WWII Chronology

1
WWII Chronology

• The Eastern Front

2
Russian Revolution
1917

• Bolshevik Revolution
• Overthrow Tsar Alexanders Monarchy
• Collectivism Communism
• State Interests Over Individualism

3
WWI
1914 1918

• Casualties
• 1.8 Million Russian Soldiers
• 1.5 Million Civilians
• 2 Million German Soldiers
• 426,000 Civilians

4
Brest-Litovsk Treaty
1918

• End of Russian Participation in WWI
• Russian, German, Austrian Representatives
• 9 Weeks of Discussion
• Germans Advance into Russia
• Force German Terms
• Give-up
• 1/3 Population
• ½ Industry
• 9/10 Coal Mines

5
Russian Civil War
1918 - 1920

• Red Army Defends Bolshevik Government
• Defeat of non-Russian Nationalist Movements

Red Army Recruitment
Pro-Trotsky
Anti-Trotsky
6
Anti-Semitism Socialism
1919

• National Propaganda Arises in Germany
• Jews Tied to Socialists
• Shirked WWI Duty

What do we want? Citizens! Do not believe that
the Germany of misfortune and misery, the nation
of corruption and usury, the land of Jewish
corruption, can be saved by parties that claim
to stand on a foundation of facts. Never!"
7
Treaty of Versailles
January 1920

• Russians Not Involved
• Germans Feel Betrayed
• Ruhr Valley
• Disarmament

8
Sturmabteilung (SA)
1920

• Hitlers National Army of Germany
• 1923
• 15,000 Uniformed Armed
• 1933
• 400,000 Strong
• 4x Wehrmacht's Size

9
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
1922

• USSR Declared
• 15 Constituent Ethnic Republics

10
Beer Hall Putsch
1923

• Hitlers Attempt to Create New Government
• Help of SA
• Arrested
• 5 Year Sentence
• Serves 9 Months
• Constitutional Rise to Power

Reenactment
Blood Flag
Hitlers Jail Cell
11
Mein Kampf
1924

• Hitlers Prison Book
• WWI Lost Due to Bolsheviks Communists
• Jews in German Society
• Jewish Treachery 2 Million Dead Germans

12
Hitler Becomes Chancellor
1933

• Enabling Act
• Constitutional Functions to Hitler
• Make Laws
• Control Budget
• Approve Treaties
• Next 3 Years
• Creates Fuhrer Position
• Head of Government
• Head of State

13
German Breach of Versailles Treaty
1935

• Conscription Reintroduced
• Threat of French
• New German Air Force

14
Red Army Purges
1937 - 1940

• Stalin Paranoia
• 48,733 Purged
• 90 Generals
• 80 Colonels
• ½ Core Commanders
• Results
• Unskilled Officers
• Few Trained Leaders
• Poor Morale
• Hitler Sees Weakness in Red Army

15
Occupation of Austria Sudetenland
1938

• German Invasion
• Austria in March
• Czechoslovakias Sudetenland in September
• Beginning of WWII for Germany

16
Appeasement
September 29-30, 1938

• PM Chamberlain Hitler
• Keep Territory for Promise

17
Czechoslovakia Invasion
March 1939

• March into Prague

18
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
August 1939

• Germany USSR
• Non-Aggression Pact
• Hitler Assures No 2-Front War
• Secret Clause
• Divide Eastern Europe

19
Poland Invasion
September 1, 1939

• Germany Invades from West
• Soviets Invade from East
• Beginning of WWII for Poland
• Polish Resistance Crushed

20
World War II Begins in Europe
September 3, 1939

• Britain and France Declare War on Germany

21
Hitler Speeches
1939

• Consequences of World War?
• Destruction of Communism
• Failure of Judeo-Bolshevism
• Plans Final Solution
• Genocide vs. Lebensraum

22
November 1939
Soviet Winter War with Finland

• Finns refuse to allow Russian Naval Base Rights.
  Soviets attack in November. Finland holds out.
• Moscow Peace Treaty
• 9 Finland's Territory
• 20 Industrial Capacity
• Results
• Soviet Losses Large
• Little Territory Gained
• Red Army Reputation Suffered
• Encouraged Hitler

