Allied Advance Stalls at Normandy - HISTORY

After the D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944, the Allied advance is mired in the thick hedgerows of Normandy's bocage country.

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By March 26, 1945, the main body of U.S. and British forces in Europe had crossed the Rhine, their last major obstacle in the conquest of Germany. Advancing as much as 50 miles a day against crumbling German defenses, the U.S. First and Ninth armies encircled the Ruhr, capturing the industrial heart of Germany and trapping some 325,000 German troops. The British Second Army, meanwhile, moved across northern Germany, and the Canadian First Army drove into the occupied Netherlands. The U.S. Third Army raced through southern Germany. On April 12, the U.S. Ninth Army crossed the Elbe River and was within 75 miles of Berlin. Four days later, the Soviets began a drive on the German capital. On April 25, the two great Soviet armies completed the encirclement of Berlin--with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler trapped within, and Soviet and American forces linked up on the Elbe River. On the night of April 30, with Soviet troops less than half a mile from his underground bunker, Hitler committed suicide with his mistress, whom he had married the night before. His chosen successor, Admiral Karl Doenitz, had no choice but to surrender, and at midnight on May 8, 1945, the war in Europe was officially over.

View newsreel film footage detailing the D-day invasion of France on June 6, 1944.

On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched a counteroffensive attack intended to cut through the Allied forces. A dispatch describes the situation along the front as the Allies face great adversity in the ensuing battle.

A report delivered in late 1944 offers cautious hope that, with Gen. Patton's Third Army making their way to Bastogne and rescuing American troops in Belgium, the Battle of the Bulge may turn in favor of the Allies.

In a broadcast on December 29, 1944, Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe recounts the 101st Airborne's victory against overwhelming odds at Bastogne, Belgium.

A September 8, 1943, war report from Allied Force Headquarters outlines Italy's unconditional surrender, known as a "volte-face," announced earlier that day by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. The surrender came after several weeks of negotiations between the Italian government and the Allies in the wake of Mussolini's removal from power.