Download Pushing the Axis Back

Pushing the Axis
Back
Chapter 25 Section 4
Casablanca Conference
• Jan. 1943 – Roosevelt and Churchill met in
Casablanca Morocco
– They agreed to step up the bombing of Germany
– Allied goal for Germany…
1.Destroy Germany’s military, industry, and economy
2.Undermine of the morale of the German people
– Allied goal for Italy…
1.Attack Sicily – b/l Italians would quit the war if the
Allies invaded their homeland
Invasion of Sicily
• July 10, 1943 – the Allied invasion began
– Dwight D. Eisenhower – overall command
• General Patton – US ground forces
• General Bernard Montgomery – British ground forces
• Allied troops made it ashore w/ few casualties
– The DUKW – an amphibious truck that brought
supplies and artillery to soldiers on the beach
• US troops attacked from the east, British
troops attacked from the south
– By August 18, 1943 the Germans had evacuated
the island
Italian Crisis
• The attack on Sicily created a crisis in the
Italian govt.
– The king of Italy put Mussolini under arrest
– Italy then b/g secretly negotiating w/ the Allies
for Italy’s surrender
– September 8, 1943 – the Italian govt.
announces Italy’s surrender
• Hitler is determined not to lose Italy to the
Allies
Fight over Italy
• German troops seized control of N. Italy
– They attacked Allied troops at Salerno
– They put Mussolini back in power
• The Allies land b/h German lines at Anzio
– Germans surround the Allies near Anzio
• It took the Allies 5 months to break through
German lines
– May 1944 Germans were forced to retreat
– Fighting continued in Italy until May 2, 1945
Tehran Conference
• 1943 – FDR, Churchill, Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran
• Agreements made…
1. Stalin to launch a full scale offensive against Germany
when the Allies invade France in 1944
2. Stalin to help the US defeat Japan once Germany was
beaten
3. FDR and Stalin agree to break up Germany after the
war – so it can never threaten the world again
4. Stalin accepted FDR’s proposal to create an
international organization to help keep peace after the
war
Operation Overlord
• Hitler knew the Allies would eventually
invade France, but he didn’t know when or
where
– They b/l the Allies would land in Pas-de-Calais
• An area of France closest to Britain
• The Allies placed decoys along the coast of
Calais to convince the Germans they were
right
– The decoys looked real to German spy planes
• But the real target would be Normandy
Operation Overlord
• To make it successful…
– The invasion had to b/g at night to hide the ships across
the English Channel
– The ships had to arrive at low tide so that they could see
the beach obstacles
– The low tide had to come at dawn so the gunners
bombarding the coast could see their targets
– The night had to be moonlit so the paratroopers dropped
b/h enemy lines could see where to land
– The weather had to be good b/c…
• A storm would ground the airplanes
• High waves would swamp the landing craft
Operation Overlord
• Given all these conditions there were only a few
days each month when the invasion could take
place
– The first opportunity would be b/w June 5 and June 7,
1944
– The name for the date of the invasion b/c D-Day
• Heavy cloud cover, strong winds, and high waves
made it impossible to land on June 5
• On June 6, the weather briefly improved and
Eisenhower decided to take his chance
Operation Overlord
• June 6, 1944 - The Invasion of Normandy
– Nearly 7,000 ships carrying more than 100,000
soldiers set sail for the coast of Normandy
– 23,000 paratroopers were dropped inland
– Allied fighter-bombers raced up and down the
coast
• They hit bridges, bunkers, and radar sites
– At dawn the Allied warships fired thousands of
shells on the beaches code-named…
• Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno
Utah Beach
• The American landing at Utah Beach went
very well
– German defenses were weak
• In less than 3 hours US troops had
captured the beach and moved inland
– Suffering less than 200 casualties in the
process
• The British and Canadian landings also
went well on eastern Utah Beach
Omaha Beach
• At Omaha Beach…
– There was intense German fire
– The American assault almost collapsed
• Omar Bradley b/g making plans to evacuate, but
the US troops b/g to knock out German defenses
• Nearly 2,500 Americans were either killed or
wounded on Omaha, but…
– By the end of the day nearly 35,000 US troops had
landed at Omaha and 23,000 at Utah
– Over 75,000 British and Canadian troops were on shore
as well
The Pacific
• Two-pronged plan
– The Pacific Fleet would advance through the
central Pacific
• Island Hopping – hop from one island to the next,
closer and closer to Japan
• Led by Admiral Nimitz
– General MacArthur’s troops would advance
through the Solomon Islands
• Capture the north coast of New Guinea
• Then launch an invasion to retake the Philippines
Complications
• The geography of the central Pacific was a
problem in the Island Hopping campaign
– Many of the islands were coral reef islands
– The water over the coral reef was not always deep
enough to allow landing craft to get to the shore
• If landing craft ran aground on the reef troops had to wade to
the beach
• Wading ashore caused extremely high casualties
• One vehicle was able to cross the reef – the LVT
– A boat w/ tank tracks
– Nicknamed the alligator
Guadalcanal
• August 1942 – MacArthur’s campaign to
retake the Philippines b/g w/ the invasion
of Guadalcanal
– US forces captured the landing strip
– They needed this landing strip so that they
could attack the Japanese forces in the
Philippines
The Philippines
• October 1944 – more than 700 ships
carrying over 160,000 troops sailed for
Leyte Gulf in the Philippines
– A few hours after the invasion b/g MacArthur
reached the shore and spoke into a
microphone
• “People of the Philippines, I have returned. By the
grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on
Philippine soil.”
Leyte Gulf
• Japanese warships went to Leyte Gulf and
ambushed the American ships there
• Battle of Leyte Gulf
– Largest naval battle in history
– First time Japanese used organized kamikaze
attacks
• Japanese commander ordered a retreat b/c
he b/l more US ships were on the way
– Lucky for the US, the situation was b/c desperate
Getting the Philippines
• The campaign to recapture the Philippines
from the Japanese was long and grueling
– Over 80,000 Japanese were killed
– Less than 1,000 surrendered
• The Japanese were still fighting in the
Philippines when the word came in August
1945 that Japan had surrendered