The War for Europe and North Africa

 War Plans  Roosevelt and Churchill decide to fight Hitler first  Battle of the Atlantic  Hitler orders submarine raids on the East Coast ▪ to prevent allies from receiving food or war materials ▪ Germans sank 681 Allied ships  Cargo ship convoys ▪ Sank German U-boats to the point where it “reached unbearable heights” ▪ By mid-1943, the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic had turned

 The Battle of Stalingrad  November 1941, the cold stops Germans outside of Moscow and Leningrad  Summer 1942, Hitler hoped to capture Soviet oil fields  The Luftwaffe bombed the city nightly and the Soviets wanted to quit but Stalin ordered them to defend his namesake city no matter the cost  Winter 1942, Soviets mount counterattack and trap the German soldiers in the city cutting off all supplies  German commander surrenders January 31, 1943, the troops surrender February 2, 1943  Soviets lost 1.1 million soldiers but was a turning point in the war

 The North African Front  To divert troops from Russia, Stalin asked the other Allies to open a “second front”  Operation Torch  Invasion of North Africa commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower  Chased the Afrika Korps  Afrika Korps surrender in May 1943

 The Italian Campaign  Before the North Africa battle was won Roosevelt and Churchill agree that they will only accept unconditional surrenders from Axis  Capture of Sicily in Summer 1943  July 25, 1943, Mussolini is stripped of his powers and arrested  Bloody Anzio  Hitler was determined to stop Allies in Italy, so they would not reach Germany  Lasted 4 months (Ends May 1944)  25,000 Allied casualties/ 30,000 Axis casualties  Effort to free Italy did not succeed until Germany collapsed

 Heroes is Combat  Tuskegee Airmen (99 th Pursuit Squadron) ▪ All African-American pilots ▪ Received two distinguished Unit Citations for their outstanding combat against the Luftwaffe  Buffaloes (92 nd Infantry Division) ▪ African-American unit ▪ Won 7 Legion of Merit awards, 65 Silver Stars, 162 Bronze Stars for courage under fire  Company E (141 st Regiment, 36 th Division) ▪ All Mexican-American unit ▪ Received 7 Congressional Medal of Honors  Purple Heart Battalion (100 th Battalion) ▪ 1,300 Hawaiian Nisei and Japanese-Americans ▪ Becomes most decorated unit in U.S. history

 D-Day (Operation Overlord)  Allies gather 3 million troops in England planning to attack Normandy, France  To keep plan secret phantom army was created, even sending fake radio signals  Eisenhower gives go ahead on D-Day, June 6, 1944  Three divisions of paratroops and thousands of seaborne soldiers invaded- the largest land-sea- air operation in army history

 Allies Gain Ground  After 7 days Allies held an 80-mile strip of France  Within a month they landed a million troops  General Omar Bradley unleashes massive air and land bombardments at St. Lo creating a gap in German defense  General George Patton and his Third Army advance through and on August 25, 1944 they liberate Paris from 4 years of German occupation  By 1944 Allies had freed France, Belgium, and Luxembourg

 The Battle of the Bulge  October 1944, Americans captured their first German town Aachen  Hitler orders troops to recapture the Belgian port of Antwerp  December 16, 1944 hoping that the effort would split up Allied forces and supply line  Battle raged for a month, the Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, and 1,600 planes, Nazis could now do little more than retreat

LIBERATION OF THE DEATH CAMPS  Soviets come from west and Allied troops come from east  Soviets come upon death camps first in July 1944  “gigantic murder plant” UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER  April 25, 1945, Soviets stormed Berlin  April 29, 1945, Hitler blames Jews and his general for losing the war  April 30, 1945, Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide  May 7, 1945, Eisenhower accepts unconditional surrender of Third Reich  May 8, 1945, Allies celebrate V-E day (Victory in Europe Day)  War officially over

 Roosevelt’s Death  Does not live to see V-E Day  April 12, 1945, while posing for portrait, has a stroke and dies  Later that day, Vice President Harry S. Truman become the nation’s 33 rd president