Turning Points The Allies won several victories that would turn the tide of battle and push back the axis powers.

Stalingrad (August 1942- February 1943) German invasion had already cost Russia over six million soldiers, half killed and half captured by the Germans, and a large part of its vast territory and resources. With the help of its arctic winter, it stopped the exhausted Germans just before Moscow and pushed them back a bit. Hitler stopped listening to his Generals, and decided to take on Stalingrad Hitler wanted to reach Stalingrad itself, and at least cover it with heavy artillery, so that it will no longer be an industrial or transportation center.

The battle of Stalingrad was one of the costliest of the war The battle of Stalingrad was one of the costliest of the war. Hitler was determined to capture Stalin’s namesake city, and Stalin was equally determined to save it. The Soviets then circled their attackers. As winter closed in, soldiers fought for two weeks straight without a single building to live in, or without food and ammunition, with no hope of rescue. German commander officially surrendered early in 1943. Approximately 300,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured.

D-Day June 6, 1944 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded -- but more than 100,000 Soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat the Germans