Download - Chapter 17 Section 2
Chapter 17 Section 2
The War for Europe and north Africa
War Plans
• 12/22/41-Churchill arrives at White House
• Creating war plans w/ FDR
• Defeat of Germany made top priority
Why Germany
• FDR considered Hitler #1 enemy of US
• Stalin desperate for help against invading Nazis
• Only w/ Germany out of the way could Britain and Soviet Union help the US against Japan
War Plans
• 2nd decision-Allies would accept only unconditional surrender from Axis Powers
Battle of the Atlantic
• Hitler ordered submarine raids against America east coast
• Germans sank 87 American ships in 1st 4 months of 1942
• 7 months in Nazis sunk 681 allied ships in Atlantic
Battle of the Atlantic
• Allies responded w/ convoys
• Escorted with destroyers equipped w/ sonar
• Planes used radar to locate subs on the ocean’s surface
• By May 1943-germans lost more subs than they could produce
Battle of the Atlantic
• 1939-1940 US built only 102 ships
• Early 1943- 140 Liberty ships being built each month
• Launching of ships now outnumbered ships being sunk
• Mid 1943- Nazis no longer had control of Atlantic
Battle of Stalingrad
• German invasion of SU halted at Moscow
• Nazis had to head south to replenish oil supply
• Had 2 goals– Seize oil rich
Caucasus Mtns.– Capture Stalingrad
• Major industrial center on Volga River
Battle of Stalingrad
• Nazis approach Stalingrad summer 1942
• Luftwaffe bombed city• Every wooden
building set ablaze• Stalin ordered city to
be defended at all costs
Battle of Stalingrad
• Germans pressed on for 3 months
• Hand to hand combat• By Sept. Nazis controlled
9/10 of the city• November-Soviets
counterattack• German officers begged
Hitler to allow a retreat• Hitler refused
Battle of Stalingrad
• Winter set in• 2/2/43 91,000
Germans surrendered• Soviets lost 1,250,000
people defending Stalingrad
• Turning point in war• Soviets now steadily
moving westward toward Germany
North Africa
• Operation Torch-the invasion of Axis controlled North Africa
• Commanded by general Dwight D. Eisenhower
North Africa
• Nov. 1942- 107,000 Allied troops land in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers
• Move eastward chasing the Nazi Afrika Korps led by general Erwin Rommel
• Afrika Korps surrender in may 1943
The Italian Campaign
• Sicily captured in summer of 1943
• Italians war weary• 7/25/43- Italian King
stripped Mussolini of power
• Mussolini arrested• Hitler seized control
of Italy-reinstates Mussolini
The Italian Campaign
• 18 months of fighting followed
• 4/28/45 Italians helping the allies ambush Nazi convoy
• Found Mussolini disguised as a German soldier
• Killed him• Hung up his body in a
Milan square
D-Day
• US & Britain built invasion force for 2 years
• Ships, landing crafts, 3 million soldiers
• Invasion would target Normandy, France
• Allies begin by bombing supply routes
D-Day
• D-Day- day of the invasion of Hitler’s Europe-June 6, 1944
• British, American and Canadian troops attack 5 points along 60 miles of beach
D-Day
• 156,000 troops• 4,000 landing craft• 600 war ships• 11,000 planes• Largest land/sea/air
operation in history• German retaliation
was brutal
D-Day
• Allies hold beach• Within 1 month-
landed 1 million soldiers, 567,000 tons of supplies, 170,000 vehicles
D-Day
• August 25-Allied forces, many under the direction of General George Patton liberate Paris
FDR win again
• By September 1944-Allies had liberated France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and much of the Netherlands
• Also in 1944-Americans re-elect FDR to 4th term– New VP Harry S.
Truman
Battle of the Bulge
• October 44-Americans capture 1st German town
• Hitler counterattacks• 12/16/44 Germans
break through American lines
• Resulted in a massive dent in the Allied lines
Battle of the Bulge
• Battle raged on for a month
• Germans pushed back
• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, 1,600 planes-men and weapons they could not replace
Liberation of Death Camps
• Allied troops moving east
• Soviet troops moving west
• Soviets 1st to encounter a death camp-Poland
• Nazis working hard to destroy evidence
Unconditional Surrender
• 4/25/45- Soviets storm Berlin
• Hitler hiding in bunker• Marries Eva Braun on
4/29• Writes his last message
to German people-Blames Jews for starting war and his generals for losing it
Unconditional Surrender
• 4/30/45- Hitler commits suicide
• Had his body burned• May 8, 1945 Victory
in Europe (V-E) Day– 1st part of war over