Week 15: From Defeat to Victory

World at War

Overview

Isolation, Segregation, Impoverishment

• 1933: Hitler Joins government.
• 1933: Reichstag Fire.
• 1934: Hindenburg Dies, Hitler Becomes Fuhrer.
• 1935: Nuremberg Laws

Exclusion, Removal & Concentration

• 1938: Germany Annexes Austria.
• 1938: Kristallnacht.
• 1939: Jewish Ghettos Established.
• 1940: Concentration Camps Opened.

• Nuremberg laws:
  • Laws against intermarriage with jews.
  • Laws preventing non-Jewish women from working in Jewish households.
  • Restricted citizenship to those of “German or related blood”.
• Delayed prosecution of crimes until after 1936 Olympics.

Overview (Cont’d)

Political & Economic

• 1938: Munich Agreement.
• 1939: Germany invades Czechoslovakia.
• 1939: Germany invades Poland.
• 1940: Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, France.

Overview: The Pacific

• 1931: Japan invades Manchuria.
• 1937: Japan invades China.
• 1940: Japan joins Axis Powers.
• 1941: Japan invades French Indochina.

• 1941: USA places embargo on Japan.
• 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
• 1942: Japan invades Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, Burma.

• Invasion of Manchuria placed Japan in conflict with USSR.
• Bombing of Marco Polo Bridge led to full-scale war between Japan and China in 1937
• Japan

The Situation in 1940 & 1941

• Britain Stands Alone
• Battle over Britain (August to October 1940)
• USA send aid to Britain (Lend-Lease Act, March 1941)
• Germany invades Soviet Union (June 1941)

• By mid-1941, Germany had conquered much of Europe, but Britain remained undefeated.
• The Battle of Britain was a significant air campaign waged by the German Luftwaffe against the United Kingdom.
• The Lend-Lease Act allowed the U.S. to provide military aid to foreign nations during World War II.
• USA sent planes, tanks, ships, and other supplies to Britain to help them continue the fight against Germany.
• Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which marked a significant escalation in the war.a

The Turning Point: 1941

• Battle of Moscow. October 1941 to January 1942.
• December 1941: Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor.
• December 1941: Germany Declares War on USA.

• German stopping outside of Moscow was a turning point in the war.
  • Moscow was evacuated in October 1941 in fear of German capture.
  • Soviets succeeded.
  • Lost only chance for rapid victory.
  • Soviets mobilized incredibly
    • Forbade soldiers and commanders from retreating.
• German losses before Barbarossa: 102,000 (50,000 in France alone)
  • GER losses in USSR between June and Nov. 1941: 262,000.
• Japan
  • The goal behind Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was to neutralize the U.S. Pacific Fleet, preventing it from interfering with Japan’s expansionist plans in Southeast Asia.
  • Japan hoped that a swift and decisive strike would demoralize the U.S. and lead to a negotiated settlement favorable to Japan.
  • However, the attack had the opposite effect, galvanizing American public opinion and leading to the U.S. declaring war on Japan the following day (December 8, 1941).

1942: The Second Front

• Spring 1942: BR, USA, USSR meeting.
• North Africa Invasion (Nov. 1942)
• USA Attacks Solomon Islands & New Guinea (Aug. 1942)

• meeting
  • Clear disagreement on strategy:
    • USSR wanted a second front in Europe immediately.
    • USA had Germany first strategy, proposed cross-channel invasion in 1943.
    • Britain wanted invasion of North Africa. (Operation torch).
      • Britain afraid of getting bogged down in France again.
    • Delayed cross-channel invasion until 1944.
• Simultaneously, USA began attacking Solomon Islands and New Guinea in the Pacific.
  • Basis of securing the Australian supply lines and launching further offensives against Japanese-held territories in the Pacific.
• Operation torch:
  • Began in Morocco and Algeria.
  • Led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
  • Goal: Clear Axis powers from North Africa, improve naval control of Mediterranean, prepare for invasion of Southern Europe.

