Transcript The War for Europe and North Africa

17
The Allied Commanders
Dwight Eisenhower
US
Allied Supreme
Commander
George S Patton
US
Georgi Zhukov
USSR
Bernard
Montgomery
Great Britain
The Axis Commanders
Erich von Manstein
Germany
Heinz Guderian
Germany
Erwin Rommel
Germany
Herman Goering
Germany
The War For Europe and N. Africa
• On Dec. 22, 1941,
weeks after Pearl
Harbor, Churchill and
FDR meet at White
House to develop war
plans
• Churchill convinced
FDR Italy and Germany
posed a greater threat
than Japan
Battle of the Atlantic
– Hitler ordered U-boat attacks
against ships on east coast
– Purpose was to cut supply lines
– Germans took upper hand early;
seven months in German wolfpacks
sunk 681 Allied ships
– HOWEVER Allies started putting
cargo ships in convoys, groups of
ships traveling together, escorted
by destroyers and airplanes armed
with radar
– Allied forces began sinking u-boats
and US was producing 140 Liberty
ships per month, eventually
outweighing the losses/month
Enigma machines
• In an effort to keep their
communications secret from the
Allies, the German military used the
Enigma machines, which scrambled
communications.
• Both British and American code
breakers were able to eventually
break the secrets of the
machines, but had to be careful to
not let the Germans figure this fact
out.
• By 1945, almost all German
Enigma traffic could be
decrypted within a day or two,
yet the Germans remained
confident of its security
Germany invades Russia
• 22 June 1941,
Germany attacks the
USSR, expecting to
control the Soviet
Union before winter.
• Despite large losses
early on, the Red
Army regroups and
holds the major
cities of Leningrad
and Moscow.
Battle of Stalingrad
During the
Battle of
Stalingrad,
Red Army
sniper Vasily
Zaytsev
made 242
verified kills.
The German
commander von
Paulus became
the first German
Field Marshall to
EVER surrender
in the field
– Germans stopped outside Moscow and
Leningrad in winter of 1941
– 1942 Germans were looking to the oil
fields at Stalingrad, a major industrial city
– Brutal hand-to-hand combat saw Germans
take Stalingrad house by house
– USSR counterattacked and surrounded the
German 6th Army inside the city.
– Germans were trapped in and around
Stalingrad, their supplies cut off
– Germans surrendered Jan. 31, 1943
– Soviets lost 1.1 million soldiers (more than
all Americans in the entire war) in Battle of
Stalingrad
– Soviets began to march west toward
Germany
North Africa Front
Erwin Rommel the
commander of the Afrika
Korps was nicknamed the
Desert Fox
– With the Italian declaration of
war in June 1940, Britain invaded
the Italian colony of Libya.
– In response to the destruction of
Italian forces, German forces
were dispatched to North Africa
– A see-saw series of battles for
control of North Africa followed,
reaching a climax when British
forces under the command of
Lieutenant-General Bernard
Montgomery delivered a decisive
defeat of the German Afrika
Korps at the Battle of El
Alamein.
North Africa Front
– After Pearl Harbor, Churchill and FDR
launched Operation Torch, invasion of
Axis-controlled N. Africa commanded by
American General Dwight D. Eisenhower
– Eisenhower’s troops moved east from
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia chasing
Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps while
Montgomery’s British forced pushed
westward
– Nazi Afrika Korps surrendered in May
1943
The Air War
-In an effort to stop the Germans from
resupplying their troops, Allied forces began
a bombing campaign of German factories,
roads, railroads, oilfields, and bridges.
– The air campaign became a major aspect
of Allied strategy
– The British bombed by night and at best
could hit specific cities. Large numbers of
German civilians were killed, injured, or
rendered homeless.
The Air War
One of the most famous B-17’s was the
Memphis Belle of the324th Bomb Squadron
.The aircraft was one of the first American
heavy bombers to complete 25 combat
missions with her crew intact
The "Hell's Angels" B-17 of the 303rd Bomb
Group completed 25 combat missions on 13
May 1943, the first aircraft to accomplish
this feat
– The Americans bombing
by day, attempting to hit
specific targets using
their Norden bomb sites.
– The American and
British air crews
suffered very heavy
casualties against
German fighters and
increasingly effective
anti-aircraft guns.
The Air War
• 12,000 heavy bombers were
shot down in WWII
• Between 1939 and 1945 the
Allies dropped 3.4 million
tons of bombs (27,700 tons
of bombs a month)
• 2/3 of Allied bomber crews
were lost for each plane
destroyed
• Over 100,000 Allied bomber
crewmen were killed over
Europe
Italian Campaign
– Allies agreed to only accept unconditional
surrender of Axis powers – must meet
whatever terms Allies state
– FDR wanted to go through France, after Hitler;
Churchill convinced him to strike Italy first
– Italian army collapsed at Sicily and Mussolini
was forced to resign – he was arrested by
Italian PM; Italians celebrated end of war
– Hitler was determined to fight Allies in Italy –
better to keep them out of Germany
Battle for Europe and N. Africa
• Italian Campaign
– On 12 September 1943 German special
forces rescued Mussolini from Italian
prison.
– “Bloody Anzio” – one of bloodiest battles
of WWII, 40 miles from Rome; 4 months
with 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis
casualties. May 1944 allies force
Germans back.
– Germanys fought tough
through 1945 but by
then they were unable
to hold Italy and were
much closer to collapse
People In History
• Audie Murphy
• Murphy became the most
decorated United States
soldier of the war during
twenty-seven months in
action in the European
Theatre. He received the
Medal of Honor, the U.S.
military's highest award
for valor, along with 32
additional U.S. and foreign
medals and citations
War in Italy
• The 442nd is considered
to be the most decorated
infantry regiment in the
history of the United
States Army.
• The unit composed
almost entirely of
American soldiers of
Japanese descent who
volunteered to fight in
World War II even
though their families
were subject to
internment.
• The 442nd was
awarded eight
Presidential Unit
Citations and twentyone of its members
were awarded the
Medal of Honor for
World War II