Download The Western-Soviet Victory

The
Western
-Soviet
Victory
Section
21.107
Plans and Preparations, 1942-1943
Plans and Preparations, 1942-1943
• Jan.’42: 26 nations (GB, US, USSR) formed Grand
Alliance to face the Axis Powers
– Pledged to use all its resourced and never make a
separate peace
• US and GB pooled resources under a Combined Chiefs of
Staff
• Formed overall strategy early (unlike WWI)
• Decided that Germany must be defeated 1st
• Pacific theater would be defensive until Germany fell
• U.S. efforts in the Pacific halted Japanese expansion and
pressure on Australia
• Coral Sea and Midway were important U.S. victories
• Guadalcanal, Solomon, and other island campaigns would
follow; i.e., island hopping
War Preparations
• Began with air bombardment of Germany
• Soviets wanted a “second front” immediately with
ground forces to relieve pressure in East
• US began mobilizing, converting factories over,
controlling economy
• US and GB utilized women in labor force unlike
Germany
• I.E. U.S. presence in Europe was slowed by
mobilization and German control of the Atlantic by
submarines
• Submarine menace was curtailed by ’43 and US
troops began arriving in Britain
• 1943 U.S. and Britain launched the opening of a
second front
• Used total war via aerial bombardment of cities
– Civilians and factories targeted
– Hamburg and Dresden destroyed
• Land advances hold off until 1944
The Turning of the Tide, 1942-1943: Stalingrad,
North Africa, Sicily
• North Africa
• Eisenhower led invasion of north Africa
(Algeria and Morocco) from the west
– French, unable to get French cooperation,
asked Vichy president Admiral Darlan
– He helped but was assassinated
– Charles De Gaulle emerged as leader of the
French liberation committee in Algiers
• Montgomery launched final counter
offensive from the east
• Germany was crushed by 5/1943 in
Tunisia
• By May ’43 Africa was cleared of Axis
• Mediterranean and Suez reopened
François Darlan
Stalingrad (Volgograd)
Stalingrad (Volgograd)
• Aug. ’42 ¼ million German forces began all
out assault on Stalingrad
• Key transport city of lower Volga
• 9/1942 German forces were in the city
• Stalin ordered the city to be held at all costs
• Red Army under General Zhukov organized a
counteroffensive and enveloped the German
army
• Only 100,000 German soldiers were left to
surrender in Feb 43
• Number of Russians killed is unknown
• Soviet Union was taking staggering number of
casualties
• Estimates run as high as 25 million
• Turning point of the war
• Red Army was now an offensive army
New Hope for the Allies
New Hope for the Allies
• US began to win in Solomon Islands and
absorb German subs by ’43
• Sicily (July-Aug. ’43)
• 7/1943 Combined Allied forces invaded
Sicily
• Mussolini set up “Italian Social Republic”
in northern Italy but only existed with
German soldiers
• Mussolini fell 4/1945 Duce was captured
trying to flee the country and shot
• Marshal Badoglio made peace overtures to
the Allies but German army occupied Italy
• Bodoglio gov declared war on Germany
and Italy was labeled as a “cobelligerent”
• Italian campaign turned into long
stalemate due to lack of troops
Allied Offensive, 1944-1945: Europe and the Pacific
Allied Offensive, 1944-1945: Europe and the Pacific
• Festung Europa (Atlantic Wall)
was heavily fortified in France,
Holland
• Amphibious attack posed
exceptional challenges
• RR allowed for quick troop
transports of Germans
• Allies utilized feinting tactics, air
superiority, 4, 000 transport ships,
10 thousand aircraft, engineering
materials (artificial harbors,
pontoon ramp system)
• June 6 gave a break in the
weather
The Invasion of Europe: D Day
The Invasion of Europe: D Day
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
6/6/1944 D-Day
Germans expected main thrust of invasion at Calais
Allies chose Normandy beach to establish a second front
Under the command of Eisenhower 130 thousand
Canadian, British, American forces landed 1st day
1 million within a month and moving eastward
By August Paris was liberated and by Sept Allies were in
Germania
French, Italian, and Belgian Resistance movements
emerged
7/20/44 attempted assassination of Hitler at Wolf’s Den
failed
8/1944 Battle of the Bulge
– Hitler threw remaining armored forces against the
Allies in the Ardennes
– V1 and V2 rockets and new Messerschmitt jet
terrorized London but Germany’s time was running
out
3/1945 Allied forces crossed the Rhine
The Eastern Front
• Soviet army was pushing west and
reclaiming territory lost early in the
war
• Allowed youth of Warsaw Uprising
(Aug. ’44) and democracy to be
crushed by Nazis
– Stalin had already destroyed
Polish army leadership at Katyn
forest in ‘43
• Feb ’45 General Zhukov reached
the Oder River
– Red army was 50 miles from
Berlin
The Final Drive on Germany
• 4/1945 American troops reached the
Elbe
– 60 miles from Berlin
• Soviets were permitted to take Berlin,
Prague, and other central and eastern
European capitals
– Eisenhower
• Directed troops south in case of
guerilla attacks
• Gesture of goodwill to Soviets for
their sacrifice
• 4/30/1945 Hitler died by his own hand
• Admiral Doenitz, Hitler’s successor
offered Germany’s unconditional
surrender (5/8/1945)
The Holocaust
The Final Solution
• Soon after the surrender atrocities of concentration
camps, work camps, and death camps were revealed
• Whole villages (Lidice in Czech, or Oradour-surGlane, France) razed and inhabitants murdered or
deported
• Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps
– Minimal rations worked prisoners to death
– Auschwitz
• 12 thousand gassed per day
• Nazi ideology to wipe out inferiors had evolved
– Einsatzgruppen – killing squads
– Mobile gas units
– Eikman
• Utilized rail system to bring whole minority
populations (Jews, Gypsies) to work and death
camps
• 6 million Jews
• 3 million Poles
• Russians, Slavics, Romana murdered
The Final Solution
The Final Solution
• Holocaust was decided by Nazi
executives at Wannsee, Poland
in Jan. ’43
• “Final Solution” to “Jewish
Problem” was a planned
genocide of European Jewry
• Utilized modern scientific
organization
• Carried out by ordinary people
and bureaucrats in the heart of
European civilization
• Who is responsible?
– The individual or the collective
society?
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Push towards Japan
• From Guadalcanal Americans began to
“Island Hop” northward toward Japan
• March 1945 took 8 square mile strategic
island of Iwo Jima after heavy loses
• Took Okinawa after brutal 2.5 months in
spring of ’45
• Only 300 miles from Japanese main
islands
• Japanese fought harder the closer
Americans came to Japan
• Began all-out air campaign from newly
won territory to destroy Japanese industry
• Plan for full-scale invasion of Japan were
being drawn up
The Atomic Bomb
• 8/6/45 “Little Boy” was dropped on
Hiroshima
– 78 thousand killed and thousands of others
were wounded or suffered radiation
exposure
• 8/8 Soviet Union declared war on Japan
and invaded Manchuria
• 8/9 Nagasaki was struck
• 9/2/45 Japan signed unconditional
surrender on the Missouri
• Emperor Hirohito remained head of
state but Japan under occupation of US
army under MacArthur
Epilogue
•
•
•
•
Greatest conflict in human history
50-60 million total deaths
25 million wounded
15 million military deaths
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
USSR- 6
German- 3.5
Chinese- 2.2
Japanese- 1.3
Polish 700 thousand
GB- 400
US 300
French 200
• 30-40 million civilian deaths
– 15-20 million Russian