CH 24.1 The US in WWII

The United States—including its military forces and its civilian population—succeeded along with the ___ to defeat the ____ powers in Europe and the Pacific. Yet the cost of victory and the discovery of the full horrors of World War II were staggering.

Allies Axis

In late January, the first of some 100,000 Allied soldiers went ashore at ___. Fighting raged for the next four months as the Allies were unable to break out of their small coastal beachhead. Finally, Allied forces from the ___ fought their way to Anzio and freed the trapped soldiers. By then, from 25,000 to 30,000 Allied soldiers had been killed or wounded. The end of the battle at Anzio, however, did not end the fighting in Italy. It continued for nearly a year. Some 300,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded there.

Anzio south

Despite early losses, America's entry into the war would help turn the tide in the Battle of the ____. Energized American ___ began producing new ships at an amazing rate. These were used to form larger, better-equipped ____, which helped cut down on the effectiveness of ___ attacks.

Atlantic shipyards convoys U-boat

For ships traveling across the ___ Ocean in the early days of World War II, the danger of ____ attack was always present. Unable to tell whether ____, or submarines, were lurking nearby, ships' crews lived in constant fear of attack. When submarines struck without warning, that fear turned to terror. The crew of the Navy destroyer _____ learned this firsthand in October 1941. At the time, the United States had not yet entered the war. Its ships, however, were serving as escorts to convoys carrying goods from American ports to _____. It was while on such a mission that the Reuben James was attacked by a _______. Following a torpedo strike, the ship's ammunition exploded. The Reuben James sank quickly. Most of its crew, including all officers, went down with the ship.

Atlantic German submarine U-boats USS Reuben James Great Britain German U-boat

A key moment in the battle came at the ___city of ___. This was an important crossroads, and the Germans were determined to take it. Even more determined was the small force of American defenders. Surrounded by Germans, shivering in below-zero temperatures and low on supplies, the Americans clung to survival. But survive they did. On December 26, troops led by Lieutenant General _____ arrived to provide relief for the American force. The victory at Bastogne helped ___ the German offensive. It also became a symbol of American ___ and ____.

Belgian Bastogne George S. Patton blunt strength and determination

Though the costs were high—an estimated 10,000 Allied casualties, including 6,600 Americans—___ had been a success. With each day, more troops and equipment came ashore. By early July, the Allies had landed almost a million soldiers and nearly 180,000 vehicles. The landing area was considered secure enough to send in members of the __________.

D-Day Women's Army Corp

After a short delay caused by bad weather, ___ finally arrived on June 6, 1944. The attack began with soldiers parachuting behind the German lines to try to secure key sites. Ships offshore rained shells on the coastline to destroy German defenses. Allied aircraft filled the sky to provide cover for the wave of troops to come. A variety of ____ craft helped deliver equipment and soldiers to the beaches.

D-Day amphibious

To end the war as quickly as possible, the Allies wanted to launch a large invasion of mainland ___. Careful planning was vital. The Allies worked for months to select a location for Operation ___. They finally settled on the beaches of ____, in northern ___. The Allies had to assemble huge numbers of troops, weapons, and other equipment necessary for an invasion. ____ commanded the mission and chose General ____ to lead the American troops. The top British commander was _______.

Europe Overlord Normandy France Eisenhower Omar Bradley Bernard Montgomery

When the United States entered the war in late 1941, President Roosevelt was anxious to make a contribution quickly. Stalin wanted the Allies to invade ___, to help divide Hitler's intentions. Other Allied leaders, however, resisted calls to rush into Europe ___. ____, it was decided, was the logical place for American soldiers to enter the fray.

Europe unprepared North Africa

Soon after the fall of ____ in June 1940, the British and ___ began a battle for ____. This territory was vital to the Allies. By controlling it, the British could protect shipping on the ____ against Italian attack. This shipping was a lifeline by which the British could efficiently get ___ through the ___ from the Middle East. Without oil Great Britain would not be able to defend itself, much less defeat the Axis.

France Italians North Africa Mediterranean Sea oil Suez Canal

Throughout the fall of 1944, the Allies moved eastward. The Germans fought well in places. For example, the Battle of _____ claimed thousands of Allied lives. Overall, however, the Germans appeared near collapse. As one of Eisenhower's advisers put it in early December, "The battle is over and the German army has had it."

Hürtgen Forest

The fighting in ___ was slow and difficult partly because the Allies could not devote all their fighting ___ to the battle. Many of these resources were being held for the planned invasion of ____. This plan came to be known as _________.

Italy resources France Operation Overlord

After landing, Allied forces turned east to fight the Germans. In battles at places such as ___, Americans gained valuable combat experience. Some 20,000 Americans were killed or wounded in the six months of North Africa fighting. But by May 1943, they had helped defeat Rommel's forces. While this fighting was taking place, Allied leaders focused on the war's next phases. Stalin continued to push for a European invasion, and in the planning stages was a massive invasion of ___. In early 1943, however, such an operation was still a year away. For now, Allied leaders prepared to cross the Mediterranean and knock the ___ out of the war.

