US Third and Seventh Armies' March 1945 offensive cleared the Rhineland, pushing deep into Germany and decisively weakening German defenses before the final Allied push.

Before the Allies could cross the Rhine River, Bernard Montgomery’s forces first had to pry the German defenders away from its western bank with two simultaneous operations: Veritable and Grenade. 

In the midst of the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans launched Operation Nordwind, a lesser-known but significant offensive in Alsace in January 1945.

If the American forces could break through the Hürtgen Forest, there was a chance they could reach the Rhine near Cologne, threatening the German industrial region along the Ruhr River and possibly even force a crossing. 

From the hedgerows of Normandy across the rivers of northern France and into the dense forests of the Hürtgen and the Ardennes, Royal Air Force (RAF) and US Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft cleared the way for the advance of the Allied ground armies. 

While Peleliu remains a fixture of Pacific war memory, Morotai is overlooked and virtually forgotten in histories of the Pacific theater.

Originally designated Operation Anvil and intended to support the hammer blow of the Normandy landings two months earlier, the renamed Operation Dragoon fulfilled an American desire for a lodgment in southern France that shifted forces from the strategic cul-de-sac of Italy.