Transcript The War in Europe

THE WAR IN EUROPE
1942-1945
CONFLICT IN NORTHERN AFRICA
• Operation Torch- Early Allied campaign in Morocco,
Algeria and Tunisia
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Nov 8-11 1942
Led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton
Forced Germany to expand its control over France
Gave the allies a firm hold over Northern Africa.
• Allied victory in Northern Africa destroyed or
neutralized 900,000 Axis troops
• Provided the Axis with another front on which to fight
• Allowed the Allied invasion of Sicily
• Removed the Axis threat to Middle Eastern oil fields
BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
• July 1942-February 1943
• Turning point of the war on the Eastern Front
• Successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad
against the Germans
• One of the bloodiest battles in history- over 2 million
casualties (both military and civilian)
• Soviet troops held their positions despite German
shelling
• Russian winter caused the German to run short on supplies
and men
THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
• July 1943- May 1945
• Mission was to remove Italy from the conflict and draw
German troops away from the USSR and France (where
the Allies were planning an invasion)
• Operation Husky (invasion of Sicily)- amphibious assault
• 2 weeks later, Benito Mussolini was deposed by his own people,
and the new anti-Nazi government negotiated with the Allies
• However, Hitler was not about to allow the Allies to
establish bases in Italy- deployed 16 new divisions and
instructed his commander to make the Allies “pay for
every inch”
TECHNOLOGY OF WWII
• Tanks and Vehicles- advanced armor and
amphibious capabilities
• Radar- Radio Detecting and Ranging- use of radio
waves to locate aerial targets
• Bombing and Rocketry- advanced targeting, other
than just gravity and inertia
• Medicine- first mass production of penicillin
(precursor to modern antibiotics)
• Plastics came into wider use because of war
shortages- plastic wrap, cardboard containers for
milk, etc.
D-DAY
• June 6, 1944
• One of the largest amphibious assaults in military historyover 150,000 Allied troops involved
• Codenamed Operation Overlord- Attack on 50 mile
stretch of heavily fortified beaches of Normandy in
Northern France
• Turning point on the Western Front and has been called
the beginning of the end for the Axis
• Allies sustained ~4,000 losses from the beach landings
with thousands more missing or injured
• In a matter of weeks, the Allies had landed 850,000
troops and were preparing to march across France.