Meanwhile the United States under President F. D. Roosevelt was drawing closer to the Allies. On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor bringing the United States into the war. .
The Axis successes continued. By 1942 Japan had conquered the Philippines and many other Pacific islands and all of Southeast Asia. German forces in the Soviet Union reached Stalingard and the Caucasus. The German General Rommel seemed ready to take Cairo, Egypt. German submarines were threatening to wipe out all Allied shipping. .
In late 1942 the Allies began to rally. In North Africa, British General Montgomery's rout of Rommel at Alamein in October of 1942 and the landing of U.S. troops in Algeria resulted in an Allied victory in Africa. The Allies conquered Sicily in south Italy and Italy surrendered in 1943. In the Pacific, U.S. forces had won the naval battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, landed in Guadalcanal and began the island hopping strategy that by 1945 had won back the Philippines and where a striking force at Japan's doorstep. .
The German Surrender at Stalingrad in 1943 was followed by a Soviet offensive that by 1944 had taken Russian troops deep into Poland, Hungary and the Balkans. In the battle of the Atlantic, the German submarine fleet was virtually destroyed. .
The final Allied campaign began with the invasion of Normandy, on the northwestern coast of France on June 6 1944 at 12:15 A.M. The invasion was code named "Operation Overlord". This operation would come to be known as D-Day. D-Day is a military term designating the start date for launching an operation, but in modern history it is refers to the events of June 6, 1944. .
Plans for this campaign began in 1943. In January 1944 U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied forces. Eisenhower began working with a group of high-level British and American leaders to execute Operation Overlord. Arriving in Britain on January 16, 1944 Eisenhower held his first conference on January 21 with what was called the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force.
Under Adolf Hitler the German empire extended from Russia to the west, to France on the east. Germany controlled much of Europe except for Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and Sweden (Keegan 1). Hitler's army's gained control of much of Europe during the years of 1939 through 1941. It was not until December 11th 1941 that Hitler declared war on the United States. Soon afterward, Dwight D. ...