Transcription
Hello, welcome back to our lecture series for Western Civilization 102. We have been learning about World War II, and in our previous lecture, of course, we learned about the first half, part one, I guess you could say, of World War II. So now we'll turn our focus today on part two, and our topic will be World War II from the years 1942 until 1945.
Now, briefly, a few points to make note of regarding this lecture on World War II. The Allies, United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, Soviet Union, we were allies with the Soviet Union during World War II, had joined together to try and defeat Nazi Germany. And we're not seeing the same kind of alliance system that we saw in World War I, where in previous lectures you heard about Woodrow Wilson and how it made it much easier for the United States to join the war effort in World War I once the Soviet Union had made peace. Um, because the Soviet Union had a very autocratic form of government, and when they pulled out, Wilson could make the argument that these are democracies, these, these allies or democratic governments that have banded together. We don't see this in World War II, obviously, because the Soviet Union was communist at this time and had already gone through its Bolshevik Revolution in World War I. And so we don't see that these alliances are based on, uh, common interest, except, of course, Hitler and fascism. The Nazi party in Germany did not like the Communist Party of Russia. These were not friendly nations, even though they had formed a non-aggression pact, Stalin and Hitler. It wasn't because they were best friends. And so it didn't make sense on that level that the Soviet Union would fight against Nazi Germany at first. It was, it was nice, they made an agreement with the Soviets, so the Germans were sure that the Soviets wouldn't enter the war when the German Army started marching East. Remember Poland, when the world, the war started in September of 1939, Hitler had to make sure that the Soviets would not interfere. He did not want to pull them into the war. But eventually, of course, that does happen, and the Soviet Union will fight against Hitler and the Germans.
Now, we have, of course, leaders in Britain, a Prime Minister by the name of Churchill. You'll hear more about him. He was definitely not into appeasement. And you have Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who is the President of the United States. Very prominent figures here in World War II. You have operations that Dr. Labor will discuss concerning North Africa and Operation Torch. You'll also, of course, hear about the invasion of Sicily, Operation Husky, as it was called. And you know, how the Allies decided to go at Hitler from the soft underbelly, going in through the Mediterranean, North Africa, Sicily, up the Italian Peninsula. Um, because the Soviets actually had wanted an invasion, a second front opened up going through France, like a more direct route to Germany. But Britain didn't want to see that. They, they thought it was better to actually start this process going through what's called today, these soft underbelly. You'll hear about, of course, Dwight Eisenhower, the overall commander, the American, who will eventually become President of the United States. He will be a war hero with World War II. And of course, the fighting that occurred up the Italian peninsula in 1943 and Operation Overlord, as it's called, with Eisenhower again being the Supreme Commander. The United States contributing the majority of the men, as you will hear. And you'll hear about Operation Overlord and how, of course, on June 6, 1944, the Allies will land on the beaches of Normandy. Okay. And of course, D-Day, as it was called. You'll also learn about, uh, just basic other elements of World War II here in this second part, or second half. The civilians, the civilian side of the war. And of course, um, how Hitler, with a last-ditch effort there at the very end, in January of 1944, tries to break through Allied lines as the Allies are coming ever closer to Berlin. By this time, Hitler has dug himself in to a bunker. And that Battle of the Bulge, as it's called, was not successful as far as Hitler was concerned. It was, they did not, the Germans did not break through Allied lines. And the Russians and the Americans will meet right outside of Berlin. And it's agreed that the Russians will be able to go into Berlin. And they will, you know, you have snipers, you have, you know, fighting through the streets of Berlin. But Hitler was not captured live. He actually took poison, as did a lot of the other people, some of his senior staff, his girlfriend, I think he recently married, and, uh, they were also dead too. They had committed suicide before they could be captured. And then the peace conferences that will, there was quite a few of them, trying to determine what's going to happen after World War II, how will the Allies proceed. Um, and, you know, why the Germans were defeated in the first place. Because really, when you think about it, the Germans started off extremely strong. They started off with a bang. Um, that that Blitzkrieg, as it's called, the lightning fast wars with the Panzer units of the German Army. But obviously, Germany is defeated. Mussolini, Germany's ally, Italy. Mussolini will be caught trying to flee Italy, and Mussolini and his mistress are both killed. They are actually hung by their ankles as a kind of an example. The people of Italy were not happy, um, by this time with Mussolini. There's actually pictures of that, um, that hanging after they were dead, of course, displaying of their bodies. And so we'll also see about why Germany was defeated and how the leaders of the Allied Powers envision a world post-World War II.
Last time in our discussions of World War II, we saw the beginning of the war itself. We saw how the rise of fascism came about in Italy and in Germany. We also saw Adolf Hitler's attempts to, to expand his control over much of Western Europe. In fact, we saw him turn to Eastern Europe and in fact, the Soviet Union, recall with his invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941. We saw the Soviets counter-attack against the, the Germans right on the very gates of Moscow in December of 1941. And we also concluded with our discussions of that, that consequence of Hitler's expansion over Europe, the Holocaust, and all the horrors of that, that we heard General Eisenhower describe. Well, today we're going to continue our look at World War II and see how the war developed in Europe, especially with the entry of the United States.
