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Fighting on Multiple Fronts
Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. officially entered World War II. America faced a two-front war, fighting Germany and Italy in Europe and North Africa and fighting Japan in the Pacific.
The remainder of Unit 7 will cover the events that transpired between the U.S. and Germany and Italy. Unit 8 will go into depth on the War in the Pacific. Throughout this unit and Unit 8, keep in mind the complexities that fighting on different fronts brought to war strategies as well as the impact it had on the home front.
General Dwight Eisenhower
In August 1941, months before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, FDR meet with Churchill to set up war goals in what is known as the Atlantic Charter. Immediately after the attack, Americans began to mobilize for war under strong leadership.
General Dwight Eisenhower became the Supreme Commander of Allied forces. He was a Five Star General and the principal architect of the Allied invasion of Europe. During World War II, he commanded the largest military force assembled under one man, including naval, air, and ground forces.
George Marshall
George Marshall was a top America General and later became Roosevelt's Chief of Staff. He also devised the Marshall Plan, a massive effort to rebuild postwar Europe.
General George Patton
General George Patton commanded troops in North Africa and Italy. Later, he commanded the Third British Army in Northern Europe. Patton was known for his brilliant military strategy, quick maneuvering of troops, and knowledge of tank warfare. He remained a controversial figure throughout the war for various statements he made regarding the Soviet Union.
General Bernard Montgomery
Great Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill's successful strategy for defeating the Axis Powers was to first strike "the soft underbelly" of the Axis in North Africa and the Mediterranean.
General Bernard Montgomery was the commander of the British Eighth Army and later commander of all the land forces during the Normandy invasion. He commanded troops in North Africa, Italy, and France. He became the first General to decisively defeat the German army when he defeated them in Africa in 1942.
Joseph Stalin
The Soviet Union was forced to fight Germany on a "second front" in Eastern Europe when Hitler broke his pact with them in 1941. Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union, signed the pact with Hitler in 1939.
The pact included a secret agreement would divide up Poland and other territories. Hitler used the pact to invade Poland unopposed in September of 1939. However, Hitler later broke the pact by invading the Soviets in 1941.
Read Joseph Stalin's Biography to learn more about Stalin and his brutal rise to power in the Soviet Union
General Erwin Rommel
General Erwin Rommel, known as the "Desert Fox," was the Chief Axis commander for Italian-German troops in North Africa.
He was respected by his adversaries, or enemies for his refusal to join the Nazi Party, for his humane treatment of POWs (Prisoners of War), and for his refusal to kill captured Jewish soldiers. He was rumored to be part of an attempt to overthrow Hitler. Rommel chose death by poison rather than to be tried in the People's Court and face the certain execution of both he and his family.
Africa and Italy
Fighting in North Africa and Italy
The fighting that transpired between the years 1941 and 1943 in North Africa, Italy, and Russia (and the Pacific, which will be covered in Unit 8) established the basis for the eventual demise of the Axis powers.
The Allied assault began in 1942 with the invasion of North Africa. Together, America and Britain forced the Axis powers out of North Africa by 1943. Then, the Allies turned their attention to Europe. The long awaited Allied invasion of the European continent started in Italy, which Churchill referred to as the "soft underbelly" of Europe. Although the Italians were easily defeated in 1943, the Germans in the area were determined to defend the territory and put up a strong fight against the Allies, refusing to surrender until the spring of 1945.
Operation Torch
After the signing of the Atlantic Charter, which were War goals set by Roosevelt and Churchill in 1941, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Allied forces turned their attention to North Africa, an area that had been under Axis control since 1936. The fighting in North Africa was known as Operation Torch.
American and British forces stopped the seemingly unstoppable leader of the German troops, General Rommel, known as the "Desert Fox", by forcing both he and his Axis allies out of North Africa in 1943.
Fighting in North Africa
In 1942, American ground forces, commanded by General Eisenhower, saw action for the first time at the Allied invasion of Algeria and Morocco, which was an attempt to gain control over the Suez Canal in Egypt. A singular British effort, led by General Montgomery, fought the Axis Powers in the East.
Unconditional Surrender
In May 1943, the British and American forces united in Tunisia to force the Axis Powers out of Africa once and for all. After the surrender by German troops, Allied forces pushed the Axis Powers north to Italy.
After achieving success in Africa, Churchill and Roosevelt met once again at a conference in Casablanca. At this conference, the leaders decided to focus on the European front first, with the promise of Allied support for the Pacific campaign later. They also decided to only accept an unconditional surrender from Italy, Germany, and Japan.
The Italian Campaign
Once the decision was made to focus on Europe, Allied leaders had to decide where to invade. They were not prepared for an invasion of France in 1943, so they turned their attention to Italy hoping to knock the Italian forces out of the war and gain control over the Mediterranean.
The invasion of Italy began in July 1943. Americans under General George Patton attacked Sicily in a combined air and amphibious landing.
When the invasion moved to mainland Italy, Benito Mussolini was overthrown within a month, fleeing to Nazi territory in the north. Mussolini was later killed by his people in April 1945.
One month after Italy surrendered to Allied forces, antifascist Italians formed a new Italian government and declared war on Germany. The battle of Italy dragged on for almost two years, postponing the planned invasion of France.
By the end of the war, after Germany surrendered in 1945, there were 190,000 American casualties and 1/2 million German casualties in Italy.
War in the Soviet Union
While the Allied powers were fighting in North Africa and then Italy, a second front opened up in the east when Hitler made the decision to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 under the code name Operation Barbarossa.
Believing that the Soviet Union provided valuable natural resources and ample living space (lebensraum) for his future German empire, Hitler disregarded his previous alliance with Stalin and invaded the vast country to the east.
