Transcript Sec. 2: The Allied Response European Theatre Ch. 14

Ch. 14: World War II, 1930-1945

Allies must control Atlantic for its shipping lanes to
supply Britain & USSR with food/weapons
 Germans forced to rely on U-boats again
 U.S. lent British ships & offered escort assistance

The Homefront
 Mobilize army – millions volunteered/others drafted
 Production of weaponry- peacetime industries converted
to wartime production
 Raise labor force- women & other minority groups moved
into industries to produce needed supplies
 Rationing of food, fuel, rubber, nylon; scrap drives

By 1943, U.S. winning the Battle for the Atlantic

North Africa of strategic importance
 Control of Mediterranean Sea & Suez Canal meant access
to Middle East’s oil reserves

1941-’42: British forces under Gen. Bernard
Montgomery fought a combined army of
Italians/Germans (the Afrika Korps) under command
of Gen.Erwin Rommel (Desert Fox) over Egypt & Libya

Nov., 1942: Allied invasion of North Africa
 “Operation Torch”- US forces under Gen. Dwight D.
Eisenhower invade No. Africa from the west, placing
Rommel in a 2-way trap
 May, 1943: Afrika Korps forced to surreneder nearly
250,000 men




Allies invade island of Sicily in July,1943
By end of July, Italians have toppled the
fascist government & executed Mussolini
German forces are pushed into Italy to try
and resist the Allied advance
The Allies face stiff resistance and high
casualty rates as they slug their way up
through Italy towards southern Germany

Siege of Leningrad (Summer, 1942)
 Having been slowed by Russian winter of ‘41-’42, Hitler lays
siege to old Czarist capital of Leningrad (St. Petersburg)
 Siege was harsh as an average of 3-4,000 civilians a day died
from starvation

Battle of Stalingrad
 Nazis ordered to take the industrial center of Stalingrad (vital to
wartime production/shipments of food & supplies)
 Soviet Red Army refuses to buckle & puts Nazis in retreat
westward out of USSR
 This victory, coupled with Allied victories in No. Africa & Italy,
marked turning pt. of WWII