The Editors of TIME-LIFE - TIME-LIFE World War II: Victory in Europe: Defeating the Nazis: A Triumph of Courage, Military Strategy, and Endurance

VE DAY 1945 Celebrating Victory in Europe in Piccadilly Circus, London

This is a solemn but glorious hour. General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered.... The flags of freedom fly all over Europe.

President Harry Truman, May 8, 1945

WORLD WAR II
Victory In Europe

DEFEATING THE NAZIS:
A TRIUMPH OF COURAGE, MILITARY
STRATEGY, AND ENDURANCE

Allied soldiers and French civilians in Paris celebrated victory in Europe, May 8, 1945.

1 THE WESTERN FRONT

AS 1945 DAWNED, MOST GERMANS KNEW THAT THEIR COUNTRY WAS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE. FOR MANY, SURVIVING THE ALLIED ONSLAUGHT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERED.

The New Year: 1945

AS THE YEAR BEGAN, GERMANY FOUND ITSELF FACING AN INSURMOUNTABLE FOE.

Allied soldiers and sailors arrived in England in 1945 following a tour of duty. They would soon be deployed back to the continent to wage war against Nazi troops.

The Allies had much to cheer about as they celebrated the New Year in January 1945. The invasion of Normandy, France, the previous summer had finally put the Nazis on the run, and the Alliesthe United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Unioncould see that Germany was on the brink of collapse. Along both the Eastern and Western Fronts of Germany, though, there were brutal battles to wage and to win if the Allies were to succeed. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler believed that his country could still triumph, but many of his generals no longer shared this optimistic view.

In Berlin, Allied bombing raidsAmerican during the day and British at nighttook a heavy toll. People crowded into air-raid shelters and basements. They wrote messages on walls of gutted buildings to sons and husbands returning from the front, letting them know their families were safe, at least for the moment, and living elsewhere. Berliners were short on food, water, and sanitation facilities. Heil Hitler! had been the prevailing everyday greeting and rallying cry; now, Berliners declared, Bleib brig! Survive!

The Russians compounded Germans misery as they advanced north from Hungary and west through East Prussia. The Red Army showed no mercy to captured military or to civilians. Murder, rape, and looting became common tactics of the Soviet forces. Germans faced their untenable situation with a dark humor: Be practical, they quipped at Christmastime. Give a coffin.

Europe 1945

When World War II began, Axis powers lined up behind the Nazis, but by 1945 Germany was surrounded by enemy forces.

Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Japan

Allied Powers: United States, Britain, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia, Brazil

Path to the End

As 1945 dawned, six long years of war was ending. The Allies squeezed Germany from two sides, while the fighting in the Pacific became even more savage from all sides.

JANUARY

JANUARY 17 Soviet forces liberated Polands capital city, Warsaw, opening the path for the Russians to move south into Germany.

JANUARY 25 The Battle of the Bulge, Hitlers last major offensive on the Western Front, ended in a decisive victory for the Allies.

FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY 4 Allied leaders met at Yalta, a city on the Black Sea, to discuss the surrender of Germany and Japan and to plan for the postwar world.

MARCH

MARCH 7 U.S. troops crossed the Rhine River at Remagen in western Germany, paving the way for soldiers to move into Germanys heartland.