Notes

World War II

The German Path to War (pages 809–812)

A. _______________ 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. _______________ 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 _______________ moves. Due to problems at
home caused by the Great Depression, however, they were not prepared to take action.
_______________ became convinced that the Western states would not stop him from
breaking the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
D. In March of 1936, _______________ 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 _______________ 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. _______________ gained new allies. _______________ 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 _______________. Later in the year,
_______________ and _______________ 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. _______________ then
annexed Austria to Germany.
G. In 1938, _______________ 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
_______________ demands. German troops were allowed into Czechoslovakia.
H. After the Munich Conference, the British prime minister, _______________, announced
that the settlement meant “peace for our time.” He believed _______________ promises
that Germany would make no more demands.
I. After Munich, _______________ was even more convinced that France and Great Britain
would not fight. In March of 1939, _______________ 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
_______________ invaded. France and Britain began negotiations with _______________, the
Soviet dictator. They knew that they would need the Soviet Union to help contain the
Nazis.
K. _______________ 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. _______________ offered _______________
eastern Poland and the Baltic states. Hitler knew that eventually he would break the pact.
However, it enabled him to invade Poland without fear.

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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.
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. _______________ 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,
_______________ 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.
_______________ 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, _______________ 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.

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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 _______________, 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 _______________ denounced the
Germans, the United States did nothing at first.
F. _______________ 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. _______________ 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.
H. In September, _______________ 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, _______________ postponed the
invasion of Britain indefinitely at the end of September.
I. _______________ 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. _______________ seized Greece and Yugoslavia in April 1941.
J. Then _______________ 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. _______________ 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)

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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 _______________ 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, _______________ 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. _______________
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 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 _______________, 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.
_______________ called Italy the “soft underbelly” of Europe.
B. After the Allies captured Sicily, _______________ 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 _______________ 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
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January 1945 and entered Berlin in April. Along a southern front, the Soviets swept
through Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
H. By January 1945, _______________ 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 _______________. 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 _______________ 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.
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.

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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, _______________ increased arms production and the size of the army.
_______________ 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 _______________, 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.
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.
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 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, _______________, _______________, and _______________ 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. _______________ and _______________
realized that eleven million Soviet troops were taking possession of much of Eastern and
Central Europe. _______________ favored the idea of self-determination for postwar Europe.
This meant that each country would choose its own form of government. _______________
was suspicious of the Western powers and wanted a Communist buffer between the West
and the Soviet Union.
D. _______________ also sought Soviet military help against Japan. In return for military
aid, _______________ agreed that the Soviets could take Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, two
warm-water ports and railroad rights in Manchuria.
E. _______________ 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. _______________ agreed to hold free elections in Poland at some future date.
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. _______________ had died in April and
was replaced by _______________. _______________ demanded that free elections be held
throughout Eastern Europe. _______________ refused to concede. _______________ 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, _______________ declared that an “iron curtain” had “descended across
the continent.” This iron curtain divided Europe into two hostile sides. _______________
responded by calling _______________ speech a “call to war with the Soviet Union.” The
world seemed to be bitterly divided again.