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This presentation is about the 40’s witch was a decade of change for America and the rest of the world. Most of the decade is dominated by WWII and the events in its aftermath are greatly influenced by the last Great War. In the months before the French surrender Hitler’s “Blitzkrieg” or lighting war had devastated Europe, but when Hitler attacked France on May 10th 1940, the French and British solders where taken by surprise. Within 3 weeks the British where at the English Channel trying to evacuate its remaining troops that haven’t been slaughtered by the Germans at the French port of Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo as the British called it was where the 330000 English solders where evacuated back to England was carried out mostly by volunteered civilian fishing boats. It lasted from May 22 through June 4. After this huge defeat the British prime minister, Winston Churchill addressed the English parliament and said that they would carry on the war and wouldn’t give up on France. On May 22nd, after the French government collapsed Churchill met the new French Prime Minister, Marshal Petain in Paris, but on June 14 they meet in Briave because the fighting is to close to the French capital. After a long debate, Patain sends orders to abandon Paris to spare its historic sight from being destroyed by the Nazis. On June 10, Germanys ally Italy declares war on France and the Italian army invades southern France. On June 14 the German army marches into Paris without resistance. On June 17 the French prime minister announces on the radio “it is with a heavy heart that I tell you today we must stop the fighting”, it was only 38 after the Germans first attacked. When Hitler and The other high-ranking Nazis came to Paris to accept the surrender they wanted to sign it in the same box car that Germany surrendered in the First World War. They also wanted to sign it in the historic Compigne forest to symbolize a returning of justice to the world. At the second armistice at compigne the French agreed to give land north and west to the Germans, also it said that the French army must surrender and be disbanded. The day after the surrender Winston Churchill ordered the British Navy to sink all the French war ships in there ports so they did not fall into Nazi hands. The surrender of France in WWII was one of the darkest ays in European history. In 1937 the Japanese started to expand its empire by invading northern China. A US gunboat was sunk during the invasion by Japanese plane wile patrolling Chinese waters. AS the Japanese empire grew throughout the Pacific they grew worried of an American attack. The Japanese government appointed Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to plan a attack to destroy the US navy. President Roosevelt was also worried about an attack on the Philippians or on he US mainland so he imposed trade sanctions on Japan to deprive them of the raw materials like oil and steel that they didn’t have themselves. In February 1941 the US army and navy grew worried of a Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands so they fortified the islands defenses. Even though the islands where being strengthen Japanese spies remained on the island. All through 1941 Japan built up its navy and air force. In September the Shokaku and the Zuikau where completed giving Japan 2 more aircraft carriers to attack with. In November the Japanese fleet assembled in Hitokappu bay. It consisted of 6 carriers 2 battleships 2 heavy cursers 1 light curser 9 destroyers 3 subs and 8 tankers and supply ships. On November 26 the fleet left Hitokappu bay under heavy fog and with orders of strict radio silence. In Hawaii a huge radar blip was seen coming towards the island but it was mistaken for a group of B-17’s coming from the mainland. The first wave of Japanese planes arrived at the island of Honolulu a little before 8 in the morning on December 7 1941. The primary target for the attack was the US carriers Enterprise and Lexington but they where stationed at Midway Island during the attack. After the Japanese realized the aircraft carriers weren’t there they attacked the battleships at “Battleship Row”. The new Japanese shallow water torpedoes and bombs devastated the battleships. A bomb hit the USS Arizona’s forward ammunition storage witch exploded killing most of its crew. After the attack on December 8 President Roosevelt addressed Congress, in his speech s=he said “Yesterday December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy”. The attack on Pearl Harbor started WWII for America. After the Pearl Harbor Attack the Japanese had naval superiority over the US with 4 large aircraft carriers to Americas 3. The US carrier Yorktown was badly damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea and was sent back to Pearl Harbor to be repaired. It took less then 2 days to repair the badly damaged ship. By this time in the war the US naval intelligence had broken the main Japanese naval code and on May 19 Commander Joseph J. Rochefort and other intelligence officers identified Dutch harbor, the Allusions islands or Midway Island as possible targets for a Japanese attack. After further decoding Midway Island was decided to be the main target for the attack. The Japanese Admiral Yamamoto organized the attack to take Midway Island. He was the same person who planed the attack on Pearl Harbor. The