23
USSR Annexations
June 1940

• Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia
• US Britain Refused Recognition
• Romania, Bessarbia North Bokovina Provinces
• Proximity to Germanys Only Oil Supply
• Rumanian Oil Wells of Ploesti

24
Hitlers Plan for USSR
July 31, 1940

• Tells Generals
• Plan to Invade USSR
• 120 Divisions
• Ukraine to Dnepr River
• Baltic States to Moscow
• 5 Months to Win
• Must Complete BEFORE Russian Winter
• Moves to Launching Grounds
• Poland (2 Panzer 10 Infantry Divisions)
• Balkans (Diplomats)

25
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Revisited
November 1940

• Molotov Hitler Meet
• Discuss Dissolving Relations
• Molotov
• Russia Wants Freedom to Pursue Interests
• Territorial Expansion
• Hitler Furious
• Convinced to Begin Final Struggle
• Jewish Bolshevism in USSR

26
Hitlers Warning
1941

• Address to Generals
• Plan to Attack USSR
• unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting
  harshness
• Generals Warnings
• Two Front War
• Hitlers Response
• Britain Almost Done
• USSR Over Quickly

27
Hitlers Commissar Order
March 1941

• Extermination of Jews and Bolsheviks
• Allow for German Colonization
• Kill all Soviet Political Officers
• Anyone Thoroughly Bolshevized
• No Hague Restrictions for Germans

28
Stalin Warned
1941

• Roosevelt Churchill
• Stalin Attack Likely
• Stalin Ignores
• British American Plot
• Split Russian-German Relations

Troop Buildup
29
Operation Barbarossa
June 22, 1941

• Germany Invades
• 3.6 Million Soldiers
• 3,600 Tanks
• 2,700 Aircraft
• 7,000 Artillery Pieces
• 600,000 Motor Vehicles
• 625,000 Horses
• Beginning of WWII for USSR

30
Operation Barbarossa
1941

• Hitler Declares Vernichtungskrieg
• War of Annihilation
• Killing Group Follows German Advancement
• Einsatzgruppen
• Begin Mass Murder
• Jews and Soviet Officials
• Red Army
• Short 36,000 Officers
• Led by Inexperienced
• Within Weeks, Close to Collapse

31
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32
Operation Barbarossa
June 22, 1941

• 3 Major Thrusts
• North (1 Panzer)
• Baltic States to Leningrad
• Helped by Finns
• Center (2 Panzer)
• Destroy Heartland
• Moscow
• Trap Soviet Forces
• South (1 Panzer)
• Ukraine to Stalingrad

33
Stalin Responds
July 3, 1941

• Silent for Several Days
• First Address July 3
• Asks for unlimited love for the motherland
• Fight War for Communist Victory

34
German Success
July 1941

• By End of July
• German Army in Control of Russian Territory
• 2X Size of Germany

35
Order 270
August 1941

• Stalins Threat
• Malicious deserters Shot by Superiors

36
Atlantic Charter Final Solution
August 1941

• Western Allies Sign Atlantic Charter
• Hitler Sees US Will Enter War
• World War
• Final Solution Set in Motion

37
Siege of Leningrad
September 1941

• Military Significance Lake Ladoga
• Attack Moscow from North
• City Defenses
• Upon Initial Invasion
• Leningrad Population Dug Anti-Tank Ditches
• 200,000 Red Army Soldiers
• 3 Million Inhabitants
• Siege
• 800,000 1 Million Killed
• 900 Days of Fighting
• Germans Defeated in January 1944

38
Soviet Losses
September 1941

• USSR Lost 3 Million Soldiers

POW Execution
39
Babi Yar
September 29/30, 1941

• One of Most Brutal German Mass Exterminations
• USSR Ravine Babi Yar
• 34,000 Jewish Bolsheviks Killed
• 2 Day Execution Machine Guns

40
German Success
October 1941

• Hitler Soviet Union Broken, Never Rise Again
• German Occupied Territory 45 USSR Population

