Module One - Cause of WW II

The links below will help you with translating tools between English and Spanish.

1. Audio  of a  words  in both English and Spanish. Will also translate phrases.
2. Google Search - Espana: The word can be typed in English, and the search finds results in Spanish, including images
3. Also Google Arabic is available.

4. Google Translate:Can work in any language necessary

Introduction

U.S. B-24 bombers on a raid against Germany. Do you see any evidence of conflict actions???

WW II was a time of confrontation (see a picture of what confrontation looks like). Like during WW I, this confrontation spread all over the world.  However, it was spread over an even wider area.   There was fighting in Europe. There was fighting in the Pacific area ( Asia). There was fighting in Africa (the countries on the map in blue).  There was fighting in India. There was fighting above the arctic Circle (picture).  There was fighting in Russia.  There was fighting in the Philippines.  There was fighting in Italy.  German U-Boats sank U.S. merchant ships (ships carrying supplies) within sight of New York City and Boston. Another United States ship was sunk by a German U-Boat at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Japanese even fired cannons from a submarine at a town on the coast of  Oregon.  Most of the world was picking sides between the Allies and Axis, and the conflict spread.  

Causes of WW II: Building Tensions

You may remember that there were a number of things that worked together to cause WW I: Assassination; Imperialism; Nationalism; Militarism; Alliance Systems.  There were also things that worked together to cause WW II.

World-Wide Depression

The Great Depression hit hard in more places than the just the United States.  In reality it was a WORLD-WIDE depression. People were homeless, hungry, and jobless all over the world.  Many had lost hope. Some even became angry.

Some countries changed leaders due to these very hard economic problems they were having. Some of these changes were because the people in those countries  were angry. They wanted someone to take charge in their country and make economic (money and business) things better for them. The result was that those countries, Germany, Italy, and Japan, ended up with more authoritarian governments (picture), that did take charge of things. In order to make things better for themselves Germany, Italy, and Japan attacked other countries close to them to get raw materials so their factories could make more weapons, and more space where people could live. These attacks would help  lead to the Second World War.  So you can see that the problems of the Great Depression helped aggresive leaders come  to power, and they made decisions that resulted in war.  

High Inflation

Inflation is when prices of things you buy go WAY UP and the value of the money you are using goes way down. It is kind of like a “double-whammy” against the economy.  This was happening around the world, but it was VERY bad in Germany. The Versailles Peace Treaty had put very harsh rules on Germany at the end of World War One. Germany had to pay BIG fines (called reparations) for starting the war to two of the countries they hurt the most, Great Britain and France.

All of this hurt an already weak German Mark (German version of the Dollar). During WW I the German leader decided that he would borrow money to pay for the war, and at the end of the war Germany did not have money to pay back this money that had been borrowed. This forced the value of the Mark to start dropping. Why???  Well, if Germany had no money to pay their bills other countries saw German money as worthless. Think of it, how much is something you have worth if NOBODY else sees any valus in it? NOTHING!!!

The reparations (fines) they were forced to pay made it get worse. By the end of 1919 you needed 47 German Marks to equal ONE U.S. Dollar. Through most of 1921 it got only a bit worse, with a person needing 60 German Marks to equal one U.S. Dollar. It then started to get worse quickly, with a person needing 330 German Marks to equal one U.S. Dollar by the end of 1921.

By the end of 1922 a person would need 8,000 German Marks to equal one U.S. Dollar. At its worst in November of 1923 it would take 854,000,000,000 ( Yes, that is in the BILLIONS!!!) German Marks to equal ONE U.S. Dollar. The German people suffered, and could not afford anything.  It was so bad with the money so worthless that children would play with packs of money. Think of it,  a Big Mac that cost $ 5 in January of 193 cost $4,270,000,000,000. That is over 4 TRILLION dollars!!!

They wanted someone, ANYONE, to make it better.  

Massive Unemployment

Unemployment is when people lose their jobs. During the Great Depression there was high unemployment in many places.  In the United States it got as high as 25% at one point in 1933.

In Germany it got as high as 31.7 % in 1932.  People there were angry that their problems were lasting so long, and seemed to be getting worse. They wanted a change in leaders to someone who was willing to be strong, take control, and change things.

