3. Hitler causes a World War

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

The Second World War 

Allies

Axis Powers

Make sure you know who fought against who...

Der Anschluss

March 1938 

Austria is taken over

September 1938

Sudetenland

March 1939

Hitler took all of Czechoslovakia

  Sep. 1938: Munich Conference

Britain

France

Germany

Italy

  Chamberlain: "Peace in our time"

 March 1939: German army occupies 

 the rest of Czechoslovakia.

  no more Appeasement 

The German economy self-sufficient: its people should be able to feed themselves from their own crops and industry should rely completely on its own raw materials such as iron and coal. After all, unlike the other European powers, Germany no longer had colonies. To gain possession of sufficient farmland and raw materials, Hitler wanted to conquer Eastern Europe and Russia as far as the Ural Mountains. He saw these areas as Lebensraum

The Greater Germanic Reich, to be realised with the policies of Lebensraum

 Hitler's next target: Poland

 What is the political situation on the eve of World War 2?

Chamberlain

• Knows appeasement did not work
• Does not trust Hitler anymore
• Has assured Poland that Britain will help if Hitler attacks
• Does not trust Stalin either, but considers an alliance with the S.U. to weaken Hitler

Stalin

• Does not trust Hitler
  
• Does not trust Britain and France either
  
• Is not ready for a war (purged his own generals)
• Does not have allies

Hitler

• Believes Britain and France won't stop him, but is not sure about the USSR (Stalin)
• Wants to take over Poland
• ut wants to avoid a two front war

BUT THEN...

Hitler and Stalin make a DEAL:

the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact

(a non-agression pact)

august 1939

The world is shocked.

WHY?

Stalin:

Needs time to reorganise his army.
Does not trust Britain and France.

Hitler:

Wants to avoid a two front war.

Now he has his hands free to invade Poland.

 a secret clause of the Pact: 

Germany and the S.U. will divide Poland between them.

0

World War 2

1939:

• Sept 1: German invasion Poland
• Sept 3: Britain and France declare war on Germany
• Sept. 17: Soviet Union occupies eastern Poland

World War 2

1940 German Blitzkrieg in:

• April 12: Denmark and Norway
• May 10: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France
• June 22: France capitulates

World War 2

Summer 1940 

• Battle of Britain 
• British cities were bombed non stop
• Dog fights above the channel

De bevolking van London schuilt in de Underground bij een Duitse luchtaanval. Daarnaast had de Britse regering evacuatieplan: 'Pied Piper', waarbij voornamelijk kinderen, moeders en zwangere vrouwen naar het veilige platteland zouden worden gestuurd.

Deze poster werd gemaakt in opdracht van de Britse regering om de bevolking vertrouwen te laten houden in de overwinning.

watch trailer

Films about this subject

watch trailer

watch trailer

Turning points of the war

Axis battles 

• Operation Barbarossa june 1941 
• Attack on Pearl Harbor december 1941

Allied counterattack 

• Battle of Stalingrad 1943 
• D-Day june 1944

Operation Barbarossa

In the early morning of June 22nd 1941, three million German troops crossed the border into Russia. The invasion was named "Operation Barbarossa". 

Stalin was taken completely by surprise and the ill prepared Red Army was pushed back by the superior German tanks and airplanes. 

Using Blitzkrieg warfare, the German army initially conquered a lot of territory. Three army groups tried to conquer the cities Leningrad (north), Moscow (centre) and Stalingrad (south) as quickly as possible.

Especially the south was important. Getting the Caucasus oilfields would enable Hitler to keep waging war for many more years.

Lebensraum

Battle of Leningrad/Stalingrad

• 1941 Leningrad is besieged in the north for 900 days 
  
• Surrender by starvation.

• In the south Stalingrad is besieged (oil fields)
  
• But then the winter sets in  1942/1943
• The supply lines are strechted thin 
• The German army is pushed back 300 km
  
  

Empire of Japan

• Japan joined the axis powers in 1940 
• They expaned their empire quickly.
• Needed resources like rubber, steel and oil.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor

7 december 1941

Japan wants to rule the pacific their first move is to take out America 

America has most of it fleet in the navy base of Pearl Harbor which is on Hawaii 

America declares war

8 december 1941

One day after the attack President Roosevelt holds a speech declaring war on Japan.

Volgens de afspraken van het bondgenootschap van de As-mogendheden, verklaren Duitsland en Italië op 11 december de oorlog aan de Verenigde Staten.

Allies 

Stalin demanded a second front in the west 

• D-day june 1944

The Allies will then attack the French Atlantic Coast

The day of the invasion : D-Day.

D-day

Operation Market Garden

Goal was to reach the Ruhrgebiet, to weaken the German military production. 

September 1944

Battle of the Ardennes 

In the winter of 1944 Germany launched a counterattack in Belgium. 

During the whole winter the Allies advance was halted 

Berlin

• The Sovjet-Union reached Berlin 
• 30 April 1945 Hitler commited suicide 
• 7 may 1945 Germany surrendered

Japan

Japan has taken over many islands like Iwo Jima.

They defended each island with so much force 

21.000 Japanse soldiers 

70.000 Amerikaanse soldiers

Atomic bomb on Hiroshima

6 augustus 1945

Hiroshima before 'Little Boy'

Hiroshima after 'Little Boy'

Atomic bomb on Nagasaki

9 augustus 1945

Nagasaki 

before 'Fat Man'

Nagasaki 

after 'Fat Man'

2 september 1945

Japan surrenders 

nuclearsecrecy.com