1 of 8

Chapter 25

The War for Europe and North Africa

2 of 8

The War for Europe & North Africa

Main Idea

Why it matters now

Terms to Know

​

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • D-Day
  • Omar Bradley
  • George Patton
  • Battle of the Bulge
  • V-E Day
  • Harry S. Truman

​

​

Allied forces, led by the

United States and Great

Britain, battled Axis powers

for control of Europe and

North Africa.

​

During World War II, the United States assumed a leading role in world affairs that continues today.

​

3 of 8

The War for Europe & North Africa

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC

    • Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America’s east coast
    • The German aim in the Battle of the Atlantic was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union.
    • Seven months into the year, German wolf packs had destroyed a total of 681 Allied ships in the Atlantic.
    • The Allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection
    • At the same time, the United States launched a crash shipbuilding program. By early 1943, 140 Liberty ships were produced each month. Launchings of Allied ships began to outnumber sinkings.
    • By mid-1943, the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic had turned

4 of 8

The War for Europe & North Africa

THE BATTLE OF THE STALINGRAD

    • Stalingrad was a major industrial center on the Volga River in the Soviet Union which the German army attacked in August 1942
    • For weeks the Germans pressed in on Stalingrad, conquering it house by house in brutal hand-to-hand combat
    • By the end of September, they controlled nine-tenths of the city. Then winter set in.
    • The Soviet army closed around Stalingrad, trapping the Germans in and around the city and cutting off their supplies.
    • The German commander surrendered on January 31, 1943. Two days later, his starving troops also surrendered.
    • In defending Stalingrad, the Soviets lost a total of 1,100,000 soldiers—more than all American deaths during the entire war. Despite the staggering death toll, the Soviet victory marked a turning point in the war. From that point on, the Soviet army began to move westward toward Germany.

5 of 8

The War for Europe & North Africa

THE NORTH AFRICAN FRONT

    • Churchill and Roosevelt didn’t think the Allies had enough troops to attempt an invasion on European soil. Instead, they launched Operation Torch, an invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa
    • It was commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    • The Afrika Korps led by Axis General Erwin Rommel, the legendary Desert Fox, after months of heavy fighting, surrendered in May 1943

​

THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

    • The Italian campaign got off to a good start with the capture of Sicily in the summer of 1943.
    • Stunned by their army’s collapse in Sicily, the Italian government forced dictator Benito Mussolini to resign. On July 25, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III summoned Mussolini to his palace, stripped him of power, and had him arrested.

6 of 8

The War for Europe & North Africa

D-DAY

    • The Allied invasion, code-named Operation Overlord, was originally set for June 5, but bad weather forced a delay. Banking on a forecast for clearing skies, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day—June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion.
    • The largest land-sea-air operation in army history.
    • Despite heavy casualties, the Allies held the beachheads. After seven days of fighting, the Allies held an 80-mile strip of France. Within a month, they had landed a million troops, 567,000 tons of supplies, and 170,000 vehicles in France.
    • General Omar Bradley unleashed massive air and land bombardment against the enemy at St. Lô, providing a gap in the German line of defense through which General George Patton and his Third Army could advance. On August 23, Patton and the Third Army reached the Seine River south of Paris. Two days later, French resistance forces and American troops liberated the French capital from four years of German occupation.

7 of 8

The War for Europe & North Africa

THE ALLIES GAIN GROUND

    • By September 1944, the Allies had freed France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. This good news—and the American people’s desire not to “change horses in midstream”— helped elect Franklin Roosevelt to an unprecedented fourth term in November, along with his running mate, Senator Harry S. Truman

THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE

    • In October 1944, Americans captured their first German town, Aachen
    • On December 16, German tank divisions broke through weak American defenses along an 80-mile front and drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate last ditch offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge
    • The battle raged for a month. When it was over, the Germans had been pushed back, and little seemed to have changed. But, in fact, events had taken a decisive turn. From that point on, the Nazis could do little but retreat

8 of 8

The War for Europe & North Africa

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER

    • By April 25, 1945, the Soviet army had stormed Berlin.
    • Hitler prepared for the end. On April 29, he married Eva Braun, his longtime companion.
    • The next day Hitler shot himself while his new wife swallowed poison.
    • A week later, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over.

ROOSEVELT’S DEATH

    • President Roosevelt did not live to see V-E Day. On April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, the president had a stroke and died. That night, Vice President Harry S. Truman became the nation’s 33rd president.