The Nazi Party, with Adolph Hitler as leader, was a group like this. They made many promises to the German people.  In fact, when unemployment started to go way up, the number of votes the Nazis got also went up. The Nazis started groups, such as the SA, to give young men a chance to do some kind of work and belong to a group that was proud of being German. The young men who joined also could get food when they were with the group, doing the group’s work.They might be expected to go out frequently and train in soldier like activities, but they thought that was great. Then, when the Nazis wanted to intimidate their political enemies to build their power, they sent the SA, known as The Brownshirts, out into the street to fight and bust heads.

Eventually the German people, with Adolph Hitler leading them, and all this training in violence, would start WW II.

High War Debt Owed By Germany

You remember that part of the Versailles Peace Treaty that ended WW I was that Germany had to pay reparations (fines) because they were blamed for starting the war.  This included payments of both gold and goods (products). The total amount was $10,111,192,477 (10 billion). This is equal to $1,782,255,617,429.94 in today’s dollars. That is almost 2 trillion dollars.  

It was not good for the German economy to have to make products and then get nothing for them because they had to send them to Great Britain and France as part of the fines. Germans were mad about it. They did not feel it was right that they had to pay THIS much. In fact they did not think they should have to take the blame at all.

Even worse, as we mentioned above in the High Inflation section, the Great Depression combined with the problems of the reparations to make the pain of the German people worse, and their anger HIGH.

Adolph Hitler gave a speech to the German government on 17 May 1933. He talked about how harmful the Treaty of Versailles (agreement that ended World War One)  was because it was unfair to the German people, and left them unable to make enough money to eat and live.  

Here are a number of  statements he made in that speech:

"All the problems which are causing such unrest today lie in the deficiencies of the Treaty of Peace …”

"It is not wise to deprive a people of the economic resources necessary for its existence without taking into consideration the fact that the population dependent on them …will have to be fed.”

“The idea that the economic extermination of a nation of sixty-five millions would be of service to other nations is absurd. “

"The millions of German unemployed are the final result of this development (reparations).”

Do you see any hint of a threatening or aggressive message in these words?  Had the German people found the person to “deliver” them???

Listen to a brief campaign speech by A. Hitler from July 27, 1932. This was about 8 months before he had actually gotten power over the nation:

Did he sound like a peaceful man???

Module Two - Rise of Fascist Dictators

Module Three - Axis Countries and Their Aggression

Module Four - Allied Countries and Their Leaders

Module Five - Changes in U.S. Policy

Module Six - Conflict in the Pacific Theatre

Module Seven- Part One: From the German Invasion of Poland to the Battle of Midway

Module Seven- Part Two: From the German Invasion of the Soviet Union to D-Day

Module Seven- Part Three: Battle of The Bulge to VJ Day

Part Three: Battle of The Bulge to VJ Day

The links below will help you with translating tools between English and Spanish. 

1. Audio  of a  words  in both English and Spanish. Will also translate phrases.
2. Google Search - Espana: The word can be typed in English, and the search finds results in Spanish, including images
3. Also Google Arabic is available.

4. Google Translate:Can work in any language necessary

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Timeline Of Turning Points

Battle Of The Bulge: December 16th, 1944-January 25th, 1945

By the beginning of December, 1944 the Allies had pushed the German Army all the way across Europe almost into Germany itself. The Allies stopped to bring up soldiers who were rested, and to build up huge supplies of food, weapons, ammo, and fuel.  

In the mean time the German army was gathering together soldiers, cannons, tanks, and other supplies for one big try to push the Allies back across Europe.  They gathered up between 200,000 to 500,000 men.  They collected at least 1,800 tanks, and 1,900 cannons.  ALL of this was done largely in secret.  

On 16 December 1944, at 5:30 a.m., the Germans began the attack with a massive, 90-minute artillery (cannons) attack using 1,600 artillery pieces along a line 80 miles long where the U.S. and British troops were lined up.  

It may have sounded like this

At first the Germans had great success, and pushed about 50 miles  into Allied territory. 

This map shows where the Germans came from, and where they went

It looked like they were going to get to their goal about 80 miles away in Antwerp, Belgium.  They were helped by the fact that the weather was so bad Allied planes could not get up in the air to fight them off.  

You can see the German goal, Antwerp, at the top of the map. The curvy red like shows how far they actually got

Their men advanced with confidence that Hitler’s plan would succeed.

Advancing confident German

Then the Allies started to fight back. We sent in our best troops, the 101st Airborne Division of paratroopers to Bastogne.

