List of WWII Battles

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_engagements_of_World_War_II

How Speed Defeats a U-BoatMontegue DawsonOil on canvasThe Mariners' Museum

U-177 (Type IXD/2) Running on the Surface, circa 1942Courtesy of Horst Bredow

U-Boat Transmitting Center Ashore in France, 1944Courtesy of Horst Bredow

U.S. Navy Signalsmen Monitoring Enemy Radio Transmissions in the Atlantic,1944U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

Allied Convoy in the Atlantic, 1942U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

Convoy System

Allied Intelligence• Churchill and Roosevelt knew the importance of

intelligence in safeguarding Allied commerce to defeat the Axis powers.

• The US and G.B. shared information from newly developed technologies like RADAR and High Frequency Radio Direction Finding (HF/DF or "huff duff").

• RADAR provided a means of detecting vessels and aircraft above the surface

• HF/DF was used to locate the sources of enemy radio transmissions such as submarines.

• Working together, British and American trackers used special intelligence to locate Axis forces with extreme precision.

• Allied intelligence leaders began sharing code-breaking secrets, known as "very special intelligence" and classified under cover-names like "ULTRA" and "MAGIC".

Enigma

• System in which Germany transferred their information through codes

• Solving the Enigma system remains one of the great Allied triumphs of World War II

• During periods when Allied cryptanalysts were unable to solve Enigma, U-boats caused great damage to Anglo-American commerce

Enigma

Bombe

Atlantic Battlefront

Hunter-Killers

Hunter-Killers Chasing down an Axis Submarine—USS Pillsbury (DE 133) and USS Guadalcanal (CVE 60)U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

Depth Charges

• Bomb Bay Showing Depth Bombs and Sonobuoys inside a TBF "Avenger"U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

Allied Hunter-Killer Escorts Conducting a Depth Charge Attack on a U-BoatU.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

• Hunter-Killer Grumman TBF "Avenger" Configured for Antisubmarine WarfareU.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

U-Tanker U-118 under Attack by U.S. Navy Aircraft, November 5, 1943U.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

Hunter-Killer Grumman TBF "Avenger" Preparing to LaunchU.S. Navy photograph in the collections of The Mariners' Museum

Europe in Summer 1941

Why Did Hitler Invade the Soviet Union?

• Lebensraum• Despised the ethnic Slavs ruled by their "Jewish

Bolshevik" masters • Wanted Ukraine for the farmland• Could use the people as slave labor• The defeat of the USSR would further isolate the

Allies• Wanted the oilfields in the Caucasus mountains• Didn’t trust Stalin-German propaganda showed

that Stalin was planning to attack Germany• The Western Front fighting was over(except GB)

Operation Barbarossa

• The greatest land war in recorded history(manpower and casualties) began at 3:30 a.m. on June 22, 1941.

• The main front would eventually expand to 1490 miles and extend to a depth of over 600 miles.

• In the Soviet Union marched the best of the German Army(4.5 million), amounting to three quarters of it's field strength.

• By the end of the year, 3,500,000 Red Army soldiers were in captivity and 4,000,000 had died in battle.

• At one time the Germans occupied some 900,000 square miles of Soviet territory.

German Wehrmacht(Army)

• German Army in USSR was split:

• 1. Army Group North whose main goal was Leningrad

• 2. Army Group Centre whose main goal was Moscow

• 3. Army Group South whose main goals were Rostov, the Caucasus Mts, the Crimean Peninsula and Stalingrad

Hitler’s drive to the Caucasus

Battle of Stalingrad

Operation Uranus: German 6th Army Trapped in StalingradNovember 19, 1942 - February 6, 1943

Operation Winter Storm: Attempt to Relieve 6th ArmyBattle of Stalingrad: December 12-18, 1942

Soviet Pursuit After Stalingrad... German CounteroffensiveJanuary 13 - March 26, 1943

• “By any measure the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest, arguably the largest single battle in human history. It raged for 200 days. More than 100,000 German and Axis troops died during the first phase of the battle in 1942 alone. More than 100,000 Romanians, and 87,000 Italians perished when the Soviets launched their counter-offensive. After that, another 300,000 Germans were killed or captured when the Soviets sealed the ring around the city. Thousands more died in the German attempt to relieve the 6th Army. Of the 500,000 German and fellow Axis troops that began the battle, only 92,000 were ever captured alive. The others were either missing in action, killed in action, died of starvation, exposure or disease. Soviet defenders meanwhile suffered up to a total of 1,000,000 dead, wounded and missing during the defense of Stalingrad, the counter-offensive, the defense of the ring and the clearing of the pocket. More than 100,000 Soviet civilians died in Stalingrad and its suburbs.”

