Ch 32: World War II

Island-hopping

-Douglas MacAruthur, the commander of the allied land forces in the pacific developed a plan to handle the problem in the pacific -skipping over Japanese strongholds and capturing weaker targets -these captured islands would then be used as bases for the next attacks, which moved even closer to Japan -they bypassed Japanese strongholds, meanwhile, were cut off form the outside supplies and would eventually weaken

Battle of Iwo Jima and Battle of Okinawa

-During the month-long Battle of Iwo Jima, nearly 7,000 Americans died to capture the tiny island. -The Battle of Okinawa, which lasted nearly three months, claimed 12,000 American lives. The Japanese lost the battle along with nearly all of the more than 100,000 defenders. -The experiences of Iwo Jima and Okinawa made the Allies dread the idea of invading the major islands of Japan. -Fearful of the cost of invading Japan, American leaders considered another option: the atomic bomb. This weapon used the energy released by the splitting of atoms and was far more powerful than ordinary bombs. A secret program to develop the bomb called the Manhattan Project

Allied powers

-France and Great Britain declared war on Germany -As in World War I, they became known as the Allied Powers -Unfortunately, Poland was defeated before the Allies could organize their forces and make any meaningful response

MacArthur's occupation of Japan

-General Douglas MacArthur, who had accepted the Japanese surrender, took charge of the U.S. occupation of Japan. -MacArthur was determined to be fair and not to plant the seeds of a future war. -Although MacArthur was not told to revive the Japanese economy, he was instructed to broaden land ownership and increase the participation of workers and farmers in the new democracy

The Battle of Leyte Gulf

-General MacArthur, who had surrendered the Philippines in 1942, led the Allied troops -The first major battle in the Philippines was the Battle of Leyte Gulf -The Japanese threw everything they had into the fight in the hope that they could defeat the Allied fleet and cut off supplies to Allied ground troops. -Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle ever fought and saw the first major use of a new Japanese weapon: the kamikaze attack. -The Battle of Leyte Gulf ended in the destruction of the Japanese navy and gave the Allies almost total control of the Pacific.

German invasion of France

-German forces swept through the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Allied forces rushed to meet the invasion -the real attack came farther to the south through the Ardennes- a dense forest region along the border b/t France and Belgium -from the Ardennes the German tanks rumbled northwest toward the French coast

Final deafeat of Germany

-Germany's defeat in the Battle of the Bulge had marked the end of major German resistance. -Within two months, Allied forces had crossed the Rhine River into Germany and were racing toward Berlin. At the same time, Soviet troops were advancing through Germany from the east -The next day was proclaimed V-E Day: Victory in Europe Day. After nearly six years of bloody battle, the war in Europe was over. -Roosevelt was succeeded by his Vice-President: Harry Truman.

Polish corridor

-After World War I the Allies had cut a strip of land referred to as the Polish Corridor out from German territory to give Poland access to the see -Hitler demanded that the Polish Corridor, which had a large German population, be returned to Germany

Phony war

-After they declared war on Germany, the French and British mobilized their armies and stationed troops in preparation for a German assault -Though Hitler was eager to continue the war, his forces needed repairs and the onset of winter made military operations in northern Europe difficult -Germans jokingly called this period of inactivity and preparation the sitzkrieg or "sitting war" -Some Western newspapers referred to it simply as the "phony war"

Potsdam Conference in July 1945

-Allied leaders met again, this time in the German city of Potsdam. - The Potsdam Conference took place between the Soviet Union and the other Allies. -The Allies discussed many issues concerning postwar Europe, but often had difficulty reaching agreement. -there was a new coldness in the relations between Soviets and Americans. -At Potsdam, Truman demanded that Stalin fulfill his earlier promise of free elections throughout Eastern Europe. Stalin refused

Europe and Asia at the end of the war

-At the end of the war, much of Europe and Asia lay in ruins. -Tens of millions of people had died in the war, many of them civilians. -In these areas the physical devastation was nearly complete. Entire cities, villages, and farms had been destroyed or damaged heavily, and national economies were near collapse. Food, shelter, and medicine were scarce. -The war uprooted millions of people in Europe and Asia

