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US history
Course: US history > Unit 7
Lesson 5: World War II- Beginning of World War II
- 1940 - Axis gains momentum in World War II
- 1941 Axis momentum accelerates in WW2
- Pearl Harbor
- FDR and World War II
- Japanese internment
- American women and World War II
- 1942 Tide turning in World War II in Europe
- World War II in the Pacific in 1942
- 1943 Axis losing in Europe
- American progress in the Pacific in 1944
- 1944 - Allies advance further in Europe
- 1945 - End of World War II
- The Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb
- The United Nations
- The Second World War
- Shaping American national identity from 1890 to 1945
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1941 Axis momentum accelerates in WW2
In 1941, the Axis gains further momentum with control of most of Continential Europe. Hitler decides to break pact and invade Stalin's Soviet Union. United States enters World War II after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Want to join the conversation?
- Was the Battle of Moscow, Stalingrad, or Siege of Leningrad the turning point of the war?(21 votes)
- BY FAR it was the Battle of Stalingrad. Stalingrad was a huge target for Hitler as it signified the pride of Stalin, by taking it would insult Stalin (as the city was named in his honor). However, the main goal of the Stalingrad pursuit was the shift his campaign down south to the Russian state of Caucasus where Russia's main oil supply is. This was vital for Nazi Germany since oil in the Rhineland was becoming short on supply and Germany's new innovation, synthetic oil, was also being targeted by Allied bombers. So, Stalingrad was a main target also to maintain the momentum gained during Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the USSR) as they were moving very quickly towards Moscow. Unfortunately, the USSR was able to halt the German advance through the city of Stalingrad until winter and captured Germany's most fierce regiment along with their general. This boosted Soviet propaganda by showing their citizens and the world that Germany is not as dangerous as they appear thus improving military listing to an army already gigantic also by allowing the USSR to start going west towards Germany as they both broke the Pact which would result in the USSR and the USA invading Germany ending the war.(23 votes)
- How many Japanese troops and machines (tanks/trucks/boats/planes) were involved in this Japanese military campaign on Dec. 7/8?(17 votes)
- 6 aircraft's, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser.(10 votes)
- What happened to the Dutch East Indies after the Netherlands got overrun? How were they governed? Did the Dutch maintain control?(11 votes)
- The Dutch East Indies were actually being overrun themselves, by the Japanese. The Japanese sought the islands for their oil and rubber. The Dutch fought to keep control, with the help of the Australians and some American forces, but eventually lost out. More info: http://ww2db.com/country/Dutch%20East%20Indies(11 votes)
- How did Switzerland stay neutral till the end of WWII while being bordered by a huge portion of the Axis territories?
Why didn't Germany invade Switzerland when they invaded other bordering countries?(7 votes)- Switzerland wasn't really interested in war, and they didn't want to become part of the conflict.
Germany didn't invade Switzerland initially because the quicker route to invade France was via Belgium and Luxembourg. If you look at a map, you'll see that to get around France's defenses, Switzerland was an option, but it was way out of the way. Not only that, but geography (like the alps) would have made it a lot harder.
