Opening moves : sept 1939 to
December 1940
(A)Poland defeated
Because
-German Blitzkrieg(lightning war)
supported by motorized divisions and Panzers(tanks),and Luftawaffe(airforce)
which destroyed the polish railway system and airforce.
-poles resisted but failed
because they were ill equipped.
-Britan and france did little
because the failed to mobilize the troops and transport additional troops to
Poland.
-when USSR attacked from the
east, the whole resistance got collapsed. Poland was divided between Germany
and USSR.
(B)The ‘phoney war’
Next five months
·
USSR took over Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
and invaded Finland, forced her to hand over her frontiers which would enable
Russia to defend themselves in any future attack from west.
·
Germany did nothing – this pause was to give a
chance to britan and france to negotiate for peace.because germans thought that
germans were not ready to attack west.
·
This was named as “phoney war” by an US
newspaper.
(C)Denmark and Norway
invaded,1940:
Reason-Narvik was the main outlet
for Swedish iron ore vital for german armaments industry.
-British
were interfering with this trade, which germans were trying to do .
-germans
realized that fjords would be excellent naval bases from which to attack
Britain’s trans- Atlantic supply lines.
-british destroyed german vessel
Altmark and rescued 300 prisioners which cause hitler to land on Oslo.
-french troops arrived later but
they were unable to dislodge the germans.sooner, the troops were drawn back
German success because –there was
no time to mobilize Norwagien troops.
-local Nazis
assisted the germans.
-good air
support.
Result-germany was assured of her
bases and iron ore supplies.
·
Chamberlin resigned as PM because of popular
resentment and Churchill took the post.
(D)Hitler attacks Holland,
Belgium, France:
-Dutch and Belgium were easily occupied by Blizkrieg methods.
-Dutch and Belgium were easily occupied by Blizkrieg methods.
-France-Whole northern france was
occupied.
Dunkirk
incident-Dunkirk, the only port in the hands of allies.
-british
evacuated 338000 troops even in the face of constant german attack.
-this
is very important incident because
-nearly
half million troops were rescued to fight again. 2/3 of them were british
-churchil
used it for propaganda purposes to boost British morale with
The
Dunkrik spirit.
-serious
blow to british because they lost arms and equipments which became impossible to
Britain to help france.
-paris
was captured. And armistice was signed to establish a government in south under
Marshal
Petain
in collaboration with Germany.
-Germans
occupied northern and atlantic coast. Valuable submarine bases.and French army
was demobilized.
(E)why was france defeated so
quickly?
1)French were
psychologically not prepared for the war.
- they were divided into right – sympathizers
of Facism and wanted an agreement with hitler.
Left-were
also aginst the war because of the agreement between Germany and Russia.there
is no reason to continue war after the Poland defeat.
2)serious military weaknesses-
·
Unlike the worldwar-1 france had face the full
weight of german army.
·
Maginot Line , stretching from swiz to Belgium,
was weak at Belgium eased the attack of Germany
·
French were split up with a certain numbers to
an infantry division.germans were concentrated in completely mechanized
armoured divisions with great speed.
·
Germans were supported by combat planes, where
as French were not.
3)French general made fatal
mistakes.
·
No help from france in the form attack on the
west when Germany was busy with Poland.
·
No troops mobilization to the maginot line to
resist the Germany.
·
Poor communication between army and airforce.
(F)the battle of Britain,1940:
-fought in the air.
-Luftwaffe tried to destroy the
RAF as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain.
-switched to bombing on London.
-1389 german planes were lost as
against 792 British
-Hitler realized the strength of
RAF and called off the invasions.
Reasons for the success are
·
Chain of new radar stations gave plenty of
warning.
·
German bombers were poorly armed.
·
Switch to bomb36ing on London relieved pressure
on the airfields at the critical moment.
Battle is a turning point because
it came to know that the Germans were not invincible.
(g)Mussolini invades Egypt,
1940:
v
Mussolini sent an army to lts colony libiya to invade Egypt and to
Greece and Albania.
v
Both got failed by the British and Mussolini was
beginning to be an embarrassment to Hitler.
The Axis offensive widens:1941 to 1942
v
North Africa and Greece:
Ø North
Africa: together with Italians germans drove away the British and occupied
Egypt almost upto Alexandria.
