Page 69 - World History Cover resized
P. 69
Two months later the Ameri unter ffensive against Japan when the US n landed on Guadalc al in the lomon ds, a uth Pacific p which the Japane d conquere The M es hung on with su rb courage a t a ri of fier ult while con t l of the shift from Ameri to Jap with each ni tfall No
' le t n six tremendous naval les re fought in the lomon Islands during the next three month many warships of th des were nk off Guadal that the waters there were n ed ron ttom Bay." Fi nally on Novem r , 1942 the Ameri n battleship W n n, with her sister battleship and all her ort destroyers sunk or cripple won the de cisive battle and a ed the Marin ' victory.
Germany Be to Falter
In the early months of 1942 in Euro , the ition of Hitler s l ked very strong. The s Powers controlled Euro ; Gene Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Kor of tanks were pushing throu North Africa toward Egypt Ge tr ps were d p within R ia The Allies were still on the defensive.
Then on Novem r 19 the viets launched at ck, surrounding the German Sixth A y in Stalin ad (in uth Ru ia} The German Gen eral Von Paulus gged Hitler to let the army break out of Stalin ad and in another army moving up. Hitler refu d to allow them to move an inch. The winter t in e Germans did not have enough f , medicine or winter clothing. e viet army offered surrender term Hitler re fused to accept them: the army must fight to the last man and to the last bullet On January 10 the Ru ians gan a heavy ery m rdment The Germans ught heroically but ho le ly. e( Ru ian tr moved in relentle ly, finally forcing a German surrender a inst Hitler's orde ) at the end of January. Only 91, were left out of an army that had num red 5, two months earlier. The men were marched to prison mps in Si ria, and only 5, ever w Germany again
In the meantime General Rommel in Africa was within 60 miles of the Nile but could go no farther. anks to Ultra, the Allies were able to mb German ships so that Rommel could not get supplie When Rom mel launched a ma r attack on August 31, the British commander, Gen eral Montgomery, knew the exact num r of Rommel's me tanks, guns and aircraft and whe he was going to attack. Without the element of su ri , Rommel did not have a chance. On Octo r 21 at the Battle of El Alamein, Montgomery w able, thanks to Ultra, to make a breakthrough
