Turning Points of World War 2 essays

Turning Points of World War 2 essays The turning point in World War II happened in 1942 as a result of key Allied victories, but more importantly of German attrition. There were a few decisive battles but it was the entry of the USA that boosted Allied supplies while the German provisions ran down. World War II has been going on for the past three years now and the Americans have just entered the war. There were three key victories for the Allies in this year. The first was the battle in North Africa for El Alamein. This was an important fight because the victor would have access to the Suez Canal and the oil in the Middle East. Oil was used for everything so everyone fought over it. This fight took place from October 23 to November 3, 1942 originally between the British and the Italian troops. The Italians were losing and lost Tobruk, Libya, and El Alamein to the British. Hitler responded by sending in General Erwin Rommel, nicknamed the desert fox and the battle-hardened Afrika Korps. Rommel was a brilliant general and had retaken the territory that the Italians had lost. The current British general was dismissed and General Bernard Montgomery was called in to take command of the British troops called the desert rats. The current battlefield was now at El Alamein. Montgom ery had just received some new tanks called the Sherman tanks. They had 75mm guns capable of penetrating a panzer 2000m away with a 6lb shell. Between the two armies lay the Devils Garden, a mine field laid by the Germans. It was 5 miles wide, with a number of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Montgomery launched Operation Bertram, in which dummy tanks and a dummy pipeline were built in the south to cause Rommel to believe that an attack come from the south. In the north, the real tanks were covered up so they would look like non-threatening lorries. The start of the Allied attack was code named Operation Lightfoot. In this operation, the infantry had to attack fir...