 During WWII, two of the greatest leaders of all time collaborate on the best plans  FDR and Churchill  They meet in December of 1941  Washington, D.C.  Decide to focus their attention in Europe first  Japan and the Pacific second

 Hitler’s attack on American shipping increases after Pearl Harbor  What is the goal?  Without supplies from the U.S., the war could not be fought  U.S. ships were largely unprotected  Early 1942 – 87 ships sank  Late 1942 – 600+ more ships sank

 The Allies now send their ships in convoys  Supply ships with protection  Used sonar and radar to detect and destroy U- Boats  By 1943 the tide has turned in the Atlantic  Germany cannot build enough U-Boats  The United States is cranking out ships like crazy

 The Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941  They were stopped in November of 1941  Why?  Hitler turns his attention to the south in 1942  He is confident (overly) that he will take it quickly  He used the Luftwaffe to bombard the city  By late 1942, Germany controls 90% of the city  The fighting was intense and deadly  What happens now?

 The Soviets use the winter to counterattack  Hitler was too dumb to retreat  The Soviets cut off German supply lines  They started to freeze to death  They had no food or supplies  Germany surrenders on January 31, 1943  Cost of the Battle of Stalingrad:  1,100,000 Soviet lives

 Germany seeks Oil and Suez canal in North Africa  Stalin wanted the Allies to attack across the English Channel  Divert attention from Eastern Front  FDR and Churchill were not prepared for this  They launch Operation Torch  Land at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers  Over 100,00 Allied troops  German General Erwin Rommel surrenders his Afrika Korps in May of 1943

 FDR and Churchill meet in Casablanca  Decide to only accept unconditional surrender  They knew a full scale invasion was inevitable  Decide first to attack Italy  They capture Sicily in the Summer of 1943  Il Duce is thrown from power  Hitler used Italy as a buffer and fought at Anzio  “Bloody Anzio”  Around 25,000 Allied causalities  Around 30,000 Axis casualties

 Tuskegee Airmen  99 th Pursuit Squadron  Pivotal in North Africa and Italy  Buffaloes  92 nd Infantry Division  African-American division  Company E  Mexican-American  One of the most decorated in WWII  Purple Heart Battalion  442 nd Regimental Combat Team – All Nisei soldiers  Most decorated in US History

 Allies gathered almost 3 million troops  They set up a fake army to confuse the Germans  Made them think they would attack at Calais  Hitler didn’t think we would attack at Normandy  Because he wouldn’t have done that  Hitler kept a large army at Calais just in case  Dwight D. Eisenhower is Supreme Allied Commander of the invasion  “Ike”

 Bad weather pushed back the invasion  D-Day is given the go on June 6, 1944  First wave was the airborne troops  Three divisions (23,000)  They were followed by the largest land-sea- air force in history (132,500)  The fighting was brutal and deadly  Especially at Omaha Beach  U U

 Allies lost around 12,000 troops on D-Day  They established five beachheads for landings  A month later they had:  Landed a million troops  Landed over 500,000 tons of supplies  Omar Bradley leads the way in the air  George Patton and his Third Army on the ground  On August 23, Patton reaches the Seine  They liberate Paris on August 25, 1944

 Hitler was desperate for a victory  Allies had captured Aachen  German tank divisions break through the lines in the Ardennes  They made it 60 miles into Allied territory  Battle was a month long  Result was devastating for the Germans  120,000 troops lost  600 tanks lost  Luftwaffe essentially wiped out

 Soviet troops had reached Berlin by April 25  German soldiers attempted to escape  Hitler and Eva Braun (wife) hid in a bunker  Hitler shot himself on April 30 th, 1945  Braun swallowed poison  Bodies were burned  Third Reich surrenders on May 8, 1945  V-E Day