Why did the Allies win WWII?

Lesson 1: German strategic decisions

• Germany committed itself to fighting a multi-front war– Invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941• German armies in the East had better equipment and

training but were badly outnumbered• German supply lines were stretched out and were cut

almost entirely by the severe Russian winter

– Declared war on the US on December 11, 1941, fulfilling the Tripartite Pact• The US worked with Britain to increase bombings in

Western Europe• The US worked with Britain to push the Germans out of

North Africa

Guiding Question: How did Germany’s decision to go to war with the US and the Soviet Union help lead to an Allied victory

• You will now do research to answer the guiding question– Look for secondary sources on jstor.org and

scholar.google.com– Look for primary sources at the websites below

• http://guides.lib.washington.edu/content.php?pid=90255&sid=687755

• http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-teachers/primary-sources/

• http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/wwii.asp• http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/world-war-ii-the-ea

stern-front/100150/• http://english.iremember.ru/

– For every source that you find, perform all four steps of source analysis and write down all bibliographic information