Three days after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Germany declared war on the United States. By that time, war had been raging in Europe for more than two years and the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and their allies) controlled most of Europe and northern Africa. The fortunes of the Allies (the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and their allies) began to change in 1942. Allied forces scored a series of victories over the German army in northern Africa that year. The following spring, the German army in Africa surrendered, opening the door for an Allied invasion of Italy. The Germans also met reversals on their eastern front in 1942. Their invasion of the Soviet Union bogged down under the harsh Russian winter conditions. The Soviets valiantly defended Stalingrad and by the spring of 1943 the Red army began pushing the Germans back to the west. The fortunes of the Axis powers continued to deteriorate when Allied troops successfully invaded Italy in 1943. The rugged fighting in Italy and the Soviet Union required the Germans to divert large numbers of troops and precious resources from the western front. With the Germans occupied on two other fronts, the Allies successfully invaded German-occupied France on D-day, June 6, 1944, at Normandy. Code-named Operation Overlord, and directed by U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the invasion of Normandy was the largest amphibious military invasion in the history of warfare. The success of Operation Overlord left the Germans fighting on three fronts and paved the way to their ultimate defeat.

General Eisenhower stands next to a gallows at a former German concentration camp in April 1945. The Nazis began their slave labor and genocide policies in 1942 and killed an estimated 12,000,000 Europeans.

Major Events of the War in Europe

• Germans invade Poland - September 1, 1939
• British leave France at Dunkirk - May 27, 1940
• Germans enter Paris - June 14, 1940
• Battle of Britain begins - July 10, 1940
• Germans invade Africa - March 31, 1941
• Germans invade Soviet Union - June 22, 1941
• First U.S. air raid on Germany - August 17, 1942
• Germans surrender in Africa- May 13, 1943
• Germans surrender at Stalingrad - February 2, 1943
• Allies invade Sicily - July 10, 1943
• Allies invade Italian mainland - September 9, 1943
• Allies capture Rome - June 4, 1944
• D-day, Allies invade France- June 6, 1944
• Allies liberate Paris - August 25, 1944
• Battle of the Bulge - December 16, 1944
• Allies cross the Rhine River - March 7, 1945
• Adolph Hitler commits suicide - April 30, 1945
• Allies enter Berlin - May 2, 1945
• Germans surrender - May 7, 1945