1. Battles in Europe – The US Enters World War II
Objective 10.02

2. Objective 10.02
Identify military, political, and diplomatic turning points of the war and determine their significance to the outcome and aftermath of the conflict.

3. German advances
The Germans advanced quickly through Europe with blitzkrieg (lightning war).
France surrendered in June 1940.

4. Battle of Britain
Hitler launches many attacks on Britain in summer and fall of 1940.
German Luftwaffe greatly outnumbers the British RAF.
Result?

5. Britain Stays Strong!!!
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Winston Churchill

6. Propaganda
Every country in World War II used propaganda (the spread of information to the masses).
Many types of propaganda used.
Newsreels
Pamphlets
Airdropping information
War posters

7. Radio Hitler spread his message through radio
Government subsidized radio
Allied broadcasts spread defeatism in Germany

8. 1941
Germany invaded the Soviet Union
(broke Nonagression Pact)

9. Stalingrad Stalingrad – major industrial center on the Volga River
Winter of
defeat of German forces and the retreat of Germany out of USSR.
Soviets lost a total of 1,100,000 soldiers in defense of the city.

10. Soviets join Allies
Huge size of the Soviet army made a crucial difference in winning the war.

11. Axis advantages?
Axis Powers had been preparing to fight this war for years.
They controlled the majority of the territory on which the war was fought

12. Axis weaknesses? Forced to fight on several different fronts at once
Allied advantages of large populations and manpower
US war production capabilities

13. Early German Successes in North Africa
Field Marshall Erwin Rommel – “the Desert Fox”
Field Marshall Rommel eventually surrenders in North Africa

14. oCasablanca Conference- Jan
oCasablanca Conference- Jan Churchill & FDR agreed to step up war in Pacific & seek unconditional surrender
oAug took over Sicily, Mussolini deposed, Italy surrendered by Sept. (but Germans didn’t leave)
nFighting in Italian Alps some of the worst of the war
nRome fell June 4, 1944
nMay 2, German troops finally gave up in Italy

15. “Fortress Europe”

16. Allied Invasion
The Allies begin to plan a surprise invasion of Hitler’s “Fortress Europe” (Operation Overlord)
Invasion planned for French coastline

17. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D
Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower briefing the troops before Operation Overlord…

23. D-Day
June 6, 1944 (Operation Overlord) – Began the Allied invasion of Europe which was strongly held by German forces – occurred along 5 beaches of Northern France in Normandy.