General Bernard Montgomery and Battle of El Alamein

-British troops under General Bernard Montgomery took advantage of Rommel's supply problems and information gained from the secret German codes to win a smashing victory -as a result the Battle of El Alamein, Axis power in North Africa was severely weakened

Why the German invasion of Russia stalled in the winter of 1941

-unprepared for the harshness of winter, German forces bogged down in the snow and freezing cold -the soviets had survived the mighty German onslaught and for the first time they were beginning to fight back. Hitler ordered his armies not to retreat, and both sides dug in to wait until spring -after three years of successful expansion, Hitler's forces had finally been stopped by December 1941

Operation Barbarossa

-while the Balkans firmly in control, Hitler moved ahead with Operation Barbarossa: his plan to invade the Soviet Union -three separate German armies plunged into the Soviet Union in a powerful blitzkrieg assault -as the soviet troops retreated, they burned and destroyed everything in the enemy's path

Importance of Egypt and Suez Canal

-while the battle of Britain was raging, Mussolini (Italian dictator) ordered his army to attack British controlled Egypt -the Suez canal was a vital lifeline of supplies to Britain and control of the canal was key to reaching the rich oil fields of the middle east -the oil from the middle east was vital to the British war effort

Crucial lesson learned by Allies from Battle of Britain

Hitler's attacks could be blocked with the right combination of determination, skill and technology

Other countries responses to the Holocaust

mass murder of Jews -officials in the US and Great Britain met to discuss possible responses- no concrete action was taken -the US established the War Refugee Board to help rescue European Jews -this government inaction was in part because Allied leaders did not want to do anything that might interfere with the war effort

Battle of Britain

the Luftwaffe sent thousands of planes to attack British targets in what became known as the Battle of Britain

The battle in the Atlantic, U-boats and "wolf packs" and convoys

-Great Britain and the Soviet Union depended heavily on supplies shipped by sea to their ports -Germany's navy did not have enough ships to match the battleships of Great Britain -as a result the Germans came to rely on the same weapon they had used in WWI: the U-Boat, or submarine -they worked in coordinate groups called "wolf packs" inflicting enormous damage on the Allies, sinking hundreds of merchant supply ships -before entering the war, the US had offered military aid to GB in the form of ships and military escorts for convoys (groups of many ships that offered safety in numbers) -the vital supply line to GB and the Soviet Union was kept open and the Atlantic belonged to the Allies

German invasion of Denmark and Norway

-Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway -Both nations quickly fell to the German blitzkrieg. Hitler wanted to control these countries so that he could build air and sea bases along the Norwegian and Danish coasts from which to launch strikes on Great Britain

Battle for Italy

-Hitler was not going to allow the Allies to simply march through Italy into the center of Europe -After the Allies moved into southern Italy, German reinforcements poured into the north and slowed the Allied advance -Mussolini, in the meantime, was captured by Italian rebels and executed

Nazi view of occupied territories and people

-Hitler's "new order" in Eastern Europe grew out of his racial obsessions and economic needs -to the Nazis, occupied lands in Eastern Europe were an economic resource to be plundered -they enslaved the native populations and forced them to work producing goods for Germany -the Nazis most sinister plans centered on Jews and other groups targeted by Hitler as racially "inferior"

Italian and German involvement in North Africa

-Hitlers forces were drawn into a long and bloody conflict in North Africa due to the botched planning of Hitlers partner: Italian dictator Mussolini -Mussolini knew he had to take action in order to reap some of the spoils of war. After declaring war on France and Great Britain, Mussolini moved into North Africa

Battle of Midway

-Japanese and American carriers again fought in the Battle of Midway -the Japanese had planned to capture the strategic island of Midway in the middle of the pacific ocean, home to a key american military base -Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers with the loss of only one of their own -the allies had won a great victory and Japans navy had suffered a terrible blow -changed the balance of power in the pacific: the once great Japanese advantage on the seas no longer existed, and the allies could finally go on the offensive

Japanese expansion in the 1930s and tensions with the United States

-Japanese expansion in Asia threatened American-controlled territories in the Pacific such as the Philippines and the island of Guam -most Americans wanted to stay out of the growing conflict overseas -the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China

