Quick questions on Turning points 1942-1943: HSC Modern History Peace and Conflict

By late 1941 the Wehrmacht had failed at Moscow and the European war had become a world war (Pearl Harbor, 7 December; Hitler's declaration of war on the United States, 11 December). The Wannsee Conference (20 January 1942) coordinated the Final Solution. The Axis still held the strategic initiative across most theatres.

After the fall of Tobruk (21 June 1942) and the German advance to within 100 km of Alexandria, Bernard Montgomery took command of the British Eighth Army on 13 August 1942. He stopped Rommel at Alam Halfa (30 August to 5 September) and prepared the Eighth Army for offensive operations.

Anglo-American landings in French Morocco and Algeria began on 8 November 1942 under General Dwight Eisenhower. Around 65,000 troops landed at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers. Vichy French forces resisted for around three days before Admiral Francois Darlan (commander-in-chief of Vichy armed forces, in Algiers by chance) ordered a ceasefire (the "Darlan deal," controversial because it left Vichy officials in office). Darlan was assassinated on 24 December 1942.

Operation Blue (Fall Blau), the German summer offensive of 1942, divided into Army Group A driving for the Caucasus oilfields and Army Group B (the Sixth Army under Paulus) driving for Stalingrad on the Volga. Hitler's interference (Directive 45, 23 July 1942) sent Hoth's Fourth Panzer Army back and forth between the two pincers, weakening both.

Operation Citadel, the German plan to pinch off the Kursk salient with pincers from Army Group Centre (Model) and Army Group South (Manstein), was repeatedly postponed to allow the introduction of new Panther and Tiger tanks. The delay allowed the Soviets to construct eight defensive belts on the Kursk salient with around 1.3 million men and 3,400 tanks.

The German U-boat campaign under Admiral Karl Donitz had threatened British supplies since 1939. The "Happy Time" (June to October 1940) and the second "Happy Time" off the American East Coast (January to June 1942) saw heavy Allied shipping losses. By March 1943, around 627,000 tons of Allied shipping was lost in a single month.

The Combined Bomber Offensive was committed at the Casablanca Conference (24 January 1943). RAF Bomber Command under Arthur Harris attacked German cities at night; the US Eighth Air Force under Eaker (later Spaatz and Doolittle) attacked specific industrial targets by day.

The Casablanca Conference (14 to 24 January 1943) between Roosevelt and Churchill committed the Western Allies to: - Unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. - The Combined Bomber Offensive. - The invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky, July 1943) and Italy. - Continued planning for a cross-Channel invasion in 1944.

Richard Overy (Why the Allies Won, 1995) is the major systemic account. The four turns (Mediterranean, Eastern Front, Atlantic, strategic air) interlock. Allied victory rested on production, technology, and coordination.

It was the largest but not the only. The Atlantic and El Alamein matter.

May 1943, when 41 U-boats were sunk in a single month.

Unconditional surrender (24 January 1943) was the political frame for the rest of the war.

Kursk did not destroy the Wehrmacht; it confirmed the loss of strategic initiative the Wehrmacht had already lost at Stalingrad.