world war ii: battles, tactics, strategies and...
TRANSCRIPT
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World War II:
Battles, Tactics, Strategies
and Weapons
War In Europe
German expansion
– Hitler annexed (took over) Austria
– Claimed the Sudetenland
• Part of Czechoslovakia
– Hitler planned to unite all German speaking people
Munich Conference
• Leaders of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany met in Munich in 1938
• Britain and France agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland and Hitler promised he would seek no further territory
• The practice of giving into aggression to avoid war is known as appeasement
• Appeasement failed when Germany took the rest of Czechoslovakia
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Munich Conference
Hitler invades Poland
• Hitler and Stalin sign a non-aggression pact
– Promised not to attack each other
• Hitler launches the blitzkrieg (Lightning war) against Poland
• Poland quickly falls to Hitler
A Global ConflictAfter the invasion of Poland:
• Britain and France declare war on Germany
• Later, the Allied powerswould include: Britain, France, Soviet Union, United States, and China
• The Soviet Union joined the allies in 1941 after Hitler broke the Non-Aggression pact
• Italy and Japan join Germany to form the Axis powers
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The “Phoney War” Ends:Blitzkrieg
The “Phoney War” Ends:Blitzkrieg
• In the Spring of 1940, Hitler launches an all out attack on Europe. Within weeks, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark and finally France were overcome by the Nazis.
• The Germans used a new tactic called Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) to combine aircraft, tanks, artillery and ground troops.
• This new tactic overwhelms the Allies; they didn’t know what hit them.
FRANCE SURRENDERS!!!
• Spring 1940
– Hitler’s armies smashed through Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium
– German armies marched into Paris, France in June 1940
– Hitler’s next target was Britain
Hitler in France
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Battle of Britain• After France fell, Britain stood
alone in Europe
• British Prime Minister Winston Churchill rallied the people as Germany bombed Britain
• Hitler never gets Britain, this was of great importance to the allied war effort.
– WHY?
• Britain gave the Allies a place to launch an offensive against Hitler
Battle of Britain: The “Blitz”Battle of Britain: The “Blitz”After occupying western Europe, Hitler decides to invade England. The Battle of Britain was an air battle to control the skies over England.But the German
Luftwaffe was never able to defeat the RAF and Hitler called the invasion off. Instead, he makes the biggest mistake of the war!
The Royal Air Force v. LuftwaffeThe Royal Air Force v. Luftwaffe
ME 109 Supermarine Spitfire
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Scenes from “The Battle of Britain”Germany’s massive bombardment of Britain
Question
• Why didn’t Germany win the Battle of Britain?
• What problems did this
cause with the German war effort?
FDR and American Policy
• FDR tried to help the allies
– Asked for repeal of Neutrality laws, isolationistsin Congress blocked the move
– Congress agrees to a cash and carry plan
• Allies could pay cash for arms and goods and carry them home in their own ships
– The threat of war convinces FDR to run for a third term
• FDR wins re-election (“Don’t change horses in midstream”)
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U.S.A. as the “Arsenal of Democracy”
• FDR asked Congress to pass the Lend-Lease act– The US sent war
equipment to any country whose defense was vital to the US
• FDR and Churchill formed the Atlantic Charter– Pledged to support the
right of all people to choose their own form of government
World War II Without America
1931/1937 - Manchuria
1933 - Rise of Hitler
1935 - Mussolini and Ethiopia
1936-1939 - Spanish Civil War
1938 – Anschluss with Austria
1938 - Munich and Invasion on Czechoslovakia
1939 – Invasion of Poland
1939 – Hitler-Stalin Pact
1940 – Capitulation of France
1940 - Battle of Britain
1940 - Invasion of Soviet Union
1941 - Japan Joins the Axis
1941 - Pearl Harbor Attack
From Neutrality to Intervention
– The Campaign of 1940
– Neutrality Abandoned
– The Road to Pearl Harbor• Invasion of Vietnam
• December 7, 1941
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The US enters the War!• Japan’s war in Asia continued at a brutal pace
• The US tried to stop Japan’s aggression by refusing to sell oil and metal to Japan
• An angry Japan launched a surprise attack on the US
• On Sunday, December 7, 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
• 2400 Americans killed, and the US Pacific fleet destroyed
• FDR asked Congress for a declaration of waragainst Japan
• Italy and Germany declared war on the US
Pearl HarborPearl Harbor
USS Arizona, Pearl HarborUSS Arizona, Pearl Harbor
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Pearl Harbor MemorialPearl Harbor Memorial
2,887 Americans Dead!
