WWII european theater

1. The European Theater
A look at the fighting that happened in Europe
during World War II

2. oBJECTIVE
• By the end of the lesson, SWBAT
describe the major battles of the
European theater during World
War II.

3. Lightning Round REview
• 1.Who was the leader of Italy during World War II?
• 2.Who was the leader of Germany during World
War II?
• 3.What does Imperialism mean?
• 4.Where were the two places that World War II
occurred?

4. Vocabulary• Eastern Front - The fight in the Eastern part of Europe.
The fight was between Germany and the Soviet Union.
• Western Front - The fight in the Western part of Europe.
The fight was between Germany and the U.S., Great Britain,
Canada, and Australia.
• D-Day - The day the Allied powers opened up the Western
front.The attack took place on the beaches of Normandy,
France.
• Josef Stalin - The leader of the Soviet Union (Russia).

5. EuropeanTheater
• In the spring of 1939,Adolf Hitler, the leader of the
Germany, ordered the Nazis to invade both Poland
and Czechoslovakia.
• This event startedWorldWar II.
• Germany was able to take over much of Europe by
1941.
• They even took over France!

6. Europe

7. Eastern Front
• Until 1944, the Nazis had control of much of Europe.
• The only place that fighting was really going on in
Europe between 1941 - 1944 was on the Eastern
front.
• The Germans (Axis Power) were fighting the Soviet
Union (Allied Power) because the Germans kept
moving east into the Soviet Union.

8. Eastern Front

9. eastern Front
• The battles in the Eastern Front were miserable:
• It was cold, and the troops traveled thousands of miles
• The Soviet Union leader, Josef Stalin, would not give
up and he kept fighting.
• “One rifle, two soldiers!”
• The Soviet Union lost over 23,000,000 people in the
battles that happened there!

11. open it up!• The Soviet Union was begging the United States and
France to start fighting inWestern Europe.
• The Soviets wanted the Allied Powers to open up the
Western Front.
• The U.S., Britain,Australia, and Canada spent years
preparing for their attack against Nazi Germany.
• Why would the Soviet Union want its allies to open up the
Western Front?
• Why would this attack on theWestern Front take so much
planning?

12. D-DAY!• Finally, on June 6, 1944, the Allied Powers
opened up the Western Front of the
European Theater by attacking the beaches
of Normandy, France!
• Canada,The United States,Australia, and
Great Britain all fought in the biggest land
invasion ever!
• The allied Powers landed on five beaches
named: Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno, and Omaha

15. D-Day -The Numbers
• 5,000 ships were used in the attack.
• 150,000 mean fought in the battle
• 30,000 tanks were brought ashore
• 9,000 soldiers died on the first day of battle, but
100,000 soldiers made it to the beaches!

17. D-DAY
• The Allied mission against the Nazis was very
dangerous because on the cliffs above the beaches,
the Nazis had huge concrete forts where they had
huge machine guns ready to shoot the soldiers.
• The Nazis also put a lot metal objects on beaches
so the landing crafts couldn’t get that close and the
soldiers had to swim to shore?
• Why was it dangerous for soldiers have to swim to
shore?

19. D-DAY SUCCESS
• Although the Allied Powers lost a lot of soldiers, they were
able to land on the beaches of Normandy.
• With the Allied Powers fighting in France, the European
Theater was a two front war: meaning there was fighting in
the West and the East.
• Why was that a bad thing for the Nazis and the Axis
Powers?

21. Nazi struggles• The Nazis were not doing well in a two front war.
• They had to decide where to put there troops and
they could not defend both the East and West of
Germany.
• The race was on for both the Soviet Union and the
Americans to see who get to the capitol of Germany
- Berlin first.
• Both the Soviet Union and the Americans wanted to
be the first to capture Berlin!
• Why would both the Americans and Soviets both want to
get Berlin first?

23. ROOSEVELT AND STALIN

24. Tuskegee Airmen
• The Tuskegee Airmen played a big role in World War
II.
• They were involved in the fight to defeat Italy.
• They dropped bombs over the island of Sicily before
the Allied Powers invaded Italy.

26. Conclusion
• The Nazis were winning in Europe when it was
only a one front war.
• When the Allied Powers opened up the Western
front on D-Day, it was the beginning of the end
for Nazi Germany.
• The Tuskegee Airmen fought in Italy.