Page 15 - Cause & Effect: World War II

were taken prisoner, including Gollwitzer. Later, a German sergeant
recalled the battle: “No one knew what was going on. Th ere were Rus-
sians behind us, to the right and to the left. We fi red. My God, but it
was useless. It was like fi ring at the ocean waves with the tide coming
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in.” In mid-August 1944 the fi rst Soviet troops crossed onto Ger-
man soil and were now just 350 miles (563 km) from Berlin.
Meanwhile, on the western front, the Allied armies easily swept
through France. Th e French city of Cherbourg was liberated on June
27; on July 18 the Germans were ousted from the city of Saint-Lô.
Paris was liberated on August 25. Th e Allies moved next into neigh-
boring Belgium. By September 4 the Germans had been ousted from
the Belgian cities of Brussels and Antwerp. Th e Western Allies and the
Soviets were now moving from two diff erent directions toward Berlin.
For Hitler the end came on April 30, 1945, when he committed
suicide as Soviet troops overran the streets of Berlin. Germany offi -
cially surrendered on May 7.
Th e invasion of Normandy set in motion the concerted eff ort of
the Allied nations to bring World War II to a close. Prior to the morn-
ing of June 6, 1944, the Allies lacked the troop strength to overcome
the German war machine, which had spent the previous fi ve years
dominating the European continent, digging in and fortifying its po-
sitions. In the end, though, the German army was unable to maintain
a two-front war as both sides closed in on Hitler, trapping him in his
bunker below the streets of Berlin.

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