The Road to Victory in Europe
Angela Brown
Chapter 24 Section 2
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Learning Targets
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Bellringers:
Day 1:
• Have you ever used the term D-Day? What
did you mean?
• What was the D-Day operation?
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Atlantic Charter
• FDR and Churchill met on warship in 1941
to agree on War’s goals = Atlantic Charter
• Pledged a peace that will afford all nations
the means of dwelling in safety inside their
own boundaries.
• Agreements form basis for United Nations
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Atlantic Charter
http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t043/t043334a.jpg
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Atlantic Charter
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http://www.ssa.gov/history/pics/acharter1.jpg
http://cairsweb.llgc.org.uk/images/ilw1/ilw0284.jpg
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Americans Mobilize for War
• The GI War
• 16 million served
• U.S. soldiers called themselves GIs –
“Government Issue” stamp appeared on all
items provided by military
• Four essential freedoms by FDR
• (Speech/Worship God in own way/From
want/From fear)
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GI
http://veterans.house.gov/images/press/gibill.jpg
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Diversity in the Armed Forces
• 300,000 Mexican Americans – defended
Philippines, North African Campaign, and
D-Day invasion
• 25,000 Native Americans – 300 Navajos
radio operators
• developed a code based on their language
that the Japanese could not break “code
talkers”
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Japanese Americans
• Thousands of Japanese Americans
volunteered to fight – couldn’t until 1943
• 20,000 served
• The All-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat
team most decorated military unit in U.S.
History.
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All-Nisei
nd
442
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/art/view/i3tamura_soldiers.jpg
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African Americans
• One million African American troops served –
at first support roles
• 1942 allowed combat duty in segregated units .
• 761st tank battalion captured 30 major towns from
Germans.
• 99th Army Air Force fighter squadron, Black
Eagles, shot down 110 enemy planes.
• 1944 army forced to accept African Americans in
white combat units due to need for soldiers.
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http://www.ddaymuseum.org/store/images/black_knights.jpg
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Women in the Armed Forces
• 350,000 women volunteered for service in all
areas except combat.
• 1200 WASPs (Women Air Force Service Pilots)
ferried planes around the country and towed
practice targets for anti-aircraft organizations.
• WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer
Emergency Service) – 86,000 served in Naval
Aviation
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http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/apjinternational/apj-s/3trimes04/kamps1.jpg
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• 100,000 officers and enlisted personnel
• Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was the
largest women military groups.
• Colonel Oreta Hobby led more people than
many Army Generals.
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Fighting in North Africa and
Italy
• Many feared Germany could not be stopped when
U.S. entered War The Battle the Atlantic.
• Merchant ships formed convoys to carried food
and supplies to Great Britain.
• Germans countered with groups up to 30
submarines called Wolf Packs.
• Wolf packs very effective despite sonar.
• Battle of Atlantic spread to the American Coast.
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http://www.dypevag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ships_files/Utviken.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Aerial_view_of_a_convoy.jpg
/250px-Aerial_view_of_a_convoy.jpg
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The North African Campaign
• 1942 Great Britain and U.S. troops under
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in
Morocco and Algeria.
http://www.mbacd.com/presidents/art/eisenhower.jpg
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The North African Campaign
• 1943 two allied armies joined forces in Tunisia –
trapped Rommel’s forces (desert fox) 240,000
surrender.
• 1943, Churchill and FDR met in Casablanca,
Morocco planned strategy for fighting rest of war.
• Continue concentration on Europe then Pacificaccept only unconditional surrender of Italy,
Germany, Japan.
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Edwin Rommel “Desert Fox”
http://www.hotelsofgreece.com/athens/grandebretagne/rommel.JPG
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The Invasion of Italy
• 1943 Gen. Patton attacked Sicily.
• Inland fell in 38 days, Mussolini overthrown.
• 72,000 American soldiers killed or wounded by
May 1944 when finally broke through German
Defenses at the Battle of Anzio.
• April 1945 before Germans in Northern Italy
surrendered.
• U.S. losses = 190,000 German losses = 500,000
during Italian campaign
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" Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. "
General George S. Patton
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http://www.amba.lu/pics/Gen.%20George%20S.%20Patton,%20Jr.%201945.jpg
War in the Soviet Union
• Hitler called for conquest of the Soviet
Union, claiming that Germany needed
lebensraum (living space) to the East.
• After losing the Battle of Britain, he broke
his pact with Stalin and launched an attack
against the Soviet Union.
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The German Advance, 19411942
• 1941 Germans invaded Soviet Union.
• Soviets poorly equipped, not well trained,
unprepared to intensity and brutality of
Germans.
• Germans rounded up and executed large
numbers of civilians.
• Soviets adopted scorched earth policy –
destroyed everything useful to Germans.
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• Stalin ask FDR for help through LendLease Act.
• Congress blocked for money – June 1942
• Stalin urged Allies to launch attack on
Western Europe to take pressure off
Soviets.
• Churchill hesitated – persuaded FDR to
invade Italy instead.
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The Battle of Stalingrad
• Red Army made stand at Stalingrad – Sept
1942 Campaign of bombing – took positions in
rubble = bitter house-to-house fighting
• November Soviets took advantage of weather –
counter attacked and surrounded German army.