Operation Torch (1942)

• Britain in N. Afric since 1940.
• Early 1942: BR pushes Axis to Tunisia.
• Nov. 1942: USA & BR land in Morocco & Algeria.
• Success, led to Axis surrender in May 1943.

• Britain had been fighting in North Africa since 1940 against Italian forces.
• After initial setbacks, British forces under General Bernard Montgomery had pushed Axis forces back to Tunisia by early 1942.
• Operation torch involved landings at three main points: Casablanca in Morocco, Oran in Algeria, and Algiers in Algeria.
• The operation was a success, leading to the eventual surrender of Axis forces in North Africa in May 1943.
• Demonstrated the ability of large-scale amphibious operations.
• Successful, led to Axis surrender in May 1943.
• 183 German Divisions in Russia in June 1942.
• 3 German divisions in North Africa in Nov. 1942.
• 42 German divisions in occupied W. Europe

Nov. 1942 to Feb. 1943: Stalingrad Falls

• Summer 1942: GER offensive to capture Stalingrad.
• Nov. 1942: Soviets encircle GER 6th Army.
• Feb. 1943: GER 6th Army surrenders.
• Began German Retreat

• Stalingrad was more important.
• USA imagination, Stalingrad was building-to-building fight and suicidal soviet resistance
• But it was a battle of encirclement and destruction.
  • USSR launched carefully planned two-pronged attack on the flanks of the German 6th Army.
• More German divisions lost at Stalingrad (about 300,000) than in all of North Africa.
• Soviets mastered operational art.

July 1943: Axis in Retreat

• July 1943: Allies invade Sicily.
• Nazis counterattack in Kursk (July 1943)
• Soviet Counterattack until April 1944.

• Attack Sicily from North Africa.
  • bogged down quickly:
    • Italian geography
    • “the Wehrmacht raced into the country, disarmed the Italian army, and created a strong defensive position between Naples and Rome”
    • Allies withdrawing some of their best troops to prepare for the invasion of Normandy.
• Kursk:
  • Last major German offensive on Eastern Front.
  • Large tank battle of German Panzer divsions against Soviet defenses.
  • Soviets lost more people than Germans, but Germans never regained initiative in East.
  • GER sent many planes to Mediterranean, so they weren’t available for Kursk.
  • Soviets bore down and won.
  • Benefitted from Lend-Lease supplies.
  • “As Churchill colorfully put it in a radio address in March 1944, ‘the guts of the German Army have been largely torn out by Russian valour and generalship’”

June 6, 1944: D-Day

• June 6, 1944: Allies invade Normandy.
• September - December 1944: Major Allied advance.
• July 1944: USSR attack in Ukraine.

• Nazis only had 60 divisions covering all France and low countries.
  • only 20 divisions were Panzer divisions.
  • 186 divisions in the East fighting Soviets.
• 6 of 13 divisions that came ashore on D-Day had combat experience from Italy and North africa.
  • Allies lost 30,000 in Normandy campaign.
  • at first delayed because of hedgerows.
  • From Sept. to Dec. 1944, Allies advance through France and the low coutnries.
• combined with attacks form USSR.
  • By August, USSR took Belarus and Ukraine back.
  • By September, USSR reached Poland.
  • Lost 125,000 people

Victory in Europe: May 1945

• April 1945: Soviets capture Berlin
• May 1945: Germany Surrenders
• VE Day: 8 May 1945

The End in the Pacific: August 1945

• Island Hopping Campaign (1943-1945)
• August 1945: USSR invades Manchuria and Korea.
• Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 6 & 9 Aug. 1945
• Japan Surrenders, 15 Aug. 1945

• USSR and USA agree on division of Korea at 38th parallel on 10 August.

conclusion

• Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946)
• United Nations Established (1945)
• 70-80 million deaths worldwide.
• 50 million deaths directly caused by war.
• 20-25 million military deaths.
  • More than half of that from USSR and China.

• Nuremberg Trials:
  • Prosecution of prominent leaders of Nazi Germany.
  • Charges: crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity.
  • Established precedent for international law.
  • Beginning of the Cold War limited the trials.