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Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
1) After nine months of continuous bombardment by
the German Luftwaffe (air force), the British
Royal Air Force (RAF) was successful in
maintaining control of the skies above Britain
and Hitler was forced to abandon his planned
invasion of the impregnable island nation.
Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
2) After the stunning success of the
outnumbered Brtish airmen, Prime
Minister Winston Churchill declared,
“Never in the field of human conflict was
so much owed by so many to so few.”
Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
3) The failed battle of Britain led a frustrated Hitler to
turn on his former ally, and the Nazi war machine
opened the “Eastern Front” by invading the
Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite the NonAgression Pact, many had already concluded
that the German invasion of the Soviet Union
was an inevitibility.
Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
5) Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union
(Operation Barbarossa) was prompted by a
number of other factors as well:
(A) To attain the rich Russian oil fields in the
Caucus Moutain region along the Caspain
Sea,
(B) To destroy Communism and elimate the
Soviet threat before another concentrated
attack on Britain,
(C) Russia was home to the world’s largest
population of non-European Jews,
(D) “Lebenstraum”
Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
6) The invasion of the
Soviet Union was
much more brutal in
nature as Hitler gave
explicit orders to
Army commanders
to eliminate civilian
populations in the
Soviet Union.
Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
7) After an area was conquered by the German
Army, mobile killing squads known as the
Einsatzgruppen specifically killed segments of
the local civilian population like Jews,
Communists, Gypsies, and local political
leaders.
Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
8) Over 1.5 million Jews were exterminated by the
mobile killing squads. However, Hitler and other
Nazi leaders felt that this was inefficient and
developed the “Final Solution” to the Jewish
problem in early 1942 by establishing the highly
organized and brutal concentration camp
system.
Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa
9) The German Blitzkrieg (“lightening war”) was no
less relentless as it raged across the plains of
the Western Soviet Union with over three million
German troops. By the early winter of 1941, the
German Army was closing in on the cities of
Stalingrad, Leningrad, and the Soviet capital of
Moscow.
Pearl Harbor
1) As Hitler’s war machine stalled at the gates of
Moscow during the Winter of 1941 / 42, the
United States was suddenly attacked by the
Japanese empire at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the
morning of December 7th, 1941.
Pearl Harbor
X
2) Late in 1940, the U.S. had finally issued a
number of trade embargoes against the
Japanese to halt their imperialistic conquests
in Eastern Asia. In particular, the precious
flow of oil, gasoline, and other war related
supplies from the United States was suddenly
cut-off to Japan.
Pearl Harbor
Japan
3) Tense negoiations between the U.S. and Japan
were conducted in November and December of
1941 in an attempt to resolve the crisis in the
Pacific. The U.S. offered to restore limited
trade if the Japanese militarists agreed to
abandon their stalled conquest of China.
Pearl Harbor
Southeast
Asia
4) U.S. military officials had cracked the Japanese
code and several intercepted communications
indicated that the Japanese course was for
continued warfare. However, the U.S.
incorrectly assumed that the Japanese would
only push further into Southeast Asia.
Pearl Harbor
5) Japan deliberately prolonged U.S.
negotiations as they prepared for a
surprise attack against Hawaii.
Pearl Harbor
6) On the morning of December 7th, 1941, two waves
of over 350 Japanese planes attacked the U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The entire
Pacific fleet of battleships was either sunk or
severely damaged, over 151 planes were
destroyed, and over 3,000 U.S service personnel
were killed or wounded.
Pearl Harbor
7) On December 8th, President Roosevelt addressed
Congress for a declaration of war against the
Japanese. He famously declared, “Yesterday,
December 7, 1941—a date which will live in
infamy—the United States of American was
suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and
air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
Pearl Harbor
8) The Japanese attack was coordinated with an
overall invasion of several Pacific islands
(including Guam and the Philippines) and the
nations of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Burma,
Malaysia, etc
Pearl Harbor
9) Japanese Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto
felt that the attack
was too limited and
supposedly stated
that, “I fear all we
have done is to
awaken a sleeping
giant.”
“Hitler First”
5) The U.S. employed a “Hitler First” strategy by
diverting just enough forces to the Pacific to
contain the Japanese while the majority of U.S.
forces were directed to Europe to defeat Nazi
Germany. Once Germany fell, the Allies could
then concentrate their full force against the
Japanese.
