The Allies Britain France USSR Australia Canada Belgium China Brazil Denmark Greece Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland South Africa Yugoslavia

The Axis Powers Germany Italy Japan Hungary Romania Bulgaria

Dark Green = Allies before Pearl Harbor Light Green = Allies after Pearl Harbor Orange = Axis Powers

How it Started Many people believe WWII started when Japan started conquering China by taking over Mukden and Manchuria around Italy also aided to the start of WWII with their unauthorized takeover of Ethiopia in You could also say that the Loyalist vs. Nationalist civil war in Spain caused WWII. Most say that WWII started after Hitler took over Poland in 1939.

The War in Europe

The first sign of aggression in Europe was Italy’s takeover of Ethiopia in October Next was when the civil war in Spain had Fascist Germany and Italy siding with Spain’s Fascist Franco, while The democratic nations teamed up to stop Franco. In March 1939 Franco had won and controlled all of Spain. In March 1936 Hitler's troops invaded the Rhineland which violated the Treaty of Versailles. By the end of 1936 Germany, Italy and Japan had signed an alliance and referred to themselves as the Axis Powers. Hitler marched his armies into Austria unopposed in 1938 and declared it part of the “Third Reich”.

To avoid war, Czechoslovakia annexed the Sudetenland to Germany during the “Appeasement at Munich”. Later in 1939 Hitler conquered the rest of Czechoslovakia. In April 1939 Italy seized control of Albania. Germany and the USSR sign a nonaggression pact in August In September 1939 Hitler attacked Poland. Keeping their treaty with Poland Britain and France declared war on Germany. Germany introduced a new, fast, forceful type of warfare called “Blitzkrieg”.

Poland went off the map in 1939 when Germany and the Soviets split it between themselves. By March of 1940 the Soviets had captured Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland. In April 1940 Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. By doing this Hitler’s navy was not confined to the Baltic Sea, but could now roam the Atlantic Ocean freely. In May 1940 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain. By June 1940 Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands had surrendered to Germany.

German troops pushed back Allied troops into France and surrounded them at Dunkirk. At Dunkirk, Churchill rallied all British ships merchant and private, to help evacuate the troops trapped in Dunkirk. They saved 340,000 Germany now attacked France from the north while Italy attacked from the south. France soon fell. At the end of 1940 Germany started its attack on Britain by bombing London. Britain may have surrendered had it not been for U.S. aid.

Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt met aboard a British ship to discuss their war aims which later became the “Atlantic Charter”. By April 1941 Germany had allied with Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary and captured Yugoslavia. In June 1941 Germany went against its nonaggression pact and invaded the USSR. The Soviets used the scorched earth policy and guerilla warfare to hold of the Germans until the harsh winter came and the Germans were forced to retreat.

In 1943 Allied troops moved upwards from North Africa and took over Sicily and Italy. On June 6 th 1944 Allied troops attacked from the west by landing on the beaches of Normandy, France. In August 1944 the Allies had recaptured Paris. By the end of 1944 the Soviets had taken back Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria. The Germans had one last major offensive called the “Battle of the Bulge” in which they stormed into Belgium. It lasted only 10 days and after the Allies were back on the offensive. The war in Europe ended on May 8 th 1945, when the Soviets captured Berlin and Hitler committed suicide.

Nazi’s - short for “Nazionals” or German nationalists. Hated everyone who was not a W.A.S.P (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Believed they (the Aryans) were the superior race. Hitler, the leader of the Nazi’s ordered millions of Jews to be sent into concentration camps where they would be worked to death or killed immediately. The Nazi’s

War in the Pacific

The war in the Pacific started when Japan took over Mukden. In 1932 Japan took Manchuria from the Chinese and renamed it Manchukuo. Japanese and Chinese troops clashed near Beijing in 1937, Japan captured the city and continued to move southward. By 1939 Japan occupied ¼ of China. Japan had lost 500,000 troops and spent $10 billion. Also in late 1939 Japan captured the island of Hainan, cutting off the British sea route from Hong Kong to Singapore.

Later Japanese pressure forced the Netherlands East Indies and French Indo- China to become Japanese protectorates. In September 1940, Japan formed an alliance with Germany and Italy. When the U.S. put an embargo on Japan, Japan started making plans to attack the U.S. While Japanese representatives were in Washington D.C. negotiating “peace” Japan launched a surprise attack. On December 7, 1941 Japanese planes bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. This brought the U.S. into the war.

The next day, both America and Britain declared war on Japan. On the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese also bombed the American controlled Philippines. Soon after this they captured the American islands of Guam and Wake. Within a month Japan had captured most o Burma, Thailand, and Malaya including Singapore. Japan then captured Indonesia, the Philippines and the Gilbert Islands.

Australia, which was being supplied by the U.S. via Hawaii, was the last resistance in the southwest Pacific. When Japan landed on New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, it threatened Australia’s supply line. In May 1942 the Japanese suffered their first loss when their fleet was heading for Australia was defeated by American & Australian air and naval forces. The turning point in the war in the Pacific was at the “Battle of Midway, when American planes stopped the Japanese from taking Midway Island.

In August 1942 American troops attacked the Solomon Islands to protect the Australian supply route. During 1943 Allied forces in the Pacific began “island hopping” taking back one island at a time. After 6 months of intense fighting at the “Battle of Leyte Gulf”. As a result the U.S. recaptured the Philippines. The Allies captured the Island of Iwo Jima after some of the most bitter fighting of the war.

During the attacks on Okinawa Japanese suicide pilots called “kamikaze's” crashed their planes into American ships. In 1945 the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 th and 9 th respectively. The war ended on September 2 nd 1945, when a peace treaty was signed, and the Japanese could not take any more than the 80,000 casualties resulting by the atomic bombs.

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