VA/US History Mrs. Lacks

 Sept 1: German Army invades Poland at Danzig  Sept 3: France & Britain declare war on Germany  Sept 17: USSR invades Poland (in accordance with Nazi-Soviet Pact)  Sept 27: Poland falls to the Nazis  Nov 30: USSR attacks Finland  Dec 14: USSR kicked out of League of Nations

HITLER INVADES POLAND:SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

 “lightening war”  force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery and air power, concentrating overwhelming force and rapid speed to break through enemy lines

German tanks (panzers) were used in mass formations in the beginning of the war, while Allied tank units were often divided into smaller units to support infantry.

 After conquering Poland, Hitler’s army moved west, conquering Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands (Holland), Belgium, and Luxembourg  Battle of Dunkirk: Germans marched west through the Netherlands and Belgium  Caused the Belgian surrender  Made French nervous

Hitler’s Western European conquests

HITLER’S INVASION OF NORTHWESTERN EUROPE THIS MAP ILLUSTRATES HITLER’S PLAN FOR WINNING THE WAR IN NW EUROPE. ARROW ONE: HITLER’S FIRST ATTACK DESIGNED TO DRAW ALLIED FORCES INTO BELGIUM; ARROW TWO ALLIED TROOPS MOVE INTO BELGIUM TO FIGHT HITLER’S TROOPS; ARROW THREE HITLER’S MAIN ATTACK COMES THROUGH THE ARDENNES FOREST, CONSIDERED IMPASSABLE BY THE ALLIES AND DRIVES TO THE COAST THREATENING TO TRAP BRITISH AND FRENCH ARMIES IN BELGIUM. ONE TWO THREE

MAGINOT LINE: a line of concrete fortifications France built along its borders with Germany & Italy after WWI

 The Maginot Line was built to fulfill several purposes:  To avoid a surprise attack and to give alarm  To cover the mobilization of the French Army (which took between 2 and 3 weeks)  To protect Alsace and Lorraine (returned to France in 1918) and their industrial basinAlsaceLorraine  To be used as a basis for a counter-offensive  To hold the enemy while the main army could be brought up to reinforce the line

CUTAWAY VIEW OF THE MAGINOT LINE

 German troops were able to march south into France from Belgium  Germans entered Paris on June 14, 1940 and the French surrendered on June 22nd

GERMAN TROOPS ENTER PARIS

FRENCH MOURN AS THE GERMANS MARCH INTO PARIS.

 While the Nazi’s occupied most of France, including northern and coastal areas, and Paris, they allowed for the French to govern southeastern regions as long as they complied with German officials (until 1942)  This became known Vichy France

 Philippe Petain was a French general who became the Chief of State of Vichy France

 The Free French: French men and women who fled to England to set up resistance against Germany  Charles de Gaulle: Leader of the Free French in WWII

 Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom (Britain) during World War II, beginning in 1940  operation was postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940

 Winston Churchill is elected as England’s new Prime Minister in 1940  He vowed never to surrender to Hitler but to fight on for victory

Europe in 1940

 July 10 – October 31, 1940  air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom  Germany wanted to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF)

 First battle fought entirely in the air  The largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to date

BRITISH SPITFIRE FIGHTER ATTACKING GERMAN DIVE BOMBER FORMATIONS.

TYPICAL DOGFIGHT DURING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN.

RAF: HAWKER HURRICANE THE FASTER SPITFIRES DUELED WITH THE GERMAN FIGHTER WHILE THE HURRICANES WENT AFTER THE SLOWER GERMAN BOMBERS.

DORNIER BOMBER JU88 BOMBER ME110 FIGHTER BOMBER German warplanes

ME 109 FW 190

 Hitler became angry when Berlin was bombed by British planes  Ordered the Luftwaffe to stop bombing military bases and start bombing London (would destroy industry and civilians)

AIR RAID WARDEN WATCHED FOR GERMAN BOMBERS ATOP LONDON BUILDING

FIREMEN BATTLE RAGING FIRES

LONDONERS SLEEP UNDERGROUND IN SUBWAY STATIONS TO AVOID THE BOMBS

THE MORNING AFTER AN AIR RAID

CHILDREN IN FRONT OF THEIR DESTROYED HOME. WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS?

