The Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II 241into the Soviet Union and laid siege to Leningrad. Far worse, the yet
generally unknown but systematic extermination of Jews had begun in
the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Poland.
The first massive European operation in which American troops
participated was the command in North Africa to drive out the Italians
and Germans. Hitler’s Afrika Corps, under Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel, fought the British for control of Egypt, and American tanks
arrived just in time to stop the Nazis from advancing. Then, in Octo-
ber 1942 , the British general Sir Bernard Montgomery and his army
launched a counteroffensive and defeated Rommel at El Alamein. The
following month a massive Anglo-American army under General
Dwight D. Eisenhower brought about a surrender by the Germans on
May 12 , 1943 , after a long and bitter struggle. The entire Mediterra-
nean area from Gibraltar to the Suez Canal was now under Allied
control. Meanwhile the Russians captured an entire German army at
Stalingrad and lifted the siege of Leningrad.
From Africa, an Anglo-American force consisting of General Mont-
gomery’s Eighth Army and General George S. Patton’s Seventh Army
invaded Sicily on July 10 , 1943 , and after heavy fighting subdued the
island on August 17. Then, on September 3 , 1943 , the Allied force
crossed the strait and landed on the toe of the Italian peninsula. They
also struck at Salerno, below Naples, and Anzio, near Rome, again
encountering fi erce resistance by the Germans. Not until June 4 , 1944 ,
did the Allies capture Rome. Mussolini was overthrown and captured
but was rescued by the Germans and taken to Lake Como in the north,
where he attempted to form a government. In this struggle to occupy
Italy the Americans suffered more than 70 , 000 casualties.
In Asia the Japanese seized Guam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma,
Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, the Dutch East Indies, New Guinea,
and the Philippines within six months of declaring war. General Mac-
Arthur managed to escape from the Philippines but promised to re-
turn. As a result of these many victories, Japan commanded the western
half of the Pacific Ocean and expanded its territorial conquests to more
than a thousand miles in southeast Asia.
But then the war in the Pacific took a turn for the better for the
Americans with the first major defeat of Japanese naval forces. A large
fleet of aircraft carriers and other warships under the command of