Spiders as Big as your fist!Witness HistoryIt was beautiful, but beneath the loveliness Guadalcanal was a mass of lps and stinks and pestilence; of scum-crusted lagoons and vile swamps inhabited by giant crocodiles; a place of spiders as big as your fist and wasps as long as your finger…of ants that bite like fire, of tree leeches that fall fasten and suck; of scorpions, of centipedes whose foul scurrying across human skin leaves a track of inflamed flesh, of snakes and land crabs, rats and bats and carrion birds and of a myriad of stinging insects.” Robert Leckie, Delivered from Evil: The saga of WWII

Axis and Allies Plan StategyAllies spied signs of hopeAxis Power shared common enemies but nurtured individual dreams

Hitler-dominate Europe & “eliminate” inferior peoplesMussolini-Italian empireTojo-Japanese control of the Western Pacific/Asia

Allies shared more unified goals

Roosevelt, Churchill & Stalin considered Germany the most dangerous enemyAgreed to pursue a “Europe first” stategy

Turning the tide in EuropeFDR-America will be the “arsenal of democracy”. How?

Allies battled U-boats in the Atlantic

• Wolf-packs controlled the Atlantic & Caribbean

• Mid-1943, the Allies began to win

– Convoys– Radar– Depth Charges

Soviets turn back Nazis at Stalingrad

Germany’s main objective-conquer Soviet Union

Stopped by heavy Soviet resistance and brutal Russian winter

Battle of Stalingrad-true turning point in the war in Europe

Nazi armies, starving, sick & suffering from frostbite were forced to retreat

Allies drive Germans out of North Africa

Forcing Germany out of N. Africa would pave the way for an invasion of Italy

Oct, 1942 British won a victory at El AlameinNov, 1942-Allies landed in Morocco

• Led by Dwight Eisenhower

Kasserine PassErwin Rommel (Desert Fox) led the German offensiveAllies won but not by much

• Taught Allies that they needed better desert training

General George S. Patton Jr.In charge of the desert trainingKnown as “blood and guts Patton told his junior officers,

“You usually will know where the front is by the sound of gunfire, and that’s the direction you should proceed. Now, suppose you lose a hand or an ear is shot off, or perhaps a piece of your nose, and you think you should walk back to get first aid, if I see you, it will be the last…walk you’ll ever take.”

Under his command:Axis forces were pushed into a shrinking pocket in Tunisia. Rommel escaped, but his army did notIn May, 1943, 240,000 German and Italian troops surrendered.

Allies Invade ItalyFDR & Churchill met in Casablanca to decide their next move

Decided to increase bombing in GermanyInvade ItalyONLY “unconditional surrender would be accepted” to end the war

Why Italy?Allies could invade sicily without great risk from U-boat attacksProtected by air superiority

July 1943Commanded by Ike38 day campaign achieved great results

• Gave Allies complete control of the western Mediterranean

• Paved the way for invasion of Italy

• Ended the rule of Mussolini

• Sep 3, 1943-Italy surrendered

Bombers batter Germany

Night fliers launched nonstop air raids against Germany

Saturation bombing used to inflict maximum damage

By day, American bombers strategically bombed Germany-destroying their capacity to make war

Tuskegee AirmenPlayed a key role in bombing1500 missions, did not lose a single bomber

Overall-Bomber crews suffered 20% casualty rate

Turning the tide in the PacificMay 1942, Japanese still making forward momentumTurning point

MidwayLed by Charles NimitzNavy code breakers had intercepted Japanese messages and met the expected assaultJune 5, 1942

US sunk 4 Japanese aircraft carriers while the US lost 1