Transcript Spiders as Big as your fist! Witness History

Spiders as Big as your fist!
Witness History
It was beautiful, but beneath the loveliness
Guadalcanal was a mass of lps and stinks and
pestilence; of scum-crusted lagoons and vile swamps
inhabited by giant crocodiles; a place of spiders as big
as your fist and wasps as long as your finger…of ants
that bite like fire, of tree leeches that fall fasten and
suck; of scorpions, of centipedes whose foul scurrying
across human skin leaves a track of inflamed flesh, of
snakes and land crabs, rats and bats and carrion birds
and of a myriad of stinging insects.” Robert Leckie,
Delivered from Evil: The saga of WWII
Axis and Allies Plan Stategy
Allies spied signs of
hope
Axis Power shared
common enemies but
nurtured individual
dreams
Hitler-dominate Europe &
“eliminate” inferior
peoples
Mussolini-Italian empire
Tojo-Japanese control of
the Western Pacific/Asia
Allies shared more
unified goals
Roosevelt, Churchill &
Stalin considered
Germany the most
dangerous enemy
Agreed to pursue a
“Europe first” stategy
Turning the tide in Europe
FDR-America will be the
“arsenal of democracy”.
How?
Allies battled U-boats in
the Atlantic
• Wolf-packs controlled
the Atlantic & Caribbean
• Mid-1943, the Allies
began to win
– Convoys
– Radar
– Depth Charges
Soviets turn back Nazis at Stalingrad
Germany’s main
objective-conquer
Soviet Union
Stopped by heavy Soviet
resistance and brutal
Russian winter
Battle of Stalingrad-true
turning point in the war
in Europe
Nazi armies, starving,
sick & suffering from
frostbite were forced to
retreat
Allies drive Germans out of
North Africa
Forcing Germany out of
N. Africa would pave
the way for an invasion
of Italy
Oct, 1942 British won a
victory at El Alamein
Nov, 1942-Allies landed
in Morocco
• Led by Dwight
Eisenhower
Kasserine Pass
Erwin Rommel (Desert
Fox) led the German
offensive
Allies won but not by
much
• Taught Allies that they
needed better desert
training
General George S. Patton Jr.
In charge of the desert
training
Known as “blood and guts
Patton told his junior
officers,
“You usually will know
where the front is by the
sound of gunfire, and that’s
the direction you should
proceed. Now, suppose you
lose a hand or an ear is shot
off, or perhaps a piece of
your nose, and you think
you should walk back to get
first aid, if I see you, it will
be the last…walk you’ll ever
take.”
Under his command:
Axis forces were pushed
into a shrinking pocket in
Tunisia.
Rommel escaped, but his
army did not
In May, 1943, 240,000
German and Italian troops
surrendered.
Allies Invade Italy
FDR & Churchill met in
Casablanca to decide
their next move
Decided to increase
bombing in Germany
Invade Italy
ONLY “unconditional
surrender would be
accepted” to end the
war
Why Italy?
Allies could invade sicily
without great risk from Uboat attacks
Protected by air superiority
July 1943
Commanded by Ike
38 day campaign achieved
great results
• Gave Allies complete
control of the western
Mediterranean
• Paved the way for
invasion of Italy
• Ended the rule of
Mussolini
• Sep 3, 1943-Italy
surrendered
Tuskegee Airmen
Bombers batter Germany
Night fliers launched
nonstop air raids
against Germany
Saturation
bombing used to
inflict maximum
damage
By day, American
bombers strategically
bombed Germanydestroying their
capacity to make war
Played a key role in
bombing
1500 missions, did
not lose a single
bomber
Overall-Bomber crews
suffered 20% casualty
rate
Turning the tide in the Pacific
May 1942, Japanese still
making forward
momentum
Turning point
Midway
Led by Charles Nimitz
Navy code breakers had
intercepted Japanese
messages and met the
expected assault
June 5, 1942
US sunk 4 Japanese
aircraft carriers while
the US lost 1