HISTORY / PAPER 2+3 / 2:nd WORLD WAR
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The Versailles Treaties filled the Germans with a feel for revenge
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The League of Nations had without success secured general disarmament and to control
potential aggressors, USA had not become a member
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Economic crisis of
the 1930’s enabled Hitler to get in power, USA’s fault?
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Appeasement France and Britain gave lots of space for
Hitler to move:
q Germany could do its rearmament
q Anglo-German naval agreement,
Britain broke of the line by signing by her own a contract with Germany,
Germany 35 % of Britain’s navy size
q Britain didn’t oppose Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia
q Germany invaded the Rhineland à France didn’t mobilise
q Spanish civil war was fought without France’s
or Britain’s interventions
q Anschluss made able
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Hitler became confident of Britain and France
being neutral, USSR handled with the non-aggression pact of August 1939 à invasion of Poland suddenly woke up Britain and France who declared war
on Germany
1939-1940 “Opening moves”
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Germany and USSR occupy Poland in a few weeks, Blitzkrieg
used successfully
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Phoney war:
nations took better positions à
USSR invades the Baltic states and attacks Finland taken eastern territories,
French manned Maginot Line, Germans their Siegfried Line
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Denmark and Norway invaded by Germany, April
1940, Denmark taken in a night but Norway had to be fought, three cruisers and
ten destroyers lost, iron ore supplies secured, Winston Churchill becomes
prime minister in England
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Attacks on Holland and Belgium, May, are
succeed very fast, Blitzkrieg, air raids
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Dunkirk:
338 000 allied troops evacuated to Britain
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Attacks on France through Belgium and
Holland, go around the Maginot Line, Paris falls on 14 June, France falls 22
June
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Unrest on the French political field à not ready for war
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Germany attack on her whole army, not like in
1914
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Trusted too much on the Maginot Line,
kept a great number of soldiers away from the front
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Equal number of tanks but spread them too much
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No air support as communications poor
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Frabce should have attack during the invasion
of Poland but now too late
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The government eagerly accepted armstice
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Battle of Britain (12
August – 30 September 1940): Operation Sea Lion required the destruction
of the RAF (Royal Air Force), massive German bombings on air field, radar
stations, storages and eventually London
ü Germans lost 1389 and British 792 planes
ü The radar spotted the incoming German early
ü German planes had a very limited flying time
ü Bombing London relieved pressure from the air fields – a major German
mistake
ü Germany defeated for the first time --> not inferior --> boost in
the Western morale
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Mussolini invades
Egypt, September, 130 000 Italians prisoners and 400 tanks captured when the
British drive out the Italians, half of the Italian navy destroyed by the RAF
1941 – the summer of 1942
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Hitler helps Mussolini in North-Africa,
February, sends Erwin Rommel to Tripoli, British driven to Libya
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April 1941, Hitler invades Greece,
Allied lost 36 000 men, British forces in Africa weakened, Hitler’s attack on
Russia delayed 5 weeks
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Operation Barbarossa 22 June 1941, Hitler’s fears / plans:
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Russia might attack Germany
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Japanese attack Russia in the East
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USA wouldn’t get involved in the war
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Lebensbraum and
a hate for Communism
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“It was now or never!” The meaning of Nazism
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Thought of conquering Russia up to the Urals
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Germans made use of Blitzkrieg; 3,5
million men, 3550 tanks and 5000 planes, the attacks was three-pronged: north; Leningrad,
centre; Moscow; south; Ukraine
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The Red Army was still re-equipping the army’s
equipment and aircraft, the generals inexperienced due to the purges
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The weather slowed down the Germans, first the
rains that turned the roads into mud and then the hard winter, Hitler thought
of a quick campaign thus no winter clothing available, the attack shifted to
the South to Caucasus’ oil fields
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Pearl Harbor, 7
December 1941, USA had stayed neutral except the Lend-and-Lease Pact,
Japan’s motives:
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The British and Dutch colonies had valuable raw
materials
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Tried to avoid war with USA, but USA’s support
to Japan’s enemy, China, tightened the relationships --> Roosevelt puts an oil
embargo on Japan
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The attack was brilliant: no declaration of
war, 353 Japanese plains attacked and destroyed in 2 hours 350 planes, 5
battleships and 3700 men were killed or injured
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Japanese got the control of Pacific and invaded
several areas
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Hitler declares war on USA (the most
fatal mistake?)