Battle of Moscow-October 1941 and January 1942.

Battle of Moscow

• 280,000-400,000 German casualties

• 650,000–1,280,000 Soviet casualties

• Hitler believed Moscow was the major military and political target in the USSR as it would lead to the collapse of the country

• Germany got within 12 miles of Moscow before Soviet troops stopped the advance

• This battle marked a major turning point on the Eastern Front

• Furious that his army had been unable to take Moscow, Hitler dismissed his commander-in-chief in December 1941, and took personal charge of the Wehrmacht(German Army)

• Hitler took control and made all military decisions afterwards

• This led many experienced German officers to go against Hitler

• Hitler surrounded himself with staff officers with little or no recent combat experience—Why?

The Siege of Leningrad• It started on September 8, 1941, when the last land connection

to the city was cut off by Germany

• Lifting of the siege took place on January 27, 1944, 872 days after it began

• It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history and one of the most costly in terms of casualties

• People often died on the streets, and citizens shortly became accustomed to the look of death.

• Reports of cannibalism appeared in the winter of 1941–1942, after all birds, rats and pets were eaten by survivors.

• Hungry gangs attacked and ate defenseless people. • Leningrad police even formed a special unit to combat

cannibalism.

Siege of Leningrad

• Finally, a successful Russian counter-offensive at Stalingrad, drained necessary resources the Germans needed to continue the blockade, and eventually, it failed.

• The Germans never took Leningrad, but it was one of the most costly conflicts Russia had ever faced.

• Red Army:1,017,881 killed, captured or missing2,418,185 wounded and sick

• Civilians: 642,000 during the siege, 400,000 at evacuations

Erwin Rommel-The Desert Fox

Bernard Montgomery-Monty

George Patton

Operation Torch

• The British-American invasion of French North Africa started on November 8, 1942

• By mid 1943, we had defeated the Germans, Italians and the Vichy France

Casablanca Conference-January 1942“Unconditional Surrender”

Invasion of Sicily-July/August 1943

Sicily

Sicily

Fighting in Italy’s Appenine Mts.

Italy

Italy

Tuskegee Institute

George C. Marshall

• Chief of Staff of the US Military during WWII

Dwight Eisenhower

D-Day—June 6, 1944

• Operation Overlord• Allied invasion of Nazi controlled France• The assault was conducted in two phases• 1. an airborne assault landing of 24,000 British,

American, Canadian and Free French airborne troops shortly after midnight

• 2. an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armored divisions on the coast of France starting at 6:30 AM

• There were also decoy operations to distract the German forces from the real landing areas

• The operation was the largest amphibious invasion in world history with over 160,00 troops

• Roughly 10,000 Allied causalties(6,600 US)

"You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many

months."

The Atlantic Wall

• an extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe

• Built as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain

Ike, Patton and Bradley

Battle of the Bulge

BATTLE FACTS The coldest, snowiest weather “in memory” in the Ardennes Forest on the German/Belgium border. Over a million men, 500,000 Germans, 600,000 Americans (more than fought at Gettysburg) and 55,000 British. 100,000 German casualties, killed, wounded or captured.  81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed. 1,400 British casualties  200 killed.  800 tanks lost on each side, 1,000 German aircraft. The Malmedy Massacre, where 86 American soldiers were murdered, was the worst atrocity committed against American troops during the course of the war in Europe. In it's entirety, the “Battle of the Bulge,” was the worst battles- in terms of losses -  to the American Forces in WWII.

Hitler’s Suicide

Hitler’s Bunker Unearthed

Eva Braun

V-E Day May 8, 1945

FDR’s Death?? Or Not

Truman is sworn in