Notes

World War II

The German Path to War (pages 809–812)

A. Adolf Hitler believed that Germany could build a great civilization. To do this, Germany
needed more land to support more German people. He wanted lands in the east in the Soviet
Union and prepared for war. His plan was to use the land for German settlements. The Slavic
people would become slaves.
B. Hitler proposed that Germany be able to revise the unfair provisions of the Treaty of
Versailles that had ended World War I. At first he said he would use peaceful means. However, in
March of 1935, he created a new air force and began a military draft.
C. France, Great Britain, and Italy condemned Hitler’s moves. Due to problems at home caused
by the Great Depression, however, they were not prepared to take action. Hitler became
convinced that the Western states would not stop him from breaking the provisions of the Treaty
of Versailles.
D. In March of 1936, Hitler sent German troops into the Rhineland, which was supposed to be a
demilitarized area. France would not oppose Germany for this treaty violation without British
support. Great Britain saw Hitler’s actions as reasonable and not call for military response. This
was the beginning of the policy of appeasement, one based on the belief that if European states
satisfied reasonable demands of dissatisfied states, the dissatisfied states would be content and
peace would be preserved.
E. Hitler gained new allies. Benito Mussolini was the Fascist leader of Italy. He invaded
Ethiopia in 1935 with the support of German troops. In 1936, both Italy and Germany sent troops
to Spain to support General Francisco Franco. Later in the year, Hitler and Mussolini became
allies and formed the Rome-Berlin Axis. Germany also signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan
forming an alliance against communism.
F. By 1937, Germany had become a very powerful nation. In 1938, Hitler pursued a long held
goal, union with Austria, or Anschluss. By threatening to invade Austria, Hitler forced the
Austrians to put Austrian Nazis in charge of the government. The new government then invited
German troops into Austria to “help” maintain order. Hitler then annexed Austria to Germany.
G. In 1938, Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland in northwestern Czechoslovakia be given to
Germany. The British, French, Italian, and German representatives then met in Munich. Britain,
France, and Italy gave in to all of Hitler’s demands. German troops were allowed into
Czechoslovakia.
H. After the Munich Conference, the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced
that the settlement meant “peace for our time.” He believed Hitler’s promises that Germany
would make no more demands.
I. After Munich, Hitler was even more convinced that France and Great Britain would not fight. In
March of 1939, Hitler invaded western Czechoslovakia, and made a Nazi puppet state out of
Slovakia in eastern Czechoslovakia.
J. France and Great Britain began to react. Great Britain said it would protect Poland if Hitler
invaded. France and Britain began negotiations with Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator. They
knew that they would need the Soviet Union to help contain the Nazis.
K. Hitler was afraid of an alliance between the West and the Soviet Union. In August of 1939,
Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. They promised not to
attack each other. Hitler offered Stalin eastern Poland and the Baltic states. Hitler knew that
eventually he would break the pact. However, it enabled him to invade Poland without fear.
L. On September 1, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, Great Britain and France declared
war on Germany.

The Japanese Path to War (pages 812–813)

A. In September 1931, Japanese soldiers seized Manchuria. The Japanese claimed that the
Chinese had attacked them. In fact the Japanese had staged the attack themselves disguised as
Chinese soldiers.
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B. When the League of Nations investigated and condemned the attack, Japan withdrew from the
league. For several years, Japan strengthened its hold on Manchuria, which it renamed
Manchukuo.
C. By the mid-1930s, militants had gained control of Japanese politics. The United States
opposed the Japanese takeover of Manchuria, but did nothing to stop it.
D. Chiang Kai-shek tried to avoid a war with Japan. He was more concerned with the threat
from the Chinese Communists. He tried to appease Japan by allowing the Japanese to occupy
parts of northern China. Japan moved steadily southward. In December 1936, Chiang formed a
united front against the Japanese. In July 1937 the Chinese and Japanese clashed south of
Beijing. The Japanese seized the capital of Nanjing. Chiang Kai-shek refused to surrender and
moved the capital.
E. Japanese military leaders wanted to establish a New Order in East Asia. The order would
include Japan, Manchuria, and China. The Japanese thought that, as the only modernized
country, they could guide the other East Asian nations to prosperity.
F. The Japanese planned to seize Soviet Siberia. During the 1930s, Japan began to cooperate
with Nazi Germany. The Japanese thought that they and Germany could defeat the Soviet Union
and divide its resources.
G. The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact forced the Japanese to rethink their goals. The Japanese
needed natural resources. They looked to expand into Southeast Asia for sources. At the same
time they knew that they risked strong response from European colonial powers and the United
States. They decided to take the risk.
H. In 1940, the Japanese demanded the right to exploit economic resources in French Indochina.
The United States responded by imposing economic sanctions, or restrictions on trade that are
intended to enforce international law, unless Japan withdrew to its borders of 1931.
I. The Japanese badly needed oil and scrap iron from the United States. The economic sanctions
were a very real threat. In the end, after long debate, Japan decided to launch a surprise attack
on U.S. and European colonies in Southeast Asia.

