An
estimated 22,700 to 25,000people were killed.
Three more USAAF air raids followed, two
occurring on 2 March aimed at the city's railroad
marshaling yard and one small raid on 17 April
aimed at industrial areas.
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Allied Bombing of DresdenImmediate German
propaganda claims following the attacks and
post-war discussions on whether the attacks were
justified .A 1953 United States Air Force
report defended the operation as the justified
bombing of a military and industrial target,
which they claimed was a major rail transport and
communication centre, housing 110 factories and
50,000 workers in support of the German war
effort. Critics of the bombing argue that
Dresden was a cultural landmark of little or no
military significance, and that the attacks were
indiscriminate area bombing and not proportionate
to the commensurate military gains.
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Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski

• By the time of the Trinity test (of the A-Bomb in
  Mexico) the Allied powers had already defeated
  Germany in Europe.
• Japan, however, vowed to fight to the bitter end
  in the Pacific, despite clear indications (as
  early as 1944) that they had little chance of
  winning. However, Japan had become even more
  deadly when faced with defeat, continuing to
  inflict massive causalities in the Pacific
  Conflict.
• In late July, Japans militarist government
  rejected the Allied demand for surrender put
  forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which
  threatened the Japanese with prompt and utter
  destruction if they refused.

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Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski

• General Douglas MacArthur and other top military
  commanders favored continuing the conventional
  bombing of Japan already in effect and following
  up with a massive invasion, codenamed Operation
  Downfall. They advised U.S President Truman that
  such an invasion would result in U.S. casualties
  of up to 1 million.
• In order to avoid such a high casualty rate,
  Truman decided use the atomic bomb in the hopes
  of bringing the war to a quick end.
• Proponents of the A-bombsuch as James Byrnes,
  Trumans secretary of statebelieved that its
  devastating power would not only end the war, but
  also put the U.S. in a dominant position to
  determine the course of the postwar world.

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American Involvement in WWII

• The US involvement in World War II covers the war
  against Japan, Germany and Italy starting with
  the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
• During the first two years, the US had maintained
  formal neutrality as made officially in the 1937
• Before formally entering the war the US supplied
  Britain, the Soviet Union, and China with war
  material through the Lend-Lease Act which was
  signed into law on 11 March 1941, as well as
  deploying the U.S. military to replace the
  British invasion forces in Iceland.

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American Involvement in WWII

• Economic sanction on Japan as part of the effort
  to deter Japanese military aggression in
  Asia-Pacific
• During the war, over 16 million Americans served
  in the United States Armed Forces, with 290,000
  killed in action and 670,000 wounded
• Before the US entered the war, the Imperial
  Japanese Navy had the advantage over the Allies
  in the Pacific taking the Philippines as well as
  British and Dutch possessions, and threatening
  Australia but the US entry in the war was pivotal
  to destroying this superiority.

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American Involvement in WWII

• June 1942, its main carriers were sunk during the
  Battle of Midway, and the Americans seized the
  initiative. The Pacific War became one of island
  hopping, so as to move air bases closer and
  closer to Japan.
• By 1944 Japan ran short of aviation gasoline and
  fuel oil. In June 1944 the US navy was within
  bombing range of the Japanese home islands.
  Strategic bombing directed by General Curtis
  Lemay destroyed all the major Japanese cities, as
  the U.S. captured Okinawa after heavy losses in
  spring 1945. With conventional and atomic bombs
  falling and an invasion imminent, Japan
  surrendered.

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American Involvement in WWII

• The war against Germany involved aid to Britain,
  her allies, and the Soviet Union, with the U.S.
  supplying munitions until it could ready an
  invasion force. U.S. forces were first tested to
  a limited degree in the North African Campaign
• The main invasion of France took place in June
  1944, under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Meanwhile,
  the Army Air Forces and RAF engaged in the area
  bombardment of German cities and systematically
  targeted German transportation links and
  synthetic oil plants, as it knocked out what was
  left of the Luftwaffe post Battle of Britain in
  1944. With the Soviets unstoppable in the east,
  and the Allies unstoppable in the west, Germany
  was squeezed to death. Berlin fell to the Soviets
  in May 1945, and with Hitler dead, the Germans
  surrendered.

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American Involvement in WWII

• The military effort was strongly supported by
  civilians on the home front, who provided the
  military personnel, the munitions, the money, and
  the morale to fight the war to victory. World War
  II cost the U.S an estimated 341 Billion in 1945
  dollars - equivalent to 74 of America's GDP and
  expenditures during the war. In 2015 dollars, the
  war cost over 4.5 Trillion.

