Download Allies turn the tide

25.2: The War for Europe
and North Africa
OBJECTIVE: Understand how the
Allies defeated Italy and Germany
America at War: 1941-1945
WHAT WAS AMERICA’s WAR PLAN?
FDR’s STRATEGY:
1. Attack Germany first: save USSR and UK
2. Attack Japan second: give ground in Pacific
PROBLEM: Will America arm itself (and its
Allies) in time?
CONCERN: Were totalitarian warriors better than
citizen-soldiers?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/
wwtwo/
PROBABLY THE BEST
WWII WEBSITE TO LEARN
ABOUT WWII
WWII: European Theatre
ACT I
1942 & 1943: War in the Atlantic
Allied Convoys v. “Wolf pack” of German UBoats
1942: Allies turn the tide
Halt Germans at El Alemein and Stalingrad
11/1942-5/1943: North Africa Campaign
Kasserine Pass, Rommel & Patton, Big Red 1
6/1943: Invasion of Italy
Surrender of Italy, Mussolini exec., Anzio,
Monte Cassino & Gothic Line
THE BATTLE OF THE
ATLANTIC: 1942-1943
• Germany declares war on the US after Pearl
Harbor and full-scale U-Boat attacks begin
• US and UK organize convoy escorts
• Advances in sonar and aircraft spotting, along with
convoy tactics, eventually turn the tide.
• Allies “win” Battle of Atlantic by Summer of 1943
WHAT COULD NOT HAVE
HAPPENED WITHOUT ALLIED VICTORY IN
ATLANTIC?
ENIGMA ENCODING
MACHINE
During World War II, the
Germans used the Enigma, an
electromechanical cipher
machine, to develop nearly
unbreakable codes for sending
messages. The Enigma's
settings offered
150,000,000,000,000,000,000
possible solutions, yet the
Allies were eventually able to
crack its code.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/artifacts/enigma.htm
Liberty Ships
US was able to produce 140 of these
ships A MONTH!!!
• By the end of the
war, a ship was
able to be built in
5 days
• PROBLEM:
initially 30% of
the early liberty
ships “fractured”
at sea
http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/DANotes/fracture/maritime/maritime.html
Allied convoy, WWII, location unknown
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/aerial_recon_gallery_09.shtml
9/1942-2/1943
German Objectives:
1. Seize Oil Fields
2. Capture the city
– an industrial and transport
hub
Outcome:
330,000 Germans invade,
only 91,000 survive/POWs
p-materialSU1941.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.katardat.org/marxuniv/2002-SUWW2/Maps/Maps01.html&h=833&w=600&sz=72&tbnid=I5ax1UqGZyC85M:&tbnh=1
Battle of
Stalingrad
1,250,000 Soviet military and
civilian casualties.
SIGNIFICANCE:
Turning point of war on
Eastern Front
Map: The Allies on the Offensive in Europe, 1942-1945
The Allies on the Offensive in Europe, 1942-1945
The United States pursued a "Europe first" policy: first defeat Germany, then focus on Japan. American military efforts
began in North Africa in late 1942 and ended in Germany in 1945 on May 8 (V-E Day).
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
THE NORTH AFRICAN FRONT:
11/1942-5/1943
• Stalin demands allies open “second front”
• US/UK launch “Operation Torch”
• US Gen. Eisenhower placed in command of all
allied forces. Gen. Patton wins key tank battles
• Americans learn bitter lessons at Battle of
Kasserine Pass
• Allies turn the tide at Battle of El Alemein
• By May 1943 German General Rommel’s Afrika
Korps defeated
http://www.usma.edu/bicentennial/history/history_1950on.asp
Gen. George S.
Patton
Tank general
THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN:
Summer 1943-Summer 1945
• Churchill urges invasion of Italy first, instead of
Normandy, over Stalin’s objections
• Campaign starts well in Sicily, Mussolini is
“deposed” in July 1943, then reinstalled by
Germany.
• Allied advance bogs down as Germans entrench
around Rome.
• Allies try to break defenses by amphibious
landings at Anzio and attacking stronghold at
Monte Cassino.
Animated Map of
the Italian Campaign
WWII: European Theatre
ACT II
6/6/1944: D-Day – Normandy
Allies, Patton, Liberation of Paris, Soviets advance
11/1944: Harry Truman new US Vice President
12/16/1944: Battle of the Bulge
German Counter-Offensive, Siege of Bastogne
4/1945: The Bitter End
Soviet and American forces meet at Elbe
Berlin Falls, Hitler commits suicide
FDR dies, Patton now President
5/8/1945: V-E Day
Operation Overlord: D-Day June 6, 1944
Largest Invasion in history:
• 156,000 troops
• 4000 landing craft
• 600 warships
• 11,000 planes
• Paratroopers
Normandy
Beachheads: UTAH,
OMAHA, GOLD,
JUNO, SWORD (US
landings in red.)
Eisenhower at D-Day
Eisenhower at D-Day
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force
General Dwight D. ("Ike") Eisenhower gives the order of the
day to U.S. paratroopers in England on the eve of D-day.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
(National Archives)
D-DAY VIDEO
3 million allied soldiers, 4,600
vessels
Beachheads: UTAH, OMAHA /
GOLD, JUNO, SWORD
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/books/Books%20-%201998/Military%20Geography%20March%2098/milgeoch2.ht
Battle of the Bulge: Dec. 1944
Battle of the Bulge: Dec. 1944
• US forces capture first German town, Aachen.
• Hitler responds with massive counter-attack,
aiming at massive Allied supply dump in
Antwerp, Belgium.
• Allies forced into desperate defensive battle
• Initially, Germans helped by unusually severe
weather that grounded Allied air power.
• US Airborne hold-out under siege in key town
of Bastogne.
• Allies recover offensive as weather improves
Liberation of the Death Camps
• Soviets first to discover death
camps in Majdanek, Poland in July
1944.
Gen. Eisenhower at Ohrdruf death camp
• “On April 5, 1945, units from the
American Fourth Armored
Division of the Third Army were
the first Americans to discover a
camp with prisoners and corpses.
Ohrdruf was a Buchenwald subcamp, and of the 10,000 male
slave inmates, many had been sent
on death marches, shot in pits, or
their corpses were stacked in the
woods and burned. The Americans
found the camp by accident – they
did not set out to liberate
camps…”
SOURCE: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Auschwitz Camp Bombing Controversy
14 August 1944
Dear Mr. Kubowitski:
I refer to your letter of August 9 in which you request consideration of a proposal
made by Mr. Ernest Frischer that certain installations and railroad centers be bombed.
The War Department had been approached by the War Refugee Board, which
raised the question of the practicability of this suggestion. After a study it became apparent
that such an operation could be executed only by the diversion of considerable air support
essential to the success of our forces now engaged in decisive operations elsewhere and
would in any case be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not warrant the use of our
resources. There has been considerable opinion to the effect that such an effort, even if
practicable, might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans.
The War Department fully appreciates the humanitarian motives which promoted
the suggested operation, but for the reasons stated above it has not been felt that it can or
should be undertaken, at least at this time.
Sincerely,
John J. McCloy
Assistant Secretary of War
SOURCE: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/bombworld.html
V-E Day
Day Day
VictoryV-E
in Europe
Victory in England Day
May 8, 1945
May
8,
1945
Soviets invade Berlin April 25, 1945.
Hitler commits suicide April 29th.
German High Command
surrenders unconditionally on May 8th.