Now, while the war was developing from the late 1930s into the early 1940s, the United States, of course, was paying very close attention to what was happening in Europe. Everyone in the United States that was an adult, of course, recalled World War I, not that many years ago. And there was great fear and trepidation in the U.S. about potential involvement of America in another, yet another major European warfare. And because of that concern of becoming involved in a, in a conflict in Europe, Congress took steps to try to keep the United States out of the war that was starting to appear imminent. And most notably, with the passage of what became known as the Neutrality Acts. Now, these were, were measures that Congress passed into law and signed by the President, designed to keep America away from any potential conflict. Just a couple of illustrations to, to show how Congress wanted to keep the U.S. neutral. Number one, Congress passed a series of embargo acts, which stated that should Europe go to war, the United States would not sell any sort of military goods to either country that was involved. So, in many respects, a message to Britain, our ally in World War I, that if you go to war again, don't count on the United States to send weapons and supplies to help you fight this war. The same message, of course, applied to any other nations in Europe who might be considering warfare, that they could not expect the United States to help them supply their militaries. Additionally, as another Neutrality Act that Congress passed, uh, was, was the, the a policy that became known as cash and carry. And what Congress said was that should Europe again go to war, that while the United States would not sell any military goods to Europe, that the U.S. would sell non-military goods. However, for any nation to purchase those non-military goods, they would, number one, have to pay cash. There would be no loans to any country, Britain, England, Britain or France or Germany. And any nation that purchased those goods would have to pick those goods up with their own sailing ships. And we think about the consequences of this legislation, I think it's pretty clear how this would hopefully keep the U.S. out of a European War. The U.S. wouldn't be looking for, for a country to come out as a victor because we had loaned them a considerable amount of money to buy these goods. Secondly, by forcing the European nations to, to carry those goods back to Europe themselves, we wouldn't have U.S. vessels, even privately owned U.S. vessels, venturing into perhaps a, a combat zone along the coastline. So, all measures designed by Congress to keep the United States out of a war should it break out once again in Europe.
Well, even after the fighting did begin in Europe in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland, and then later on the following year in the spring of 1940 with the German invasion of France, the United States still attempted to maintain its neutrality. Now, most people in the United States, not the least of which was President Franklin Roosevelt, recognized the trend of what was happening in Europe. And, and Roosevelt recognized the nature of the regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany, and that the United States would likely eventually end up in this conflict on the side of Great Britain. So, while Roosevelt maintained the policy of neutrality, well, Congress maintained the policy of neutrality, everyone recognized that the United States was beginning to feel more sympathetic for the British. In Roosevelt, in fact, gave a speech at one point in which he said, "This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought." As well, giving something of an approval for, for American citizens to begin recognizing what Britain was fighting over there in Europe, and that being Nazi Germany.
As we move then from 1940 into 1941, the early part of 1941, the United States still is at peace, officially. The United States is still neutral. But Franklin Roosevelt, recognizing that in the spring of 1941, only Great Britain stood between Adolf Hitler and complete control of Western Europe. And because of that, Roosevelt believed that we, the United States, had to give some kind of assistance to ensure Britain's survival. Because if Britain fell, Roosevelt didn't, you, you didn't have to be a military genius to see regaining Europe would be nearly impossible without that, that launching pad of the British Isles. And so, because of that thinking, Roosevelt implemented a policy that became known as Lend-Lease. And the idea of this was that the United States would lend or lease to European powers war materials, including things like obsolete American battleships that, that the British could take and continue on to fight. Now, we could, I think justly ask, is this really maintaining neutrality? Well, Roosevelt's position was this: this offer was open to any nation in Europe, England or France, or hey, even Germany. But the reality was, who controlled the Atlantic Ocean? And that was primarily the British with its great Navy. And so Roosevelt could make this offer, any nation maintaining neutrality, recognizing that Germany could never, and in fact, Germany wouldn't accept this kind of assistance from the United States. So, Roosevelt's Lend-Lease policy, implemented in the spring of 1941, designed to keep Britain afloat, designed to keep them in the war, and provide whatever assistance we could as a nation to help Britain continue the fight against Nazi Germany.