Ø Greece:
Hitler invaded Greece and forced the British, Newzealand, Australian troops to
evacuate.
Effects:
Ø Allies
lost 36000 troops
Ø Weakening
of British dominance over Africa.
Ø Hitler
involvement in yugoslovia and Greece delayed the attack on Moscow. Later
germans were severely suffered with coming winter.
v
The German invasion of Russia(operation
Bararossa) began in 1942 june:
Ø Hitler
motives
§
Fear that Russians might attack Germany.
§
Japanese would attack Russia in the far east.
§
The more powerful japan , the less chance of USA
entering into the war.
§
above all there was his hatred of communism and
his desire for Lebensraum( living space).
Ø The
attack was three- pronged
§
North- Leningrad
§
Centre –mascow
§
South – ukrain
Ø Germans
failed to capture Leningrad and Moscow due to severe rains followed by heavy
frosts.
Ø Hitler
decided to concentrate on south east Russia-the caucasus to seize the
oilfields.
v
The USA enters the war, 1941 december:
Ø After
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Ø Until
then, the American, still intent on isolation- remained neutral
Ø Though
after the Lend-Lease Act,1941,they had provided Britain with massive financial
aid.
1)Japan’s
motives for the attack were tied up with her economic situation
§
Run short of raw material and they cast longing
eyes towards Malaya, Burma rich in rubber , oil, tin and Dutch East Indies rich
in oil.
§
Britain an Holland were not in position to
resist japan ,so japan prepared to attack.
§
Americans assisted the Chinese, who were still
in war with japan.
§
When japan annexed the indo-china USA demanded
their withdrawl and place an embargo on oil supplies.
§
Japan started negotiating. But stalemate reached
when USA insisted withdrawal from Indo-China and China itself.
§
Aggressive General Tojo became the Prime Minster
and war seemed inevitable.
2)The attack was brilliantly organized
by Admiral Yamamoto:
§
No declaration of war.
§
3700 men were killed and injured.
Result:
§
It gave the Japanese control of the pacific ,
and captured Malaya, Singapore, Hong kong, and Burma(all part of british
empire), the dutch east indies, the Philippines, and two American possessions ,
guam and wake island.
§
It caused Hitler to declare war on the USA.
·
Serious mistake.
·
Germany was now faced with the immense potential
of USA.
·
It is necessary to swept away Britain and USSR
before the US troops come in.
v
Brutal behavior by germans and Japanese
§
German-Nazis treated the peoples of eastern
Europe as sub-humans, fit only to slaves of German master race.
·
Jews were even lower-they were to be
exterminated.
§
Japan treated the prisoners of war and the Asian
people badly.
The offensives held in check: 1942 to 1943
in three separate fights Axis
powers got defeated.
1.Midway island:
-in
pacific
-Americans
beat off a powerful Japanese attack.
-Huge
loss to japan-lost major Aircraft carriers, fighter planes, which weekend the
japan.
Reasons
for American victory:
-they
could able to break the radio code of japan.
-japanese
split their forces which allowed the americans to concentrate on main fleet.
-japanese
attacked with all ships simultaneously. It made impossible to rearm.
-after
the victory Americans began to recover the pacific Islands,
-The struggle
was long and bitter, continued for a long time by a process known as
‘island hoping’.
2.El Alamein:
-In
Egypt.
-allied
forces driven back the axis forces completely .
-
good Air support to protect the food and ammunition supply.
-
Axis ships carrying food and ammunition were destroyed.
Turning
point in the war, because
-prevented
Egypt and the Suez Canal from falling into German hands;
-ended the
possibility of a linkup between the Axis forces in the Middle East and those in
the Ukraine;
-complete
expulsion of Axis forces from North Africa.
-serious drain
of German resources.
3.Stalingrad:
-germans
were deeply penetrated through Russia from the south up to Stalingrad.
-though
the city was completely destroyed, German had to face a stiff resistance from
Russians.
-they
trapped the germans and destroyed their supply lines.
-finally
germans were surrendered.
Outcomes-
-supply
route of oil to Russia was protected.
-victory
boosted the Russian morale who followed up with more counter attacks.