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The Manhattan Project Even before the outbreak
of war in 1939, a group of American
scientistsmany of them refugees from fascist
regimes in Europebecame concerned with nuclear
weapons research being conducted in Nazi Germany.
In 1940, the U.S. government began funding its
own atomic weapons development program, which
came under the joint responsibility of the Office
of Scientific Research and Development and the
War Department after the U.S. entry into World
War II. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was
tasked with spearheading the construction of the
vast facilities necessary for the top-secret
program, codenamed The Manhattan Project Over
the next several years, the programs scientists
worked on producing the key materials for nuclear
fissionuranium-235 and plutonium (Pu-239). They
sent them to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a team
led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these
materials into a workable atomic bomb. Early on
the morning of July 16, 1945, the Manhattan
Project held its first successful test of an
atomic devicea plutonium bombat the Trinity
test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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Normandy Invasion/ D-DayOn June 6, 1944, D-Day,
the U.S. First Army and the British Second Army
established beachheads in Normandy, on the French
channel coast.The German resistance was strong,
and the footholds for Allied armies were not
nearly as good as they had expected.
Nevertheless, the powerful counterattack with
which Hitler had proposed to throw the Allies off
the beaches did not materialize, neither on D-Day
nor later. Enormous Allied air superiority over
northern France made it difficult for Rommel
(German commander), who was in command on the
scene, to move his limited reserves. Hitler
became convinced that the Normandy landings were
a feint and the main assault would come north of
the Seine River. He refused to release the
divisions he had there and insisted on drawing in
reinforcements from more distant areas. By the
end of June, Eisenhower had 850,000 men and
150,000 vehicles ashore in Normandy
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Important Wartime Conferences

• 1941- Off the coast of NL with Churchill and
  Roosevelt Created the Atlantic Charter, a
  declaration of war against fascism
• 1943- Cairo with Churchill, Roosevelt and Chinese
  Leaders to plot strategy against Japan
• Teheran- 1943 with Churchill, Roosevelt and
  Stalin to discuss the invasion of Europe, setting
  up the UN, and Russian help against Japan.
• Quebec 19431944- Churchill and Roosevelt
  Planned D-Day and naval war on Japan
• YALTA Feb 1945- Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin
  USSR pledged to join the war against Japan,
  agreement on UN, discussed plans for post-war
  Europe, including the occupation of Germany.
• POSTDAM July-Aug 1945- Churchill, Atlee, Stalin
  and Truman Details of German occupation and
  Polish borders

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Technology in WWII

• In WWII, Scientists joined military strategists
  to create a range of new weapons on both sides of
  the battle.
• Code Breaking science played a key role in
  breaking secret German and Japanese
  communications.
• The British were able to crack the German code in
  April 1940, during the Battle of Britain, and
  used this information to help the RAF. The US
  was able to break Japanese codes to help the navy
  locate and track the Japanese fleet.
• Enigma A polish mechanic in eastern Germany
  discovered that the plant was secretly
  manufacturing signalling machines for the German
  army. The man carefully observed the parts and
  turned the information over to the Allies. The
  was smuggled out to Britain where he re-created
  the machine from memory. A machine was later
  stolen from the factory and British scientists
  solved the puzzle and cracked the code.

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Technology in WWII

• Medical Technology- new improved drugs and
  medical treatments helped save the lives of 1 of
  2 wounded soldiers. In the Pacific, Malaria was
  a constant threat to the troops. The Allies were
  able to create a synthetic form of quinine
  (traditional cure for Malaria) and this treatment
  was critical to the success of the Allied troops
  in the Pacific.
• Radar used to detect the nature, position and
  movement of an object. This tech was developed
  in Britain, Germany and the US prior to the war
  but it was the British who made the most rapid
  progress, and this played a huge role in their
  success in the Battle of Britain.

76
Technology in WWII

• Rockets- this was the miracle invention, a
  pilotless monoplane that Hitler told the German
  people would save them as the Allies were clearly
  gaining the momentum in Europe. The first rocket
  the Vengeance carried an explosive warhead.
  These were fired at British cities beginning in
  1944. These V-1 rockets (known as buzz bombs sue
  to the sound they made) inflicted massive damage,
  but the more advanced V-2 flew at supersonic
  speed, with no warning. The Allies finally
  discovered where these were being made and
  destroyed the plant in 1943. By 1944, they were
  back in action. Had these been used earlier in
  the war they might have changes the course for
  the entire war.

77
Technology in WWII

• Jet Planes- Germany produced the first jet
  airplane in 1939, by 1941 they had produced a jet
  fighter plane. Jets could fly at high speeds and
  could have given Germany air superiority.
  However, However demanded that the plane be
  adapted for bombing, delaying production until
  1944. This invention was too late to play a
  significant role in the war. The Allies were
  developing their own jet plans and had them ready
  for fighting in Belgium in 1945.

78
Technology in WWII

• The Atomic Bomb- In 1939, Albert Einstein, a
  physicist who has emigrated from Germany to the
  US in 1933, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt
  telling him that German scientists were working
  on an atomic bomb capable of mass destruction.
• Roosevelt established The Manhattan Project to
  develop an atomic bomb for American troops.
  Robert Oppenheimer led the group of American
  scientists in successful development of this
  bomb. IN July 1945 it was tested in Mexico and
  ready for use.
• It was the ultimate weapon of destruction.

79
The Atrocities of WWII
80
Soviet Prisoners of War

• The German invasion of Russia, called Operation
  Barbarossa resulted in millions of prisoners of
  war as entire Soviet divisions were over-run by
  the Nazis.
• Nazi propaganda presented these soldiers as
  subhuman, and their defeat was evidence of their
  Slavic inferiority over German superiority.
• Captives were descried as untermensch (subhuman)
• Russian prisoners were routinely beaten, starved,
  and worked to death and murdered. By the end of
  the war 2.5 million Soviet prisoners of war had
  died.

