1943

To get you started: 1943 - Surrender at Stalingrad marksGermany's first major defeat. - Allied victory in North Africa enables invasion of Italy to be launched. - Italy surrenders, but Germany takes over the battle. - British and Indian forces fight Japanese in Burma.

Use your textbook, the big PPT, the revision booklet and the internet.

Also include info about any major air, naval, land battles or developments


 * Battle **** of the Atlantic: **

//The battle of the Atlantic was ‘the only thing that ever frightened me’.//

-Winston Churchill

//“The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, at sea or in the air depended ultimately on its outcome.”//

-Winston Churchill

The Battle began in 1939 and only ended whenGermanywas defeated in 1945. The heart of the battle was essentiallyGermanyuse of U-boats to cut off Britain’s supply of food and raw materials. The Luftwaffe and other ships were also involved in the blockade.Britainrelied on materials from America that were transported across theAtlantic, and Nazi Germany posed a severe threat to this. German submarines utilised the technique of ‘wolf packs’. AfterFrancehad fallen in 1940, the Germans had direct access to the heart of theAtlantic, the most dangerous area for the British convoys. They were relatively safe in the American waters, and those of Britainbut it was mid-Atlantic that was most threatening.

Britain’s survival:

Britaindeveloped a series of lighter and faster ships that were harder to sink called **corvettes.** Although lightly armed, they had the ability to hear submarines underwater which allowed them some warning. A lot of bad weather also disadvantaged the submarines as they could shoot torpedoes during a heavy swell.Britain developed superior air protection for convoys.

By 1943, the number of ships being sunk began to decrease and the Axis were slowly defeated until 1945. The allies began producing ships at a faster rate than Germany was able to sink them and they were never severely starved or at a loss for resources.

The Allied victory was extremely important for their success in the war as a whole as they could not have continued to sustain themselves if the Axis had succeeded in starving them out of supplies.


 * Statistics: **

1939 : 222 ships sunk (114 by submarine)

1940 : 1059 ships sunk (471 by submarine)

1941 : 1328 ships sunk (432 by submarine)

1942 : 1661 ships sunk (1159 by submarine)

1943 : 597 ships sunk (463 by submarine)

1944 : 247 ships sunk (132 by submarine)

1945 : 105 ships sunk (56 by submarine)

__1943__ __Fall of Italy__

- The Allies invadedSicily in an attempt to knockItaly out of the war - It was an attack launched from the sea, and one of the biggest of the war with 150,000 men - Small assault craft which were lowered from lifeboats (davits) of large transport ships, were used - New beaching craft – LST: could land about 60 tanks LCT: (Landing Craft Tank) could land about six tanks

- Italians had had enough of the war – Allied victory resulted in Mussolini being overthrown - The Italian Campaign – placed troops on European mainland - Invasion’s objective: to use collapse of Italian resistance to advantage; to make immediate use of ready Allied strength; to engage German forces which may have been in Russia and northern France; to secure airfields in order to intensify the bombing of Germany and the Balkans; and to gain complete control of the Mediterranean - Allies hoped that they would occupyItaly without any conflict - Secret peace agreement with Allies signed by new Italian government – but Germans quickly took control ofItaly - Allies then invadedItaly – main landing atSalerno - Germans (led by General Kesselring) fought back with determination, almost driving Italians into the sea

- Germans used the mountainous terrain of the countryside to their advantage – slowing down Allies - USA andPoland attacked for about six months, but were kept back - The French troops broke through in May (1944) - September –Italy surrenders