Transcript WORLD WAR II

WORLD WAR II
ALLIED INVASIONS
War in Africa
• Fighting begins in Africa in 1940 when Italian
forces based in Libya attacked British-controlled
Egypt
– Italy wants an African empire
– The British need to protect the Suez Canal, since it was
the shipping route to the oil fields of the Middle East
– The British eliminate the Italian threat and even
invade Libya – the Italians were now on the defensive
• Feb. 1941 – 30,000 British soldiers capture 130,000
Italian prisoners, gain 500 miles
• Only lost 500 men and Ethiopia is freed
• Hitler steps in and sends the Desert Fox
– The new German and Italian force was called the
Afrika Korps and was led by General Erwin Rommel
• He pushes the British out of Libya and back into
Egypt
• Rommel and the British go back and forth
– The Afrika Korps lacks supplies – Rommel is
outnumbered and has less fire power
– Battle of El Alamein (Oct. 1942)
• British General Montgomery takes advantage of
Rommel’s supply problems
• Rommel retreats 2,000 miles
• Operation Torch – the Allied Invasion of Africa
– Stalin wants the Allies to invade Europe to open up a
second front
• The U.S. and especially the British decide to invade
Africa instead
– Nov. 1942 – three amphibious landings in the French
colonies of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco
• Led by American general Dwight Eisenhower
• Landed with 107,000 Allied troops and the Vichycontrolled colonies soon joined
• As a result, Germany occupies all of France
– Rommel is in trouble, has Allied forces to the east
and west
• Rommel goes to Berlin to plead for more troops
and weapons
– May 1943 the Afrika Korps surrenders and the war in
Africa is over
• 250,000 Axis soldiers taken prisoner and the Allies
control all of North Africa
Invasion of Italy
• Known as Operation Husky (June 1943)
– The Allies invade the island of Sicily first
– The Italians remove Mussolini from power
• Italy leaves the war in September
• Sicily is captured a few weeks later
– The Allies next invade mainland Italy
• Germany sends Rommel to defend northern Italy
• German resistance slows the Allies
• They reach Rome by May 1944
• Don’t gain total control of Italy until five days
before Germany surrenders
Battle of the Atlantic and Berlin
• Battle of the Atlantic
– Germany relied once again on U-boats since they
couldn’t match the battleships of Great Britain
• The German U-boat fleet consisted of 400 subs
• They fought in wolf packs for protection
• Sank 2,452 merchant ships and 174 warships at a
cost of thousands of lives and millions of dollars
– Eventually the Allies won control of the Atlantic
• Better-equipped convoys that hunted and
destroyed the U-boats
• Allies had broken the German code, knew the
location of the U-boats
• Battle of Berlin
– November 1943 to spring 1944
• Allies bomb Berlin and other cities
• Also bomb railways and infrastructure in France
Tehran Conference
• Nov. 1943 – meeting of the Allied Powers
– Main issue was the plan to launch the cross-channel
invasion
– Decide to create the United Nations to replace the
failed League of Nations
• Would be dominated by Britain, U.S., the Soviet
Union, and France
Invasion of France
• American generals Eisenhower and Marshall are
put in charge
– Assemble and train troops, also develop specialized
equipment to transport troops and tanks across the
channel
– Fake out Hitler – complex plan to mislead Hitler
about where the invasion would take place
• Hitler doesn’t know where the attack will happen,
sends Rommel to defend the coast of several
nations
• Rommel builds the Atlantic Wall
• D-Day June 6, 1944
– Operation Overlord – Allied forces invade France
– 150,000 troops land on the beaches of Normandy
and force their way through German defenses
– High amount of casualties, but D-Day was a huge
victory
• With the beaches secured, more Allied troops sent in
– 1 million soldiers in France by the end of June
– The Allies quickly reconquered most of France and
Paris is freed in August
Battle of the Bulge
• Dec. 1944 – the Germans launch a massive
counterattack in Belgium
– The Germans advance, creating a bulge in the Allied
battle lines
– By Jan. 1945 the Allies regain the land and crush the
German offensive
• Within two months the Allied forces had crossed the
Rhine River into Germany and were racing towards
Berlin
Allied Invasions
Allies
Invade
Code
Name
Who does Hitler
send to defend