ALLIED RESPONSE Chapter 28.2

Early American Involvement The Battle of the Atlantic  Great Britain and the Soviet Union depended heavily on supplies shipped by sea to their ports  Germany wanted to control the sea to cut off the supplies the Allies were shipping  Germany did not have a big enough navy to match GB’s  Germany resorted back to using U-boats to try and destroy GB’s ships

Early American Involvement The American Home Front  Once America decided to join the war they had to mobilize their army, which was an enormous task  They required soldiers, sailors, pilots, equipment and supplies  Many men volunteered to fight while many were drafted into services  Women worked as pilots, clerks, and nurses for the military  Many factories were converted into places to produce weapons and war supplies  This allowed more women and African Americans the opportunity to go to work  Americans at home joined in to war effort as well they began to conserve food, fuel and many other items that were needed to make weapons and war supplies  They participated in scrap drives, victory gardens and purchasing of war bonds

Early American Involvement American Home Front (continued)  The war effort had a negative effect as well  The government war suspicious of American-Germans, Italians, and Japanese  More that 100,000 Japanese American were forced to leave their homes and businesses and live in interment camps  Most were American citizens  Life in the internment camps was hard they lived in a harsh climate and were locked into the camps, forced to work, educate, and live in the camps.  They were not released until the end of the war

Early American Involvement Winning the Atlantic  Allied factories were producing ships and planes in large numbers  They were able to detect and destroy many German U-boats on the Atlantic  Allies forces had broken a German code system used to transmit information which allowed them to locate German U- boats  Because of these efforts Allied powers kept control of the Atlantic and supplies were able to be shipped to GB and the Soviet Union

War in North Africa and Italy  While the fight for the Atlantic was happening British troops were fighting the Italians for control of Northern African territories  The Suez Canal was located in Northern Africa and was the shipping route that linked the Mediterranean Sea to the Middle Eastern oil fields  The Allies need to control this area to keep their oil supply active  In the fall of 1940 Italy attacked GB controlled Egypt and failed  By 1941 GB had taken over Libya (controlled by Italy) and threatened to gain control of all Northern Africa so Hitler was forced to send troops in to try and gain control

War in North Africa and Italy Back-and-Forth Fighting  The German and Italian troops in Africa were called the Afrika Korps and led by Erwin Rommel known as the Desert Fox because we quickly pushed GB out of Libya  Axis and Allied powers fought back and forth, one not gaining that much ground on the other  By 1942 the Axis powers were having trouble getting supplies into Northern Africa  Battle of El Alamein- the allied power took advantage of the fact that the axis soldiers did not have enough supplies.  They also used information gained from secret German code to find out their plans The Allied forces were finally able to weakened the Axis power a significant amount.

War in North Africa and Italy The Americans Join the Battle  In Nov 1942 The Soviets wanted the Allied Powers to start a second western front in Europe to help push back the German soldiers and to distract the Germans so they would have to move out of the Soviet Union  The Allied leaders decided it would be easier to add troops to the North African front and attacked the French colonies in NA  Once the American soldiers landed in North Africa under the leadership of Dwight D. Eisenhower they quickly pushed out the German soldiers and soon the Allies won North Africa and had complete control  The first time the American’s saw combat in WWII

War in North Africa and Italy Fight in Italy  In July 1943 the Allied forces wanted to take Italy  They moved from North Africa to the Italian island of Sicily  Italy was already weakened and it’s gov’t was trying to force Mussolini out of power and by the end of July they had forced him out  Allied soldiers took Sicily and moved inland to try and take Italy  Hitler did not want the allied forces to take Italy and be in the middle of Europe  He sent troops to slow the allied soldiers  Germans were able to stop them from moving forward and bloody fighting continued on for months

Turning Point in the Soviet Union  The 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union came to a halt for the Germans because of the harsh winter and the lack of supplies.  Hitler could not capture reach his goal and capture Leningrad  He decided to set up a military blockade and starve the people out  In the winter on ,000-4,000 people starved to death  By the end 1 million Leningrad civilians perished in the siege of Leningrad

