![]() ![]() Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers and Grumman F4F-4 fighters prepare for takeoff on the flight deck of the escort carrier USS Santee. ![]() And he would heighten his demand during the next three years. ![]() Roosevelt agreed in September 1941 to ship Lend-Lease matériel to Russia, Stalin again called for a second front. With her armed forces depleted after almost two years of war and stretched so thin around the world, Britain was hardly in a condition to plan a second front-an attack across the English Channel against Nazi-occupied Europe-in 1941. The Soviet leader was adamant about the opening of a second front to take the pressure off Russia. But with German troops pushing toward the gates of Moscow, Stalin demanded more on July 19. The trouble had started with the massive German invasion of Russia in June 1941.Īcting on the principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Churchill rallied to the aid of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, dispatching convoys of tanks, trucks, planes, and other essential equipment that Britain could ill afford to spare. The warrior leader who had inspired his island nation when it alone ensured the survival of Western civilization in 1940 could not foresee in December 1941 just how difficult it would be to coordinate a common strategy for defeating the Axis powers. “We had won the war.” But the conduct of war is never simple, and the waging of a coalition war is fraught with challenge. “So, we had won after all!” Churchill exulted. Great Britain now had a powerful ally in the struggle against fascism, and ultimate victory was a certainty. Coming after a series of bitter defeats from France to Norway to Crete, news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II was one of the early high points of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s leadership years. ![]()
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