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WWII The last thing the United States desired was to become involved in another war. A war would lead to financial difficulties, loss of life, and detract time and energy from solving problems within America. However, America had become a world power that other countries relied upon. By the end of the 1930s, the world was becoming a much darker and harsher place. As time passed, more and more problems resulted from the Treaty of Versailles, which had ended WWI. The treaty had stripped Germany of its military and weapons and established a democratic government. Germany had no previous experience with democracy and many problems arose. At the same time, the Russian Revolution gave rise to non-democratic governments. Communism and fascism became increasingly popular in Russia, Germany, and Italy. The League of Nations, established under the Treaty of Versailles, was essentially powerless in its peacekeeping efforts throughout Europe, due to the requirement of unanimous votes and its inability to enforce decisions. Because of these main factors, the seeds of discontent were sown in Europe. The Beginnings: German and Italian Discontent In Germany, the Nationalist Socialist (NAZI) Party was gaining power. The party was initially formed by a radial group of WWI veterans, who blamed communism and German Jews for their defeat. Germany was growing increasingly discontented with the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which they had been forced to sign. The German president, Paul von Hindenburg, was growing old, while an extremely antidemocratic radical, a man named Adolf Hitler, began to gain power. In January of 1933, Hitler rose to the chancellorship (head of the German parliament). Within three months he seized complete power, creating a dictatorship, on the pretext of protecting the nation from threats – threats that the Nazis created themselves. A dictator is an individual who has absolute power over all aspects of governing a country. Like many dictators before him, Hitler eliminated the competing political parties by having them executed, keeping the people under control through fear. Extreme censorship took place and anything containing beliefs contrary to those of the Nazis was burned. Secret police terrorized and eliminated people who opposed Hitler’s ideas. In August 1934, Hitler completely cemented his authority when, opon the death of the German President, his government declared that the office of the president was now combined with the office of chancellor. Hitler held all of the power in Germany. In 1936, Germany formed an alliance with Fascist Italy and its leader Benito Mussolini. Fascism is a form of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, strict social and economic controls, and suppression of the opposition through censorship and terror tactics. Fascist governments are generally anti-democratic, aggressively nationalistic, and racist. In a fascist government, the nation and race are of higher importance than the individual. The only activities of worth involve service to the state. The alliance between Germany and Italy was called the Rome-Berlin Axis. The Empire of Japan joined with Germany and Italy for the stated purpose of fighting communism. These three countries were known as the Axis Powers. In actuality, the fight against communism was simply the excuse these countries needed to extend their borders and gain as much power as they could. The Holocaust Hitler had several goals in attacking his neighboring countries. Certainly, he wanted to gain more power and territory for Germany, but Hitler also had another goal - the elimination of the Jewish race. In 1941, Hitler decided to implement a plan he called the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." It called for the extermination of all Jews. Hitler's desire to exterminate all "undesirables" from the Aryan race was rooted in the principles of Eugenics - a theory taken from Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest." Some thought that the human race could be evolved and perfected if "problem" peoples such as Africans, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, and the handicapped were eliminated from the collective gene pool. While Hitler was the only person in history to effect a large-scale eugenics program, this theory was popular in the United States and Western Europe. Hitler's program, which lasted for the duration of the war, sought to "cleanse" the human race to create a pure, non-Jewish, Caucasian master race. Nazi Germany instituted a calculated program to eliminate all Jews from Europe. This program has been referred to in history as the Holocaust. Hitler began by limiting the civil rights of all Jews and people of Jewish heritage. Jews could not marry non-Jews, practice law or medicine, hold any government positions, or even attend German universities. Jews had to wear yellow stars on their clothing to designate them as Jewish. Eventually, Hitler began rounding up Jews and other "undesirables," including gypsies and the handicapped, and sending them to concentration camps. His feared police force, the Gestapo, was devoted entirely to dealing with Jews. They hunted down hidden Jews to carry off to the camps. The most famous story of this is captured in the The Diary of Anne Frank, the story of a 13 year old girl who hid with her family during WWII. In the book, those that were able to work were sent to labor camps, where they built roads and did other manual labor until they died of exhaustion and starvation. The rest were sent to the numerous concentration camps. In the camps, the prisoners were forced to live in horrible conditions, became the unwilling subjects of medical experiments, and were under the watch of the cruel and brutal guards. Many prisoners were sent into the gas chambers to be executed. Hitler was attempting to kill off the entire Jewish race. The exact numbers are unknown, but the best estimates are that 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. |
