May 8, 1945:

The Doom in Europe is Over

People were rejoicing all over America. Everyone was finally safe from all dangers of Hitler and the Nazis. This was the day that Germany surrendered to the Allies. World War II in Europe was really truly over! This day didn’t come easily. The Allies had to beat many battles in order for this day to come, but we succeeded.

We Must Take the Germans Down First!

In December 1941, President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had their first meeting since the war started. They agreed that in order to win the war they had to defeat Germany first. They thought that an attack across the English Channel could occur as early as 1942. The Russians ordered that the Allies open a second battlefront so that the Russian army would have less pressure on them. General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army, had been reasoning that the Allies should attack Germany from northern France, he knew that with an invasion like that they would surely win the war.

The Allies began a huge invasion on the northern coast of France in August of 1942. About 6,050 troops held parts of the coast for nine hours. The Canadians lost very many casualties, but the Allies learned valuable information and ways they could attack Germany from underwater because of the invasion.

The Allies began planning the invasion of Normandy as early as 1943. They set up a planning staff led by Lieutenant General Frederick E. Morgan. The invasion received the code name of Operation Overload. President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower in charge of the operation. During this time Hitler chose Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt to defend Europe.

D-Day

After planning the attack for about one year, the Allies were able to put together a three million-man army and store 16 tons of supplies in Great Britain for the huge attack. They had 5,000 large ships, 4,000 smaller ships on which planes could land, and more than 11,000 aircrafts. Allied bombers hit the Normandy coast months before the attack so the German army’s strength would decrease. Eisenhower had set the attack date for June 5 but weather problems caused him to postpone it to the next day. Paratroopers went ahead of the army itself to bomb bridges, cut railroad lines, and conquer landing fields. Planes called gliders brought jeeps, men, small tanks, and weapons. Warships dropped shells on the German coastal army.

Before actually attacking Normandy, Eisenhower said these words to his soldiers, " You are about to embark upon a great crusade." The first group of soldiers crossed the choppy English Channel under a dark sky. They reached the coast of Normandy at 6:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944. There were no planes in the sky because the Allied air forces had slowed the German air forces down. U.S. troops landed on both sides of the Vire River to the west.

Because of the D-Day attack, Hitler opened a new age of bombs. He sent the flying bomb over London on June 13, 1944. The Germans called it their secret weapon, while the British called it the buzz bomb. The Germans also invented the guided missile.

The Breakthrough

When the Allies captured Cherbourg they had a much better chance of winning WWII. This was because Cherbourg was a great harbor and because the Allies had an oil pipeline that ran under the English Channel to Cherbourg. When Saint Lo fell to Allied troops on July 18, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s troops were able to break out of Normandy and sweep across France. Around this time Col. Count Klaus von Stauffenberg put a time bomb under Hitler’s desk during a meeting. The bomb exploded but only injured Hitler.

On August 15, U.S. troops made an underwater attack on near Cannes, France. The U.S. troops joined forces with the French troops and together they invaded Paris. The Allies had recaptured France, but the war wasn’t over yet.

Allied armies crossed the Belgian border in the north during this time. Brussels fell to Canadian and British troops early in September. Some Allied forces were stopped in Lorraine for a little while. Other forces went into the Netherlands. Another troop went through Luxembourg and crossed the German border on September 12.

Victory is Ours!

Allied armies closed in on Germany from all directions. There was no possible way the Axis powers could still win WWII. Late in April the head of the Gestapo and German home guard tried to barter a peace agreement with Great Britain and the United States. The Allies demanded that the Germans surrender. On April 25 U.S. troops joined forces with the Russian Red Army. Italians captured and killed Mussolini three days later. German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2.

German radio stations announced that Hitler had died while fighting for Berlin against the Russians. Allied inquirers later found out that Hitler and his wife had committed suicide in a bunker 50 feet under Berlin and that they had been cremated. Berlin fell to the Russian armies on May 2 as well.

On May 2, 1945 Colonel General Alfred Jodl of the German army entered Allied headquarters. There he signed the terms of unconditional surrender. The world celebrated May 8, 1945 as V-E Day. The day when the world was free of the dangers of the Nazis.

The war truly ended five years, eight months, and seven days later. The war did end, but we have not forgotten. WWII made us of think of how cruel people can sometimes be and how hungry for power people can be. But we now know that everyone has their own opinions. We just have to respect them.

Ropp, Theodore. "World War II." World Book Encyclopedia, 1982.

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