Key Devlopments: WW2 in Europe (1939-1945)

• Luftwaffe carried out large scale attacks against RAF to achieve air superiority.

  Reason: destroy their ability to fly and fight back
• When did the Germans launch the Blitz?

  Bombed British cities from September 1940 to May 1941
• Impacts of the Blitz?

  • Huge losses of life
  • Great damage to houses, docks, factories and warehouses
• Britain's response to the Blitz?

  • kept a grim willingness and did not surrender
• Why was the Battle of Britain a disadvantaged fight for Germany?

  • Battle fought in Britain - British pilots regenerate and fly again while German pilots captured as POWs once shot down
  • Result: 500 British pilots and 2700 German pilots died (HUGE DIFFERENCE)
• 3. Operation Barbarossa (1941)
• Hitler always wanted to destroy communism + expand into Eastern Europe and USSR (access to vast resources like oil) - pact between USSR and Germany won't last
• When was Operation Barbarossa launched?

  June 1941
• Initially, Germany seemed successful:

  • Stalin on verge of abandoning Moscow (Sep 1941) but Germans unable to overwhelm USSR fast enough + harsh Russian winter halted German troops
  • Significance of Russian winter - extremely cold - weapons and people freeze - if German continued fighting, it was suicide as they'll be fighting against USSR soldiers used and familiar with the cold
• What did Stalin do during the Russian winter?

  • reorganise USSR war effort + with help of US lend-lease resources - managed to put up strong resistance against Germany on Eastern front
• 4. Operation Overlord: D-Day (1944)
• Date of landings?

  6 June 1944 - Day allied forces landed on heavily fortified coasts of Normandy
• By then:

  • Musollini had fallen
  • He signed armistice with allies (Sep 1943) and rejoined war on Allies' side
  • Significance: Germany isolated against Allies
• Allies succeeded due to:

  1. Overwhelming resources
  2. Effective planning and leadership
• Details of what D-Day brought:

  1. 130k allied troops across English Channel by sea + 23k by air
  2. Reinforced 1. with tanks, weapons, ammunition and other war essentials
  3. Around 13k aircrafts (VS G's 400) pounded radar installations, rail links, bridges - cut off reinforcements for Germany

  Significance: Allies had much more resources than G (obliterate them)
• Which 5 areas were attacked by Allied forces?

  Utah (easiest to clear), Omaha (fierciest German resistance - heavy allied casualties), Gold, Juno and Sword
• Significance of controlling the beach?

  1. control who enters and leaves
  2. gain as much territory as possible for follow up allied forces
• Beach landing impact:

  • devastating loss of allied soldiers (around 70 to 80%)
  • allies still won - shows how shockingly big the number of soldiers they had was
• 5. Victory in Europe
• Germany tried launching counterattack (Dec 1944) with new equipment (guided missles, jet aircraft etc...) but couldn't stop allies
• Soviets managed to stop germany advancement + won in Stalingrad (early 1943) - Germany forced to retreat
• When did USSR encircle Berlin by?

  Jan 1945
• Where did US and Britain forces meet with USSR at?

  Germany's River Elbe
• When did Germany surrender and what did that mean?

  8 May 1945 - war in Europe ended
• 1. Fall of France
• What did France have that Germany did not?

  larger army and air force + supported by british expeditionary force and royal air force
• What happened in late may?

  B and F surrounded + facing total defeat
• What did B and F forces do?

  retreated to Channel Coast in region around Dunkirk port where they were highly vulnerable
• What could the German forces have done when allies retreated?

  severely destroy britain and france
• What happened instead?

  some hitler generals wanted to slow down to consolidate german forces so they not vulnerable so Hitler ordered to stop (if he didn't, B and F could have surrendered) - soldiers in dunkirk eventually rescued
• What happened in June right after the attack?

  France surrendered and fell to Germany