Allied and Axis Powers in the Second World War
Allies
Britain
France
USA (after 8/12/1941 Pearl Harbour)
USSR (after 22/6/1941 When Hitler invaded the USSR)
(Britain, France and the USA are the Big Three the leaders of 42 allied nations.)
Axis
Germany
Austria
Italy
Japan (after 9/12/1941 Pearl Harbour)
Events of the Second World War
Up until c.1942 Germany was victorious. After this date the Axis powers gradually lost the war. See other sheet.
Allied Powers at Conferences
Atlantic Charter (14/8/1941)
FDR and WSC met off the coast of Newfoundland, in Argentina Bay. They agreed on three things:
The date of the Atlantic Charter is significant because in August 1941 the USA was not fighting in the Second World War, yet the USSR was fighting on Britains side. Yet in the charter the USSR was an enemy.
Yalta (2/1945) see below
FDR, WSC and Stalin
Potsdam (7/1945) see below
Stalin, Attlee (GB) and Truman (US)
Paris (1946) see below
Molotov, Bevan (GB) and Byrnes (US)
Protagonists
Allies = GB, Fr, USA after December 1941, USSR after 1941, 42 other nations.
Axis = G, It, Japan after December 1941, USSR 1939-41
Campaigns
Up to c.1942 Germany was largely successful but afterwards she was defeated.
1. German attack on Poland September 1939 (Axis victory)
Poland was attacked by Germany from the West, and USSR from the East. This is called a period of PHONEY WAR because GB and FR were too busy rearming to defend Poland.
2. USSR conquered Finland and Germany attacked the rest of Scandinavia (Axis victory)
Only Sweden remained independent.
3. Operation Yellow (Axis victory)
Nazi conquest of the Low Countries (BENELUX)
4. Dunkirk (Axis victory)
GB sent an expeditionary force to France but it was driven back to the port of Dunkirk and only rescued by small boats ferrying troops across the channel to England.
5. Nazi Conquest of France 1940 (Axis victory)
With the British in retreat France fell to the Nazis. DeGaulle fled to London. France was divided:
6. Operation Sea Lion the Nazi plan to invade GB (Axis defeat)
7. Operation Barbarossa (Axis defeat)
Hitler decided not to continue his onslaught on Britain but to attack USSR instead. By 1943 Germany had lost this campaign because:
8. War in North Africa (Axis defeat)
Italy tried to conquer Greece and Yugoslavia from Albania and tried to oust GB from Egypt. Germany relieved the hapless Italians, but Rommel was defeated at El Alaniein (November 1942) by Britains Montgomery. As a result Germany did not control Middle Eastern oil, or the Suez Canal, and could not link up with Japan in the Pacific.
9. Japan in China and the Pacific (Axis victory)
Japan conquered Manchuria by 1932 and began to expand into the Pacific. The USA declared war after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, the USAs Pacific fleet in Hawaii (7th December 1941). Prior to this USA has unofficially helped Britain with Lend Lease (March 1941)
10. Defeat of Italy (Axis defeat)
Allies decided to invade Italy in the summer of 1943. After the battles of Anzio and Montecassino Mussolini was deposed and later shot by his own people in April 1945.
11. Operation Overlord D Day (Axis defeat)
In June 1944 the Allies (GB, USA and Canada) commanded by Eisenhower, landed on the Normandy beaches. This opened up a second front against Germany who was already being attacked by the USSR from the East. Eisenhower followed a broad front policy, only advancing towards Berlin after he had conquered land. The Russians swiftly advanced towards Berlin and captured it. On 30th April 1945, Hitler committed suicide and on 7th May, Germany surrendered.
12. Defeat of Japan (Axis defeat)
After the defeat of Japan by the American Navy at Midway Island (June 1942) Japan became the defender rather than the aggressor in the Pacific. She was only defeated after the USA dropped two atom bombs on Japanese cities:
Japan surrendered to USA on 15th August 1945.
Refer to the map showing wartime conferences (1941-1945). Some peace treaties were signed after the war had ended, but many of the real decisions had already been made at two meetings in 1945 at Yalta and Potsdam (NB before the war was over). During these talks and at the Paris Peace Conference (1946) a struggle developed between the Western powers and Russia to see who could gain certain European objectives before the other.
1. Yalta
(Points a, b, c, d, g, m most important, especially g)
2. Potsdam
(Points a, c, e, g most important)
Points (e) and (g) show signs of future conflict between USA and USSR in the Cold War.
3. The Paris Peace Conference, 1946
(All points are important)
4. The German and Austrian Peace Treaties
At the end of the Second World War, relations between the USA and the USSR deteriorated, especially at Potsdam (July 1945) and Paris (1946). These two powers were rivals and the tension is called the Cold War. In Europe there was a little bloodshed but outside Europe there was more traditional warfare. (Korea, Cuba, Vietnam)
Origins of the Cold War
1. The Cold War began as a result of suspicious that the democratic west had about the USSR and vice versa.
After 1945 the USSR feared a Western invasion of her new satellites and the west feared the spread of Marxism.
2. Relations between the major powers got worse at the end of the Second World War
This occurred especially at Yalta (February 1945), Potsdam (July 1945) and Paris (1946). At Paris, Molotov refused to accept the wests ideas about not taking reparations and about wanting free elections in Eastern Europe.
3. Germany was divided into four occupation zones:
Austria was also divided.
4. In 1946, Churchill at Foulton, Missouri said:
An iron curtain is descending on Europe extending from Stettin in the north to Trieste in the south.
He nearly got it right. The metaphorical line that separates the communist east from the democratic west should not end at Trieste because although Yugoslavia was communist it was independent of the USSR (under Tito). The satellites = Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, Poland, Albania, Czechoslovakia and Eastern Germany.
5. Economic Origins
6. The Arms Race
The USSR was annoyed not to know about Americas atom bomb (1945). The USSR gained the atom bomb in 1949 and both sides began to stockpile arms.