World war (Part 3)

   World war 2 (1939 to 1945)

World War II Ends

The Battle of the Bulge 

The allied groups drove the Nazis from Brussels, Belgium, on 2 September 1944 and crossed the German border in ten days. In December, after three months, Hitler ordered a powerful counterattack toward Belgium. The Germans caught the Americans thoroughly. Soon a whole sector of the Allied line in Belgium and Luxemburg was staggering back. A great “bulge” opened which had to be closed. Eisenhower summoned reserves from the South. In December 1944, the Nazi’s offensive divided the allied forces in northwestern Europe. The American soldiers stopped the German offensive during the ten day Battle of the Bulge that ended on 25 December 1944. By the third week of January, Eisenhower’s forces had stopped the German offensive and pushed the attackers back out of the bulge. American, British, and French forces completed the liberation of West Europe by early 1945.

The Soviet Conquest of East Europe 

The Soviet troops reached a small northeastern pocket in Bulgaria by June 1944 and from there to the Baltic Sea. Soon after the Western Allies landed at Normandy on 6 June, Soviet forces charged into Nazi lines in the east and moved toward Poland and Romania. On 1 August, the Polish began to fight the Germans in Warsaw. On Churchill and Roosevelt’s insistence, Stalin offered token help to the polish insurgents at the very end. After two months of struggle, the Polish insurgents succumbed to German army. On 23 August, the Red Army reached Rumania. King Michael II took his country out of the war and opened the gates of the Balkans to the Soviet forces. The Germans got out of the peninsula as fast as possible. Following Rumania, Bulgaria sued for peace. Tito had received help from the Soviet Union at the very end, when the Red Army marched through Yugoslavia from Rumania on its way to attack the Germans in Hungary. In Hungary, the Red Army encountered a firm German stand. Stalin’s purpose was achieved, the whole of East Central Europe was under Soviet domination.

The Anti-Nazi Uprising in Warsaw

On 1 August, underground forces in Warsaw, Poland, revolted against the Germans as the Red Army reached there. The Nazis waged war on the rebels for two months and crushed the rebellions and completed the destruction of Warsaw by October 1944. The Soviet army took three months to capture Warsaw in mid-January 1945 after the Nazis completed their war. Once the Soviets resumed their attack, they continued the fight westward, reaching the borders of Germany within weeks. East Prussia and Upper Silesia were in their grasp. The Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) met at Yalta for the second time.

The Yalta Conference 

On 7 February 1945, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met at Yalta on the Soviet Crimean peninsula in the Black sea. The character of the war had changed entirely. Eight nations had been freed from the Nazi grasp. They needed to make decisions about the restoration of the states that the allies had liberated in East and West Europe. The three leaders planned the final steps to victory, decided the postwar fate of Germany, and considered peace building methods. The conference decided to break up the Reich into several separate states. The Big Three agree to admit France to equal partnership in the future control of Germany. Roosevelt was prepared to make large concessions in the interests of Allied unity. Within three months of the adjournment of the Yalta Conference, the war in Europe was over.

The Agreements on East Europe  

Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to Stalin in case of Poland. Stalin came to Yalta with the Red army in control of most of East Europe and made several demands. Stalin insisted that the Soviets must keep the territory acquired from Poland in 1939. The Poland must have a government friendly to the USSR. Since Poland and Russia had a long history of hostile relations, the insistence on a pro-Soviet Polish government meant that Stalin did not want to allow this country to choose its leader. Roosevelt and Churchill accepted the Polish border changes in principle but left the precise boundaries between Poland and Germany unspecified. The three leaders agreed to establish a government in Poland led by the Lublin Poles (a pro-Soviet group). In keeping with American demands, the three allies pledged to provide for the free election of democratic governments in nations liberated from the fascists. The US expected an extended battle with Japan and believed that it was important to have Soviet help against this enemy. The USSR promised to declare war on Japan within three months after the defeat of Germany. In return, Roosevelt agreed to Soviet territorial gains in Asia, including the acquisition of the Japanese Kuril Islands

The Fate of Germany 

Stalin believed that the security of the USSR and the peace of Europe required that Germany be demilitarized, divided into smaller states, and be devoid of its industries. By February 1945 Roosevelt favoured milder treatment of Germany. Churchill took a more lenient position toward Germany. The British leader argued for French participation in the postwar control of Germany. Churchill’s aim was to give the Germans and French sufficient strength and influence to counter Soviet power on the continent. In the negotiations on German issues, Churchill and Stalin fought to achieve their aims. Despite Roosevelt’s attitude, Churchill achieved his goals than did Stalin. Germany was divided into four zones of occupation. Churchill and Roosevelt had ignored Stalin’s objections and given France an area to control. Although Berlin was sixty miles inside the Soviet zone, the negotiators arranged for each of the four occupying nations to take charge of a section of the capital. The allies pledged that once they took charge in Germany, they would nullify Nazism and militarism. The Western allies refused to accept the Soviet plan to strip Germany of its industry and split the nation into separate states. Churchill and Roosevelt also rejected Stalin’s demand that the Germany pay a large reparations sum to the Soviet Union.