Now, the relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and the Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, began to really develop at this point, as both saw, uh, that their countries having the same objective. And in fact, in, in August of 1941, just a few months after Lend-Lease has been put in place, in August of 1941, Winston Churchill traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to Newfoundland in Canada. And there he and President Roosevelt met to discuss what their similar objectives were for the crisis that was going on in Europe. And from that meeting in August of 1941, they issued what became known as the Atlantic Charter. Now, simply put, the Atlantic Charter was a statement of common objectives that the United States and Great Britain had. But one of those objectives is, is worth special note, and that is, both nations said that their objective was the ultimate and final defeat of Nazi Germany. Now, again, at first glance, this doesn't surprise us. Well, of course, the United States would say something like that. But remember our timing here. This is August of 1941. Pearl Harbor has not occurred. The United States has not declared war on any, any nation. No nation has declared war on the United States. Officially, the United States is still neutral. And yet, Franklin Roosevelt is committing the United States to the eventual and final defeat of Nazi Germany. So, it's a pretty astounding statement coming at this point of this developing relationship between, uh, Great Britain and the United States, between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. One other part of the discussions that were carried on between these two world leaders at this point in the late summer of 1941 was a discussion of the, the primary way to go about defeating Germany. And without U.S. involvement, direct involvement, both, both leaders were skeptical about how large of a role the United States could play. Well, that dilemma, these two leaders had, was resolved in, in a very dramatic way on December the 7th, 1941. And of course, it's on that date that the Japanese attacked the United States Naval bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Now, good question is, but that doesn't involve Germany? No, it doesn't. And for a few days, Franklin Roosevelt had a difficult position here. That the United States was immediately at war with Japan, but the United States wasn't at war with Germany. And Roosevelt believed that Germany was still the greater threat to the United States because of the, the imminence of the potential fall of Great Britain. So, Roosevelt was trying to figure out, how can I get the American public to agree to going to war against Germany while at the same time we're fighting against the Japanese? Well, in this sense, Adolf Hitler once again came to the aid of the Allies. For three days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the United States. So, at that point, it was very easy. The United States was in this war in Europe, just as it was at war in the Pacific. And Roosevelt and Churchill could now work together. And part of the, the decision-making process that they went through was to define an overall strategy for fighting this now global war, this now World War. And the agreement between the two men, and in fact, their military leaders with that, was that Germany was the most significant threat to everyone, not just Britain, but the United States as well. And so the agreement was made to an adopt a strategy that became known as Germany First. That the Allies would first focus on defeating Nazi Germany, and then turn their full might to Japan in the Pacific. For the United States, somewhere in the middle, the, the focus was going to go on Europe and the Pacific. The objective for the United States military was to fight just something of a holding action, stop the Japanese from expanding any further, and once the war in Europe has been done, then turn all of our might against the Pacific. So, Germany First became the overarching strategy for England and the United States as they pressed forward in fighting this now global war.
Well, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the Allies could now openly work together. And in fact, the alliance that I'm referring to is solidified officially on paper in May of 1942. And at that point, the United States, Great Britain, and the third country in the alliance, the Soviet Union, officially agreed that their objective was the defeat of Nazi Germany. Now, this alliance among these three major powers, especially the Soviet Union, was an alliance of convenience. Uh, the Soviet Union and the Western European powers like France and England were not at all on friendly terms prior to the outbreak of war. But in this instance, they both had the common enemy. They both want to defeat Hitler. And so an alliance of convenience developed among these three major powers.
Now, with this alliance agreed upon, the President of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, immediately began to request assistance from the other allies, England and the United States, to open what became known, or the concept of a second front in Western Europe. Up to this point, beginning really from the summer of 1941, so now nearly a year has gone by, the Soviets have been battling against the Germans in essence by themselves in, in Eastern Europe. So, Stalin wants help. He wants help immediately with the Allies opening the second front somewhere in Western Europe, somewhere in France or in Denmark or Norway. For Stalin, in many respects, it didn't matter. He just wanted the other allies directly engaged in this war to help take some of the pressure off of his own troops. This is going to be a demand of Joseph Stalin for some time, the drive to open the second front in Europe.
Well, the United States, being at this moment the junior partner in this alliance, was very enthusiastic about getting involved in the war. But the United States was in many respects also very inexperienced about this war. Recall that the war had started in September of 1939. So, so we're looking at over a year and a half now, Europe has been at war, and the United States has yet to become really engaged. Because of this energy, because of this aggressiveness, and because of this inexperience, the U.S. approach to fighting this war in Europe was wanting to make an immediate attack from England across the English Channel directly into France, directly into the strength of the German defenses. And really, at this point, it's fortunate the British sort of calmed down the junior partner and said, we're just really not ready for that. We need to think a little bit more strategically about what's the best use of our resources. And for the English, they looked to the Mediterranean. They looked to what, what Winston Churchill would call the soft underbelly of the German nation. Churchill says, if we attack against the, the Germans and the Italians in the Mediterranean, we don't have to go directly into their strongest fortifications, and we can inflict significant damage. And he convinces the Americans that indeed, this is the way to approach fighting the war.
Now, for the, the, as we progress forward in our discussion of World War II, there's an easy way to keep track of the major events, the major campaigns that occur in Europe from this point forward. In each of the three years of the war that we're going to discuss, in 1942, 1943, and 1944, there is a single major offensive operation by the Allies. And so we can just track each year step by step as the Allies work their way towards the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. That first major offensive by the Allies is going to come in 1942, and the location is going to be just as the British had had intended, in the Mediterranean.
