Victory in Europe and Plans for Peace

The Causes and Consequences of World War II HIST 1301 | History Victory in Europe and Plans for Peace Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged almost 1,700 letters and messages, conducted several high-level meetings, and worked closely together to coordinate their efforts at all levels for over five years following their meeting in Newfoundland, when they established the Atlantic Charter, which outlined their strategy for ending the fight. Representatives of forty-four Allied nations worked together to establish the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, two institutions aimed at ensuring post-war economic stability and security, during a specialised conference held in 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. However, the alliance started to weaken as Allied forces advanced towards the German border. Churchill signed the Percentages Agreement with Stalin during a visit to the Soviet Union in late 1944. Under the agreement, the two countries decided to create spheres of influence in eastern Europe, with Britain receiving a 90 percent share of Greece, the USSR receiving a 90 percent share of Romania, and both holding 50 percent of the political power in Hungary and Yugoslavia. Because "it might be thought rather cynical if it seemed we had disposed of these issues, so fateful to millions of people, in such an offhand manner," Churchill believed Stalin should burn the text thereafter. Eventually, a few months following the Soviet triumph at Kursk, General Eisenhower got ready to launch a second front in the war's European theatre. The German military was in a difficult situation by May 1944. It became clear that British and American forces were getting ready to invade the continent as the Soviet Red Army was steadily retaking German strongholds in the east. Considering the severity of the fighting on the eastern front, the Germans decided to keep 228 divisions to oppose the Soviets and gave fifty-eight divisions—just fifteen of which were in Normandy, France—the task of defending Europe. On the other hand, the impending invasion's covert location was Normandy. On June 6, 1944—also known as D-Day—at two in the morning, the Allies launched their invasion of France following months of planning and preparation. The night before, Eisenhower composed a letter of resignation in case things did not go as planned, despite having taken on responsibility for almost every aspect and not feeling that he had done enough. However, they did. By the second day of the operation, some 160,000 heavily armoured Allied soldiers were forming a continuous line across Europe and breaching German defences. It took barely two months for Paris to be freed. Generals from the Allies then started racing to take Berlin, competing to be the first to arrive. The Soviets were closing in on the city from the east while American and British forces moved in from the west. Eisenhower made the decision to stop and reload while eliminating German forces west of the Rhine River in order to get ready for the last drive to Berlin. Hitler thought that if he could split the Allied troops apart, there would still be a chance for a German triumph. He committed 200,000 soldiers, 1,000 tanks, and many planes to the Battle of the Bulge in a western front woodland four days later. Eisenhower subsequently acknowledged that the German attack had penetrated Allied defences by almost fifty kilometres, giving them a tactical surprise. But even with the German victories, he believed he could turn the tide of the war by taking advantage of their exhaustion. In actuality, Germany had incurred significant casualties in what turned out to be their last European assault and another pivotal moment in the war. As the war came to a conclusion, the Big Three gathered once more at the Yalta Conference, which took place in the Soviet Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, to prepare for peace. Roosevelt's plan called for Soviet invasion and assistance in the United States' Pacific War against Japan. Additionally, he hoped for support for the establishment of the United Nations, a new organisation based on the idea of collective security but more powerful than the League of Nations. Stalin sought a Soviet sphere of political control over eastern and central Europe, whereas Churchill pushed for free elections and democratic administrations in those regions, particularly in Poland. Stalin said that Poland will have free elections, even though the Red Army had just erected a government in Polish territory. His demands that the United States recognise Mongolia's independence from China and Soviet interests in the Manchurian railroads and Port Arthur were prerequisites for the Soviet Union to declare war on Japan. These were reached without the participation or approval of China, and Stalin pledged that the Soviet Union would join the Pacific War three months after Germany was defeated. Roosevelt paid Stalin's price in the hopes that the Soviet Union, which had agreed to join the UN, could be dealt with after the war. The three leaders agreed in the Declaration on Liberated Europe that all displaced citizens would be returned, and that the original governments in the invaded nations would be restored (except from the Polish government-in-exile in London and the governments of France, Romania, and Bulgaria). The agreement to divide Germany and Berlin into three occupied zones (later extended to four) and to reiterate Nazi Germany's unconditional capitulation were other major elements of the discussion. Demilitarisation, denazification, and reparations were to be implemented by Germany; these included the use of German prisoners of war and others to do forced labour in agricultural and industrial capacities in both Eastern and Western Europe following the war. Nazi war criminals were to be tracked down and prosecuted concurrently. Stalin maintained that the country that had suffered the most should get compensation for the suffering and devastation the Germans had inflicted upon the Soviet Union. The resolution of this matter was pushed back to a later meeting. Following Yalta, Eisenhower met with Moscow and presented a proposal for the precise location of the postwar occupation zones in Berlin that complied with the Yalta Agreement. Since Eisenhower was aware that the German authorities were getting ready to relocate, Berlin had little symbolic importance. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, together with Eva Braun, his onetime wife. Then, different German leaders started turning themselves in to the Soviet or Allied forces. On May 6, Hermann Göring submitted, and the next day, General Alfred Jodl, the head of the German military, unconditionally turned over all of his men. In Europe, victory had been won. In July 1944, advancing Soviet soldiers started the process of freeing the extermination camps; in January 1945, they released the prisoners detained at Auschwitz. American and British forces freed Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, and Buchenwald in April. Eisenhower visited the camps several times with his staff. Eisenhower also arranged for American and British reporters to visit the camps in order to ensure that the world was made aware of the inhumanity committed by the Germans.