What part was played by Allied naval forces?
1)Aircraft from the carrier
Illustrious sank half the Italian fleet at Taranto.
2)the ethreat from surface
raiders was removed by the sinking of the Bismarck,Germany’s only battleship at
that time.
3)the navy destroyed the German
invasion transports on their way to crete.
4)they provided escorts for
convoys carrying supplies to help the Russians.
5)their most important
contribution was their victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.
6)sea and air power together made
possible the great invasion of France.
The Battle of the Atlantic:
-struggle against German U-boats
attempting to deprive Britain of food and raw materials.
-Britain
incurred huge boat losses.
-But the
Allies could produce ships at a faster rate than the U-boats could sink them.
Reasons for allies success:
-more air protection was provided for convoys.
-more air protection was provided for convoys.
-both aircrafts and
escorts improved with experience.
-new centimetric radar
–small enough to be fitted into aircraft, enable the vision of submarines in night
also.
What contributed did air power make to the
defeat of the Axis
1.Battle of
Britain(1940)- RAF beat off the Luftwaffe attacks.
2.British
Navy + Airforce.
-attacks on the Italian fleet at
Taranto and Cape Matapan;
-sinking of the German battleship
Tirpitz in Norway;
-protection of convoys in the
Atlantic ;
-anti submarine operations.
3.US
Airforce+Navy-
-dive
bombers operating from aircraft carriers won the Battle of Midway Island in
1942.
-‘Island
hopping’ campaign, attacks by bombers prepared the way for landings by marines,
ex- Mariana Islands and Philippines.
-kept up
the vital flow of supplies to the Allies during the campaign to recapture
Burma.
4.RAF-war
in the desert –operating from bases in Egypt and Palestine, they constantly
bombed Rommel’s supply ships in the Mediterranean and his armies on land.
5.British
and US parachute troops to aid in landing in sicily and Holland.
Allied bombing of German and Japanese cities:
-controversial action by the Allies air forces
-controversial action by the Allies air forces
-in retaliation to the Germans attack on London city
in 1940.
-British an American called it as ‘strategic air
offensive’
-this involved massive attacks on military and
industrial targets in order to hamper the German war effort.
-caused 1 million deaths in Germany;
-Americans launched a series of attacks on Japan from
the nearest ‘mariana islands’.
How effective the
-heavy losses to the allied forces also. 15800 crew
were killed.
-death of so many innocent people.
-campaign of Germany was not effective until 1944 from
when onwards the increase in accuracy of raids, fall in oil production of
Germany, closure of armament factories.
-Allied strategic air offensive was one of the
decisive reason for defeate.
-strangling
fuel, armament s
-destroying the railway communications.
- caused the diversion of many aircraft
from the eastern front, thus helping the Russian advance
into Germany.
The Axis power defeated:1945
1)The fall of Italy:-
-first stage in the Axis collapse.
-British and American troops landed in
sicily and quickly captured it and entered into main land.
-Mussolini was expelled by king and
Marshall Badoglio succeeded him. He signed an armistice and brought Italy on to
the Allied side.
-germans determined to hold on to
Italy, rushed troops to the border.
-bitter fight followed between both.
Allies got win.
1.Italy provide air bases for
bombing the Germans in Central Europe and the Balkans
2. German troops were kept
occupied when they were needed to resist the Russians.
2)Operation Overlord,1944:-
-The invasion of France, also called
the second front.
-Russians had been urging this since
1941, to relieve the German pressure on them.
-Though the resistance from the German
landing 3260000 men with heavy tanks and lorries was taken place on the France.
-It was a remarkable operation because
-used PLUTO- pipelines under the
ocean carrying motor fuel.
-3 million allied troops were landed.
-within a few weeks France was
liberated.
-followed by Belgium, Brussels and
Antwerp.
3)The assault on Germany:-
-assault on Germany Itself followed,
but at the end It was delayed by the differences of opinion between US and UK
forces.
-Montgomery(UK) wanted a rapid thrust
to reach berlin before the Russians.
-Eisenhower(US, supreme commander of
Allied forces) favored a cautious advance along a broad front.
-consequently, the allied troops were
disperse and had moved with their own ways.
