A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Allied Victory 1097

damage. The first jet- and rocket-propelled fighter planes, the former reach­
ing speeds of 500 miles per hour, arrived in time to join the Battle of the
Bulge, but without significant effect. Many ordinary Germans, too, clung to
the hope that such a new weapon would turn things around, or that the
Western democracies would join Germany in a war against the Soviets.
However, with defeat ever closer, Hitler accepted, even desired, the total
destruction of Germany, considering it better than the shame of surrender.

Allied Victory

Romania and Bulgaria had surrendered in August and September 1944,

respectively. With the Red Army in control of much of the Balkans, the

question was not if Berlin would be taken, but when, and by whom. Though

worried that the Soviets sought a preponderant role in Central Europe, as

well as in Poland and the Balkans, Eisenhow'er w'as prepared to allow the

Red Army the prestige of capturing Berlin. The much greater problem still

remained: the future of Germany and Eastern Europe. As the Red Army

moved closer to Berlin, the meetings of the Big Three in the waning

months of the year proved exceptionally important for the future of Eu­

rope. Churchill and Stalin met in Moscow in October 1944 and worked

out a rough division of post-war Western and Soviet interests in Central

and Eastern Europe. By the time the Big Three came together at Yalta in

Crimea in February 1945, German armies were falling back rapidly on

every front and the Red Army was closing in on Berlin. The American army

crossed the Rhine River on March 8, and on April 25, 1945, met up with

Soviet troops at the Elbe River just sixty miles south of Berlin.

Victory in Europe

Churchill was determined to work out an informal agreement with the Sovi­

ets as to the respective spheres of influence in the Balkans when the war

ended. In October 1944, he met with Stalin in Moscow. This time Roose­

velt, who suspected Churchill of trying to maintain the British Empire at all

costs, did not participate. Churchill later described the conference with

Stalin: “I said, ‘Let us settle about our affairs in the Balkans. How would it

do for you to have ninety percent of the say in Romania, for us to have

ninety percent of the say in Greece, and go fifty-fifty about Yugoslavia?’ ”

After adding 75 percent for the Soviet Union in Bulgaria and fifty-fifty for

Hungary, the British prime minister pushed the paper across to Stalin.

“There was a slight pause. Then he took his blue pencil and made a large

tick upon it, and passed it back to us. It was all settled in no more time than

it takes to sit down.”

When the Big Three met in the Soviet Black Sea resort of Yalta in Feb­

ruary 1945, the Red Army had drawn within 100 miles of Berlin. Some