Chapter 17 Section 2

The War for Europe and north Africa

War Plans

• 12/22/41-Churchill arrives at White House

• Creating war plans w/ FDR

• Defeat of Germany made top priority

Why Germany

• FDR considered Hitler #1 enemy of US

• Stalin desperate for help against invading Nazis

• Only w/ Germany out of the way could Britain and Soviet Union help the US against Japan

War Plans

• 2nd decision-Allies would accept only unconditional surrender from Axis Powers

Battle of the Atlantic

• Hitler ordered submarine raids against America east coast

• Germans sank 87 American ships in 1st 4 months of 1942

• 7 months in Nazis sunk 681 allied ships in Atlantic

Battle of the Atlantic

• Allies responded w/ convoys

• Escorted with destroyers equipped w/ sonar

• Planes used radar to locate subs on the ocean’s surface

• By May 1943-germans lost more subs than they could produce

Battle of the Atlantic

• 1939-1940 US built only 102 ships

• Early 1943- 140 Liberty ships being built each month

• Launching of ships now outnumbered ships being sunk

• Mid 1943- Nazis no longer had control of Atlantic

Battle of Stalingrad

• German invasion of SU halted at Moscow

• Nazis had to head south to replenish oil supply

• Had 2 goals– Seize oil rich

Caucasus Mtns.– Capture Stalingrad

• Major industrial center on Volga River

Battle of Stalingrad

• Nazis approach Stalingrad summer 1942

• Luftwaffe bombed city• Every wooden

building set ablaze• Stalin ordered city to

be defended at all costs

Battle of Stalingrad

• Germans pressed on for 3 months

• Hand to hand combat• By Sept. Nazis controlled

9/10 of the city• November-Soviets

counterattack• German officers begged

Hitler to allow a retreat• Hitler refused

Battle of Stalingrad

• Winter set in• 2/2/43 91,000

Germans surrendered• Soviets lost 1,250,000

people defending Stalingrad

• Turning point in war• Soviets now steadily

moving westward toward Germany

North Africa

• Operation Torch-the invasion of Axis controlled North Africa

• Commanded by general Dwight D. Eisenhower

North Africa

• Nov. 1942- 107,000 Allied troops land in Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers

• Move eastward chasing the Nazi Afrika Korps led by general Erwin Rommel

• Afrika Korps surrender in may 1943

The Italian Campaign

• Sicily captured in summer of 1943

• Italians war weary• 7/25/43- Italian King

stripped Mussolini of power

• Mussolini arrested• Hitler seized control

of Italy-reinstates Mussolini

The Italian Campaign

• 18 months of fighting followed

• 4/28/45 Italians helping the allies ambush Nazi convoy

• Found Mussolini disguised as a German soldier

• Killed him• Hung up his body in a

Milan square

D-Day

• US & Britain built invasion force for 2 years

• Ships, landing crafts, 3 million soldiers

• Invasion would target Normandy, France

• Allies begin by bombing supply routes

D-Day

• D-Day- day of the invasion of Hitler’s Europe-June 6, 1944

• British, American and Canadian troops attack 5 points along 60 miles of beach

D-Day

• 156,000 troops• 4,000 landing craft• 600 war ships• 11,000 planes• Largest land/sea/air

operation in history• German retaliation

was brutal

D-Day

• Allies hold beach• Within 1 month-

landed 1 million soldiers, 567,000 tons of supplies, 170,000 vehicles

D-Day

• August 25-Allied forces, many under the direction of General George Patton liberate Paris

FDR win again

• By September 1944-Allies had liberated France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and much of the Netherlands

• Also in 1944-Americans re-elect FDR to 4th term– New VP Harry S.

Truman

Battle of the Bulge

• October 44-Americans capture 1st German town

• Hitler counterattacks• 12/16/44 Germans

break through American lines

• Resulted in a massive dent in the Allied lines

Battle of the Bulge

• Battle raged on for a month

• Germans pushed back

• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, 1,600 planes-men and weapons they could not replace

Liberation of Death Camps

• Allied troops moving east

• Soviet troops moving west

• Soviets 1st to encounter a death camp-Poland

• Nazis working hard to destroy evidence

Unconditional Surrender

• 4/25/45- Soviets storm Berlin

• Hitler hiding in bunker• Marries Eva Braun on

4/29• Writes his last message

to German people-Blames Jews for starting war and his generals for losing it

Unconditional Surrender

• 4/30/45- Hitler commits suicide

• Had his body burned• May 8, 1945 Victory

in Europe (V-E) Day– 1st part of war over