Now, the British had been fighting against the Germans and the Italians in the Mediterranean almost from the start of the war, especially in the southern part of the Mediterranean in North Africa. British forces based out of Egypt in eastern North Africa had battled the Brit, uh, I'm sorry, the Germans, which were located in central North Africa, back and forth. They had gone over the countries of, of Libya and Egypt, fighting, switching just back and forth, back and forth over, over the same desert terrain. And so this is where Churchill said he wanted American involvement. And again, the Americans agree. And the agreement shows itself in November of 1942 with what was codenamed Operation Torch. Now, Torch was going to be the American invasion of Western North Africa. Recall again, the British were fighting from Egypt and Eastern North Africa, the Germans were in the central part. So, the idea here was that the Americans would land in Western North Africa and trap the Germans between the Americans and the British, slowly squeeze the, the Germans until they were forced out of North Africa. And so on November the 8th, 1942, American forces for the first time engage in World War II in Europe in a significant way. The overall commander for this American operation was going to be General Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower had been in the war plans division of the U.S. Army prior to the war. It was recognized as a great strategic thinker, and so he was given command, overall command of this operation. The Americans landed at three different locations in North Africa and within a short matter of time began moving eastward towards the Germans where the fighting was taking place.
Now, there are some successes that the Americans have and some fairly significant shortcomings that are revealed by this campaign in North Africa. The bottom line, however, for our purposes, is after this November invasion of 1942, the British and the Americans are successful in driving the Germans out of North Africa by May of 1943. It takes them about five or six months to do so, but by May of 1943, the Germans are pushed back out of North Africa, and we start to see Hitler's extensive reach across much of Western Europe and North Africa finally begin to recede. Now, some of the lessons from Operation Torch for the Allies and for the Americans. First of all, the Americans realize that their training had been insufficient. They suffered greatly in these first battles for insufficient training and poor leadership. The Americans will see the, the emergence of some of the better commanders, uh, during this North African campaign, men whose names you'll recognize, you'll recognize and we'll talk about later, General Omar Bradley, and especially General George S. Patton. The Allies also learned that they need to learn how to cooperate better. The British and the Americans needed to get on the same page in coordinating their efforts, and even overcoming some basic things like differences in the language, different terms that were used. So, greater cooperation among the Allies. And related to that, greater cooperation among the air power that the Allies had and the ground forces. There was little cooperation between the two in instances in which the, the soldiers on the ground had radios that they could not communicate with the radios that were in the aircraft overhead. So, a number of lessons come about from North Africa that are going to help improve the Allies' fighting capabilities for what was to come.
Well, what was to come next? Well, as the fighting was winding down in North Africa in the spring of 1943, the senior Allied commanders started to debate where should we go next. The Americans immediately said, "Now's the time. We want to make that cross-channel attack from England directly into France." Once again, the British have other ideas. The British argue that we've been successful in the Mediterranean, we have momentum in the Mediterranean, let's keep going in the Mediterranean. And at this point in the war, the British are still the senior partners, committing more forces, more supplies, more manpower, and, and of course, they have more experience at this point. So, the Americans once again agree. Franklin Roosevelt is convinced to stay in the Mediterranean. The question then was, what's the next objective? And looking at a map of the Mediterranean, it became obvious the next place you want to go is north across the Mediterranean toward mainland Europe. And Italy was the primary target, the Italian Peninsula, that upon which the, the second of those two fascist powers was located, Benito's Mussolini's fascist government. So, the idea was, let's make a move against Italy. The best way to do that, the military commanders recognized, was to first invade the island of Sicily. Now, Sicily is a large island right off the southern end of the Italian Peninsula, right at the toe of the boot. And it was recognized that if the Allies could gain the island of Sicily, that could become the launching point for the invasion, the direct invasion of Italy itself. So, an agreement was reached among the Allies that in the summer of 1943, there would be an invasion of the island of Sicily. This was codenamed Operation Husky. Once again, Dwight Eisenhower was going to be the overall commander of this operation. This time, Eisenhower would command both American and British forces. Bernard Montgomery would be the senior British commander serving under Eisenhower, and George Patton would be the senior American commander under, under Eisenhower. The invasion itself took place on July the 10th of 1943, with the British landing on one part of the island and the Americans landing on the other part of the island. They were successful in these amphibious operations, they carried them out fairly efficiently, and within a matter of weeks, by the middle of August of 1943, the Germans had been forced off the island. So, fairly successful operation here to take hardly more than a month to get the Germans off the island of Sicily. But yet again, there were lessons that had to be learned. There was a little better cooperation among the Allies this time. However, the British and the Americans were still battling primarily Bernard Montgomery and George S. Patton, who both had egos larger than Europe itself. They barely fit them both into Europe. They were constantly at odds with each other, which did not help cooperation among the Allies. Secondly, the cooperation and coordination among the different parts of the military services, the ground and the naval and the Air Force, still needed significant work. As an example of this, during the air bombardment of Sicily prior to the landings, U.S. naval forces shot down more American aircraft