1. World War II

2. Europe Goes to War 1. 1936 - German troops occupy the Rhineland
– Germany annexes Austria – Anschluss
3. Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)
Germany needs lebenstraum
Munich 1938 – appeasement
Neville Chamberlain gives in
4. Germany takes rest of Czech.

3. Europe Goes to War 5. Germany signs non-aggression pact with USSR 1939
6. Sept. 1, 1939 – Germany invades Poland
WWII begins

4. Europe Goes to War Blitzkrieg (“lightening war”)
Hitler crushes Poland
Stalin takes half of Poland for Soviet Union (communist)
French build up Maginot Line - defenses
April 9, 1940 – Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium fall
Takes Paris on June 14, 1940
Evacuation at Dunkirk

5. War cont. Battle of Britain Luftwaffe vs. Royal Air Force (RAF)
June 1940 – June 1941 – 30,000 Londoners killed
Winston Churchill rallies England
Hitler’s first defeat

7. Japan Japan Builds an Empire American Response
Invades Manchuria; other Pacific Islands 30’s & 40’s
American Response
FDR moves Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Threatens Japan’s expansion
America remains neutral
Embargo; Japanese assets frozen
Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941 – “a date which will live in infamy”
U.S. enters World War II
Japan

8. Pearl Harbor

10. Fighting in Italy and North Africa
German General Erwin Rommel – “Desert Fox”
Leads Afrika Corps
Panzer units (tanks)
Defeated by GB at Battle of El Alamein
George Patton takes Sicily
Bloody Anzio
Italy surrenders
Mussolini killed by anti-fascists

11. War in the Soviet Union 3.6 million Germans attack in 1941
Operation Barbarossa
Scorched earth policy
Bitter winter
Battle of Stalingrad
Red Army launches massive assault; victory for USSR
Turning point in war

12. Invasion of Western Europe
Build up of troops in GB
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
Largest landing force in history invades Normandy, France
Dwight D. Eisenhower – Supreme Allied Commander
Battle of the Bulge
1944 – Hitler’s last chance to defend Germany
Patton stops Germans

14. War Ends in Europe The Soviets Advance Germany Surrenders
Move on Berlin
U.S. moves from west
Soviets move from east
Soviets take Berlin in April 1945
Germany Surrenders
Hitler commits suicide on May 1, 1945
Germany surrenders on May 8, 1945
V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)

15. War Ends in Europe cont. The Yalta Conference
Stalin, Churchill, and FDR (the big three)
Split Germany
Stalin promised to enter war in the Pacific

17. War in the Pacific The Japanese Advance The Philippines Fall
General Macarthur forced to leave (“I shall return”)
Bataan Death March
The Battle of Coral Sea
First aircraft carrier battle
Prevented attack of Australia

18. War in the Pacific Allied Victories Turn the Tide The Battle of Midway
Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Kamikaze fighters
Key victories
Island hopping to Japan

19. War Ends in Pacific
The Manhattan Project – secret project to develop an atomic bomb
FDR dies – Truman makes decision to drop the bomb
August 6, “Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima
August 9, “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki
Sept. 2, 1945 – Japan signs surrender

20. Hiroshima

23. Liberation
Soviet and American troops come upon Nazi concentration camps
World begins to learn about the Holocaust
Genocide