1941 Axis momentum accelerates in WW2

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 then that takes us to 1941 and what we're going to see in 1941 which is the focus of this video is that the Axis powers only seem to gain more momentum but because of all of that momentum they perhaps get 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 pressure being applied to them and they kind of see where the momentum is hey let's let's let's be on that side so Bulgaria 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 they are able to push 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 draw it the something that I just drew the supply lines in the North African campaign are very very very long and that's part of the reason why as one side so you know one side has supply lines as as they start to make progress and push into let's say is the Allies make progress and push into Libya their supply lines got really long and so the other side has an easier time resupplying and then as the axis pushes the Allies back into Egypt well then their supply lines get really long and the other side has 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 the axis is on the offensive they're able to push the British back into Egypt lay siege to the town of Tobruk so let me write this down as North Africa have all these different shades of red here let me write this down North so I'll just write North Africa right over here or I could say Rommel in North Africa pushing pushing the British back and then we get we can start talking about what happens in the Balkans and this is still in the spring as we go into the April of 1941 and just does a little bit of background here and frankly I should have covered it a couple of videos ago but as far back as 1939 actually before World War two officially started in spring of 1939 Italy actually occupies Albania so this actually should have already been read this is in 1939 this is 1939 that this happens and then at the end of 1940 Italy uses Albania is a base of operations to try to invade Greece to try to invade Greece but they are pushed back and actually one of the reasons why the British were able to be pushed back in North Africa is after they were successful against the Italians most of the kind of the the bulk of the British forces were sent to Greece to help defend Greece at the end of 1940 so this 1939 Albania gets taken over by Italy and at the end of 1940 October 1940 Greece is invaded so October 1940 so that is right around there 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 so now as we go into April of 1941 that was all background remember Albania and before the war started April 1939 October 1940 was Italy's kind of first push into Greece and it was a unsuccessful push into Greece but then the Greeks get support from the Allies at North Africa and now as we go into 1941 the Germans start supporting or really take charge in the 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 so let me write so the spring so let me write Yugoslavia Yugoslavia and Greece Yugoslavia and Greece and aerial bombardments of Crete and now we go into the summer the summer of 1941 and 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 so we're about we're 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 going to 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 this is something or Russia in the winter Russia is obviously now kind of the heart of the Soviet Union that's something Napoleon learned many military commanders has learned you do not want to be fighting in Russia over the winter so summer of 1941 Hitler figures hey this is this is the axis chance and so in June he decides to attack the Soviet Union so Soviet Union attack attack the Soviet Union so this is a very very very bold move because now they're fighting the British remember that the British are kind of not not a 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 first like always it seems like it's going well for the Germans by September they're able to push they're able to push up all the way to Leningrad so this is September of 1941 and lay siege and began laying siege to that town this is kind of a long bloody siege that happens there so we're right right now right about there and most historians would tell you that this was one of the mistakes of Adolf Hitler because now he is stretched very very very thin he has to fight to world power Soviet Union 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 in 1941 what happens in July so a little bit after Hitler decides to start invading the Soviet Union going back on the pact the non-aggression pact in July you can imagine the u.s. they were never pleased with what's been happening but the envelope the Empire of Japan has been doing in the Pacific what do they've been doing in China in Manchuria or even in in terms of the war in China the second sino-japanese war they weren't happy of the Japanese taking over French Indochina and you could you know there's a big world power here in the Empire of Japan there's a big world power here in the United States that has a lot of possessions in the Pacific and so the United States in July in July of 1941 so remember this is still all 1941 is the same year decides to freeze the assets of Japan and probably the most important part of that was an oil embargo an oil embargo of Japan of Japan and this is a big big deal Japan is fighting a major conflict with the Chinese it's kind of flexing its Imperial muscles but it does not have many natural resources in and of itself 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 its own oil resources and now there's an oil embargo of Japan in the United States at the time was a major oil producer and actually even today it's a major oil producer this was a big deal to the Japanese because some estimates say that they only had about two years of reserves and they were fighting a war where they might deploy their reserves even more so you can imagine the Japanese they want to have their imperial ambitions they probably want especially now this is oil embargo they probably want to take over more natural resources and they probably want to knock out the u.s. or at least keep the US on on its heels so the u.s. can't stop Japan from doing what it wants to do so all at once in December December 1941 it's over the course of December 7th and 8th and it gets a little confusing because a lot of this happens across the International Dateline 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 really several hours at most a day Japan is able to attack is able to attack Malaya which is a British possession it's able to attack Pearl Harbor where the US Pacific Fleet is it hopes to knock out the US Pacific Fleet so the US will have trouble stopping Japan from doing whatever Japan wants to do in the u.s. 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 aggression or went on on the offensive so we have Malaya we have Pearl Harbor we have Singapore we have Singapore we have Guam we have Guam we have which was a US military base you have Wake Island you have the Philippines which was a u.s. possession ever since the spanish-american war you have Hong Kong Hong Kong which is a British possession and then shortly after that as you get further into December so this is when you have kind of you know Japan attacks Japan offensive all right Japan offensive and then as you go into later December the kind of real prize for Japan was what we now call Indonesia but that the the Dutch East Indies on this map it says Netherlands East Indies but you got to remember the Netherlands had been overrun there's a Low Countries they were already overrun by German forces so hit so so the Japanese say hey look there's 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 can imagine it's a very aggressive very very bold move on Japan but they were they were kind of had imperial ambitions they were short on or they were afraid of kind of their access to natural resources so they went for it but obviously one of the major consequences 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 two - on the side of the Allies and then the Axis powers to declare war on the United States which was a big deal