World War II

European Theater
Prelude & November 1942-May 1945

Europe Map 1913

Europe Map 1937

1913

1937

Treaty of Versailles

All sides felt that they had been forced to make concessions. France remained fearful of Germany. Britain, war weary, withdrew from Europe and focused on her Empire. Soviet Union seen as a hostile power internal reforms America returned to Isolationism. Resentment grew in Germany, Italy and Japan. States of former A-H too weak to oppose Germany

League of Nations

Created in 1920 U.S. Congress refuses to join. Germany admitted in 1926. Germany leaves 1933 (domestic/political). Japan leaves 1933. USSR Joins 1934. Italy leaves 1936. League proves ineffective in preventing war.

Hitler and Mussolini

Hitler and Mussolini

1923 Hitlers first grab at power fails. Hitler imprisoned. Writes Mein Kampf while in prison. 1929 Hitler opposes Reparations, becomes a national figure. 1930 Elections, Nazi party becomes second largest. 1932, Hitler defeated in Presidential elections. SA banned. 1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of National Coalition Government. March 1933. Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial powers. 1934 Hitler becomes Fuhrer.

1922 Mussolini becomes Prime Minister of Italy.

1935 Italy invades Ethiopia. (1896 Adwa) 1936 Italy annexes Ethiopia. 1936 Berlin - Rome Axis agreement.

1938 Hitler visits Mussolini in Rome.

1939 Italy occupies Albania.

Hitlers Foreign Policy & Racial Ideology At home: Volksgemeinschaft peoples community Nuremburg Laws/Kristallnacht (German public: distasteful but tolerated) Hitlers Growing popularity 1933-1938 Pursued the destruction of Versailles Treaty via appeasement Hitler madman bent on world domination A War Forecasted in Mein Kampf? Gross Deutsches Reich unity of German people/lands Lebensraum (Karl Haushofer) Illegitimate states of the East The state of Russia The blockade of 1916-17 and the breadbasket of the East Aryan racial empire vs. Judeo-Bolshevism Germanys rightful place in a new world (racial) order Gross Deutsches Reich, British Empire, United States, Japan Hitlers Health

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

Challenges to Hitlers Foreign Policy Goals Demilitarized zone on Germanys W. border France defensive treaties with Czech., Poland Limit of 100,000 troops // no air force Hitlers War Mobilization France/Britains war weariness Hitlers need to mobilize and avoid war early convince France/Britain of peaceful intentions March 1935 Hitler announces militarization plans: France & Britain renounce BUT
Anglo-German Naval Pact: June 18, 1935 Appeasement

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

1. 1933 Withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations
Hitlers offer to utterly and completely disarm if leading powers did the samerefused Hitler:
You see, all we want in Germany is to be restored to our rightful place in the international community. Equality, equitable treatment for Germany, to be restored as an equal partner in world affairs. But the victorious Allies of the First World War werent interested in that at all. Al they want to do is keep Germany in a position of subservience and their unwillingness to agree to this disarmament offer reveals the bad faith with which they have dealt ever since the Versailles conference.

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

2. March 1935 Announcement of the creation of an air force

Strictly forbidden Air force to defend Germany even the Poles and the Czechs had an air force Posturing former veteran Limited protest from Britain/France

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

3. March 1935 (1 week later) conscription to build army to 500,000 w/ full-scale armaments
No concerted action

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

4. Agreement with Britain to build German navy (including submarines) to 35% of the size of Britains Navy
Seen as betrayal to French

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

5. Saar Valley Plebicite (91%) vote to return to Germany

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

6. 1936 Hitler sends troops into the previously demilitarized Rhineland

Importance of this DMZ Frances protest at the League of Nations/Berlin Military provisions of the Treaty of Versailles obliterated

Diplomatic Revolution: The Disposal of the Treaty of Versailles

1937 Hitler discuss the likelihood of conflict Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Britain
Objections by top command 2 front war Hitler felt he could avoid via diplomacy Faced with the reality of consequences of Eastward expansion