Jews in Germany

-Jews were a convenient scapegoat: a group easy to blame for Germany's problems -in Nazi Germany- hatred based on race instead of hostility based on religion

"cash and carry" policy

-President Roosevelt asked congress to allow the Allies to buy American arms -according to this "cash-and-carry" policy, the Allies would pay cash and then carry the goods on their own ships -the goal was to supply the Allies while avoiding the loss of American lives that had dragged the US into WWI

Atlantic Charter

-Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly and issued a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter -it upheld free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own gov. -the charter outlined what the two leaders saw as the purpose of the war. together they proclaimed that they sought no territorial gain and they looked forward to a peaceful world in which all nations chose their own governments and worked together for mutual benefit -the charter later served as the Allies peace plan at the end of WWI

Effects of the war in: Denmark and Belgium, Germany and Italy and France

-Smaller countries, such as Denmark and Belgium, were able to restore their governments and rapidly rebuild. -In Italy, and France, where the devastation of the war was much greater and most surviving political leaders were unpopular due to their wartime actions, there was instability and chaos. As a result, the Communist Party became more popular in Western Europe. -Germany was divided into zones of occupation by the British, French, Americans, and Russians.

The second front debate

-Stalin asked his allies to relieve German pressure on his armies in the east -he wanted them to open a second front in the west -this would split the Germans' strength by forcing them to fight major battles in two regions instead of one -Churchill agreed with Stalin's strategy; the allies would weaken Germany on two fronts before dealing a deathblow -Roosevelt was torn but ultimately he agreed and his strategy angered Stalin, he wanted the allies to open the second front in France -the allies began to turn the tide of war both in the Mediterranean and on the eastern front

Russo-Finnish War

-Stalin sent nearly one million Soviet troops into Finland. The soviets expected to win a quick victory, so they were not prepared for such harsh winter fighting -The Soviets suffered heavy losses but they finally won the Russo-Finnish War, also known as the "winter war"

Blitzkried

-The German invasion of Poland was the first test of Germany's newest military strategy: Blitzkrieg or "lightning war" -it emphasized speed and close coordination between aircraft and fast-moving forces on the ground to take enemy defenders by surprise -began with air attacks while mobile artillery struck deep into the countryside, behind them were foot soldiers

Problems in Europe after the war

-The fighting had ravaged Europe's countryside, and agriculture had been completely disrupted. -Most able- bodied men had served in the military, and the women had worked in war production. Few remained to plant the fields. With the transportation system destroyed, the meager harvests often did not reach the cities. Thousands died as famine and disease spread. -The first postwar winter brought more suffering as people went without shoes and coats.

Operation Sea Lion

-The first objective in Hitler's complex plan for invading Britain was known as Operation Sea lion -to gain control of the skies by knocking out the British RAF

Kamikaze

-The kamikazes were Japanese pilots who loaded their planes with explosives and deliberately crashed into Allied ships, sacrificing their own lives in the process. -Kamikaze attacks did not change the outcome, but they did sink dozens of Allied ships and kill thousands of Allied sailors during the closing years of the war.

New Japanese constitution and Article 9

-The new constitution transformed Japan and was the most important achievement of the occupation because it brought deep changes to Japanese society. -The country was now a constitutional monarchy like that of Great Britain. -The new constitution guaranteed that real political power in Japan rested with the people, who elected a two-house parliament called the Diet -Article 9 of the constitution stated that the Japanese could no longer make war and could fight only if attacked -the Japanese agreed to a continuing U.S. military presence to protect their country= allies

Nonaggression Pact

-To make sure Russia could not interfere with his plans, Hitler had already signed a Nonaggression Pact with Joseph Stalin (the dictator of the Soviet Union) -Hitler promised him territory; in a secret part of the part, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Poland between them -They also agreed that the USSR could take over Finland and the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Operation Torch

-a combined American and British force landed in North Africa in Operation Torch -it was led by american general Dwight D. Eisenhower -the allies faced little resistance after landing, and French forces soon joined them -the Allies captured the island a few weeks later and made plans to invade mainland Italy

Charles de Gualle

-after France fell, a popular French general named Charles de Gualle set up a government-in-exile in London -he committed all his energy to reconquering France and went on to organize a free French military force that continued to battle the Nazis until France was liberated by the allies

Japanese conquests of British territories in Southeast Asia

-after seizing Hong Kong, they invaded Malaya from the sea and overland from Thailand, eventually capturing Singapore, which was strategically located at the southern tip of the Malaya Peninsula -the Japanese then conquered the resource-rich Dutch East Indies

What happened on D-Day (June 6, 1944)?

