Section 5: World War II Ends
Winning the War in Europe
The Battle of the Bulge was the costliest battle of the war for the allies; there were 80,000 casualties in the first days alone. But it was even worse for the Germans. Hitler had staked everything on the battle. With the allied victory, German was almost defenseless; they faced 4 million men in the west and many more million closing in from the east.
The Yalta Conference
In January 1945 the BIG THREE, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met in the Crimean resort town of Yalta to plan the post war peace.
They first agreed to split Germany into 3 zones of occupation but with the insistence of the US, they added France to the occupiers. Stalin refused to give up any territory so the French Sector came from US and British zones. Berlin which was within the Soviet Zone was to be a divided city.
The problem of liberated countries was to be settled by popular elections held in those countries; Stalin did not keep his word with Poland and other East-European countries.
The third agreement was that three months after the surrender of Germany, the Soviets would declare war on Japan. Stalin agreed because he wanted territory in East Asia and Manchuria.
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