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World War II
The United States in WWII
The European Theater
1942 to 1943
WWII European Theater
Focus Question
From the Soviet Union’s
perspective, discuss how the
World War II European
effort was conducted.
Believing that Germany
was more of a threat than
Japan, the Allies adopted
a Europe first policy
against the Axis powers.
Many United States citizens thought that the Japanese
should be the focus of our early military effort.
The Soviet Union wanted the United States to help
them propel the Germans from the Western
sections of the Soviet Union.
While the U.S. did give attention to the Pacific
Theater...
...The major strategy employed was to lead a
North African Front that would then go up
through Italy’s “soft underbelly” and thereby
divert attention from the Eastern Front.
WWII
The African Campaign
In October, 1942 at the
Battle of El Alamein, the
Germans were defeated by
British General
Bernard Montgomery for
the first time.
Nazi Erwin Rommel (The
Desert Fox) was a very capable
opponent despite being
outnumbered.
While a slow and grueling
process still lied ahead,
the Nazi empire had
begun its decline.
WWII
The African Campaign
General Dwight Eisenhower led a
British-American invasion of the
Axis controlled North Western
African continent as British
General Montgomery pushed from
the west, sandwiching and
defeating General Rommel
WWII
The Battle of Stalingrad
After six months of brutal fighting, the surviving
Germans surrendered.
Losing approximately 300,000 to the effort, the
Germans would never again carry out a successful
offensive on the Eastern Front.
The effort had cost the Soviets over 1/2 a million
soldiers and civilians.
In total, the Soviets would lose millions to the war effort.
World War II
The European Theater
1943 to 1945
WWII
Battle of the Atlantic
• 1941-42: “Wolf packs” almost drove U.S.
shipping from the Atlantic.
• 1942: The Germans sank over 900 Allied
ships.
• To cope, the Allies employed convoys,
aircraft carries, and sonar to minimize loses.
• By 1943 the life line to both the British and
Soviets was again established.
WWII
Italy
• July 1943 to June 1944
• Mussolini’s government
crumbled
• Hitler sent troops to
“save” Italy
• The Allies did not take
Rome Until June, 1944
• (The effort did help take
some German pressure
off the Eastern Front.)
Mussolini and his wife are
hung upside down for
public ridicule.
In the December, 1943 Tehran Conference
Stalin (“Uncle Joe,”) Roosevelt, and Churchill
agreed to the “Operation Overlord”.
Churchill’s support was reluctant as he feared
Soviet influences in Europe after WWII.
WWII
Operation Overlord / D-Day
• Involved 3 million Allied soldiers, sailors, and
airmen
• Launched from southern England
• Aimed at Northern France
• Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower
kept the Germans guessing as to the exact
location and time.
• The Germans expected an attack near Calais,
northeast of the actual planned location
General Eisenhower later spoke of the difficulty
of sending these young men to their potential
(and probable) death beds on the eve of the
Normandy invasion … D-Day.
WWII
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
While the Allies were successful
in taking the Normandy
beachfront, as General
Eisenhower had feared it came
at a great expense.
After establishing a
foothold in northern and
(shortly afterward)
southern France, the
Allies took Paris back on
August 25, 1944.
On the eve of the winter
of 1944-45, the Allied
forces were closing in on
Hitler on all sides.
Many thought the war
would end shortly.
WWII
Battle of the Bulge
The Germans tried to
wedge a break along a
weak point in the
Allies’ Western line to
create a “path” to the
English Channel.
After ferocious fighting
on both sides, the
Germans offensive was
repelled.
With the Nazi loss at the Battle
of the Bulge, the defeat of the
Germans was just a matter of
time.
WWII
Yalta Conference - February 1945
When Roosevelt
gathered at the Yalta
Conference with
Churchill and Stalin
he was a dying man.
By the end of the war President Roosevelt was
showing signs of the illness that would
eventually would shortly claim his life.
Many historians argue that
FDR’s health affected his
performance as he ceded too
much over to the Soviet Union
for the post-WWII era.
WWII
Yalta Conference
U.S. “Gains”
• Stalin/Churchill agree to
a United Nations
• Soviet pledge to declare
war on Japan three
months after defeating
Germans. (With the
Atomic Bomb not yet
ready for use, this was an
important agreement.)
Soviet “Gains”
• Occupy Outer Mongolia and
several Japanese Islands.
• New post war borders for
Poland and Germany
• Germany to be divided into
four occupation zones.
• New European governments
were to be “broadly
representative of democratic
elements.
In April, 1945 President Franklin Roosevelt Died
The Nation Mourned.
Harry S. Truman (pictured here shaking hands
with General Eisenhower) became President.
WWII
Germany Defeated
On April 25, 1945, the
Russian and American forces
met up at the Elbe River.
Eisenhower, wanting to
avoid casualties and end the
war, stopped at the Elbe.
Many (such as Churchill,)
anticipating the Cold War era,
argued that the United States
should have pressed further
into Europe rather than
stopping at the Elbe River as
had been previously agreed
upon.
“Discovering the Holocaust”
WWII
V-E Day - May 8, 1945
With Hitler’s suicide and
Germany’s unconditional
surrender, the world
celebrated V-E Day.