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Retaking Europe
August 1941
FDR and Winston Churchill
met in secret on a warship off
of Newfoundland to guide
them in the years ahead.
Became the basis for
the United Nations.
When the U.S. entered the war in 1941,
it was a critical time for the Allies:
• Britain suffered major bomb damage.
• German blitzkrieg extended Nazi control
across most of Europe.
• In North Africa, German and Italian
forces were bearing down on British
forces.
Many people feared that Germany could
not be stopped.
Battle of the
Atlantic
Wolf packs were groups of as many as 20 U-boats
which attacked Allied convoys of military and
merchant ships and caused trouble in the Atlantic.
North Africa
Campaign
1941-1943
General Eisenhower
General Rommel
“Desert Fox”
The Italians with German
help had pushed deep into
British controlled Egypt
and threatened the Middle
East. The U.S. arrived in
Nov, 1942.
Operation Torch
Nov. 1942
By May 1943, the Allies
had the Axis forces in N.
Africa trapped. Despite
Hitler’s demands not to,
about 240,000 Germans
and Italians surrendered.
German Advance As the Allies battled their
way across North Africa
in the
and into Italy, an epic battle
Soviet Union
raged in eastern Europe.
1941-42
Looking for “living space,”
Hilter broke his pact with
Stalin and began a plan to
seize farmland in the Ukraine.
Operation Barbarossa
Stalin asked for and received U.S.
aid through the Lend-Lease Act.
Stalin ordered a “scorched earth”
policy for any retreating Soviet troops.
Stalin desperately urged
the other Allies to launch
an attack on Western
Europe (France). This
would take pressure off
the Soviet Union by
forcing Hitler to fight a
two-front war.
Churchill persuaded FDR to attack through
Italy, Europe’s “soft under-belly” instead.
Battle of Stalingrad
Nov. 1942
January 1943
90,000
Germans
surrendered;
Turning point of the war in
330,000
Germans
Eastern Europe. USSR began
perished;
Soviet
losses
a long struggle to regain
could
be
as
high
as
territory lost to Germany.
1,100,000
Casablanca
Conference,
January 1943
Churchill and FDR
meet again in
Casablanca, Morocco.
They map out their
strategy for the rest of
the war…continuing
the course of
concentrating Allied
resources in Europe
Nothing but Germany’s
“unconditional surrender”
before trying to win
will do to end the war.
the war in the Pacific.
Invasion of Italy
July 1943
In July 1943, U.S. 7th
Division, under General
George S. Patton, invaded
Sicily with British forces.
The Italians lost faith in
Mussolini. He was arrested
and removed from office.
The German’s free him and
evacuated
him to
Northern
Italy.
Invasion of Italy
July 1943
In September 1942, as the
Allies threatened to
overrun Rome, Italy’s new
government surrendered.
In October, the Italians
declared war on Germany.
The Germans set up Mussolini
as a puppet ruler of a fascist
Italian state in northern Italy.
Mussolini was shot and killed
by Italians as he tried to flee
across the northern Italian
border as the Allies advanced.
The Allied Air
War
Carpet Bombing
by the Allies caused
severe damage in
German cities.
Allied Invasion of
Western Europe
In late 1943, the British
finally agreed to go along
with Stalin and FDR and
invade Western Europe.
Operation
Overlord
would be
launched from
Great Britain.
General Eisenhower was
named Supreme Commander
of the Allied invasion forces.
Landing at the
Normandy Beaches
D-Day
June 6, 1944
Liberating France
Charles de Gaulle
immediately took
charge of the
French government.
United States’
General Patton used
blitzkrieg techniques to
burst out of Normandy. He
and his troops swept across
Northern France.
The French
Resistance
helped the
U.S. 1st
Division
free Paris.
Liberating France
The Allies began to
push the Axis
powers back
through Belgium
and Luxembourg
towards Germany.
Battle of the Bulge
December 1944
The Nazis fought
desperately to defend
their conquests in Europe.
After being pushed out
of France, the Germans mounted a counter-attack in
Belgium & Luxembourg, the largest battle Europe.
Battle of the Bulge The Nazis hoped to split
the Allies in two. The
Allies focused on cutting
the Nazi supply lines.
Fighting in terrible winter
conditions, the Allies
were finally able to
defeat the Nazis. After
the battle, most German
leaders recognized that
the war was lost.
Yalta Conference
February 1945
- Agreed to split
Germany into four
zones, each under
control of a major
Allied country.
- Stalin promised
FDR, Churchill and Stalin
fair elections in E.
European countries meet to plan the final defeat
and participation in of Hilter and decide the shape
of the post-war world.
the Pacific theater.
Soviet Forces
Advance
The Soviet
Union had lost
over 11 million
soldiers during
WWII
(compared to
Germany’s 3
million).
After the hardships their
country endured, Soviet
leaders considered the capture
of Berlin a matter of honor.
Berlin falls in April 1945.
Hitler commits suicide
- Germany surrenders!
May 1, 1945
Hitler and Eva Braun.
Outside the underground
bunker where Hitler died.
V-E Day