Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - American History Pearl Harbor1 Pearl Harbor1 After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States joined the Allies and became a crucial element to an Allied victory. Though strategy was initially aimed at crushing Hitler and the Nazis, Allied forces persevered for years on different continents, with different leaders, and with varied objectives. Eventually, anything was being said, done, or invented in order to lessen the strength of the opposing forces - not just Germany. Many of the Allies’ attacks, particularly those led and carried out by the Americans, became turning points which helped to determine victory. First and foremost, the Allies were intent on destroying the German war machine. Beginning in 1942, during some of America and Britain’s first collaborations, German cities and Nazi centers were bombed by Allied planes. This succesfully hampered war production and tangled communications for the Germans. Consequently, American General Dwight Eisenhower found it easier to invade Nazi-controlled French North Africa. From Africa, while the air attacks on Germany continued, the Allies invaded Sicily. Eventually, the Allies were able to push through to the Italian mainland and force Mussolini’s successor to surrender, only then having to clear the country of Germans through months of rigorous fighting. These events, because of American involvement and leadership, rapidly propelled the great war forward and helped to ultimately weaken the enemy. Having thus overwhelmed Germany, the Allies launched ‘D-day’. Under the leadership of Eisenhower, the Allies invaded France along the coast of Normandy. After defeating the ill-prepared German forces at the shore, American General George S. Patton marched troops toward Paris and another Allied unit moved northward from the Mediterranean. Before they reached the German border, the Allies had succeeded in liberating France and Belgium from German influence. Thereafter, as 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. Bibliography: Carson and Welles Word Count: 562
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