Europe at War (pages 814–817)

A. The 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany took just four weeks. The speed and efficiency of the
German army stunned the world. Called blitzkrieg (“lightning war”), the Germans used panzer
divisions (strike forces of about 300 tanks and soldiers) that were supported by airplanes. On
September 28, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland.
B. In the spring of 1940, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway. In May, Germany attacked the
Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The German armies broke through French lines and moved
across northern France. The French had fortified their border with Germany along the Maginot
Line, but the Germans surprised them by going around it.
C. The Germans trapped the entire British army and French forces on the beaches of Dunkirk.
The British navy and private boats were able to evacuate 338,000 Allied troops, barely averting a
complete disaster.
D. On June 22, the French signed an armistice with the Germans, who occupied three-fifths of
France. An authoritarian French regime under German control was set up to govern the rest of
the country. Led by Marshal Henri Plain, it was named Vichy France. Germany now controlled
western and central Europe. Only Britain remained undefeated.
E. The British asked the United States for help. The United States had a strict policy of
isolationism. A series of neutrality acts passed in the 1930s prevented the United States from
involvement in European conflicts. Though President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced the
Germans, the United States did nothing at first.
F. Roosevelt wanted to repeal the neutrality acts and help Great Britain. Over time, the laws
were slowly relaxed and the United States sent food, ships, planes, and weapons to Britain.
G. Hitler understood that he could not attack Britain by sea unless he first controlled the air. In
August 1940, the Luftwaffe—German air force—began a major bombing offensive against
military targets in Britain. Aided by a good radar system, the British fought back but suffered
critical losses.

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H. In September, Hitler retaliated to a British attack on Berlin by shifting attacks from military
targets to British cities. He hoped to break British morale. However, the shift in strategy allowed
the British to rebuild their air power and inflict crippling losses on the Germans. Having lost the
Battle of Britain, Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain indefinitely at the end of September.
I. Hitler was convinced that the way to defeat Britain was to first smash the Soviet Union. He
thought that the British were resisting only because they were expecting Soviet support. He also
thought that the Soviets could be easily defeated. He planned to invade in the spring of 1941,
but was delayed by problems in the Balkans. After the Italians had failed to capture Greece in
1940, the British still held air bases there. Hitler seized Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941.
J. Then Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. The attack on the Soviet Union stretched
out for 1,800 miles. German troops moved quickly and captured two million Russian soldiers by
November. The Germans were within 25 miles of Moscow. However, winter came early in 1941
and, combined with fierce Russian resistance, forced the Germans to halt. This marked the first
time in the war that the Germans had been stopped. The Germans were not equipped for the
bitter Russian winter. In December, the Soviet army counterattacked.

Japan at War (pages 817–818)

A. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
They also attacked the Philippines and the British colony of Malaya. Soon after, they invaded the
Dutch East Indies and other islands in the Pacific Ocean. In spite of some fierce resistance in
places such as the Philippines, by the spring of 1942, the Japanese controlled almost all of
Southeast Asia and much of the western Pacific.
B. The Japanese created the Greater East-Asia Coprosperity Sphere, which included the entire
region under Japanese control. Japan announced its intention to liberate colonial nations in
Southeast Asia, but first needed their natural resources. They treated the occupied countries as
conquered lands.
C. The Japanese thought that their attacks on the U.S. fleet would destroy the U.S. Navy and lead
the Americans to accept Japanese domination in the Pacific. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor
had the opposite effect. It united the American people and convinced the nation that it should
enter the war against Japan.
D. Hitler thought that the Americans would be too involved in the Pacific to fight in Europe. Four
days after Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the United States. World War II had become a global
war.

