Chapter 26 “It was a denial of God. It was a denial of man. It was the destruction of the world in miniature form.” -Auschwitz Survivor Hugo Gryn The Second World War Part Two
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Chapter 26“It was a denial of God. It was a denial of man. It was the
destruction of the world in miniature form.”-Auschwitz Survivor Hugo Gryn
The Second World WarPart Two
Home Fronts, War of Production, Bombing & “the Bomb”
War demanded massive resources and a national commitment
RationingProduction
Propaganda campaigns encouraged the production of war equipment
Patriotism, communal interests, and a common stake in winning the war
Home Fronts, War of Production, Bombing & “the Bomb”
War demanded massive resources and a national commitment
Production Allies built tanks, ships, and airplanes by the tens of thousands U.S. Britain and Soviets had more resources and people available for
wartime production Mobilization of women Long work shifts
Germany was less efficient in the use of workers and resources Germany and Japan robbed occupied territories of resources
Home Fronts, War of Production, Bombing & “the Bomb”
New targetsCenters of industry as military targetsAmerican and British strategic bombing
For the British, a war of retribution For the Americans, grinding down Germany without sacrificing too
many Allied livesThe Dresden firebombing
Dresden, Germany C. 1910
Dresden, March, 1945
Dresden
Dresden
The Allied Counterattack
The Nazi penetration of the Soviet UnionThe siege of LeningradThe Eastern Front
Changes in the character of war War to save the Russian motherland (rodina)—the Russian will to
survive Victory during the “General Winter”—took its toll on Nazi supplies
The Allied Counterattack
The Eastern FrontChanges in the character of war
Astonishing recovery of Soviet army Whole industries were rebuilt
Soviets found the Blitzkrieg predictable
The Allied Counterattack
The Eastern FrontThe turning point—1943
Germans aimed an all-out assault on Stalingrad Drawn into bitter house-to-house fighting with Soviet snipers Stalingrad destroyed With supplies low, the Russian armies surrounded the Germans in
the city January 1943: German surrender of Stalingrad
23 August 1942 –2 February, 1943
Casualty estimates as high As 2,000,000.
The Allied Counterattack
The Eastern FrontSoviet offensives
Kursk (1943) Six thousand tanks and 2 million men in battle lasting six weeks German army was crushed
Ukraine back in Soviet hands, Romania knocked out of the war Soviet victories in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
The Allied Counterattack
The Western FrontStalin pressured the Allies to open a second front in the
WestThe Allied invasion of Sicily
Mussolini surrendered in summer 1943The Normandy invasion (June 6, 1944)The liberation of Paris (August 14, 1944)The Battle of the Bulge (December 1944)
Storming “Fortress Europe.”
The Allied Counterattack
The Western FrontAllies crossed the Rhine in April 1945
Germans preferred to surrender to the Americans or British rather than face the Russians
Soviets entered Berlin on April 21, 1945Hitler committed suicide in his bunker beneath the
Chancellery on April 30, 1945Germany surrendered unconditionally on
May 7
“Raising the Red Flag Over the Reichstag, ” Evgeny Khaldei, May 1, 1945
The Allied Counterattack
The war in the PacificBritish, Indian, and Nepalese troops liberated Rangoon
(Burma)Australians recaptured Dutch East IndiesOkinawa fell to the Americans (June 1945)Chinese communists and nationalists pushed the Japanese
back on Hong Kong
The Allied Counterattack
The war in the PacificSoviet forces marched through Manchuria to KoreaUnited States, Britain, and China called on Japan to
surrender or be destroyed on July 26 B-29s began systematic bombing of Japanese cities Japan refused to surrender
Home Fronts, War of Production, Bombing & “the Bomb”
The race to build the bombNuclear fission and the chain reactionBritish passed technical information on to American
scientistsThe Manhattan Project
Managing the effort to build an American atomic bomb
Home Fronts, War of Production, Bombing & “the Bomb”
The race to build the bombLos Alamos, New Mexico (1943)
Laboratory that brought together most capable nuclear physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) placed in charge of the project
First atomic test on July 16, 1945, near Los Alamos
The Allied Counterattack
The war in the PacificThe decision to drop the bomb
Was it necessary? Japan had already been beaten Harry Truman
August 6, 1945: Hiroshima, August 9: Nagasaki Japan surrendered unconditionally on August 14, 1945
The Atom Bomb
Conclusion
A new world ravaged by warMass killingTechnology, genocide, and global war
Estimated 50-70 million total deaths Military Casualties 22-25 million Civilian casualties 38-55 million
Deaths by Country USSR: 22-26 million Germany: 7-9 million Japan: 2-3 million Poland: 5.6- 5.8 million China: 10-20 million France: 567,600 Britain: 450,900 United States: 418,500 (
WWII Casualties
Selected Bibliography
Nazi Manifesto, Documents of the International Military Tribunal for Germany, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Vol. 4, Avalon Project at Yale Law School,
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/nca_v4menu.asp
German Soldiers leading Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph.php?ModuleId=10005188&MediaId=734
WWII War Deaths by Alliance. Wikimedia Commons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WorldWarII-DeathsByAllianc
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