[Fiji Hill]

Eisenhower's troops were in central Germany, only a couple hundred miles from Berlin. He could have, indeed, taken the city but he chose not to do so. British General Bernard Montgomery wanted to take Berlin, but Eisenhower thought that because it was bombed-out and in ruins, it wasn't worth the effort. This issue has been thoroughly discussed by historians such as Stephen Ambrose in his book Eisenhower and Berlin: The Decision to Halt at the Elbe (New York: Norton, 2000).

By the way, we had also been fighting the Germans since 1941. Our sailors and airmen were the first to take on the Nazis, and our soldiers began fighting them beginning with the North Africa landings in 1942, and we did plenty of fighting in Italy before the Normandy landings.

[woodpusher]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin

Battle of Berlin

Result: Soviet victory

• Death of Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials
• Unconditional surrender of German garrison in Berlin on 2 May
• Capitulation of Germany on 8 May
• End of World War II in Europe

The unconditional surrender of the German garrison in Berlin happened over two months before the arrival of the U.S. Army.

V-E day is celebrated on May 8th, when Germany capitulated to the Soviets.

Eisenhower became the Commander of the Alied Expeditionary Force in 1944. The Soviet Union was not part of the AEF.

https://www.liberationroute.com/pois/249/u-s-troops-occupying-berlin

At the end of April 1945 the Soviet forces occupied Berlin, the capital of the German Reich. American and British troops did not enter the city until two months later on 4 July, the French forces participating initially with only a small unit. During those first two months, the Soviet Union was the sole occupying force, reorganizing life in the city in line with its own ideas and objectives.

The credit for defeating the Germans should go to the Soviet/Russians. The Allied Expeditionary Force was formed in 1944 as a British-American expeditionary force. When US./British forces arrived in Berlin. the Soviet forces were there waiting. The vast majority of German casualties were inflicted by the Russians, not the Americans/British.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/World-War-II

Italy became a war zone. For 18 months the Allies fought the Germans up the peninsula, wreaking untold devastation throughout the land. The Allies took Naples in October 1943 but reached Rome only in June 1944, Florence in August, and the northern cities in April 1945.

The Allies took the northern cities of Italy in April 1945, and the Germans tendered the unconditional surrender of the Berlin garrison on May 2, 1945 — to the Russian army.

Nobody won the war with Germany in North Africa. The war in Europe was decided in Europe. The Germans suirrendered to the Russians, and then the Russians waited two months for the Americans to get there.