Powerpoint on US History page
WWII Topics
1. Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact (Aug. 1939): Russia gave raw materials to Germany in exchange for money and weapons, both agreed to stay neutral if the other entered the war, secretly agreed to invade and split Poland up, Germany would get the western half and USSR the eastern half, Russia would get Finland, Estonia and Latvia and Germany would get Lithuania
2. Germany/USSR invasion of Poland (Sept. 1939): Germany from the west and Soviet Union from the east; Poland was known for its cavalry and they just stood no chance against the Blitzkrieg; surrendered in less than a month
3. Blitz and Sitz:
- Blitzkrieg means lightning warfare; first the German air force would come in and bomb aiming to take down airplanes, anti-aircraft system, communication and transportation systems. Next they would send in the tanks and infantry across the border with mechanized units (units with soldiers in them) and they would go around the fighting and head back around designed the flank the enemy. Made it seem as though Germany could never be taken down so they just surrendered to save lives.
- Sitzkrieg means "sitting war"; U.S. called it Phony War; nothing happened for months after Great Britain and France declared war and countries were probably just preparing while the winter months set in
4. Axis vs. Allied
- Axis- main powers: Germany, Italy, Japan
- Allied- main powers: Great Britain, Soviet Union, United States, France, China; Canada and Australia were Allied too but they were colonies of Britain at the time so they kind of count as GB
5.German invasion of: (all during spring of 1940)
- Denmark, Norway: pretty easy battles for Hitler; hard battle at Norway because Germans had control under the water but Britain had control at the surface with their navy and Germany's navy was hit hard and never fully recovered after this battle
- Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg
6. Invasion of France (spring of 1940)
- Maginot Line: built after WWI; was impressive but didn't really protect France because Germany could just drop around it and wear it down; equipped with machine guns turrets; steel spikes coming out of the ground for anti-tank tactics
- Miracle of Dunkirk: France only focused on defensive strategies at beginning of war and Germany focused on offensive and offensive was winning; Germans just kept pushing the French back but Hitler ordered his soldiers to stop and wait for the tanks to catch up so they French soldiers got away and made it to GB across the English canal; Hitler hated France because they took everything away from Germany
- Vichy Gov't: pro-German gov't in France during WWII; made deals with Japan; the leader, Marshal Petain, worked with Hitler and supported him, even helping him transport Jews to camps; France is not proud of this gov't today
- Free French Underground: gov't that US worked with and that was trying to regain their country
7. Battle of Britain (July 1940): Hitler really respected GB and tried to make of deal with Churchill but of course didn't; the plan was to invade Britain by the fall of 1940 but first they were going to take out the Royal Air Force
- RAF vs Luftwaffe: RAF did an outstanding job holding back Germany
- "Never was so much owed by so many to so few.": saying means the RAF really held back the Battle of Britain because Germany could never take down the Royal Air Force
- "We Shall Never Surrender" speech rallied the forces of Britain and got them to keep going, even when they could've surrendered like France did
- Ultra: the intercepting and deciphering of German code to know what they were doing; Magic was they same thing but it happened in China; large reason why we won the war
8. Japan invades French Indochina (fall 1940): in response to this, US, as well as many others, stopped trade with Japan; before we would trade oil with them again, they had to withdraw from French Indochina AND China
- Withdraw
- Attack the United States (chose this, trying to force the hand of the US to give them oil)
- Compromise
9. Germany invades USSR (June 1941): Lebensraum means "living space" and it was Hitler's plan for invading the Soviet Union; Hitler needed a place for all the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Germans he was... breeding. So he hated communism and needed a place for the German people he bred so he was going to take over Soviet Union; didn't work, obviously, because it was too big; Hitler's plan was to take over the major cities Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad
- Stalingrad: Hitler had 90% of the city before the forces pushed them back; biggest, most terrible battle WWII, tons and tons of casualties
- Leningrad: never invaded it, laid siege instead; they would surround the city to cut off their resources and so people turned to cannibalism and just terrible things because they were starving
- Moscow: never took the city
Ultimately, Hitler failed to take the cities and that was his downfall; just outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Russian winter.
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