Transcript WORLD WAR II

WORLD WAR II
THE EASTERN FRONT
THE WAR ENDS IN EUROPE
War on the Eastern Front
• Three German Army groups invade the Soviet Union
– They get close to Moscow, but will never take it
– Winter comes and the German advance stops as
soldiers freeze and equipment stops workings
– The Siberian Army arrives and the Russians retake
lots of land
– Barbarossa is a failure
• Siege of Leningrad
– Germans fail to capture the city, so Hitler orders a
siege, or military blockade
• Designed to force the city to surrender
– Winter of 1941-1942 people starved to death at a
rate of 3,000-4,000 a day
• As many as one million will eventually die in the
siege
– The Soviets end the siege in early 1944 after 900 days
• Spring of 1942 German forces renewed their attacks on
the Soviet Union
– Fought well at first and by August looked ready to
capture the city of Stalingrad
• One of the largest in the nation and its factories
produced military equipment vital for the Soviet
war effort
• Battle of Stalingrad – Aug. 1942
– One of the most brutal battles of the war
– The Luftwaffe and artillery bomb the city into rubble
• German troops then go in to wipe out the
remaining Soviet defenders
• Vicious house-to-house fighting ensues
• Tens of thousands die on each side
– Soviets manage to hold off the German attack by the
fall of 1942 and organize a counterattack
• A Soviet force breaks through and surrounds the
Germans, around 250,000 men
• The Germans could escape the trap by retreating,
but Hitler won’t allow it
– By Jan. 1943 the Germans are out of ammunition,
food, and medicine, but Hitler tells them that
surrender is forbidden
• 90,000 Germans that are left surrender shortly
after, making Hitler mad
• Most of them will die in Soviet camps
– This was the first major defeat of Hitler’s armies
• Operation Bagration – June 1944
– Soviet offensive against the Germans
• Pushes the Germans out of Russia and into central
Europe
• Leads to another 800,000 German casualties
– July the Soviets capture Poland
– Captures Romania and Bulgaria in Sept. 1944
– Captures Hungary at the end of 1944
– Vienna captured in April 1945
• By January 1945 the Germans were within 40
miles of Berlin
Yalta Conference
• Meeting of the Allied Powers
– Purpose was to discuss the final strategy for defeating
Germany and Japan
• Division of Germany and Berlin into occupation
zones
– The Soviet Union gets to keep territory in Poland
• Stalin promises to respect democratic ideals in
Eastern European countries that the Soviet armies
now occupied
– In return Stalin promises to declare war on Japan
– UN Security council featuring Britain, U.S., Soviet
Union, France, and China
• Would have more power than other member nations
Victory in Europe
• The race to Berlin is on between the Soviets and the
other Allies (Americans, British, and French)
– The Soviets win
• Take 200,000 casualties to gain the last 39
– Half a million Soviets surround Berlin in late August
1945
• Hitler commits suicide on May 2 and Berlin
surrenders the same day
• On May 7th Germany surrenders
– May 8th is proclaimed V-E Day = Victory in Europe
Day
World War II Conferences
T = Tehran Conference
Y = Yalta Conference
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Stalin promises to declare war on Japan
Creates the United Nations
Final strategy for defeating Germany and Japan
Security Council that includes France and China
Plan the cross-channel invasion
Division of Germany into four zones