The Allies Advance (pages 818–821)

A. A new coalition was formed called the Grand Alliance. It included Great Britain, the Soviet
Union, and the United States. The three nations agreed to focus on military operations and ignore
political differences. They agreed in 1943 to fight until the Axis Powers—Germany, Italy, and
Japan—surrendered unconditionally.
B. At the beginning of 1942, the Germans continued to fight the war against Britain and the
Soviet Union. The Germans were also fighting in North Africa. The Afrika Korps under General
Erwin Rommel broke through British lines in Egypt and advanced on Alexandria. During the
spring, the Germans captured the entire Crimea in the Soviet Union.
C. By the fall of 1942, the war had turned against the Germans. In the summer of 1942, the
British in North Africa had stopped the Germans at El Alamein. The Germans retreated. In
November, British and American forces invaded French North Africa and forced the German and
Italian troops to surrender by May.
D. On the Eastern Front, Hitler decided to attack Stalingrad, a major Soviet industrial center.
Between November 1942 and February 1943 the Soviets counterattacked. They surrounded the
Germans and cut off their supply lines. In May, the Germans were forced to surrender. They lost
some of their best troops. Hitler then realized that he would not defeat the Soviet Union.
E. In 1942, the Allies had their first successes in the Pacific. In the Battle of the Coral Sea in May,
American naval forces stopped the Japanese and saved Australia from invasion. In June, the

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Battle of Midway Island was the turning point in the Pacific war. U.S. planes destroyed four
Japanese aircraft carriers and established naval superiority.
F. By the fall of 1942, Allied forces were about to begin two major operation plans against Japan.
One, led by General Douglas MacArthur, would move into South China from Burma through the
islands of Indonesia. The other would move across the Pacific capturing some of the Japanese-
held islands and ending up in Japan.
G. By November 1942, after fierce battles in the Solomon Islands, the Japanese power was
diminishing.

Last Years of the War (pages 821–822)

A. By early 1943, the tide had turned against the Axis forces. In May the Axis forces surrendered
in Tunisia. The Allies then moved north and invaded Italy in September. Winston Churchill
called Italy the “soft underbelly” of Europe.
B. After the Allies captured Sicily, Mussolini was removed from office. The king arrested him. A
new Italian government offered to surrender to the Allies. However, the Germans rescued
Mussolini and set him up as dictator of a puppet German state in northern Italy.
C. The Germans established a strong defense south of Rome. The Allies had very heavy
casualties as they slowly advanced north. They did not take Rome until June 4, 1944.
D. The Allies had long been planning a “second front” in western Europe. They planned to invade
France from Great Britain across the English Channel. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day), the Allies under
U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed on the beaches in Normandy.
E. Though the Germans were expecting the invasion to take place in another location, there was
still heavy resistance. However, because the Germans thought the invasion was a diversion, they
were slow to respond. This gave the Allies the chance to set up a beachhead. By landing two
million men and a half-million vehicles, the Allies eventually broke through the German lines.
F. After the breakout, the Allies moved south and east. French resistance fighters rose up in
German-occupied Paris. Paris was liberated by the end of August. In March of 1945, the Allies
crossed the Rhine River. In the north they linked up with the Soviet army that was moving from
the east.
G. The Soviets had turned the tables on the Germans in 1943. They soundly defeated German
troops in July at the Battle of Kursk in a huge tank battle. Then they moved steadily westward. By
the end of 1943, they had reoccupied the Ukraine. By early 1944, they had moved into the Baltic
states. In the north, Soviet troops occupied Warsaw in January 1945 and entered Berlin in April.
Along a southern front, the Soviets swept through Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
H. By January 1945, Hitler had moved into an underground bunker in Berlin. In the end he
blamed the Jews for the war. On April 30, he committed suicide. Two days before, Italian
partisans—resistance fighters—had shot Mussolini. On May 7, 1945, German commanders
surrendered, and the war in Europe was over.
I. The war in Asia continued. Beginning in 1943, the Allied forces had gone on the offensive and
moved across the Pacific. As the Allies came closer to the Japanese home islands in 1945, U.S.
president Harry S Truman decided to drop atomic bombs on Japanese cities. He hoped that this
would avoid an invasion of Japan. The first bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August
6. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Both cities were completely
destroyed. Thousands died immediately and thousands more died later of radiation sickness. The
Japanese surrendered on August 14.
J. World War II was over. Seventeen million people had died in battle in World War II. Some
estimate that, including civilian losses, as many as fifty million people died in the war.

