14.2 The Axis Advances

Read the following section and answer the questions that follow. The Axis Advances
Terms, People, and Places
blitzkrieg
Luftwaffe
Dunkirk
Vichy
General Erwin Rommel
concentration camps
Holocaust
Lend-Lease Act

Diplomacy and compromise had not satisfied the Axis powers’ hunger for empire. Western democracies had hoped that appeasement would help establish a peaceful world order. But Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and imperial Japan plunged ahead with their plans for conquest.

The Axis Attacks
On September 1, 1939, Nazi forces stormed into Poland, revealing the enormous power of Hitler’s blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” The blitzkrieg utilized improved tank and airpower technology to
strike a devastating blow against the enemy. First, the Luftwaffe, or German air force, bombed airfields, factories, towns, and cities, and screaming dive bombers fired on troops and civilians. Then, fast-moving tanks and troop transports pushed their way into the defending Polish army, encircling whole divisions of troops and forcing them to surrender.
While Germany attacked from the west, Stalin’s forces invaded from the east, grabbing lands promised to them under the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Within a month, Poland ceased to exist. Because of Poland’s location and the speed of the attacks, Britain and France could do nothing to help beyond declaring war on Germany.
Hitler passed the winter without much further action. Stalin’s armies, however, forced the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to agree to host bases for the Soviet military. Soviet forces also seized part of Finland, which put up stiff but unsuccessful resistance. 

The Miracle of Dunkirk 
During that first winter, the French hunkered down behind the Maginot Line. Britain sent troops to wait with them. Some reporters referred to this quiet time as the “phony war.” Then, in April 1940, Hitler launched a blitzkrieg against Norway and Denmark, both of which soon fell. Next, his forces slammed into the Netherlands and Belgium.
In May, German forces surprised the French and British by attacking through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, an area that was considered invasion-proof. Bypassing the Maginot Line, German troops poured into France. Retreating British forces were soon trapped between the Nazi army and the English Channel. In a desperate gamble, the British sent all available naval vessels, merchant ships, and even fishing and pleasure boats across the channel to pluck stranded troops off the beach of Dunkirk. Despite German air attacks, the improvised armada ferried more than 300,000 troops to safety in Britain. This heroic rescue raised British morale.

France Falls 
Meanwhile, German forces headed south toward Paris. Italy declared war on France and attacked from the south. Overrun and demoralized, France surrendered. On June 22, 1940, Hitler forced the
French to sign the surrender documents in the same railroad car in which Germany had signed the armistice ending World War I. Following the surrender, Germany occupied northern France. In the south, the Germans set up a “puppet state,” with its capital at Vichy (VEE shee).
Some French officers escaped to England and set up a government-in-exile. Led by Charles de Gaulle, these “free French” worked to liberate their homeland. Within France, resistance fighters used guerrilla tactics against German forces.

Operation Sea Lion 
With the fall of France, Britain stood alone in Western Europe. Hitler was sure that the British
would sue for peace. But Winston Churchill, who had replaced Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, had other plans. Faced with this defiance, Hitler made plans for Operation Sea Lion—the invasion of Britain. In preparation for the invasion, he launched massive air strikes against the island nation.
Beginning in August 1940, German bombers began a daily bombardment of England’s southern coast. For a month, Britain’s Royal Air Force valiantly battled the Luftwaffe. Then, the Germans changed their tactics. Instead of bombing military targets in the south, they began to bomb London and other cities.

Germany Launches the Blitz 
German bombers first appeared over London late on September 7, 1940. All through the night, relays of aircraft showered high explosives and firebombs on the sprawling capital. The bombing continued for 57 nights in a row and then sporadically until the next May. These bombing attacks are known as “the blitz.” Much of London was destroyed, and thousands of people lost their lives.
London did not break under the blitz. Defiantly, Parliament continued to meet. Citizens carried on their daily lives, seeking protection in shelters and then emerging to resume their routines when the all-clear sounded. Even the British king and queen chose to support Londoners by
joining them in bomb shelters rather than fleeing to the countryside.

Hitler Fails to Take Britain 
German planes continued to bomb London and other cities off and on until May 1941. But contrary to Hitler’s hopes, the Luftwaffe could not gain air superiority over Britain, and British morale was not destroyed. In fact, the bombing only made the British more determined to turn back the enemy. Operation Sea Lion was a failure.

Africa and the Balkans 
Axis armies also pushed into North Africa and the Balkans. In September 1940, Mussolini ordered forces from Italy’s North African colony of Libya into Egypt. When the British army repulsed these invaders, Hitler sent one of his most brilliant commanders, General Erwin Rommel, to North Africa. The “Desert Fox,” as he was called, chalked up a string of successes in 1941 and 1942. He pushed the
British back across the desert toward Cairo, Egypt.
In October 1940, Italian forces invaded Greece. They encountered stiff resistance, and in 1941 German troops once again provided reinforcements. Both Greece and Yugoslavia were added to the growing Axis empire. Even after the Axis triumph, however, Greek and Yugoslav guerrillas plagued the occupying forces. Meanwhile, both Bulgaria and Hungary had joined the Axis alliance. By 1941, the Axis powers or their allies controlled most of Europe.

