Chapter 17 Section 2
The War for Europe and north
Africa
War Plans
• 12/22/41-Churchill
arrives at White
House
• Creating war plans w/
FDR
• Defeat of Germany
made top priority
Why Germany
• FDR considered Hitler
#1 enemy of US
• Stalin desperate for
help against invading
Nazis
• Only w/ Germany out
of the way could
Britain and Soviet
Union help the US
against Japan
War Plans
• 2nd decision-Allies
would accept only
unconditional
surrender from Axis
Powers
Battle of the Atlantic
• Hitler ordered
submarine raids
against America east
coast
• Germans sank 87
American ships in 1st
4 months of 1942
• 7 months in Nazis
sunk 681 allied ships
in Atlantic
Battle of the Atlantic
• Allies responded w/
convoys
• Escorted with
destroyers equipped w/
sonar
• Planes used radar to
locate subs on the
ocean’s surface
• By May 1943-germans
lost more subs than
they could produce
Battle of the Atlantic
• 1939-1940 US built
only 102 ships
• Early 1943- 140 Liberty
ships being built each
month
• Launching of ships now
outnumbered ships
being sunk
• Mid 1943- Nazis no
longer had control of
Atlantic
Battle of Stalingrad
• German invasion of
SU halted at Moscow
• Nazis had to head
south to replenish oil
supply
• Had 2 goals
– Seize oil rich
Caucasus Mtns.
– Capture Stalingrad
• Major industrial center
on Volga River
Battle of Stalingrad
• Nazis approach
Stalingrad summer
1942
• Luftwaffe bombed city
• Every wooden
building set ablaze
• Stalin ordered city to
be defended at all
costs
Battle of Stalingrad
• Germans pressed on for
3 months
• Hand to hand combat
• By Sept. Nazis controlled
9/10 of the city
• November-Soviets
counterattack
• German officers begged
Hitler to allow a retreat
• Hitler refused
Battle of Stalingrad
• Winter set in
• 2/2/43 91,000
Germans surrendered
• Soviets lost 1,250,000
people defending
Stalingrad
• Turning point in war
• Soviets now steadily
moving westward
toward Germany
North Africa
• Operation Torch-the
invasion of Axis
controlled North Africa
• Commanded by
general Dwight D.
Eisenhower
North Africa
• Nov. 1942- 107,000
Allied troops land in
Casablanca, Oran,
and Algiers
• Move eastward
chasing the Nazi
Afrika Korps led by
general Erwin
Rommel
• Afrika Korps
surrender in may
1943
The Italian Campaign
• Sicily captured in
summer of 1943
• Italians war weary
• 7/25/43- Italian King
stripped Mussolini of
power
• Mussolini arrested
• Hitler seized control
of Italy-reinstates
Mussolini
The Italian Campaign
• 18 months of fighting
followed
• 4/28/45 Italians helping
the allies ambush Nazi
convoy
• Found Mussolini
disguised as a German
soldier
• Killed him
• Hung up his body in a
Milan square
D-Day
• US & Britain built
invasion force for 2
years
• Ships, landing crafts,
3 million soldiers
• Invasion would target
Normandy, France
• Allies begin by
bombing supply
routes
D-Day
• D-Day- day of the
invasion of Hitler’s
Europe-June 6, 1944
• British, American and
Canadian troops
attack 5 points along
60 miles of beach
D-Day
•
•
•
•
•
156,000 troops
4,000 landing craft
600 war ships
11,000 planes
Largest land/sea/air
operation in history
• German retaliation
was brutal
D-Day
• Allies hold beach
• Within 1 monthlanded 1 million
soldiers, 567,000 tons
of supplies, 170,000
vehicles
D-Day
• August 25-Allied
forces, many under
the direction of
General George
Patton liberate Paris
FDR win again
• By September 1944Allies had liberated
France, Belgium,
Luxembourg, and
much of the
Netherlands
• Also in 1944Americans re-elect
FDR to 4th term
– New VP Harry S.
Truman
Battle of the Bulge
• October 44Americans capture 1st
German town
• Hitler counterattacks
• 12/16/44 Germans
break through
American lines
• Resulted in a massive
dent in the Allied lines
Battle of the Bulge
• Battle raged on for a month
• Germans pushed back
• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks,
1,600 planes-men and weapons they
could not replace
Liberation of Death Camps
• Allied troops moving
east
• Soviet troops moving
west
• Soviets 1st to
encounter a death
camp-Poland
• Nazis working hard to
destroy evidence
Unconditional Surrender
• 4/25/45- Soviets storm
Berlin
• Hitler hiding in bunker
• Marries Eva Braun on
4/29
• Writes his last message
to German peopleBlames Jews for starting
war and his generals for
losing it
Unconditional Surrender
• 4/30/45- Hitler
commits suicide
• Had his body burned
• May 8, 1945 Victory
in Europe (V-E) Day
– 1st part of war over