• Final assault in January 1943 – 90,000 surviving
Germans surrendered – Germans lost 330,000
troops.
• Turning point of the war in the east – Soviets
began long struggle to regain territory.
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George Marshall
• FDR’s Army Chief of Staff – everyone
assumed he would lead the invasion of
Western Europe.
• Supported this invasion long before others
• Allies shocked when FDR sent Dwight D.
Eisenhower.
• FDR said Marshall was to important to the
overall war effort.
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http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/C/catletgeorge/warnecke.gif
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• Marshall served in France during WWI.
• Resigned in 1945 at end of war.
• Truman’s Sec. of State – launched effort to
rebuild postwar Europe = Marshall Plan
• Received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953
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• The Invasion of Western Europe
• In 1943, British finally agreed to Marshall’s
proposal to launch a land invasion
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The Air War
• RAF began bombing Germany in 1940.
• Luftwaffe forced RAF to safer nighttime raids.
• Carpet Bombing – large numbers of bombs were
scattered over a wide area rather than seeking
specific targets = technique adopted by both
• By 1944- British and American Commanders were
conducting coordinated air raids.
• U.S. by day- RAF by night = 3000 planes
involved
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Preparation for Invasion
• Troops built up in Southern England –
American, British, Canada, Polish, Dutch,
Belgium, French troops
• German soldiers added machine-gun
emplacements, barbed wire fences, land and
water mines, and underwater obstructions.
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D-Day
• Codename for invasion
• June 6, 1944 – largest landing by sea in
history 4600 invasion crafts and warships
crossed English Channel.
• 1000 RAF bombers pounded German
defenses at Normandy.
• 23,000 airborne soldiers were dropped
behind enemy lines during the night.
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http://www.historyimages.com/WWII/photo-D-Day.jpg
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• DAWN = Allied warships massive shelling of
coast - 1000 U.S. planes continued bombings.
• 150,000 allied troops and equipment came ashore
the 60 miles of Normandy coast
• Hitler hesitated fearing a larger invasion near
Calais.
• German resistance fierce – 2000 Allied causalities
on Omaha Beach (one landing site)
• 500,000 came ashore within a week by July 2
million
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http://www.canadafirst.net/our_heritage/rememberance_day/d-day.jpg
The Battle of the Bulge
• Aug 1944 – American troops liberated Paris
• British and Canadians freed Brussels and
Antwerp in Belgium.
• Allies attacked Germans occupying Holland –
American crossed western border of Germany.
• Germans launched counter attack in Belgium
and Luxemburg in 1944 = Battle of the Bulge
• Germans overwhelmed American forces and
pushed them back .
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• Gen. Patton moved entire army of 250,000 from
western France to help stop German Advance.
• Largest battle in western Europe during WWII
and largest ever fought by U.S. army.
• 600,000 GI’s involved – 80,000 killed wounded or
captured
• Germans lost 100,000 troops – after this battle,
most Nazi leaders recognized the war was lost.
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War ends in Europe
The Soviets Advance
 German –Soviet fighting from 1941-1945 greatest
conflict ever fought on a single front – 9 million
troops
 13.6 million soviets and 3 million Germans killed
= 2/3 total dead for all WWII
 Soviet deaths civilian and military = 27 million
 Soviets took Berlin April 1945 – city 80%
destroyed by Allied bombs – continued west –
met American troops at Elbe River on April 25
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Germany Surrenders
• May 1, 1945 – German government
announced Hitler committed suicide
• May 8, 1945 – Germany surrendered
• V – E Day (Victory in Europe Day)
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The Yalta Conference
• February 1945 – Churchill, Stalin,
Roosevelt met at Yalta in Soviet Union to
plan for postwar world
• Agreed to split Germany into (4) zones –
each under control of major Allies
• city of Berlin split into 4 zones as well even
though in was in the Soviet quarter
•
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The Big Three
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http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/core/pics/0255/img0039.jpg
The Yalta Conference
• Stalin promised to allow elections in
Nations liberated from Germany and to
enter war against Japan after Germany’s
surrender.
• Stalin later refused free elections.
• Roosevelt and Churchill accused of not
doing enough to prevent Soviet domination
in Eastern Europe.
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United Service Organizations
• (USO) founded in 1941 – assembled
volunteer touring companies of actors,
comedians, band leaders, singers and
dancers to entertain armed forces overseas.
• Toured every American war zone since.
• Today 40,000 volunteers keep USO active.
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So Your Husbands Gone to
War
• New book by Ethel Gorman – advice for
preparing for furloughs, coping with smaller
apartments, parties for women, restraining
the office “Wolf”
• One of many new books aimed at helping
women and children cope with the stress of
missing loved ones.
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“Good Neighbor Policy”
• Latin American nations provided vital war
materials, naval and air bases.
• Brazil sent troops to Europe
• Mexico had an air squadron in Pacific.
• Mexican Cuban navies patrolled Caribbean
for German Ships.
• In return, U.S. provided military equipment
and loans to these nations.
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Exit Slip
1. What events helped turn the tide of war in favor of the
Allies?
2. List the major battles and their significance to the war.
3. Explain how the Allied decision to delay an invasion
of Western Europe and fight instead in North Africa
and Italy affected war efforts in the Soviet Union.
4. Why do you think Americans who were denied full
rights at home were eager to take part in the war
against facism?
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