US fleet that consisted of 3 aircraft carriers the Enterprise, the Yorktown and the Hornet assembled at “Point Luck” and was commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance. “Point Luck” is 350 miles to the north of Midway Island. When the Japanese fleet was off the coast of Midway Island Admiral Yamamoto launched scout planes to make sure there where no American ships defending the island. But the planes failed to see the US fleet. Admiral Spruance also sent scout planes to find the Japanese ships but his planes found the Japanese. Land based B-17’s from Midway Island launched early on June 4 soon after the scout planes found the Japanese ships. But the B-17’s didn’t sink any of the Japanese ships. Just as the Japanese planes that where defending the fleet where landing to refuel to attack the island planes from the 3 US carriers started to attack the Japanese ships. When Yamamoto heard of the attack he ordered the planes that where being fitted with high explosive and bunker busting bombs for attacking the island to be refitted with anti ship bombs and torpedoes. It took one hour to refit and launch the planes. Even though the American planes didn’t have to deal with the Japanese fighter planes the first wave of the carrier launched planes also failed to sink a Japanese ship. At 10:22 a huge wave of Dauntless dive bombers from the island disabled 3 of the Japanese carriers, the Kaga, the Soryu, and the Akagi. Soon after the Japanese carriers where disabled they where sunk by US planes. The remaining Japanese carrier, the Hiryu, launched a counter attack and disabled the Yorktown. But later that day the last Japanese carrier was suck by dive bombers wile it was trying to escape. The battle of Midway crippled the Japanese navy and changed the tide of war in the Pacific in US favor. Before the Battle of Stalingrad the German Blitzkrieg had already devastated most of Europe and couldn’t be stopped but after the battle the Germans fought a defensive war that eventually led back to Berlin. German army groups A and B had been marching through Russia to the Caucuses to take its rich oil fields but Hitler ordered them to head north and take the city of Stalingrad. The Germans thought it would be a short fight but the battle lasted from the winter of 1942 to late 1943. The Nazi General Paulus who was in command of both army groups of the third army started his advance towards the city. General Vasiliy Chuikov was ordered by Stalin not to let the Russian city of industry fall to the Nazis. Chuikov had a new strategy to stop the Blitzkrieg, to make the Germans fight for every room and every street with hand to hand combat. The strategy had the advantage of making the Germans weary of using there massive artillery and air force because they would be at risk of killing there own people. The first attack on the city was done by the German air force or the Luftwaffe; they bombed the city and caused huge firestorms that devastated the city. Many of the Russians defending the city weren’t solders but volunteered factory workers who where trying to save there home. The German plan for taking the city was using infantry supported by tanks, planes and artillery but Chuikov’s hand to hand combat strategy made the tanks planes and artillery useless so it was more of an even fight. 3 months after the fighting began the Germans finally reached the Volga river witch had been supplying the Russians throughout the battle. The Russians where then isolated into 2 narrow pockets of fighting. Even though most of the city was captured fierce fighting continued in the northern factory region. With there backs to the Volga the Russians went into the sewers to fight. The Germans called the fight a “rat war” because of this. The Germans where focused on the city so they didn’t launch an attack across the Volga, this let the Soviets build up a huge force of 1 million fresh troops, 1500 tanks, 2500 heavy guns, and 3 air armies to launch a counter attack with. On November 19th, during a heavy snowstorm the Russians broke through the week German front to the North West. The North West German front was made mostly of volunteered Romanian solders that weren’t as well trained as the main German force. On November 20th, the Russians started an attack south of the city witch also broke through the German front. On November 30, the 2 Russians met up and completely surrounded the Germans. General Paulas surrendered on February 4th after months of his troops starving and dieing of the cold Russian winter. Before he surrendered Hitler Promoted Paulas to Field Marshal because no German Field Marshal had ever been captured and Hitler wanted him to commit suicide. After the battle Russia went on an offensive that eventually led back to Berlin and the end of WWII in Europe. Hitler and the German high command expected an Allied invasion of France and began building an Atlantic wall witch was a construction of concrete walls, minefields, bunkers, barbed wire fences and fortified artillery emplacements. In 1943, Hitler appointed Field Marshal Rommel of Army Group B and the responsibility of defending Normandy. When he saw the condition of the Atlantic wall he ordered more fortifications to be built. Rommels superior officer decided to hold 6 Panzer tank divisions back because the Germans didn’t know where the invasion would occur and he wanted to deliver a crushing blow when the invasion started. The