Battle of Britain: The “Blitz”
German air raids on Britain, 1940. (Photo credits: The History Place) British children wait in a bomb shelter during Hitler's air raids, 1940. (Photo credit: Library of Congress and The History Place)
The London “Tube”: Air Raid Shelters during the Blitz
U. S. Lend-Lease Act, 1941 Great Britain.........................$31 billion Soviet Union..........................$11 billion France..................................$3 billion China..................................$1.5 billion Other European......................$500 million South America.......................$400 million The amount totaled: $48,601,365,000
Lend-Lease
The Atlantic Charter Roosevelt and Churchill sign treaty of friendship in August 1941. Solidifies alliance. Fashioned after Wilson’s 14 Points. Calls for League of Nations type organization. U.S. in undeclared war w/Hitler after German u-boat fires on U.S. destroyer
Mussolini Declares War on France & Great Britain Italy started out neutral Declared war when Hitler took France Attacked British-controlled Egypt in 1940
The North Africa Campaign: The Battle of El Alamein, 1942 Gen. Erwin Rommel, The “Desert Fox” Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery (“Monty”)
Hitler Takes the Balkans
Operation Barbarossa: Hitler Invades USSR June 22, 1941
Battle of Stalingrad: Winter of 1942-1943 German Army Russian Army 1,011,500 men 1,000,500 men 10,290 artillery guns 13,541 artillery guns 675 tanks 894 tanks 1,216 planes 1,115 planes
Japan’s Pacific Campaign U.S. aware of Japan’s plan to conquer SE Asia U.S. gov’t sent aid to strengthen Chinese resistance When Japanese overran French Indochina, U.S. cut off oil shipments to Japan
Pearl Harbor – Dec. 7, 1941 “The day that will live in infamy” ~ FDR
The “Big Three” (Allied Powers) Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin
Axis Powers in 1942
Japanese Victories Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island Philippines & Bataan peninsula Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, Burma
Allies Strike Back April 1942 – Lt. Col. James Doolittle led bombing raid on Tokyo Battle of Coral Sea – new form of naval warfare Airplanes took off from aircraft carriers Battle of Midway – huge victory for Allies
Battle of Guadalcanal General Douglas MacArthur commanded Allied forces in the Pacific Wanted to “island-hop” past Japanese strongholds Japanese building air base on Guadalcanal Aug. 7, 1941 U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal Japanese forced to abandon “the Island of Death”