World War II: North Africa and Italy

North Africa

Ò Italian Presence in North Africa

Ò Since before World War II, Italy had been occupying ______and had over a ______based there

É In neighboring ______, the British Army had only ______men guarding the ______and the ______

Ò On Sept 13, 1940, the ______but halted in front of the main British defenses at ______

Ò On Dec 9, the British counterattacked and pushed the ______, inflicting heavy casualties

Ò British troops then moved along the coast and on ______, they captured the port of ______in Libya

Germany to the Rescue

Ò In the meantime, Germany sent forces across the ______

É The Afrika Corps commanded by Erwin Rommel

Ò Italy’s disasters in North Africa and elsewhere (i.e., Greece) were threatening to ______position in the ______--

Rommel

Ò Characteristically ______and drove the British Commonwealth forces ______except for Tobruk

Ò With the situation in North Africa stabilized, Hitler turned his attention to shoring up Italy, leaving Rommel to deal with North Africa

Ò One of Rommel’s biggest challenges would be his ______

É Between Oct and Nov the Allies sank nearly ______of Axis supply ships crossing the Mediterranean

Ò Rommel pushed the British deep into Egypt but British General Bernard Montgomery stopped Rommel ______

Operation Torch

Ò While this was going on in ______, Americans acquiesced to British pressure and began planning Operation Torch– landings to occupy Algeria and Morocco and co-opt the Vichy French

É The “______” had reached an agreement with the Germans allowing a French government headed by Marshall Henri Pétain to govern the French colonies and those parts of France not occupied by the Germans

É The “Free French” established their own government in exile led by ______

Ò The Anglo-American forces landed at ______, ______, and ______and then advanced by land and sea to ______-

Ò At first the Vichy French forces resisted, but eventually surrendered to ______

Ò Hitler began ______before the Allies could get there

Ò Hitler was successful in winning “______” and therefore denying the Mediterranean to Allied shipping

É However, he did so at a great price, committing Italian and German troops to an ultimately hopeless fight when they could have been better used elsewhere

Kasserine Pass

Ò After El Alamein, Montgomery had been unable to cut off Rommel and Rommel was able to retreat across Egypt, into Libya, and eventually reach Tunisia

Ò Rommel developed a plan to sweep up from ______and destroy the Allied supply dumps in eastern Algiers

Ò Rommel attacked on February 14 and punched his way through the ______

Ò It was a ______, but Rommel was unable to continue with his larger plan and began withdrawing on Feb 22

Germans Defeated

Ò Rommel then turned ______who were arriving from Egypt

Ò Montgomery dealt Rommel a stunning defeat and ______

Ò The Axis position in North Africa steadily deteriorated and in ______controlled ______

First Battle

Ò The ______in their first combat experience and senior leadership was horrible

É General Eisenhower was forced to relieve Lloyd Fredendall of command and replace him with ______

Results of North Africa

Ò The Germans had ______in an indecisive theater

Ò ______was severely ______-domestically

Ò The ______from their poor performance and made the ______

Ò The British and American coalition weathered a potentially threatening storm

Casablanca Conference

Ò After the Axis surrender in Tunisia, the Allies began planning the next phase of the war

Ò Roosevelt and Churchill met in Casablanca, Morocco in ______

É Stalin had been invited, but declined to attend because of Stalingrad

Second Front

Ò Since July 19, 1941, Stalin had been demanding the Allies open up a second front to relieve the German pressure Russia was facing

Ò Invading ______

Strategic Differences

Ò ______advocated a ______invasion to directly attack Germany

Ò ______-preferred an indirect approach, attacking through the “______”

Ò British Approach

Ò American Approach

Casablanca Conference
Jan 1943

Ò Britain

É “the control of the Mediterranean meant… control of the Western world.”

É Had imperial fortunes in ______

É Felt it was the Axis’ ______

Ò Americans

É “______” would delay the cross-channel invasion that would strike the German jugular

What They Agreed On

Ò Forces from ______once the North African Campaign was terminated

É Churchill knew this would preclude a cross-channel invasion in 1943

Ò At the end of the conference, Roosevelt announced that “peace can come to the world only by the total elimination of German and Japanese military power . . . (which) means ______.”

Trident Conference May 1943

Ò Americans accepted the ______from the war but demanded that the forces involved consist only of those already in the Mediterranean

Ò Americans and British also agreed that planning ______

The Italian Campaign

Ò Three amphibious operations

É Sicily (Operation Husky)

É Salerno (Operation Avalanche)

É Anzio (Operation Shingle)

Sicily, 1943à Failure to Plan Ahead

Ò Allies enjoyed great tactical success in capturing the island of Sicily but ______for what to do next

Ò ______were able to ______to the Italian mainland

Ò The ______under arrest but the Allies were slow to exploit this diplomatic opportunity and Hitler shored up his defenses in Italy

Messina: With Mainland Italy in the Distance

Ò So What Next ?….

Ò “We can’t win a war by capturing islands.”

É General Mark Clark, Fifth Army commander

Salerno, 1943

Ò Invading the Italian Mainland

Ò With the Italian Army on the verge of disintegrating, the assault on Salerno was designed to ______of Foggia, followed by a drive to Rome

Ò The ______and the battle was a close call for the Allies

É Massive naval gunfire, strategic bombers, and determined Allied ground forces saved the day

É The Germans withdrew to a defense centered on Monte Cassino astride the Liri, Sangro, Rapido, and Garigliano Rivers

Ò ______from which to defend Rome

É Exposed the Allies to costly and ______that was getting them nowhere

É Allies needed a way to alleviate the stalemate

Anzio, 1944à Missed Opportunity

Ò Strategic Situation in late 1943

Ò Campaign stalled about ______and was beginning to resemble the trench warfare of World War I

Ò A landing at ______around Cassino and put the Allies just 35 miles south of Rome

Ò New Commander

Ò Major General John Lucas replaced Dawley as VI Corps commander after Salerno

Ò Would prove to not be the right man for the job

É Tired from mountain warfare in Italy; appeared dispirited and discouraged.

Ò Anzio

Ò The Allies surprised the Germans at Anzio and had immediate success

Ò However the close call at Salerno had left them with an overly cautious attitude and they let the Germans recover

Ò “I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat into the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale.”

É Winston Churchill

Ò Alexander’s guidance was to “Carry out an assault landing on the beaches in the vicinity of Rome with the object of cutting the enemy lines of communication and threatening the rear of the German 14 Corps”

É “Cut the enemy’s main communications in the Colli Laziali (Alban Hills) area southeast of Rome, and threaten the rear of the 14 German corps”

Ò Instead Lucas cautiously ______-- which gave the ______

Ò “On January 22 and even the following day, an audacious and enterprising formation of enemy troops… could have penetrated into the city of Rome itself without having overcome any serious opposition”

É Siegried Westphal, German Chief of Staff

Ò Alexander had told Lucas to advance “on” the Alban Hills

É Did that mean “to” or “toward”?

É What was the commander’s intent?

Legacy of Anzio

Ò It wasn’t until June 4 that the Allies finally reached Rome in “______”

É By then the decisive Allied effort had shifted to France

Ò Most of the ______- Clark at Rome and the Germans established a strong defense along the Gothic Line

É Kept the Allies away from the Italian industrial area and the Alpine approaches to Germany