-Battle of the Bulge- with this,
Hitler was able to launch an offensive towards Antwerp
-He risked everything on the attack
and incurred huge losses
-Germany was invaded on both fronts ,
from east and west. Britain wanted a rapid attack.
-Eisenhower refused to be hurried ,
Berlin fell to Stalin’s forces
-Hitler committed suicide and Germany
surrendered.
4)The defeat of Japan:-
-Atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki –August 1945
-Japan surrendered.
-most controversial in the entire war.
-US president Truman’s justification
that he saved the lives of America by not extending the war one more year.
-some argues that
-bombing was not necessary, since
the Japanese had already put out peace feelers via Russia.
-real reason was to end the
fighting swiftly before the Russians gained too much Japanese territory which
would entitle them to share the occupation of Japan.
Why did the Axis powers lose the war?
a)
Shortage of raw materials
Both
japan and Germany ws short of cotton rubber,oil .
b)
The allies soon learned from their early
failures
Allied learned from Blitzkrieg attacks
and built u an air and naval superiority which won the battles of the Atlantic
and the Pacific and slowly starved their enemies of supplies.
c)
The Axis powers simply took on too much
i)
Hitler failed to realize that Britain would
involve their entire empire and german army was thinly spread compared to
Russia which even attacked from the west front of the france.
ii)
Japan did the same. They stretched out far
beyond their basic capacity for holding their gains.
iii)
Mussolini war partly to blame, his incompetence
was a constant drain on Hitler’s resourses.
d)
The combined resources of the USA, USSR and the
British empire
i)
The war was victorious to the allies because it
lasted for a long time.
ii)
Russia rapidly shifted its all industries to the
east of Ural mountains.
iii)
Production in USA reached its peak and It could
produce 70000 tanks and 12000 aircraft a year.
e)
Serioustactical mistakes
i)
Japanese failed to recognize the importance of
aircraft carriers, rather it concentrated on warships.
ii)
Hitler failed to provide for a winter campaign
in Russia and became obsessed with the idea that the Germans must not retreat.
iii)
Serious of all was Hitler decided to concentrate
on producing merely on V-rockets when he
could have been developing a jet aircraft.
What were the effects of the war?
A)
Enormous destruction
-
Destruction of lives, homes, industries and
communications in Europe and Asia.
-
Almost 40 millin people wer killed. Half of them
were Russians.
-
Another 21 million people had been uprooted from
their homes
-
Large parts of Germany , western Russia,
Northern France , southern Italy were ruined.
-
The most notorious was the Holocaust- the
deliberate murder in extermination camps of over 5 million Jews and hundreds of
thousands of non-jews, mainly in Poland and Russia.
B)
There was no all inclusive peace settlement
-
Unlike versilles.
-
Because the distrust between USA USSR
-
Separate treaties were signed
-
1)
Italy lost Albania and Abyssinia
-
2) USSR took parts of czechslovakia, finland
an Latvia ,Lithuania and Estonia.
-
3)Romania recovered Transylvania
-
4)Trieste, claimed by both Italy and
Yugloslavia , was declared a free territory by UNO
-
5)Japan, agreed to sureende all territory
acquired included complete withdrawal from china.
C)
The war stimulated important social
changes
-
War migrant were pushed to go to their homes
especialy the germans.
-
Extensive urban development took place as
ruined cities had to be constructed in USSR and Germany.
D)
War cause the production of nuclear
weapons
-
Bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
-
Caused the fear of future nuclear war which
could have destroyed the entire planet.
E)
Europe’s domination of the rest of the
world ended
-
Germany devastated and divided
-
France and Italy were on the verge of
Bankruptcy
-
Britain was facing strain with war payments
to USA.
F)
Emergence of the super powers
-
USA and the USSR
-
USA had suffered relatively little from the
war and enjoying great prosperity. Became worlds largest Naval and Airforce.
-
USSR,though severely weakened, still it was
the worlds largest Army.
-
Both were suspicious of each other.
G)
Decolonization
-
War encouraged towards the decolonization.
-
Japanese –Malaya, Singapore and Burma.
-
French- Indo-China.
-
Dutch – Dutch East Indies.
H)
The United Nations Organization (UNO)
-
Successor to the League of Nations.
-
Aim- to try to maintain world peace.
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