Chapter 25-2: The War for Europe and North Africa

February 1943: End of Battle of Stalingrad Stalingrad: Prevented Germany from taking over the Soviet Union Marked the point from which the Soviet Army began to move westward toward Germany

May 1943: End of Operation Torch Operation Torch placed the Allies in control of North Africa Gave the Allies a place to launch an attack against Italy

Mid- 1943: Victory in Battle of the Atlantic Victory of the Battle of the Atlantic safeguarded allied shipping of war materials to Europe

June 1944: Operation Overlord (D-Day) Allied invasion of Europe (Normandy, France) The liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation begins http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=PRIMO+VICTORIA&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701&vid=0001372754239

July 1944: Liberation of Majdanek First death camp liberated by the Allies 800,000 pairs of shoes were found at the Majdanek camp

August 1944: Liberation of France France freed from 4 years of Nazi occupation German POWs paraded through Paris, August 25, 1944

October 1944: Capture of Aachen First German town captured by the Americans German POWs after the fall of Aachen to the Allies

January 1945: End of Battle of the Bulge The last major battle in Europe From this point on, Germany could do little but retreat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCgc8hTlRbM&feature=related http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/maps/wwii/essay1.html

Spring 1945: End of Italian Campaign Resulted in freedom for Italy from Nazi occupation Resulted in the execution of Mussolini who was shot and then hung for the public to see

May 1945: V-E Day Victory in Europe: The unconditional surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe

Important People Dwight D. Eisenhower: American general who commanded the invasion of North Africa and the D-Day invasion George Patton: American general who led his Third Army in liberating Paris, France Harry S. Truman: 33rd President (Becomes President after FDR dies in April of 1945)