Transcript World War II - Gonzaga College High School

The War in the Mediterranean
• North African Campaigns
– Italian Failures in Africa
• 9/40: Italy invaded Egypt.
– Goal = Suez Canal.
• Driven back by the British.
• Early 1941: British conquered Italy’s East
Africa Empire.
The War in the Mediterranean
• North African
Campaigns
– Rommel’s Campaign
– Afrika Korps to stave
off Italian collapse.
– 4/41: Combined
German/Italian force
pushed the British back
into Egypt.
• Invasion of Sov. Un.
= Lack of
reinforcements that
prevents follow up.
The War in the Mediterranean
• North African Campaigns
• Summer, ‘42: Rommel at El Alamein, near Alexandria.
– Invasion of Sov. Un. = Lack of reinforcements
that prevents follow up.
• 10/42: Montgomery’s 8th Army counterattacked,
forcing Rommel’s retreat.
The War in the Mediterranean
• North African Campaigns
– Allied Victory in North Africa.
• 11/8/42: Operation Torch under Eisenhower
– American forces advanced from the west while
British forces advanced from the east.
• 5/43: 250,000 Axis defenders surrendered in Tunisia.
North African Campaigns
The War in the Mediterranean
• The Invasion of Sicily and Italy
– Downfall of Mussolini
• North African victory led to the decision to
invade Italy with American & British forces.
• 7/43: Invasion of Sicily led to Mussolini’s
overthrow.
• 9/43: Invasion of Italy led to surrender of the
new Italian government.
• Germany, anticipating the surrender,
rescued Mussolini and occupied 2/3 of the
country.
The War in the Mediterranean
• The Invasion of Sicily and Italy
– The Italian Campaign
• Long & frustrating.
– Allies didn’t take Rome until 6/4/44.
– War in Italy lasted until spring of ‘45, only a few
days before the final German surrender.
The War in the Mediterranean
• Hitler’s Balkan Campaign
– Similar to events in Egypt, Italian
setbacks pulled Hitler into the Balkans
in early 1941.
• 10/40: Mussolini had invaded Greece from
occupied Albania.
• Greek counterattack threatened for drive the
Italians into the sea.
• To save Mussolini, Germans overran Greece
and Yugoslavia.
The Russo-German War
• The Invasion of the Soviet Union
– Early German Victories
• 6/22/41: Germans invaded the S. U. In a 3
front attack:
– toward Leningrad in the north
» Early Sept., 900 day siege of Leningrad
began.
– toward Moscow in the center
» Mid-July, Germans at the gates of Moscow.
– into the Ukraine in the south
» Mid-Sept., Germans captured Kiev, the capital
of Ukraine.
The Russo-German War
• The Invasion of the
Soviet Union
– Soviet Counterattack
– Fall, ’41: Deterioration
of Japanese-American
relations & Soviet troop
movement.
• 12/6/41: Soviet
Marshal Zhukov’s
forces
counterattacked
and drove the
Germans back from
50 to 100 miles.
Battle of Stalingrad
The Russo-German War
• Campaigns of 1942 and 1943
– Battle of Stalingrad
• Spring, ‘42: Germans launched an offensive toward
the oil-rich Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad.
– Never reached the oil fields.
– Stalingrad = one of the war’s bloodiest battles.
• Early ‘43: German 6th Army surrendered.
– Soviet Counterattack
• By the end of ‘43, Soviets had retaken 2/3 of the
territory Germany had occupied.
The War in Europe During
1944 and 1945
• The Air War Against Germany
– 1944: Increased American aircraft production.
– Americans specialized in daylight, highaltitude precision bombing.
• Targets: production facilities for synthetic gasoline
and rubber, aircraft factories, sub bases, railroads,
power stations.
– RAF specialized in night area bombing.
– Inflicted heavy damage but was not decisive.
• Victory over Germany won on the
battlefield, not by air raids.
Opening of the Second Front
The War in Europe During
1944 and 1945
• The Normandy Invasion
– 1944: Allied victory in sight.
• Slow Anglo-American advance in Italy.
• Red Army in the Baltic, Poland, and the Balkans.
– D-Day, 6/6/44: American, British, and Canadian
forces opened the Second Front in France.
• Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, was
the largest amphibious operation in history.
Normandy Invasion
The War in Europe During
1944 and 1945
• Attempted Assassination of Hitler
– 7/20/44: German military and civilian
opponents tried to bomb a meeting of
Hitler’s staff.
– Hitler survived, losing the hearing in
one ear.
– Reprisals vs conspirators.
The War in Europe During
1944 and 1945
• Allied Advance in France
– Operation Dragoon:
• Eisenhower’s troops pushed toward Paris.
• Other Allied forces landed on the southern coast of
France and began to advance north thru the Rhone
valley.
– Paris liberated on 8/25/44.
– Allied troops pushed thru the Low Countries
and toward the Rhine River frontier between
France & Germany.
The Eastern Front
The War in Europe During
1944 and 1945
• The Eastern Front
– Mid-Sept., 1944: Red Army had
advanced to a line running thru the
Baltic states to the Vistula River east of
Warsaw, southward to the Carpathian
Mountains, and into the Balkans as far a
Sofia, Bulgaria.
– Germany’s allies, Finland, Rumania, and
Bulgaria, had dropped out of the war.
The War in Europe During
1944 and 1945
• The Battle of the Bulge
– Prediction of ceasefire by end of ‘44
was premature.
– 12/44: Germans launched a desperate
counterattack against the Americans in
the Ardennes Forest in Belgium.
• Called the Battle of the “Bulge” because the
Germans almost broke thru the center of the
American line.
• The line ultimately held.