The Mobilization of Peoples: Four Examples (pages 830–832)

A. Even more than World War I, World War II was a total war. Economic mobilization was more
extensive. The war had an enormous impact on civilian life in many parts of the world.
B. In the Soviet Union initial defeats led to drastic emergency measures. For example, Leningrad
was under siege for nine hundred days. Over a million people died there due to food shortages.
People had to eat dogs, cats, and mice.
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C. Soviet workers dismantled factories in the west and shipped them to the east, out of the way
of the attacking German army. At times workers ran machines as new factory buildings were built
up around them.
D. The military and industrial mobilization of the Soviet Union produced 78,000 tanks and 98,000
artillery pieces. In 1943, 55 percent of the national income went to war materials. As a result
there were severe shortages of food and housing.
E. Soviet women were an important part of the war effort. Women working in industry increased
60 percent. They worked in industries, mines, and railroads. They dug antitank ditches and
worked as air raid wardens. Some fought in battles and flew in bombers.
F. The war did not come to the home territory of the United States. The country became an
arsenal for the Allies. The United States produced much of the military equipment needed to
fight the Axis. In 1943, the United States was building six ships a day and ninety-six thousand
planes per year.
G. The American mobilization created some social turmoil. There were widespread movements of
people. For example, many women and men enrolled in the military moved frequently. Also, as
millions of servicemen and workers looking for jobs moved around, their wives and children or
girlfriends often moved with them.
H. African Americans were profoundly impacted by the war. Over a million African Americans
moved from the South to cities in the North and West to work in war industries. At times the
influx of African Americans led to social tensions and even violence. A million African Americans
joined the military. They served in segregated units. Angered by their treatment, many returned
from the war ready to fight for their civil rights.
I. Japanese Americans on the West Coast were moved to internment camps away from the
ocean. Sixty-five percent of them had been born in the United States. In spite of that, they were
required to take loyalty oaths and were forced to live in camps surrounded by barbed wire. The
government claimed to do this for national security. Of American descendants of the Axis Power
countries, Japanese Americans were the only group to be put into camps.
J. In 1939 in Germany, many civilians feared that the war would bring disaster. Hitler understood
the importance of the home front. He believed that lack of civilian support had led to the German
defeat in World War I. To keep up public morale, Hitler refused to cut consumer-goods production
for the first two years of the war. This decision may have cost Germany the war. After defeats on
the Russian front, the policy changed.
K. Early in 1942, Hitler increased arms production and the size of the army. Albert Speer
became minister for armaments and munitions. He tripled armament production between 1942
and 1943. In July 1944, the German economy was totally mobilized. Schools, theaters, and cafes
were closed. However, this came too late to avoid defeat.
L. Before the war, the Nazis tried to keep women out of the job market. As the war progressed,
more and more men had to serve in the military. The Nazis changed their policies and
encouraged women to work. However, the number of working women increased very little
between 1939 and 1944.
M. Wartime Japan was a highly mobilized society. The government controlled prices, wages,
labor, and resources. Citizens were encouraged to sacrifice for the national cause. In the final
years of the war, young Japanese volunteered to serve as suicide pilots against U.S. ships. They
were called kamikaze (“divine wind”) pilots.
N. The Japanese government opposed employing women. General Hideki Tojo, the Japanese
prime minister from 1941 to 1944, argued that employing women would weaken the family
system and the nation. Female employment increased only in areas in which women had
traditionally worked, such as textiles and farming. The Japanese met labor shortages by using
Korean and Chinese laborers.

Frontline Civilians: The Bombing of Cities (pages 833–834)

A. Bombing was used against military targets, enemy troops, and civilian populations. World
War II was the first war in which large masses of civilians were bombed.

