During the ensuing battle the Japanese suffered the loss of four carriers, one heavy cruiser and aircraft, while American losses totalled one carrier, one destroyer and 98 planes. By their victory at Midway, the turning point of the Pacific war, the Americans were able to seize the strategic initiative from the Japanese, who had suffered irreplaceable losses.
The North African campaign began in September, and for the next two years the fighting was marked by a succession of Allied and Axis advances and retreats. Montgomery immediately began to build up an enormous superiority in men and equipment, finally launching his offensive at Alamein on 23 October By the beginning of November, the Axis forces were in full retreat, although final victory in North Africa was not achieved until May February Red Army soldiers hoist the Soviet flag over a recaptured Stalingrad factory following the German surrender.
Manstein was unsuccessful, and on 31 January Paulus capitulated. Of the 91, German troops who went into captivity, less than 6, returned home after the war.
That day, under the overall command of US General Dwight Eisenhower, British, Canadian and American troops, supported by the Allied navies and air forces, came ashore on the coast of Normandy. By the end of the day, , men, including airborne troops, had landed. Initially, except on the American Omaha beach, German resistance was unexpectedly light.
But it soon stiffened and the Allied breakout from the beachhead area was painfully slow. The fierceness of the fighting can be gauged by the fact that in Normandy British infantry battalions were suffering the same percentage casualty rates as they had on the Western Front in — Eventually the breakout was achieved, and on 25 August, Paris was liberated. Brussels followed on 3 September. Hopes that the war might be won in were dashed by the Allied failure at Arnhem and the unexpected German offensive in the Ardennes in December.
February Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin sit for a group photograph during the Yalta conference. Between June and June , Britain stood alone against Hitler. But then, after the German invasion of Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she gained two powerful allies. Churchill conferred with both Roosevelt and Stalin to hammer out strategy and to discuss postwar arrangements. The three men congregated for the first time at Tehran in November There, and again at their last meeting at Yalta, Churchill was conscious of the fact that Britain, exhausted by her war effort, was now very much the junior partner of the two emerging superpowers.
At Yalta, the postwar division of Germany was agreed upon as was the decision to bring war criminals to trial. The future constitution of the United Nations was discussed, and Stalin undertook to enter the war against Japan after Germany had been defeated. But the future of eastern Europe remained a stumbling block. With the Red Army in occupation, the Soviet dictator was disinclined to listen to the views of his two allies. At Yalta, an Allied plan to bomb the hitherto untouched city of Dresden was discussed.
The reason for attacking the city was due principally to its strategic importance as a communications centre in the rear of the German retreat that followed the Soviet winter offensive of January It was also believed that Dresden might be used as an alternative to Berlin as the Reich capital. Strategic bombing attacks had previously failed to break Germany, although they had proved valuable in reducing its capacity to wage war.
The bombing created a firestorm that destroyed 1, acres of Dresden. Even today it is still uncertain as to how many died and estimates have ranged from 25, to , Most authorities now put the death toll at around 35, The scale of destruction, the enormous death toll, and its timing at such a late stage in the war, have all ensured that the bombing of Dresden still remains highly controversial.
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party. He ruled absolutely until his death by suicide in April While thousands of their fellow Americans were about to enter into the Battle of the Bulge and likely face capture under harsh circumstances by the war-weary German enemy, others, already POWs, celebrated a lonely Christmas holiday, the last of the war, in camps across Europe.
Explore this section to learn more about World War II. Germany and Bulgaria invade Greece in support of the Italians. Resistance in Greece ceases in early June April 10, The leaders of the terrorist Ustasa movement proclaim the so-called Independent State of Croatia. Recognized immediately by Germany and Italy, the new state includes the province of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Croatia joins the Axis powers formally on June 15, Finland, seeking redress for the territorial losses in the armistice concluding the so-called Winter War, joins the Axis just before the invasion.
Petersburg by September. December 6, A Soviet counteroffensive drives the Germans from the Moscow suburbs in chaotic retreat. December 7, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. Over the next three years Anglo-American bombing reduces urban Germany to rubble. June 28, —September Germany and its Axis partners launch a new offensive in the Soviet Union.
German troops fight their way into Stalingrad Volgograd on the Volga River by mid-September and penetrate deep into the Caucasus after securing the Crimean Peninsula. August 7—February 9, For the first time, Allied forces go on the offensive against Japanese forces by landing on and taking Tulagi, Florida, and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
October 23—24, British troops defeat the Germans and Italians at El Alamein in Egypt, sending the Axis forces in chaotic retreat across Libya to the eastern border of Tunisia.
The failure of the Vichy French troops to defend against the invasion enables the Allies to move swiftly to the western border of Tunisia and triggers the German occupation of southern France on November November 23, —February 2, Soviet troops counterattack, breaking through the Hungarian and Romanian lines northwest and southwest of Stalingrad and trapping the German Sixth Army in the city.
Forbidden by Hitler to retreat or try to break out of the Soviet ring, the survivors of the Sixth Army surrender on January 30 and February 2, The Soviets blunt the attack within a week and begin an offensive initiative of their own.
July 10, US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily. September 8, The Badoglio government surrenders unconditionally to the Allies. The Germans immediately seize control of Rome and northern Italy, establishing a puppet Fascist regime under Mussolini, who is freed from imprisonment by German commandos on September September 9, Allied troops land on the beaches of Salerno near Naples. November 6, Soviet troops liberate Kiev.
January 22, Allied troops land successfully near Anzio, just south of Rome. June 4, Allied troops liberate Rome. Within six weeks, Anglo-American bombers could hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time. July 25, Allied forces break out of the Normandy beachhead and race eastward towards Paris. August 1, —October 5, The Home Army the non-communist Polish resistance rises up against the Germans in an effort to liberate Warsaw before the arrival of Soviet troops.
The Soviet advance halts on the east bank of the Vistula. On October 5, the Germans accept the surrender of the remnants of the Home Army forces fighting in Warsaw. August 15, Allied forces land in southern France near Nice and advance rapidly towards the Rhine River to the northeast. August 20—25, Allied troops reach Paris. By September, the Allies reach the German border.
By December, virtually all of France, most of Belgium, and part of the southern Netherlands are liberated.
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