Germany didn't invade Switzerland later because they were too busy fighting the allies as the tide of the war turned, and had no extra resources to launch an invasion. They probably would have invaded Switzerland had the allies lost, however.(9 votes)
- How come Portugal wasn't invaded, because I know about General Franco in charge of Spain, but what happened in Portugal?(5 votes)
- Portugal was neutral although it was pro-fascist like Italy and Spain. Portugal just mainly stayed on the sidelines and supplied goods to both sides.(12 votes)
- Why did Hitler start the war ??(7 votes)
- partially to regain territory lost after world war one, and because one of Hitler's major goals was to fulfill his concept of Lebensraum, which was essentially to take over more "living space" for his master race.(7 votes)
- In 1941 didn't Japan also attack and occupy some of the US possessions in the Aleutian Islands?(6 votes)
- The islands invaded were Attu and Kiska. I hope this helps! :)(2 votes)
- did spain ireland and portugal have their own army at the time of ww2?(6 votes)
- Each of these nations had various military forces at that time.(6 votes)
- What did Canada do in the war? I live there and I was always wondering what Canada did in the war? Did they sit back? Or did they help Germany? Or did they help the USA? I'm not sure so I was just wondering. Thanks!(4 votes)
- Canada joined World War II on the Allied side on September 10, 1939, long before the United States. The Canadian Army, Navy, and Air Force were active in the war.(6 votes)
- Conquering over half of Europe, defeating a World Power and Fighting TWO major World Powers at the SAME time and winning on top of that requires a lot of man power. But where did the Germans get all the troops and supplies to accomplish such a feat considering the Allied Powers having pretty much crippled Germany with the Treaty of Versailles. I just don't see how that was possible.(3 votes)
- The Despicable Nazis imported slave labor, so while their "pure" young men would fight the soviets with the fruits of advanced tanks and infantry weapons and V2s bombing London, slaves would toil away in factories churning out cold grey steel configured as deadly weapons of war.(4 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] As we've already
seen in the last few videos, with the war officially
starting in September of 1939, the Axis powers get momentum
through the end of 1939, all the way into 1940. That was the last video that
we covered and that takes us to 1941 and what we're
gonna see in 1941 which is the focus of this video is
that the Axis powers only seem to gain more momentum. Because of all of that momentum they perhaps gets a little bit
overconfident and stretch themselves or begin to
stretch themselves too thin. So let's think about what happens in 1941. So, if we talk about early
1941 or the Spring of 1941, in March, Bulgaria decides
to join the Axis powers. You can imagine there's a lot
of pressuring applied to them and they kind of see
where the momentum is. Let's be on that side. Bulgaria joins the Axis and then in North Africa you might remember
that in 1940, the Allies, in particular, the British,
were able to defeat the Italians and push them back into Libya
but now in March of 1941, the Italians get reinforcements,
Italian reinforcements and also German reinforcements
under the command of Rommel the Desert Fox, famous desert
commander and they are able to push the British back to the
Egyptian border and they also take siege of the town of Tobruk. Now, you might have noticed something that I just drew. The supply lines in the North Africa campaign are very,
very, very long and that's part of the reason why there's one side. One side has supply lines and as they start to make progress and as the Allies make progress and push into
Libya, their supply lines got really long and so the other side has an easier timely supply. Then as the Axis pushes
the Allies back into Egypt, then their supply lines get
really long and the other side...it makes it easier for
them to resupply and so North Africa is kind of defined by
this constant back and forth. But, by early 1941, it looks
like the Axis is on the offensive, able to push the
British back into Egypt lay siege to the town of Tobruk. So, let me write this
down as North Africa. So, I'll just say North
Africa over here or I'll could say Rommel in North Africa pushing the British back. And then we can start
talking about what happens in the Balkans and this is still
in Spring as we go into April of 1941 and just as a little
bit of background here, and frankly I should have covered
it a couple of videos ago. As far back as 1939, actually
before World War II officially started, in Spring of 1939,
Italy actually occupies Albania so this actually should
have already been red. This is in 1939 that this happens and then at the end of 1940, Italy uses Albania as a base of
operation to try to invade Greece but they are pushed back. Actually one of the reasons why the British we able to be
pushed back in North Africa is after they were successful
against the Italians, most of the bulk of the British forces we
sent to Greece to help defend Greece at the end of 1940. So, in 1939, Albania gets taken over by Italy and at the end
of 1940...October 1940, Greece is invaded by Italy but they
are then pushed back but to help the Greeks, the Allies
send many of the forces that were in North Africa after they
were successful against the Italians in Libya. Now, as we go into April of 1941... that was all background, remember
Albania before the war started in April 1939, October 1940
was Italy's kind of first push into Greece and it was unsuccessful. Then the Greeks get
support from the Allies in North Africa and now as we go into 1941, the Germans start
supporting and really take charge in Balkans and in Greece
and so with the help of the Germans the Axis is able to
take over Yugoslavia and Greece and start aerial bombardment of Crete. So, once again, we're not
even halfway through the year in 1941 and we see a huge swath of Europe is under the
