Transcript The War In Europe

January 30—Why do you think
Germany lost WWII?
The War In Europe
1942-1945
Lecture Outline
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I. Operations Barbarossa and Torch
II. The Battle of Stalingrad
III. D-Day
IV. Assault on Germany
V. Yalta Conference
Key Terms
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Operation Barbarossa
Operation Torch
Jean Darlan
Battle of Stalingrad
D-Day
Battle of the Bulge
Yalta Conference
Operation Barbarossa
• The German invasion of the Soviet Union was
planned for mid-May 1941 but it was postponed
until June 22 because of Greece.
• April—Hitler sent troops to Greece and took over
Yugoslavia on the way.
• The severe Russian winter arrived before
Germany could completely take over the USSR.
• German strategy was to launch a blitzkrieg that
would bring the invasion force to the Volga River
before winter.
Operation Barbarossa
• East of the Volga was to be left to the Russians.
• Hitler than intended to take over the Middle East
and North Africa.
• The goal was a war of extermination with the goal
of eliminating the “inferior races” of Eastern
Europe for future German settlement.
• 3 million German troops along with more than
50,000 soldiers of countries allied with Germany
(and over 600,000 horses) invaded the Soviet
Union.
Operation Barbarossa
• By December the Germans reached the suburbs
of Moscow.
• By mid-January 1942 the Germans had been
pushed a 100 miles to the west of Moscow.
• Hitler assumed personal command of the Eastern
Front.
• 3 million Soviets were sent to Germany to work as
slave labor.
American Contributions to the
Allied Cause
• Early 1942 it was decided that the Allies would
give priority to the European theater.
• 1 year after Pearl Harbor the US production of
armaments equaled that of Germany, Italy, and
Japan put together, and by 1944 it was double
that.
• During WWII the Soviet Union received from the
US over 400,000 trucks, 12,000 tanks, 14,000
planes, and large quantity of other good totaling
17.5 million tons.
American Contributions to the
Allied cause
• The Soviets built approximately 100,000 tanks,
100,000 aircraft, and 175,000 artillery pieces
during the war.
• About 2/3 of this material was destroyed in the
fighting and 20 million Russians died.
• Soviets had discovered that the solution to the
German blitzkrieg was to make miles deep zones
of defense with successive belts of trenches, mine
fields, bunkers, gun positions, and tank traps to
slow the Germans.
American Contributions to the
Allied Cause
• Countries from Germany eastward lost about 10%
of their population while the US lost ½ of 1% of its
population.
• 1943 and 1944 Soviet army’s casualties were 80%
of the forces engaged.
• Churchill wanted to fight Germany on the
periphery. US opposed this.
• US was not fully mobilized nor fully equipped and
its troops were green so Roosevelt chose to
invade French North Africa first.
Allied invasion of North Africa
• Some of the French military were loyal to the
Vichy regime, while others supported the Allies.
• After France’s defeat the French navy had sailed
to North Africa and Petain had refused to assure
Britain that the fleet would not fall into Germany
hands.
• In July 1940 the British navy attacked and
severely damaged the anchored fleet, killing over
1,200 French sailors in the process.
• Charles de Gaulle had created the Free French
Government in London.
Operation Torch
• Began on November 8, 1942.
• 117,000 Allied troops were committed to the
operation and 75% were American.
• Admiral Jean Darlan, commander of all the Vichy
France forces was captured after the invasion of
Algiers. He was the only Frenchman with the
prestige and authority to stop the French from
resisting the British and Americans.
• In return for arranging an immediate cease-fire,
Darlan would be named the military governor of
French North Africa.
Effects of Operation Torch
• The Germans reacted by occupying and taking
control of Vichy France.
• In July 1943 Sicily was invaded, Mussolini was
replaced by as head of state, and Italy surrendered
to the Americans and British.
• Italy was immediately occupied by German troops.
• The Italian fighting delayed the invasion of Western
Europe by another year and did not contribute to
any significant destruction of German power.
