Transcript World War II

World War II
Europe
North Africa
• Operation TORCH (Allies invade North
Africa)
• November 8, 1942
• Amphibious landings (including Patton in
Morocco)
Torch
• Planned by Eisenhower (Ike)
• Africa cleared of Germans by July 1943
• British from Egypt heading West … USA
from West heading East
• Allies defeated German and Italian forces
• Patton victorious at El Guitar
USA
British
Stalingrad
• German offensive to capture the Russian
city named for Joseph Stalin
• Winter of 1942-43
• Turning Point of the War in Europe
• Germans on the retreat in the East for the
rest of the war
Stalingrad
• Perhaps bloodiest battle in human history
… 1.5 million casualties
• Germans suffered 850,000 casualties …
25% of their forces on Eastern Front
• So great were Soviet losses that at points
in time the life expectancy of a newly
arrived soldier was less than a day
Sicily
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Operation HUSKY
Allied invasion of Sicily July 1943
U.S. 7th Army under Patton
British 8th Army under Montgomery
Allies victorious in under 8 weeks
Patton creative, defiant, brilliant
Italy
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Operation Avalanche
Allied invasion of Italy, September 1943
Italy surrenders before we even invade
Hitler rushes hundreds of thousands of
German troops to defend Italy
• Allies fight the GERMANS in Italy NOT the
Italians
Italy
• Major battles in the Italian Campaign
– Salerno (bloody amphibious landing in central
Italy)
– Anzio even bloodier … January 1944
– Monte Cassino (fortress on mountain … se
had to scale cliffs)
– Rome did not fall until June 1944
Importance of the Italian Campaign
• Gave Allies control of Mediterranean
• Gave Allies air bases from which to bomb
Germany
• Deprived Germans of troops that could
fight elsewhere
France
• Operation Overlord
• D-Day June 6, 1944
D-Day (UK)
Drive Across France
• American Army under Patton made a
brilliant drive across France
• British led by Montgomery slugged their
way across the Northern part of France
• BY winter of 1944 victory seemed assured
.. Home by Christmas?
Battle of the Bulge
• December 1944
• Hitler launches one last offensive through
the Ardennes
• Germans punch a “bulge” in Allied lines
• Patton and the U.S. 3rd Army to the rescue
Strategic Bombing
• Large part of Allied strategy in Europe and
the Pacific was aerial bombardment of
enemy territory
• USA planes and the RAF bombed German
cities to destroy factories, oil refineries,
and housing
• Bombing was also designed to terrorize
and demoralize the enemy population
Allied Bombing Statistics 1939-45
RAF Bombing Sorties & Losses 1939-45
Night Sorties: 297,663 Losses: 7,449
Day Sorties: 66,851 Losses: 876
RAF & USAAF Bomb Tonnages on Germany 1939-45
Year RAF Bomber Command US 8th Air Force
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
31 tons
13,033 tons
31,504 tons
45,561 tons
157,457 tons
525,518 tons
191,540 tons
1,561 tons
44,165 tons
389,119 tons
188,573 tons
Italian WWII
propaganda poster
depicting the allied
airmen as gangsters.
The text reads:
the inhumane crimes of
the gangster pilots
exclude for ever the US
from the commonwealth
of civilized states.
Germany
• The Allies (Britain and the USA) had to
race the Russians to Berlin
• April 1945 found the Allies in the German
capital (Russians too)
• FDR died April 12, 1945
• Hitler committed suicide April 30, 1945
• V-E Day (Victory in Europe) May 8, 1945