World War II: Important Battles Part 1 - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

World War II: Important Battles Part 1

Western Campaign and battles at sea.Slide2

The Blitzkrieg

The success of the Blitzkrieg depended on two things:

1) The better use and incorporation of technology then your enemy.

2) Greater and more effective mobility.Slide3

Hitler’s Blitzkrieg used shock tactics, its aim was to

paralyse

the enemy by using the most up to date

technonlogy

and military tactics.

Motorised

vehicles, tanks and air power were all coordinated by the use of radio communication.

Reinforcements were to follow in order to capture the territory of the intended target.

Hitler used this military tactic in all of his European campaign,

except

for Britain.Slide4

‘Phoney War’

This is a term that is used to describe the period of September 1939 to March 1940.

It is called this because there was hardly any action on the western front.

Britian

and France had promised to defend Poland, but realized very quickly that it would have been impossible to do so.

GB and Fr did not take any action on Germany despite declaring war on them.Slide5

BEF in France and Dunkirk

Prior to WWII France had built a series of huge fortresses called the

Maginot Line

. They were located along the Franco-German border.

The thought was that no one could penetrate this line.

The

Germans

did not attempt to do so, but in May 1940 they turned on France and instead of going over the Maginot line, they took their tanks through the

Ardennes

region of Belgium.

While it was considered impossible to cross those

forests

with tanks, the

Ger`s

proved everyone wrong and within days the Allies were surrounded and facing defeat.

BLITZKRIEG PROVED EFFECTIVE IN FRANCE!Slide6

Dunkirk -- GB

The Allies were forced to withdraw to Dunkirk, this proved to be bad as the troops (BEF) were trapped by advancing Ger army.

The Germans sent in Dive bombers to pound the Allied troops and their equipment.

Despite tremendous success, Hitler ordered his troops to halt possibly suspecting a trap. Or perhaps because the

Ger`s

lost many tanks in this battle.Slide7

The British saw Dunkirk as a success, as the halt of Germany allowed the evacuation of many Brits.

May 26- June 4 : 330,000 and 10,000 troops were evacuated by small boats and the British navy.

The RAF outfought the Luftwaffe over Dunkirk.

Dunkirk also allowed for all citizens, media and government to come together and create a war effort that lasted until 1945.

Not much was said of the fact that the BEF had been forced back home from Europe, nor that all heavy equipment had been left behind or destroyed by the Germans. Or that 300,000 troops had been left behind to become prisoners.Slide8

French Troops at Dunkirk

After the evacuations of the British, French troops were left alone at Dunkirk to fight the German`s alone.

The French could not keep up the fight alone against the

Ger`s

and to make matters worse Italy declared war on France on June 12

th

.

The government had no choice but to surrender France on June 21

st

, 1940.

Other then the Vichy region, all of France was occupied and run by the German army.Slide9

The Battle of Britain

Hitler was unsure how to defeat Britain. The Blitzkrieg tactics would not work as he could not cross the channel that easily.

He concluded that he needed to conquer them through air and sea battles.

Hitler was informed by his military advisors that there would be no way Germany could defeat the RAF and the British navy.

Britain had the strongest navy in the world.

Hitler did believe that the RAF could be wiped out by German planes. Then he could focus on the British Navy.Slide10

The German`s called this invasion

Operation Sealion

.

July 1, 1940: the 1

st

German aircraft crossed the channel and the air Battle of Britain had begun.

It is important to

remember

that the Battle of Britain was a series of smalls air battles everyday. They lasted throughout the summer of 1940.

Waves of German bombers accompanied by fighters were sent over Britain.

British fighters were sent to intercept them. The RAF was consistently outshooting the Luftwaffe.

After Lord Beaverbrook took over the aircraft production, he focused on only building fighters not bombers.

July-September GB was making 563 planes per month. More than

Gemany

.Slide11

September 1940: Luftwaffe changed tactic to

the Blitz

.

They began to bomb the city of London.

While this produced terror for the civilians, it did give the RAF a break.

It was clear that Hitler gave up his plan of invasion by no longer attacking the RAF, the RAF pilots were praised by many and were the main cause of Hitler`s withdrawal of Operation Sealion.Slide12

The Battle of the Atlantic

Lasted from 1939-1944.

Battle for the control of the North Atlantic Ocean.

This was not as spectacular as the dog fights of the air, but was equally important.

The Atlantic provided vital trade routes to Britain and the rest of Europe.

The allies had used this body of water to gather supplies from the US and Canada for the British troops.Slide13

In the early stages of the War Germany knew they had to cut these trade routes in order to be effective.

German submarines were very effective at this.

In 1940: Germans sank 1000 ships (over ¼ of the British Merchant Fleet)

1941: Allies lost 1300 ships and another 1661 in 1942.

Britain was only able to import 1/3 of what it normally did in times of peace.

Britain and the

allies

knew

they needed to do something drastic.Slide14

Churchill’s main goal was fighting the U-Boat campaign.

1943: Allies sunk 141 U boats and losing only 57 ships themselves.

This forced the withdrawal of German fleet in the Atlantic in March 1944.

The allies won the Battle of the Atlantic.Slide15

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