In the final phase of the war, Nazi soldiers found themselves battling the Allies throughout occupied Europe. The United States entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In July 1943 the Allies landed in Sicily, and the following September they landed on the Italian mainland. Then came the Allied invasion of northern France on June 6, 1944, which was followed by Allied landings in the south of France in August. The western Allies fought their way through village after village in Italy and France, advancing toward Berlin, while the Soviets advanced on Berlin from the east. Hitler's orders were that a German soldier's duty was "to stand and die in his defenses."

In Normandy, German soldiers fought and died on the beaches, in the fields and hedgerows, in the streets, and in...