“Hitler First”
6) The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin desperately
wanted Roosevelt and Churchill to open a
second front in Europe to divert German forces
away from the Eastern Front. However, Churchill
convinced Roosevelt to invade Northern Africa
to prevent German control of Mediterranean Sea
and the Suez Canal.
North Africa
1) The German troops of the “Afrika Korps”
under Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (“The
Desert Fox”) had driven deep into Northern
Africa and threatened to take Egypt and the
vital Suez Canal from British control.
North Africa
2) The British Army in Egypt was also the
only major factor protecting the
Middle East and its vast oil resources
from a German invasion.
North Africa
3) By August of 1942
the British were
desperate for a
victory and Winston
Churchill moved to
replace the British
commander in
North Africa with
General Bernard
Montgomery
(“Monty”).
North Africa
Suez Canal
5) Montgomery realized that Rommel’s forces were
short of supplies because Allied raids in the
Mediterranean threatened to cut a number of
German supply lines. However, Montgomery
also knew that Rommel would risk an attack
because of pressure from Hitler to quickly take
Egypt and the Suez Canal.
North Africa
6) Montgomery prepared effective defenses around
El Alamein and simply waited for Rommel to
attack. Montgomery was so confident in his
defense that when he was awakened by news of
Rommel’s attack, he simply said, “excellent,
excellent” and went back to sleep.
North Africa
7) Rommel’s forces were easily repelled, but it took
Montgomery several months to mount a counteroffensive in El Alamein. The arrival of over 300
Sherman tanks and troop reinforcements
enabled Montgomery to take the offensive
against the Desert Fox during the late fall of
1942.
Stalingrad
1) After the German war machine failed to take
Moscow in December 1941, Hitler shifted
his forces south during the spring of 1942
to take the city of Stalingrad on the west
bank of the Volga River.
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
●
2) Hitler believed the fall of Stalingrad would inevitably
lead to the defeat of the Red Army (Soviet Union).
If the Germans overran Stalingrad, they would cut
Soviet supply lines on the Volga River and would
gain control to the precious Soviet oil fields in the
Caucus Mountain region along the Caspian Sea.
Stalingrad
3) The Germans advanced on Stalingrad in
September 1942 and laid siege to the Soviet
forces within the city. Bloody urban warfare
ensued as the German and Soviet forces fought
from street to street as the city was reduced to
rubble.
Stalingrad
Ex. – Snipers were
particularly destructive
within the walls of the
city. Soviet Sniper
Vasily Zaitsev was
widely recognized as a
Russian war hero for
killing over 149
Germans during siege
of Stalingrad.
Stalingrad
5) Soviet supplies were so
low at some
engagements that only
every other soldier was
issued a weapon. The
unarmed soldiers were
instructed to pick up the
rifles from fallen soldiers
to defend themselves.
Joseph Stalin even
issued strict orders that
retreating Soviet soldiers
would be immediately
shot by their officers.
Stalingrad
6) After three months of bloody fighting for streets
and factories, the Germans controlled over 90%
of the city and Soviet defeat seemed inevitable
by November 1942.
Stalingrad
7) However, Hitler was
preoccupied with
concentrating his forces
within the city and little
attention was given to
reinforcing the weak German
flanks. A massive Soviet
counter-attack in late
November actually
surrounded over 250,000
troops of the German 6th
Army.
Stalingrad
German
P.O.W.s
8) Hitler would not allow the commanders of the 6th
Army to retreat in an attempt to breakout from
the Soviet encirclement. The Germans
unsuccessfully tried to supply the 6th Army with
air supplies, but the severe winter prevented
regular shipments.
Stalingrad
9) The trapped German troops of the 6th Army
were reduced to eating their horses and many
froze to death as the brutal Russian winter
worsened. The Volga River froze solid and
enabled a steady flow of Soviet soldiers and
supplies to cross into Stalingrad.
10) The remnants of the German 6th Army finally
surrendered on February 2nd 1943. Over
91,000 prisoners of war were sent to brutal
Soviet labor camps where only 6,000 would
survive. Stalingrad was arguably the
bloodiest single battle in history, with over
two million casualties from both sides.
Stalingrad
11) The German defeat at
Stalingrad signaled the
“turning-point” on the
Eastern Front. An
uninterrupted Soviet
counter-offensive
continuously regained
previously lost
territory until Germany
surrendered in May
1945.