Question
• What events forced FDR to break American neutrality?
• Was Pearl Harbor really a
sneak attack? Why didn’t the U.S. know it was coming?
The European and Mediterranean Fronts
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War in the Soviet Union• Operation Barbarossa
• June 22, 1941: Germany attacked the Soviet Union with 3.6 million German soldiers & 3,400 tanks.
• The USSR asked the US for lend-lease help, but FDR refused, afraid to be caught helping a communist nation.
• Eventually, the USSR repelled the German attack, but this was only a temporary victory.
Largest Tank Battles in History
T-34
Tiger
Operation Barbarossa:Hitler’s Biggest MistakeOperation Barbarossa:Hitler’s Biggest Mistake
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The Battle of Stalingrad
• 1942: Germany again attacked the USSR, this time concentrating its attacks in the Southern part of the country.
• Sept. 1942: the Germans attacked Stalingrad, a major oil and railroad center.
The Battle of Stalingrad
• From September to November, 1942, the Germans shelled and attacked the city of Stalingrad.
• The USSR refused to surrender the city and house - to - house fighting saved the city from defeat.
• By late November, the USSR launched a counteroffensive and began to win the battle.
A Turning Point
• Jan. 31, 1943: 90,000 surviving German soldiers surrendered to the Soviet army in Stalingrad.
• Hitler ordered them to fight to the death.
• This was the turning point of the war in the east: after this the USSR never lost another battle, and the Germans did not launch any more offensives in the east.
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Battle of Stalingrad:Winter of 1942-1943
Battle of Stalingrad:Winter of 1942-1943
German Army Russian Army
1,011,500 men 1,000,500 men
10,290 artillery guns 13,541 artillery guns
675 tanks 894 tanks
1,216 planes 1,115 planes
Maximum Axis Control (Sept 1942)
Question
• Why did Germany attack the Soviet Union? Was it a smart
decision?
• Why was Stalingrad the turning point with the war in the Soviet Union?
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The North African Campaign
• Nov. 1942: Br. General Montgomery wins the Battle of El Alamein in Egypt. This starts the retreat of German General Rommel.
• Turning Point in Africa
• Nov. 1942: Am. and Br. troops commanded by Dwight Eisenhower landed in Morocco.
• Eventually the two allied armies met, forcing a German surrender in Africa.
The Battle of El Alamein, 1942The Battle of El Alamein, 1942
Gen. Ernst Rommel,The “Desert Fox”
Gen. Bernard Law
Montgomery(“Monty”)
The Invasion of Italy• July, 1943: Am. Troops commanded by
General George Patton attacked Sicily.
• 38 days later, Sicily fell and Mussolini was overthrown by a disillusioned Italian population.
• Hitler captured Mussolini and set up a fascist state in N. Italy, and Italian and German troops continued to fight the Allies in Italy.
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War in Italy• Sept. 1943: Italy
surrendered to the allies, and many Italians began to fight against Mussolini and Hitler.
• Sept. 1943 - Jan. 1944: US forces are stalled by Hitler’s troops .
• Finally in January, the US landed forces behind the German lines at Anzio, just South of Rome.
The Battle of Anzio
• This battle took 4 months and 72,000 German deaths to win.
• Soon after the battle, Rome fell to the Allies.
• N. Italy finally surrendered to the Allies in April, 1945, after 190,000 Americans and 483,000 Germans died there.
D-Day• June 6, 1944: Allied troops commanded by
Eisenhower landed on the beaches of Normandy and began the invasion of W. Europe and the liberation of France.
• 200,000 Allied troops vs. 105,000 German troops
• 10,000 Allied Casualties, 4,000-9,000 German Casualties
• Despite brutal German resistance, 2 million Allied soldiers occupied France by July.