-allied forces consisting of American, British and Canadian troops invaded France in what is now referred to as D-Day -code named operation overlord, the invasion of Normandy was the largest land and sea attack -despite the losses, D-Day was a huge victory for the Allies -the Germans had surrendered Paris

The Battle of the Bulge

-allied forces had dug in for the long, cold winter and did not expect an attack -at first the Germans made solid advances, producing bulge in the Allied battle lines -as a result, the battle became known as the Battle of the Bulge -although caught off guard, the allies eventually recovered and pushed the Germans back -running low on fuel and lacking reinforcements, the Germans had little choice to retreat

Nuremberg Trials

-an International Military Tribunal representing 23 nations put Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg, Germany. -In the first of these Nuremberg Trials, 22 key Nazi leaders were charged with waging a war of aggression. They were also accused of committing "crimes against humanity," including the murder of 11 million people.

Battle of the Coral Sea

-an american fleet with Australian support intercepted a Japanese strike force headed for Port Moresby in New Guinea- critical allied air base -in the Battle of the Coral Sea both sides used a kind of naval warfare in which opposing ships did not directly engage but instead relied on airplanes taking off from huge aircraft carriers to attack the other side -although the allies suffered more losses, the battle was a victory for the allies because they had stopped Japan's southward advance

Discovery of German crimes

-as Allied forces in Europe started to push back the Germans, they came upon Nazi camps -the Germans had tried to cover up evidence of their crimes before leaving, including removing or killing the prisoners -when the soviets liberated the Auschwitz death camp, they found 7,000 starving survivors -the scenes of horror at the death camps gave the world a clear picture of what a world controlled by Adolf Hitler might have been like

Women in World War II

-as men joined the military, millions of women around the world replaced them in essential war industry jobs -women, symbolized by the character "Rosie the Riveter" in the US, built ships and planes and produced munitions -British and american women served in the armed forces in many auxiliary roles, such as driving ambulances, delivering airplanes, and decoding messages -in occupied Europe, women fought in resistance movements

Emigration policy

-at first Hitler favored emigration as a solution to what he called "the Jewish problem" -Nazi laws had left many without money or property, and other countries were often unwilling to take in poor immigrants -with the outbreak of war, emigration became even more difficult and Germany finally outlawed it. the remaining Jews under German rule were trapped

The Blitz

-at first, the Germans targeted British airfields and aircraft factories. then they began focusing on the cities, especially London -this assault became known as the Blitz -Hitlers goal in attacking civilians was to terrorize the British public and break their will to fight -German bombs killed thousands of civilians and destroyed large areas of London and other major cities, but the British refused to give in

Japanese view of their empire and how it changed

-before these conquests, the Japanese had tried to win the support of Asians with the anti-colonialist idea of "East Asia for the Asians" -after victory, however, the Japanese quickly made it clear that they had come as conquerors. they often treated the people of their new colonies with extreme cruelty

Reasons for the German attack on Stalingrad

-by the end of the summer, a large Axis force was posed to take the strategically important city of Stalingrad on the Volga river -largest and most industrialized cities in the soviet union: 1) its factories produced tanks, guns and other military equipment for the Soviet armies and its ports on the Volga shipped grain, oil and other products throughout the Soviet Union 2) as the namesake of the Soviet Union's dictator, the city also had enormous symbolic significance

How the Russians won the Battle of Stalingrad and the effects of the battle

-the battle of Stalingrad was one of the most brutal of the war -hunger, cold and soviet attacks took a toll on the German troops -"surrender is forbidden"-Hitler -unlike the Soviet Union, Germany did not have an enormous population from which to replenish its losses -the seemingly invincible German army was now forced to retreat to the west- turning point in the war

