Download War in Europe and Africa

War in Europe and Africa
Section 4: pages 770-776
Ms. Taylor
Famous Generals of the War
Erwin Rommel
Dwight D. Eisenhower
George Patton
General Erwin Rommel
• German general.
• Leader of the AXIS
forces in North Africa.
• He was known as
“Desert Fox” because
of his success in
desert warfare.
• He was defeated at
the famous battle:
Battle of El Alamein
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• American general.
• Leader of ALLIED forces
in Europe.
• Directed the D-Day
invasion and helped
defeat the AXIS powers in
Europe and North Africa.
• “We will accept nothing
less than total victory.”
- General Eisenhower
General George Patton
• American general.
• Leader of the ALLIED
forces in North Africa.
• Helped defeat the
Germans at the Battle of
El Alamein.
• Pushed the Axis powers
out of North Africa in
1943.
• Along with General
Eisenhower, Patton also
helped defeat the AXIS
powers in Europe.
Famous World War II Battles
Siege at Leningrad
Battle of Stalingrad
D-Day invasion
Battle of the Bulge
Siege at Leningrad
• Siege – military blockade.
• By September 1941, the Germans had
invaded the Soviet Union and began a siege
around the city of Leningrad that lasted 900
days.
• The Soviet citizens of Leningrad nearly
starved to death. Many resorted to eating
horses, cats, and dogs to stay alive.
Thousands died.
• The siege was eventually broken by 1944.
The city of Leningrad never fell to the
Germans.
Battle of Stalingrad
• In the spring of 1942, the Germans launched their final attack
on the Soviets.
• Why did they want to invade Stalingrad?
• Stalingrad is a major city in the Soviet Union with very oil-rich
lands.
• At first, the Germans looked successful, but then the Soviet
Red Army surrounded the city and cut off German supply lines.
• The German army was starving and very cold. They were forced
to leave the city of Stalingrad.
• The Germans were pushed back hundreds of miles and
eventually pushed out of the Soviet Union.
• The German defeat at Stalingrad marked a major turning point
in the war.
Time to defeat the Germans
• Military Strategy:
• 1) The Soviet Red Army would attack
Germany from the East.
• 2) The rest of the Allied forces – Great
Britain and the United States – would
attack Germany from the West.
-The Axis powers would feel closed in.
• 3) The D-Day invasion was the surprise
Allied invasion coming from the West.
D-Day Invasion
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On June 6, 1944, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy off the
coast of France. (Operation Overlord)
The Germans were waiting there with open fire.
Many Allied soldiers died before they could even get off the boats and on to
the beach.
The D-Day invasion involved land, sea, and air combat.
More than one million Allied troops were involved in the invasion.
The Allied troops were too much for the Germans to handle.
By August 25, the Allied troops had defeated the Germans and pushed their
way into Paris to liberate the French from Nazi rule.
Battle of the Bulge
• After the D-Day invasion, it looked as though the
Germans were defeated.
• However, they gave it one last try in the Battle of the
Bulge.
• On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched a
surprise attack along a 50-mile front in Belgium.
• The Germans were able to cause a “bulge” in the
Allied front lines.
• However, the Allies were able to push the Germans
back.
• 100,000 troops died in this battle
• Marked the end of the war for the Germans and the
Axis Powers.
Victory in Europe
• By 1945, the German
defenses had begun
to collapse. On April
30, Adolf Hitler
commited suicide.
Germany surrendered
soon after.
• May 8, 1945 became
known as V-E Day.
• The War in EUROPE
was over – now to the
Pacific to defeat
Japan.
FDR dies
• President Roosevelt
never lived to see the
Allied victory in Europe.
• On April 12, 1945, FDR
died of a massive stroke
in Warm Springs, Ga.
• Harry Truman, the VicePresident, was quickly
sworn in as President of
the United States.
• It would be Truman’s
responsibility to fight the
Japanese and finish the
war in the Pacific.
THE HOLOCAUST
“the final solution of the Jewish question”
Hitler’s “final solution”
• After the war in Europe was over, the Allied troops began
discovering all the Nazi concentration camps.
• Important definitions:
genocide – wiping out an entire group of people.
Holocaust – the murder of 6 million Jews during WWII.
It wasn’t just the Jews…
• Genocide was Hitler’s “Final Solution” to destroy
the Jews, and millions others, in Europe.
• During the Holocaust, the Nazis also murdered:
- Soviet prisoners of war
- gypsies
- homosexuals
- the mentally retarded
- handicapped people
- any Polish or even Germans that helped Jews
The Ghettos
Deportation – on cattle trains
Arrival at the Concentration
Camp
Sorting would take place after the
prisoners arrived in the camp
If you were sent to the left…
(mostly older women, children,
infants, and the elderly)
If you were sent to the right…
(mostly young men and women
– teenagers, age 20’s
- strong men, fit men)
Concentration Camps
• Over 15,000 concentration camps were
created by the Nazis during WWII – this
number does not include the ghettos.
• Largest and most famous camps:
- Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Mauthausen
- Dachau
- Treblinka
Did some of them survive?
YES
In Remembrance
www.ushmm.org/
The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum is located in
Washington, D.C.