Eastern Front

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Eastern Front
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Southern Front
Jailbreak time -Eastern front collapses -Tough
old gut -1944 joint U.S. and British force
lands in
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Western Front
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Two Year Period Between Battle of Britain and
D-Day on the Western Front

• Battle of the Atlantic
• U boats make obvious sense for the Germans
• Sunk an incredible amount of merchant shipping
• According to Wikipedia Britain required more
  than a million tons of imported food and material
  per week in order to be able to survive and fight
  on against Germany
• Asdic (sonar) and depth charges
• wolf pack versus the convoy system
• Extremely difficult to fight the U-boat (example
  attack on Scapa Flow)
• Winston Churchill Only part of the war that
  really scared me

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Scharnhorst-8.jpg? (209KB, MIME type image/jpeg)
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Allied Solutions Allies finally turn the tide
with improved technology Break German radio codes
Catapult planes Convoys The Hedgehog (see below)

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D-Day

• Demanded by Stalin for at least 3 years
• Largest amphibious assault in history
• Choice of landing zones Pas de Calais vs
  Normandy

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• D-Day Deception
• pretending to strike at the Pas de Calais
• using double agents and fake radio traffic
• turning spies
• there was even a real individual that James Bond
  was later based on
• Floating Mulberrys PLUTO dummy invasion
  force

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• Invasion came at low tide why?
• Weather wasnt great either
• Rommel on vacation

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The fighting

• http//www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/launc
  h_ani_overlord_campaign.shtml
• Paratroopers dropped behind the lines to hold
  bridges, stop Panzer counterattacks and support
  the allied landings
• Storming of the beaches
• Hedgerow fighting
• Allied breakout

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• The Plot to Assassinate HitlerJuly 20, 1944
• Hitler never trusted the professional army
  officers.  His disdain came about because of the
  poor generalship in World War I that killed
  millions of German soldiers. He was always
  worried that the Army would attempt a coup de
  état and try to take over the government.
• In 1934, as a result of the Night of Long
  Knives, he removed the SA, essentially a gang of
  thugs that had brought him to power, and killed
  their leader, Ernst Röhm. In exchange for
  removing the SA, the Army signed an oath of
  allegiance to Hitler.
• As the losses mounted in late 1943 and early
  1944, Hitler replaced or forced many generals
  into retirement and the Army high Command, except
  for those officers in Hitlers personal orbit,
  grew openly critical of his constant meddling.
• Oberst Claus Schenk, Count von Stauffenberg
  lost his left hand and fingers from his right
  fighting in Tunisia.  As a member of the
  aristocracy, he had double contempt for Hitler,
  and joined the plot to kill him. General Ludwig
  Beck, Chief of Staff back in 1938, was the
  nominal leader.
• The Normandy Landings inspired the plotters to
  attempt an assassination in the face of the
  Allied breakout. Von Stauffenberg placed a
  briefcase with a bomb inside Hitlers Wolfs
  Lair his command post for the Eastern Front in
  Rastenburg, Prussia. The bomb was one of many
  British bombs confiscated by the Abwehr, the
  German intelligence organization. Stauffenberg
  had to activate the bomb with tongs. He placed
  the bomb under the conference table and left.  He
  and the other plotters believed Hitler was dead
  and prepared to seize Berlin with Home Army
  troops.
• Hitler was not dead. Believing God had spared
  him to avenge Germany on the world, he met with
  Mussolini later in the day despite wounds to his
  right arm and a loss of hearing.
• Meanwhile, Stauffenberg was shot at midnight by
  a firing squad, loyal Army officers rounded up
  conspirators, many of whom tried to spare their
  lives by informing. Implicated was Erwin Rommel,
  who had been approached by the plotters but did
  not join.  Rommel was recovering from wounds at
  home. For his failure to inform Hitler, he was
  given a choice take poison and get a state
  funeral, or refuse and see your family executed
  as well.  Rommel took poison.  The man who had
  the best ability to change Germanys fortunes of
  war was gone.
• Also forced to commit suicide or sent to
  concentration camps were thousands of family
  members of the plotters.  Eight of the
  conspirators were hung on meathooks and their
  death agony was filmed and shown to Hitler. Some
  Army officers committed suicide by walking into
  the Russian no-mans-land.
• Hitler used the July 20 Plot as an excuse to
  destroy anyone in the Army he feared would oppose
  him. The traditional salute was replaced with the
  Nazi Sieg Heil. Eventually 20,000 were killed or
  sent to concentration camps in the purge.
• Hitler, a manic hypochondriac, became obsessed
  with his health after the assassination attempt.
  His doctor prescribed drugs of his own design
  that contained hemlock.  Hitler gulped so many
  pills he was slowly poisoning himself. The
  tremors in his right hand became acute, and he
  rarely allowed photographs or film after July 20.
• The failure of the July 20 plot precluded any
  possibility of Germany negotiating a peace with
  the Allies. Hitler intended to fight to the death
  in a struggle that would see the end of National
  Socialism or the end of Germanys enemies.

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Battle of the Bulge

• German counterattack
• Basically an attempt to puncture the allied lines
  with another Blitzkrieg, get behind them, and
  destroy their supply lines
• Perhaps stop their advance
• Threatened to break through, but didnt
• Last Axis gasp on the western front

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V2 Rockets

• German- 1st rockets in history
• Might have been a big deal if Germany wasnt
  already essentially beaten

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Pacific Front

• Island Hopping

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Hansen Name ___________WWII The Western
Front- 1942- 1945

• Two Year Period Between Battle of Britain and
  D-Day on the Western Front
• Battle of the _______________
• U boats _______________________________ for the
  Germans
• Sunk an incredible amount of _____________________
  _
• According to Wikipedia Britain required more
  than _________ _________________of imported food
  and material per week in order to be able to
  ______________________________________
• Asdic (sonar) and ___________________________
• wolf pack versus the _____________________________
  
• Extremely difficult to fight the U-boat (example
  attack on Scapa Flow)- ___________________________
  ___________________
• Winston Churchill Only part of the war that
  really _________
• Allied ___________________
• Allies finally turn the tide with improved
  technology
• Break _________________________________
• ______________________ planes
• Convoys
• The Hedgehog- ___________________________________
• D-Day
• Demanded by ______________ for at least 3 years
  
• Largest __________________________________ in
  history
• Choice of landing zones _______________ v
  _______________

• Plot to _______________ Hitler
• ___________________________________________
  _____________________________________________
• Battle Of the ________________
• German counterattack
• Basically an attempt to ______________________
  with another Blitzkrieg, get behind them, and
  destroy their_________________________
• Perhaps stop their ___________________
• Threatened to break through, but ___________
• Last ________________________________________
• __________Rockets
• German- ________ rockets in history
• Might have been a big deal if Germany wasnt
  already ______________________________