Notes taken from: The Tide Turns in the West 1942-4 (Darby, Graham. Europe at War 1939-45)
I. Desert Campaign
I. Desert Campaign
A. “See-saw” campaigning
1. Until the Battle of El Alamein, the war in Africa was characterized by “see-saw” campaigning.
a. In the spring of 1941, British forces were thrown back 370 miles.
b. By November, Auchinleck launched an offensive and the Afrika Corps was pushed back 340 miles to El Agheila.
c. In January and February 1942, Rommel pushed the British forces back to Benghazi and halted because the Italians wanted to concentrate on taking Malta.
d. Rommel’s offensive was renewed in May and he pushed the British back 570 miles into Egypt, to El Alamein.
i. Hitler promoted Rommel to Field Marshal because of his successes.
2. In August 1942 the Americans sent 300 Sherman tanks to the 8th Army in North Africa and landed their own 1st Army in French North Africa to initiate Operation Torch.
3. Churchill needed a victory in North Africa so Britain would not be humiliated in the eyes of the Russians and American, and to secure the possibility of a second front for the Western Allies to attack Germany.
B. The Battle of El Alamein
1. Rommel and Auchinleck fought to a standstill in the First Battle of El Alamein in July.Rommel had superior leadership and weaponry, which included panzer tanks and anti-tank guns.
a. Montgomery took over as General due to Auchinleck’s inadequacies.
2. Montgomery immediately halted Rommel’s offensive at Alam Halfa in August.
3. By October, the British 8th Army had superiority in numbers over the Afrika Corps: Montgomery had 195 000 men to Rommel’s 103 000; and 1300 tanks to Rommel’s 500.
4. Montogomery attacked in October and sent Rommel into a 1500-mile retreat across Libya.
a. Tobruk and Benghazi were taken in November.
5. By early 1943, Rommel was forced to Tunisia.
a. Anglo-American Forces under Eisenhower landed in French Morocco and Algeria in November 1942, trapping Rommel.
b. Hitler sent 150 000 troops to Tunisia, prolonging the campaign by 6 months.
6. By May 1943 the Axis forces in Tunisia were forced to give up.
a. 150 000 to 200 000 were taken prisoner, humiliating Hitler and Mussolini.
II. Invasion of Italy
1. Allied forces landed in Sicily in July 1943, taking Germans and Italians by surprise.
2. Mussolini was removed from power on July 25, which was the most important outcome of Operation Husky.
3. German troops took over northern and central Italy in September, and began to swiftly seize Italian occupied territory in France and the Balkans.
4. The Italian surrender and Allied invasion occurred at the same time as well, in September.
5. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring formed a line along the Bolturno, 30 miles north of Naples, to stage an effective defence against the Allies. Naples was finally liberated by the Allies on October 1.
6. The Allied landing at Anzio occurred in January 1944. It was to outflank the Gustav Line.
a. The Allies advanced only 70 miles in 8 months as the Germans staged a strong defence.
b. The Gustav Line, which included the mountains of Monte Cassino, gave the Germans a defensive advantage. The Allies were held here from January to May 1944.
7. Ultimately the Germans retreated and the Allies ‘liberated’ Rome.
a. The Italian campaign removed troops from France and kept German troops occupied. It successfully diverted German resources. It was not effective in opening a southern front.
i. The Germans placed 35 divisions in Italy, 61 in France, and 190 in Russia; in the west they had 2.44 million men and in the east they had 2.85 million.
III. The Battle of the Atlantic
1. Hitler did not give U-Boat production any priority until July 1940. Britain depended on overseas supplies for food, raw materials and military equipment, and a U-Boat campaign could starve her of essentials.
a. From July to October 1940, 144 unescorted ships and 73 in convoy were sunk.
b. U-Boats travelled in ‘wolf-packs’ when convoys were more common: vessels dispersed in a convoy line in groups of three or four during travel, and during attack about 15 U-Boats would converge on a target.
i. In October 1940, 20 out of 34 ships in a convoy were lost to this tactic.
2. After the US declared war on Germany, Donitz transferred the weight of campaign to the US coast. During February 1942, 65 ships were sunk; 86 in March; 69 in April; and 111 in May.
a. The U-Boats were effective in postponing the Allied invasion of France in 1943.
3. U-Boats moved to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean after the US employed a convoy system, sinking 121 boats in June. A convoy system was applied there, and the U-Boats moved to the Black Gap where air escort was not possible.
4. The Allies went offensive after May 1943 because convoys were protected by all the latest technology, including: air support by the Liberator aircraft and small aircraft carrier escorts; support groups of destroyers; and the high frequency direction finder, HF/DF.
a. 30 to 40 U-Boats were sunk in May; 54 in June and July; 119 between September 1943 and May 1944.
5. In 1943, a dramatic increase in US shipbuilding production saw more ships being built than lost.
6. German technological innovations came too late, including: a schnorkel in 1944 which enabled vessels to avoid surfacing; and the type XXI U-Boat in 1945 which was three times faster.
a. While the Allies constantly innovated throughout the Battle of the Atlantic, Germans only began to innovate in response to defeat in May 1943/
IV. Strategic Bombing
1. Following the Casablanca Conference in 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt arranged that the RAF hit cities by night to destroy civilian moral and the USAAF bombed industrial targets and communications by day.
a. US losses reached 20% so daylight operations were postponed.
b. The RAF targeted areas like the Ruhr (March-June), Hamburg (July, August, where 40 000 died in a firestorm), and Berlin (August).
i. A raid in Nuremburg saw the death of 500 airmen for 129 German deaths.
c. German industrial production continued to rise until 1944.
2. In 1944 the P-51B Mustang, an American fighter, was created. This was a turning point.
a. Mustangs allowed for bomber convoys.
b. In February-March 1944, the Germans lost 500 fighters and they never recovered.
i. Production of planes was maintained, but pilots could not be replaced.
c. The Luftwaffe’s defeat could be measured during the June 1944 invasion: German aircrafts were counted in the 100s while the Allies had over 10 000.
3. The US attacked the synthetic oik industry in the fall and winter of 1944-5.
4. The RAF attacked the steel undustry in the Ruhr, and steel production fell by 80% in the second half of 1944.
5. New technologies were introduced too late in Germany, including: the V-119 and the V2 rocket. Also not enough could be produced (9300 and 1115 respectively) due to Allied raids.
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