World War II

Retaking Europe

World War II• ALLIES:

– Great Britain (and commonwealths of the British empire)

• Australia• Canada• India• South Africa

– Soviet Union (Russia)– United States of America– France (Free France)

• [The French government had fallen to Nazi Germany in the spring of 1940 and was called ‘Vichy France’]

• AXIS:– Germany– Italy– Japan– Miscellaneous

conquered countries

The Atlantic Charter

• August 1941• British Prime Minister: Winston Churchill• U.S. President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)• Declaration of Principles to guide the United

States and Great Britain during the course of the war.– No territorial gain for US and Britain– No territorial changes without peoples consent– Territorial self-determination– Safe boundaries in Europe– Formation of an organization of world nations

Americans enter the War

• Battle of Britain (1940) German bombing of England

• Nazi Germany controlled nearly all of western Europe

• Nazi Germany had invaded the Soviet Union (USSR or Russia)

• Japan attacked US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Islands

Battle of the Atlantic

• Food and supplies from U.S. to Britain destroyed by Nazi submarines = “wolf packs”

• U.S. established convoy system

• Development of “SONAR” to locate vessels underwater

• Essentially victory for the Allies by 1942

Map 26.1 World War II in the North Atlantic, 1939–1943 (p. 752)

North Africa Campaign• Germans invaded North Africa

with goal of reaching oil fields of the Arabian peninsula

• German General Erwin Rommel (“the Desert Fox”)

• November 1942, Battle of El Alamein (Egypt) - British victory

• Americans came in June of 1942• Allies defeated Axis in North

Africa by May,1943.• Casablanca (Morocco) Conference

in January 1943 - Allies planned to deal with Europe first

Allied victories - 1942

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Allied Invasion of Italy• Allies invaded Sicily, July,

1943• Mussolini removed as fascist

leader of Italy (1943)• Brutal fighting• Heavy American losses • Famous battles:

– Anzio– Monte Cassino

• Allies captured Rome, May 1944

• Nazis surrendered in N. Italy, April 1945

War in the Soviet Union (USSR, Russia)• Nazis invaded USSR in June 1941• Needed oil and food• Germans at first welcomed as

liberators, later hated - executed Russian citizens

• Germans almost captured Moscow, never did

• Germans besieged Leningrad for 3 years

• Battle of Stalingrad (Enemy at the Gates - movie)– USSR victorious – German casualties - 300,000+– Russian casualties - est. 1.1

million

Stalingrad

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Allied Air War

• Long-range bombing missions

• Pinpoint bombing of factories and war related industries, railroads, etc.

• Some ‘saturation’or carpet bombing later in the war to destroy enemy morale

B-29 Bomber

Invasion of Western Europe

• Planned for spring of 1944

• Code named: OPERATION OVERLORD

• More famously known as D-Day

• June 6, 1944

D-Day, June 6, 1944• Supreme Commander:

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

• 150,000 Allied troops invaded the French coast of Normandy

• Heavily defended by Nazi soldiers and defenses (the Atlantic Wall)

• Famous places:– Omaha Beach, Caen (France),

Ste. Mere Eglise• Movies:

– Saving Private Ryan– The Longest Day

Hitting the Beach at Normandy (p. 771)

D-Day, June 6, 1944

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Liberation of France

• French Resistance (to the Nazis) helped

• August 25, 1944 - Paris liberated

• Most of Western Europe liberated by late 1944

Battle of the Bulge:(the Ardennes Forest)

• December 1944• Last desperate German

counter-offensive• Temporarily isolated

small units of the American Army

• Largest battle in Western Europe

• Casualties:– US - 80,000– German - 100,000

Map 26.4 World War II in Europe, 1944–1945 (p. 769)

End of World War II in Europe• March 1945 - Allies

crossed Rhine River• Soviet troops advanced

from the east, captured Berlin

• USSR - lost 11,000,000 troops

• Germany - lost 3,000,000 troops

• April 25, 1945 - Russian and American troops met at the Elbe River in Germany

Germany Surrenders

• Hitler commited suicide, April 30, 1945

• German surrender, May 8, 1945 - Victory in Europe (V-E Day

• Yalta Conference - Feb. 1945

• FDR died in April 1945 - Vice-President - Harry Truman became president

German Surrender (Victory in Europe) V-E Day

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The Big Three at Yalta (p. 775)

Yalta Conference (in the Soviet Union)

• February, 1945• FDR, Churchill, Stalin• Divided defeated

Germany, divided Berlin into 4 zones

• Stalin broke all his promises from Yalta: – dominated Eastern

Europe (not free)– No free elections– Not enter war against

Japan in the Pacific