rst large-scale U.S forces went into North Africa in November, 1942. The Germans, trapped between American troops on the west, British troops on the east, and the free French Forces on the south, the Germans and Italians were forced to surrender in May, 1943. This victory, put the Allies in control of the Mediterranean and paved the way for the invasion of Europe.The first target for the Allies was Italy. Using the newly won North African bases as a jumping point, American forces invaded Sicily in June, 1943, and conquered it in five weeks. This led to many air attacks from the Allies on Italy. After three months, British and American soldiers landed in Southern Italy.Italy's Dictator, Mussolini fled north. Italy surrendered but many Germans were still stationed there and still fighting. For two years, the Allies made their way throughout Italy taking Rome in June, 1944 and finally pushing the German resistance out of Italy in May, 1945 This was very important to fighting elsewhere in Europe because with the war in Italy, it kept large numbers of German troops from being used somewhere else where they may have been needed.At the time of the battles in Italy, wars were waging elsewhere in Europe. German defeats were growing in numbers and things were starting to look brighter for the Allies. The Soviets, who previouslyhad a non-agression act with Germany, had been on the defensive side of a seige on Stalingrad. For three months the Soviets just defended, when they counter-attackedthe Germans were defeated losing almost their entire force. Throughout 1943 and 1944, The Soviets drove the Germans out of the Soviet Union and back across Europe. In September,1944, they had moved across Eastern Europe and were at the gates of Warsaw, Poland, where five years earlier Hitler started his conquest into the rest of Europe.TURNING POINTS OF WORLD WAR IIOne of the main turning points of the war was D-Day. On June 6, 1944 a long awaited, carefully pla...