Crises of 1938
1. Austria
1934 repressed Austrian Nazi coup d etat (France, Britain, Italy) 1938 New Austrian P.M., Chancellor Schussnigg sought guarantees from European powers of state sovereignty in the face of Nazi take-over Hitler took as a violation of cooperative agreement signed in 1934 accuses Schussnig of repressing the Nazis in Austria Plebicite in Austria Hitler pressures an invitation into Vienna Declares Austria a part of Germany in his hometown of Linz Popular in Germany Gave rise to calls for annexation within Czech Sudatenland heim ins Reich

Hitler announces the occupation of Austria

Crises of 1938
2. Czechoslovakia
Spring Mobilized troops for German invasion Hitler furious mistreatment of German minority Germans in Czech. Sudetenland provoking confrontation Alliance w/ France & then USSR WWI all over again?
Britain, France, Soviet Union make military plans

 Munich Agreement Peace in our time. Neville Chamberlain Heros welcome Convinced Hitler/Stalin of Wests weakness 1938 Germans enter Sudetenland, dissolved Czechoslovakia (1939)

Appeasement Why?
France Defensive Maginot Line after withdrawal from Ruhr Abandoned by Britain (Anglo-German Naval Treaty) Compelled to accept reoccupation of Rhineland Weak internal coalition Britain
Saw France as bent on German punishment - Versailles too harsh Meet justified demands maintain air/naval strength War to be avoided at all costs Americans: unreliable, Soviets: untrustworthy

 Policy change by Britain and France

Search for alliance with USSR

August 23, 1939: Nazi-Soviet NonAggression Pact

Appeasement Ends
August 31st, 1939: German SS Troops dress in Polish uniforms and attack a German Radio Station

6:00 am September 1st, 1939: Germany invades Poland.

8:00 am Poland request military aid from France and England Noon: England declares war on Germany. 5:00pm France Declares War on Germany.

-September 17th, 1939: Russia invades Poland from the East. -September 28th: Warsaw surrenders after suffering 18 days of continuous bombing. -Hitler immediately offers peace terms to France and Britain, but is turned down.

German troops stage a victory parade through the streets of Warsaw, Poland. September 1939

Nazi-Soviet Non Aggression Maginot Line Dunkirk Battle of Britain Greece/Crete Mistake Barbarossa

Casablanca

Montgomery Clark

515th Army Grp

Alexander

Western Task Force

Center Task Force

Eastern Task Force 7

Patton 15th
Alexander

1th Abn Div

8
Montgomery

Army Grp

Tehran Bombing Offiensive

8
21th Army Grp
Montgomery

15th Army Grp

Alexander

5
Clark

Montgomery 815 15th Army Grp

Alexander

DDay and Liberation of Paris Market Garden

8
21th Army Grp
Montgomery

2 1 21th Army Grp

Montgomery

2 1 9
Bradley

12 1 th Army Grp Bradley 3

6th Army Grp
Devers

12th Army Grp

15th Army Grp

Alexander Clark

15

Battle of the Bulge Rhineland Campaign to VE

21th Army Grp

Montgomery

12th Army Grp

Bradley

2 1 9 1 3 7 1

6th Army Grp

Devers

8
Clark

15th Army Grp

15

Nazi Soviet Non Aggression Pact

France
and the breaking of the Maginot Line

Blitzkrieg
Germany had invented a new form of warfare. Fast moving German Panzer Tank units, supported by dive bombers and infantry reserves, overwhelmed first Polish and then French forces.

France
Germany invaded The Netherlands and Belgium on 10 May, 1940. By 5 June both countries had been overrun. By 14 June German forces had entered Paris. On 21 June France formally surrendered.

Dunkirk June 14, 1940 Hitler calls off the German Army, Britain is able to evacuate most of its army.

Hitler Misstep
Hitler was afraid the army would gain too much credit and be a potential threat so he called off their attack at Dunkirk. The result was that the British were able to evacuate their army which allowed them to defend their home island.

