25.2: The War for Europe and North Africa OBJECTIVE: Understand how the Allies defeated Italy and Germany.

25.2: The War for Europe

and North Africa

OBJECTIVE: Understand how the Allies defeated Italy and Germany

America at War: 1941-1945WHAT WAS AMERICA’s WAR PLAN?

FDR’s STRATEGY:

1. Attack Germany first: save USSR and UK

2. Attack Japan second: give ground in Pacific

PROBLEM: Will America arm itself (and its Allies) in time?

CONCERN: Were totalitarian warriors better than citizen-soldiers?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/

PROBABLY THE BEST WWII WEBSITE TO LEARN

ABOUT WWII

WWII: European TheatreACT I

1942 & 1943: War in the AtlanticAllied Convoys v. “Wolf pack” of German U-Boats

1942: Allies turn the tideHalt Germans at El Alemein and Stalingrad

11/1942-5/1943: North Africa CampaignKasserine Pass, Rommel & Patton, Big Red 1

6/1943: Invasion of ItalySurrender of Italy, Mussolini exec., Anzio, Monte Cassino & Gothic Line

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: 1942-1943

• Germany declares war on the US after Pearl Harbor and full-scale U-Boat attacks begin

• US and UK organize convoy escorts

• Advances in sonar and aircraft spotting, along with convoy tactics, eventually turn the tide.

• Allies “win” Battle of Atlantic by Summer of 1943

WHAT COULD NOT HAVE

HAPPENED WITHOUT ALLIED VICTORY IN ATLANTIC?

http://www.cia.gov/cia/information/artifacts/enigma.htm

ENIGMA ENCODING MACHINE

During World War II, the Germans used the Enigma, an

electromechanical cipher machine, to develop nearly

unbreakable codes for sending messages. The Enigma's

settings offered 150,000,000,000,000,000,000

possible solutions, yet the Allies were eventually able to

crack its code.

Liberty ShipsUS was able to produce 140 of these

ships A MONTH!!!• By the end of the

war, a ship was able to be built in 5 days

• PROBLEM: initially 30% of the early liberty ships “fractured” at sea

http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/DANotes/fracture/maritime/maritime.html

Allied convoy, WWII, location unknownhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/aerial_recon_gallery_09.shtml

Battle of Stalingrad9/1942-2/1943German Objectives:1. Seize Oil Fields2. Capture the city – an industrial and transport hubOutcome:330,000 Germans invade, only 91,000 survive/POWs

1,250,000 Soviet military and civilian casualties.

SIGNIFICANCE: Turning point of war on Eastern Front

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Map: The Allies on the Offensive in Europe, 1942-1945

The Allies on the Offensive in Europe, 1942-1945The United States pursued a "Europe first" policy: first defeat Germany, then focus on Japan. American military efforts began in North Africa in late 1942 and ended in Germany in 1945 on May 8 (V-E Day).

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

THE NORTH AFRICAN FRONT:11/1942-5/1943

• Stalin demands allies open “second front”

• US/UK launch “Operation Torch”

• US Gen. Eisenhower placed in command of all allied forces. Gen. Patton wins key tank battles

• Americans learn bitter lessons at Battle of Kasserine Pass

• Allies turn the tide at Battle of El Alemein

• By May 1943 German General Rommel’s Afrika Korps defeated

Gen. George S. Patton

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THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN:Summer 1943-Summer 1945

• Churchill urges invasion of Italy first, instead of Normandy, over Stalin’s objections

• Campaign starts well in Sicily, Mussolini is “deposed” in July 1943, then reinstalled by Germany.

• Allied advance bogs down as Germans entrench around Rome.• Allies try to break defenses by amphibious landings at Anzio and

attacking stronghold at Monte Cassino.

• Surrender of Italy, Mussolini exec., Anzio, Monte Cassino & Gothic Line

http://w

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ry/world

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tmlAnimated Map of

the Italian Campaign

WWII: European TheatreACT II

6/6/1944: D-Day – NormandyAllies, Patton, Liberation of Paris, Soviets advance

11/1944: Harry Truman new US Vice President12/16/1944: Battle of the Bulge

German Counter-Offensive, Siege of Bastogne4/1945: The Bitter End

Soviet and American forces meet at ElbeBerlin Falls, Hitler commits suicideFDR dies, Patton now President

5/8/1945: V-E Day

Operation Overlord: D-Day June 6, 1944

Largest Invasion in history:

•156,000 troops

•4000 landing craft

•600 warships

•11,000 planes

•Paratroopers

Normandy

Beachheads: UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO, SWORD (US

landings in red.)

Eisenhower at D-DayCommander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Force General Dwight D. ("Ike") Eisenhower gives the order of the day to U.S. paratroopers in England on the eve of D-day. (National Archives)

Eisenhower at D-Day

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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D-DAY VIDEO

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Battle of the Bulge: Dec. 1944

3 million allied soldiers, 4,600 vessels

Beachheads: UTAH, OMAHA / GOLD, JUNO, SWORD

Battle of the Bulge: Dec. 1944• US forces capture first German town, Aachen.

• Hitler responds with massive counter-attack, aiming at massive Allied supply dump in Antwerp, Belgium.

• Allies forced into desperate defensive battle

• Initially, Germans helped by unusually severe weather that grounded Allied air power.

• US Airborne hold-out under siege in key town of Bastogne.

• Allies recover offensive as weather improves

Liberation of the Death Camps• Soviets first to discover death

camps in Majdanek, Poland in July 1944.

• “On April 5, 1945, units from the American Fourth Armored Division of the Third Army were the first Americans to discover a camp with prisoners and corpses. Ohrdruf was a Buchenwald sub-camp, and of the 10,000 male slave inmates, many had been sent on death marches, shot in pits, or their corpses were stacked in the woods and burned. The Americans found the camp by accident – they did not set out to liberate camps…”

SOURCE: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Gen. Eisenhower at Ohrdruf death camp

Auschwitz Camp Bombing Controversy14 August 1944

Dear Mr. Kubowitski:

I refer to your letter of August 9 in which you request consideration of a proposal made by Mr. Ernest Frischer that certain installations and railroad centers be bombed.

The War Department had been approached by the War Refugee Board, which raised the question of the practicability of this suggestion. After a study it became apparent that such an operation could be executed only by the diversion of considerable air support essential to the success of our forces now engaged in decisive operations elsewhere and would in any case be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not warrant the use of our resources. There has been considerable opinion to the effect that such an effort, even if practicable, might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans.

The War Department fully appreciates the humanitarian motives which promoted the suggested operation, but for the reasons stated above it has not been felt that it can or should be undertaken, at least at this time.

Sincerely,

John J. McCloyAssistant Secretary of War

SOURCE: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/filmmore/reference/primary/bombworld.html

V-E DayVictory in England Day

May 8, 1945

V-E DayVictory in Europe Day

May 8, 1945

Soviets invade Berlin April 25, 1945.Hitler commits suicide April 29th.

German High Command surrenders unconditionally on May 8th.