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Midway Island, June 1942, four out of five Japanese carriers were destroyed by USA and also 330
planes, Japanese hit badly as the war was most about air power, the USA took
the lead, “island hopping”
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El Alamein, October 1942, after the allies had received massive reinforcements and axis’ supplies
had been stopped they out numbered their enemy, the defeat of Germany meant
that Germans couldn’t anymore reach the Suez, ended an linkage to the Ukraine
army, Germans driven out from Africa, 275 000 surrendered, Allies got place
where to invade Italy
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Stalingrad, Feruary 2 1943, 100 000 Germans surrendered after severe fighting in the city that was
more or less destroyed, the Russian morale high, started the massive Russian
counter-attack, Russians already now outnumbered Germans in production,
Stalingrad a very important supply route for Russia thus if had been lost might
have ended the war!
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The fall of Italy, Sicily
invaded July 1943, Italy fats signs an armistice and changes sides, January
1944 Allied land in Italy and Rome not captured until June 1944, the
cautious actions made the campaign rather long, Italy provided air bases for
bombing Germany, German troops kept occupied in South
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Operation Overlord, 6 June 1944, Italy invaded and U-boats under control, Russians were asking for opening
a new front in the west, invasion came on a 60 mile wide strip, during the
first week 326 000 men + heavy equipment landed, eventually 3 million men
landed, PLUTO pipeline and “Mulberry” harbours
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The strategy was debated between American Eisenhower
and British Montgomery. M. wanted fast to Berlin before
Russians, E. preferred a wide and a slower attack, Operation Market
Garden sealed the usage of the slower strategy
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Allied formed a wide and a thin front -->
Hitler makes a counter-attack through Ardennes --> tries to get peace
in the west, Hitler risked everything; 250 000 men and 600 tanks lost
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Berlin falls to Red Army in April 1945, Hitler
commits suicide (?) and Germany surrenders
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6 August 1945 atomic bomb on Hiroshima and on 9th
one on Nagasaki, killed together about 120 000 plus caused the radiation that
killed later more, as justification fast ending of the war, Russians were eager
to capture some areas from Japan, USA didn’t want to share
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Shortage of raw materials, both Italy and Japan relied mostly on importing and also Germany in some
raw materials
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Allies learned from their mistakes, found the meaning of carriers and air support, learned to check Blitzkrieg
attacks, naval superiority
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Axis took on too much, both Japan and Germany spread their forces on several wide fronts,
Mussolini was a constant drain of German troops
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The resources of Britain, USSR and USA, the two super powers on the same side, Americans produced 70 000 tanks
and 120 000 aircraft a year!
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Tactical mistakes,
Japanese concentrated on battleships instead of carriers, Hitler didn’t allow
his troops to retreat in Russia, was not prepared for the winter, thus heavy
losses in Stalingrad, Hitler concentrated on the V-rockets instead of jet
planes that could have given the air superiority
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The huge bombings of Germany and Japan, Allied bombed both nations down, kill count at most 50 000 per night
(Dresden February 1945), the war production eventually heavily affected
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Almost 40 million killed; 20 million Russians, 6 Poles, 4 Germans, 2 Chinese, 2 Japanese, USA
and Britain both about 0,4 and France 0,6 and 5 million Jews died on the camps
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21 million uprooted from their homes
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No actual peace-settlement like in 1918, Italy
lost colonies, USSR took vast areas; Czechoslovakia, Petsamo, Lake
Ladoga area, Baltic states, Japan lost areas form China
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Nuclear weapons, USSR and USA dominance of the
world, decolonisation, United Nations Organisation