41
Battle of Moscow
October 1941

• Hitler Heart of Russia
• Early Success for Germany
• Early Snow Leads to Failure
• Completely Unprepared for Winter Battle

42
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43
Great Patriotic War
November 1941

• Stalin Revises Rhetoric
• War Spoke to Russias Past
• Emulate Ancestors in War Against Napoleon

44
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941

• Japan Attacks
• Beginning of WWII for US

45
Soviet Losses
December 1941

• By December
• Red Army Lost 4.5 Million

46
German Advances
Summer 1942

• Areas Under Control
• Ukraine, Southern Russia, Northern Caucuses

47
Hitlers New Battle Plan
April 1942

• Stop Russian Oil Supplies
• Operation Blue
• Block Volga River
• Take Oil Fields

48
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49
Stalin Order 277
July 1942

• Not a step back!
• Panicmongers and cowards must be destroyed on
  the spot

50
Operation Blue
July 1942

• Hitler Changes Mind
• Splits Army Group South
• Group A
• Baku Oilfields
• Hitlers Key to War
• Group B
• Seize Stalingrad

51
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52
Battle of Stalingrad
September 1942 March 1943

• September
• Germans Begin to Encircle Stalingrad
• After 6 Months
• Soviet Army Prevails
• First Major Loss For Germans
• Total Axis Deaths
• Est. 800,000
• Soviet Figures
• 1.1 Million Soldiers Killed

53
November German Front
November 1943

• East to Stalingrad
• North to Leningrad

54
Lend Lease
1943

• US Sends Materials to USSR
• 15,000 Aircraft
• 7,000 Tanks
• 350,000 Tons of Explosives
• 51,000 Jeeps
• 375,000 Trucks
• 2,000 Locomotives
• 11,000 Rail Wagons
• 3 Million Tons of Gasoline
• 15 Million Pairs of Boots

• British Contributions
• 5,000 Tanks
• 7,000 Aircraft

55
Battle at Kursk
July 4 August 1 1943

• Greatest Tank Battle of WWII
• Last Major German Offensive in East
• 11 Day Battle
• Soviets Emerge Victorious
• Enormous Costs
• 3.5 Million Men Involved
• ½ Russian Tank Fleet Destroyed
• Germans Keep 100/450 Tanks

56
October German Front
October 1943

• Germans Pushed to Dnepr River

57
Tehran Conference
November 1943

• Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill Meet
• Collaborative Roles in the war in the peace
  that will follow
• Stalins Demands
• Buffer Between USSR Germany
• Former Baltic States
• Poland
• Part of Germany

58
Soviet Gains
1944

• By June
• Germans Pushed into Poland
• By October
• Pushed into Warsaw

59
German Front
January 1945

• Germans Pushed into Eastern Germany
• 50 Miles from Berlin
• May 1
• Red Army Encircles Berlin
• May 8
• VE Day
• British Americans Celebrate
• End of War in Europe

60
Wars End

• Soviet Union
• Lost 20-35 Million Soldiers Civilians
• Largest Death Rate of War
• 5.7 Million POW Captured (3.3 Million Killed)
• At least 13.44 Civilians Died
• USSR Emerges as 1 of 2 World Powers
• Gains Access to Warm Water Ports
• Baltic Black Seas
• Victory Justifies Communism Stalins Rule
• Positive Memory of Great Patriotic War

61
Wars End

• Germany
• Eastern Front
• 80 of all German Military Casualties
• 357,000 POW Never Returned
• Casualties
• 5.5 Million Soldiers
• 1.8 Million Civilians
• Around 10.77 of Population
• Divided
• Eastern, Soviet, Western Sections

62
Wars End

• Polands Casualties
• 100,000 Soldiers
• 1.9 Million Civilians
• 1 Million Jews
• 91 of Entire Jewish Population
• 18.5 Population
• Statistically More than Any Nation
• Loss 20 Geographic Territory
• Not Liberated by Allies
• Becomes a Soviet Republic

63
Eastern European Nations and Soviet Republics
Post - 1945

• Ethnically More Homogeneous
• Tremendous Impact on Modern Russia