1. Fall 1940-Fall 1941

2. Axis Powers Allied Powers Germany Italy Japan Romania Bulgaria Hungary
Libya
Allied Powers
Great Britain (and her colonies)
French colonies

3. Mussolini trying to create a new Roman Empire
Attacks North Africa…
Attacks Greece...
Has to get help from Hitler

4. Erwin Rommel “Desert Fox”

5. Operation Barbarossa
Hitler always intended to invade the Soviet Union (Mein Kampf)
June 22, 1941 Germany attacks the USSR
3 million troops quickly take 500,000 square miles.

8. Siege of Leningrad –Sept. 1941
Germans surround city for 17months…
Population starves but doesn’t give up…
“jellied meat”
Over one million civilians die…
World’s largest cemetery – 500,000 dead

10. Hitler is prepared for a 10 week war
Soviets quickly retreat using the “scorched earth” policy – 2 ½ million die…
Soviets use guerrilla tactics
Germans advance to the outskirts of Moscow…..
but then…..

12. Russian Winter Germans have no… Temperatures dip to -30 degrees
Oil in the tanks froze
Soviets counterattack
Just like Napoleon…
First time in WWII….

13. Battle for Moscow
Stalin rushed his best commander, Georgi Zhukov, to defend Moscow
Zhukov waged a delaying defense in front of Moscow;
In the meantime he pulled reinforcements from as far away as Siberia to defend Moscow
Zhukov’s plan was to allow the Germans to exhaust themselves and then go on the offensive

15. Rundstedt, the German commander of Army Group South, ordered a retreat and Hitler fired him
Field Marshall Walther von Reichenau replaced Rundstedt and confirmed the withdraw order and then suffered a heart attack
Hitler was in the midst of a high command crisis and lost confidence in his generals
Reichenau

16. December 6, 1941 Soviet Army Counterattacks