D-Day

6th June 1944

Aims of the lesson

By the end of this lesson you will

• Understand why the Allies launched a second front in June 1944

• Describe the events of D-day in detail

• Evaluate the success of the allied attack and the German response to it

The background

• In 1941 Germany invaded the USSR – initially successful but got bogged down

• Stalin asked GB and the USA to open a second front in order to take 3m German troops away from the Russian front

• Churchill wanted to defeat the Germans in Africa first – Stalin thought that he did this to weaken the USSR

Operation Overlord

• American General Dwight D Eisenhower was put in charge of the invasion of France

• Operation Overlord• He led the Germans to

believe that the invasion would take place in a the Pars de Calais – the shortest crossing point

The deception

• The city of Calais was bombed heavily to trick the Germans

• Dummy camps were built in Kent and wooden tanks built

• A phantom army was moved around southern England

• Only a few Germans believed that the landings would occur in Normandy

6th June 1944

• The scale of the invasion took the Germans by surprise

• Five separate landing beaches – Gold, Juno and Sword (GB and Canada) Utah and Omaha (USA)

• Hitler thought it was a trick and kept his troops near Calais – by the time he worked out what has happening it was too late and the allies had a bridgehead

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rnsubmus.co.uk/images/dday/02%2520-%2520D-Day%2520map.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.rnsubmus.co.uk/dday/dday.htm&usg=__ULvydo-RzM8rE61wswwDL1mlDFE=&h=390&w=600&sz=67&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=y1I7-pRXkLL1TM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dd-day%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7RNWN

The landings

• Grim on day one – 3600 British and Canadians killed or wounded – 6000 Americans – most on Omaha beach

• By the end of day one 150 000 soldiers had landed and had begun to move inland

• By 12th June 325 000 allied troops were in France – the Germans fought hard and the going was tough

• By 25th August Paris was liberated

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/images/uploads/blog-dday.jpg&imgrefurl=http://tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/history/comments/d-day-quiz/&usg=___wArWMKgAIggXmja1Dd04i2fWvM=&h=384&w=500&sz=34&hl=en&start=13&um=1&tbnid=J2t6HU7WFR8HvM:&tbnh=100&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dd-day%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7RNWN

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://inthroughthefrontdoor.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/dday.jpg&imgrefurl=http://inthroughthefrontdoor.wordpress.com/2007/04/12/brotherhood-of-the-unashamed/&usg=__69EbqNgzS0axH1P55gdugHkESBA=&h=1041&w=1645&sz=287&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=qXbfeW-zWxpDpM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dd-day%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7RNWN