World War II

WORLD WAR II

Prelude to War

Rome-Berlin Axis – 1936

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis 1937

Aggression and Appeasement Neville Chamberlain – main proponent

Hitler and Mussolini

Tojo

Why appeasement?

Avoid war

Guilt over Treaty of Versailles

Fear of communism

Popularity

Undermining the Treaty of Versailles

1933 - Hitler begins to rearm, privately at first, but then publicly in 1935

Italy invades Ethiopia – 1935

Spanish Civil War 1936 Francisco Franco

1936 - Remilitarizes the Rhineland

Hitler’s Step Plan

1938 - Germany annexes Austria / Anschluss

Germany annexes the Sudetenland

German speaking regions The world appeases Hitler

Munich Conference At the Munich conference, it’s decided that Hitler

can keep the land he has annexed, BUT

In return, Hitler promised: 1. He was not interested in other territories in

Europe. 2. In the future, he would consult Britain before

he made any further moves.

Line in the sand…

Czechoslovakia

Munich Pact Broken Realization that Hitler can’t be trusted

Poland In 1939, Hitler hints at invading Poland To appease or not to appease?

April 1939 – Britain promises Poland aid if invasion occurs

Hitler’s Betrayal

Pact of Steel – May 1939

Non-Aggression Pact – August 1939

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939

Great Britain and France declared war on Germany

Blitzkrieg

Hitler used a new type of tactic called “lightening war” or blitzkrieg

Maginot Line

Dunkirk

Fall of France – June 1940 Vichy

Battle of Britain – July 1940

Invasion of Russia – June 1941

Pearl Harbor

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 America enters war

Turning Points of the War

Stalingrad (42 – 43)

Italy knocked out of the war 1943

D – Day – the invasion at Normandy - 1944

Battle of the Bulge -1944

Germany loses it’s leader

April 30,1945, Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide

The Soviet forces got to Berlin first.

The Allied powers discover concentration camps and the horrors they entail.

Holocaust

Over 6,000,000 Jews were brutally killed

Japan

Japan refuses to surrender, in spite of the loss of their allies.

Manhattan Project – 1942 Robert Oppenheimer

Harry Truman decided to use the bombs on Japan to prevent loss of American lives.

Atomic Bomb

Aug. 6, 1945 Enola Gay “Little Boy” Hiroshima - center of war industries.

August 9, 1945 “Fat Man” Nagasaki

August 14, 1945 Japan surrendered.

Atomic Bomb

Enola Gay

Atomic Bomb