Download Chapter 26 Section 3 Power Point

Modern US History
Chapter 26, Section #3
“War in Europe and North Africa”
Churchill and Roosevelt Make War Plans
• Immediately after Pearl
Harbor British prime
minister Winston Churchill
and US President Franklin
Roosevelt spend a few
weeks at the White House
• They agree that Germany
and Italy posed a greater
overall threat to their
interests than did Japan
• Once the war in Europe was
being won, then more
resources could be poured
into the fight against Japan
Hitler’s Atlantic
War Plans
• After Pearl Harbor Hitler
prepared his new war plans
• Hitler ordered his submarines
to conduct raids on ships
along America’s east coast
• He hoped to prevent the US
from supplying food and war
materials to Great Britain and
the Soviet Union
• In the 7 months immediately
after Pearl Harbor, Germany
had sunk 681 Allied ships in
the Atlantic
Battle of the Atlantic
• The Allies responded to the German
submarine threat by organizing their
cargo ships into convoys
• Convoys of merchant ships were
protected by destroyers equipped
with sonar to detect the German
submarines
• By 1943 the US was producing 140
ships a month and was able to
overwhelm the German naval forces
• By the spring of 1943 the sea war was
effectively over and the German
submarine fleet was nearly wiped out
After the
Battle of
Britain
• With a victory over Britain
denied him Hitler weighs his
options
• What if he had stopped there?
• Instead, he invades the
following:
• North Africa
• The Balkans (Bulgaria,
Romania, Hungary were
persuaded to join the Axis
Powers to avoid invasion,
while Yugoslavia and Greece
did not and were attacked)
• Soviet Union
Axis Forces Attack
North Africa
• Mussolini and Italy at first
neutral
• Mussolini declares war on
France and Britain after
German victory
• September 1940—
Mussolini attacks British in
North Africa moving from
their colony of Libya to
Egypt
Italian L3/33 in North Africa
British Fight in North Africa
• Britain Strikes Back
– December 1940—British attack and drive Italians back
– Erwin Rommel, German general, battles British in
North Africa
– In 1942, Rommel first retreats then succeeds against
British at Tobruk, Libya
– Germans begin push back into Egypt in June 1942
German General Erwin Rommel (“The Desert Fox”) with
the 15th Panzer Division between Tobruk and Sidi Omar,
Libya, January or November 24, 1941.
British General Bernard L. Montgomery watches
his tanks move up." North Africa, November 1942.
The North African Campaign
• Rommel takes Tobruk, June 1942; pushes toward Egypt
• British General Montgomery attacks at El Alamein, Egypt
forces Rommel back
• American forces land in Morocco, November 1942
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower—American commander in
Morocco
• In May 1943, Rommel’s forces defeated by Allies
War in the Balkans
• Meanwhile, Germany had
continued to take over in
Eastern Europe
• Hitler planned to invade the
Soviet Union, but moved to
take the Balkan countries
first
• Hitler then invaded
Yugoslavia and Greece in
April 1941; both fell quickly
• All of this took place prior to
Germany’s fighting in North
Africa, and prior to the
invasion of the Soviet Union
Germany Invades Soviet Union
• Hitler Invades the Soviet Union
• Germany invaded an unprepared
Soviet Union in June 1941
• Hitler decided to split his forces
into three groups
• Germans stopped at Leningrad,
forced to undertake long siege
• Germans almost capture
Moscow, but forced to pull
back
• A third army pushed into the
southern region rich in oil
Operation Barbarossa:
German Invasion of USSR
3 Prong Attack
Russian soldiers prepare to attack German lines outside Leningrad.
A column of Red Army POWs captured near Minsk is marched west.
A group of Soviet POWs, taken to undefined Prison Camp
Russian Advantages
• Though they are poorly
equipped, the Soviet Union
has the largest army in the
world
• scorched earth strategy – as
Germans move into Russia,
Soviet troops burn land as
they retreat (taking
advantage of the vast land)
• As German invasion drags on
and are bogged down
outside of Leningrad and
Moscow, it turns to winter
The Battle
for Stalingrad
• German army moves
to capture Soviet oil
fields (southern
prong of Operation
Barbarossa)
• Battle of
Stalingrad—Soviets,
Germans battle for
control of the city
• German troops
capture city in late
summer of 1942
The Battle for
Stalingrad
• Marked by constant
close quarters combat
and disregard for
military and civilian
casualties, it is among
the bloodiest battles in
the history of warfare
• The Soviet Union lost
over a million lives in the
battle, more than the
U.S. loses in the entire
war (in Europe and the
Pacific)
The Battle for Stalingrad
• Soviet counter-attack finally
surrounds the German 6th army
in Stalingrad and cuts them off
• Hitler refuses to allow them to
surrender
• German troops surrender in
February 1943 after a long battle
• It was a turning point in the
European theatre of World War II
• the German forces never
regained the initiative in the East
and withdrew a vast military
force from the West to reinforce
their losses
Second Front in Europe
• Churchill wanted Britain and the
U.S. to strike first at North Africa
and southern Europe
• The strategy angered Stalin, who
wanted the Allies to open the
second front in France
• The Soviet Union, therefore, had
to hold out on its own against the
Germans
• All Britain and the U.S. could offer
in the way of help was supplies
• Nevertheless, late in 1942, the
Allies began to turn the tide of
war both in the Mediterranean
and on the Eastern Front
The Invasion of Italy
• After victory in North Africa,
Stalin again called for a second
front against Germany in France
• Instead, U.S. and British forces
land on and capture Sicily in
1943
• Mussolini loses power and Italy
surrenders
• The Germans still keep control
of northern Italy
• The fighting against the
Germans there goes on until the
war ends
Victory in Europe
• While the Allies were dealing
with issues on the home
front, they also were
preparing to push toward
victory in Europe
• In 1943, the Allies began
secretly building an invasion
force in Great Britain
• Their plan was to launch an
attack on German held France
across the English Channel
(an invasion known as D-Day)
The D-Day
Invasion
• Allies plan invasion of
France; use deception to
confuse Germans
• D-Day—June 6, 1944; day of
“Operation Overlord”
invasion of France
• Thousands of planes, ships,
tanks, and landing craft and
3 million troops took part
• 5 beaches stormed by
British, Canadian, and
American forces
• Allied forces capture
Normandy beaches despite
heavy casualties
Europe
at time
of the
D-Day
invasion
D-Day invasion to cross English Channel to Normandy, France