allied codename for the invasion of Normandy was Operation Overlord witch consisted of 150000 men and 5000 ships. It involved the Americans, British, Canadians, Polish and the French Resistance and was commanded by General Eisenhower. The allies put a lot of effort into deceiving the Germans on were the invasion would take place. They sent radio messages to a fake army that was supposedly being built up in Kent just across the English Channel from the Pas de Calais where Hitler and the German high command thought the invasion would take place. The night before the invasion was scheduled to take place Eisenhower sent paratroopers to sabotage the Germans and early in the morning 40 minuets of heavy bombardment was supposed to be followed by the landings but a heavy storm postponed the landings from June 2nd through June 6th when Eisenhower saw a break in the weather and decided to go head with the invasion. There were 5 beach heads where the allies landed. The Americans landed on Omaha and Utah beaches, Gold and Sword beaches where invaded by the British and a combined force of English, Canadian and other smaller groups attacked Juno. When the first wave of the American attack landed on Omaha beach they expected a easy fight, but the German defenses were not weakened by the naval and aerial bombardment. The initial outlook on Omaha beach was so bad that General Omar Bradley considered calling off the attack, but in the hours to follow the Germans where pushed inland. On the morning of June 6th Eisenhower sent more Paratroopers behind Utah beach to secure the invasions west flank but they missed the drop zone and where useless. The planed invasion point at Utah beach was so heavily defended that the invasion was moved 200 mile south where there were weaker defenses. Like at Omaha beach the Germans at Utah beach where driven inland. In the days after D-Day the Allies quickly expanded there beach heads. They reinforced the beach and started “the breakout” witch was led by General George Patton. “The breakout” or the liberation of France changed the Germans moral from invincible to worried and they started to question Hitler. The Normandy landings gave the Allies the upper hand and lead to the defeat of the Nazis on April 7th, 1945. After the war in Europe ended the Japanese knew they couldn’t withstand the renewed strength of the Americans and other Allies. The Japanese navy and air force never recovered from the Battle of Midway so they couldn’t stop the bombing raids that where destroying the major Japanese cities or the US navy that was getting closer to the Japanese home islands. The Americans didn’t want to launch a full scale invasion due to the rather die then surrender mentality that the Japanese adopted. The people of Japan where told if they didn’t take an American life they didn’t disserve to die for the emperor. On August 6th the first Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It was nicked named “little boy” because it was long and skinny and it was made of uranium. After the first Atomic attack the emperor was told that there wasn’t enough uranium in the world to repeat the attack so they should keep fighting. But the emperor wanted to surrender with some conditions like he must remain in power and Japan must try its own war criminals but President Truman would not accept anything but unconditional surrender. On August 9th the Soviets attacked the week and starving Japanese occupation force in Manchuria. Later that day the second Atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, it was called “fat man” because it was more round then the uranium bomb and was made out of plutonium. Only after 2 of Japans biggest cities where destroyed did they finally surrender unconditionally. On September 2, 1945, the official Instrument of Surrender was signed on the US battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo bay. It was only 8 paragraphs and just said Japan must stop fighting and dismantle its armed forces. General Douglas Macarthur accepted the surrender for America and its Allies. He would be the person to run Japan for the next few years. Imminently after the instrument of Surrender was signed General Order #1 was issued witch assigned responsibility for the disarming of Japanese troops in China and throughout Asia and the Pacific. Some Japanese continued to fight and where slaughtered, others tried to the Russians. But the Russians where still fighting under orders from Stalin to try to take as much land as possible. They didn’t stop fighting for two more weeks. When the Japanese surrendered it was the end of one of the worse wars in human history and it created 2 new superpowers, the US After WWII ended Europe and the world demanded justice for the Nazi leaders who engineered the Holocaust and killed the millions of Jews and other minorities. The Nuremburg trials began on November 20 1945 to try the 22 highest ranking Nazis that where left. Judges where appointed from America, England, France and the Soviet Union to hold the trials at the Palace of Justice, the same place where the laws dehumanizing Jews where passed. The trials where going to be held in Berlin but there was no suitable prison to hold the Nazis because the one in the city had been bombed. Hitler Gobles and Hilmar had all committed suicide so Herman Goring was the highest ranking Nazi being tried. The crimes that where committed fell into 3 groups, War Crimes witch where