9.4: Important Battles and Conferences

Tehran Conference

In the wake of the Soviet victory at Stalingrad, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Tehran, Iran in November 1943. Dismissing Africa and Italy as a sideshow, Stalin demanded that Britain and the United States invade France to support the Soviet advance on the Eastern Front. Churchill was hesitant, but Roosevelt was eager and pushed for an invasion tentatively scheduled for May 1944. The leaders also began post-war planning, considering the best ways to prevent another world war.  The Allies had already begun calling themselves the “United Nations,” especially as Latin American republics and other countries began joining the fight against the Axis. To avoid another Great Depression it was agreed that war-torn nations would need to be rebuilt rather than penalized (as they had after Versailles). In 1944 the Allies sent representatives to the Bretton Woods resort in New Hampshire to forge new international financial, trade, and developmental relationships. In April 1945, diplomats from around the world gathered in San Francisco to design a way for the United Nations to address world problems in a post-war world. The results of both conferences will be discussed below, but it is important to notice that both international meetings were held in the United States.  Americans had become convinced that isolationism was no longer a practical foreign policy, and the world recognized that the U.S. was going to be instrumental in a post-war effort to keep the peace. Headquartering the United Nations in New York City ensured that American involvement would be guaranteed. 

Operation Overlord: D-Day

On June 6, 1944,  the same day the American army entered Rome, American, British and Canadian forces launched Operation Overlord, the long-awaited invasion of France. D-Day, as it became known, was the largest amphibious assault in history. American general Dwight Eisenhower was uncertain enough of the attack’s chances that the night before the invasion he wrote two speeches: one for success and one for failure. Using over 5,000 landing and assault craft, about 160,000 men crossed the English Channel on D-Day. The Allied landings at Normandy were successful, and by the end of the month 875,000 Allied troops had arrived in France and liberated Paris within a few months.

Allied bombing sorties intensified, continuing to level German cities and reduce Axis industrial capacity. The Royal Air Force estimated that the Allies destroyed more than half of the “built up areas” in seven of the ten German cities with more than 500,000 residents. The RAF’s goal, similar to that of Germany during the Blitz, was for bombing to be “focused on the morale of the enemy civil population and in particular of the industrial workers.” The USAAF flew over 750,000 bomber sorties and dropped nearly a million and a half tons of bombs. Up to five hundred thousand German civilians were killed by allied bombing.

Battle of the Bulge

The Nazi armies were crumbling on both fronts. Hitler tried to turn the war in his favor in the west by exploiting a weakness along the Allied front. The Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945) was the largest and deadliest single battle fought by U.S. troops in the war. The desperate Germans failed to drive the Allies back from the Ardennes forests, but the delay cost the western-front Allies the winter. The Soviet Union continued its relentless push from the east, ravaging German populations in retribution for German war crimes. German counterattacks failed to prevent the Soviet advance and 1945 dawned with the end of the European war in sight.

Yalta Conference

In February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met again at Yalta, located on the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea (see Figure 9.4.1). Roosevelt and Churchill were anxious for Soviet help in defeating Japan; the atom bomb was months away from being tested and no one knew whether it would work. Stalin agreed to join the fight in Asia against Japan three months after peace was declared in Europe. The three leaders discussed their own long-range strategic interests at Yalta. Stalin, whose country had sacrificed the most in the war, insisted on defending the Soviet Union from future invasion by occupying Eastern Europe. Remembering British and U.S. support of the White Russians in the Civil War he had fought in the 1920s, Stalin distrusted his temporary allies against Germany. Partly to destabilize the capitalist nations he distrusted, and partly because he was still a dedicated revolutionary, Stalin also wanted to continue to promote communism around the world. Figure 9.4.1 is a black and white photo of the "Big Three," namely Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, all wearing winter coats and seated outdoors, in the courtyard of the Livadia Palace in Crimea. All three leaders look relaxed and are smiling. At this time they were confident about their victory in Europe. They met in Yalta to discuss Soviet participation in the Pacific theater and postwar diplomacy.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin meet at the Yalta Conference, National Archives (NARA), in the Public Domain.

Churchill, for his part, believed that the colonial European empires in Africa and Asia should continue on as before (the French also supported this position).  Roosevelt’s main interest was maintaining the economic boom that had pulled the United States out of the Great Depression through free international trade. The war had put people back to work and the nation was at near full employment.  Since the United States mainland had not been bombed, American industry was in a position to supply the world and American firms were in position to dominate world markets.  Although the three nations shared the victory in World War II, in the long run, the United States “defeated” its allies through economic superiority. The European empires Churchill hoped to save were ended by the 1960s with the independence of Asian and African colonies. The Soviet Union and its domination of Eastern Europe dramatically collapsed in 1989-1991.  Roosevelt’s position was the most successful in the long run. Free trade exists throughout the world and is currently embraced by industrially developing nations as a means for economic growth. However, nothing lasts forever: the United States is beginning to lose its position as the leader of the capitalist world, as will be discussed in a later chapter.

Potsdam Conference

Soviet troops reached Germany in January 1945, and the Americans crossed the Rhine in March. In late April, American and Soviet troops met at the Elbe River while the Soviets pushed relentlessly to first reach Berlin…a feat accomplished by May. A few days before their arrival, Hitler and his high command committed suicide in a city bunker. Germany was conquered and the European war was over. A new set of Allied leaders met at Potsdam, Germany to plan the rehabilitation of Europe and the final defeat of Japan. Of the “Big Three” who had met at Yalta, only Stalin was at Potsdam for the whole conference. Roosevelt had died of natural causes in early April and Churchill was replaced by new Prime Minister Clement Atlee in the early days of the meeting when his Conservative Party was defeated at the polls by the Labour Party.  The leaders agreed that Germany would be divided into pieces according to the current Allied occupation. Berlin, over 100 miles within the East, Soviet section of Germany, was likewise divided between American, British, French and Soviet sections.

Review Questions

• D-Day is an iconic moment for Americans. Identify similar moments in Britain and the Soviet Union?
• Why did the U.S. and U.S.S.R. race to reach Berlin?