THE SECOND WORLD WAR,

BLITZKRIEG IN POLAND 1 Sept. 1939: phoney attack on German border post Overpowering “lightning war” Main weapons: –Panzerdivisions –Stuka dive bombers

RUSSIAN GAINS IN EASTERN EUROPE, Eastern Poland occupied Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania incorporated in Soviet Union Finnish “Winter War” – Finns forced to surrender Vyborg in March 1940

THE FALL OF FRANCE Start of the attack: 10 May – German raids over Belgium and Holland Bypassing the Maginot Line through the Ardennes Germans slicing through Allied supply- lines Race to the coast Saving the BEF: organized evacuation of 300,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN No surrender Winston Churchill’s: man of the people Britain sheltering behind the Navy For Germany to defeat Britain, the Luftwaffe had to control the skies The London Blitz Churchill: working on the Grand Alliance Lend-Lease: : destroyers exchanged for bases (March 1941)

THE NEW ORDER SS ruled Germany and terrorized a continent -- the RSHA Originally, blackshirted bodyguards German hegemony: the German race and the rest -- two main fields of action: demography and the economy Impact of German hegemony: exploitation of slave workers, population transfers, annihilation

OCCUPATION AND COLLABORATION IN EUROPE Hitler’s main allies: Fascist Italy, Vichy France, Romania Spanish neutrality Danish Resistance Occupied Poland Delays in the Balkans…

OPERATION BARBAROSSA, June 1941 The German invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union Stalin forewarned many times by his spies A Blitzkrieg too far? Confidence that the Red Army would be quickly smashed 5 million Russian prisoners in six months Scorched earth policy and dogged Russian resistance Russian weather: mud and artic frost (-30 degrees in December)

PEARL HARBOR: A RUDE AWAKENING Japan’s attack on the U.S (December ) Churchill’s joy: “We have won the war!” Hitler’s declaration of war on the U.S. (December 1941) Hitler miscalculated that Roosevelt would focus on the Pacific. As an autodidact, Hitler was ignorant of US achievements and dynamism

THE TIDE TURNS Midway El Alamein Battle of the Atlantic Stalingrad

AXIS IN RETREAT The Italian Campaign British Bombing Strategy Operation Overlord: D-Day Burma and the Pacific

VE DAY AND THE SURRENDER OF GERMANY Battle of Arnhem Battle of the Bulge: the role of GI Joes Liberating the concentration camps Battle of Berlin

JAPAN: NO SURRENDER IN WORLD WAR TWO The meaning of Bushido: Samurai code of ethics The Manhattan Project – German- speaking refugees and US “can-do” spirit Truman and the Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Crimes against Humanity?

HOW THE ALLIES WON Soviet transformation American power German errors