An overview of some of the key events of WW2 with additional information and pictures about the summaries. Also an important list of key figures and some of their roles. Shamelessly developed on another 'sharer's' ppt and built more into it to make it longer and more comprehensive - and I really liked the background too.

1. World War IIWorld War II
An overview of the
Major Events and Key
Players.

2. Background
 Treaty of Versailles (1919) - Harsh treatment of
Germany: land losses, reparations, military reductions,
and war guilt. Germany was not invited into the
discussions, nor was it allowed to have any say in what
happened to them in regards to the Treaty.
 League of Nations (1920) – International organization
charged with preventing future wars. It was the precursor
to the modern United Nations. United States senate
refused to allow the United States of America to become
a member. The League had neither the will nor the
power to check the rising totalitarian governments. It
was famously known as a ‘toothless tiger’.

3. Background
 Washington Conference (1922) – Italy, Japan, the United
States of America, France, and Britain agree to not build
up their respective Naval forces for ten years.
 Mussolini takes over Italy (1922).
 Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) – sixty-two nations agree to
solve problems diplomatically.
 Japan invades Manchuria, a region of China (1931).
 Hitler comes to power (1933)

4. Short Term Causes
 Italian, Japanese, and German aggression
not stopped by League of Nations

5. Short Term Causes
 Appeasement – Britain and France wanted to avoid war
and therefore gave in to Hitler’s demands
 Western democracies would not act aggressively
– Britain – Sympathetic towards Germany – knew Versailles
Treaty too harsh, wanted to avoid war
– France – Would not do anything without Britain
– United States of America – Isolation from Europe

6. Major Events of the War-
The Onset of War
 Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland
 1938 – Hitler unites Austria with Germany
(Anschluss)
 1938 – Signed Munich Pact to gain control of
Sudetenland (In Czechoslovakia)
 1939 – Hitler and USSR sign Non-Aggression
Pact (Agreed to divide Poland)
 1939- Blitzkrieg in Poland
 September 1, 1939 – World War II official start

7. • Significant because it
violated the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles and
the Locarno Treaties.
• The first time since the
end of World War I that
German troops had been
in this region.
• The remilitarization
changed the balance of
power in Europe from
France towards
Germany, and made it
possible for Germany to
pursue a policy of
aggression in Eastern
Europe that the
demilitarized status of
the Rhineland had

8. Anschluss  "connection" or "joining" is the
term used to describe the
annexation of Austria into Nazi
Germany in March 1938.

9. Sudetenland
 The native German-speaking regions, within the borders
of the current Czech Republic, which in the
interwar period were referred to as the Sudetenland.

10. Sudetenland cont…
 It’s a really complicated issue – but in summary,
there was a lot of native German speaking people
and this area was contentious from the end of
WW1 and into WW2. Germany wanted it.
There was an opportunity for a plebiscite (a vote
where every single person gets a say), but Hitler
put a stop to that days before it was due to
happen. Theories abound on why.
 It was more land for Germany with more
Germans and a Fascist influence, albeit small.

11. Blitzkrieg in Poland
 At 4:45 a.m., some 1.5 million German troops invade Poland
all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled
territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed
Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked
Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler
claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but
Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they
declared war on Germany, initiating World War II.
 To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring Lebensraum, or
“living space,” for the German people. According to his plan,
the “racially superior” Germans would colonize the territory
and the native Slavs would be enslaved. German expansion
had begun in 1938 with the annexation of Austria and then
continued with the occupation of the Sudetenland and then all
of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Both had been accomplished
without igniting hostilities with the major powers, and Hitler
hoped that his invasion of Poland would likewise be tolerated.

12. Blitzkrieg cont…

13. Major Events of World War II-
The War
 Inactive Winter 1940 –Britain and France defend
the Maginot Line
 1940 – Germany invades Norway and Denmark
 1940 – France falls
 Summer 1940 – Britain withstands the German
onslaught
 1941- Germany broke pact with USSR
– German setbacks- the harsh winters in Soviet Union;
Bitter defeat in Stalingrad

14. The Maginot Line
 A response to France's experience in World War I, the Maginot Line
was constructed in the run-up to World War II. French military
experts extolled the Line as a work of genius that would deter
German aggression, because it would slow an invasion force long
enough for French forces to mobilize and counterattack through
Belgium.
 The Maginot Line was impervious to most forms of attack, including
aerial bombings and tank fire, and had underground railways as a
backup; it also had state-of-the-art living conditions for garrisoned
troops, supplying air conditioning and eating areas for their comfort.

15. Major Events of World War II -
American Involvement
 Lend-Lease Program to aid Allies
 Attack on Pearl Harbor – December 7,
1941
 US enters World War II
 1942 – War turned in favor of the Allies
– Victories in North Africa versus Germany
– Victory in the Battle of the Midway in the
Pacific

16. Pearl Harbour The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by
the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United
States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the
morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as
the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' entry
into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred
to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and
as Operation Z during its planning.
 Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the
U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they
planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the
United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.
Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese
attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island
and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong
Kong.

