The War in Europe

The day after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, an emotional President Roosevelt requested that Congress declare war against Japan. Congress complied and three days

later Germany declared war on the United States. The gathering storm had finally hit.

By December of 1941, Hitler's troops had over run most of Europe. The Allied leaders agreed that Germany posed the most immediate threat to the free world. In an attempt to take some of the pressure off of the Soviet Union the United States and Britain would open a second front in 1942. Fearing a repeat of the bloodbath of World War I, Allied leaders bypassed Europe and planned the invasion for North Africa. "Operation Torch" as the North African Campaign was called, required troops to land at Casablanca and head across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and on towards the Suez Canal; cutting off Nazi supply routes from the Middle East and Mediterranean Sea. Attacking Hitler's exposed "underbelly", Allied troops would then invade Sicily and Italy.

The major invasion of Europe would occur in 1944. On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in what was code named "Operation Overlord". Americans would struggle across Nazi held France and advance into the heart of Germany from the west. Fighting was fierce as Allied troops battled for each town and village on the way to defeating Hitler. Victory over Nazi oppression finally came in Europe on May 8, 1945.