254 ChaPter^5
and southern Europe, the traditional lines of transport for imperial trade, and
would not risk those interests to help its Russian Allies fight the Germans in
the East. General Dwight Eisenhower, the Commander of Allied Forces, was
upset, saying it could be the “blackest day in history” if Russia were forced
out of the war because of the failure to set up another front in the West.
With the Second Front postponed, Operation Torch began in November- It was what Churchill called the “soft underbelly” approach, using the
analogy of fighting a crocodile by attacking not its massive jaws but its soft
stomach region. The first target was Sicily, an island off southern Italy, which
the allies cleared in a month, at which point the Italians deposed Mussolini
and Italy switched sides, handing over its navy, air force, and merchant ships
to the allies to fight against Germany. One would think that Italy was now
in allied hands, but the Germans came in and occupied northern Italy and
fought a brutal series of battles through 1944-45 even though there was no
real strategic objective there for either side. Stalin, angrier about the failure
to set up a Second Front, had no choice but to continue fighting the Germans.
By 1943, after losing a major battle at Stalingrad and retreating from the
Caucasus, Hitler really had no hopes of an offensive victory against Russia.
The Soviet Red Army began to wear down the Germans, especially with its
tanks, and Hitler began to suffer manpower shortages from the Russian
attacks. By the end of the war, the Red Army would be responsible for over
80 percent of the German soldiers killed in Europe, thus more than any coun-
try defeating the Nazis.
With Germany now in retreat, the Soviets in January 1944 moved into
Poland and Rumania and by mid-year had advantages over the Wehrmacht of
4:1 in manpower and 6:1 in armor. The Red Army was sweeping through the
Baltics and Eastern Europe, heading toward Berlin to defeat Germany. This
was a problem for the U.S. and it was the major reason behind FDR’s insis-
tence on a Second Front. If the Soviets were to conquer Germany without
allied support, they would be able to determine what the German government
and society would look like after the war, and a Communist Germany would
be a major threat to the Open Door. Given their fears of the Red Army lib-
erating Germany, FDR made the establishment of the western front a prior-
ity, and on D-Day, June 6th, 1944, allied forces landed on Normandy Beach in
France to begin an offensive against Germany, thus putting the Nazis in a vise
between the U.S. and Britain in the West, and the Red Army in the East. The