World War II The Years of Axis Triumph
1939 through 1942
1. Hitler Invades Poland
2. Hitler Invades France
3. Great Britain Stands Alone
4. Hitler Invades Russia
Interactive Historical MapsEurope 1919-1935
Essential Question
To what extent was the world already at war in
1939?
Map ApplicationWrite this Map Key on Side 1:
Axis Powers: Shade Color _____
Allied Powers:Shade Color _____
Neutral Nations: Shade Color_____
Occupied by Hitler: Xs
List Dates of Occupation by the Axis 1942
Battle Sites: Axis Offensives: Color Arrow ______
Allied Offensives: Color Arrow _____
Attack on Poland, Sept 1 1939 Blitzkrieg Strategy
Lightening Warfare Swift Attacks with tanks,
artillery, planes Practiced in Rhine Land,
Soviet Area and Spanish Civil War
Norway, Poland, France Poland Surrenders in 1
Month Film USHMM Film Polish Refug
ees On Map:
Xs on Poland, List Poland Occupied 1939, Arrow for Axis Offensive into Poland
Poland Cavalry vs German Armored Divisions
Germany’s: 6 Armored 4 Motorized Divisions, 1600 AircraftVSPoland's: 1 Armored and 1 Motorized Brigade, 935 planes
Phony War 1939-1940
1939 - 1940 WinterVery little
warfare7 month calm
Stockpiling Resources
Wait and See
France’sMaginot Line
Maginot Line Website
Map: Axis Offensive
1940 Fall of France April Germany attacks
Norway and Denmark Iron ore supplies
Invade Belgium and Netherlands instead of France
6 Weeks for France to Fall Hitler went around the
Maginot Line Pessimism military and
politics WWI Style Fighting Supposedly most advanced
army after WWI
Hitler’s Invades FranceBBC Film
Battle of France May 10, 1940 Germans fight their way west
through France East into the Netherlands West through Belgium
Allied counterattacks Failed Brits get separated from the
French on May 20 Germans trap Brits and French Hitler paused outside of
Dunkirk May 24 (Mao Battle) General Lord Gort
Evacuate Brits May 25-28
Hitler in Paris
Vichy France vs Free France Marshal Petain: Vichy
Won Battle of Verdun WWI Pull France from WWII Authoritarian govt in South
while Germans occupied the north
French resistance called Marquis
Charles de Gaulle: Free France General who ran away to
London, founded “Free French” force
French Army in Colonies Vichy reacts by collaborating
with Germans
Great Britain during WWII“blood, toil, tears, and sweat” Hitler’s Misjudgment Brits would make peace
with Germany after France fell
Brits similar to Aryans
Winston Churchill Early Critic of Appeasement Inspirational Refused to Surrender
Battle of Britain 1940 Map: GB Ally, Battle of
Britain in London, Axis offensive to London
Churchill’s Quotations “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it” “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of
government except all the others that have been” “The price of greatness is responsibility” “Those who can win a war well can rarely make a
good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war”
“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour!”
The Battle of Britain“The War in the Air”July to Sept.
1940Newsreel during Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain July-Sept 1940Germans
Planed to destroy Britain with bombs then invadeGerman Luftwaffe more planes and pilotsLed by drug addict Hermann Goring (morphine)Goring decides to change targets from airbases to cities
Backfires and gives Brit RAF time to recoverHitler turns from Brits in 1940 to invade USSRGoring was wealthy, important leader in Nazi military
BritishBritish spitfires and hurricanes were better planesBrits had RADARBrits manage to get to Berlin and bomb it
BattleDogfights, not one sided, int volunteers into the RAF
Aircraft Technology
Wright Brothers 1903 Fighters, bombers,
transports, jet aircraft by 1945 Boeing, Lockheed, Bell
Trend Powerful engines More armor More weapons Larger fuel tanks
More Info: http://www.acepilots.com/
planes/main.html
Von Hindenburg fire/crash May 6, 193797 people on board, 62 got out alive. There were 36 dead: 13 passengers, 22 aircrew, and one American ground crewman.
Visuals of the War in the Air
USSR and Germany Compete for Territory in Eastern Europe
Territory + USSR 1940: 1/2 of Poland Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania Germany + Territory
1941: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece
Why were these areas important strategically?