Kasserine Pass France Italians

In the early fighting, Italian forces based in ___ tried to drive the British from their stronghold in ____. They failed. In fact, the ___ were beaten badly and driven backwards. Hitler was forced to send troops to support the Italians in early 1941. At the head of these forces was the famed German general ____. Throughout 1941 and 1942, Rommel's forces and the British fought a back-and-forth battle for control of North Africa. Though Rommel led brilliantly—it was here he earned the nickname ____—the British ultimately gained control. At the battle of ____, fought about the same time as the Battle of ___, the British handed the Germans a major defeat.

Libya Egypt Italians Erwin Rommel Desert Fox El Alamein Stalingrad

By early June 1944, the Allied force of 3.5 million soldiers was ready for action. Tension ran high. The soldiers knew they had to succeed—and that success was uncertain. They knew that at ____ they would meet a determined German force.

Normandy

They were to supply support for the forces that would soon fight their way past German defenses at ____. This breakthrough occurred in late July. As the German commander reported, "The whole western front has been ripped open." The Allies were now on the march in ___. By the end of August, ____had been freed from the Germans. Hitler's once mighty war machine was now in full retreat.

Normandy France Paris

Allied forces landed at five separate sites at Normandy on D-Day of the invasion of France. ____ was one of two beaches invaded by U.S. forces. As American soldiers moved toward the nearly 100-foot-high cliffs, German guns at the top rained a deadly fire down on them.

Omaha Beach

The commander of what came to be called ___ was a U.S. lieutenant general named ____________. The plan called for American forces to invade the North African countries of ___ and ___ in November 1942. ____ had controlled this territory before 1940. After the fall of France, ___ leaders were installed there. Still, the Allies hoped that the French in North Africa would side with them in battle. Indeed, the Allies met little resistance upon landing, and many ___ forces soon joined them.

Operation Torch Dwight D. Eisenhower Morocco Algeria France Vichy French

A number of crew members, however, were thrown into the sea. They struggled to stay afloat in the freezing water, which was covered with a thick, black layer of oily fuel from the ___. Nearby ships rushed to their aid, but the slick ___ made it difficult for the sailors to grasp the rescue lines. Reports of another nearby U-boat made the rescue vessels scatter—leaving survivors still bobbing in the sea. The terrible story of the Reuben James would be repeated often in the months ahead. As you will read, the first battles the United States would fight were not on dry land but on the high seas. There it would take time before the United States and its allies would find effective ways to fight their hidden enemy—the ______.

Reuben James oil German U-boat

The first major step in this assault was the July 1943 invasion of the island of ___. Soon after the attack began, Roosevelt and Churchill issued a message to the Italian people, asking them "whether they want to die for Mussolini and Hitler or live for _______." The Italians chose life. By the end of month, they had turned against the dictator ______ and forced him from power. The Allies took Sicily a few weeks later. They planned next to occupy the Italian ___.

Sicily Italy and civilization Benito Mussolini Peninsula

In the summer of 1941, Hitler broke his nonaggression pact with ___ and sent his forces into the _____. (The Soviets thus joined the ___ as enemies of the Axis Powers.) For the next several months, German forces stormed across the Soviet countryside. As they had in Poland and France, German tanks, planes, guns, and soldiers steadily pressed the attack. Town after Soviet town fell. Stalin's forces seemed unable to stop the German ___.

Stalin Soviet Union Allies blitzkrieg

Not only did the Germans fail to take ____, they also exposed themselves to a ________. In the fighting that followed, 250,000 Axis soldiers were trapped by Soviet forces. The surviving Axis troops were forced to surrender in early 1943. ___ had suffered a stunning defeat.

Stalingrad Soviet counterattack Hitler

When spring returned to the Soviet Union, the German armies renewed their assault. One major target was the city of ____, a major industrial center on the ____. The Germans attacked Stalingrad in August 1942. In some of the ____ fighting in the history of warfare, the Soviets refused to let ____ fall.

Stalingrad Volga River bloodiest Stalingrad

___ marked the beginning of Germany's collapse in the Soviet Union. Thereafter, Soviet forces began to push German forces back toward ___. The fighting took a terrible toll. Hitler's forces suffered losses of some 2 million, and the Soviets paid an even higher price—12 million soldiers. Millions of civilians also died. In Leningrad alone, as many as 800,000 civilians perished before the siege there was finally lifted in January 1944. Yet the ___ had survived. Now it was fighting toward the final defeat of the ___.