than the Germans did because they didn't recognize that they were American aircraft. So, clearly, there are some things that the Allies have to continue to work on for these operations that, that are yet to come. But again, bottom line, the Allies were successful in seizing Sicily. And so here we have from 1942, the invasion of North Africa, the major operation, Operation Torch, to 1943, the invasion of Sicily, Operation Husky. From this point, where do the Allies go next? Well, all part of the same campaign to, to occupy Sicily was now to continue on to the Italian Peninsula itself. That was just an obvious one. There was really no debate about that among the Allies. And with the Germans kicked off of Sicily in, in August of 1943, the Allies planned their next operation directly against the Italian Peninsula. And that will take place in September of 1943. What was, uh, known as Operation Shingle. American forces landed part way up the peninsula, British forces landed down at the very toe of the boot, and both began to work their way, fight their way up the Italian Peninsula. Now, this was going to be an extremely difficult campaign for the Allies fighting against the Germans and the Italians in Italy itself. The Italian Peninsula was designed perfectly for defensive operations. And what the Germans did is create successive defensive lines. They would create a defensive line that stretched from one, one of the Italian coasts across the peninsula to the other, other coastline. And the British and the Americans would have to battle through this defensive line. Very difficult terrain, mountainous terrain that really assisted the Germans greatly. Once the Allies began to fight their way through one line, what they would encounter just a few miles farther north was yet again another German defensive line, just as difficult as the previous one. So, as the weeks went by, the British and the Americans really struggled forward, fighting against this great defensive terrain that the Germans were utilizing very well. Success will come, at least in part, in the Italian campaign on June 4th, 1944. And on that day, the Allies capture the city of Rome. By this point, the Italian government of Benito Mussolini has been overthrown. Italy is out of the war. But the war, the battles in Italy will go on because the Germans aren't going to give up Italy without a fight. And in fact, the fighting for the Italian Peninsula will continue on from this point until the very end of the war. The Americans and the British will never fight their way completely off the Italian Peninsula.
Well, despite the slow going in Italy, the, the campaigns in the Mediterranean, uh, Operation Torch in 1942, and Operation Husky in 1943, does achieve some significant goals. The Italians are out of the war. There's no longer an ally for Adolf Hitler. The Americans and the British, having successfully moved on to the Italian Peninsula, can now begin successful air raids against Germany itself from the south. Planes launching from Italy, flying up to Germany, dropping bombs and returning to Italy. Once again, with the Italians knocked out of the war, that also meant that the Allies could use the Mediterranean for shipping without significant fear of attack. So, greatly allowing the logistics of the war to progress forward to help with the fight against Nazi Germany. So, significant accomplishments come about from these first couple of years of major offensive operations by the Allies.
Well, with the success, uh, that the Allies were achieving in Italy, of course, then the question became, what's the next major operation? And as we've seen now twice before, the United States is going to argue for a direct attack against France from England across the English Channel. And in this case, the United States will win out. And for a number of reasons, the Mediterranean had been secured, or was being secured, as the planning for this next operation was going forward. And it's at this point of the war, as we move into the year of 1944, that we really reach a tipping point between the Allies in this partnership between Great Britain and the United States. As this war has progressed forward, the commitment of the United States as far as resources and manpower has of course increased dramatically. And as we move forward, it's going to do nothing but increase even more dramatically. And so we're tipping from Britain being the senior partner in this relationship to the United States being the senior partner, with having more men, more supplies, a larger commitment than Great Britain. And with that, the United States has much greater authority to, to help define what the next strategic step was going to be. So, an agreement is reached between the Allies that the next major operation will become Operation Overlord, or the direct invasion of France coming from the island of England itself. The planning for this called for the invasion to take place in either May or June of 1944. Dwight Eisenhower was once again selected to be the overall commander, or in this instance, he was given the title of Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. Now, there was some debate about who would be the overall commander. The recognition was it had to be an American, simply because the Americans were going to end up contributing the greater amount of resources. And so an American had to command all those American soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were going into battle.
Now, within the United States, there was something of a debate about who should command. Back in Washington, General George C. Marshall, who was the equivalent of today's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior military officer in all of the United States, outranking even Eisenhower. General Marshall had been working with Roosevelt very closely back in Washington for overall war strategy. General Marshall wanted to command Operation Overlord, but Franklin Roosevelt told Marshall that he couldn't spare him. As Roosevelt put it, that Roosevelt said he didn't believe he could sleep at night knowing that Marshall was not in Washington there to give him advice. Marshall, as the, the good soldier would do, said, "Yes, sir," and agreed to stay on there in Washington. And so Dwight Eisenhower is named the overall commander. Eisenhower's immediate subordinate was going to be a British general. It had to be a British general because the alliance was going to be Bernard Montgomery, the man who had fought against the Germans in North Africa, the man who had fought side by side with Patton in Sicily. He was the senior British commander, the best-known British commander, and so he was the obvious choice to be the, the immediate subordinate to Eisenhower for Operation Overlord.