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D-Day (June 6, 1944)
Operation Overlord
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
Operation Overlord
Normandy Landing (June 6, 1944)
Normandy Landing (June 6, 1944)
Higgins Landing Crafts
German Prisoners
Question
• Why didn’t the Allies invade France sooner? Why did
they start in Africa?
• What if D-Day failed? How would the war in Europe developed?
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The Battle of the Bulge
• Dec. 1944: Germany launched its last offensive in the war attacking Americans in Belgium and Luxembourg.
• Patton arrived a few days later with 250,000 men.
• This was the largest battle ever fought by the US army and the largest battle of WWII.
The Battle of the Bulge:Hitler’s Last Offensive
The Battle of the Bulge:Hitler’s Last Offensive
Dec. 16, 1944to
Jan. 28, 1945
US & Russian Soldiers Meet at the Elbe River: April 25, 1945
US & Russian Soldiers Meet at the Elbe River: April 25, 1945
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Hitler’s “Secret Weapons”:Too Little, Too Late!
Hitler’s “Secret Weapons”:Too Little, Too Late!
V-1 Rocket:“Buzz Bomb”
V-2 Rocket Werner von Braun
ME 262 Jet
German Surrender• The Americans continued to bomb Germany
and attack from the Western front, while the Soviets continued their attacks on Germany from the East.
• Hitler commits suicide – April 30, 1945
• May 8, 1945: V-E Day: Germany surrendered.
Question
• List three reasons that Germany lost the war.
• How could Germany have
won the war? What events needed to happen?
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The Code Breakers of WW IIThe Code Breakers of WW II
Bletchley Park
The German “Enigma” Machine
The Japanese “Purple” [naval] Code Machine
The Pacific Theatre
War in the Pacific
• On Dec. 7, 1941, on the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack, about one-half of General MacArthur’s air force was destroyed on the ground at Clark Air Field in the Philippines.
• Within days, a large Japanese force landed in the Philippines and MacArthur withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula on Manila Bay. There he set up defenses, hoping the US Navy could evacuate his men to safety.
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The Philippines
• By March, 1942, FDR ordered General MacArthur to escape to Australia. He left with the words: “I shall return.”
• On May 6, 1942, 11,000 Americans and Filipinos surrendered. When the Bataan Peninsula fell, approx. 76,000 Filipinos and Americans became prisoners of war.
U.S. Surrenders at Corregidor,the Philippines [March, 1942]
U.S. Surrenders at Corregidor,the Philippines [March, 1942]
Bataan Death March
• Japanese soldiers split the prisoners into groups of 500-1000 and marched them 60 miles to a railroad.
• About 10,000 prisoners died during the 6 -12 day march and some were shot by the guards.
• Those who survived were shipped to prison camps where they were held captive for the rest of the war.
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Bataan Death March: April, 1942Bataan Death March: April, 1942
76,000 prisoners [12,000 Americans] Marched 60 miles in the blazing heat to POW
camps in the Philippines.
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle:First U. S. Raids on Tokyo, April 1942
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle:First U. S. Raids on Tokyo, April 1942
B-25s on U.S.S. HornetThe Doolittle Raiders
The first plane takes off B-25s over Japan
Question
• Why did America have problems fighting the
Japanese early in the war? What changed as the war went on?
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Battle of the Coral Sea
• Japanese forces continued to expand and were not stopped by allied forces until the Battle of the Coral Sea in May, 1942.
• This battle fought entirely with planes from aircraft carriers. Enemy ships never came within sight of one another.
• Although both the US and the Japanese navy lost about 1/2 of their forces, this battle stopped the Japanese from establishing the bases they needed to invade Australia.
Battle of the Coral Sea:May 7-8, 1942
Battle of the Coral Sea:May 7-8, 1942
The Battle of MidwayThe Turning Point in the Pacific
• June 4, 1942: This battle was also fought entirely from the air.
• The US destroyed 3 of the 4 Japanese aircraft carriers while they were still loading bombs in their planes. This carried with it the loss of 250 Japanese planes.
• This was the last Japanese offensive.
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Battle of Midway Island:June 4-6, 1942
Battle of Midway Island:June 4-6, 1942
Battle of Guadalcanal
• 1st US offensive of the Pacific war.
• August 1942: 11,000 US Marines landed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and about 2,200 Japanese fled into the jungle. They fought there for 3 months.
