Transcript Unit VIII: Prelude to Another World Conflict

US Response to German
Aggression
 Neutrality a heated issue in US
 Britain & France in desperate need of US
airplanes & other material
 Neutrality Acts set restrictions
 1935 & 1936: outlawed arms sales or loans
to nations @ war
 1937: passed in response to Spanish Civil
War
 Banned arms sales & loans to nations
undergoing civil wars
US Response to German
Aggression
 FDR calls Congress into a special session;
wants them to lift the arms embargo
 After 6 weeks  Neutrality Act of 1939
 Ability for belligerents to purchase war
materials; ONLY “cash and carry”
 FDR authorized to declare “danger zones”
 Hurts China; Helps Britain & France
American Preparedness and Aid to
the Allies (1939-1941)
 Changes in Public Opinion
 FDR awakens Americans to national security
threat
 The Fall of France - Britain alone
 Congress  “all measures short of war”
American Preparedness and Aid to the Allies
(1939-1941)
 Military Preparedness Congress (1940) 
 (1) two-ocean navy and a huge air force
 (2) Selective Service Act
 Destroyer-Naval Base Deal of 1940
 50 “over age” destroyers –> bases in W.
Hemisphere
 Lend Lease Act of 1941
 UK cash nearly exhausted; FDR new leg. US –>
“arsenal of democracy”; Lend-Lease Act (aid to
England)
 Merchants convoyed part way by US Navy
American Preparedness and Aid to the
Allies (1939-1941)
 Embargo on Strategic Materials  Japan
 US - Open Door Policy
 protests against occupation of French
Indochina (1940-1941)
 Embargo: gasoline, scrap iron, etc.; assets
in US “frozen”
The Pacific Theater
US – Japanese Relations 1940-1941
Embargo Against Japan
 Spring 1940 – France and the Netherlands
fall to Germany (colonies in Asia vulnerable)
 Before the month ended, Vichy France agrees to
cede control of French Indochina
 US responds w/ an embargo (scrap metal, oil,
and aviation fuel)
US – Japanese Relations 1937-1941
(cont’d)
 Japan dependent on US for:
 90% of its scrap metal
 60% of its oil
 The following day Japan announced it formed
a military alliance with Germany and Italy
 July 1941, Japan occupied French Indochina
 US Response  froze all Japanese accounts in
American banks
 prevents Japan from buying any goods from the
US
 Later US-Japanese negotiations fail
Pearl Harbor
 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941:
 Japan attacks while Japanese diplomats were
meeting with Hull
 US military had been warned of an attack
but expected it in SE Asia
 Most of the fleet caught at anchor – only the
carriers were not docked
 A catastrophe for the US
 19 ships destroyed (6 battleships)
 180 aircraft destroyed
 2,300 killed + 2,000 wounded
Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941
 President Roosevelt,
wearing a black
armband, signs the
Declaration of War
against Japan on
December 8, 1941
 Three days later,
Germany and Italy
declare war on the
US – US responds in
kind
Japanese Offensives 1941-1942
 Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the
Japanese launched offensives against Allied
forces in South East Asia
 Also launched simultaneous attacks on Hong
Kong, British Malaya and the Philippines.
 Battle of Bataan – General MacArthur forced to
flee (one of the worst US defeats)  over 70,000
US and Filipino POWs
 Fall of Singapore - Largest surrender of British-led
military personnel in history
The Dark Days of 1942
 Allied situation was grim
 Pacific Theater
 Japan  western Pacific, eastern, and
southeastern Asia
 Chinese resistance had worn down
 Australia braced for invasion
 European Theater
 Germany  renewed its attack on the USSR (oil
fields + Stalingrad)
 Nearly pushed British out of Egypt
World War II (animated)
The Allies Look for an Effective
Military Strategy
 Admiral Ernest King (US) and General
Douglas MacArthur proposed the US
focus on the defeat of Japan
 FDR accepted the British view that the
Allied prime target should be Germany
and Italy
 General George Marshall and Dwight
Eisenhower urged an Allied invasion of
France by spring 1943
The War in North Africa
 Jan.-July 1942: Erwin Rommel and the
Afrika Korps win victories  El Alamein
 Operation Torch
 November 1942: US and British  North
Africa and easily defeat Vichy forces there
 By May 1943 Axis forces surrender
A Holding Action in the Pacific
 US Carriers survived Pearl Harbor
 The Battle of the Coral Sea
 May 1942 – first major naval battle in which
surface ships did not fire a shot
 Result: the Japanese turn back
 June 1942  Battle of Midway
 Major US victory
Air War Over Germany
 Allies attack German cities “to disrupt the
German war machine”
 Increased intensity 1943-1945 (day & night)
The Invasion of Italy
 Mussolini’s government fails
 unconditional surrender & German
occupation
The Eastern Front
 A New German Blitzkrieg: May – Nov. 1942
 success
 Battle of Stalingrad - Hitler’s order: “no retreat”
 German 6th Army: 300,000 men trapped
 30 January 1943 F.M. Paulus surrenders
 The USSR turns the tide
 US Lend-Lease
 Marshal Zhukov - “defense in depth”
 Stalin - scorched earth; industry in Urals and
Siberia
Battle of Stalingrad
German 6th Army Surrender
Battle of Kursk
D-Day and the Liberation of France
D-Day Invasion
Liberation of Paris
The Battle of the Bulge
German objectives of the Ardennes Offensive
Red Army victorious in Berlin
Pacific Theater
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Allied Counteroffensive
General MacArthur
“Island-Hopping”
Guadacanal –> Guam
1944 return to Philippines
1945 Iwo Jima and Okinawa
General Douglas MacArthur wading ashore at Leyte
Unconditional Surrender
 Germany: May 7, 1945
 Japan:
 August 6, 1945  Hiroshima (80,000)
 August 9, 1945  Nagasaki (40,000)
 August 14, 1945 (surrender)
 September 2, 1945 (formal surrender)
 HIROSHIMA
& Little Boy
Hiroshima
Fat Man
 A mushroom
cloud from the
nuclear explosion
over Nagasaki
rising 60,000 feet
(18 km) into the
air on the
morning of
August 9, 1945.
Representatives of Japan stand aboard the USS Missouri
prior to signing of the Instrument of Surrender.
Huge formation of American planes over USS
Missouri and Tokyo Bay celebrating the signing,
September 2, 1945.