Invasions of “Fortress Europe” - Mr. Tredinnick's ... · Invasions of “Fortress ... •Italy...
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World War II: The Invasions of “Fortress
Europe”
The Italian and French Campaigns
Invasion of “Fortress Europe”
The British and Americans land on the Italian Peninsula
Invasion of Sicily
• Sicily (Operation Husky) July 10-1943
• Three main Goals: – Give the soviets some
breathing space and take the pressure off of them
– Keep the pressure on the Axis powers
– Control the Mediterranean
Results of Sicily
• Italy overthrows Benito Mussolini
• Pietro Bagdogilo takes over and immediately negotiates a peace with the allies.
• ITALY drops out of WWII
• Allies now decide to invade the Soft Underbelly of Europe = Italy.
– The Germans are invading with force!
Goal and result of Italy
• Again, Create a second front to help the Russians. – Italy is only successful in
part. Allies get bogged down immediately.
– It did slow down the Germans and required them to use resources.
The Allies Liberate Rome: June 5, 1944
Invasion of “Fortress Europe”
The British and Americans land in Normandy
Gen. Eisenhower Gives the Orders for D-Day [“Operation Overlord”]
June 6th 1944
• 3000 landing craft
• 3000 other ships (battleships, destroyers, transports, etc)
• 822 Aircraft
• 13,000 Paratroopers
The Liberation of Paris: August 25, 1944
De Gaulle in Triumph!
The End of World War II: Europe
The Bombing Campaign Heats Up
• Hamburg was Germany’s second largest city in WWII
• Created a “firestorm” of over 1000 degrees – 66,000 Baked alive
– 750,000 people homeless
Operation Market Garden
• Sept 1944
• General Montgomery’s idea to get into Germany through the Netherlands
• Instead of facing light resistance, Allies faced hardened veterans who were there for a rest.
The Battle of the Bulge
• THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
– Surprise German Attack into Belgium
– The Goal: Force allies to sign a truce by repelling them out of Europe
– Germans outnumbered the allies
– Last major German offensive
Battle of Berlin
• Russians given honor of taking Berlin
• Germans down to very few soldiers
End of World War II
• Hitler commits suicide April 30th, 1945 with mistress Eva Braun
• May 2nd Fall of the Reichstag
• May 7th, German Army Unconditionally Surrenders
The End of
World War II:
The Pacific
Iwo Jima • America’s Bloodiest
land battle of WWII
– Lost 7,000 men
– About 20,000 wounded
Okinawa
• April 1945
• First attack on a Japanese Home Island
• US Casualties about 40,000
• Japanese Casualties – 150,000 Civilians (33%)
– 100,000 Soldiers (90%)
Bombing Campaign
• March 1945
• 200+ B-29s dropped incendiaries on Tokyo creating a fire storm
• 80,000 - 120,000 killed
Hiroshima – August 6, 1945
© 70,000 killed immediately.
© 48,000 buildings. destroyed.
© 100,000s died of radiation poisoning & cancer later.
Nagasaki – August 9, 1945
© 40,000 killed immediately.
© 60,000 injured. © 100,000s died of
radiation poisoning & cancer later.
V-J Day (September 2, 1945)
Axis Casualties World War II
AXIS MILITARY CIVILIAN TOTAL
GERMANY 3,500,000 700,000 4,200,000
JAPAN 2,000,000 350,000 2,350,000
ROMANIA 300,000 160,000 460,000
HUNGARY 140,000 290,000 430,000
ITALY 330,000 80,000 410,000
AUSTRIA 230,000 104,000 334,000
FINLAND 82,000 2,000 84,000
AXIS TOTAL 6,582,000 1,686,000 8,268,000
ALLIED MILITARY CIVILIAN TOTAL
SOVIET UNION 10,000,000 10,000,000 * 20,000,000
CHINA 2,500,000 7,500,00 10,000,000
POLAND 100,00 5,700,000 5,800,000
YUGOSLAVIA 300,000 1,400,000 1,700,000
FRANCE 250,000 350,000 600,000
CZECHOSLOVAKIA 200,000 215,000 415,000
UNITED STATES 400,000 — 400,000
UNITED KINGDOM (ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES, AND NORTHERN IRELAND)
326,000 62,000 388,000
NETHERLANDS 12,000 198,000 210,000
GREECE 20,000 140,000 160,000
BELGIUM 12,000 76,000 88,000
CANADA 37,000 — 37,000
INDIA 24,000 13,000 37,000
AUSTRALIA 23,000 12,000 35,000
ALBANIA 28,000 2,000 30,000
BULGARIA 10,000 10,000 20,000
NEW ZEALAND 10,000 2,000 12,000
NORWAY 6,400 3,900 10,300
SOUTH AFRICA 7,000 —
ETHIOPIA 5,000 — 5,000
LUXEMBOURG 5,000 — 5,000
MALTA — 2,000 2,000
DENMARK 400 1,000 1,400
BRAZIL 1,000 — 1,000
ALLIED TOTAL 14,276,800 25,686,900 39,963,700
Total Deaths
Military Civilian Total
EST. TOTAL 20,858,800 27,372,900 48,231,700