Now, the invasion itself will take place on June the 6th of 1944, what is now known as D-Day. And on D-Day, June the 6th, just after midnight, over 8,000 American and British paratroopers began to rain down on the Normandy coast of France. Uh, not long after those paratroopers landed, at dawn the following day, or on the same day, actually, divisions of American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five separate beaches to undertake the invasion of Europe itself. For all the invasion beaches, they made fairly rapid success with the exception of Omaha Beach, where the Americans landed against very difficult terrain and the most stout German defenses anywhere in Normandy. And it was touch and go for most of the day, but by the end of the day, the Americans had pushed themselves on shore and had gained a toehold. And so, really, within a matter of, of 24 hours, the Americans had cracked the fortified Europe that, that Hitler thought that he had created, and had that grasp once again on continental Europe.
Now, at this point, we looking back typically think, well, the tough part's over, they're on shore, and now they simply move forward. But the senior commanders recognized that was just the beginning of the fight. The senior commanders like Eisenhower, Montgomery, recognized, you know, it's, it's likely we're going to gain this toehold and be able to hold on for a few days, but then what? As the Germans start to send reinforcements, far easier than the Americans could, because the Germans are going to send them across land. Could the Americans and British and Canadians hold on and then fight their way off the beaches? And over the next few days, and in fact, the next few weeks, the Allies did not make progress that they had anticipated. In fact, the men like Eisenhower, Montgomery, believed that the war was bogging down into trenches, just like they had seen in World War I. But by late July, five, six, seven weeks after the initial landings, the Americans, the British, and their other allies undertake what became known as Operation Cobra. And this was the breakout, breaking away from the Normandy beaches, fighting out into the open countryside of France, where they could make good progress against defenses that the Germans had not been able to create. And with Operation Cobra taking place at the end of July, the Allies do begin to pick up considerable steam. And in fact, they move rapidly enough that by the end of August, specifically August 25th, Paris once again falls under the hands of first French forces, followed by the Americans in the, in the British. So, on August 25th of 1944, Paris is liberated from German control. And at this point, the Allies believe they are really moving rapidly, that the Germans are in fact on the run, and some are beginning to say, we might be home by Christmas of 1944, because the Germans seemed so disorganized.
Well, one of the, the, uh, factors that helped the Allies make such good progress, uh, at this point of the war, once they break out from the Normandy beachhead, is the assistance from the French people themselves. This is a good chance to talk for a moment about civilians in Europe, uh, under the, the control of Nazi Germany, under occupation. And we're going to simplify it a little bit by, by saying that they're really three ways that civilians, uh, reacted to German occupation in countries like France, or in Belgium, or in, in Denmark. Uh, one way was to collaborate, in other words, cooperate with the Nazi occupiers. Some rec, some believe that the Nazis are here, they're not going away, and so we need to make the best of this. And so the collaborators would do things like give the Germans information, information on, on who maybe had a secret radio hidden away, information on who was a part of the resistance, those fighting against Nazi occupation, information on where Jews might be hiding that the Nazis were searching for. Of course, once the war is over, these collaborators are treated pretty severely by the rest of the population in these nations. In some cases, rounded up and simply executed, others put on trial for treason. Another way that those in these occupied countries responded was the complete opposite end of collaborating, and that was joining in with the resistance, fighting against Nazi occupation, doing what they could to make it difficult for the Nazi troops that were in their particular area, doing things like cutting telephone wires or telegraph wires, to more aggressive things like blowing up, uh, weapon supplies or, or equipment that the Nazis had, blowing up rail lines to prevent Nazis from moving troops across the, the particular part of the country they were in, to even direct attacks against Nazi troops themselves. Now, for those involved in the resistance, this was a very risky business because they knew if they were caught in the act of any of this, they would just be summarily executed, shot on the spot, as well as potential retribution taken against their families. So, they were undertaking a considerable gamble with their, their lives and the lives of their families by undertaking the resistance. It's members of the resistance that are going to aid the Allies so much prior to the D-Day landings and afterwards by disrupting German communications, by disrupting German transportation. There's one other way than probably the majority of the civilian population in, in Europe reacted to German occupation, and that was simply looking to survive. Not really collaborating with the Germans, not actively participating in the resistance, but just finding some way to make the best of a very bad situation, to avoid, uh, antagonizing the German occupying forces, to avoid being killed by Allied bombing of a particular area, and to survive the food shortages that ravaged most of Europe during this time period. So, for many European civilians, it was just simply a matter of survival and trying to take care of their families as best as they possibly could.
As the Allies progress now across France itself, one advantage that they had that Hitler had completely lost by the time the D-Day landings took place in June of 1944 was air power. This was a target of the senior planners well before D-Day of to gain air superiority over the English Channel, hopefully over France, if not even more. And so the, the two air powers of England, France, and the United States targeted things like the production facilities in Germany that produced German aircraft. They targeted the oil production facilities that provided the fuel for German aircraft, and of course, targeted the German Air Force itself by going after those German fighter aircraft that were going to be used to defend Europe. Success came about in May of 1944, a month before the D-Day landings. The Allies had gained air superiority, not just over the English Channel, but over the majority of France as well. The German Air Force had been so damaged and so decimated by these attacks that what planes were left were pulled back to defend Germany itself against a relentless bombing campaign that the Allies were carrying out. And so, as the Allies moved across France heading in the direction of Germany, they didn't have to worry that much about attacks from the air because of the success they had had in defeating Hitler's Luftwaffe, the Air Force, prior to this point.