The Battle of the Bulge happened in December and January.  It snowed and was cold

The Germans needed to capture this town because it was where a lot of roads came together.

Bastogne is in the middle. Look at all of the roads going into it from the right, and coming out on the left

They needed these roads so their tanks can go farther on the attack (Tanks can’t drive through hills and forests.).

German tank on roads near Bastogne

The Germans eventually surrounded our paratroopers in Bastogne, and held them there from December 20th to December 27th. It was not an equal fight, because we had only 11,000 soldiers, and the Germans had 120,000. Medical supplies ran out, the men did not have heavy coats and blankets, there was not much food, cannons were limited to firing no more than 10 times a day, and then ONLY when they actually saw a German tank to shoot.  

The weather was hard. Heavy snowstorms began. It was the coldest winter in that area in over 50 years. From December 16th, 1944 to January 29th, 1945 the temperature got above freezing only 8 times. It dropped below 15 degrees 10 times, once going as low as 5 degrees. 

This shows the temperatures in Bastogne from December 16th (on left) to January 29th (on right)

Tanks had to run their engines every ½ hour to keep from freezing up. Men had to urinate on their rifles and machine guns so they would work in the freezing temperatures.

The brave men of the 101st were not the only ones there. The 969th Field Artillery (cannons that went with the foot soldiers) provided heavy cannon support for the U.S. soldiers. (insertpic: 969th) 

The 969th Field Artillery firing at Germans. They were a segregated African American unit

They fought bravely under the same conditions, even though they were in a segregated unit because they were African Americans. 11 of their friends had been captured when the German attack began on December 16th, and were murdered in the corner of a cow field. We must never forget the sacrifice these men made so we could enjoy the freedom we have today.

Eventually the Germans were pushed back when the Allies brought in as many as 500,000 extra soldiers.  

The End Of WW II In Europe – May 8th, 1945

We would keep pushing the Germans, and would not stop until they surrendered to the Allies ( U.S., Great Britain, Canada, France, and The Soviet Union). The last group of Germans surrendered on May 8th, 1945.  This was called VE-Day.  That means Victory in Europe Day.  

Before this happened, the two largest Fascist Dictator in Europe were dead:

• On 27 April 1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured by a group of Italians who did not support him. He was trying to get to Switzerland and safety. On 28 April, 1945 they executed him.
• On 30 April, as the Germans fought the Soviet soldiers in Berlin, Hitler saw that all was lost. He did not want to die like Mussolini so he committed suicide in his underground safety bunker along with Eva Braun, whom he had married just hours before their joint suicide.

Dropping Of Atomic Bomb: August 6th and 9th, 1945

You remember fro our discussion earlier how the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Then you remember how we defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Midway June 4th-7th, 1942. That was all OK, but to defeat Japan once and for all we had to dig them out of every island and every other country they had captured, and make our way to their Home Islands. They fought our attacks hard, and we had to come up with a plan to defeat them.

That plan came to be called “Island Hopping” because we would attack and capture an island from the Japanese, and then use it as a base to attack another island where the Japanese were. The goal was to get to their main Home Islands, because capturing them was thought to be the ONLY way to get the Japanese to give up and surrender.  

This map shows how the U.S. moved (hopped) from island to island, always moving closer to Japan

Iwo Jima : February 19th – March 26th, 1945


U.S. Marine artillery firing at the Japanese on Mount Suribachi

As we got closer to the Japanese Home Islands the Japanese soldiers fought harder and harder. At Iwo Jima we had 80,000 men attacking 20,00 Japanese soldiers.  Yes, we outnumbered them by A LOT, but they had dug tunnels and caves all over the Island, which helped them defend themselves.

The final death toll among Marines was 5,931 killed in action, died of wounds or missing in action and presumed dead — more than twice as many Marines than had been killed in all of World War One.   In all, more than 800 Americans gave their lives for every square mile of Iwo Jima’s black volcanic sand.

U.S. Marine graves on Iwo Jima

Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, over 20,000 were killed and only 216 taken prisoner. We began to find out just what it would cost if we DID have to invade their Home Islands. They would fight to the death.

U.S. Marines and a Navy salior raising the flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle

Okinawa:April 1st – June 21st, 1945



Okinawa is at the bottom of the map, and shows up in red. See how close is it to Japan? It is only about 340 miles away.

