Transcript Chapter 11 Section 3 War in Europe and North Africa The Big Idea

War in Europe and North Africa
The Big Idea
After fierce fighting in North Africa and Europe, the Allies
stopped the German advance and slowly began driving back
German forces.
Main Ideas
• The Allies fought back against the Axis Powers in North
Africa and Europe.
• Key Allied victories halted the German advance.
• In the D-Day invasion, Allied forces attacked Germancontrolled France.
Main Idea 1: The Allies fought back against the Axis Powers in
North Africa and Europe.
Allies Join Forces

Roosevelt and Churchill meet to develop Allied plan.

Priority: defeat the Germans
New Technologies
• Sonar– uses sound waves to detect objects underwater
• Long-range aircraft– allowed Allies to drop bombs on
German factories, railroads and cities
Main Idea 2: Key Allied victories halted the German advance.
North Africa
Italy
• 1942– German Afrika
Korps began North Africa
offensive against Egypt.
• July 1943– Allied forces
invaded Sicily and headed
to mainland Italy.
• British stopped them at
Battle of El Alamein.
• Slowly moved northward
along western coast
• U.S. and British troops led
by Dwight D. Eisenhower
advanced from Morocco
and Algeria to defeat
Germans.
• June 1944– Allied forces
captured Rome.
• 1945– Germans driven out
of Italy and Mussolini
executed by Italian
freedom fighters.
Eastern Front
• Massive German and Soviet armies battled on eastern front.
• By mid-1942, Axis armies had driven deep into Soviet Union.
• German forces advanced to fight Battle of Stalingrad.
— Savage street fighting continued for months.
— German supplies began to run low.
— Winter set in and thousands of Germans froze or starved to death.
• In January 1943 the German commander surrendered.
• Soviet victory came at an enormous cost.
— More than 1 million Soviet soldiers dead
— About 800,000 Axis soldiers killed
Main Idea 3: In the D-Day invasion, Allied forces attacked German-controlled
France.
Invasion of German-occupied France
• First step toward liberating Europe and forcing Hitler to surrender
• Dwight Eisenhower spent months in planning.
• June 6, 1944– D-Day, or “designated day”
Britain.
— American, British, and Canadian troops invade France from Great
— Americans landed on two beaches, codenamed Utah and Omaha.
— Fierce fighting
— Almost 3,000 killed or wounded at Omaha Beach alone.
— By end of day, all five Normandy beaches secured.
• Allies began moving east toward Germany.
War in the Pacific
The Big Idea
Allied forces reversed Japan’s expansion in the Pacific and battled toward the
main Japanese islands.
Main Ideas
• The Japanese continued advancing across the Pacific in 1942.
• The Allies stopped Japan’s advance with key victories over the Japanese
navy.
• The Allies began battling toward Japan.
Main Idea 1: The Japanese continued advancing across the Pacific in 1942.
• Attack on Pearl Harbor left U.S. Pacific fleet weakened.
• Japan advanced and conquered Thailand, Burma, the British colonies of Hong Kong
and Singapore, and the U.S. territories of Guam and Wake Island.
• Japanese then attacked U.S. controlled Philippines.
— American and Filipino forces under command of American general
Douglas MacArthur
•
March 1942– Allied forces surrender Philippines to Japan.
— Japanese march more than 70,000 captured soldiers to prison camps.
— More than 600 Americans and 10,000 Filipinos died in the Bataan Death
March.
Main Idea 2: The Allies stopped Japan’s advance with key victories over the
Japanese navy.
• Allies feared continued Japanese advance.
• Americans were able to break Japanese codes and discovered battle plans.
• American admiral Chester Nimitz led the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Allied response.
Key Victories in the Pacific
Battle of the Coral Sea
•
Japanese planned
assault on Port
Moresby, New Guinea.
•
American and Japanese
aircraft carriers and
fighter planes clashed.
•
No clear victor, but
Japanese advance
halted
Battle of Midway
Guadalcanal
•
Japanese planned
surprise attack on
Midway Islands.
•
Allies began
recapturing Japanese
territory.
•
June 4, 1942–
Japanese attack and
American fighters
launch
•
August 1942–
American Marines
invade Guadalcanal.
•
Six months of intense
fighting
•
February 1943– Allied
victory
•
•
American bombers
destroy four carriers
and severely weaken
Japanese naval power.
Allied victory
Main Idea 3: The Allies began battling toward Japan.
• Allies go on offensive
— Develop island hopping strategy, where Allied forces took only
the most strategically important islands.
— Win victories in Gilbert, Marshall, Mariana, Volcano, and Bonin
Islands.
• October 1944– General MacArthur leads mission to retake Philippines.
history
— Confrontation at Battle of Leyte Gulf– largest naval battle in
— Allies crush Japanese fleet.
— Allied forces drive out all Japanese forces by summer 1945.
• Allied planes begin bombing targets in Japan.
— Japanese refused to surrender.
Final Battles
Iwo Jima
•
February 1945– U.S. Marines storm beaches of Iwo Jima
•
Month of bloody fighting
– Of 20,000 Japanese defenders, about a thousand were
taken prisoner, the rest were killed or wounded in battle.
– Around 6,800 Americans killed
Okinawa
•
April 1945– U.S. forces attack Okinawa.
•
Fighting lasts three months
•
Japanese planes use kamikaze tactic– purposely crashing
piloted planes into enemy ships.
•
Severe casualties
— Allies: 12,000 dead, 36,000 wounded
— Japan: 110,00 troops and 80,000 civilians dead