Stalingrad Germany Soviet Union Axis

The ____'s 99th Pursuit Squadron (left) provided air support in both __ and ___. Among their numerous awards, their fighter group was honored for "outstanding performance and extraordinary heroism." In all, the Tuskegee Airmen completed 15,500 missions. On the right, elite U.S. Army Rangers charge up an Italian hillside. Rangers, specially trained volunteers who had been serving in Northern Ireland, spearheaded the push through Italy.

Tuskegee Airmen North Africa and Italy

Hitler, however, was not going to let the Allies simply march through Italy and into Europe. German forces rushed to stop them. Despite German resistance, the Allies made steady progress at first. Taking part in the fighting were the ______. This was a ____ unit of ____, the first ever to receive training as ___ in the United States military. After its early success, the Allied invasion slowed as it approached ____. To keep it moving, the Allies planned to land a large force behind enemy lines. The site they chose for this landing was a seafront resort called ____.

Tuskegee Airmen segregated African Americans pilots Rome Anzio

At the same time, new Allied ___ protected convoys from the air. The aircraft and escort ships used ___ and other technologies to find and destroy more ____. Another factor in the Allied success was the breaking of Germany's ___, which was called ____. After cracking Enigma in 1941, the Allies began to gain vital information about the locations and plans of ___ formations. These factors began to give the Allies an advantage over German U-boats. German sailors were soon referring to their ships as "___." By war's end, some 70 percent of the Germans who had served on a submarine were dead. The ___ belonged to the Allies.

aircraft radar U-boats code system Enigma U-boat iron coffins Atlantic

In World War I the Allies had learned to protect ships against U-boats by forming ____. Early in World War II, however, the British (and the Americans) did not have enough vessels to form effective convoys. This made it easy for ____ to attack supply ships bound for Great Britain. The Germans also developed new tactics to increase U-boat effectiveness. One example was the so-called ____, in which U-boats hunted in ___ and often attacked at ___.

convoys U-boats wolf pack groups night

Fortunately for the Allies, the Germans were slow to respond to the invasion. Thanks in part to Allied ____, Hitler feared that the assault on Normandy was just a ___and that another invasion would take place elsewhere. For precious days, German leaders delayed in sending backup forces to the area. By the time they realized their mistake, the Allies had established a ____.

deceptions trick beachhead

The German U-boat fleet enjoyed what it referred to as the "____" in 1940 and 1941. U-boats sent hundreds of ships and tons of supplies to the bottom of the sea. At the same time, the German navy lost only a few dozen U-boats. After Germany declared war on the United States, ____ attacks on American shipping increased. German submarines even patrolled the waters off the _____ of the United States. There they made easy pickings of merchant ships that sailed from American ports without the protection of a full ___. In a few short months, 360 American ships were sunk compared to just eight German U-boats.

happy time U-boat East Coast convoy

In the end, however, the success of Operation Overlord came down to the courage of the individual soldiers who would make the ____. Their job was to wait for their landing-craft gate to open—then to move forward toward shore. By the thousands, they waded through the surf till they hit the sand and then raced through obstacles, wounded and dead comrades, and a hail of gunfire to find something to hide behind. Then those who managed to get that far gathered their courage, got to their feet, and went forward again. All was chaos and confusion. Little went according to plan. Still, soldiers stuck to their assigned tasks.

landing

By the end of January 1945, the bulge created by the German offensive had been _____. Once again the Allies set their sights on Germany and the defeat of Hitler. Victory was close at hand.

rolled back

For the United States and the Allies, defeating the Axis Powers depended largely on control of the ___. It was only by sea that the United States could __________ to the hard-pressed opponents of Hitler. If the Atlantic was not kept safe for ____, the Axis would soon win the war. Germany entered World War II with a ___ powerful enough to challenge for control of the seas. It featured several new surface ships. Foremost among these was the giant ____, the pride of the German fleet. After ___ managed to sink the Bismarck in 1941, however, Germany began to rely on a familiar weapon—the ____.

seas deliver soldiers and supplies shipping navy Bismarck Great Britain U-boat

While good planning was important, ___was also vital. Of particular concern to the Allies was the expected introduction of two new German weapons, the ____ and the ____. The Allies were able to destroy some rocket-launch sites, but fears of these dangerous weapons forced the Allies onward.

speed V1 flying bomb V2 rocket

This judgment, it turned out, was premature. On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched a ____offensive of their own. The attack was known as the ____. This referred to the ____ in the Allied battle lines created by the German advance. For several days, Hitler's forces threatened to win back vital ground from the Allies.

surprise Battle of the Bulge bulge

Though the Soviet Union appeared close to collapse, it did not fall. As autumn came and went, the Soviets were joined by a new ally—the bitterly cold Russian ____. German soldiers and equipment performed poorly in the freezing temperatures, and their invasion slowed. Still, the Germans held a huge portion of the ___ Soviet Union. They had also besieged the city of _____. The suffering of the people there was extreme. With little food and fuel, some 200,000 residents died in January and February alone. Hundreds of thousands more would perish in the months ahead.

winter western Leningrad