Total war in World War II

-to defeat the Axis war machine, the Allies had to commit themselves to total war, which meant that nations devoted all their resources to the war effort -the US governments formed a variety of agencies such as the National War Labor Board and the War Production Board -Americans at home produced massive quantities of weapons and equipment that would help win the war -many historians argue that the main reason the Allies won the war was because of their incredible advantages in population, resources, and industrial production over the Axis powers

Censorship and propaganda; internment of Japanese- Americans

-to inspire their people to greater efforts, both Axis and Allied governments used censorship against information considered dangerous and conducted highly effective propaganda campaigns -posters remained a popular method, but film and radio were also important for encouraging the people to support the war effort

Rationing and war bond drives

-to make sure there would be enough vital resources such as rubber, grain and metal for the war effort, governments implemented programs to ration or control the amount of food and other goods consumers buy -they raised money by holding war bond drives, in which citizens lent their government certain sums of money that would be returned with interest later -prices and wages were also regulated

Reinhard Heydrich and the Einsatzgruppen

-to more effectively accomplish the goal of removing so-called "inferior" people from the German territory, Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the SS security service, created special strike forces called Einsatzgruppen -these groups carried out large-scale executions of Jews and other civilians in villages across Poland and Russia -they carried out executions on a massive scale, often aided by local people and police, known as collaborators -the killing was moving too slowly and was leaving behind too much evidence

General Erwin Rommel

-to reinforce the Italians, Hitler sent an elite German tank force, the Afrika Korps, under the command of General Erwin Rommel -bold and clever, Rommel pushed the British back across the desert and seized Tobruk -Rommel's successes in North Africa earned him the nickname "Desert Fox"

Lend-Lease Act

-under the Lend-Lease Act, the president could lend or lease the arms and other supplies to any country vital to the US -the US Navy was escorting British ships carrying US arms. Hitler ordered his submarines to sink any cargo ships they met -the US was now involved in an undeclared naval war with Hitler

Nuremberg Laws

creating a separate legal status for German Jews. deprived of their rights, Jews could now be more easily persecuted and imprisoned

Yalta conference in February 1945

-by the time of the conference at Yalta in the Ukraine, the defeat of Germany was a foregone conclusion -the Western nations were concerned about the military power of the Soviet Union and the spread of communism, while Stalin was deeply suspicious of the Western powers and desired a buffer in Eastern Europe to protect his country from possible future Western aggression. -According to the agreements made at the conference, liberated countries were to hold free elections to determine their new governments, but Stalin would not accept governments in Eastern Europe that were not pro-Soviet. -Stalin did agree to join in the war against Japan in return for territorial concessions, and the Big Three reaffirmed the doctrine of "unconditional surrender" for Germany and that at the end of the war the country would be divided into four occupation zones controlled by the British, French, Americans, and Soviets. -After a number of compromises, both Churchill and Stalin accepted Roosevelt's plans for a United Nations organization

Winston Churchill

-conquering Britain would prove far more difficult, than Hitler expected especially now that: Britain was led by the indomitable Winston Churchill -Churchill had replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in May -Churchill's iron will, determination, and fighting spirit inspired confidence among the British people

Social and political changes in Japan

-demilitarization, or disbanding the Japanese armed forces. -leaving the Japanese with only a small police force. -MacArthur turned his attention to democratization, the process of creating a government elected by the people.

Battle of Guadalcanal

-first target in the plan -began with an invasion by the US marines -the battle for control of the island was a savage struggle in which both sides faced terrible conditions and heavy casualties -after losing more than 24,000 the Japanese abandoned what they came to cal "the island of death"

Neutrality Acts

-in the US, most Americans felt that the country should not get involved in the war -congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts that made it illegal to sell arms or lend money to nations at war

Royal Air Force (RAF) and Luftwaffe

-once air superiority had been achieved, Germany would land more than 250,000 soldiers on England's shores -the Luftwaffe: German air force

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

-the Allies issued a demand for Japan's surrender, warning Japanese leaders that the Americans possessed a powerful new weapon -an American plane dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The devastation was extreme -the Americans dropped a second bomb, this time over the city of Nagasaki where another 75,000 people died. -Despite the controversial nature of the decision, President Truman and most of his advisers believed that the bomb would be the most effective way to bring the war to a quick end and potentially save thousands of American lives by eliminating the need for an invasion of the Japanese islands. - Japanese emperor Hirohito surrendered on August 15, 1945, the date now known as V-J Day. World War II was finally over.