murder and ill treatment of prisoners and civilians, slave labor, killing of hostages, plunder of public and private property, wanton destruction of towns, and devastation not justified by military necessity. Crimes Agents Humanity where murder extermination, enslavement, unjust deportation and other inhuman acts agents a civilian population. The extermination and medical experiments the Nazis preformed on Jews fell into this category. The experiments the Nazis did on Jews where low pressure and freezing cold exposure, epidemic hepatitis virus research, bone transplant experiments and mass sterilization and mustard gas research experiments. Due to the Geneva Convention some of the experiments fell into the crimes ageist piece category. Herman Gering pleaded innocent but was found guilty on conspiracy to commit crimes agents piece, war crimes and crimes agents humanity. After he was sentenced to death by hanging he said he didn’t regret anything he said or did. Later he took a cyanide pill in his cell to commit suicide. 9 other Nazis where sentenced to hanging, 2 where found not guilty and the rest where given prison time ranging from 10 years to life. After justice was served for the horrible crimes that where committed under Nazi power the world felt nothing like WW2 or the Holocaust could ever happen again. On October 14 1947 Captain Charles Yeager flew mach 1.06 or 700 miles per hours. His plane, the Bell X-1, was dropped from the bomb bay of a B-29 at 23,000 ft. Before he got into the plane Captain Yeager grabbed 10 inches of a broom handle because the night before the historical flight he broke 2 of his ribs when he fell off his horse and couldn’t close the hatch of the plain without its help. The Bell X-1 was a revolutionary new plane with 4 rocket engines that could be used separate or together and its nose was modeled after a .50 caliber bullet so it would be more aerodynamic. Before the launch the B-29 went into a shallow dive to reach the launch speed of 250 miles per hour then launched the X-1. After he dropped from the B-29 Captain Yeager lit all 4 rocket engines and climbed to 42,000 feet he then shut off 2 of the engines and climbed to 45,000 feet. He then relit the other 2 engines and broke the sound barrier at 45,000 feet and then glided back to the base. The X-1 flew 77 more times and reached speeds of mach 1.45. it was years before any other country could break the sound barrier because they couldn’t copy the X-1’s adjustable tail that could be lowered or raised in flight. There where different models of the X-1 like the X-1E witch reached a speed of mach 2.27. After WWII Germany was divided by the 4 allies, the US, France, England and the Soviet Union. Berlin was deep inside the soviet sector, but the German capital was shared between the Soviet Union and the west, or America, France and England. The city was divided by the Berlin wall but West Berlin still used electricity and supplies that came from the Soviet sector of Germany. The Soviets where jealous that the people of East Germany where leaving and going to the west side of the country and of the newly drafted West German Constitution that was put into law on June 7th. Russia wanted to force a negotiation about redividing Germany. On the night of June 23 all roads and railroads going through the Soviet sector to West Berlin where closed by the Russian government. The next morning on June 24 the power to West Berlin was shut off by the Soviets. This left 2.5 million people without food or power. But Berlin’s main airport was inside the American sector so the Western Allies plan was to feed the city from the air. The only planes available to airlift supplies into the city where Douglas c-47’s but they could only carry 3.5 tones apiece and the city needed 1534 tones of food and other supplies a day to survive. The missions to keep the city alive had to be flown 24 hours a day but the people of West Berlin where saved and survived the blockade. In May 1949 the Berlin Blockade ended almost a year after it started. Russia failed to force the west to give up on Berlin and the rest of Germany. Before WWII China was in a Civil War between Jiang Jiejhi and the Chinese Nationalist and Mao Zedong and the Communist. The Communist wanted to over through the traditional Nationalist government. But in WWII China was occupied by Japan so a United China fought on the side of the Allies. After WWII ended the Civil War resumed in 1946. The Nationalist hade the advantage because of the US support of there government and there opposition agents Communism. But The Chinese Communist gained support from the poor Chinese farmers because they promised literary and a better quality of life. The Nationalist government was corrupt leadership and a failing economy. The Nationalist also did little for the migratory of the Chinese people who lived in poverty. Even though the Nationalist army outnumbered the Communist guerilla solders 3:1 the Communist won the Chinese Civil War. Thousands of the Nationalist Chinese turned Communist but the few Nationalist that stayed loyal to there cause fled to Taiwan to keep the nationalist sprit alive. The Communist had a new strong economy and an experienced Guerilla army that was now supported by the Soviet Union. The Cold War was greatly influenced by the union of Russia and the Chinese Communist. China still remains communist today even thought the Soviet Union broke up in the 90’s.