WWII in Europe:1943 & D-Day

Italy & a Second Front• July 1943 - Allies

invade Sicily, then Italy.– Italy declares war on

Germany!• Mussolini is overthrown

and arrested.– Eventually found and

killed in 1945– Allies do not take all of

Italy until April, 1945.

• Nov 1943 - Tehran Conference – Soviet Union asks Allies

to open a second front in mainland Europe.

• Was losing thousands of lives a day.

• Roosevelt and Churchill agree.

• Where must an invasion be launched from?

First…

• The Allies had to gain air superiority. They did this through carpet bombing.– Scattering a large

number of bombs over a large area.

• Instills fear• Hits desired targets, but

also kills a lot of civilians

Preparing for D-Day• Southern English Coast

– Allies build forces, Late 1943 – June, 1944.

Where should an invasion be launched from?

Operation Fortitude• Fake army at Dover

– Design to make Hitler think that the Allies will land invasion at Calais.

German Defenses• The “Atlantic Wall”

– Machine-gun nests– Barbed-wire fences– Land and water

mines – Underwater

obstructions.

D-Day Timeline• June 6th, 1944

– Midnight: • Warships depart from

Southern England– 1,000 RAF aircraft

begin pounding German forces on Normandy coast.

– 23,000 British and American “airborne” parachute behind enemy lines.

– Dawn: • 150,000 Allied troops

come ashore.• Intense fighting ensues.

– Within a week:• 2 million Allied forces

were in Normandy.

Hedgerow Country

Hedgerow Country

Hedgerow Country