Europe and Africa

The Causes and Consequences of World War II HIST 1301 | History Europe and Africa U.S. military authorities created many plans of action in case of conflict with the Axis countries between 1938 and the spring of 1941. Admiral Harold R. Stark, Roosevelt's head of naval operations, briefed him right away in 1940 after he unexpectedly won a third term. Stark told Roosevelt that the best military tactic was "Plan D," or Europe First. This directed the attention of the United States and Britain towards eliminating Germany and Italy initially and preparing to defend themselves against Japan should it join the conflict. In an attempt to increase his territory in Africa, Mussolini invaded British Somaliland in August 1940, endangering the British in Egypt. The Brits launched a retaliation. When Mussolini lost territory in Africa between June and December 1940, he focused on the Balkans. Italian forces invaded Greece in October 1940, thinking they would win easily, but they were soundly crushed. Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps to fight the British in northeastern North Africa in order to avert more catastrophe. Germany wanted to win the war, and in addition to helping its Italian partner, it also wanted to seize control of the Suez Canal and ensure that it would have access to oil in the Middle East. On April 6, 1941, Hitler launched an invasion of Greece, delaying his invasion of the Soviet Union by several weeks in order to support his flagging ally and quell an anti-German rebellion in Yugoslavia. Winston Churchill devised Operation Gymnast, a plan to fight the Germans in northwest Africa, because of fear that any significant British effort against the Germans in Norway or northern France would turn into a massacre. Considering how hard the Soviets were suffering from German offensives, General Eisenhower was extremely dissatisfied with Churchill's strategy when on a military visit to London in July 1942. In order to divert German resources from its assault on the Soviet Union before the Soviets succumbed, General George C. Marshall supported the establishment of a front in northern Europe. However, Churchill triumphed, and in November 1942 the Allies—which by now included the US—invaded French North Africa, which included Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Important British holdings, Egypt and the Suez Canal, were spared, and Churchill and Roosevelt arranged to meet as summit leaders in Casablanca, French Morocco, in January 1943 to prepare Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, the next stage of the war. Stalin was unhappy by this decision since he had hoped for an invasion of western Europe to divert German forces from the battle in the Soviet Union and the east. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's eastern front was witnessing bloody fighting. Hitler decided to decide on strategy in August 1941, after the German assault had begun well and was on the verge of taking Moscow. The German general staff intended to get in Moscow before the winter arrived by car. Hitler, however, sent a large portion of his army southward. Thinkers from both the Axis and the Allies had long acknowledged the strategic military significance of oil. For this reason, the British government had been meddling in the affairs of Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, and Egypt for some decades previous to the conflict. In the 1930s, the Germans had also developed a strong interest in the Middle East and central Asia. Reza Shah established a programme of modernization in Iran in 1925, strengthening connections with Germany and hiring hundreds of Germans in the process. Initially, the British wanted the potentially pro-German Shah to drive out Germans and cut connections with Berlin in order to prevent Germany from possibly accessing Iranian oil. Then, in August 1941, British and Soviet armies attacked Iran, not want to take any chances. Reza Shah was compelled to abdicate in favour of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi when the Iranian resistance crumbled in a matter of days. After the Germans were driven out, the area was occupied by the Allies until 1946. Iran became become a conduit for Allied help, mostly from the United States, to reach Stalin during those years as he battled to repel the Wehrmacht. Seven oil companies controlled the majority of the world's oil supply by 1939; none of them were German. As a result, from 1939 to 1941, Germany was mostly dependent on oil from Romania and the Soviet Union. One thousand kilometres from Stalingrad, the oil reserves in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan appeared to provide hope, and so the German army advanced to seize Baku, the hub of the Soviet oil-drilling sector. So Moscow was spared by winter as much as by the German thirst for oil. With the exception of nearing Stalingrad, the Germans were unable to advance much when they began their attack on all fronts in the summer of 1942. Hitler was adamant about capturing the city and holding it for himself. Stalin forbade Soviet soldiers from withdrawing in July with Order No. 227, stating, "Not one step backwards!" German forces had indeed advanced into Stalingrad by the autumn of 1942, but their further progress was horrifyingly tough and delayed. The Battle of Stalingrad raged fiercely for almost two months, sometimes building by building. The Soviet Red Army launched a counterattack at Stalingrad in November 1942 after amassing enough forces, successfully ensnaring the Germans in a noose. The Germans could only replenish themselves via the air, which was much too little to keep them going for very long. On January 31, 1943, German field marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered what remained of his Sixth Army, despite being expressly ordered not to do so. The Germans lost around 100,000 soldiers to the Soviets. The fight had claimed the lives of around two million people, a significant portion of them were civilians. The German push into the Soviet Union was halted by the Battle of Stalingrad. It was the first decisive loss for Hitler's Germany and a watershed moment in the European War, sending the Nazis into retreat for the duration of the conflict. A furious Stalin had been advocating for a second front against the Nazis in Europe since their first meeting with Churchill in August 1942. After rescuing Stalingrad, the Soviets launched an attack against the Germans in the summer of 1943. The greatest tank combat in history as well as the largest land engagement of the war was the succeeding combat of Kursk. Germany's ability to wage war was harmed by the Soviet triumph because of its weakened weaponry. By early 1943, half of the 200,000 men that Mussolini had insisted on sending to the Soviet Union had lost their lives. Mussolini was further degraded by Allied successes in Sicily and North Africa as well as the Allied bombardment of Rome in July 1943. Mussolini had to go, according to a coalition in Italy consisting of former fascist sympathisers, military personnel, the last liberal politicians, and the monarch himself. On July 24, 1943, the Grand Fascist Council convened for the first time in three years and decided by a landslide to depose him and put him under arrest. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, who started covert talks with the Allies, established a government. The Italian capitulation on September 8, 1943, was prompted by the Allied invasion of the country's mainland at the beginning of September. Hitler ordered German special forces to retrieve Mussolini four days later. Following their arrival in Italy, German forces proceeded to disband the Italian army's remains and instituted the Republic of Salo, a government headed by Mussolini, in the northern region of the country. But in April 1945, Mussolini was taken prisoner and killed by Italian communist rebels. The first of the "Big Three" meetings between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin took place in Tehran earlier in World War II, after Iran had been captured by the Allied invasion. The Tehran conference, which took place from November 28 to December 1, 1943, covered a number of topics, including the war against Japan, operations in Yugoslavia, ties between Turkey and Iran, and preparations for the postwar settlement. The Big Three promised to recognise Iran's independence in a protocol they signed during the summit. Together with the Soviet invasion of Germany's eastern frontier, the Big Three also decided on a May 1944 cross-channel invasion of Europe. Using Soviet successes to secure early agreements on Poland's post-war boundaries, Stalin controlled the summit. Churchill and Roosevelt also approved of the USSR installing pro-USSR regimes in the Baltic republics. The comprehensive worldwide organisation that had been suggested a few months before remained on the agenda for Roosevelt and Stalin to debate.