GREAT LEADERS OF WORLD WAR II BY BY MARK T. BUGBEE

NOT ALL GREAT LEADERS ARE “GOOD” LEADERS! After the death of President Hindenburg in March 1934 Adolph Hitler became Fuehrer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor) of Germany. On March 12, 1938 Hitler ordered the annexation of Austria. On March 10, 1939 German forces occupy Prague, Czechoslovakia. On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany. World War II had begun.

MUSSOLINI A LESSER DICTACTOR On June 10, 1940 Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, declared war on France. Italy invaded North Africa and Greece in support of Nazi Germany’s continued expansion. By 1943, Mussolini had been driven out of Africa and Greece, and Italy was being invaded by American and British forces. Mussolini was a cruel tyrant; but his reign came to an in April 1945, when he was executed by Italian partisans.

HEDEKI TOJO LEADER OF THE JAPANESE RISING SUN In 1933, Hedeki Tojo is appointed major general in the Japanese army. In 1938 Tojo was appointed vice minister of war by Fumimaro Kondoye. Tojo was an extreme military leader who supported Nazi Germany. He supported the attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base on December 7, 1941 and would battle against the United States until the war’s end in 1945.

WINSTON CHURCHILL CHAMPION OF VICTORY  In 1940, as Germany dominated the European mainland, only the United Kingdom was left unconquered.  At the start of the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill was Prime Minister.  Churchill was known for his tenacious spirit.  Due in part to his leadership the English won the Battle of Britain.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Reluctant Warrior  At the start of World War II, F.D.R. tried to keep the United States out of the conflict.  Japan attacked the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7,  President Roosevelt declared it “a day that will live in infamy.”  The United States declared war on Japan on December 8,  On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The United States was now fully engaged in World War II.

STALIN The Guard of the Eastern Front In September of 1939 Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin make a non-aggression pact as Germany and the Soviet Union divide up Poland. On June 21, 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union with 3,400 tanks and over 3 million troops in Operation Barbarossa. Stalin commanded the Red Army against Hitler’s forces, and despite terrifying losses, turned back the Germans at Moscow and Stalingrad.

THE ALLIES UNITE TO DEFEAT HITLER oAfter three years of defeat, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, began to make significant gains against Hitler’s Nazi Germany. oThe Allies defeated the Axis powers in Africa and Italy and started to drive them west out of the Soviet Union. oPresident Roosevelt’s contribution to the Allied effort was particularly important as the United States provided large numbers of men and materiel to topple Hitler’s Third Reich. Unfortunately, he would not live to see the end of the war. He died of in March 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

HITLER’S REIGN OF MADNESS COMES TO AN END  On June 6, 1944 the largest amphibious invasion in history took place on the beaches of Normandy, France.  The Allies under the Supreme Command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower began the invasion of Hitler’s fortress, Europe.  Partly because of Eisenhower’s outstanding leadership the Allies defeated Nazi Germany on May 8, 1945.

THE FATE OF WORLD WAR II’S GREAT LEADERS The most horrific war in the history of man ended with the explosion of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August By April 1945 both Hitler and Mussolini were dead. Tojo was tried and executed in December of 1948.

THE LEADERS OF THE NUCLEAR AGE With the end of the World War II, the way was clear for the emergence of two superpowers: The United States and the Soviet Union. Stalin would continue to lead the Soviet Union until February 1953, when he succumbed to ill health. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the hero of the European campaign, would later become the thirty- fourth president of the United States. Winston Churchill, the stalwart Prime Minister of Great Britain, was badly defeated in the 1945 elections, but then served again in 1951.