• Feb. 1943: Japan abandoned Guadalcanal.
Island-Hopping Strategy
• From February 1943 on, the US forces began to selectively attack enemy-held islands in the Pacific.
• They by-passed some islands, attacked others based on strategic need
• By-passed islands were cut off from supplies, many starved to death
• The Japanese fiercely defended their positions and both sides suffered heavy casualties.
• Japanese soldiers attacked Americans in Banzai charges with little more than swords.
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Allied Counter-Offensive:“Island-Hopping”
Allied Counter-Offensive:“Island-Hopping”
American Offensives
• The US first captured the rest of the Solomon islands and then the Gilbert islands.
• After seizing the island of Tarawa in the Gilbert islands, it was used by US Admiral Nimitz to launch bombing raids on Japanese bases in the Marshall islands.
More US Offensives
• By Feb. 1944, the US had crippled Japanese air power and seized the Marshall islands.
• By June, 1944, the US captured parts of the Mariana Islands.
• The Mariana Islands were important because they enabled US planes to bomb Japanese cities.
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The Philippines – “I have returned”• After securing Leyte, the US invaded Luzon
in an attempt to capture Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.
• In one month’s time, 100,000 Filipinos died, 80,000 Japanese died, and 27,000 Americans also perished.
• The US did not fully secure the Philippines until June, 1945.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf
• Mid-October 1944: US forces invaded the Philippine island of Leyte. Although the US quickly captured the island, a huge naval battle ensued.
• The Japanese used kamikaze pilots for the 1st time in this battle. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest in Naval history, engaging more than 280 warships. As a result of the battle, the Japanese navy was virtually destroyed.
The Battle of Iwo Jima
• The battle for this 14 square mile island was one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
• 25,000 Japanese protected the small rocky island and it took over 110,000 Americans to defeat them. Only 216 Japanese surrendered – the rest died.
• More US medals of honor were given for this battle than any other single battle of the war.
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US Marines on Mt. Surbachi,Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]
US Marines on Mt. Surbachi,Iwo Jima [Feb. 19, 1945]
Final American Offensives
• Iwo Jima was located about 700 miles from Japan. Its capture was another step toward an eventual invasion of the Japanese home islands.
• The next island to fall to the Americans was Okinawa, which was located about 350 miles from Japan.
Battle of Okinawa• April-June 1945: In another bloody battle,
nearly 100,000 Japanese defended the island from an allied force of 180,000 soldiers and 1,300 warships.
• Japanese kamikazes launched nearly 2,000 attacks against the British and American fleets.
• This was the single bloodiest battle of the Pacific war with nearly 50,000 allied deaths and 93,000 Japanese deaths.
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Question
• Why did the Japanese fight so differently than the
Germans or Italians?
• Were the Kamikaze pilots and Banzai Attacks the same as today’s suicide
bombers? Explain.
The Manhattan Project:Los Alamos,
NM
The Manhattan Project:Los Alamos,
NM
Dr. Robert Oppenheimer
I am become death,
the shatterer of worlds!
I am become death,
the shatterer of worlds!
Major GeneralLesley R. Groves
Tinian Island, 1945Tinian Island, 1945
Little Boy Fat Man
Enola Gay Crew
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Col. Paul Tibbets & the A-BombCol. Paul Tibbets & the A-Bomb
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
© 70,000 killed immediately.
© 48,000 buildings. destroyed.
© 100,000s died of radiation poisoning & cancer later.
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
© 40,000 killed immediately.
© 60,000 injured.© 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning& cancer later.
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Japanese A-Bomb SurvivorsJapanese A-Bomb Survivors
Question
• Should America have dropped the Atomic Bomb?
What other alternatives were there?
• Did the use of atomic weapons help or hurt the
world in the long run? What if the bombs were never dropped?
V-J Day (September 2, 1945)V-J Day (September 2, 1945)
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The Results of World War II
The Results of the War
• After the defeat of the Axis powers, all territories that had been taken over by Japan were returned to their pre-war status.
• All of the German-occupied territories were supposed to be given free elections, but only the W. European nations became democratic. Stalin refused to honor the Yalta agreements and made E. Europe into a series of Communist dictatorships.
World War II Allied Deaths
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World War II Axis Deaths