Stirrings of War In 1936, Italy and Germany began taking aggressive measures against other nations. Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1936, and in 1938, Germany annexed Austria, announcing its “union” with Germany. In March of 1939, Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, placing them under German rule. Then, Italy took over Albania and German tanks rolled into Poland, quickly defeating its army. Great Britain, a Polish ally, and France, Germany’s only neighbor not yet under German rule or attack, could no longer remain uninvolved as German aggression continued. They joined together as allies to fight the Germans and the Italians. World War II had begun. Within a few years, Nazi Germany would control almost every European country. Hitler went so far as to offer Russia, led by Joseph Stalin, part of Poland at the end of the war and signed a non-aggression pact with them - even though he secretly planned to invade their country. The pact simply kept Russia out of the war until Germany decided to attack. |
War World War II officially began on September 1, 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. Despite pleas by Great Britain to deal with Hitler through appeasement (giving in to an aggressor’s demands), international leaders believed armed protection was the only way to deal with the aggressive attacks from the Axis Powers. Fearing further aggression from Germany, Great Britain and France mobilized their troops. Their efforts, however, were not enough. On April 9, 1940, German troops invaded Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Northern France. On June 14, 1940, the Germans entered Paris. British and French troops tried to prevent the overthrow of the French government, but were unsuccessful. British troops barely had enough time to escape back to Great Britain as France fell to Germany. Hitler looked towards England as his next target. From July to October of 1940, Germany and Britain fought a vicious aerial war, known as the Battle of Britain. Finally, Hitler gave up his plans to invade England and turned to fighting British forces elsewhere in the world. By this time, Italy had declared war on France and Great Britain and was attacking their colonies in North Africa. Turning away from England, Germany sent troops to aid the Italians in North Africa. |
America: War on Two Fronts World War II took place in two different regions of the world: Europe and Asia. In Asia, fighting first began in 1931 when Japanese troops invaded Chinese Manchuria. Hostilities broke out again in 1937 with a Japanese attack along the Manchurian border with China. The Japanese had blatantly violated numerous world policies by attacking China. The League of Nations met to decide what action to take against Japan. The world powers could not come to an agreement and nothing was done. War continued between the two Asian nations. In 1939, Japan occupied French Indo-China. In response, the U.S. placed a trade embargo - a government order to stop trade - on Japan in an effort to force them to end their hostilities. The U.S., Japan’s main supplier of oil, cut off supplies to Japan through the embargo. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the only president to serve more than two terms. Roosevelt was concerned about the war in Europe, but isolationists fought to prevent the U.S. from entering the war. Roosevelt did everything he could to aid the Allies, while retaining an official U.S. stance of neutrality. Despite Roosevelt’s efforts to rally support, Americans were reluctant to stray from their stance of neutrality and become embroiled in the war. However, throughout 1940 and 1941, there was growing public support to aid the Allies. In March 1941, Congress passed legislation - the Lend-Lease Act - allowing the President to sell, transfer, or lease arms to any country the U.S. thought needed them. The president could still not directly enter the war. In Japan, as the U.S. trade embargo tightened, the government began to look for other ways to gain the resources it needed. To its south, there were several countries that could provide natural and strategic resources. The only thing that stood in Japan's way was the power of the U.S. Navy, with bases in Hawaii, the Philippines, and Guam. Japan developed a plan for a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It would be followed by attacks on American bases in Guam and the Philippines. Japan was confident that once the United States became involved in the war in Europe, it would be eager to negotiate a quick peace with Japan, leaving them with their expanded empire. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into WWII. |
A Nation at War On December 7, 1941, early Sunday morning, Japan attacked the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. The attack crippled almost all of the battleships. The battleship Arizona exploded and sank, sending 1,117 men of her crew to the bottom of the harbor. Two American aircraft carriers, the Lexington and the Enterprise, escaped damage because they were out at sea. These two ships became important in the later part of the war. America reacted swiftly and on December 8, 1941, Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war on Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. During the early months following the attack on Pearl Harbor, emotions ran high in the United States. Fearing that Japanese living in the United States would help Japan, the government gathered up almost 120,000 Japanese-Americans and resident Japanese aliens and placed them in internment camps. Some people remained in the camps for over three years. The only way to leave was to sign a strict loyalty oath to the United States and then join the U.S. military. WWII involved a broad cross-section of Americans – more than had been involved in any previous war. Native Americans, African Americans, and women were all involved in the conflict. This was the last war in which African Americans served