Vichy

-the Germans left the southern part of France under the control of the puppet government headed by Petain -the headquarters of this government was in the city of Vichy

Dunkirk

-the Germans' two-pronged attack had trapped hundreds of thousands of Allied troops who retreated to the French coastal city of Dunkirk near the Belgium border -the boats carried some 338,00 battle-weary soldiers to safety in Britain -the "miracle at Dunkirk" saved the British army and ensured that Britain would continue to fight on against the Germans

Bataan Death March

-the Japanese commanders considered it dishonorable to surrender, and they had contempt for the prisoners of war in their charge -on the Bataan Death March, a forced march of more than 50 miles up a peninsula in the Philippines, the Japanese subjected their captives to terrible cruelties -of the app. 70,000 prisoners who started the Bataan Death March, only 54,000 survived

Douglas MacArthur

-the Japanese then turned their attention to the Philippines -general Douglas MacArthur led a small number of American soldiers and poorly equipped Filipino troops in a doomed defense -MacArthur escaped, promising to return later, but the remaining American and Filipino forces surrendered

Ghettos and concentration camps

-the Nazis used several brutal methods to deal with the Jewish civilians they now rules -at first, some Jews were forced into a ghetto: confined area within a city -other Jews were sent to labor camps called concentration camps, which were meant to hold the people Hitler called enemies of the state

Why the British won the Battle of Britain

-the RAF, although badly outnumbered, hit back hard 1) electronic tracking system known as the radar 2) German code-making machine named Enigma -with information gathered by these devices, RAF fliers could quickly launch attacks on the enemy

Doolittle Raid

-the US wanted revenge for pear harbor: a small force of bombers under the command of Doolittle bombed Tokyo and several other Japanese cities -although the bombs did little damage, the Doolittle Raid, had an important psychological impact because it showed that Japan was vulnerable to attack -Doolittle's raid on Japan raised American morale and shook the confidence of some Japanese leaders

Challenges for the Allied attack on Normandy

-the assault would have to be made across the choppy English Channel and would have to be made directly against strong German defensive positions -in addition to assembling and training sufficient troops, the allies needed to develop specialized equipment and transporting tanks and troops across open water -to keep Hitler guessing, the allies set up a huge dummy army with its own headquarters and equipment. the real target was Normandy, in northwestern France

Causes and results of the attack on Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 Causes: -according the yamamoto, the american fleet posed the greatest threat to Japan's territorial ambitions. US military leaders knew that an attack might come but did not know what would occur Results: -more than 2,300 Americans killed. the only good news for the Americans was that the three aircraft carriers normally stationed at pearl harbor were unharmed -News of the attack stunned the American people -Roosevelt declared it was "a date which will live in infamy". the "four freedoms" he articulated became an enduring defense of liberty and democracy

Isorku Yamamato

Isoroku Yamamoto- Japan's greatest naval strategist -the Japanese hoped to catch the European colonial powers and the US by surprise, the centerpiece of this plan was developed by admiral Isoroku- an attack on the US fleet stationed at the Pearl Harbor base in Hawaii

The "Big Three" meeting in Teheran in November 1943

Josef Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, the leaders of the "Big Three" nations of the Allies Powers, met for the first of three major conferences at Tehran- the capital of Iran, decided the future course of the war -American-British invasion of Europe through France: meant that Soviet and British-American forces would meet in defeated Germany along a north-south dividing line and that Eastern Europe would be liberated by Soviet Forces -the allies also agreed to a partition of postwar Germany, but differences over questions like the frontiers of Poland were left unresolved

Final Solution, Wannsee conference, and death camps (ex. Auschwitz)

The deliberate mass execution of Jews -the plan was officially adopted by Nazi leaders at a secret meeting run by Heydrich in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee in January -death camps, like Auschwitz, had specially designed gas chambers in which thousands of people were killed every day -furnaces for the disposal of bodies