What do we do next? After the North Africa Campaign the question was

Casablanca The U.S. decided at the Casablanca Conference of 1943 to invade Italy The meeting between FDR and Winston Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco decided the allies next move To Invade Italy

The Invasion of Italy Also known as “The Italian Campaign” The plan was to invade Sicily and all Italian mainland until the surrender of Italy The Invasion began on September 3 rd of 1943 an ended on May 8 th, 1945

AFHQ Involvement Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) were responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre The AFHQ made the plans for taking Sicily and the mainland in late July

-Both U.S. Airplanes and Ships landed on the Gulf of Gela in Southern Italy -The main goal was to open up the allied traffic for shipping -Would allow allies to ship goods to Soviets

Taking Sicily - Invaded Italy through Gela on July 10 th of 1943 prior to the invasion of the mainland -Codename “Operation Husky” -After taking Sicily they would work their way up the toe of Italy

- Attack the air force were carried down after midnight of July 9 - Strong winds up to 45 MPH scattered them off course - Troops spread out all along the southern coast of Italy between Syracuse and Gela -Attacked vital points and created widespread panic -July 27 th the Axis commanders decided the outcome of the campaign would be evacuation

Evacuation Hitler transferred over 12,000 men 4,500 vehicles 5,000 tons of equipment All done between August 1 st -10 th

Operation Baytown -British Eighth Army would depart from the port of Messina on Sicily - Go across the Straits of Messina -Land near tip of Calabria ("toe of Italy”) - On September 3rd 1943

Operation Avalanche One week later on 9 September Would land in Salerno on western coast Seize the port of Naples to ensure resupply Cut across to the east coast, trapping Axis troops further south

Germans Fight Back On September 13 th The main attack was on the boundary between the Allied Corps (which ran from Battipaglia to the sea) The Attack failed

Salerno Invaded Salerno on September 9th 1943 The landings were resisted nearly failed Germans exhausted their resources in unsuccessful counterattacks Which led to their new plans

New Plans September 16 th, Allied air and naval superiority dominated the Axis troops Von Vietinghoff told Kesselring that they needed to end the battle of Salerno Pivot on Salerno to form a defensive line The allies had then secured Salerno beach

Cold Winter Second amphibious landing north of Salerno Allies wanted to advance through the great chain of mountains through central Italy Not wanting to wait and deal with freezing winter weather Decided to leave in October

Stalemate Winter had began Allies had failed to break the Gustav Line The Italian Campaign was stalemated in December of 1943

Anzio January 22 nd 1944, Allied ground commander in chief, Gen. Sir Harold Alexander, launched an amphibious end run behind the German lines at Anzio Wanted to catch them off guard Kesselring quickly contained the Allied threat Held them off throughout February Stalemate went on through Spring with few attacks

An Opening May resulted in the collapse of the Gustav Line German forces retreated into northern Italy A final Allied offensive resulted in the surrender of all German forces in Italy on May 2 nd, 1945

Aftermath The Italian campaign lasted 602 days Allied casualties were 312,000 German losses were estimated at 434,646

Battle of the Atlantic

Was the longest campaign of WWII Germany used the U-boats to try to sever the allied sea lines of communication Tried to end the trade of Britain and Allies

-The Allies made ASDIC (Allied Submarine Detection Investigating Committee) -Nazis then make U-boat wolf packs to attack ASDIC and other allied ships -Battle then became battle between the German U- boat and allied Merchant ships

Phase I September 1939 – June 1940 U-boats went west of British Isle into Bay of Biscay intercepting Allied merchant ships U-boats attacked at first according to prize rules, providing safety for the crew Allies then equipped merchant ships with weapons to fight back causing surprise attacks

Phase I Karl Donitz the U-boat commander planned to attack with his wolf packs With small numbers of U-boats and insufficient torpedo's the U-boats had failed

Phase II July 1940 – May 1941 The U-boats again used the “Wolf Pack” plan They began to attack the weak convoy ships Royal Navy couldn’t help out they were guarding against a German invasion German air forces also had major attacks on the British Harbors

Phase II Germans got support from Italian Submarines at Bordeaux Spring of 1941 the British invasion began to crumple so they sent out destroyers

Phase III May 1941 – December 1941 Destroyers made U-boats fight from greater distances form shore British able to escort the convoys Able to push U-boats down to West Africa

Phase III March 1941 Allies Captured cipher materials May 7 th Royal Navy captured German Arctic meteorological vessel German U-boats seemed to decline as battle went on Now able to save 1.5 million gross tons of shipping with Atlantic becoming safer

Phase IV January 1942 – July 1942 U-boats began sinking unescorted individual ships off the U.S. east coast in the gulf of Mexico Interlocking Convoy system ended the mass sinkings

Phase V July 1942 – May 1943 Became battle of technology Germans introduced M-4 Cipher machine and were now able to decrypt Allied convoy signals March 1943 the U-boats achieved greatest success against the convoys

Phase V Allies countered back with dispatch of surface and air escorts supporting convoys Allies developed more weapons and high- frequency direction findings Fall of U-boat offensive May 1943

Phase VI June 1943 – August 1943 Allies began to block U-boats in Bay of Biscay Forced U-boats to distant areas

Phase VII September 1943 – June 1944 Allies strengthen Cipher and made it hard to be located German ships began attacking in North Atlantic and then in Gibraltar Failed

Final VIII Phase June 1944 – May 1945 Allied invasion of Normandy U-boat construction was delayed by allied bombings German defensive collapsed

Statistics Lasted 69 months without stop 2,850 Allied and neutral merchant ships sank 2,520 of them sunk in Atlantic or Indian Oceans Germans lost 1large battleship, 1 pocket battleship, and 650 U-boats (522 sunk in Atlantic/Indian Ocean)

- Allies won this battle due to superior resources in battleship and airplane building - Also due to superior antisubmarine detection equipment