in segregated units. As many as 250,000 women enlisted in the military, working behind the front as drivers, cooks, radio operators, nurses, etc. They served in female auxiliary units of the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Army. Minority participation in World War II was significant. The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of 1,000 black pilots trained in Tuskegee, Alabama. Of the group, 445 of the pilots went to fight in Europe and North Africa, flying "bomber escort," one of the most dangerous and undesirable missions a fighter pilot could fly in. Their valor led to the eventual desegregation of the U.S. Air Force and the recognition that black pilots were as capable as white pilots. The Navajo Code Talkers made a tremendous contribution in the Pacific theater in the fight against the Japanese. The U.S. military needed a code that the enemy could not decipher. They recruited young Navajo males to be radio operators using a code developed by the Army based on the Navajo language. The code was never broken. The original Code Talkers were eventually awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2001. Minority participation in World War II was important. |
The Tide Turns In the early stages of the war, events did not go well for the Allies. Great Britain fought a savage aerial battle for control over British airspace and German soldiers occupied France. Japan was expanding in the Pacific, winning victory after victory, and Italy and Germany captured parts of North Africa. Hitler was expanding throughout the Balkans and Eastern Europe and gained control of Greece, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, and Yugoslavia. There was continual fighting for control of the Middle East. On June 22, 1941, Hitler made what many think was his biggest mistake - he invaded the Soviet Union. Hitler now had to fight on two fronts, exhausting his army and air force. By late 1942, the war started to turn in favor of the Allies. The leaders of the three strongest Allied nations were known as the “Big Three” – Winston Churchill for Great Britain, Franklin D. Roosevelt for the United States, and Joseph Stalin for the Soviet Union. They met to make joint decisions on how to deploy the Allied forces against the Axis Powers. In the South Pacific, Allied forces were able to halt Japan’s expansion. The U.S. won massive carrier battles in the middle of the Pacific along crucial supply lines. The United States and Australian forces won a six month battle on a small Pacific island called Guadalcanal. The Allies prevailed in another key battle on the eastern peninsula of New Guinea. Halfway around the world in North Africa, the British, with Allied support, gained ground and pushed the German troops back across the desert and defeated them. Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, said of this period, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Hitler’s eastern offensive into the Soviet Union led to some of the most difficult and drawn out battles of the war. The Siege of Leningrad began in September of 1941 and did not end until January 1944. German forces almost advanced all the way to Moscow, but were not able to take the capital city. By mid-1943, the tide was beginning to turn. Germany had not taken into account the vastness of the Soviet Union, the large Russian army, or the harshness of the Soviet winter. Russian forces made significant progress in counterattacks to push the Germans out of Eastern Europe. Allied leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin met late in 1943 to coordinate a massive assault in 1944. They agreed that when the Western Allies invaded occupied France in June 1944, the USSR would launch a similar offensive on the Eastern front. Over the course of 1943 and 1944, the Allies slowly gained control of the war by working together under the Allied Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower. This, paired with the tremendous war production effort in the United States and Europe, helped tip the balance. Supplies and equipment for the Allied forces were produced at a pace never seen before and Americans rationed items at home. Gradually, the Allies won control of the seas and the air, while British and American shipyards turned out new “Liberty” ships and submarines. New devices, such as sonar, were developed to detect German submarines. In 1942, German submarines sank 585 Allied ships. By 1943 that number was reduced to 110. Meanwhile, British and American bombers were battering the Germans. During the last years of the war, Allied planes were dropping tons of bombs on targets all the time. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day) all the planning was complete for a final invasion of Germany. The Allies, using more than 13,000 planes and 4,000 troop carriers, launched an invasion across the English Channel landing on the beaches of Normandy, France. Germany had prepared for years for such a landing, but was caught off guard by the location of the invasion. Still, German troops put up a ferocious battle. Despite high losses, the Allies prevailed and started their march into Paris, and onward to the German capital of Berlin. The Fourth Time Around While the British and Americans were planning and fighting, political life went on in the United States. In 1944, Roosevelt, though suffering from hypertension, heart disease, and cardiac failure, stood for reelection for a fourth term. His advisors, fearing he would not live out his term, supported a little known senator from Missouri named Harry S. Truman for vice president. Roosevelt won the election and immediately returned to the war effort. |