Well, with the capture of, of Paris, the liberation of Paris in August of 1944, as I mentioned a moment ago, the expectation was that it will be on to Germany, and in fact, maybe home by Christmas of 1944. But Hitler wasn't finished. He still had a few tricks left that he planned to pull against the Allies. And so, as the Allied Forces, the British and the Americans primarily, were approaching the borders of Germany itself, Hitler developed a plan to attack, counter-attack against the Americans and the British. This is going to be come known as the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler began collecting resources from across Germany to make this surprise attack against the Allies. Now, for the British and the Americans, this was a great failure of military intelligence. Neither the British nor the Americans had any idea that Hitler could pull something like this off or that he was prepared to do so in a very short amount of time. And so on December the 16th of 1944, German tanks and German infantry launched the surprise attack against a weak spot between the British and the American lines. The German forces moved very rapidly against ill-prepared American forces, in fact, move so rapidly they quickly advanced over 65 miles deep into the Allied territory, creating or giving the name to this battle, it created a bulge in the lines, pushing back towards the English Channel itself, which was Hitler's objective.
Well, as this battle began to develop, as the attacks began to press forward in the first few days, there was a quick meeting of the senior Allied commanders to assess what was happening. Most of the senior commanders said, "This has got to be just a minor attack from Hitler. He doesn't have the combat power to undertake anything major or significant." The first senior commander who recognized what was actually taking place was, in fact, Dwight Eisenhower. He recognized that the power behind this attack was more than anyone was really giving Hitler credit for. And so Eisenhower began immediately shifting troops to deal with this crisis that was developing. Of most note was the movement of George Patton's Third Army attacking against the side of the German assault as it moved forward. And this really was where Patton shined as a commander. This called for rapid action, that's called for rapid decision-making and rapid movement by his forces, and Patton's tanks led the way. Another significant part of this Battle of the Bulge where it was the occurrence at the, the Belgian town of Bastogne, which was right in the center of the German advance. And Bastogne was a major junction of, of roads from across the country, and whoever controlled Bastogne would control movement of troops. The Germans were moving very rapidly to seize Bastogne. No other troops were available to send in with the exception of the 101st Airborne Division, one of those airborne divisions that had landed previously on D-Day. The 101st was sent into Bastogne to hold it at all costs. And within a short amount of time after their arrival, they were completely encircled by German forces. The confidence of the 101st, however, was, was, was unquestioned, as one of the, the officers said how he felt sorry for the Germans because they had encircled the 101st Airborne there at Bastogne. Well, the 101st did hold out, and by December the 26th, Patton's tanks had reached Bastogne to reinforce the 101st Airborne troops that were still there. And from that point forward, the Allies, the British from the north, the Americans from the south, condensed on this bulge in the line, and it began to collapse back towards the original starting point. By mid-January, the Battle of the Bulge was over. Hitler's last gamble had been defeated, and the Allies were poised once again to launch the invasion of Germany itself.
Well, as 1944 turned to 1945, and it was clear the Allies were going to defeat the Battle of the Bulge, the plan then became, how, or the question then became, how do we advance into Germany itself? On the Eastern side of Germany, the Soviets had been fighting this whole time, pressing closer and closer in on Berlin itself. And in fact, by mid-January, the, the Soviets are approaching the German capital of Berlin. There's going to be very difficult fighting to take the city of Berlin. And so the Soviets paused for a moment to bring up, uh, supplies, to get everything up back to full speed, back to full strength before they did this final push for Berlin. Now, there was some concern with the Soviets pressing in from the East and the British and the Americans pressing in from the West, of the Allies running into each other and creating casualties, friendly fire casualties. And so, while the two armies are, the two sides were still separated by a considerable distance, the decision was made that the dividing line between the two forces was going to be the river Elbe. That's spelled E-L-B-E, the river Elbe, which is west of Berlin. And so it was decided that once each army met, or once each army reached the river, they would stop. So there would be no, no confusion, uh, and leading to friendly casualties. So, as the spring of 1945 moves forward, both sides begin to press towards the river Elbe, and that eventual meeting of the Allies. Well, that meeting is going to come on April the 25th of 1945. American and Soviet forces meet at the river Elbe. They each cross a bridge that had been constructed, and they shook hands there at the center of the river, symbolizing both in a very practical way and a very symbolic way, the defeat of Nazi Germany. Now, it's going to be a few more days until Germany actually surrenders. With the battle still raging in Berlin itself, Adolf Hitler had set up his headquarters in an underground bunker right in the middle of Berlin. And as the fighting was going on in the streets.
