Transcript War in Europe - Beavercreek City Schools

War in
Europe
Germany’s LiGhtninG attack
New military strategy
 Blitzkrieg - “lightning war”
 fast moving planes and tanks
 Massive infantry forces
Poland falls quickly
 Germany annexes western
half
Soviets move in
 Sept 17
 Stalin enters Eastern half of
Poland
 Annexes Estonia, Lithuania, latvia
 Finland resists
 Winter battles
 March 1940 sheer force of numbers
 Finland surrenders
Phony war
 French and British mobilize along
Maginot line
Maginot Line
Phony War cont.
April 9, 1940
 “sitting war” ends
 Hitler attacks Denmark and
Norway
 Denmark falls in 4 hours
 Norway surrenders in 2 months
 Build bases to attack Britain
Fall of France
 May 1940
Germans sweep through
Netherlands (Holland)
Belgium
Luxembourg
Germany attacks France
through Ardennes forest
 Avoided Maginot line
 Pushed allied troops to
port city of Dunkirk
 Germans stopped
 Why?
Rescue at Dunkirk
Great Britain sends fleet
of ships to evacuate
allied forces
 Every ship available
 Air support
 May 26 – june 4
 Saved 338,000 soldiers
France Falls
 June 14 – Germans take Paris
 June 22, 1940 – French leaders
surrender
 Germans take control of Northern
France
 Vichy government – puppet
 Charles de Gaulle
 Sets up Free French army & gov’t in London
Battle of Britain
 Winston Churchill
 “We shall never surrender”
 Hitler’s plan
1. Knock out Royal air
force
2. Land 250,000 soldiers
B. Of Br. Cont.
 Summer 1940
 Luftwaffe – begins bombing
British airfields and aircraft
factories
 Sept 7 – begin bombing London
 Break morale
British never waver
B. Of Br. Cont.
 RAf fights back
 Radar
 Enigma – code breaking machine
 Germans turned to night bombings
 Continued to May 10, 1941
 Hitler decides to concentrate on
Mediterranean and Middle east
 Nazis could be blocked
Mediterranean
Focus on Northern Africa
 Mussolini vs. British in Egypt
 Feb 1941, Br. Swept across N.
Africa
 Taken 130,000 Italian prisoners
 Afrikan Corps
 Erwin Rommel “Desert fox”
 Defeats British
Balkans
Hitler plans to invade soviet
union
 Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary
join Axis powers (’41)
 Yugoslavia, Greece resist
 April 1941 – Hitler invades both
 Both fall within 3 weeks
Soviet union
Operation Barbarossa
June 22, 1941 Hitler invades
USSR
 Soviets not prepared
 Scorched earth
Sept 8 – reach Leningrad
Leningrad
By Nov. City cut off from
rest of soviet union
 Hitler to starve entire city
 City refuses to fall
 1,000,000 died
Moscow
Hitler impatient
 Turns to moscow
 Counterattacked by
Soviets
 Hitler orders “No retreat”
 Lines dug in 125 miles west of
moscow
 1 ½ years
Back to Africa
British and Montgomery
Americans and Eisenhower
Operation Torch
 Catch rommel’s Afrikan
Corps in between
 Defeated may 1943
Battle of Stalingrad
 Aug 23, 1942
 Luftwaffe night bombings
 Stalin refused to surrender
 Germans controlled 90% of city
 Winter sets in
 Soviets outside city counterattack
 Feb 2, 1943
 Germans surrendered
Italy
 Allied forces invade Sicily
 July 25 King Victor Emmanuel III
orders Mussolini arrested
 Sept 3 Italy surrenders
 April 27, 1945
 Mussolini captured while trying to
escape
 Shot and hung body in town square
Victory in Europe
Operation overlord
 Invasion of France
 Eisenhower commander
 Set-up dummy army to
look like invasion at
Calais
 Hitler convinced
D-Day
 June 6, 1944
 Landed at Normandy
 Stormed fortified beaches
 2700 Americans dies one day
 Held beaches
 1,000,000 additional troops landed
 Led by Gen. George Patton allies
reach paris in month
Battle of the Bulge
 Finally German offensive
 Surprise attack at center of Allied
lines – Dec 16, 1944
 Engulfed by allied army
 Forced to surrender
Surrender
 Soviets surround Berlin
 Allies moving in from west
 April 30 – Hitler commits suicide
 May 7, 1945
 Eisenhower accepts unconditional
surrender
V-E Day
May 9, 1945