Map?
Hitler’s Invasion of USSR Why invade? Soviet Nonaggression Pact
1939 (2000 mile border) Plan 8 weeks spring invasion Had to delay because of Greece
and Italy June 29, 1941 3 Million Men
invade Same obstacles of Nappy Almost got to Moscow Dec 41
Leningrad, (Petrograd), Sept. 8 1941-January 1944
Stalingrad August April 1942-January 1943 Stalemate Map?
USSR vs Axis
Turning Points
What were the turning points of 1939-1941 in Europe?Fall of FranceBattle of BritainInvasion of USSR
and Moscow counter attack
World War II Europe
Synthesizing WWII in Europe 1939-1941 Axis Triumph
To what extent and with what strategies was Hitler successful from 1939 to 1941 in Europe?
Discuss Bell Ringer 1.11.11
1. List three reasons 1942 was a turning point.
2. List two specific government actions on the homefront during WWII.
3. EC: Which country was invaded by the Allies first, Italy or France?
During WWII, what were the turning points between 39-42?
Invasion of Poland 1939Which moment and for which side?
Fall of France 1939Which moment and for which side?
Battle of Britain 1940Which moment and for which side?
Invasion of USSR, 1941Which moment and for which side?
Pearl Harbor 1941Which moment and for which side?
Battle of Alemain“There never was a victory before it, nor a defeat after it.
Year of the Turning Point: 1942
1. USSR Reacts to Invasion
2. Battle in the Atlantic
3. Battle of Alemain
USSR Survives 1942
Scorched Earth Policy Army moved factories Burned everything Guerilla Units industrial
and transportation sites
Hitler stays in Stalingrad loosing .5 million in 3 months
Arial Attacks on Germany
Why did the Allies wait to invade Europe until 1944?
Instead 1941-1944 Great Britain bombs German Cities
Why bomb cities instead of military targets?
Battle in the Atlantic 1942
Why was the Atlantic important strategically? Mobilization of 12 million US
soldiers and supplies to Europe
Submarine Warfare GB lost 18 months GB lost 1/3 of
prewar merchant tonnage Late 1942 radar ad escorts
destroyed 41 German submarines
USA could make boats faster than Germany could destroy them
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Battle of Alamein
Years of Allied Advance: 1943-1945
1. Homefront at War
2. Invasion of France
3. Invasion of Italy
4. Closing in on Germany
The Holocaust
What were the aims of the Nazis in the Final Solution?
What were the methods the Nazi’s used for the Final Solution?
Who perished in the Final Solution? Jewish People 6 million (2 of every 3 in Europe) millions of ‘racially inferior’ (Gypsies, Poles, Slavic
people, disable, communists, socialists, jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, mentally retarded individuals, Soviet POWS)
Homefront
How did governments coordinate resources and effort during the war? Draft Price Controls Mandatory work Women in factories and farms Compulsory savings Control over Factories Centrally Planned Economies and
close work between business and government
22 million Soviets conscripted
Axis struggles to Coordinate Strategy
Mussolini North Africa and Greece (Hitler did not know)
Japan Pearl Harbor (Hitler did not know)
Hitler USSR (Japan did not know)
Hitler’s Strategic Blunders
Delaying USSR InvasionChoosing Stalingrad over MoscowNorth Africa El AlameinPearl Harbor
Invasion of Italy
Why invade Italy first?Sicily July 1943Italy surrenders in
Sept ‘43Mussolini arrested
German Puppet StateSlows invasion until
1945
Invasion of France Stalin Frustrated at Delays of
‘second front’ June 6th 1944 D-Day
Operation Overload Normandy Million Men
Saturation Bombing Last German Attempt
Jet Aircraft Robot Flying bombs 1 ton warheads
April 30, 1945 Hitler and Mistress suicide
May 6, 1945 Germany Surrenders
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Why did the Allies win WWII in Europe?
Supply lines protected Suez Canal and Atlantic OceanLend Lease to USSR and Great Britain
Vichy France Weakness in North Africa
Homefront Mobilization and ProductionGerman invasion of USSRTank Strategies during battle
World War II Images