control of the Axis powers. And now we go into the summer of 1941. This is actually a pivotal
move, what's about to happen. Now you can imagine that the Axis powers, in particular, Hitler, are feeling pretty confident. We are only about that far into the war. So we're not even two years
into the war yet and it looks like the Axis is going to win. Now you might remember that they have a pact with the Soviet Union. Hey, we're gonna split
a lot of Eastern Europe into our spheres of influence so to speak, but now Hitler's
like, well, I think I'm ready to attack and when you attack the Soviet Union really matters. You do not want to attack
the Soviet Union in the winter...or Russia in the winter. Russia's obviously at the heart of the Soviet Union. That something that Napoleon learned. Many military commanders have learnt. You do not want to be fighting in Russia over the winter, so summer of 1941, Hitler figures, hey,
this is the Axis chance. And so, in June, he decides
to attack the Soviet Union. So, this is a very, very, very
bold move because now they're fighting the British. Remember, the British are kind of not a joke to be battling out
here in Western Europe and now they're going to be taking on
the Soviet Union in the east, a major, major world power. But at first, like always, it seems like it's going
well for the Germans. By September, they're able to push up all the way to Leningrad. So, this is September of 1941
and lay lay siege and begin laying siege to that town. This is kind of a long bloody
siege that happens there. So, we're right now, right about there. And most historians would tell
you that this was one of the mistakes of Adolph Hitler
because now he is stretched very, very, very thin. He has to fight two world powers, Soviet Union and Great Britain and the
United States hasn't entered into the war yet and that's
what we're about to get into because if we go into Asia it was still in 1941 what happens in July. So, little bit after
Hitler decides to start invading the Soviet Union going
back on the pact, the non- aggression pact. In July, you could imagine the US, they were never pleased with what's
been happening, what the Empire of Japan has been doing
in the Pacific, what they've been doing in China, in
Manchuria or even in terms of the war in China, the second
Sino Japanese War. They weren't happy of the Japanese taking over French Indochina. There's a big world power
here, the Empire of Japan. There's a big world power here,
the United States, that has a lot of possessions in the
Pacific and so, the United States in July of 1941...So
remember, this is still all 1941, this is the same
year...decides to freeze the assets of Japan and probably the most
important part of that was an oil embargo of Japan. This is a big, big deal. Japan is fighting a major conflict with the Chinese. It's kind of flexing it's imperial muscles but it does not have many natural resources in and of
itself and in fact, that's one of the reasons why it's trying
to colonize other places to get more control of natural resources. And now if it's fighting a war it doesn't have it's own oil resources and now there's an oil embargo of
Japan and the United States at the time was major oil producer
and even today, it's major oil producer. This was a big deal to
the Japanese because some estimates say they only
had about two years of reserves and they were fighting a war
where they might have to touch their reserves even more. So, you could imagine the Japanese, they want to have
their imperial ambitions. They probably want, especially now with this oil embargo, they probably want to take over
more natural resources and they probably want to knock out the
US or at least keep the US on its heels so the US can't
stop Japan from doing what it wants to do. So, all it wants in
December 1941, that's over the course of December 7th
and 8th, and it gets a little confusing because a lot
of this happens across the International Date Line. But over the course of December 7th and 8th, Japan goes on the
offensive in a major way in the Pacific. Over the course of several
hours, at most, a day, Japan is able to attack
Malaya, which is a British possession. It's able to attack Pearl
Harbor, where the US Pacific fleet is in hope to
knock out the US Pacific fleet so the US will have trouble
stopping Japan from doing whatever Japan wants to do. In the US, we focus a lot on Pearl Harbor but this was just
one of the attacks in this whole kind of several hours
of attacks where Japan went on the offensive. So, we have Malaya, we
have Pearl Harbor, we have Singapore, we have Guam,
we have (which was the US military base), Wake Island. You have the Philippines, which was a US possession ever since
the Spanish American war. You have Hong Kong, which is
a British possession and then shortly after that as you get
further into December, so this is kind of when you have Japan offensive. Then as you go on into later Decemeber, the kind of real prize for Japan was what we would now call Indonesia
but the Dutch East Indies. On this map it says
Netherlands East Indies. You have to remember the
Netherlands had been overrun. They're the low countries they were already overrun by German forces so the Japanese say hey, look there
are a lot of resources here, natural resources, especially oil. Let's go for this and so by the end of 1941, they're
also going for the Dutch East Indies and for Burma so you
could imagine it's a very aggressive, very, very bold
move on Japan but they kind of had imperial ambitions. They were afraid of they access to natural resources so they went
for it but obviously one of the major consequence of this
is the United States was not happy about this and they were already sympathetic to the Allies. They didn't like what was
going on in Europe either. They didn't like what was
going on in China and so that causes the United States to
enter into World War II on the side of the Allies and then
the Axis powers to declare war on the United States,
which was a big deal.