Early World War II

Who’s Who? Axis Powers: Germany  Adolph Hitler Italy  Benito Mussolini Japan  Hideki Tojo

Who’s Who? Allied Powers: Great Britain  Neville Chamberlain; Winston Churchill United States  Franklin D. Roosevelt; Harry S. Truman France  Charles de Gaulle Soviet Union  Joseph Stalin

Early Axis Advances 1937  Japan attacks China Hitler creates a new type of military strategy known as “Blitzkrieg” or lightning war Uses this strategy to invade Poland April 1940  Hitler launches new blitzkrieg against Denmark and Norway May 1940  Germany invades France Allied troops are forced to evacuate at the beaches at Dunkirk France signs an armistice on June 22, 1940

Early Axis Advances Summer 1940  Japan demands right to exploit economic resources in French Indochina August 1940  Germany begins invasion of Britain by air using the Luftwaffe (German air force) Battle of Britain Bombed British air and naval bases, harbors, communication centers, and war industries September 1940  Germans began to bomb British cities as well, hoping to break British morale By June 1941, Hitler gives up on his attempts to invade Britain after the Royal Air Force is able to successfully defend Britain

Early Axis Advances 1941  General Rommel, a German military leader, invades North Africa 1941  Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary join the axis powers April 1941  Hitler seized Greece and Yugoslavia June 22, 1941  Hitler invades USSR, known as “Operation Barbarossa” Massive attack along a 1,800 mile line Germans captured 2 million Russian soldiers Harsh Russian winter forced German soldiers back because they had no winter uniforms December 1941  Counter-attack by Soviets By 1943, Hitler abandons Soviet invasion

Japan at War December 7, 1941  Japanese aircrafts attack the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii Surprise attack damaged or destroyed 18 ships and created 3,500 American casualties Same day, Japanese attacked the Philippines and Malaya Occupied a number of small islands in the Pacific

Japan at War On the Bataan Peninsula and the island of Corregidor, the resistance was fierce Japanese forced American and Filipino soldiers on a 60-mile march Bataan Death March Thousands died from starvation or mistreatment before reaching the prison camp

Japan’s New Community Japan declared a community of nations Called the new community the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” Japan announced intention to liberate areas of Southeast Asia from Western colonial rule

A Global War Prime Minister Tojo hoped that a lightning strike at American bases would destroy the U.S. fleet in the Pacific Japanese thought of Americans as soft and were convinced that the Roosevelt administration would accept Japanese domination in the Pacific However, attack on Pearl Harbor brought the American people together and President Roosevelt convinced Congress to declare war on Japan on December 8, 1941