February 3--Why do you think
Germany lost WWII?
Battle of Stalingrad
• The Soviets lost more soldiers in the battle than
the US lost in combat the entire war.
• On November 19-20 1942, the Soviets launched a
powerful counter-attack.
• At the end of January 1943, the German Sixth
Army surrendered.
• The Soviets captured 91,000 prisoners, 1,500
tanks, and 60,000 vehicles.
Battle of Stalingrad
• In July 1943 the Germans attempted 1 major
offensive with 17 armored divisions.
• The Soviets repulsed the attack, and pushed the
German army back 200 miles.
• The Soviets had twice the manpower, and 2-3
times the weapons and equipment.
D-Day Preparation
• Between April 1 and June 5, 1944, the Allies lost
2,000 aircraft and 12,000 air crew killed in action.
• On June 6, 1944, D-Day, the Allied invasion of
France through Normandy occurred under the
command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• The Allies landed 8 divisions (156,000 men) on
the first day, 5 divisions ( 2 American, 2 British,
and 1 Canadian) from the sea, and 3 airborne
divisions (1 British, 2 American) from the air.
D-Day
• The operation required 5,000 ships and 12,000
planes.
• Allied D-Day casualties probably exceeded 10,000
although the exact number has never been
established.
• Germans had 60 divisions, 11 of them armored
but their preparations were hampered by
miscalculations and disagreements.
D-Day
• One week after D-Day the Allies had more troops
in France than did the Germans. They also had
complete mastery of the air.
• By the end of the Normandy campaign the Allies
were supporting more than two million soldiers on
the Continent.
• After D-Day the Allied air forces concentrated all
their resources on the destruction of Germany
Liberation of France
• On August 15, 1944 151,000 American, British,
Canadian and French troops landed on the
Mediterranean coast of France.
• In late August the Allies took Paris.
Assault on Germany
• Beginning in April 1942 the British, and later
Americans, began “carpet bombing” almost every
major city in Germany: 593,000 German civilians
were killed and over 3.3 million homes were
destroyed.
• 46,000 men of the British Bomber Command were
killed and as much as 1/3 of British military and
civilian manpower and industrial resources was
devoted to supporting strategic bombing in the
later years of the war.
Assault on Germany
• July 1943 an Allied air-raid on Hamburg started a
firestorm that killed 40,000 people in about 2
hours.
• Another firestorm occurred in Dresden in 1945
killing 135,000.
• Over the entire war, the average result of a single
British bomber sortie with a 7 man crew was less
than 3 Germans dead and after an average of 14
missions the bomber crew would be shot down.
Assault on Germany
• German military industrial production continued to
increase until late 1944.
• Hitler focused on new weapons like jet airplanes
and V-1 and V-2 cruise missiles. 22,400 V-1
missiles were launched. Beginning in September
1944, V-2 missiles, 1,115 fell on London, began
causing severe damage.
• Over 15,000 people were killed and more than
45,000 wounded from these rocket attacks.
Assault on Germany
• Allies were supporting more than 2 million soldiers
with more men arriving daily.
• A WWII combat division (there were 38 on the
continent) required an average of 700 tons of
supplies per day during periods of continued
combat.
• The fighting units committed in September 1944
required at least 1 million gallons of fuel per day.
Battle of the Bulge
• The Allied invasion was stopped only once at the
Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.
• The Allies crossed the Rhine River on March 7,
1945.
• The Soviet Army was thirty-five miles from the
eastern suburbs of Berlin.
• General Eisenhower’s concern over a collision
with the Red Army so it was decided upon as the
place for both armies to stop at the Elbe River.
Yalta Conference
• In February 1945, the
Allies had decided that
Berlin and Germany
would be divided into 4
separate sectors, each
to be administered by
one of the 4 Allied
powers.
• During the Battle of
Berlin (April 16-May 7,
1945) The Red Army
suffered 361,367
casualties.
The End
• April 30 Hitler committed suicide.
• On May 7, 1945 Germany surrendered.