Turning Point in the Soviet Union The Battle of Stalingrad  By the Spring of 1942 the German troops were able renew their assaults on the USSR  Hitler had troops from Italy, Romania, and Hungary join the German in the USSR  By the end of the summer the Axis forces was positioned to take Stalingrad- one of the largest and most industrialized cities in the USSR  Stalingrad produced most of the war supplies for the soviet soldiers and were next to the Volga River which transported supplies throughout the USSR  The Battle of Stalingrad was on of the most Brutal in the entire war  Germans dropped many bombs on Stalingrad and then went on foot to wipe out the rest of the soldiers

Turning Point in the Soviet Union The Battle of Stalingrad  Soviet soldiers continued to fight in the ruined city because Stalin wanted to keep the city at all cost  Soviets held on through the fall of 1942, In November the Soviets forced a counterattack and broke through the Axis defense  Hitler demanded that the Axis soldiers stay and fight promising to send food and supplies which he never did  In Jan of 1943 they were out of supplies but Hitler said ‘Surrender is forbidden”  Soon 900,000 Axis soldiers were captured and most of them died in Soviet Prison camps  1 million died in the battle of Stalingrad  Allied victory in Stalingrad, North Africa, and Italy was a turning point in the war

Turning Point in the Pacific The Allies Fight Back  Meanwhile in the Pacific the attack on Pearl Harbor had greatly weakened the US navy’s ability to strike back on Japan  They also chose to focus on fighting in Europe  Japanese ruled the sea and battles in the early fighting taking Singapore, Hong Kong, Burma, and many other Pacific Islands  Japanese were closer to home and better equipped  There main target was the American held Philippines  General MacArthur led American and filipino soldiers on a doomed defense to keep the Philippine  April 1942 Japan had won the Philippines and captured 70,000 Allied soldiers  They made them march to a Japanese prison camp known as the Bataan Death March  Killing 10,600 prisoners on the way  Thousands later died in the inhumane Japanese prison camps

Turning Point in the Pacific The Battle of Coral Sea  First time American and Japanese fought on the sea  The Coral sea was off the coast of Australia  Japanese were trying to invade GB controlled Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea  The Allied forced tried to block the invasion on sea  Both sides lost one aircraft carrier  Much worse for America  This marked the first time the Japanese advances had been stopped

Turning Point in the Pacific The Battle of Midway  June 1942 Japanese and American carriers fought on the seas in the Battle of Midway  The Japanese wanted to capture the island of Midway in the middle of the Pacific to take the American Naval base that was located on the island.  They also wanted the lure the American’s into a battle in which they were outnumbered  The Americans had however broken the secret Japanese code use to transmit messages  The Americans were able to plan for the “surprise attack”  Knew the date and location of the attack  The Americans were able to defeat the Japanese  destroyed four of Japanese carriers which was a terrible defeat and set back for the Japanese America lost one carrier

Turning Point in the Pacific Island Hopping  The Battle of Midway changed the balance of power in the Pacific  The Allied forces could finally go on the offensive  They started the strategy known as island hopping…  They would hop over Japanese stronghold islands and capture weaker ones This would eventually weaken the strongholds The strong holds would be cut off from outside supplies  One of the more important battles in the island hoping was Battle of Guadalcanal  a six month battle in the swamps and jungle covered island. The Japanese finally fled the island in Feb 1943 Showed the Americans that the Japanese would fight until the death Terrified the American soldiers  By 1944 the Allied had gotten close enough to try and recapture the Philippines  The First battle for the Philippines was the Battle of Leyte It was the largest Naval Battle ever fought The first use of the Japanese weapons of Kamikaze attacks-Japanese pilots would load their planes with explosives and crash into Allied ships sacrificing themselves to destroy the enemy The Battle of Leyte ended in the victory for the Allied forces and almost completely destroyed the Japanese Naval Fleet This allowed the Allies to recapture the Phillipines