The European Theater of War

Chapter 27

Lesson 4

Focusing on the Nazi Threat

• U.S. joined 23 nations in WWII
• Decided to concentrate on defeating Hitler before Japan
• European Theater
• Crisis more dire in Europe
• Axis controlled most of Europe, much of North Africa
• Threatening Soviet Union
• Needed to be stopped

Setting a Strategy

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• Stalin wanted Allies to attack Hitler’s forces in Europe
• Force them out of USSR
• U.S. and Britain not ready
• Instead attacked at the edges
• Made plans to attack in North Africa
• Give troops experience and

take pressure of British forces in Egypt

Allied Success in North Africa

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• Axis led by Erwin Rommel
• German General - “Desert Fox”
• Nov. 1942 - Rommel defeated at El Alamein
• Boost in allied morale
• Stopped Germany from taking Suez Canal
• Dwight Eisenhower led U.S. forces east from Morocco and Algeria
• U.S. and Britain drove Germans from Africa in May 1943

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Allies Attack Italy

• Allies moved into southern Italy
• September 1943
• Eisenhower organized invasion
• U.S. General George Patton and British General Montgomery led
• Italian people forced Mussolini from power - Italy surrendered
• German forces fought on
• Allies took Rome in June 1944
• Air attacks on Germany day and night

General George Patton

Soviets Defend the Eastern Front

• Meanwhile, USSR took brunt of German war machine
• Siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days
• No food, many starved
• Soviets final broke siege
• Heavy losses and winter conditions slowed attack on Moscow
• 1942, Germany attacked Stalingrad

Siege of Stalingrad

• Industrial city
• Germany took most quickly
• Soviets army then surrounded the city
• Cut off supply lines

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• Germans surrendered in February 1943
• Major turning point in war
• Soviets then on attack, Germans in full retreat

D-Day

• Operation Overlord
• Invasion of Europe
• June 6, 1944
• Troops and equipment carried across English Channel to Normandy, France
• Planes dropped paratrooper behind enemy lines
• Beaches code named: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, Juno

D-Day (Continued)

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• Soldiers waded ashore from landing craft
• Land mines, heavy fire
• Bloodshed was horrifying
• 9,000 Allied casualties
• 135,000 Allied soldiers
• Invasion succeeded at great cost
• Allies landed 1 million more troops - Freed Paris in weeks

Victory in Europe

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• Soviet forces pushing from East, U.S. and Britain from West
• Germans made one last push in Belgium - Battle of the Bulge
• Allies finally pushed back - headed into Germany
• Feb. 1945, Soviets in Berlin
• Hitler committed suicide April 30th

Victory in Europe (Cont.)

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• Germany signed

unconditional surrender

on May 7, 1945

• May 8th - V-E Day
• FDR died on April 12, 1945
• Harry S. Truman became president

The Holocaust

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• Allies discovered horrors as they freed German-held areas
• “Final solution” - genocide
• 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust
• Millions more were also killed
• Slavs, communists, homosexuals, handicapped

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Persecution of German Jews

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• Hitler gained power in 1933, started persecuting Jews
• Deprived of rights
• Stripped citizenship
• Banned marriages Jews/others
• Could not vote, hold office
• Banned from owning businesses, practicing law/medicine
• Actions became more violent
• Nov. 9, 1939 -Kristallnacht
• Jewish men sent to concentration camps

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The Persecution Spreads

• WWII-Nazis terrorized Jews
• Forced to wear Star of David
• Mass killing of Jews started when Germany invaded USSR
• Special Nazi forces carried out the killing
• Rounded up Jews, shot, thrown in mass graves
• Crammed in railroad cars, sent to camps to work and die
• Shaved, tattooed, starved

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The “Final Solution”

• 1942 - Plan to destroy Jews
• Built death camps
• Many died in poison gas chambers, starvation
• Cruel experimentation
• Upon arrival, healthy prisoners were singled out for slave labor
• Elderly, disabled, sick, mothers, children sent to gas chambers
• Rumors reached Allied leaders
• Stunned when saw it for themselves

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