18. Major Event of World War II -
Allied Conferences
 Tehran (1943) – meeting
between FDR, Churchill and
Stalin discussing the future of
the war and post war
arrangements. Not all
decisions finalized until later.
 Yalta (1945) – discussing the
post war reorganization of
Europe, second meeting of the
‘Big Three’
 Potsdam (1945) - After
victory in Europe

19. Major Events in World War II –
The End of the War
 June 6, 1944 – Storming of Normandy
 December 1944 - Hitler lost the Battle of
the Bulge
 Germany surrendered in May 1945
 Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in August of 1945
 Japan Surrendered in September 1945

20. Normandy
 The invasion of northern France
in 1944 was the most significant
victory of the Western Allies in
the Second World War.
American, British and Canadian
forces established a foothold on
the shores of Normandy, and,
after a protracted and costly
campaign to reinforce their gains,
broke out into the French interior
and began a headlong advance.
The German Army suffered a
catastrophe greater than that of
Stalingrad, the defeat in North
Africa or even the massive Soviet
summer offensive of 1944.

21. Battle of the Bulge
 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 - was the last major
German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched
through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in
Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, on the Western Front,
towards the end of World War II, in the European theatre. The
surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard.
American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their
highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle
also severely depleted Germany's
 armoured forces on the Western
 Front, and they were largely
 unable to replace them. German
 personnel and later, Luftwaffe
 aircraft (in the concluding stages
 of the engagement), also sustained heavy losses.

22. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 The United States dropped nuclear weapons on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6
and 9, 1945, respectively, during the final stage of World
War II. The United States had dropped the bombs with
the consent of the United Kingdom as outlined in the
Quebec Agreement. The two bombings, which killed at
least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear
weapons for warfare in history.
 In the final year of the war, the Allies prepared for what
was anticipated to be a very costly invasion of the
Japanese mainland. This was preceded by a U.S.
conventional and firebombing campaign that destroyed
67 Japanese cities. The war in Europe had concluded
when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on
May 8, 1945, just after Hitler committed suicide.

23. Hiroshima and Nagasaki cont…
 The Japanese, facing the same fate, refused to
accept the Allies' demands for unconditional
surrender and the Pacific War continued. The
Allies called for the unconditional surrender of
the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam
Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative
being "prompt and utter destruction". The
Japanese response to this ultimatum was to
ignore it.

24. Hiroshima and Nagasaki

25. The devastation of
the bombs dropped by
the Enola Gay and
her crews.

26. Key Players in the War
Axis Powers
 Adolf Hitler
(Germany)
 Benito Mussolini
(Italy)
 Hideki Tojo (Japan)
Allied Powers
 Neville Chamberlain
(UK)
 Winston Churchill
(UK)
 Charles De Gaulle
(France)
 Franklin Roosevelt
(USA)
 Harry Truman (USA)
 Joseph Stalin (Russia)

27. ADOLF HITLER
 Brought prominence to the
National Socialist German
Workers Party (NAZI Party)
 Head of the 3rd
Reich
 Believed in Master Race –
Aryan Race
 Unite all German-speaking
people, ideally in Germany or
land taken by Germany eg
Anschluss.
 1933 took power
 Anti-Communist
 Das Fuhrer (The Leader)

28. BENITO MUSSOLINI
 Led fascist movement in
Italy
 Black-shirt army
 Totalitarian State under
his rule
 AKA - Il Duce- The
Chief
 Anti-Communist

29. Emperor Hirohito
 The name Hirohito means "abundant
benevolence".
 After Japan's surrender, he was not
prosecuted for war crimes as many
other leading government figures
were, and his degree of involvement
in wartime decisions remains
controversial among historians.
 During the post-war period, he
became the symbol of the new state
under the post-war constitution and
Japan's recovery, and by the end of
his reign, Japan had emerged as the
world's second largest economy (was
9th
in 1926 when he commenced his
reign).

30. HIDEKI TOJO
 Militant Japanese General
 Took control of Japan in
1941.
 Pushed for vast colonial
empire stretching from
China to Thailand.
 Organized attack on Pearl
Harbor.

31. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN
 British Prime Minister at
the onset of War.
 Believed in policy of
Appeasement for dealing
with Hitler.
 Signed Munich Pact to
turn over Sudetenland.
 Believed he obtained
“Peace in Our Time”.

32. WINSTON CHURCHILL
 Critical of Chamberlin’s
policies toward Hitler.
 Became Prime Minister
during the war (1940).
 Strong ally for the United
States.
 Powerful public speaker
he helped to rally his
troops to fight German
aggression.

33. CHARLES DE GAULLE
 French General
 Fled to England after
Germany took over
France.
 Set up government-in-
exile

34. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
 President through
much of the War
(died in 1945)
 Lend Lease program
to aid Allies prior to
US entry into the War
 Signed order to intern
Japanese after Pearl
Harbor.

35. HARRY TRUMAN
 Vice President under
Franklin D Roosevelt
 Took over Presidency
at the end of the War.
 Made Decision to
Drop Atomic Bomb
on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki

36. JOSEPH STALIN
 Totalitarian Regime in
USSR.
 Awaited world-wide
Communist revolution.
 Great Purge of the 1930s
to clear out enemies from
country
 1939 – Signed
nonaggression pact with
Germany. (Divide
Poland)
 Germany broke the pact,
opening up the Eastern
Front of the War.