Two fronts converge on Germany
1943–May 1945
Soviet armies gained the initiative in the east, while the Western Allies opened fronts in Italy and France. Their advances brought down Nazi power, but liberation unfolded differently in particular places. Germany’s military surrender came in May 1945.
Stalingrad did not decide the eastern war by itself. Germany attacked again near Kursk in July 1943, but Soviet victory helped transfer the initiative to the Red Army. In June 1944, a Soviet offensive in Belarus nearly destroyed German Army Group Centre. These campaigns bridge the gap between Stalingrad and Berlin’s fall: German armies were being driven progressively west.
Sources, licences and acknowledgements
Robert F. Sargent / U.S. Coast Guard · NARA 195515 · Original · Public domain (US government work)
Commons restoration (crop, contrast and dust removal), resized and compressed by Chrona.
The Western Allies invaded Sicily and then mainland Italy in 1943. On 6 June 1944, they landed in Normandy under supreme commander Dwight Eisenhower. The operation opened a major front in France. Germany now faced Soviet armies advancing from the east and the Western Allies through France.
The advance was not everywhere quick or straightforward. Late in 1944, Germany attempted to reverse its position with a counter-offensive in the Ardennes, but failed. In January 1945, the Red Army advanced from Poland towards the Oder; in March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine. The area under German control was contracting from both sides.
Allied armies also liberated camps. Soviet troops entered Auschwitz on 27 January 1945. Liberation ended the perpetrators’ control, but many prisoners had already been forced to march elsewhere. Military advances and survivors’ experiences intersected without reaching the same ending.
In the final phase, Soviet forces captured Berlin. Hitler killed himself on 30 April 1945. His death did not itself end the fighting or constitute the surrender of all German forces. The dictatorship’s end unfolded on military, political and local levels.
In Prague, an uprising began on 5 May. Part of the Russian Liberation Army, which had previously fought on Germany’s side, also assisted the insurgents. A ceasefire on 8 May allowed German withdrawal, but some units did not obey it. Soviet troops entered on 9 May. Local resistance, negotiations and an army’s arrival contributed differently to the occupation’s end.
Germany’s military surrender was signed at Reims on 7 May and ordered active operations to cease at 23:01 Central European Time on 8 May. At Soviet insistence, a further signing took place in Berlin on 8 May. This sequence explains the May victory commemorations, while a document’s signature and the end of a particular local battle did not necessarily coincide.
Places
- Normandy: landings, a foothold and the advance into France
Landings and the western advance.
- Berlin: military defeat and the collapse of Nazi power
The collapse of Nazi power.
- Prague: uprising, withdrawal and the arrival of the Red Army
The local sequence of liberation.
Germany’s defeat ended the war in Europe. Fighting continued in Asia and the Pacific.