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B. At the end of World War I, there had been a few bombing raids against civilian targets. The
raids had caused great public outcry. After the war, European nations began to think that
bombing civilian targets could be used to force governments to make peace. During the 1930s,
European nations developed long-range bombers.
C. The first sustained civilian bombing was done by the Germans against London. For months,
the Germans bombed the city nightly. There were heavy casualties and tremendous damage. In
time, the blitz, as the bombing was called, was carried to other British cities. In spite of the heavy
bombing, British morale remained high. The idea that bombing civilians would force peace was
proved wrong.
D. In 1942, the British began major bombing campaigns against German cities. Ignoring their
own experience, the British hoped that the bombing would break the morale of the German
people. Thousands of bombers were used to attack major German cities.
E. The bombing of Germany added to civilian terror. The Germans particularly feared incendiary
bombs, which spread fire when they exploded. In some cities, such as Dresden, enormous
firestorms resulted from the bombing, killing hundreds of thousands of people and burning
everything that could burn.
F. The bombing of Germany by the Allies may have killed a half-million civilians. Millions of
buildings were destroyed. In spite of the terrible destruction, the bombing did not seem to sap
the morale of the German people or destroy the German industrial capacity. However, the
destruction of transportation systems and fuel supplies strongly impacted the ability of the
Germans to supply their military forces.
G. In November 1944, the Allies began attacks on Japanese cities. By that time, the Japanese air
force could no longer defend Japan. The crowded Japanese cities, filled with highly-combustible
structures, were especially vulnerable. By the following summer, a fourth of Japanese dwellings
had been destroyed and many of its industries. The bombing of civilians then reached an
unprecedented level when the U.S. dropped
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945.

Peace and a New War (pages 834–836)

A. After the end of World War II, a new international conflict emerged, the Cold War. The Cold
War was primarily an ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. It
dominated world politics until the end of the 1980s.
B. In November 1943, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met in Tehran to decide the future
course of the war. Their countries were known as the Big Three of the Grand Alliance. The Big
Three decided that the Americans and British would attack Germany through France in 1944.
They would then meet the Soviet forces somewhere in a defeated Germany. This meant the
Soviet troops would probably liberate most of Eastern
Europe. They also agreed to partition postwar Germany.
C. In February of 1945, the Big Three powers met at Yalta in southern Russia. By that time, they
knew that the Germans were beaten. Roosevelt and Churchill realized that eleven million
Soviet troops were taking possession of much of Eastern and Central Europe. Roosevelt favored
the idea of self-determination for postwar Europe. This meant that each country would choose its
own form of government. Stalin was suspicious of the Western powers and wanted a Communist
buffer between the West and the Soviet Union.
D. Roosevelt also sought Soviet military help against Japan. In return for military aid,
Roosevelt agreed that the Soviets could take Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, two warm-water
ports and railroad rights in Manchuria.
E. Roosevelt wanted to create the United Nations organization to help resolve difficult
international disagreements. The Big Three powers at Yalta accepted his plans and set the
founding meeting of the United Nations for April 1945, in San Francisco.
F. The Big Three also confirmed at the Yalta Conference that Germany would have to surrender
unconditionally. They agreed to divide Germany into four zones. The zones would be occupied
and governed by France, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Stalin agreed to hold
free elections in Poland at some future date.

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G. The Soviets and the Americans were deeply split about free elections in Eastern Europe. The
Soviets wanted these nations to be pro-Soviet. The Americans wanted free elections. These
conflicting goals were never reconciled.
H. The Potsdam Conference was held in July 1945. Roosevelt had died in April and was replaced
by Harry Truman. Truman demanded that free elections be held throughout Eastern Europe.
Stalin refused to concede. Stalin wanted absolute military security for his country. He thought
this could only happen if all the Eastern European states had Communist governments. He saw
free elections as a direct threat. The only way to force free elections in Eastern Europe would
have been to invade the Soviet-held territory. As World War II had just ended, very few people
favored that course.
I. Many Western leaders thought that the Soviets intended to spread communism throughout the
world. The Soviets saw Western policy, particularly that of the United States, as global capitalist
expansionism.
J. In March 1946, Winston Churchill declared that an “iron curtain” had “descended across the
continent.” This iron curtain divided Europe into two hostile sides. Stalin responded by calling
Churchill’s speech a “call to war with the Soviet Union.” The world seemed to be bitterly divided
again.