Transcript WW II War in Europe

WW II War in Europe
Retaking Europe from the Nazi’s
Atlantic Charter
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August 1941- U.S. still not in the war
Off the coast of Newfoundland
2 warships at anchor
On Board- Winston Churchill and FDR
Discuss war aims and what peace would look
like.
• Both new the U.S. would eventually be in the
war.
U.S. Joins the Struggle
• Dec 7 1941-Pearl Harbor Attack
• London and other British cities badly damaged
by Germans
• France under Nazi rule
• North Africa- German and Italian forces
bearing down on the British
• Many feared Germany could not be stopped
Battle of the Atlantic
• Britain needed supplies from U.S. and its
overseas colonies.
• German U-Boats (Subs)- controlled the
Atlantic
• Britain and U.S.- convoy systems led by
Warships to counteract U-Boats
• Germans resorted to Wolf Packs (20 subs) and
used night time attacks to beat the convoys.
Atlantic Cont.
• U-Boats began attacking U.S. merchant ships
off the U.S. coast.
• 1942- Wolf Packs sank 175 ships
• Allied- (U.S./Britain/Russia)- convoys began
using long range sub hunting aircraft which
caused the effectiveness of the U-Boats to
decrease.
North Africa Campaign
• German General: Erwin Rommel- “Desert Fox”
• Running rough shot across North AfricaPushing British defenses back
• North Africa- control of Middle East Oil
• November 1942- British General Bernard
Montgomery won a victory at El Alamein,
Egypt
• German Army retreated.
North Africa Cont.
• November 1942- U.S. Army arrived- Headed
by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Landed in French Territories of Morocco and
Algiers- Began pushing eastward across North
Africa.
• British troops pushed westward
• Hitler responded by sending 20,000
additional troops to reinforce Rommel in
Tunisia
North Africa cont.
• Inexperienced Americans were defeated
(Kasserine Pass) but learned their lesson and
soon the British & Americans had the Germans
trapped.
• Hitler ordered them to fight to the death240,000 German (Afrika Corp) and Italian
soldiers surrendered
• Churchill and Roosevelt – January 1943Casablanca Conference – map out the rest of the
war strategy.
Invasion of Italy
• Retake Europe
• Allies not prepared to invade France
• Stalin (USSR) wanted the U.S. to invade
France to take the pressure off the Eastern
(Russian Front)
• Instead Churchill and FDR believed attacking
the soft underbelly of Europe (Italy) was the
next stage of the war.
Italy Cont.
• July 1943- U.S. 7th Army under Gen. George S.
Patton invaded the Island of Sicily
• Italy in jeopardy- Fascist council voted to
remove Mussolini.
• Mussolini was arrested- fascist party in Italy
disbanded.
• Hitler rescued Mussolini and evacuated him
to Northern Italy.
Italian Campaign Cont.
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U.S. Forces bogged down at Cassino, Italy
U.S. Forces also land at Anzio but German defenses held.
U.S. blocked in for 4 months
U.S. Finally broke through German defenses in May. 10’s of
thousands of Allied soldier had been killed.
• Allies then captured Rome.
• By the following April Germans had surrendered in Italy.
• Mussolini was shot and killed by Italians as he tried to
escape the country.
War in the Soviet Union
• While the U.S. and British were battling the
Axis in North Africa and Italy
• The Soviets were holding on against the
Germans
• 2.6 German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union
beginning in June of 1941
• Standing in their way 3 million poorly armed
Soviet soldiers defending against the
blitzkrieg and the Luftwaffe.
Invasion of the Soviet Union
• Ukrainians and Lithuanians greeted Germans
as liberators.
• Until the Germans introduced forced labor
camps and began executing Civilians
Stalin issues order
• In case of retreat.
• Destroy everything.
• The enemy must not be left a single drop of gas, a
single railroad car and so on.
• By the fall of 1941 Germans had advanced 100 miles
into the Soviet Union
• Moscow and St. Petersburg threatened.
• Stalin urged Roosevelt and Stalin to invade
mainland Europe to take pressure of the U.S.S.R.
• The Soviets were on their own.