Week of April 4-8

Monday- Continued notes on Japan.

Tuesday- Started presentation on Germany.

Wednesday- Career Fair 

Thursday- Continued Germany presentation.

Friday- Continued presenting on Germany.

JAPAN CONTINUED

-Discuss major battle strategies 

  • Japan wanted to secure resources in Southeast Asia and China
  • Wanted to establish a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"
  • Attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 to neutralize the U.S. on their way to occupy Malaya and many other territories
  • Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
    • Japan realized they needed US trade to be successful in war
    • They wanted to hit US hard in a surprise attack to force them out of the war
    • They knew the plan was a big risk
    • Backfired, they awoke a sleeping giant 
  • Kamikazes
    • Japanese fighter planes
    • Strap explosives to their planes and then would crash making the explosives explode
    • Killed the pilot
  • Hiroshima 
    • Little Boy
    • Exploded
  • Nagasaki
    • Big boy
    • Imploded
  • VJ Day 
    • When Japan officially signed on USS Missouri
    • September 2
  • Potsdam Conference
    • Discussed Japans terms for surrender
      • Dismantle the current government of Japan
      • The Allies will occupy Japan
      • Japan will consist of only major islands
      • Japanese military forces will be disarmed and allowed to return to home
      • War crime trials for the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers

-Discuss major battles that the country was involved in 

  • Pearl Harbor
    • December 7, 1941
    • Japanese fighter planes attacked the naval base in Hawaii
    • Japan attack U.S. to keep them out of the war
    • Japan realized they needed US trade to be successful in war
    • Wanted to hit US hard to force us out of war
    • Plan backfired and they awoke a sleeping giant
  • Battle of Midway
    • June 3, 1942
    • Fought by U.S. and Japan
    • Midway was the last American base in the Pacific and Yamamoto(Japanese military leader) wanted to take it away
    • U.S. won- won easy because we broke their codes
  • Battle of Iwo Jima
    • Happened from February 19th-March 26th of 1945
    • One of the most famous battles of the Pacific War
    • U.S. won
  • Battle of Coral Sea
    • First turning point in the war
    • Stalemate-Nobody won
    • We felt like we won
  • Battle of Okinawa
    • US island-hopping their way to Japan

-Discuss other people/generals from their country in WWII that had a major impact on the war 

  • Tokyo Rose
    • Host of "Zero Hour"
    • Demoralize American soldiers
    • Made them homesick 
    • Committed of treason
  • Isoroku Yamamoto
    • Commander in Chief
    • Led attack on Pearl Harbor
    • Consolidate and expand
    • Led attack on Midway island

-Discuss why they won or lost the war 

  • Lost
  • Lack of production/technology
    • Japan awoke a sleeping giant
    • Production-lacking
      • Tanks
      • Weapons
    • Lack of Technological advancement
      • Radar
      • Tanks
      • Bombing of Hiroshima
  • Broken Codes
    • Magic- allowed us to break their codes
    • Failure to break our codes

-Discuss the impact WWII had on the country

  • Japan was devastated
  • Continued to have shortage of food
  • Eventually lost all land they had taken over
  • Many of their cities the industries, and transportation networks were severely damaged

GERMANY 

-Major events that impacted their country between WWI and WWII. 

  • Weimar Republic
    • Government set up after Treaty of Versailles
  • Nazi Party
    • Pressure the Weimar Republic
      • Ruling Class
      • Blamed Jews
  • Beer Hall Putsch
    • Hitler's arrest
    • Where Nazi's gave all their speeches
    • Push to take over German government-unsuccessful
    • Mein Kampf (My struggle) 
  • Economy
    • Mass unemployment
    • Inflation
  • Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
    • 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
      • Germany would get western half and USSR would get eastern half
    • How did the world react?
      • Shock
      • Poland was scared
      • Hitler thought it would force Great Britain and France to back out of their promise to help Poland if attacked

-Discuss basic facts: alliance, total casualties, total cost, war goals, etc 

  • Casualties
    • Military Deaths- 5,533,000
    • Civilian and Military Deaths- 6,600,000-8,800,000
  • Alliance
    • Axis
    • Germany, Italy, and Japan 
  • Weimar Republic
    • Germany had never been a Democracy before
    • President appoints judge and is commander in chief
    • Chancellor was the head of the government
    • Hitler came to power legally through the democracy as Chancellor 

-Tell us about their leader(s) during WWII 

  • Adolf Hitler
    • Was beaten as a child
    • Was a painter 
    • Parents died as a young child
    • He was a loner
    • Found his calling in the military- loved WWI
    • Sentenced for prison for 5 years- served 9 months 
    • Wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) while in prison
    • Appointed Chancellor in 1933
    • President dies shortly after and Hitler dissolves the Weimar republic
    • Early actions of Hitler:
      • Drops out of the League of Nations
      • Starts rearming Germany
      • Rearms the German Rhineland area
    • Anschluss (Union) with Austria
      • Union of countries
      • The two are one 
    • Sudentenland Crisis
      • "Re-uniting German speaking peoples"
    • Munich Conference-Chamberlain: "Peace for our time"
      • Hitler was given the Sudetenland 
      • Hitler promised that he was done taking over territories
      • Hitler wanted to re-unite all German speaking people
      • Became known as the "Policy of Appeasement"
    • Hitler takes over all of Czechoslovakia
    • Hitler Committed suicide
      • April 30, 1945
      • Took Cyanide pills and then shot himself 

-Discuss the impact of their Homefront and propaganda and what it was like in their country during the war 

