Global History II – Sautner - Commack Schools



Major Events of World War II

|Event |Significance |

|Invasion of Poland, |Hitler uses blitzkrieg (lightning war) to conquer Poland in about a month using fast-moving airplanes and tanks,|

|Sept. 1939 – Oct. 1939 |followed by massive infantry forces. Due to this invasion, England and France declare war on Germany. |

| |ALLIES vs. AXIS POWERS |

|WORLD WAR II BEGINS !! |(England and France) (Germany, Italy, Japan) |

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|United States, Sept. 1939 |Cash and carry policy is instituted by U.S. – the Allies were allowed to buy American arms – the Allies would |

| |pay cash and then carry the goods on their own ships. |

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|Phony War (sitzkrieg), |French sat behind their supposedly impenetrable Maginot Line ( a series of fortresses on German and French |

|Oct- 1939-April 1940 |border) waiting for the Germans to attack- at the same time Germany was secretly planning a spring offensive. |

|Europe, April –June 1940 |Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg fall to the Nazi invasion. Nazis outflank the Maginot|

| |Line and defeat France in six weeks. |

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| |GREAT BRITAIN IS LEFT ALONE TO |

| |FIGHT THE AXIS POWERS!! |

|Battle of Britain, 1940-41 |German Luftwaffe’s (Air Force) attempt to destroy Britain’s defenses prior to a cross-Channel invasion; Royal |

|(London Blitz) |Air Force (RAF) use of radar made daylight raids too dangerous forcing the Luftwaffe to resort to night attack. |

| |Despite the massive destruction from the heavy bombing campaign, Britain does not surrender and grows more |

| |determined to defeat the Nazis. |

|United States, 1941 |F.D.R. convinced Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act becoming the “arsenal of democracy” – supplying Great |

| |Britain with arms |

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|Europe, March – May 1941 |Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania join the Axis powers and Hitler takes |

| |over Yugoslavia and Greece. |

|Operation Barbarossa – |Germany invades the Soviet Union. Soviet Union enters the war on the side of the Allies. |

|June 1941 | |

| |Early in the morning of June 22, 1941, the roar of German tanks and aircraft announced the beginning of the |

| |invasion. Because of the Nonaggression Pact, Stalin was caught completely off guard, and the German army |

| |quickly pushed 500 miles into the Soviet Union. As the Soviet troops retreated, they burned and destroyed |

| |everything in the enemy’s path. It was the same scorched-earth policy the Russians had used against Napoleon |

| |130 years earlier. |

| |By September, the German forces put the city of Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg) under siege. They |

| |completely cut it off from the rest of the Soviet Union, starving the city’s 2.5 million inhabitants. Desperate|

| |and hungry, the Russians in Leningrad began eating cattle and horse feed, as well as cats and dogs, and then |

| |finally, crows and rats, just to survive. Still, the city refused to fall. Impatient, Hitler sent his troops |

| |further inland to Moscow, despite the incoming winter. It was a replay of Napoleon’s invasion hundred years |

| |earlier. Hitler issued the orders, “No Retreat!” to his armies. |

1. Why did Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union catch Stalin off guard and unprepared?

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2. Predict what you think will happen as Hitler continues to try and overrun Russia. Support your answer using a specific comparison to something you have previously learned about.

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Major Turning Points and Key Events in World War II

|*Pearl Harbor, USA December 7, 1941 |Japan attacks a Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The US enters the War on the side of the Allies. |

|*Battle of Midway, 1942 |US defeats the Japanese and regains Naval superiority in the Pacific |

|*Battle of Stalingrad |The German invasion of the USSR began in June of 1942 with Hitler’s expectation to complete his Russian campaign|

|1942-43 |in 10 weeks. The Russian winter created supply problems for the Germans and the Soviet counterattack led to the |

| |eventual loss of nearly 300,000 Germans. |

|*North Africa 1940-43 |British defeat of Italian soldiers in East Africa by February 1941 led Germans to send the “Desert Fox,” Erwin |

|Battle of El Alamein |Rommel’s, tank divisions to push the British back to Egypt and threaten the Suez passage. British General |

| |Montgomery of England defeated Rommel’s forces at El-Alamein, opening the way for an Allied invasion of the |

| |Western part of North Africa. The Axis forces surrender their African lands in 1943. |

|*D-Day Invasion |The Normandy invasion of France led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was the largest air, land, and sea invasion|

|June 6, 1944 |ever undertaken. The Allied invasion included over 5,000 ships, 10,000 planes and 250,000 service men. Despite |

| |nearly 10,000 casualties and over 6,600 deaths, the Allies win and begin their campaign to push the Germans back|

| |to Berlin. |

|Battle of the Bulge, 1944 |A surprisingly strong response by the Germans in the Ardennes forest of Belgium slows the Allied advance toward |

| |Germany. |

|1944-45 in the Pacific |Bitter fighting in the Pacific as the Allies continue the “island hopping” campaign, costs thousands of American|

| |lives. The key battles were at Leyte, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. |

|*Spring, 1945 |Following FDR’s death and Hitler’s suicide, the Germans surrendered to the Allies on May 8, 1945 (V-E Day – |

| |Victory in Europe) |

|*August 6, 1945 |The Manhattan Project becomes a reality: US drops an atomic bomb (uranium based – “Little Boy”) on the Japanese |

| |city of Hiroshima killing nearly 75,000 people immediately and exposing thousands of others to deadly amounts of|

| |radiation. |

|*August 9, 1945 |US drops an atomic bomb (plutonium based – “Fat Man”) on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 50,000 |

| |people immediately and exposing thousands of others to deadly amounts of radiation. |

|*August 15, 1945 |Japanese Emperor Hirohito announces Japan’s defeat to the Japanese people. This become V-J Day (Victory in |

| |Japan). |

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