Eisenhower prepared for a general advance on Germany, the Germans launched a counterattack, ‘the Battle of the Bulge’, which significantly exhausted their own reserves. With even heightened advantage, the Allies moved through the Rhine River and onward, crushing German cities daily, to eventually meet Russian troops at the Elbe River. Within days, Hitler had committed suicide, and Germany had surrendered. The ‘war machine’ was successfully destroyed. Still, more work was to be done. Before an allied victory would be completely secured, Japanese expansion in the pacific had to be suppressed. Though America won many battles at sea and on the shore, their most important weapons against the Japanese were aircraft. In battles like the ‘Battle of Coral Sea’ America demonstrated the importance of dominating the air. After this battle, which Japan mistakenly took for a Japanese victory, America was forced into battle on the Midway Islands. Here, again, the Japanese were rained on from above. Still using decisive air control, America then moved toward the Japanese mainland, "island hopping" along the way. Allied strategy and victory in land and air during this naval war in the Pacific can be largely attributed to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and General Chester A. Arthur. The most crucial turning point in the war, that which ultimately ended the war, was not an Allied victory in battle under the command of a heroic army general. Bluntly, it was Harry S. Truman’s decision to permit the atomic bombing of Japanese civilian areas. After two alarmingly lethal drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered. Initially, without America’s leadership and strategic - and finally, without America’s resources and innovation, victory would not have been possible....
