Page 5 - Cause & Effect: World War II

Allied leaders knew they would have to open a second front in Europe.
In fact, as early as 1942 Allied military leaders recognized the need to
open a western front—to land an invasion force in France, forcing the
Germans to confront an advancing army in the west while maintaining
the war against the Soviets in the east. Says historian Denys Schur:

It can be said that the “Second Front” issue had been the piv-
otal question in building Allied strategy from the time the
anti-Hitler coalition was created till the very moment of the
invasion. . . . Th e opening of the Second Front in Northern Eu-
rope deprived the Germans of any chance of revival. Th ere was
no longer any hope for the Nazi leaders, not counting Hitler’s
maniacal belief in fi nal victory, that Germany would be able
to prevail over numerically and materially superior adversaries
while fi ghting a two-front war. 26

The Tehran Conference “The opening of
the Second Front
But such a plan was not seriously discussed in Northern Europe
deprived the
until November 28, 1943, when the three
Germans of any
Allied leaders met in Tehran, Iran, to plan
chance of revival.” 26
the second front. Over the course of the
four-day Tehran Conference, Roosevelt, —Denys Schur, historian
Churchill, and Stalin developed a strategy,
code-named Operation Overlord, which entailed transporting tens of
thousands of Allied troops across the English Channel and landing
them along the coast of France. Th e Allies would then sweep across
France and Belgium, pushing enemy troops back to Germany.
Meanwhile, Stalin agreed to stage a new off ensive, preventing the
Germans from transferring troops from the eastern front to France.
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin scheduled Operation Overlord to
commence in May 1944. At the conclusion of the Tehran Conference,
the three Allied leaders issued this statement:

No power on earth can prevent our destroying the German
armies by land, their U-boats by sea, and their war plants from
the air.

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