Germany Invades the Soviet Union
After the failure in Britain, Hitler turned his military might to a new target—the Soviet Union. The decision to invade the Soviet Union helped relieve Britain. It also proved to be one of Hitler’s costliest mistakes. 

An Unstoppable German Army Stalls 
In June 1941, Hitler nullified the Nazi-Soviet Pact by invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, a plan which took its name from the medieval Germanic leader, Frederick Barbarossa. Hitler made his motives clear. “If I had the Ural Mountains with their incalculable store of treasures in raw materials,” he declared, “Siberia with its vast forests, and the Ukraine with its tremendous wheat fields, Germany under National Socialist leadership would swim in plenty.” He also wanted to crush communism in Europe and defeat his powerful rival, Stalin.
Hitler unleashed a new blitzkrieg in the Soviet Union. About three million German soldiers invaded. The Germans caught Stalin unprepared. His army was still suffering from the purges that had wiped out many of its top officers.
The Soviets lost two and a half million soldiers trying to fend off the invaders. As they were forced back, Soviet troops destroyed factories and farm equipment and burned crops to keep them out of enemy hands. But they could not stop the German war machine. By autumn, the Nazis had
smashed deep into the Soviet Union and were poised to take Moscow and Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg).
There, however, the German advance stalled. Like Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812, Hitler’s forces were not prepared for the fury of “General Winter.” By early December, temperatures plunged to −40°F (−4°C). Thousands of German soldiers froze to death.

Germany’s Siege of Leningrad 
The Soviets, meanwhile, suffered appalling hardships. In September 1941, the two-and-a-half-year siege of Leningrad began. Food was rationed to two pieces of bread a day. Desperate Leningraders ate almost anything. For example, they boiled wallpaper scraped off walls because its paste was said to contain potato flour.

Although more than a million Leningraders died during the siege, the city did not fall to the Germans. Hoping to gain some relief for his exhausted people, Stalin urged Britain to open a second front in Western Europe. Although Churchill could not offer much real help, the two pow-
ers did agree to work together.

Life Under Nazi and Japanese Occupation

While Nazi forces rampaged across Europe, the Japanese military conquered an empire in Asia and the Pacific. Each set out to build a “new order” in the occupied lands.

Hitler’s “New Order” 
Hitler’s new order grew out of his racial obsessions. As his forces conquered most of Europe, Hitler set up puppet governments in Western European countries that were peopled by Aryans,
or light-skinned Europeans, whom Hitler and his followers believed to be a “master race.” The Slavs of Eastern Europe were considered to be an inferior “race.” They were shoved aside to provide more “living space” for Germans, the strongest of the Aryans.
To the Nazis, occupied lands were an economic resource to be plundered and looted. The Nazis systematically stripped conquered nations of their works of art, factories, and other resources. To counter resistance movements that emerged in occupied countries, the Nazis took savage
revenge, shooting hostages, and torturing prisoners.
But the Nazis’ most sinister plans centered on the people of the occupied countries. During the 1930s, the Nazis sent thousands of Jewish people and political opponents to concentration camps, detention centers for civilians considered enemies of the state. Over the course of
the war, the Nazis forced these people, along with millions of Polish and Soviet Slavs and people from other parts of Europe, to work as slave laborers. Prisoners were poorly fed and often worked to death.

The Nazis Commit Genocide 
At the same time, Hitler pursued a vicious program to kill all people he judged “racially inferior,” particularly Europe’s Jews. The Nazis also targeted other groups who did not meet the Aryan racial ideal, including Slavs, Romas (Gypsies), homosexuals, and the disabled. Political and religious leaders who spoke out against Nazism also suffered abuse. Starting in 1939, the Nazis forced Jews in Poland and other countries to live in ghettos, or sections of cities where Jewish people were confined. Many died from starvation, disease, overwork, and the harsh elements. By 1941, however, German leaders had devised plans for the “Final Solution of the Jewish problem”—the
genocide of all European Jews.
To accomplish this goal, Hitler had six special “death camps” built in Poland. The Nazis shipped “undesirables” from all over occupied Europe to the camps. There, Nazi engineers designed the most efficient means of killing millions of men, women, and children.
As the prisoners reached the camps, they were stripped of their clothes and valuables. Their heads were shaved. Guards separated men from women and children from their parents. The young, elderly, and sick were targeted for immediate killing. Within a few days, they were herded into “shower rooms” and gassed. The Nazis worked others to death or used them for perverse “medical” experiments. By 1945, the Nazis had massacred some six million Jews in what became known as
the Holocaust. Nearly six million other people were killed as well.
Jewish people resisted the Nazis even though they knew their efforts could not succeed. In July 1942, the Nazis began sending Polish Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka death camp at a rate of about 5,000 per day. In the spring of 1943, knowing that their situation was hopeless, the Jews took over the ghetto and used a small collection of guns and homemade bombs to damage the Nazi forces as much as possible. On May 16, the Nazis regained control of the ghetto and eliminated
the remaining Warsaw Jews. Still, their courage has inspired many over the years.
In some cases, friends, neighbors, or strangers protected Jews. Italian peasants hid Jews in their villages. Denmark and Bulgaria saved almost all their Jewish populations. Many people, however, pretended not to notice what was happening. Some even became collaborators and cooperated with the Nazis. In France, the Vichy government helped ship thousands of Jewish people to their deaths. Strict immigration policies in many Western countries as well as conscious efforts to block Jewish immigration prevented many Jews from gaining refuge elsewhere.
The scale and savagery of the Holocaust are unequaled in history. The Nazis deliberately set out to destroy the Jews for no reason other than their religious and ethnic heritage. Today, the record of that slaughter is a vivid reminder of the monstrous results of racism and intolerance. 

