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April 2013. Chapter 28 Part II WWII: Dubya Dubya Two. United States. The industrial output and manpower of the U.S. made victory almost inevitable, but not immediately. The military was small and not ready to fight, the Pacific Fleet was nearly destroyed at Pearl Harbor.
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United States • The industrial output and manpower of the U.S. made victory almost inevitable, but not immediately. • The military was small and not ready to fight, the Pacific Fleet was nearly destroyed at Pearl Harbor. • It took almost 3 years to go from Pearl Harbor to D-Day.
Europe’s Soft Underbelly • Stalin wanted the Allies to open an immediate second front to fight Germany. • Winston Churchill wanted to attack where the Axis were weakest, North Africa, Sicily and Italy. • British and Americans invaded North Africa in November 1942. Sicily in 1943. • A coup killed Mussolini in 1943 so the Germans occupied Italy.
Battle of Stalingrad • In the summer of 1942 the Germans mounted another offensive against Russia. • Their goal was the oil fields near the Caspian Sea. Stalingrad was a strategic target along the way. • The Germans lost more men at the Battle of Stalingrad than the Americans lost in the entire war. • And lost the battle.
Bombing • By 1945 the Allies had destroyed German defenses and could bomb at will. • Military targets were destroyed. • The German civilian population was also targeted. • Worst example: The firebombing of Dresden.
The Defeat of Nazi Germany • June 6, 1944 D-Day • The Allies invaded the coast of Normandy. Dwight D Eisenhower was commander of the Allied forces. • By September, France had been liberated.
The Battle of the Bulge was the last German offensive in December 1944.
V-E Day • Berlin was captured in May 1945. • Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 • The Third Reich lasted 12 years, not a thousand. • Victory in Europe Day was May 8, 1945
Fall of the Japanese • Pacific Theater was very different than the European Theater. • Island hopping all the way to Japan. The Americans had to invade island after island and kill the Japanese, who refused to surrender.
Fall of the Japanese • The Manhattan Project was the American development of the Atomic Bomb. • Rather than invade mainland Japan and lose American soldiers, Truman decided to drop the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. • Japan surrendered officially September 2, 1945.
The Holocaust • 9 Million people were killed • 6 Million were Jewish, 1 Million European Jews survived • 3 Million others, Slavs/Poles/etc were killed • Most of the Jews who were killed were Polish. Anti-Semitism was terrible in Poland.
Progression of Holocaust • Declare Jews to be “Other,” they lose citizenship. • Ghettoization: Forced to live in certain areas, overcrowded, lost their wealth. • Concentration Camps: Work • Extermination Camps: Gas Chambers
Who’s Fault? • Hitler's Willing Executioners: Daniel Goldhagen • The people who did the killing were normal people, they weren’t punished when they didn’t kill, yet they did anyway. • No Hitler = No Holocaust? • Europeans hate Jews? • Is there any one reason the Holocaust happened?
Domestic Front: Germany • Wait? We didn’t win? • Classic example of hubris and over reaching • Hitler could have ended the war when he was winning. Controlled almost all of Europe and built up his military and security. • Nazi’s controlled every aspect of German society. • Propaganda stressed German power, people were shocked when Allies started destroying German cities.
France: Defeat, Collaboration and Resistance • Vichy Govt was puppet state set up by Germans. • Very few French actually were part of the resistance that fought against the Nazis. • After the war everyone claimed to be part of the resistance. • Charles de Gaulle famously fled to Britain and led resistance, after WWII he was President.
Great Britain: Resolve and Victory • The effect of the Blitz was increased unity. • British production exceeded German by 1941. Any metal that could be used to produce weapons was gathered. • BBC produced Anti-Nazi propaganda • The whole country sacrificed to win the war.
The Soviet Union • German invasion was a surprise but the victory brought nationalistic pride and glory. • Propaganda • Printed copies of War and Peace (Set during Napoleonic invasion of Russia)
Allied Agreements • FDR and Churchill met in August 1941. They agreed to the Atlantic Charter, basically 14 points style principles about what they were fighting for. • The first meeting of the Big Three (Stalin) was in Tehran in 1943. They agreed on the course of the war and strategy. • You get to control what you conquer, so Stalin would have sway over the East, Britain and U.S. over the West.
More meetings • Yalta: February 1945 • In exchange for Russian help with Japan, the USSR would take the Sakhalin and Kurile Islands. • United Nations would be formed • Potsdam July 1945 • Truman replaced FDR • Clement Attlee replaced Churchill • Germany would be divided into occupation zones, remained divided until 1990. • Beginning of the Cold War
Results • USA and USSR became the 2 most powerful countries in the world = Cold War. • Millions and millions of people died • Civilian populations were targeted, cities bombed. • United Nations formed • No war this large has been fought since • Breakdown of racial and gender barriers in the workforce. • Helped to move the USA and Western European countries to where we are regarding equal rights. • African Americans • Women • Holocaust • Isolationism as a national policy was discredited.
