T HE A LLIES T URN THE T IDE 23.1

O BJECTIVES Analyze the reasons for and impact of the Allies’ “Europe First” strategy Explain why the battles of Stalingrad and Midway were major turning points in the war. Discuss how the Allies put increasing pressure on the Axis in North Africa and Europe.

K EY P ARTS Axis and Allies Plan Strategy Turning the Tide in Europe Increasing the Pressure on Germany Turning the Tide in the Pacific

I NTRODUCTION Read section 23.1 Answer critical thinking questions 4-5

A XIS AND A LLIES P LAN S TRATEGY The attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into World War II. By June 1942 the Allies were battered but still fighting. The Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) never had a coordinated strategy to defeat the Allies, they each focused on their own goals.

C ONT. The Allies (United States, Britain and Russia) shared more unified goals. Roosevelt Churchill and Stalin considered Germany the most dangerous enemy. None felt that Italy or Japan posed a very long term threat. Germany had the resources to bomb, and fight Naval warfare and could invade the Soviet Union. Europe first was their battle plan and then they would deal with Japan later.

T URNING T IDE IN E UROPE The first blow America struck against the Axis was by fulfilling DFR’s promise to be the “arsenal of democracy.” American industries turned out millions of guns, tanks and other supplies; enough to keep Soviets and British battling Germany for years. The problem was delivering the supplies.

C ONT. Hitler was determined to cut the sea lines between the United States and Europe before American aid could make a difference. Wolf packs of German U-boats patrolled the Atlantic and Caribbean sinking more that 3,500 merchant ships and killing tens of thousands of Allied seamen. Churchill realized the need to eliminate the U- boats.

C ONT.. In mid 1943 the Allies began to win the war in the North Atlantic. Convoys of escort carrier protected Allied shipping and the invention of radar helped Allied vessels locate U-boats and also long range bombers and under water depth charges allowed Allied forces to sink U-boats faster than Germany could produce them.

C ONT … Germany had attacked Russia in June 1941 sending one army north toward Leningrad and a second eat toward Moscow and a third south to Stalingrad. Hitler was able to penetrate deeply into the soviet territory, and killed millions of soldiers and civilians but he did not achieve their main objective of conquering the Soviet Union. This was due Soviet Resistance and a brutal Russian Winter that halted the German advance.

C ONT …. In 1942 Hitler narrowed his sights and concentrated his armies in southern Russia. His goal was to obtain the rich oil fields, to do this he would have to take Stalingrad. Hitler had his men slowly attack, going house by house, this allowed the Soviets time to strategize and trap the German forces, Hitler would not let his men retreat. They suffered from frostbite and sickness and eventually surrendered on January 31, 1943.

C ONT ….. This was a milestone in WWII and allowed the Soviets to be on the offensive. Meanwhile in the South the Allies begin Driving Germans out of North Africa. In October of 1942 the British won a major victory at El Alamein in Egypt and began to push westward. The next month Allied troops landed in Morocco and Algeria and began to move east toward key German Positions.

C ONT …… An energetic American officer General Dwight Eisenhower commanded the Allied invasion of North Africa. He had to go against one of the best military tacticians of the German Army Erwin Rommel the Desert Fox. In February 1943 Rommel led his Afrika Korps against the Americans at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia. Rommel broke through the American lines in an attempt to reach the Allied supply base.

C ONT ……. Rommel made a very crucial mistake; he did not shore up his supply chains as he went so he ran out of supplies and was stopped by the American soldiers. This battle taught American leaders a valuable lesson; they needed aggressive officers. So Eisenhower put an innovative tank commander in charge; General George S. Patton.

C ONT …….. Patton was a single minded general known as Blood and Guts. Patton was a brutal leader and had zero tolerance with his soldiers. His soldiers were to perform and be the absolute best around bar- none and his men loved him for it. Patton’s forces advanced east with heghtened confidence.

C ONT ……… Simultaneously the British pressed westward from Egypt trapping Axis forces. Patton pushed his men to the limit and moved faster than any other tank commander, even the Desert Fox could not maintain pace. Patton’s soldiers in May of 1943 took 240,000 German and Italian Prisoners. (Almost the entirety of Rommel’s Army; Rommel left his men and escaped)

I NCREASING P RESSURE ON G ERMANY Germany was now on the Defensive, and the Allies decided to increase the bombings in Germany and to take over Italy. Allies begin to invade Italy through Sicily, this was lead by Eisenhower. They were able to take the country over in 38 days and Italy surrendered to the Allies on September 3, And five weeks later declared war on Germany.

C ONT. Germany forces still fight in Italy despite Italian surrender. Hitler was not done with Italy yet, he sent a small German airborne force to rescue Mussolini from a mountaintop fortress, and Hitler allowed him to be the head of northern Italy with the German Army. Although the Allies defeated the Italians in Italy there was a still a long and slow battle with the German army there.

C ONT.. The rest of the Invasion of Italy was very slow and the weather made it difficult for the advances needed. Allies had to depend on mule’s to carry supplies up mountains because the truck would get stuck in the mud on the steep slopes. On top of that the German’s had occupied all the good defensive positions in the mountains.

C ONT … Stalin continued his demand that Roosevelt and Churchill open a second front in France. To pacify Stalin the Allied forces began relentless bombing of Germany. These bombers were escorted by a famous fighter squadron called the Tuskegee Airmen. This was an African American Fighting Squadron that flew more than 1,500 missions over enemy territory, and during their escorts they never lost a single bomber.

T URNING THE T IDE IN THE P ACIFIC While Allies pursued their Europe First strategy they did not ignore the Pacific. Through May of 1942 the Japanese forces continued to advance with unstoppable momentum. They took control of the Philippines, Malaya, Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, Wake Island, Guam, and Burma. Then the United States Struck Back.

C ONT. Admiral Yamamoto still knew despite Pearl Harbor the U.S. Navy was a major threat. His goal was to take Midway which was a major defensive Island for the US in Hawaii. If he did this it would push the Americans back to California and then he could take over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska as well. What Yamamoto did not realize was that Admiral Chester Nimitz commander of the US Navy in the Pacific knew the Japanese plans.

C ONT.. Navy code breakers had intercepted the Japanese messages. Nimitz moved his carriers to Midway and as the Japanese attacked on June 4, 1942 they were not expecting the carriers to be there and our planes took out 4 Japanese Carriers and 250 planes that were their best pilots. The Battle of Midways was the turning point in the pacific.