THE WAR IN NORTH AFRICA AND EUROPE
Soon after the United States en- tered the war, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union (at war with Germany since June 22, 1941) decided that their primary military effort was to be concen- trated in Europe .
Throughout 1942, British and German forces fought inconclusive back-and-forth battles across Libya and Egypt for control of the Suez Canal . But on October 23, Brit- ish forces commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery struck at the Germans from El Alamein . Equipped with a thousand tanks, many made in America, they defeat- ed General Erwin Rommel’s army in a grinding two-week campaign . On November 7, American and Brit- ish armed forces landed in French North Africa . Squeezed between forces advancing from east and west, the Germans were pushed back and, after fierce resistance, surrendered in May 1943 .
The year 1942 was also the turn- ing point on the Eastern Front . The Soviet Union, suffering immense losses, stopped the Nazi invasion at the gates of Leningrad and Moscow . In the winter of 1942-43, the Red Army defeated the Germans at Stal- ingrad (Volgograd) and began the long offensive that would take them to Berlin in 1945 .
In July 1943 British and Ameri- can forces invaded Sicily and won control of the island in a month .