Transcript File - Mrs. Alvarez History Home

European Front
Battle of Stalingrad

Summary of Battle: Soviets decide to
take a stand in Stalingrad which was a
major industrial railroad center
– Sept. 1942:Germans began a campaign of
bombing and shelling that lasted more than 2
months (Soviets took positions in rubble and
engaged the advancing German troops in
bitter house to house fighting)
– November 1942: taking advantage of harsh
weather, Soviets counter attack and
surrounded the German army
Battle of Stalingrad
– January 1943: the Soviets launched a final
assault on the freezing enemy and more than
90,000 surviving Germans surrendered to the
Soviets
Who was victorious?
Allies
Battle of Stalingrad
Significance of the battle:
 Stalingrad was a turning point of the war in the
east (Soviets were able to attack Western
Europe)
 The failure of the German Army was nothing
short of a disaster. A complete army group was
lost at Stalingrad and 91,000 Germans were
taken prisoner. With such a massive loss of
manpower and equipment, the German simply
did not have enough manpower to cope with the
Russian advance to Germany when it came.
Battle of Stalingrad video clip
D-Day
Summary of the Battle
 June 6, 1944: the largest landing by sea
in history dropped 4,600 ship carriers
landed on the coast (while ships were
landing overhead RAF bombers pounded
defenses in Normandy and 23,000
airborne British and American soldiers
were dropped behind enemy line)
 Three million troops crossing the English
Channel from England to Normandy to
occupied France
D-Day
Dawn D-Day: allied warships in channel began
a massive shelling off the coast some 1,000
American planes cont. the RAF’s air bombs and
150,000 Allied troops & their equipment began
to go ashore along the 60 miles of Normandy
coast
 Hitler did not counterattack but hesitated for
fear of a larger invasion at the narrowest part of
the English Channel ( even so German
resistance toward Allies at Omaha Beach
casualities numbered 2,000)

D-Day

Within one week of the battle beginning
half a million men came ashore and by
July allied Forces numbered some 2
million troops
Who was victorious?
Allied forces because they were able to land
on the sixty miles of beach in France &
then began there more into France to
reclaim Allied land from Germany
D-Day
Significance of battle
 Allied landing in France was a
psychological blow to the German
occupation of Europe
 Called into question the German Army’s
ability to control western Europe
 Heartened the spirits of all those fighting
against Nazi tyranny
D-Day

Balance of power on the continent,
already weakened by Soviet offensives
into Poland, was decisively tipped into
Allied favor. From that point on, the Allies
would begin the drive into Germany that
ultimately destroyed the Nazi regime on
May 7, 1945
D-Day video clip
Battle of the Bulge

Summary of the Battle
– Aug. 1944
 American troops liberated Paris
 British & Canadian forces freed Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium a
few days after Paris was free
– Mid Sept. 1944
 Combined Allied forces attacked Germans occupying Holland
 Americans crossed the western border of Germany
– Dec. 1944: Hitler army counter attacked with soldiers as
young as 15 in Belgium and Luxembourg (Start of the Battle
of Bulge) fought desperately to save their homeland
 German attack overwhelmed American forces pushing them back and
many small units cut off from the rest of army
Battle of the Bulge
From headquarters near Paris: Eisenhower
ordered more troops to the scene and General
Patton carried out the most spectacular scene:
in just days his entire army of 250,000 soldiers
from western France helped stop German
advance
 Largest battle in western Europe during war and
largest fought by U.S. Army (600,000 GIs80,000 killed, wounded or captured/German
losses totaled 100,000 troops
 After battle most Nazi leaders recognized that
war was lost

Battle of the Bulge
Who was victorious?
Allies
Significance of battle:
Nazi leaders realized that the war was lost and
eastern front was for the Soviet taking
Battle of the Bulge video clip