The Role Of The Axis And Allied Powers In The European Theater

The Axis and Allied powers in the European theater fought between the years of 1939 and 1945 in World War II. The Axis powers were Germany, Japan, and Italy. The Axis powers wanted more land and resources for their own countries so they began to invade other nations to achieve their goals. The Allied powers were France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The allied powers fought to stop the axis powers from invading other countries, and to protect their homelands. In the European theater, the axis powers’ military strategy was to quickly invade other nations to increase their size, and the allied powers’ strategy was to make the axis powers surrender by recapturing land that the Axis powers had taken, and attacking
joined the Allied powers. Germany’s ally Japan had attacked a U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, and on December 11 1941 the U.S. declared war on Japan which caused Germany to declare war on the U.S. on the same day. On November 8, 1942, the Allies launched Operation Torch, British and American troops invaded French North Africa and in May 1943, they caused the German and Italian troops in Africa to surrender. After securing Africa the allies attacked Sicily and in September 1943 British and American troops began to invade Italy. The Allied invasion of Italy caused the Mussolini to be removed from office and the King of Italy to surrender to the Allied forces. The invasion of Italy also caused Hitler to send German troops to Italy to defend against the Allied troops. Hitler set up defenses in Rome but the Allied troops took Rome in June 4, 1944. On June 6, 1944 the Allied Powers launched a massive attack on the beaches of Normandy France known as D-Day. The D-Day invasion was important because Italy’s mountain ranges made it terrible to move vehicles into France, so the Allies needed an alternative way to enter France. On the beaches of Normandy, invading Allied troops were met with heavy German resistance but once a beach front was secured 2 million Allied troops, and half a million Allied vehicles were able to invade France. German troops were pushed back and by August 1944, Paris was recaptured by the Allies. In March 1945, the Allies entered Germany from the west by crossing the Rhine River and in April 1945 the soviets that had been successful in recapturing German territories, entered Germany from the East. The allied troops had surrounded Germany. In Berlin Hitler killed himself on April 30, 1945, two days after Italian partisans had killed Mussolini. German generals surrendered on May 7, 1945, and that ended the war in