War for Europe and North Africa - Part II

6. What was D-Day?
General Eisenhower was planning an attack on Normandy. Under his command, the Allies gathered nearly 3 millions troops. The Allies tried to keep their plans a secret by setting up a huge fake army, which had its own headquarters and equipment. Allied commanders sent orders through the radio to this fake army and made sure the Germans could understand them. The orders were to attack the French port of Calais so as a result Hitler ordered his generals to keep a large army at the port of Calais. Due to bad weather the invasion was delayed a day. On June 6,1944 Eisenhower gave the signal to attack and the first day of the invasion became known as D-Day.

7. What happened at the Battle of the Bulge?
By October 1944 the American had captured their first German town, Aachen. Hitler hoped to disrupt the enemy's supply lines and demoralize the Allies by ordering his troops to break through the Allied lines and recapture the Belgian port of Antwerp. On December 16th, eight German tank division broke through the weak American defenses with the help of dense fog to cover them. The tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, which created a bulge in the lines. The Germans continued westward, capturing 120 American soldiers. Then German troops moved the prisoners to a large field and shot them dead. The battle continued for a month. In the ended the Germans had been pushed back and took a loss of 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, and assault guns, and 1,600 planes. Little could be done for the Germans now.

8. What did Allied troops find in Germany?
In Germany Allied troops came across Nazi death camps in July 1944. When the Soviets grew close to a camp called Majdanek in Poland the German officers began to bury and burn all evidence of their horrible crime. When the Soviet soldiers captured Majdanek, they found prisoners barely alive, the world's largest crematorium, and a storehouse containing 800,000 shoes. Later on Americans liberated Nazi death camps in Germany and were equally horrified.

9. What happened to Hitler? What happened to F.D. Roosevelt? Who became U.S. President?
On April 29, Hitler married his long time companion, Eva Braun. The same day he wrote his last address to the German people, preparing for the end. In this address he blamed the Jewish people for starting the war and his generals for losing it. The next day Hitler shot himself and his new wife swallowed poison. According to Hitler's orders, the two bodies were carried outside, soaked with gasoline, and burned. On May 8, 1945 the Allies celebrated V-E Day, victory in Europe day; the war in Europe was finally over. It was too bad that Roosevelt did not live to see this day. On April 12, 1945 the president had a stroke and died. The same night Vice President Harry S. Truman became the 33rd President of the United States.