World War II

1. World War II The Grand Alliance McKay 980-984, Palmer 21.107

2. World War II1942-1945 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor Grand Alliance Formed Battle of Stalingrad ends (Feb) Hiroshima & Nagasaki A-Bombed (Aug. 6 & 9) 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 D-Day June 6 Wannsee Conference declares Final Solution Atlantic Charter Yalta Conference (Feb)

3. The Grand Alliance • Grand Alliance led by (GB, US, USSR) & 26 other nations formed to face the Axis Powers • Formed after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and US declared war • Unconditional Surrender • Agreed to the total defeat of the Axis Powers • All pledged to use all its resources and never make a separate peace • The Big Three • Stalin, FDR, and Churchill • US and GB pooled resources under a Combined Chiefs of Staff • Formed overall strategy early (unlike WWI) • Europe First • Decided that Germany must be defeated 1st • Pacific theater would be defensive until Germany fell • Divisive political questions would be postponed until the end of the war

4. Strengths of Grand Alliance • US industrial capacity unsurpassed, large population united • Greater Production capacity than all other industrial nations combined • British effectively mobilized economy for total war • High morale • Soviets had effectively relocated entire factories over Urals • Extremely patriotic (Great Patriotic War of the Fatherland) • Resistance from Nazi occupied territories

5. Resistance to the Nazis • Resistance varied from one occupied country to another • Countries where German soldiers & collaborators were prominent resistance was minimal • French Resistance • Led by General Charles De Gaulle (from England) • Jean Moulin captured and tortured to death in July ’43 without revealing names of French fighters • Yugoslavian • Communist Josip Broz (Tito) led a Serb-Croat resistance army of 20 thousand • Used mountains to hide and harass Germans and Italian armies • Valkyrie (July ’44) • Assassination plot led by Wehrmacht ColonelClaus von Stauffenberg to assassinate Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair (Northern Poland) • 15 thousand Germans sentenced to death for crimes against the state • Included listening to the BBC • But most Germans remained loyal to de Fuhrer

6. Total War • British were first government to thoroughly mobilize entire British economy & society towards Total War • British conscription law brought very little resistance • British armed forces • 500 thousand in 1939 • 5 million in 1945 • Ordinance Industry • 7 thousand women in 1939 • 260 thousand in 1945 • British War Cabinet • Established rationing, higher taxes • Pants came without cuffs or zippers • Utilized scientists and engineers to create weapons • Cracked German High Command’s communication codes • British Psychological Warfare Division • Used psychology to weaken the will of Axis • Radio and leaflets • Germany countered with “Axis Sally” and “Tokyo Rose”

7. The War in North Africa • Italian army invaded North Africa in June of 1940 • By December 1940 Italian army was reeling to British • Hitler sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to save Italians • Secondary purpose was to control Suez Canal (lifeline of British Empire & path to oil fields of Middle East) • Axis decisively defeated at El Alamein in October 1942 • Operation Torch • Invasion of Vichy North Africa led by Eisenhower (Algeria and Morocco) • Montgomery launched final counter offensive from the east • Germany was crushed by 5/1943 in Tunisia • Almost 300 thousand surrendered • By May ’43 Africa was cleared of Axis • Mediterranean and Suez reopened

8. Stalingrad • Turning point of the War • Aug. ’42 ¼ million German forces began all out assault on Stalingrad • Key transport city of lower Volga • By Sept. German forces were in the city • Stalin ordered the city to be held at all costs • Red Army under General Zhukov organized a counteroffensive and enveloped the German army • Only 120,000 German soldiers were left to surrender in Feb 43 • Number of Russians killed is unknown • Red Army was now an offensive army

9. The Battle of Stalingrad

10. Invasion of Italy • Allies used North Africa as launching pad for invasion of Europe’s “Soft Underbelly” • Took Sicily (July-Aug. ’43) • King Victor Emmanuel III fired Mussolini and ordered his arrest • Rescued by German commandos in Sept. • Set up “Italian Social Republic” in northern Italy but only existed with German soldiers • Marshal Badoglio made peace overtures to the Allies but German army occupied Italy • Allies invaded Italy in Sept. 1943 • Monte Cassino • German army well fortified inside a 6th century monastery • Combined American, Polish, and Canadian forces finally overtook them in May 1944 • US troops took Rome June 4, 1944 • Mussolini fell 4/1945 & was captured trying to flee the country and executed

11. Normandy Invasion • Stalin had clamored for a “second front” since 1942 • Believed USSR was taking brunt of German attacks • Hitler believed attack would be on Pas- de-Calais (closest French port) • Festung Europa • Beaches around France were heavily fortified • “Atlantic Wall” • Included underwater mines, Belgian Sticks, reinforced pill boxes, Rommel Asparagus • Amphibious attack posed exceptional challenges • German victory hinged on rapid reinforcement of tanks and troops • Allies utilized feinting tactics • Other challenges • air superiority, 4, 000 transport ships, 10 thousand aircraft, engineering materials (artificial harbors, pontoon ramp system), unpredictable weather of English Channel

12. D-Day (June 6, 1944) • Massive amphibious invasion (Second Front) on beaches of Normady France • Germans expected main thrust of invasion at Calais • Under the command of Eisenhower 130 thousand Canadian, British, American forces landed 1st day • Built 3 makeshift harbors • 1.3 million troops landed within a 7 weeks • Paris liberated on August 25 • French, Italian, and Belgian Resistance movements emerged

