The War for Europe & Africa

U.S. History

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War Plans

• December 22, 1941- Winston Churchill arrives at the White House.

• Spends 3 weeks working out war plans with FDR

Battle of the Atlantic

• Germany attacks Allied shipping in the Atlantic.

• First 4 months of 1942, U.S. looses 87 ships off the Atlantic shore.

• By July German “Wolf Packs” had sunk 681 Allied ships in the Atlantic.

• Battle of the Atlantic

U.S. Strategy in Atlantic• Organized ships into

“convoys” protected by warships.

• Used new “sonar” and airplanes to spot submarines and destroy them.

• By spring 1943, German Admiral Karl Doenitz reports U-Boat loses had “reached an unbearable height!”

• After the Nazis invade the USSR in June 1941, Stalin joins the Allies.

• U.S., Soviet Union, Great Britain.

• Stalin urgently wanted U.S. to open a “second front” in Europe to relieve pressure on Soviets.

Axis Powers

• Nazi Germany

• Fascist Italy

• Imperial Japan

The Battle of Stalingrad• Summer 1942,

Germany advances to take oil fields in southern Soviet Union.

• August 1942 approach Stalingrad.

• With the help of the winter weather, Soviets counterattack and surround and defeat German troops.

• Feb. 1943, terrible defeat for Germany

• “Turning point” of war in Europe.

• First time German advance defeated

• Over 1,100,000 Soviet soldiers dead- more than all American deaths for entire war.

• Soviets begin to move westward towards Germany.

• stalingrad

American Landings

• 1942- North Africa- “Operation Torch” help Allies defeat German tanks controlling desert areas.

• Operation Torch• 1943- Italy- Help Allies defeat Mussolini• 1944 France - “D-Day” Second Front

finally opened beginning Liberation of France

Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Commander of American forces in Africa and Europe.

• Military operations begin November 1942

• Will become 34th President of United States after war in the 1950’s

Unconditional Surrender

• 1943 conference held between FDR and Winston Churchill.

• Allies agree the only acceptable surrender terms for Germany would be “without any conditions”.

Italy Liberated

• Summer 1943 Sicily captured.

• July 1943 Mussolini forced to resign and is captured.

• Germans continue to fight in Italy until 1945.

• FDR Speech