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In Their Words: Stories of Minnesota's Greatest Generation

The war in Europe began when Adolf Hitler's German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the second in a series of Nazi conquests of European states (Austria and Czecholslovakia had already fallen victim to Germany). In the days that followed, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada responded by declaring war on Germany, while the United States declared neutrality. The Soviet Union, like Italy, had signed a pact with Germany and joined the aggression, following the Nazis into Poland and, later, declaring war on Finland.

The Nazis continued to sweep through Europe the following year, taking control of Holland, Belgium, Norway, and France. The Battle of Britain began that summer, with German Blitz bombing raids on London and major port cities. In the meantime, the Soviets had taken Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and Mussolini's Italian Fascist troops were advancing into Africa, Egypt, and Greece. Concerned by the takeover of France, the United States initiated the first peacetime conscription in its history on October 16, 1940.

Still reluctant to involve the United States in the war in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act on March 11, 1941. Lend-Lease provided aid to countries whose defense "against agression is vital to the defense of the United States." The Act empowered the President to sell, lend, or lease such articles as ships, aircraft, weaponry, equipment or supplies for manufacture of defense articles, and food and other supplies, not to exceed $1.3 billion. Because several U.S. merchant ships had been lost to U-boat activity in the Atlantic, the Act dictated that convoys to Britain and other Lend-Lease countries were not to be accompanied by U.S. Naval ships, nor would U.S. ships be authorized to enter combat zones.

Germany continued its march through Europe, taking Yugoslvia and Greece. Nazi General Erwin Rommel and his "Afrika Korps" landed in North Africa early in 1941, and the Germans turned on the Soviet Union soon after. German, Italian, and Japanese assets in the United States were frozen, and the U.S. imposed an oil embargo on agressor nations. On August 14, 1941, following a series of conferences, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, which put forth a plan for lasting peace for the post-war world.

America's Isolationist stance changed in the blink of an eye when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii on the morning of December 7, 1941. The following day the U.S. declared war on Japan. Germany retaliated by declaring war on the United States on December 11th, and by January 1942 had a fleet of U-boats lurking off the east coast of the U.S. The first American forces were sent to Great Britain in anticipation of a massive cross-channel invasion by the end of January, and the first American bombing raids over Europe commenced in August. German activity in North Africa delayed the invasion and, in November, U.S. troops were sent to the African front.

Following the defeat of the Germans in Africa in 1943, the U.S. and Britain turned their attention to Sicily and Italy. By September, Mussolini had been arrested and Italy had surrendered to the Allies. The fighting continued into 1944 as the Allied forces pushed their way through Italy, reaching Rome in early June.

While British and Americans were driving the Germans out of Italy, a massive buid-up of troops, 6,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft from many countries was underway in Great Britain for "Operation Overlord," the D-Day invasion. On June 6, 1944, more than 120,000 Allied ground and airborne troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. By nightfall the Allies had gained a foothold in France, but had sustained nearly 5,000 casualties. Within a few weeks of the invasion 850,000 men and 150,000 military vehicles had arrived in Normandy.

During the summer of 1944, the Allies fought their way inland, liberating Paris on August 25th. American and British bombing raids over Germany crippled industrial sites and cities. In September 30,000 American and British paratroopers were dropped into Holland in "Operation Market Garden," a failed attempt at clearing the way for an Allied advance across the Rhine River into Germany.

In December 1944 Hiltler reorganized his troops, sending them on a mission to cut off the Allies in Belgium and retake the port of Antwerp. The resulting "Battle of the Bulge," the last German offensive action on the Western Front, caught the Americans off-guard. Allied aircraft, grounded due to weather conditions, eventually provided the support needed to beat back the Nazis by the end of January 1945.

The Allied forces reached the Rhine in March and the first troops crossed into Germany and moved toward Berlin. With the Russians closing in from the East, and the Americans advancing from the West, German resistance dwindled by the end of April. Hitler committed suicide in Berlin on April 30th, and his successor, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, had no alternative but to surrender. His emissary, General Alfred Jodl, signed an unconditional surrender at the headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, at Reims on May 7th, which took effect at one minute past midnight on May 8, 1945.

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