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of the Sicilian operation and the fall of Mussolini converted the American military and political leadership into supporters of a campaign in Italy.
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on the “shin” of Italy, at Salerno, just south of Naples, by the mixed U.S.–British 5th Army, under U.S. General Mark Clark.
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for which Churchill, Roosevelt, and Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo. Little was produced by Sextant except the Cairo Declaration, published on December 1, a further statement of war aims.
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of keeping his armies stationary was made easier for Hitler by the complete ascendancy he had achieved over his generals, who disputed with Hitler only at the risk of losing their commands or worse.
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accepted the annihilation of the German Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front by the Soviet summer offensive which brought the Red Army in a few weeks’ time to the Vistula River and the borders of East Prussia.
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still hoped to drive the Allies back and still adhered to his principle of concentrating on the war in the west.
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when 156,000 men were landed on the beaches of Normandy between the Orne estuary and the southeastern end of the Cotentin Peninsula: 83,000 British and Canadian troops on the eastern beaches, 73,000 Americans on the western.
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were first launched, mostly from sites in the Pas-de-Calais; the V-2 missiles were launched a few months later, on September 8, from sites in the Netherlands
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newly supported by the landing of the U.S. 3rd Army under Patton, broke through the German defenses at Avranches, the gateway from Normandy into Brittany.
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met again for their second Quebec Conference, code-named “Octagon”. The most important decision made at the conference was that Roosevelt and Churchill together approved the European Advisory Commission’s scheme for the division of defeated Germany into U.S., British, and Soviet zones of occupation
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was held in Moscow, between Churchill and Stalin, with U.S. ambassador W. Averell Harriman also present at most of their talks. Disagreement persisted over Poland.
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took place at Yalta, in Crimea. The conference is chiefly remembered for its treatment of the Polish problem
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culminated in a series of five attacks on Dresden, launched by the RAF with 800 aircraft
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married his mistress, Eva Braun, he committed suicide with her in the ruins of the Chancellery, as the advancing Soviet troops were less than a half mile from his bunker complex
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the war in Europe was officially over.