June 10-June 16: Closer to Victory

Overview

On Okinawa, a U.S. victory is now in sight, while in the Philippines, the Japanese are holed up in the Sierra Madre Mountains. In Germany, Marshal Zhukov confers the Soviet Order of Victory - made of diamond-encrusted platinum - on Eisenhower and Montgomery. Eisenhower is also awarded the Order of Merit--Britain's most prestigious honor--and the Freedom of the City of London. After Churchill warns of the "Iron Curtain" falling over Europe and Truman fails to reconsider the tripartite division of Germany, Soviet authorities start the forcible expulsion of ethnic Germans from the Sudetanland.