Tensions in Wartime Alliance 1941-1945

MR.
IFTIKHAR ZAIDI A2 LEVEL HISTORY NOTES
1 – 1 Tensions in the Wartime Alliance 1941-1945
CIE SYLLABUS TOPIC OUTLINE

Who was to blame for the Cold War?
• Tensions in the wartime alliance against the Axis powers
• Peacemaking at the end of World War II
• Increasing tensions in a divided Europe
• The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
• The Berlin Blockade and Airlift
World War 2:
- The Second World War started in 1939 and would eventually end in 1945. It was fought
between the Axis powers and the Allies (known as the United Nations).
Axis Allies
Germany – 1939 Poland – 1939
Italy – 1939 France – 1939
Japan – 1939 UK – 1939
Hungary – 1940 Australia/South Africa/India/Canada/New Zealand - 1939
Romania – 1940 Belgium/Norway/Netherlands/Luxembourg – 1940
Bulgaria – 1941 Greece – 1940
Finland – 1941 Yugoslavia – 1941
Vichy France – 1941 China – 1941
USSR – 1941
USA – 1941
South American Countries
United Nations – 1945
- The war started after Germany invaded Poland.

- France and Britain, faced with broken promises and an attack on a country they had a treaty
with, declared war on Germany.
- The USSR had made a Pact with Germany and had also taken over part of Poland and so
initially stayed out of the war.
- Roosevelt (President of the USA) wanted to support UK in the war against Germany.
- However he was faced with an American public and Congress which was still strongly
isolationist.
- He implemented ‘lend-lease’ in 1940 to start providing large amounts of war material to the
British in return for long range low interest loans.
- In June 1941 Germany invaded USSR and so USA extended ‘lend-lease’ aid to USSR.
- In December Japan attacked USA and so USA entered the war on the side of the UK and the
3 became allies. (Became known as the ‘Big Three’).
- During the war, American economic assistance helped the UK and the USSR. The bulk of the
fighting however occurred on the ‘eastern front’.
- A western front was finally opened in June 1944 with D-Day.
- Germany was defeated and occupied by May 1945.
- The war with Japan continued till August 1945 when USA dropped two atomic bombs on
Japan and USSR declared war on them, which finally led to their unconditional surrender.
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MR. IFTIKHAR ZAIDI A2 LEVEL HISTORY NOTES
Tensions in the Wartime Alliance:
The Western Front

- Most of the fighting in Europe occurred on the ‘Eastern’ front.
- Stalin wanted the USA and UK to invade Europe from the west, thereby opening a second
front against Germany, which would then be forced to fight on two fronts.
- But Churchill convinced Roosevelt that it would be better to fight in North Africa and the
Mediterranean (thereby securing Allied control over the Suez Canal and oil supplies from
the Middle East).
- In November 1942 the US and UK invaded the formerly French colonies (now under German
control) of Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia.
- Stalin then looked for a Western Front attack in 1943.
- But once again Churchill convinced Roosevelt that it would be easier to invade Europe from
its “soft underbelly” – through Italy.
- In July 1943 the allies landed in Sicily and in September in Italy.
- Allies progress was slow and the move did not divert large amounts of material and men
from the eastern front.
- Stalin was upset because he felt his allies were letting him do all the hard fighting while they
merely consolidated Britain’s position in the Mediterranean.
- The USA and Britain would finally invade France in May 1944, creating a ‘Western Front’
against a German army already weakened by its losses in the East.
Poland
- Before WW2 Soviet relations with Poland had been hostile.
- Poland had invaded Russia during the Russian Civil War and Russia had been forced to give
up territory to Poland at the Treaty of Riga in 1921.
- The USSR had its eye on the territory it had lost and wanted it back.
- In 1939 the USSR had concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by which Nazi Germany and
the USSR signed a peace treaty and agreed to divide up Poland between them.
- After the German invasion of Poland, USSR had taken over the eastern part of Poland.
- The Polish government had gone in to exile to the UK.
- In 1941 Germany had broken its treaty and invaded the USSR.
- In 1944 when the Soviets were pushing the Germans back, they entered German-occupied
Poland.
- The Polish resistance rose up in revolt to try and liberate Warsaw. The Soviet army stopped
its advance for two months while the Germans crushed the Warsaw uprising and only
afterwards went on to ‘liberate’ Warsaw.
- Stalin did not want to see the Polish government in exile back in power in Poland. He
insisted from the start that there must be a government ‘friendly’ to the USSR there.
- When the Soviets drove the Germans out of Poland and occupied it they wanted to install a
government made up of Polish communists.
- But Churchill wanted the Polish government in exile back in charge. After all Britain and
France had gone to war after Germany invaded Poland.
- The compromise agreed upon was to have an inclusive government until elections could be
held.
- But Stalin would not allow this to happen and after the end of the war ensured a communist
government took charge.
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MR. IFTIKHAR ZAIDI A2 LEVEL HISTORY NOTES
The Atlantic Charter & Declaration by United Nations

- The Atlantic Charter was drafted by Britain and USA in August 1941 and defined the goals of
the allies in the war.
- Later on it would be signed by all the countries fighting on the side of the allies who would
come to be known as the United Nations.
- The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war:
i) No territorial aggrandizement
ii) No territorial changes made against the wishes of the people
iii) Restoration of self-government to those deprived of it
iv) Free access to raw materials & reduction of trade restrictions
v) Global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all &
freedom from fear and want
vi) Freedom of the seas
vii) Abandonment of the use of force
viii) Disarmament of aggressor nations
- Churchill wanted an exception to self-government in the British Empire.
- He insisted that the self-government clause not apply to colonies and that the wording
reflect that it was only countries that had self-government before the war that would get it
back.
- Roosevelt and Churchill had major disagreements over the future of the Empire and
particularly India as there was great support for giving independence to India in the USA.
- Stalin only agreed to sign with the caveat to the clause on territorial changes that historical
circumstances should be taken in to account.
- Stalin wanted Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and eastern Poland and land lost to Romania during
Russian Civil War.
- The issue of Poland was particularly contentious and Churchill and Roosevelt only finally
agreed to Russia getting Eastern Poland back in return for Poland being compensated by
German territory.
Lend-Lease and Economic Aid

- During the war America had started the lend-lease program to provide military aid to the
allies.
- A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $656 billion today) worth of supplies were shipped, or
17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S.
- In all, $31.4 billion went to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France,
$1.6 billion to China, and the remaining $2.6 billion to the other Allies.
- The terms were that the allies would use this equipment until the end of the war when it
would either be returned or destroyed.
- This provided a lifeline that helped Britain and USSR survive the war.
- Both countries also looked for economic aid after the war in order to rebuild their shattered
economies.
- However lend-lease aid to USSR was abruptly terminated in May 1945 after the defeat of
the USSR.
- Furthermore a request from Stalin for a $6 billion soft loan for reconstruction was rejected.
(Though in 1946 one was granted to the UK for $3.75 billion).
- This angered Stalin who had been counting on US help to rebuild USSR and increased his
suspicion of the USA.
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Tensions in Wartime Alliance 1941-1945

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MR.

IFTIKHAR ZAIDI A2 LEVEL HISTORY NOTES

1 – 1 Tensions in the Wartime Alliance 1941-1945

CIE SYLLABUS TOPIC OUTLINE

- The war started after Germany invaded Poland.

Tensions in the Wartime Alliance:

The Western Front

The Atlantic Charter & Declaration by United Nations

Lend-Lease and Economic Aid

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