Significant Role Of General Eisenhower In World War II

World War II was a period in history which contained a motley of quarrels and conflicts. General Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower played a significant role in the theatre of World War II. In the conflict, General Eisenhower served not only as a 5 star general in the the United States Army, but also served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. As a cardinal leader, General Eisenhower coined the historical term “military-industrial complex”, and also led several pivotal conflicts throughout the course of the war, some of which include the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch and the invasion of France and Germany from the Western Front in Operation Overlord. Throughout the course of World War II, General Eisenhower served

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had originally planned the invasion, which he titled the COSSAC plan, or the Combined Anglo-American plan. However, this invasion was ultimately planned by General Eisenhower, who titled it Operation Overlord, or more commonly known as D-Day, the largest military operation in history. The operation took place on June 6, 1944, when General Eisenhower ordered about 176,000 allied troops onto the French shore of Normandy, both by air and sea, as Nazi Germany had control over most of Western Europe, or in the words of Eisenhower, since 1942, “The Allied nations possessed not a single spot of ground in all the region of western Europe” (EisenhowerF 94). The invasion of France commenced at about 6:30 a.m., and by the end of the day, about 155,000 of the troops reached the shore, as troops who arrived by sea encountered bad weather conditions. Besides the bad weather, General Eisenhower seems to have chosen the right day to lead the invasion, as German commander Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was away on leave, thus leaving the German force without one of their commanders. In addition, Hitler viewed this allied attack as an attempt to distract Hitler’s forces from a supposed attack from the Seine River area, which only caused him to become hesitant and reluctant to release a force to retaliate and provide reinforcements. Also, the

On December 20, 1944, Eisenhower was given the rank General of the Army, which is equivalent to the rank which is held by Montgomery in European armies. Also, Eisenhower was able to show his maturity and leadership skills through his pivotal roles in major conflicts throughout the war. However, the fighting was not over quite yet; in December 1944, Nazi Germany incited a retaliation , thus causing General Eisenhower to once again command the Allied forces. This conflict was known as the Battle of the Bulge. In the Battle of the Bulge, Germany fought a two front war, as the Soviet Union was attacking from the eastern front, while the Allied forces fought at the western front. During the battle, Britain expressed that they wanted to attack Berlin, which General Eisenhower did not agree with, so Britain followed Eisenhower’s orders and refrained from attacking the city. After the denied request, Britain asked for another attack, this time being on the nation of Czechoslovakia. Political officials in the United States firmly denied this request as well, as the United States wished to not use Eisenhower’s power to create political tension with the Soviet Union. Later, the city of Berlin was eventually brought under Allied and Soviet control, and the city was then divided into four sectors agreed upon by President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.