Pressed for military action by Russia, Britain and America opened a second front in November 1942. Not wanting this campaign to be repulsed as had happened in Norway (1940), Dunkirk (1940), and Greece (1941), the Allies adopted Winston Churchill's proposal to approach Germany through Italy, described by him as the "soft underbelly" of the Axis. Accordingly, the invasion of Europe began with the invasion of western North Africa. Allied troops began amphibious landings there within a week of Britain's decisive victory over German forces in eastern North Africa at El Alamein. The combination of these events, combined with the successful Russian resistance at Stalingrad, signaled the shift of strategic initiative in the Atlantic Theater from the Axis to the Allies. Code-named Operation Torch, the invasion of western North Africa involved coordinated landings of three separate task forces in western, central, and eastern target zones. Negotiations with the Vichy French forces occupying these target zones that would allow the Allied landings to proceed unopposed were unsuccessful. Consequently, the first American military action in Europe was opposed by French forces rather than German or Italian.