Transcript Chapter 18 Section 3

Chapter 18
Section 3
Victory
In
Europe
Axis surrender in North Africa
• When France surrendered in 1940, Germany placed
France’s territories in Africa under control of Vichy,
France
• In November 1942 the {Allies planned Operation Torch.
Commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the
operation was a planned invasion of northern Africa}
• On Nov. 8th, 65,000 Allied troops landed at Casablanca
in Morocco and at Oran and Algiers in Algeria
• As the soldiers established beachheads in Morocco and
Algeria, Allied planes and ships cut Axis supply lines
from Italy
• Allied troops came in from the east and the west forcing
the Axis troops into a trap.
• After several battles in Tunisia, in May 1943 the Axis
The Invasion of Italy
• {After the victory in Africa, the Allies decided to next invade
Sicily
• Led by General George S. Patton the Allies won the island in
less than a month}
• The Italian king ordered Mussolini's arrest and signed a truce
with the Allies
• But the Germans came in and took Mussolini and set up a new
base for him in northern Italy
• Pushing their troops northward through Italy proved difficult for
the allies
• Small armies from more than 25 different countries joined the
Allies along the way
• After months of brutal warring in the mountains, the Germans
occupying Italy were finally defeated
• Soon after that Mussolini was captured and executed by Italian
rebels
General Patton
Sea and Air Assaults
• Meanwhile Germans U-boats in the Atlantic were
taking their toll on Allied ships and supplies
• This Battle of the Atlantic took a turn for the better
for the Allies with the improvements of sonar
equipment, which uses wound waves to detect
underwater objects
• {Between the sonar, faster boats and air bombs, by
1944 the Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic}
• In 1943 the Allies began to focus their air strikes on
German military production facilities
• By 1944, the Allies had dropped hundreds of
thousands of tons of explosives on German factories,
supply lines and military centers
Operation Overlord
• U.S. Army chief of staff and Allied strategist, George C.
Marshall led the planning for Operation Overlord, the Allied
invasion of German-occupied France
• General Eisenhower commanded the invasion
• {On June 6, 1944, {led by Omar Bradley, almost 5,000
transports carrying some 150,000 men landed on the beach at
Normandy.} Overhead, planes dropped more than 23,000 more
troops. This is now known as D-Day}
• The Allied forces had leaked false information to the Germans
that they would be attacking France in Calais, so Hitler did not
send any reinforcements to Normandy
• After a hard earned victory in Normandy the Allied began their
push eastward through France
• Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944.
• Another Allied force was moving north through France from the
Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Soviet forces were pressing
Germany from the east
General Omar Bradley
The Holocaust
• Nothing prepared the Allies for the horrors of the {Holocaust,
which was Nazi Germany’s slaughter of European Jews}
• If Jews were not forced into groups and shot, they were sent to
concentration camps.
• These camps were designed for the specific purpose of
{genocide- the deliberate annihilation of an entire race or
culture}
• Jewish men, women and children were brought to the camps in
sealed railroad cars
• They were then stripped and marched into large shower rooms
were they were gassed. Their bodies were then cremated
• {About 6 million Jews, about 2/3 of the Jewish population in
Europe, were murdered}
Continued….
• {The Nazis also killed hundreds of thousands of
Gypsies, Poles, mentally disabled people, and
homosexuals}
• When the Allies liberated the death camps, they found
thousands of emaciated survivors on the verge of
death
• Some non-Jewish people in Nazi occupied countries
either assisted the Nazi’s or failed to prevent them
from sending the Jews to the camps
• Others worked heroically to save the lives of Jews.
Defeating Germany
• By September 1944 the Allies crossed the German
border
• While the Allied halted to regroup and bring in
supplies, Germany launched their final counter attack
• In the Battle of the Bulge, 200,000 German troops
attacked the U.S. force of 80,000.
• The U.S. 101st Airborne Division were completely
surrounded. When asked to surrender General
Anthony McAuliff offered only one word in reply:
“Nuts”
• But Allied generals rush in reinforcements and they
were able to push the Germans back
• By January 1945 it was pretty clear the German
offensive had failed
Battle of the Bulge - New Year's Day,
snow & frost-covered Browning
.30 caliber LMG,
in position near Sourbrodt, Belgium,
Jan 1, 1944
The Yalta Conference
• Roosevelt was elected for an unprecedented
fourth term with Harry S. Truman as his running
mate
• {In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and
Stalin met at the Yalta Conference to plan for
post war peace.}
• At the conference Stalin pledged to declare war
on Japan after they were done in Germany
• The Allied agreed to divide and occupy
Germany after the war and outlined the plans
for a new international peace organization
The Race to Berlin
• During the early months of 1945, Allied bombers
continued to blast German cities
• In one massive two day attack on Dresden, Allied
bombers created the worst firestorm of WWII.
• The civilian casualties at Dresden were estimated at
between 40 and 60 thousand
• In March troops crossed the Rhine River into
Germany, by then the Soviets occupied much of
eastern Europe
• {On April 30 1945, Adolph Hitler committed
suicide}. He was found in his bunker underneath the
city of Berlin
• Germany surrendered on May 7th
D
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S
D
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Before Feb. 1945
After the Bombing
The German city of
Rothenburg now and
after it was
destroyed during
WWII