The War in Europe

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The War in Europe
Allies Fight Germany and Italy
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War Plans

• -Roosevelt and British leader Churchill meet
• Now officially fighting together as Allied forces
• -Germany is top priority
• Defeat Hitler first, then worry about Japan in
  the Pacific
• -only an unconditional surrender is acceptable
• -Battle of the Atlantic
• Allied Navies Battle Germany for Control of
  the Atlantic Ocean
• convoy system
• Surround important ships with ships with combat
  capabilities for protection
• Liberty ship building program was producing
  great numbers of ships to supply war
• 140 ships produced each month
• -Allies begin strategic bombing of Germany to
  destroy war capabilities

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Bombing of Hamburg, Germany
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Eastern Front

• - initial victories in USSR turn into stalemate
  and the Russian winter stops German advances
• Hitler wants oil fields and the industrial
  Stalingrad
• -Germany surrounds key city of Stalingrad, 1942
• Germany won 9/10 of the city until winter with
  no supplies, Germans surrounded and forced to
  surrender
• - Germany is defeated at Stalingrad at great
  cost
• turning point of the European war
• Soviets begin moving toward Germany, Germany on
  defense
• - Stalin wants another front to occupy Germany
• Russia asks Allies to attack in Western Europe to
  divert Hitler Allies not ready yet

Stalingrad is no longer a town. By day it is an
enormous cloud of burning, blinding smoke it is
a vast furnaceAnimals flee this hell the
hardest stones cannot bear it for long only man
endures. Lt. Weiner, German Officer
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Africa/Italy

• - invasion of Northern Africa by British and
  American troops to fight against Germanys Africa
  Corps led by Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox
• Allies launch operation in North Africa, led by
  Eisenhower
• - Rommels forces eventually defeated at El
  Alamein
• Allies surround Germans, forced to surrender
• -Soft underbelly campaign
• attack Germany through Italy
• Mussolini stripped of power and forced to leave
  Italy
• - German troops make Italian campaign last many
  months
• Hitler does not want to fight in Germany keeps
  attacking in Italy until 1945

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D-Day

• -Allies had planned an invasion of the mainland
• Invade France and free European mainland from
  Hitler
• -Operation Overlord
• -planned by Dwight Eisenhower
• 3 million British, U.S., Canadian troops invade
  France at Normandy
• -June 6, 1944
• - paratroopers invaded behind enemy lines,
  thousands stormed beaches of Normandy, France
• Omaha Beach
• Utah Beach
• Germans massacred thousands during invasion
• -France liberated within weeks
• General George Patton
• Headed towards Germany to invade

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Hitlers Atlantic WallD-DayJune 6, 1944
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D-Day Invasion Map
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• People were yelling, screaming, dying, running
  on the beach, equipment was flying everywhere,
  men were bleeding to death, crawling, lying
  everywhere, firing coming from all directionswe
  dropped down behind anything that was the size of
  a golf ball
• Omaha soldier Felix Branham

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The End is Near

• Allies took the first German town
• -Battle of the Bulge Dec. 1944
• last German counter-offensive
• Attempt to break Allied lines in Germany
  succeeds at first but later fails
• Germany is now in retreat
• Lost troops, tanks, planes
• -massive bombing raids
• Wearing Germany down
• -Roosevelt wins 4th term with Harry Truman
• -Soviet armies pushing into Germany from the east
• Liberating concentration camps as they do so

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We started smelling a terrible odor and suddenly
we were at the concentration camp at Landsbergwe
saw hundreds of burned and naked bodiesfor the
first time I truly realized the evil of Hitler
and why this war had to be waged. Soldier
Robert Johnson
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When they told me yesterday about Roosevelts
death, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all
the planets had fallen on me. Harry Truman
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow
will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward
with strong and active faith. Franklin Roosevelt
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V-E Day

• -Big 3 Continue to discuss end of war
• -U.S. British forces pushing toward Berlin
• Trapping Germany
• -death camps found and Holocaust is revealed
• Nazis try to cover up crimes but cannot - kill
  more in doing so
• -Roosevelt dies and Truman becomes President
• Never sees V-E day dies by a stroke while
  getting portrait
• -Hitler commits suicide as Russians invade Berlin
• -Germany surrenders May 1945
• -V-E Day (Victory in Europe)
• War not over yet still must deal with Japan in
  the Pacific

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V-E Day
In his underground quarters in Berlin, Hitler
prepared for the end. On April 29, he married
Eva Braun, his longtime companion. The same day,
he wrote out his last address to the German
people. In it he blamed the Jews for starting
the war and his generals for losing it. I die
with a happy heart aware of the immeasurable
deeds of our soldiers at the front. I myself and
my wife choose to die in order to escape the
disgrace ofcapitulation. The next day, Hitler
shot himself while his wife swallowed poison. In
accordance with Hitlers orders, the two bodies
were carried outside, soaked with gasoline, and
burned.
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A Family PortraitNazi propaganda minister Joseph
Goebbels brought his wife, Magda, and their six
children with him to the bunker. The children
became the delight of the inmates, a diversion
from the dreariness and boredom of bunker life.
But after Hitler's death, in what can only be
described as something written for a horror
story, Magda killed her children using cyanide
capsules. While Joseph once commented, "Neither
my wife, nor a single one of my offspring, will
be among the survivors of the coming debacle," it
was Magda who did the dirty work. Taking her
children into a small room as if to tuck them
into bed for the night, Magda gave each a cyanide
capsule. Later, evidence of the remains showed
that in all probability the five youngest died
unknowingly, while the eldest had put up a fight.
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National World War II Memorial Atlantic
View Our debt to the heroic men and valiant
women in the service of our country can never be
repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude.
America will never forget their
sacrifices. Harry Truman