World History
World History Name:
Allied Victory in Europe
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Following the D-Day invasion Allied (British and American) forces pushed deep into German occupied France, clearing most of France and Belgium of German forces by October, 1944. The Germans mounted several counterattacks, which led to many deaths on both sides. The most famous of these battles include the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of the Ardennes Forest. In both cases, the Allies’ superior numbers, the freshness of the American troops, and the constant bombardment of German positions by Allied airplanes proved to be the difference. The Allies won both battles and pushed the Germans back into German territory.
On the Eastern Front, Soviet armies spent the summer of 1944 sweeping through the Baltic States, East Poland, Belorussia, and Ukraine. By the time winter had started the Russians had successfully pushed the Nazi Army out of Romania (Aug. 23), Finland (Sept. 4), and Bulgaria (Sept. 10). Having evacuated the Balkan Peninsula, the Germans resisted in Hungary until February, 1945, but Hitler’s Army was under constant pressure from the ever growing Soviet attack. Volunteer soldiers from all of the nations Germany had conquered poured into the Soviet camps. The Russian army almost doubled in size by the start of 1945.
The Russians then moved their massive army through East Prussia and captured Czechoslovakia in January 1945 from the Germans. Hitler’s Army was now at the German border. They had been beaten all the way back home. It was assumed that Germany would surrender rather than allow the Russians to invade their territory. But Hitler was determined and he ordered his men to fight to the death. In the first week of February, the unthinkable thus happened: Hitler’s home nation, his supposed fortress – Germany - was invaded by Soviet soldiers in several Eastern regions.
On March 7th, 1945 British and American forces in the west crossed the Rhine River into German territory. Germany had now been invaded both on the east by the Russians, and in the west by the Allies. The two massive armies pushed the German forces back towards Berlin, towards Hitler, and towards each other. The first meeting between Russian and Allied soldiers joyfully came on April 25th in the German town of Torgau. While moving German prisoners across the town center the Russian Army was delighted to see British and American tanks come rolling in from the West. The whole town, and both armies celebrated.
At about the same time three different divisions of the Russian Army had surrounded the German capital of Berlin. British forces were waiting on the other side. Per a treaty signed by American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at Yalta earlier that year, it was agreed that Russia, having suffered so much at the hands of the Germans, would enter Berlin first. On April 26th the Russians entered Berlin and began the hunt for Adolf Hitler. The fighting in Berlin was fierce, as German holdouts fought house-to-house against the Soviets. Hitler was not as courageous. On April 30th, in his secret Berlin bunker, he shot his wife Eva Braun in the head, and then shot himself. As ordered a Nazi official then set both bodies on fire. With Hitler dead the German high command ordered the immediate surrender of all German forces. The unconditional surrender of Germany was signed at Reims, France on May 7 and ratified at Berlin on May 8. The day is now remembered across the world as V-E (Victory in Europe) Day. World War Two in Europe was finally over.
Analysis Questions – Answer the following questions on binder paper.
1. What were the two most famous battles of World War Two after D-Day? Who won
those battles? Why?
2. Why do you think so many Eastern Europeans volunteered to fight for the Soviet
Union in 1945?
3. Why might the Allied powers have “assumed that Germany would surrender rather
than allow the Russians to invade their territory”?
4. What happened when the Russian and American armies ran into each other in
Germany?
5. Why was the Russian Army allowed to enter Berlin before the Allies?
6. What happens to Hitler in the end? Why do you think he did that?
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