World war ii

Marissa Salo

World War II

• The devastation of World War I had greatly destabilized Europe, and in many respects World War II grew out of issues left unresolved by that earlier conflict.

• Political and economic instability in Germany, and lingering resentment over the harsh terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty, fueled the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party.

Leading Up to the War

• On land, sea and in the air, Poles fought Germans, Italians fought Americans and Japanese fought Australians in a conflict which was finally settled with the use of nuclear weapons.

• World War 2 involved every major world power in a war for global domination and at its end, more than 60 million people had lost their lives and most of Europe and large parts of Asia lay in ruins.

• September 1st 1939, Hitler’s invasion of Poland without warning sparked the start of World War Two.

• Six long and bloody years of total war.

Beginning of War…

• Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy more land and property around the globe than any previous war.

• Among the estimated 45-60 million people killed were 6 million Jews murdered in Nazi concentration camps as part of Hitler's diabolical "Final Solution," now known as the Holocaust.

Deaths

• The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

• "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." • The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933,

believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

Holocaust

• In the final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches”.

• The marches continues until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.

• World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day, May 8, while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945.

• Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel, including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe.

End of Holocaust

• On the 7th of December 1941 at 7:53 am Japanese warplanes attacked the American fleet as it lay at anchor in Pearl Harbor, the Naval base in Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands.

• 40 minutes later a second wave of 170 warplanes attacked the harbor.

• Without a declaration of war from the Japanese, the attacks came as a complete surprise to the American nation although war with Japan was expected to break out at anytime.

Pearl Harbor

• On November a heavily armed Japanese navy set sail including 6 aircraft carriers, which between them carried 423 warplanes, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 2 destroyers and 9 battle ships.

• The fleet sailed slowly at 12 knots to allow re-fuelling from the slower but vital support ships.

• As the fleet sailed radio signals were broadcast to make it appear that the ships were still in..

Pearl Harbor: The Japanese Fleet

• D-Day is a military term designating the start of a military operation. The D-day in modern history refers to what happened on June 6th, 1944.

• In May, while troops and equipment were being concentrated in the staging area of southern Britain, the allies tried to confuse the enemy. They made false radio transmissions and placed landing craft and inflated rubber tanks away from the true staging area.

• The German's had no idea what was about to take place. The operation was scheduled on June 4th because first light and low tide coincided. If the storm had lasted any longer, the operation would have been put off for 2 weeks, until the next day first light and low tide coincided.

D-Day

• On April 9, 1940, Germany simultaneously invaded Norway and occupied Denmark, and the war began in earnest.

• On May 10, German forces swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in what became known as "blitzkrieg," or lightning war.

• The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was evacuated by sea from Dunkirk in late May, while in the south French forces mounted a doomed resistance. With France on the verge of collapse, Benito Mussolini of Italy put his Pact of Steel with Hitler into action, and Italy declared war against France and Britain on June 10.

War in the West

• Japanese expansion in East Asia began in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria and continued in 1937 with a brutal attack on China.

• One September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with German and Italy, entering the military alliance known as the “Axis”.

• Japan decided to attack the United States and British forces in Asia and seize the resources of Southeast Asia.

War in the Pacific

• On March 7, 1945, the Western Allies-whose chief commanders in the field were Omar N. Bradley and Bernard Law Montgomery.

• World War II officially ended in Europe on the next day, May 8, while Soviet forces announced their “Victory Day” on May 9, 1945.

V-E Day

• On August 10, the Japanese government issued a statement declaring they would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on September 2, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

• Post-war Germany would be divided into four occupation zones, to be controlled by the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and France.

Post War

• World War II proved to be the most devastating international conflict in history, taking the lives of some 35 to 60 million people, including 6 million Jew who died at the hands of the Nazis.

• Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property.

• The legacy of the war would include the spread of communism from the Soviet Union into eastern Europe as well as its eventual triumph in China.

• The United States and the Soviet Union would soon face off against each other in the Cold War.

End of War

• The struggle for national independence of non-European peoples was greatly enhanced and stimulated by the war.

• The weakness of England and France, the two major European imperial powers, provided opportunities.

• The stage was set for the collapse of European empires in the 3 decades following the war.

• New technology, developed during the war to fight disease, would, when applied to the non-European world, result in sharply lower mortality rates and soaring population growth.

Aftermath of War

Works Cited• “United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.”

Encyclopedia. January 6, 2011. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005155

• “World War 2- D-Day” DCS- Technology Courses for High School Students. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005155

• “World War II – History.com Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts.” History.com – History Made Every Day – American & History. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii

• “World War 2 Timeline 1939- 1945- Worldwar-2.net” World War 2 Timeline 1939-1945 – Worldwar-2.net. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii