Download World War II

World War II
Europe
Allies Fight Back
• U.S. entrance into WWII
– Turned tide of war in Battle of Atlantic
• Delivery of supplies = key!
• German U-Boats
– “wolf pack” dangerous subs countered by U.S.
convoy system
• Enigma
– German code broken by Enigma machine in 1941
– Advanced knowledge of German movements
Soviet Union
• Hitler invaded in 1941
– Soviets used winter to
advantage
• Stalingrad (1942)
– Soviets refuse to fall >
counterattack
– Defeated Germans in
1943
– *Marked beginning of
German collapse in
Soviet Union
– Germans lost 2 million
vs. Soviets 12 million
North Africa
• Prime oil territory >
conflict between
Britain & Italy
– Britain defeats Italy &
gains access to Suez
Canal
• General Erwin
Rommel
– “Desert Fox” – brilliant
German general
– Lost Battle of El
Alamein to Britain
Operation Torch
• Operation Torch
– U.S. efforts in Africa
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower
– Led U.S. attack
– *U.S. gained valuable combat experience
– Helped in German defeat
Axis Powers Collapse
• 1943 U.S. invades
Italy
• FDR & Churchill
– “… die for Mussolini &
Hitler or live for Italy”
• Tuskegee Airmen
– Aid in U.S. victory
– Approximately
300,000 killed or
wounded
D-Day
• June 6, 1944
• Operation Overlord
– Allied invasion of France (5 beaches)
– U.S., British & Canadian troops attack from sea, air &
land
– German response slow
– High casualty rates but Allied victory
– *General Eisenhower became Supreme Allied
Commander after victory
Battle of the Bulge
• Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 16, 1944)
– *Last major German offensive
– Gen. George Patton provided relief for
American forces
– Allied victory
The Holocaust
• Kristallnacht
– Night of Broken Glass
– *1st open attack on
Jews
• 3 stages
– Jews cannot live as
Germans
– Jews cannot live with
Germans
– Jews cannot live
U.S. Response to the Holocaust
• Limited immigration of Jews by U.S. &
other Western countries
• War Refugee Board 1944
– Too little too late?
– Lacked money & authority
• Nuremberg Trials
– 22 Nazis tried for war crimes
Yalta Conference
• Yalta Conference (Jan.
1945)
– Big 3 meet (Stalin, Churchill
& Roosevelt)
– agree to “occupy” Germany
once war ends by dividing
the country into 4 sectors
– Also agree to elections in
Eastern European countries
– Stalin agrees to help in war
on Japan 3 months after
Germany defeated
• Why is this an issue?
Victory in Europe (V-E Day)
• V-E Day (Victory in
Europe)
– Hitler finally recognized
the end & committed
suicide April 1945
– News of Hitler’s death
spread & fighting slowly
stopped
– surrender of Germany
took effect on May 8,
1945
– Proclaimed V-E (Victory in
Europe) Day