13. D-Day

14. Battle of the Bulge • Hitler’s last offensive • Battle of the Bulge • Hitler threw remaining armored forces against the Allies in the Ardennes in Dec. ‘44 • Successful at 1st but Allies rebounded • V1 and V2 rockets (Buzz Bomb) and new Messerschmitt jet terrorized London • But Germany’s time was running out • 3/1945 Allied forces crossed the Rhine

15. The Eastern Front • Soviet army was pushing west and reclaiming territory lost early in the war • Allowed youth of Warsaw Uprising (Aug. ’44) and democracy to be crushed by Nazis • 66 Day house-to-house fighting by Polish youth • Stalin had already destroyed Polish army leadership at Katyn forest in ‘43 • Feb ’45 General Zhukov reached the Oder River • Red army was 50 miles from Berlin

16. The Final Drive on Germany • April 1945 American troops reached the Elbe • 60 miles from Berlin • Soviets were permitted to take Berlin, Prague, and other central and eastern European capitals • Eisenhower • Directed troops south in case of guerilla attacks • Gesture of goodwill to Soviets for their sacrifice • Hitler married Eva Braun and committed suicide April 30, 1945 • Admiral Doenitz, Hitler’s successor offered Germany’s unconditional surrender (5/8/1945)

17. The Final Solution • Final Solution was Hitler and Nazi high command decision to eliminate Jews and other untermenchen in Europe • Part of Hitler’s New Order program • Began in late 30s with the murder by lethal injection, and gas truck of Germans who were mentally deficient and handicapped (70 thousand) • 350 thousand other Germans considered deficient were sterilized (alcoholics, homosexuals, schizophrenics) • Heinrich Himmler • carried out Final Solution • Leader of the SS • special army of 1 million ardent Nazi soldiers used to carry out the Holocaust • Former chicken farmer who was obsessed with medieval Germany • Slav’s included in Himmler’s untermenchen category • Planned to clear Eastern Europe of at least 30 million slavs to make room for Germans

18. The Final Solution Source: German Soldier who witnessed Kaunas pogrom was the so-called "Death dealer of Kaunas“ in June 1941 "A young man--he must have been a Lithuanian-...with rolled up sleeves was armed with an iron crowbar. He dragged out one man at a time from the group and struck him with the crowbar with one or more blows on the back of his head. Within three-quarters of an hour he had beaten to death the entire group of forty to fifty people in this way. I had a series of photographs of the victims...After the entire group had been beaten to death, the young man put the crowbar to one side, fetched an accordion and went and stood on the mountain of corpses and played the Lithuanian national anthem. I recognized the tune and was informed by bystanders that this was the national anthem. The behaviour of the civilians present (women and children) was unbelievable. After each man had been killed, they began to clap and when the national anthem started up they joined the singing and clapping. In the front row there were women with small children in their arms who stayed there right until the end of the whole proceedings. I found out from some people who knew German what was happening here. They explained to me that the parents of the young man who had killed the other people had been taken from their beds two days earlier and immediately shot, because they were suspected of being nationalists, and this was the young man's revenge.".34 • A gradual process of bureaucratized, industrialized mass murder • Nuremberg Laws had stripped Jews of civil rights • Germany’s invasion of Poland brought Nazi’s in contact with 3 million Eastern Jews • Ghettoization • After WWII began Jews were systematically deported to small sections of Polish cities (Warsaw, Krakow) • Rancid and extremely overcrowded conditions • Einsatzgruppen • SS-led death squads followed German regular army and systematically murdered Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs by machine gun, starvation, etc. • Whole villages in Eastern Europe were razed and inhabitants murdered or deported

20. The Final Solution • The “Final Solution” was decided by Nazi executives at Wannsee, Poland in Jan. ’42 • Rate of murder dramatically rose as German army began to lose battles • Auschwitz • Most horrific concentration camp • Both a work and death camp • Jews and others transported on cattle cars • Selection Process • Nazi doctors inspected arrivals and quickly decided who went left or right • Left = immediate death in gas chamber • Right = slow death as a slave laborer • 12 thousand gassed per day • Bodies were checked for silver, gold and then burned in crematoria • Gallows stood in open courtyard where prisoners stood for hours everyday during roll call • 6 million Jews • 3 million Poles • 80 % Russian POW

22. The Final Solution • Auschwitz I’s Block 10 was used to conduct horrific experiments • Headed Dr. Josef Mengele • “The Angel of Death • Performed grotesque experiments on over 3 thousand twins • Performed autopsies on life patients without anesthesia • Tried to change eye color • Injected patients with various chemicals • Only 100 pairs survived Block 10 of Auschwitz I where medical experiments were performed

26. Auschwitz-Birkenau

28. Push towards Japan • From Guadalcanal Americans began to “Island Hop” northward toward Japan • March 1945 took 8 square mile strategic island of Iwo Jima after heavy loses • Took Okinawa after brutal 2.5 months in spring of ’45 • Only 300 miles from Japanese main islands • Japanese fought harder the closer Americans came to Japan • Began all-out air campaign from newly won territory to destroy Japanese industry • Plan for full-scale invasion of Japan were being drawn up

29. The Atomic Bomb • “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima 8/6/45 • 78 thousand killed and thousands of others were wounded or suffered radiation exposure • Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria 8/8 • Nagasaki was struck 8/9 • 9/2/45 Japan signed unconditional surrender on the Missouri • Emperor Hirohito remained head of state but Japan under occupation of US army under MacArthur

30. World War II (1939-1945) • Greatest conflict in human history • 50-70 million total deaths • 25 million wounded • 15 million military deaths • USSR- 6 • German- 3.5 • Chinese- 2.2 • Japanese- 1.3 • Polish 700 thousand • GB- 400 • US 300 • French 200 • 40-50 million civilian deaths • 25 million Russian