Over the bunker, Hitler committed suicide on April the 30th of 1945. And with Hitler's death, that was then, it was then left to the remainder of the Nazi government to negotiate a peace treaty. Immediately, feelers were sent out to the Allies to sign this peace treaty, with the agreement ending the war in Europe coming on May the 8th of 1945, which is now known as Victory in Europe Day. As something of a footnote to the timing of the end of the war coming in May of 1945, unfortunately for the United States, Franklin Roosevelt did not live to see the end of the war, for he had passed away about a month earlier on April the 12th of 1945, less than a month before the final surrender terms had been signed. He'd been struggling against ill health for quite some time, having suffered from all the difficulties and trials of leading the nation, not just through World War II, but the Great Depression in the decade before. So Roosevelt does not live to see the end of the war in Europe, and that will bring, of course, Harry S Truman into the presidency.
Well, why were the Germans defeated? We often think of today of how Germans do war so great. Well, if they do war so great, they didn't do that well in two world wars. They lost them both. So how do we, how do we analyze this defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II? Well, the number of factors we can put out, not in any particular order. One being Allied resources, the great industrial capacity of the United States to produce goods far more than any other European power. And if we think about the geographic isolation of the United States, the United States did not have to have serious concerns about a direct attack. And so all that industrial might could carry on without the threat of German bombing or Japanese bombing. So the U.S. could bring all that might to fighting this war and winning this war.
Another factor that aided the Allies in winning this war in Europe was cooperation, cooperation especially among the two major allies of the United States and Great Britain. They did not always get along. They frequently had differences of opinion about what strategies should be followed, as we've illustrated with the United States winning that early cross-channel attack. There were differences among the commanders. I mentioned the differences between Patton and Montgomery, but at the bottom, for the bottom line, every time push came to shove, the Allies set aside their differences, recognized the value of cooperation, and that they were truly after the same objective, and that being the defeat of Nazi Germany.
We've mentioned some other factors that have played into the Allies' victory: the air power they achieved, the assistance of the French Resistance, and the resistance of other European powers. And we can't underestimate the contribution of the Soviet Union to winning World War II. Growing up in the United States and learning about the war primarily from our perspective, I think we frequently underestimate the contribution of the Soviet Union to the war. And one number can illustrate that fact. Over the course of World War II in Europe, 9 out of 10 German soldiers were killed by Soviet forces. 90 percent of German soldiers were killed by Soviet forces. The other 10 percent by the Americans, the British, the French, and all the other allies combined. So we look at that one number, it's a huge contribution that the Soviet Union makes to winning this war.
And lastly, as far as what explains the victory of the Allies in this war, I think we can put one word on it: great determination. Determination to set aside their differences, as we've talked about. Determination to press on even when it looked like, especially for England, there was no way they could win. The relentless determination of Roosevelt and Churchill as the senior political commanders. The relentless determination of those military commanders, men like Eisenhower and Bernard Montgomery and Patton and Omar Bradley. All that played into the wealth of resources and everything else we've talked about of why the Allies end up winning this war.
Well, the question, of course, after the defeat of Germany became, what do we do with Europe now? Now, while Roosevelt was still alive, the Big Three, as they became known, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, met at a Soviet town, a Soviet community that was known as Yalta. And this meeting took place in February of 1943. I'm sorry, February of 1945. And it was at this Yalta Conference that the Allies agreed upon a couple of significant points. Number one, to create a United Nations to help resolve differences among world powers in the future. Secondly, was the agreement to divide Germany up among the major powers to administer the country after the war until a viable economy could be re-established and until a new system of government could be re-established. And each of those major powers would control one part of the country.
As this rebuilding went on, of course, it's this division of Germany that's going to develop. It's going to develop into a larger division of Europe itself, a division between the Communist countries backed by the Soviet Union and the Democratic countries backed by the United States and Britain. That will lead to a war very different from the world than the world had ever seen before, and that, of course, is the Cold War that will be battled for a good five decades, 50 years, between the United States and the Soviet Union. But for the moment, in mid-1945, the Allies, through cooperation, had achieved that grand victory of defeating Nazi Germany.
Thank you. Now that we've learned about the second half of World War II, when we come back on our next lecture, we'll continue discussing what's called the Cold War, and that's what happens after World War II. The United States and the Soviet Union had been allies in their fight against Germany and Adolf Hitler, but that will not last because we'll see a Cold War develop after World War II. And it's not so much battles between the United States and the Soviets because we became the two superpowers. It's more economic, political. We do see some heated battles taking place in countries like Korea, Vietnam, of course. And we will also see, of course, after World War II, that China will fall to Communism in 1949, the famous fall of China. China becomes known as Red China, and the nationalistic government of China is pushed to a small island off the coast of China by the name of Taiwan. Now it's called Formosa back then. So, and we'll also see a lot of this policy of containment on the United States' part with the Cold War. So on our next lecture, we'll learn more about the Cold War. Until next time.