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Battle of the Atlantic
•Hitler ordered submarine (U-boat) attacks against ships along America's east coast. The goal was to keep food and war materials from reaching Great Britain, because Britain depended on these supplies
•In seven months, German U-boats destroyed 681 Allied ships
•In response, the Allies by having convoys that were equipped with U-boat detecting equipment accompany ships across the sea.
•Importance was that this allowed the allies to destroy the U-boats faster than the Germans could build them -
Germany/Italy Declares War on the U.S.
• Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. in response to the U.S. declaring war on their ally, Japan
• Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were responsible
• This event impacted the war because the U.S. immediately responded by declaring war on Germany and Italy. Now the U.S. was fighting the two major fronts in World War II -
Germany First
•British Prime Minister Winston visited the White House to discuss war plans with President Roosevelt and his advisors
•Happened because the two countries were in "the same boat"
•Churchill convinced Roosevelt to act against Hitler first, believing that Japan posed less of a threat than Germany and Italy
•Once the Allies gained the advantage in Europe, they could focus more on the war in the Pacific
•Important because the meeting "formed a very strong affection" between Roosevelt and Churchill -
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Stalingrad
•Hitler wanted to wipe out the Soviet city Stalingrad because it was a major industrial center on the Volga river. The Germans started an attack and by the end of September, they controlled 9/10 of the city. Then winter set in and the Soviets began a massive counterattack. They trapped the Germans in Stalingrad and cut them off from their supplies. Eventually the Germans surrendered
•Soviets lost 1,100,000 soldiers
•A turning point in the war, from then on the Soviets moved west towards Germany -
Operation Torch
• Stalin pressured Churchill and Roosevelt to open a second front in western Europe. He said an invasion would force Hitler to divert troops from the Soviet front. Instead, because they felt they didn't have enough soldiers for that, they launched Operation Torch, an invasion of Axis controlled North Africa commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower
• After months of heavy fighting, the Afrika Korps surrender in May 1943
• Important because enemy resistance ceased in South Africa -
D-Day
• Shortly after midnight, three divisions parachuted down behind German lines. Followed in early morning by thousands of seaborne soldiers
• Despite massive sea and air bombardment by the Allies, the Germans retaliated brutally
• Was the landing operations in Normandy during the first day of Operation Overlord -
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Operation Overlord
• Allies gathered almost 3 million American, British, and Canadian troops plus lots of military equipment and supplies
• Eisenhower planned to attack Normandy in Northern France
• Allies set up a phantom army to keep the invasion secret. They sent orders they knew the Germans could read to attack the French port of Calais which was 150 miles away. Because of these messages Hitler ordered a large army to be kept there
• As a result, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg were freed after heavy fighting -
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Battle of the Bulge
• Americans captured their first German town, Aachen in September 1944. In return Hitler launched a desperate offensive. Ordered troops to break through Allied lines and recapture Antwerp. Hoped this would demoralize Allies. German tanks broke through weak American defenses and created a bulge in the lines. Battle went on for a month until Germans were pushed back
• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks and assault guns and 1,600 planes
• After the battle, the Nazis could do little but retreat -
Buchenwald
• One of the largest concentration camps established by the Nazis in WWII
• Liberated by American troops
• Freed 21,000 prisoners that day -
V-E Day
• Public holiday created to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of the Nazi's unconditional surrender
• Marked end of World War II in Europe
• Victory in Europe Day
