History

February 1943: the month when the Second World War changed

Soviet soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad © Georgij Zelma/RIA Novosti archiv (Public domain)

Text by: Olivier Favier Follow

6 mins

If the end of the battle of Stalingrad, on February 2, 1943, remains today the most striking symbol of the turning point of the Second World War, the war actually experienced less spectacular reversals in the same month, but just as telling on the Pacific front and in North Africa.

If obvious signs of weakness had appeared as early as 1942, it was during these few weeks that the defeat of the Axis forces, still long in coming, became a certainty.

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After the invasion of Poland in September 1939 by Nazi Germany and the USSR, and the spring of 1940 which saw Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France capitulate less two months in the face of Hitler's armies, the forces of the Rome-Berlin Axis plunge Europe into amazement.

In the months that followed, the conquest of the Balkans, begun by Italy in September 1938 with the occupation of Albania, seemed just as inexorable.

Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis forces in the fall.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the USSR continued its advance in Eastern Europe by annexing the Baltic States and Bessarabia, an eastern province of Romania.

The United States kept their distance and England, which had to repatriate its troops in disaster from Dunkirk in June 1940, seemed alone still capable of standing up to the Nazis.

After three months of uninterrupted duels between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe,

ended Germany's air supremacy, paving the way for massive bombing of its territory.

Under this improvised parasol - two bayonet guns and a piece of canvas - two American Marines discuss the continuing battle for the Solomon Islands near the front lines of Guadalcanal." Extract from the Thayer Soule collection (COLL/2266) at Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division © OFFICIAL USMC PHOTOGRAPH Creative Commons 2.0 License

Towards “total war”

The year 1941 saw the conflict - until then confined to Europe, its possessions in North Africa, East and the Middle East - change into a world war.

The victories in Yugoslavia and Greece, with the new alliance of Bulgaria and the rallying of a puppet regime in Croatia, complete the Nazi continental expansion.

There are only a few neutral countries left in Europe, often complacent with the Axis forces, such as Spain and Portugal.

In June, Hitler, supported by his new Finnish ally, invaded the USSR.

Nothing seems to be stopping him.

On December 5, 1941, however, when the temperature in Moscow fell to -37°C, Hitler had to stop the offensive in the USSR and Stalin's troops regained the initiative.

Two days later, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced the United States into the conflict.

The war now extends to the French colonies of Indochina and the Pacific Ocean.

Its excessiveness will soon turn against those who triggered it.

The year 1942 saw the world plunge into "total war" which would be officially proclaimed by Hitler at the beginning of the following year.

In January 1942, the Nazis decided in Wannsee on the

 : the deportation and assassination of the Jewish populations became a genocidal industry, in reality implemented as early as 1941. In February, the British fortress of Singapore, reputed to be impregnable, falls into Japanese hands.

In March, the Royal Air Force bombed Paris for the first time.

In the spring, the Axis forces resume their offensive in the USSR and North Africa.

In June, the Americans won the first major Allied victory at Midway, in the Pacific.

In the fall, the British halt the advance of Axis troops into Egypt after the First Battle of El-Alamein.

In November, the Allies land in Algeria.

The free zone is occupied by the Germans and the French fleet is scuttled in Toulon.

If the omnipotence of the Axis forces begins to crack, their power in Europe seems to be consolidating.

German troops surrender to the crew of a British Stuart tank near Frendj, Tunisia, May 6, 1943. © Imperial War Museum (Public Domain)

From Stalingrad to Guadalcanal and Kasserine: the beginning of the end

On February 2, 1943, however, after six months of fighting and despite Hitler's order to fight to the death, Field Marshal Von Paulus and his staff were captured and ordered the German troops to surrender, in Stalingrad, USSR.

Total casualties, including civilians, wounded and prisoners on both sides, amounted to two million people.

The stubbornness of the Führer begins to create dissension in the high German hierarchy.

Hungarians, Finns and Romanians, as well as high Italian fascist dignitaries, begin to consider their exit from the war.

The Nazis also lost all hope of access to oil from the Caucasus.

In August 1942, the Americans landed on the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific Ocean.

For six months, the island was the subject of almost daily aerial combat, to which were added three major land battles and seven naval ones.

On February 7, the Japanese withdrew from what had symbolized the culmination of their advance in the Pacific in May 1942. If the losses are without comparison with the fights delivered in the Soviet Union, this long campaign marks the end of the defensive operations of the Allies and the beginning of the reconquest.

In October-November 1942, the second battle of El-Alamein resulted in a victory for the British 8th Army over Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, now on the defensive.

" 

exclaimed

.

On February 19, 1943, Rommel launched his last offensive in Tunisia.

The Battle of Kasserine reveals the unpreparedness of the American army, but also its ability to renew men and equipment despite heavy losses.

The Germans proved unable to regain the advantage for long, and the following month Rommel left for Berlin, convinced that the war in North Africa was already lost.

He is relieved of his duties.

The war lasted another two and a half years, before the capitulation of Japan on September 2, 1945. Nazi Germany would still sometimes take the initiative, as during the battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943 and until the winter of 1944 in the Ardennes.

It will develop extremely innovative weapons, such as the V1 and V2 missiles, and will conduct research on atomic weapons.

However, despite the violence and excessiveness of the fighting that will take place, and although a major part of the victims of the Holocaust, the bombings and the massacres of civilians are still to come, from February 1943, the actors and the most lucid witnesses of the war already guess the inevitable outcome.

Our selection on the subject:

►

• The Battle of Stalingrad is the key to Putin's entire memorial battle.

• November 1942, Operation Torch: the forgotten resistance of the Jews of Algeria

►

• For the 80 years of Stalingrad, a bust of Stalin inaugurated in Volgograd.

• World War II: when the Japanese (re)discover their history.

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