Churchill and Roosevelt told Stalin that the invasion 'would be possible' by August 1, 1944, but that no decision had yet been made to name a Supreme Commander. Joseph Stalin, on his first trip outside the Soviet Union since 1912, pressed Roosevelt and Churchill for details about the plan, particularly the identity of the Supreme Commander of Overlord.

The decision to mount the invasion was cemented at the Tehran Conference held in November and December 1943. Although Churchill acceded begrudgingly to the operation, historians note that the British still harbored persistent doubts about whether Overlord would succeed. The stage was set for the expulsion of the Germans from Tunisia in May 1943, the Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy later that summer, and the main assault on France the following year.Īt the Quebec Conference in August 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt reaffirmed their plan for a cross-channel assault into occupied France, which was code-named Overlord. This surprise seizure of Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers came less than a week after the decisive British victory at El Alamein. Eisenhower landed at three ports in French Morocco and Algeria. In November, American and British forces under the command of U.S. Invading Europe from more than one point would also make it harder for Hitler to resupply and reinforce his divisions. So in July 1942, Churchill and Roosevelt decided on the goal of occupying North Africa as a springboard to a European invasion from the south. Initially, though, the United States had far too few soldiers in England for the Allies to mount a successful cross-channel operation. Roosevelt and Churchill promised to invade Europe, but they could not deliver on their promise until many hurdles were overcome.Īlmost immediately after France had fallen to the Nazis in 1940, the Allies had planned an assault across the English Channel on the German occupying forces. Large amounts of Soviet territory had been seized by the Germans, and the Soviet population had suffered terrible casualties from the relentless drive towards Moscow.

They were repeatedly urged by Stalin to open a 'second front' that would alleviate the enormous pressure that Germany's military was exerting on Russia. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed early in the war that Germany must be stopped first if success was to be attained in the Pacific. Roosevelt, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill jointly planned strategies for the cooperation and eventual success of the Allied armed forces. Additional Background Informationĭuring World War II, U.S. It includes topics such as D-Day, women in the war, Code Talkers, propaganda posters, the homefront, the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, the atomic bomb, war crimes and trials, and more. The World War II page on DocsTeach includes other primary sources and document-based teaching activities related to World War II.

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