Retaking Europe

Section 2

Atlantic Charter

• Meeting between Churchill and FDR

• 1st – Allies seek no territorial gain• 3rd – They will respect the right of people to

choose their own govt.• 8th – All countries of the world must come to

the abandonment of the use of force

The Atlantic

• Britain relied upon allied supplies from the U.S

• U – boats would wait and hunt these supply ships

• Controlling the Atlantic would be vital for allied survival

Battle of the Atlantic

• Allies develop sonar to spot u-boat “wolfpacks”

• U-boats still experience great success and sink over 175 ships in June 1942 alone

North Africa – August 1941

• Africa was the 1st step for the allies of recontrolling Europe

• Hitler sends General Rommel “Desert Fox” to Northern Africa to help Italy defend against allied invasion

Morocco and Algeria• Americans land here under

command of General Eisenhower

• Push east as Britain pushes west towards Rommel’s army

• 240,000 Axis troops surrender despite Hitler’s order to fight to the death

Invasion of Italy

• July 1943 under Gen. Patton the U.S invades the Island of Sicily

• With Italy in jeopardy a Fascist council has Mussolini arrested and Fascism was disbanded

• Germans would free Mussolini and send him to Northern Italy

Italy cont.

• Sept 1943 Italy’s new govt. surrenders

• Italy declares war on Germany

• Germans set up Mussolini as puppet leader of N. Italy

• Cassino – German stronghold that stood between allied armies and Rome

• After much struggle the allies break through in 1944

• 5 months of fighting and 10’s of thousands of allied deaths to take Rome

Cassino – pop. 32,000

Mussolini

• Germany surrenders Italy in April 1945

• Mussolini shot and killed by Italians

War in Soviet Union

• After losing the Battle of Britain Hitler would turn his armies to the east

• In June 1941 3.6 million Axis troops cross the Soviet border and are met by 3 million Soviet soldiers

• The Axis troops quickly gained control of Soviet territory

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Eastern_Front_1941-06_to_1941-12.png

War in Soviet cont.

• Many Ukrainians and Lithuanians welcome the Germans as liberators

• They would change their minds quickly as Germans began executing civilians and using forced labor camps

Battle of Stalingrad

• By fall German armies advance 100’s of miles in Soviet Union

• Sept. 1942 the Soviet Union decided to make its final stand in Stalingrad

• House to house combat occurs and Germans take most of the city

• However, Soviets launch a counterattack and surround the German troops within the city

Dive bomber over Stalingrad

Soviet’s storming a factory

Aftermath of bombing raid

Stalingrad cont.

• Jan 31st 1943 90,000 German troops surrender

• 330,000 Germans die at Stalingrad

• 1,100,000 Soviets would die to save the city

Weird but true!

• During WWII the Soviet Union trained dogs that were strapped with timed bombs to chase after German tanks.

• 17 German tanks were destroyed this way!

Allied Air War

• In order to invade Western Europe the Allies needed air power

• Carpet Bombing – scattered bombing of Germany by the allies -aimed at:

• Factories, bridges, and railway lines

• Typical raid was American during the day and British during the night

• 100’s of B-17 would be escorted by fighters

Invasion of Western Europe (D-Day)

• June 6th 1944 around 150,000 allied troops land in the Normandy coast

• Supported by RAF bombers and war ships would take the beach at Normandy with over 2,000 casualties

• By late July allied forces in France would be over 2,000,000

Liberating France

• Once Allies establish a foothold in Normandy they burst out into the rest of France under General Patton in August 1944

• A French uprising then occurs in Paris w/ Allied help

• Paris is officially liberated on August 25th 1944

The Battle of the Bulge

• Hitler begins reinforcing with army with children as young as 15

• Largest battle ever fought by U.S Army

• 600,000 GI’s 80,000 U.S casualties • 100,000 Nazi casualties

• Allies win battle – Nazi leaders recognize war is lost

The War Ends in Europe

• March 1945 American forces advance into Germany from the west and Soviet troops advance in the east

• Forces Germany to fight a battles on both fronts

• Soviet troops arrive in Berlin in April 1945 and captured the German capital

Germany Surrenders

• Hitler commits suicide in underground bunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945

• May 8th remaining German troops surrender

• Called V-E Day (victory in Europe)

• However, the allies had not defeated Japan yet

Yalta Conference

• Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill meet in Yalta (a Soviet city)

• Germany is split into 4 zones – each zone was to be controlled by one of the allies

• Stalin promised free elections for Eastern European countries he had liberated from Germany and to declare war on Japan

• He failed on both of his promises

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map-Germany-1945.svg