The History Book

292 NAZI INVASION OF POLAND

hardships. German tanks plowed

through the Red Army defenses.

Prisoners of war were shot or left

to starve. Fleeing civilians were

butchered without a moment’s

hesitation. The harshness of the

Russian winter slowed the Germans,

and Russian counterattacks drove

back their front line by several

hundred miles. In the Battle

of Moscow, from early October

1941 to January 1942, an estimated

650,000 soldiers from the Soviet

Army lost their lives. In the spring

of 1942, the Germans resumed their

offensive in the USSR, driving the

Red Army back and coming close

to taking the Russian oilfields.

The Pacific and Africa

In December 1941, Japan entered

the war by attacking the US fleet

at Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian

Islands, as part of its plan to drive

American forces out of the Pacific.

Germany—which had a tripartite

agreement with Japan and Italy to

provide mutual military assistance

in the event any one of them was

attacked by a nation not already

involved in the war—immediately

declared war on the United States.

Britain now had two strong allies,

the USSR under Joseph Stalin, and

the US, led by President Franklin D.

Roosevelt. Both were decisive in

bringing about the defeat of the

Axis powers. American industry

became a triumph of wartime

production, giving Americans in

combat in Europe and Asia the

tools they needed to fight the Axis.

Japan won quick victories in

the Pacific. It successfully captured

the Philippines, Malaya, Burma,

Indonesia, and Singapore, Britain’s

main naval base in East Asia.

In North Africa, meanwhile,

a renewed Axis offensive led by

General Erwin Rommel brought

the German and Italian armies

within striking distance of Cairo

and the Suez Canal. The first major

Allied victory came in Egypt. In

July 1942, Rommel was halted at El

Alamein; in October, he was forced

into retreat by the British 8th Army,

led by Field Marshal Montgomery.

That same winter, the Red Army

defeated the Nazis at Stalingrad.

The Soviets encircled the Germans,

forcing a surrender in February 1943.

History knows no greater

display of courage than

that shown by the people

of the Soviet Union.

Henry L. Stimson

US Secretary of War

fundamentally followed through on

Hitler’s plan to destroy communism.

At first it looked as if Germany and

its allies would be as successful

against the Russians as it had

been against the French. By winter,

Germany had advanced to within

1 mile (1.5km) of Moscow, and

Leningrad, the USSR’s second city,

was under siege.

Another powerful rationale for

war in the east was one based on

racist ideology and Hitler’s hatred of

Slavs and Jews. As German troops

swept into Russia, they inflicted

a terrible campaign of genocide

against communists and Jews.

Russian troops endured extreme

Operation Barbarossa, launched

in June 1941, saw the invasion of the

Soviet Union by Germany, in breach

of the non-aggression pact the two

countries had signed two years earlier.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower led

the Allied forces during the Normandy

landings of June 1944. The invasion

was a decisive step toward taking

Europe back from the Nazis.

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293

Hiroshima and

Nagasaki

American planes dropped

atomic bombs on the Japanese

cities of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki to force Japan to

surrender and end World

War II. On August 6, 1945,

“Little Boy” was dropped on

Hiroshima. The inhabitants

below had no idea what was

about to happen. People,

animals, and buildings were

incinerated in the searing heat.

Some 70,000 died immediately.

Despite this terrible event,

Japan did not surrender.

Japan had cause to

reconsider its position when

the Soviets entered the war

against them by crossing

into Manchuria on August 9.

When, that same afternoon,

the US dropped “Fat Man”

on Nagasaki, instantly killing

50,000, Japan was brought to

its knees and agreed to the

Allies’ terms of surrender.

These unprecedented attacks

avoided a bloody ground

assault by the Allies on the

Japanese mainland, but many

thousands lost their lives as a

result of the long-term effects

of radiation sickness.

THE MODERN WORLD

The turn of the tide

In a conference at Tehran in

November 1943, the Allied leaders

agreed on a strategy to liberate

Europe. While the Russians drove

the Germans back in the east, and

the British and Americans advanced

slowly through Italy, a huge Allied

invasion force arrived in Normandy

in June 1944. Eleven months later,

it had reached the river Elbe in

northern Germany, while Russian

troops were advancing block by

block through Berlin. Germany

was being hit repeatedly by British

Lancaster bomber aircraft from

Bomber Command and the US

Eighth Air Force. Staring at defeat,

Hitler committed suicide on April

30, and Germany surrendered

unconditionally a week later.

The last act of the war came

in August 1945, when the US,

after fighting island by island

through the Pacific, put an end to

Japanese resistance by dropping

atomic bombs on Hiroshima

and Nagasaki. The effects of the

bombs were cataclysmic, inflicting

unprecedented horror on the two

Japanese cities.

Nations united

Hitler’s invasion of Poland marked

the start of World War II, the largest

and most destructive war in history,

by the end of which an estimated

60 million people had been killed.

Like their predecessors in 1918, the

Allies were determined that this

should be the last war of its kind.

Representatives of 50 nations

met in 1945 to set up the United

Nations. There was hope that this

would mark the start of a new era

of international understanding. ■

The Battle of Iwo Jima saw US

troops fight against Japan’s Imperial

Army for possession of the tiny island

in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in

100,000 Japanese casualties.

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