War in Europe Comes to an End By February 1945, the Allied forces of Britain and the United States had crossed the Rhine River and encircled the Nazi forces. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was moving through the Ukraine towards the German capital. As it became clear that victory was only a matter of time, the “Big Three” met in the USSR in Yalta, Crimea to discuss the post-war future. At the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin laid out plans for Germany’s surrender, the division of Germany and Berlin into four zones of occupation (American, British, French, and Soviet), war crimes trials, and the future establishment of the United Nations (an international peace-keeping organization). Tragically, the Yalta Conference would be President Roosevelt’s final contribution. On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. The man who had spent a large part of his presidency dealing with the war did not live to see the final victory. His death was a shock to Americans and the world. The job of reshaping Europe and defeating Japan in the Pacific fell to Harry S. Truman. In late April 1945, the USSR took Berlin. As Berlin fell around them, Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide on April 30. Representing Germany, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz signed a full and unconditional surrender by Germany on May 7. The treaty went into effect at 12:01 am on May 8, 1945. This day is known as V-E Day – short for Victory in Europe. War ends in the Pacific While the war in Europe drew to a close, American and Allied forces still fought fierce battles against the Japanese in the Pacific. After Berlin fell, President Truman met with Stalin and Clement Atlee, the new British Prime Minister, at Potsdam, Germany in July. The three leaders called for Japan to surrender immediately, a call which Japan rejected. When increased bombing raids on industrial and residential sectors did not convince the Japanese to surrender, the new president, Harry Truman, turned to more extreme measures to end the war. Scientists in the United States had been working to develop the most powerful bomb the world had ever seen, known as the atomic bomb, or A-bomb. Once it was developed, Truman again asked the Japanese to surrender. When they again refused, the first A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Still, Japan would not surrender. Three days later, on August 9, a second bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki. On August 10, 1945, Japan called for peace and on September 2 signed a peace treaty. World War II had officially ended.  The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima Aftershock One of the most significant effects of WWII was the shift in world power, the effects of which would be felt over the next forty-plus years. Britain and France (Allied countries) and Germany and Japan (Axis powers) were all ravaged by war and ceased to be world powers. This left the United States and the Soviet Union as the only major players. Prior to the final victory in Berlin, both Churchill and Roosevelt had become suspicious of the Soviet Union’s intentions after the war. At the Yalta Conference, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin had agreed that they would support free elections in the Eastern and Central European Countries that had been occupied by Germany. Stalin, however, disregarded this agreement and sponsored communism in these countries. No one knew at the time, but the division of Berlin, as laid out at Yalta, was the beginning of a long confrontation between the free democratic governments of the West and the communist governments in Eastern Europe. After the war, the portion of Berlin occupied by France, Britain, and the United States became known as West Berlin, and the part occupied by the Soviets was known as East Berlin. However, it wasn’t until 1961 that a physical barrier – the Berlin Wall - was erected to prevent free access to both sides. By 1950, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Albania had formed communist governments. The tension in Europe and the United States between free democratic countries and communist countries became known as the “Cold War.” The Cold War would be unlike any other war. There was no open fighting as in WWII, but rather the constant threat of war as each side tried to gain control. The former Allies faced off, each seeking to tip the balance and become the more powerful country. In 1949, the Soviet Union had developed its own atomic bomb, like the A-bomb used in WWII. In response, the United States developed a Hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s. The H-bomb was 500 times more powerful than the Atomic bomb dropped on Japan. This cycle of continual threat and response was to continue for the next 20 plus years. |
Chronology of Events in World War II by Year | |
1937 | Japan attacks China |
1938 | Germany takes over Austria |
1939 | Germany takes over Czechoslovakia; Germany attacks Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany |
1940 | Germany conquers Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France; Japan, Germany, and Italy form an alliance; Germany attacks Britain in the Battle of Britain; United States remains neutral, but supports Allies behind the scenes |
1941 | U.S. starts lend-lease program giving military arms to Russia and Britain; Germany invades Russia; Japan attacks Pearl Harbor |
1942 | Japan forces U.S. to surrender in Philippines; U.S. lands in North Africa; U.S. fights Japanese Battle of Coral Sea and at Midway, U.S. halts Japanese expansion; Russia and Germany fight in Stalingrad |
1943 | U.S. and British forces invade Italy, forcing Italy to pull out of war; Marines land at Tarawa, marks the beginning of island-hopping campaign |
1944 | U.S. and allies land at Normandy to invade France; U.S. and Japan have large naval battles in the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf, U.S. destroys Japanese naval power; Germany attacks Allies in the Battle of the Bulge |
1945 | Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet in Yalta; U.S. invades Iwo Jima and Okinawa; Roosevelt dies, Truman becomes president; Germany surrenders; U.S. drops two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing the Japanese to surrender |
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