  • Homefront was filled with Nazi propaganda
  • Nazi rallies and speeches given by Hitler 
  • Nazi Bride Schools
    • Women went to school to learn how to be good housewives 
  • Enlistment age dropped to 13 years old 
  • Propaganda
    • Persuade people to be anti-Jew
    • Persuade people he was a nice person because he liked kids
    • Militarism
    • Portray Jews as evil

-Discuss major battle strategies 

  • Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)
    • Small mobile forces
    • Prevented Warlock 
    • Used against
      • Poland
      • Belgium
      • Netherlands
      • France 
  • Siegfried Line
    • Fortifications that
      • Stopped tanks
      • stopped attacks
    • Proved ineffective 
  • Maginot Line
    • France wanted to protect themselves from Germany
    • Guns could only face one way
    • Germans came in from the other side and this was useless
  • Atlantic Wall
    • 2,000 mile long defense of
    • Ran from France to Norway
    • Failed
      • Gun placements
      • Tank traps
      • Obstacles

-Discuss major battles that the country was involved in 

  • D-Day
    • Allied had liberated North Africa and pressed into Italy
    • 5 Point of attack
      • Gold and Sword beaches were taken 
  • Battle of Britain
    • First major military campaign in History to be fought entirely in the air
    • Trying to win air superiority over South Britain and the English Channel
    • Trying to destroy the British Air Force
    • Constant bombing campaign of Great Britain by Germany 
    • Nazi Goals:
      • Destroy the Royal Air Force
      • Attack and destroy the British Navy
      • Attack British troops
      • One air control was gained, the invasion of Great Britain would begin
      • *Did not succeed #1
      • *German bombers did so poorly against the RAF that they only bombed at night
    • Germany decided to focus on attacking British ships and ports and stopped attacking cities 
    • British won because Germany did not achieve their goals 
  • Operation Barbarossa
    • Hitler launched his armies in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union
    • Severely underestimated their opponent
    • Biggest mistake
  • Sitzkrieg
    • The Phony War
    • Everyone declared war but nothing was happening 
  • Battle of Moscow
    • The Soviet Winter counteroffensive
    • The Russian winter sets in and make it a huge turning point in the war 
  • Battle of Stalingrad
    • Major battle in history
    • Lost more people than the U.S. lost in all the wars combined
    • Around 2 million deaths 
  • Siege of Leningrad
    • City in the North
    • Germans bombarded the city to starve them into submission
    • Almost 700,000 people died of starvation
    • People resorted to eating rats, wallpaper paste, and some resorted to cannibalism
  • North Africa Campaign
    • US fought the Germans in North Africa
    • US won against the Germans 
  • Italian Campaign
    • Operation Avalanche
    • Invaded Italy after North Africa was free
    • Italy surrendered
    • Germany had taken control of Italy- they surrendered but were not free
  • Assassination Plot 
    • Meeting with Hitler
    • Let a bomb go off in the meeting
    • Thought Hitler died
    • Hitler survived and they knew they were in trouble for attempting to kill Hitler
  • Liberation of Paris
    • August 25, 1944
    • Paris was freed
  • Battle of the Bulge
    • Hitlers last offensive
    • Thought they could still win 
    • Worst battle for US in WWII- lots of casualties
    • Failed
    • Waste of lives 
  • 1939- Germany invaded Poland and Czechoslovakia
  • 1940- Germany invaded Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France
  • US and Russian Soldiers Meet at the Elbe River (In Germany)
    • April 25, 1945
    • Knew war was coming to an end at this point 

-Discuss other people/generals from their country in WWII that had a major impact on the war 

  • Walter Von Brauchitsch
    • Commander and Chief of the German Army
  • Joseph Goebbels
    • Minister of Propaganda
  • Willhelm Keitel
    • Chief of the High command of the Armed forces
  • Erwin Rommel
    • General

-Discuss why they won or lost the war 

  • Lost
  • Supply lines were too long
  • Russian winter (Germany not prepared)
  • Troops too spread out (Not enough troops)
  • Russia has too many soldiers
  • Too many allied countries against Germany

-Discuss the impact WWII had on the country 

  • Germany got divided into four different zones
  • Transformed in 15 years from a Nazi disaster zone to a prosperous immigration zone
  • Germans both in East and West Germany turned away form militarism 

 What did the Treaty of Versailles to do Germany 

  • Germany lost land and colonies
  • Lost land to 
    • France
    • Belgium
    • Denmark
  • Military
    • 100,000 men
    • no tanks
    • no air force
    • only 6 capital naval ships 
    • Rhineland was made into a demilitarized zone 
  • Financial
    • had to pay $33 billion to the Allies
    • loss of vital industrial industrial territory 
  • General 
    • 1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war
    • Germany was forbidden to unite with Austria
    • A league of Nations was set up to keep world peaces
  • Anger throughout Germany when the terms were made public
  • Treaty was seen by many Germans as being forced on them
  • Felt as though they had no choice but to sign it
  • Many Germans did not want the Treaty signed

Holocaust 

  • Genocide of approx. six million European Jews during WWII
  • Systematic state-sponsored extermination of Jews
  • Hitlers goal was to kill all nine million Jews but he ran out of time
  • US stopped him by winning the war
  • 2/3 of the nine million Jews died 

FRANCE 

  • Vichy France
    • Hitler allowed the Vichy French to invade and take over
    • Allied with the Nazi's
    • Henry Petain was their leader
    • US enemies
  • The Free French
    • US allies
    • Lead by General Charles DeGaulle
  • The Maquis
    • Individual people forming secret group 
    • Group of underground French resistance members
    • Fought back against German control 
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