81
The Katyn Forest Murders

• This forest located near the Polish city of
  Smolensk was the site of a grisly discovery in
  June 1941.
• The German army reported finding mass graves
  containing approx. 10,000 Polish officers. The
  Germans claimed this was a Soviet atrocity, and
  the Soviets blamed the Germans.
• An investigation in 1951-1952 charged the Soviets
  with the crime. Evidence indicates that when the
  Soviet Army occupied that part of Poland in
  1939-1941 they murdered Polish officers under
  Stalins orders, the exact reason for the massacre
  is uncertain, but it is possible that Stalin
  wanted their military and intellectual leaders
  eliminated in order to weaken Poland after the
  war.

82
Allied Bombing of Dresden

• The massive Allied bombing of Historic German
  city of Dresden on 13 February 1945 resulted in
  approx. 100 000 civilian deaths.
• The city was crowded with refugees, and was of
  little strategic value.
• The strategy behind it was likely to break German
  civilian morale.
• After the war many people questioned the morality
  of this decision.

83
Allied Prisoners in Asia

• Cultural difference partly explain Japans harsh
  treatment of civilian and military prisoners.
• The Japanese believed surrender was dishonorable,
  so those who did so were treated with contempt.
  Japanese soldiers themselves were expected to die
  rather than surrender kamikaze.
• The Japanese also wanted to dispel the myth of
  white superiority. IN the Philippines, 70 000
  soldiers were forced to march 100km in the
  blazing tropical sun with almost no food or
  water, only 54 000 survived. POWs were
  frequently used as slave labour, approximately
  13 000 POWs died in building the Burma-Siam
  Railway.

84
The Canadian Defense of Hong Kong

• In 1941, Japanese armies were routinely defeating
  Chinese forces. It looked like Hong Kong would
  be taken next.
• British leaders believed Hong Kong could not be
  defended, so refused to station additional troops
  there. In Sept 1941, Churchill asked Canada to
  provide the troops needed to increased Allied
  presence there.
• On Nov 16, two battalions (Quebec Royal Rifles
  and Winnipeg Grenadiers) arrived in Hong Kong on
  their first mission. In Dec, Japan attacked.
• Nearly 300 of the 2000 troops were killed and the
  rest sent to POW camps, where more than 260 died
  from malnutrition and disease.

85
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• On August 6, the US dropped the newly developed
  atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
• The impact was devastating! 80 000 people died
  instantly 100 000 people were injured and
  another 60 000 died within a year.
• Japan failed to surrender
• A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August
  9, killing another 40 000 people.

86
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• Truman justified the use of the A-bomb to end the
  war and save approximately a million American and
  Allied lives.
• Some believe the bombings were carried out for
  political rather than military reasons. Arguing
  that the bomb was meant in intimidate the Soviet
  Union which was taking a hard line at the Postdam
  peace conference.
• Some argue the bombing was racially motivated,
  arguing that atomic force would never have been
  used on a European city.
• Five days after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan
  unconditionally surrendered.

87
The Holocaust

• The word Holocaust, from the Greek words
  holos (whole) and kaustos (burned), was
  historically used to describe a sacrificial
  offering burned on an altar.
• Since 1945, the word has taken on a new and
  horrible meaning the mass murder of some 6
  million European Jews (as well as members of some
  other persecuted groups, such as Gypsies and
  homosexuals) by the German Nazi regime during the
  Second World War.
• To the anti-Semitic Nazi leader Adolf Hitler,
  Jews were an inferior race, an alien threat to
  German racial purity and community. After years
  of Nazi rule in Germany, during which Jews were
  consistently persecuted, Hitlers final
  solutionnow known as the Holocaustcame to
  fruition under the cover of world war, with mass
  killing centers constructed in the concentration
  camps of occupied Poland.

88
The Holocaust

• Holocaust The elimination of 6 million Jews in
  Europe by the Nazis during WWII.
• The Final Solution The systematic extermination
  of all Jews under German control
• Concentration Camp a prison system established
  by the Nazis in WWII for the confinement, slave
  labour, and mass execution of political
  prisoners. More than 6 million Jews were killed
  in these camps
• Genocide the extermination of a race by
  deliberate and systematic means.

89
Nuremberg Trials

• Trials held against high-ranking Nazi officers
  following WWII.

90
Nuremberg Trials

• Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war
  criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a
  series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg,
  Germany, between 1945 and 1949.
• The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials
  and high-ranking military officers along with
  German industrialists, lawyers and doctors, were
  indicted on such charges as crimes against peace
  and crimes against humanity.
• Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) committed
  suicide and was never brought to trial. Although
  the legal justifications for the trials and their
  procedural innovations were controversial at the
  time, the Nuremberg trials are now regarded as a
  milestone toward the establishment of a permanent
  international court, and an important precedent
  for dealing with later instances of genocide and
  other crimes against humanity.