European Theater of Operations United States Army - Campaigns and Operations

Campaigns and Operations

Operation Torch—the invasion of French North Africa—involving the 9th, 3rd Infantry and the 2nd Armored Divisions, initiated on November 8, 1942, was the first ground combat operations for the United States in World War II.

Albert Coady Wedemeyer was chief author of the Victory Program, published three months before the U.S. entered the war in 1941, which advocated the defeat of the German armies on the European continent. When the U.S. entered the war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and the U.S. was at war with both Japan and Germany, a "Europe first" a modified version of his plan was adopted by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Under the German first policy, the plan was expanded to include the blue print for the Normandy landings.

• Normandy Campaign June 6, 1944 – July 24, 1944
• Northern France Campaign July 25, 1944 – September 14, 1944
• Southern France Campaign
• Rhineland Campaign
  • Lorraine Campaign (unofficial) September 1, 1944 – December 18, 1944
• Ardennes-Alsace Campaign December 16, 1944 – January 25, 1945 ("Battle of the Bulge")
• Central Europe Campaign March 22, 1945 – May 11, 1945