 The RAF emerged as a greater force than ever and was able to beat the Germans back  Radar played an enormous role in this battle (the RAF had it and could detect German planes, some before they got to the city; the Luftwaffe did not have it)

 Despite strong isolationist sentiment at home, the United States increasingly helped Britain  It gave Britain war supplies and old naval warships in return for military bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean  Soon after, the Lend-Lease Act gave the President authority to sell or lend equipment to countries to defend themselves against the Axis powers  To justify this, Franklin Roosevelt said, if your neighbor’s house is on fire, you lend him your water hose

 Longest continuous military campaign in WWII (1939 – 1945)  U-boats and other ships of the German navy against Allied convoys  Convoy: sending warships to guard merchant ships from getting sunk by submarines  Germans were joined by Italian navy as well in 1940

U-534U-175

Torpedo from German U-boat sinks British passenger ship

 FDR made the decision in July 1941 for US war ships to convoy merchant ships in the North Atlantic  This meant a risk of war with Germany

AREA OF GREATEST DANGER FOR ALLIED MERCHANT SHIPS

 June 1941 – July 1943  After Germany overran France, most of Europe, and pounded Britain from the air (the Battle of Britain), in mid-1941, Hitler turned on his former partner and invaded the Soviet Union

 The name for the 1941 German assault on the USSR  The largest land battles in history  German’s were surprised at new Soviet technology  KVI and T34 Russian tanks were superior to German panzers

T34 RUSSIAN MEDIUM TANK SUPERIOR TO ANY GERMAN TANK AT THE TIME, 1941 THE GERMANS WERE SHOCKED WHEN IN JUNE OF 1941 THEY CAME UP AGAINST RUSSIAN T34 TANKS. GERMAN SHELLS BOUNCED OFF AND IT WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO DESTROY A T34. UNFORTUNATELY THE RUSSIANS HAD ONLY A FEW AND BY THE TIME THEY CAME INTO FULL PRODUCTION THE GERMANS HAD TANKS AND WEAPONS CAPEABLE OF DESTROYING THEM.

Operation Barbarossa was a three pronged invasion of the Soviet Union. The goal was to seize all of the USSR up to the Ural Mountains including the major cities of Odessa, Kiev, Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad.

RUSSIAN MIXED TANK AND SKI INFANTRY TEAM ADVANCE ON GERMAN POSITIONS.

 in southwestern Russia  took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943  often cited as one of the turning points of the war and among the bloodiest in the history of warfare  combined casualties coming to nearly two million

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD: THE GERMANS HAD SEVERE PROBLEMS CAPTURING THE CITY OF STALINGRAD. IT WAS A GRITTY, DEADLY BATTLE WHERE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF SOLDIERS ON BOTH SIDES WERE KILLED.

FIGHTING IN THE RUINS OF STALINGRAD.

German soldiers, not used to the harsh weather, froze

STALINGRAD: A CITY IN RUINS

 While the Germans were engaged in vicious fighting inside Stalingrad the Russians prepared a counterattack named Operation Uranus  They succeeded in surrounding the German 6 th army  Arrow one shows the ultimate goal of the Russian attack: to cut off the German armies fighting in the Caucasus mountains.

 The Germans are stopped  Soviets captured over 300,000 German soldiers at Stalingrad  Some German armies in the Caucasus mountains escaped and attempted to get back to Germany

The end at Stalingrad: German prisoners, only 5,000 of the 250,000 captured returned after the war

 In the spring and summer of 1943, Hitler decided to try again to defeat the Soviets  This led to the Battle of Kursk, the greatest tank battle in world history

THE GERMANS USED NEW ARMORED VEHICLES FOR THEIR KURSK OFFENSIVE HEAVY TIGER TANK PANTHER TANK, OFTEN CALLED THE BEST TANK OF WW II FERDINAND, HEAVY ASSAULT GUN

THE GERMANS SUFFERED HEAVY LOSSES AT THE HANDS OF THE SOVIETS AND THEY COULD NOT RECOVER NUMBER OF LOST TANKS, ARTILLERY, AND MEN

 Germany finally lost on the Eastern Front and left the Soviet Union  Hitler would soon have to fight a battle on both fronts (Western & Eastern)