The Japanese considered this island almost like it was part of their Home Islands. We knew we would need to bring a lot of force to attack and defeat. We had over 60,000 Marines and Army soldiers to attack. We used over 1,300 ships to fire their big cannons at the Japanese before the soldiers landed. During the first 24 hours of the attack those ships fired 7,600,000 pounds of cannon shells (That is = 3,800 mid sized SUV’s if each car weighs 2,000lbs.).  

This is a bit long, but it DOES show U.S. artillery hitting the island before our Marines and soldiers went in

When it was all over we had won, gotten closer to Japan for the next step, which would be to attack their Home Islands. But there was a cost:
* 38,000 Americans wounded and 12,000 killed or missing,
   * More than 107,000 Japanese and Okinawan soldiers killed of the
     117,00 who were alive when the battle started (That is 91% killed)
  * 100,000 Okinawan civilians (not army soldiers)  killed.

The Japanese demonstrated they were not going to surrender easily, and that they were not afraid to fight where there were civilians in the way.

Operation Downfall

Operation Downfall was the plan to invade the Japanese Home Islands. 

Japan is circled in red.  Korea and China are to the left.

Okinawa showed just how costly it would be.  The planners learned that the Japanese Army was giving lunge mine weapons, and other weapons, to civilians, even young girls, so they could attack the invading Americans.  They also had plans to strap bombs onto people who would go blow up U.S. ships, tanks, and soldiers themselves.

Lunge Mine: The 3 sticks were triggers that would cause the explosion when pressed against something

We would wind up having to fight ALL Japanese. One Japanese citizen called to prepare for battle was high school girl, Yukiko Kasai. The army gave her a hand spike to use as a weapon.

Hand spike to use as a weapon

They told her, "Even killing one American soldier will do. … You must aim for the abdomen.’

The invading forces would be facing at least 900,00 Japanese soldiers and all the civilians who were prepared to fight. The estimates of casualties (killed and wounded) were as follows:

• 1,700,000 to 4,000,000 American killed and wounded
  800,000 of those would be killed
• 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 Japanese killed

Hiroshima and Nagasaki – Dropping The Atomic Bombs
August 6th and 9th, 1945

What many did not know was there was another weapon being developed. In October of 1939 Two scientists, Leó Szilárd and Albert Einstein, sent a letter to President Roosevelt. They told the President that it was likely that in the near future it would become possible to use science to cause an explosion that would make and release  HUGE amounts of power. They made the point that this technology could be used to produce weapons more powerful than anyone imagined.

The very first nuclear explosion.  This was part of the testing we did in preparing to make an actual

It was known that Germany was experimenting and trying to develop this technology.  So the decision was made to start a program to discover what could be done. It would eventually employ 130,000 people in at least 3 different countries, and cost $2,000,000,000.  

It was this weapon that President Truman (Roosevelt had died in April, 1945) decided to drop on Japan in August when they would not surrender.

First Bomb -  Dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945.

On 6 August 1945, a specially changed  B-29 bomber lifted off from an airfield on an island in the Pacific named Tinian.   The bomb was dropped from the plane at  31,600 feet.

Enola Gay - The B-29 that dropped The Bomb

The bomb exploded  1,750 feet  in the air. The blast was later estimated to be the equal of 13,000  tons of TNT (an explosive)  An area approximately 4.7 square miles (a square that has each side equal to 4.7 miles) was completely destroyed. Japanese officials determined that 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and another 6–7% damaged. About 70,000 to 80,000 people, or some 30% of the population of Hiroshima, were killed immediately, and another 70,000 injured.

The middle of the place in Hiroshima that was destroyed by the bomb.

This video shows the explosion over Hiroshima

See a movie clip of what it might have been like:

Second Bomb – Dropped on Nagasaki  on August 9th, 1945

The Japanese did not surrender, even after they witnessed the power of the new weapon we had.  President Truman then decided to drop another atomic bomb. It wound up being released over the city of Nagasaki because the weather over the first target city made hard it to see.

Eplosion of the bomb over Nagasaki

Japan surrendered on August 15th, 1945 when Emperor Hirohito made a radio broadcast. It was called VJ Day, which meant Victory over Japan.

The war was over.

Hideki Tojo, the former military leader of Japan, tried to kill himself, but was captured, tried as a war criminal, and then executed on December 23rd, 1948.