World War II

The United States in WWII

The European Theater

1942 to 1943

WWII European Theater Focus Question

From the Soviet Union’s perspective, discuss how the

World War II European effort was conducted.

Believing that Germany was more of a threat

than Japan, the Allies adopted a Europe first policy against the Axis

powers.

The Soviet Union wanted the United States to help them propel the Germans from the Western

sections of the Soviet Union.

Many United States citizens thought that the Japanese should be the focus of our early military effort.

...The major strategy employed was to lead a North African Front that would then go up

through Italy’s “soft underbelly” and thereby divert attention from the Eastern Front.

While the U.S. did give attention to the Pacific Theater...

Nazi Erwin Rommel (The Desert Fox) was a very capable

opponent despite being outnumbered.

WWIIThe African Campaign

In October, 1942 at the Battle of El Alamein, the

Germans were defeated by British General

Bernard Montgomery for the first time.

While a slow and grueling process still lied ahead,

the Nazi empire had begun its decline.

WWIIThe African Campaign

General Dwight Eisenhower led a British-American invasion of the Axis controlled North Western

African continent as British General Montgomery pushed from

the west, sandwiching and defeating General Rommel

WWIIThe Battle of Stalingrad

After six months of brutal fighting, the surviving Germans surrendered.

Losing approximately 300,000 to the effort, the Germans would never again carry out a successful

offensive on the Eastern Front.

The effort had cost the Soviets over 1/2 a million soldiers and civilians.

In total, the Soviets would lose millions to the war effort.

World War IIThe European Theater

1943 to 1945

WWIIBattle of the Atlantic

• 1941-42: “Wolf packs” almost drove U.S. shipping from the Atlantic.

• 1942: The Germans sank over 900 Allied ships.

• To cope, the Allies employed convoys, aircraft carries, and sonar to minimize loses.

• By 1943 the life line to both the British and Soviets was again established.

WWIIItaly

• July 1943 to June 1944• Mussolini’s government

crumbled• Hitler sent troops to

“save” Italy• The Allies did not take

Rome Until June, 1944• (The effort did help take

some German pressure off the Eastern Front.)

Mussolini and his wife are hung upside down for

public ridicule.

In the December, 1943 Tehran Conference Stalin (“Uncle Joe,”) Roosevelt, and Churchill

agreed to the “Operation Overlord”.

Churchill’s support was reluctant as he feared Soviet influences in Europe after WWII.

WWIIOperation Overlord / D-Day

• Involved 3 million Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen

• Launched from southern England

• Aimed at Northern France

• Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower kept the Germans guessing as to the exact location and time.

• The Germans expected an attack near Calais, northeast of the actual planned location

General Eisenhower later spoke of the difficulty of sending these young men to their potential (and probable) death beds on the eve of the

Normandy invasion … D-Day.

WWIID-Day (June 6, 1944)

While the Allies were successful in taking the Normandy beachfront, as General

Eisenhower had feared it came at a great expense.

After establishing a foothold in northern and

(shortly afterward) southern France, the

Allies took Paris back on August 25, 1944.

On the eve of the winter of 1944-45, the Allied

forces were closing in on Hitler on all sides.

Many thought the war would end shortly.

WWIIBattle of the Bulge

The Germans tried to wedge a break along a weak point in the Allies’ Western line to create a “path” to the English Channel.

After ferocious fighting on both sides, the

Germans offensive was repelled.

With the Nazi loss at the Battle of the Bulge, the defeat of the Germans was just a matter of

time.

WWIIYalta Conference - February 1945

When Roosevelt gathered at the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin he was a dying man.

By the end of the war President Roosevelt was showing signs of the illness that would eventually would shortly claim his life.

Many historians argue that FDR’s health affected his

performance as he ceded too much over to the Soviet Union

for the post-WWII era.

WWII Yalta Conference

• Stalin/Churchill agree to a United Nations

• Soviet pledge to declare war on Japan three months after defeating Germans. (With the Atomic Bomb not yet ready for use, this was an important agreement.)

• Occupy Outer Mongolia and several Japanese Islands.

• New post war borders for Poland and Germany

• Germany to be divided into four occupation zones.

• New European governments were to be “broadly representative of democratic elements.

U.S. “Gains” Soviet “Gains”

In April, 1945 President Franklin Roosevelt Died

The Nation Mourned.

Harry S. Truman (pictured here shaking hands with General Eisenhower) became President.

WWIIGermany Defeated

On April 25, 1945, the Russian and American forces

met up at the Elbe River.

Many (such as Churchill,) anticipating the Cold War era, argued that the United States should have pressed further

into Europe rather than stopping at the Elbe River as had been previously agreed

upon.

Eisenhower, wanting to avoid casualties and end the

war, stopped at the Elbe.

“Discovering the Holocaust”

WWIIV-E Day - May 8, 1945

With Hitler’s suicide and Germany’s unconditional

surrender, the world celebrated V-E Day.