European Front

 

 The United States was neutral through the beginning part of the war but on December 8th, 1941 (one day after Pearl Harbor) the United States declared war on Japan. On December 11th the Nazi Germany declared war on the U.S. The same day president Franklin Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act which provided U.S. military equipment to the Allied powers. This was not an open declaration of war on the Axis powers but it did show sympathy to France, Poland, and other occupied coountries.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pearl.htm

The Allied plan for WW2 was to defeat Germany first. Germany threatened to major Allied capitols while Japan threatened none. Later attentions wold be turned to Japan. The number of weapons and equipment that Britain needed was phenominal. The United States had to set up labor unions and expand the roles of women to meet this priorety. The United States only had one fully trained division in the Army even though over 50 were being trained. It was tough for the United States to mobilize due to the Great Depression that sucked the economy dry.

The coast of France was too heavily guarded by the Germans so the Allies started by invading Northern Africa and destroying Hitler's Afrika Korps. The leader of the Afrika Korps was the German General Erwin Rommel "The Desert Fox" who along with Italian troops made a succesful tactical retreat that saved thousands of German's live. The French colonies were taken back. The Allies then invaded Sicily which was overun in a month and then moved on to Italy. After a successful Italian landing's progress was slowed greatly the Italian campaign slowed to a turtle's pace and would drag on for the rest of the war in Europe.

The next major invasion in World War 2 wouldn't take place until June 6, 1944, it was known as Operation Overlord, The Invasion of Normandy, and D-Day.

    At a brief look Operation Overlord was a carefully planned invasion that went horribly off course during the day and somehow by night's end the Allies were rounding up Germans from the counterdefensive they put up to take back French towns. Overlord is the biggest invasion in U.S. history. It included 156,000 troops and numerous vehicles, artillery batteries, and medical units.

 This map shows you where the Allies invaded and which troops invaded which beaches

Omaha Beach: Omaha beach was the bigger of the two beaches that U.S. troops landed at. The 1st division landed here as you can tell by the map. The landing at this beach was a disaster, but the U.S. forces pulled through greatly because of the Rangers. Due to bad weather conditions boats were blown off course and troops landed in different locations. Troops were promised that German resistance would be minimum because bombings raids had been going on since last night, June 5th. They were also promised that there would be foxholes scattered across the beach because of the bombs being dropped. Both promises meant nothing. The bombers dropped their bombs up to six minutes late because they were afraid of hitting Allied troops, also most German fortifications could stand up to the bombing. Another lost promise was the tanks. Most tanks were released to early and drowned in the Channel. Only four made it out of 32 but they were in shambles when they rolled on the beach and made easy targets for German Artillery. But U.S. troops prevailed. Rangers climbed up the bluffs of Omaha with ropes and ladders. Other battalions found rocky passes up the bluffs. By nighfall U.S. troops had pushed up the bluffs and a were advancing a few miles inland.

Utah Beach: The Utah Beach landing was much more succesful than the landing at Omaha. The 4th division saw less resistance thanks to paratroopers capturing kery positions and bombers and ships hitting their targets with bombs and shells. Again, most German fortifications survived the bombings, but the troops were a ragtag bunch of older Germans and POW volunteers. The anding at Utah was a complete mess though. The troops landed up to a mile south of their designate landing sites. This turned out to be helpful as they encountered less German resistance and were able to flank the heavier German resistance where they should have landed. Thanks to this miscue the KIA and MIA total was lower than 200. The first General landed here on Utah, He even might have been on the first boat to land. His name was Theodore Roosevelt. He is credited for saying "We'll start the war right her."

Gold/Sword Beaches: Gold and Sword were the Beaches where the British 50th and British 3rd divisions landed. Casualties were not as bad as Omaha beach but it still was a hard fought battle. Along with British troops Scottish Commandos, a few Canadian troops, and 178 Free French troops, the only to land on D-Day, joined in with British troops in the landings. German bunkers provided large amounts of artillery fire for the first waves of troops hitting the shore and one regiment had 200 casalties. Due to high waves, tanks were released closer to the shore than ordered and the result was that 21 of 25 made it to shore. These tanks helped take out mines on the beaches and close-by artillery that was overlooking the beach. Tanks also took out bunkers where German MG42 emplacments were mowing down troops. One of the Scottish bagpipers drew the attention of a sergeant while playing during the landing. The sergeant had a few words for him. The landing was going smoothly but another hreat lay on the horizon, The 21st Panzer division. British commandos disabled these tanks and destroyed the Germans best hope of repelling the invasion. The British troops under Field Marshall Montgomery's objective was to take Caen a town far inland that would start the road to Paris. Unfortunately that was an impossible task and Caen would not be liberated until later.

Juno Beach: Juno Beach was attacked by the Canadian 3rd division, along with 9,000 British troops. Due to high waves and bad conditions many German mines sunk Canadian and British ships. Many tank craft were taken out because of mines and pilots of tank landing craft landed them on the beach against orders. The tanks ended up helping the infantry though. You might be tired of hearing this but again the bombing failed. All three armies bombed the German fortifications and they only destroyed a few resistance nests. Canadian soldiers were mown down as they landed on the beach, but they had revenge in their hearts and they kept coming. The death toll was 1 for every 19 troops. Many of specially customized tanks helped Canadian troops cross ditches, unmine fields and take out hedgerows. These tanks were laughed at because of all the funny designs but they helped greatly at Juno Beach. Fortunately the death count only totaled 335 and over 20,000 men and 3,000 vehicles were landed by the end of the day.

    The next stage of the invasion was to fight through Normandy, take Caen, and head toward Paris. Unfortunately the soldiers were not ready for the hedgerow fighting of France. Most land was broken into squares surrounded by hedgerows that could be defended for days. The Allies also had trouble taking Caen. It took Field Marshall Montgomery three tries to take Caen which spanned around a month. Finally the Germans retreated and Caen was taken. This started and Allied attack that could not be stopped.

    Unlike Nazi propoganda most Nazis didn't have motrized transport. Most were carried in horse powered carts. These provided easy targets for bombers. When finally the Allies reached Paris, Nazi troops were ordered to retreat and burn down Paris. Fortunately they came to their senses and did not. Paris was still a danger zone as Vichy French(Or FRench people that joined the Nazis) could not give themselves up as they would be executed. Those who had fraternized with the Nazis were stripped of their clothes and belongings.

    The first crossing of the Rhine into Germany, called Operation Market Garden, had large amounts of paratroopers land on the German side of the Rhine and take key bridges. This was succesful but no one relieved then and the bridges had to be abandoned.

Operation Queen was the taking of the towns around the Rur River that were heavily defended and would help the Allies move toward Berlin and away from The Rhine. The Operation was a success and the United States headed toward Berlin. The city had been bogged down by Soviet artillery for a while and was easily taken.

Germany was defeated on May 7th, 1945.

Japan was defeated on August 15th, 1945 with the dropping of the atomic bomb

World War 2 was finally over.

   http://worldwar2history.info/North-Africa/     

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_United_States_during_World_War_II

   http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pearl.htm  

   TIME: D-Day, The 24 hours that saved the world