The Beginning of the Second World War

1
The Beginning of theSecond World War
2
Breakdown of Collective Security

• Departures from the League of Nations
• Japan 1932
• Germany 1933
• Italy 1937
• Formation of the Axis
• Germany Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact,
  1936.
• Italy joins in 1937
• All three sign Tri-Partite Pact, 1940.

3
Two Regional Wars

• The Great Pacific War 1937-45.
• The European War 1939-45.
• The two conflicts merge into one in December 1941.

4
Origins of the Pacific War

• 1931 Invasion of Manchuria.
• Japanese interests in Asia.
• Increasing Japanese militarism, lack of civilian
  control over countrys armed forces.
• Chinese civil wars ending.

5
The China Incident July 7, 1937

• Becomes pre-text for Japanese invasion of China.
• Full-scale fighting after clashes between
  Japanese and Chinese in Shanghai.

6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
The Rape of Nanking

• Chinese capital falls on Dec. 13, 1937.
• Cruelties inflicted on civilian population for
  next eight weeks.

9
Other conflicts of the 1930s

• Italian invasion of Ethiopia 1935-36
• Spanish Civil War, 1936-39

10
German Aggression

• Re-militarization of the Rhineland
• March 1936
• The Anschluss March 1938
• The Sudetenland September 1938
• Munich Conference
• Invasion of Czechoslovakia March 1939
• German military rearms during 1930s.

11
(No Transcript)
12
The Nazi-Soviet Pact,August 24, 1939
13
September 1, 1939

• German invasion of Poland.
• Poland falls by the end of the month.
• Begins WWII in Europe.
• France Britain declare war on September 3.

14
Next TargetScandinavia

• Germany conquers Denmark Norway, April-May,
  1940.
• Meanwhile, the Soviet Union attacked Finland.
• Winter War of Dec. 1939 - March 1940.

15
Germany attacks WestFall Gelb (Case Yellow)

• May 10 Wehrmacht attacks Holland Belgium,
  Holland, Luxembourg, and France.
• All will be conquered by June 22.
• Includes the Battle of Dunkirk.
• Battle of Britain begins in the summer of 1940.

16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
Battle of Britain, 1940-41
19
Meanwhile, back in the U.S.A.

• The Neutrality Acts of the 1930s
• 1939 Act allowed belligerents to purchase U.S.
  arms.
• Focus on Hemispheric defense, 1938-40
• development of RAINBOW war plans.
• Steps to ready U.S. military
• regular Army and National Guard increased.
• corps army-size maneuvers, spring 1940.

20
Military preparations after June 1940

• Navy Air Corps expansion.
• Pacific Fleet moved to Pearl Harbor
• Selective Service Training Act of 1940
• First peacetime draft in U.S. history.
• National Guard mobilized
• Reserves called to duty
• Summer 1941 The Army of the United States has
  1.2 million men.

21
Keeping Britain in the War

• Arms transfers just prior to Frances fall.
• Destroyers for bases deal.
• FDR shares U.S. aircraft production with Britain.
• Lend Lease Act, March 1941.

22
Early Joint War Planning

• U.S. and British military planners meet from
  January March, 1941.
• Produce ABC-1 Agreement
• Germany First Germany was the greatest threat,
  and its defeat would be the top priority if U.S.
  entered the war.
• Sept. 1941 U.S. Victory program
• Army predicted a need for 8.7 million soldiers

23
June 22, 1941 German invades the U.S.S.R.
24
Increased U.S. activity in the Atlantic

• Summer 1941 U.S. troops relieve British garrison
  in Iceland.
• Fall 1941 U.S. forces participating in the
  Battle of the Atlantic
• Navy escorts convoys through Western Atlantic.
• Navy and Army planes patrol for U-boats.

25
Efforts to deter Japan

• After Fall of France, enhanced fear for European
  colonial empires.
• June 1940 FDR orders Pacific Fleet to Pearl
  Harbor.
• U.S. imposes some economic sanctions

26
Summer 1941 Japan occupies French Indochina

• FDR
• freezes Japanese assets in U.S.
• imposes oil embargo.
• orders Philippines reinforced.

27
Pearl Harbor?