Japan’s Brutal Conquest 
Japanese forces took control across Asia and the Pacific. Their self-proclaimed mission was to help Asians escape Western colonial rule. In fact, the real goal was a Japanese empire in Asia. The Japanese invaders treated the Chinese, Filipinos, Malaysians, and other conquered people with great brutality, killing and torturing civilians throughout East and Southeast Asia. The occupiers seized food crops, destroyed cities and towns, and made local people into slave laborers. Whatever welcome the Japanese had first met as “liberators” was soon turned to hatred. In the Philippines, Indochina, and elsewhere, nationalist groups waged guerrilla warfare against the Japanese invaders.

Japan Attacks the United States
When the war began in 1939, the United States declared its neutrality. Still, although isolationist feelings remained strong, many Americans sympathized with those who battled the Axis powers. As one of those sympathizers, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) looked for ways around the Neutrality Acts to provide warships and other aid to Britain as it stood alone against Hitler.
American Involvement Grows In March 1941, FDR persuaded Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act. It allowed him to sell or lend war materials to “any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.” The United States, said Roosevelt, would not be drawn into the war, but it would become “the arsenal of democracy,” supplying arms to those who were fighting for freedom.
To show further support, Roosevelt met secretly with Churchill on a warship in the Atlantic in August 1941. The two leaders issued the Atlantic Charter, which set goals for the war—“the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny”—and for the postwar world. They pledged to support
“the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which
they will live” and called for a “permanent system of general security.”

Japan and the United States Face Off 
When war broke out in Europe in 1939, the Japanese saw a chance to grab European possessions
in Southeast Asia. The rich resources of the region, including oil, rubber, and tin, would be of immense value in fighting its war against the Chinese.
In 1940, Japan advanced into French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. In response, the United States banned the sale of war materials, such as iron, steel, and oil, to Japan. Japanese leaders saw this move as a threat to Japan’s economy and its Asian sphere of influence.
Japan and the United States held talks to ease the growing tension. But extreme militarists, such as General Tojo Hideki, hoped to expand Japan’s empire, and the United States was interfering with their plans.

Attack on Pearl Harbor 
With talks at a standstill, General Tojo ordered a surprise attack. Early on December 7, 1941, Japanese airplanes bombed the American fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack took the lives of about 2,400 people and destroyed battleships and aircraft. The next day, a grim-faced President Roosevelt told the nation that December 7 was “a date which will live in infamy.” He asked Congress to
declare war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy, as Japan’s allies, declared war on the United States.

Japanese Victories 
In the long run, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor would be as serious a mistake as Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union. But in the months after Pearl Harbor, possessions in the Pacific fell to the Japanese one by one. The Japanese captured the Philippines and other islands held by the United States. They overran the British colonies of Hong Kong, Burma, and Malaya, and advanced deeper into
the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina. By 1942, the Japanese empire stretched from Southeast Asia to the western Pacific Ocean.

( vocab ) blitzkrieg

( vocab ) Luftwaffe

( vocab ) Dunkirk

( vocab ) Vichy

( vocab ) General Erwin Rommel

( vocab ) concentration camps

( vocab ) Holocaust

( vocab ) Lend-Lease Act

 ( checkpoint ) Which regions fell under Axis rule between 1939 and 1941?

 ( checkpoint ) What caused Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union to stall?

 ( checkpoint ) Why did Japanese leaders view the United States as an enemy?

( assessment ) Describe Hitler’s blitzkrieg tactics.

( assessment )  Referring to the Battle of Britain in 1940, Winston Churchill said “Never in the field of
human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” What did he mean?

( assessment ) Hitler translated his hatred into a program of genocide. How do ethnic, racial, and religious hatreds weaken society?

( objectives ) Describe how the Axis powers came to control much of Europe, but failed to conquer Britain.

( objectives ) Summarize Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.

( objectives ) Describe using examples the horror of the genocide the Nazis committed.

( objectives ) Describe the role of the United States before and after joining World War II.