British radar during WWII

Battle of Britain: Life on the Home Front London and other English cities suffered from German Bombing raids.

British troops arrive while children leave London

 Hitler was upset that Berlin was bombed so he turned the Luftwaffe away from the successful raids on the airfields and radar installations and targeted British cities instead. Result: The RAF was able to recover and slowly drain the Luftwaffe of pilots and planes until the Germans withdrew.

Hitlers Misstep: Battle of Britain

Hitler Misstep
Hitler came to the aid of Mussolini when he was failing in his attempt to invade Greece on April 6, 1941. Result: The Balkan offensive tied up a large amount of men and supplies that could have been used in the Soviet invasion. As a result, the Germans lost almost a month of better fighting weather with the Balkan offensive. The later German invasion of the USSR was slowed by a harsh winter.

Operation Barbarossa: German invasion of the USSR June 22, 1941

Hitler Misstep: Invasion of the Soviet Union June 22, 1941

Hitler attacks before Britain is knocked out of the war. The Germans are brutal to the Russians. He also plans on a quick blitzkrieg victory so winter supplies are limited. Result: Germany has to fight a 2 front war. The US gives aid to the USSR to keep them in the war which helps Britain. Many Russians would have welcomed the Germans as liberators; instead Russians in occupied areas resist and fight back tying up German resources.

 Ironically, Napoleon also attacked Russia on the same date and lost due to the severe winter and the vast land area. German soldiers suffer without proper winter gear. The USSR is an enormous country with many resources, population, and land area which makes it difficult to invade.

Napoleon 1812 = Hitler 1941

 French Gen. Henri Giraud, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gen. Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill. Roosevelt announced the "unconditional surrender" of Germany, Italy and Japan.

Casablanca Conference

The Big Three meet at Teheran Conference November 28, 1943

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. invade Western and Southern France Stalin promises to attack Japan

Allied bomber offensive against Germany

Allied bombers constantly bombed Axis held territory killing troops, disrupting the transportation system and the production of war supplies.

B17 Flying Fortress bomb run

US air attacks
Adolf Hitler, grimly inspects bomb damage in a German city in 1944.

D-Day

June 6, 1944 The United States, Great Britain, and Canada launch the largest amphibious invasion in history. Commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower Germany failed to respond to the attack quickly enough.

Operation Overlord: D-Day June 1944

The War In Europe

The dead and wounded from D-Day.

The Liberation of France

Allied forces managed to advance across France despite heavy German resistance. By august 26th Paris was back in French hands.

Paris is liberated

The French retake the streets of Paris

Operation Market Garden

German POWs after the fall of Aachen. October, 1944.

Germanys Three Front War

As U.S. And British troops advanced from the west and south, Soviet forces attacked from the east. Germany was incapable of fighting on all fronts.

German Counterattack The Battle of the Bulge

Faced with a three front war against superior numbers the Germans had little hope. The High command planned an armored thrust through the Ardennes forest towards the city of Bastogne. Although the attack failed to breakthrough the Allied defenses it did create a dangerous bulge in the lines. The U.S. rushed reserve divisions and pushed the Germans back. Germanys last hope was lost.

Bastogne: Nuts!

 How to divide Germany after WWII? Did the allies give Eastern Europe over to the Soviets? Soviets agree to fight the Japanese and join the United Nations.

Yalta Conference
Feb - 1945

U.S. soldiers cross the Rhine River under heavy German fire.

U.S. Soldiers head toward the Apennine Mountains near Florence, Italy. April 9, 1945.

Final offensive in Europe

USSR and US meet

Fall of Fascism
Hitler ordered his Armies to fight to the death, and forbid any unit from retreating. The Allied advance was unstoppable. Germany turned to desperate measures.

 As Russian troops entered Berlin in 1945 Hitler, his mistress, and his top aides committed suicide. German Generals quickly surrendered. May 8, 1945. VE Day.

The Fall of Fascism

Hitler Commits Suicide

Concentration camps liberated

German cities destroyed

Nuremberg Trials