Scorched Earth
The Soviets were unprepared, poorly equipped, and not well trained. They resorted to using a scorched earth policy, burning and destroying anything of use to the enemy, while retreating and drawing the Germans deep into their country, away from supply lines.
Battle of Stalingrad
After one year of fighting, Stalin ordered a final stand at the city of Stalingrad in the fall of 1942. Under harsh winter conditions and brutal fighting, the Soviets eventually forced the Germans to surrender in January of 1943. After the surrender, the Soviets took the offensive against the German troops and began the process of reclaiming their lost territory.
It is estimated that the Soviets lost over 1 million soldiers during the German campaign, compared to approximately 330,000 German causalities by the surrender in 1943.
The Battle of Stalingrad is considered the turning point of the war in the East. Russians began to advance from the east, expecting an allied thrust from the west to close in on Germany.
D-Day Invasion
Invasion of Western Europe
Following the successful Allied invasion of Italy, the Allied leaders and Stalin decided they would invade France in 1944, and thereby begin their path to Germany.
The invasion was dubbed Operation Overlord and eventually became the largest military operation in history, amassing forces from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Poland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
This map displays the Axis and Allied movements throughout WWII. Important battles are in red.
Preparing to Enter France
The invasion strategy was meticulously planned. General Eisenhower assembled the massive invasion force that included three million men.
The first phase of the strategy called for Allied air attacks on German outposts in the area three months prior to the actual land attack.
The RAF (Royal Air Force) used carpet bombing, which is large aerial bombing to inflict damage in every part of the selected area of land, on German cities and the U.S. joined in on the bombing. Though hundreds of Allied airmen lost their lives, the air attacks effectively destroyed bridges, roads, and communication lines.
German forces began to spread their troops along the coastline and worked to fortify the area with numerous traps and obstacles to hinder a possible amphibious landing. The Germans anticipated the invasion, but did not know where or when it would take place because of careful deception.
Watch D-Day Deception (3:24) to learn more about the operation.
Invasion of Normandy
After a weather delay on June 5th, Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower made the call to begin the largest military operation of the war on June 6, 1944 known as D-Day.
On D-Day, also referred to as Operation Overlord and storming the beaches of Normandy, Allied forces from seven countries stormed the French shore to begin their path to Germany.
In the first phase of the invasion, paratroopers (military parachutists) were dropped behind enemy lines to "soften up" German forces. Next, amphibious landing craft, which are water to land using crafts that float and move over land, with 175,000 troops, crossed the English Channel to the five beaches targeted for invasion.
Approximately 4,600 invasion craft and warships took part in the invasion. Success was evident by nightfall as 150,000 men were ashore. View photographs from the front on D-Day.
Map of D-Day
This map displays the scope of the D-Day invasion. All of the lines from Great Britain to France represent Allied movement.
On the Beaches of Normandy
The Allies successfully secured the beaches and even managed to catch the Germans off guard; however, all of this came at a costly price with heavy losses suffered on both sides. The heaviest fighting took place at Omaha Beach.
German resistance was fierce. At Omaha Beach alone, there were 2,000 Allied casualties. Within two months of the D-Day invasion, more than a million allied troops were in France.
Paris is Liberated
After the invasion of Normandy, France, the Allied forces continuously engaged German defenders in battle. By August 1944, the Allies had successfully made their way to the prized city of Paris, France.
Allied troops marched triumphantly to the city, amid huge celebrations from a thankful Parisian crowd that had endured rigid German occupation since the beginning of the war in 1940.
The Battle of the Bulge
Hitler was busy devising plans for a "last stand" that he hoped would turn the tide of the war in Germany's favor. He decided to pour all of his remaining resources into an offensive counter attack in Belgium to brake the morale of the allies.
The resulting battle, later known as Battle of the Bulge, took place in December, 1944 and was Hitlers last counterattack.
The Outcome of The Battle of the Bulge
General Patton led 600,000 GIs under grueling winter conditions; 80,000 were killed, wounded or captured. Germany lost 100,000 men and the will to fight. After suffering numerous casualties, the American and British forces persevered and continued on their path to Berlin.
Victory
Yalta Conference
After defeating Hitler's men at the Battle of the Bulge, the Allied race for Berlin resumed in early 1945. The largely British and American forces marched from the West, while the Soviet army marched from the East.
In February of 1945, two months prior to Germany's final defeat, the U.S., Great Britain, and Russia, known as the "Big Three," met in Yalta for what would become their last conference of the war.
FDR, Churchill, and Stalin had the enormous task of punishing German aggression, while also creating a stable society without repeating the mistakes of World War I.
At the Yalta Conference, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin agreed to several post war terms:
- They agreed to separate Germany into 4 zones to be controlled by each of the allies.
- Stalin promised to enter the war against Japan (Even though Germany was about to fall, the Allied Powers still had to complete the fighting in the Pacific against the Japanese. You will learn more about this in Unit 8) and to have free elections in the areas once controlled by the Nazi state after the war.
- The leaders decided to create the United Nations to serve as a new international organization that would mediate such conflicts in the years to come in an attempt to prevent future wars.
U.S. Leadership Changes
After the Yalta Conference but before Germany's official surrender, the U.S. experienced a national tragedy. On April 12, 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt had a stroke and died in Warm Springs, Georgia. At the time of his death, he was serving his fourth term as President.
Vice-President Harry Truman became the 33rd President and would be responsible for the decisions to end the war in Europe and the Pacific.
Germany Surrenders
The Soviets entered the city of Berlin before the Americans on April 17, 1945. Hitler committed suicide a few days later in his secret underground bunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945.
On May 8, 1945, German authorities officially surrendered to General Eisenhower. This day is referred to as V-E Day or Victory in Europe.
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