Download World War Two D-Day and the end

The End of World War Two
D-Day and the Normandy Invasion
Planning
 Allies realized landing on
the far side of the channel at
a place called Pas de Calais
(where it would closest to
France ) would be
impossible. Therefore they
picked Normandy as their
landing site.
 Allies deceived Germans in
thinking that they were
landing in Pas de Calais.
Germany place the bulk of
its forces there.
 Allies were able to swarm
Britain with ample supplies
and men now that they had
the ability to fend off the
German U-boats.
 Allied forces were under the
command of the Supreme
Commander General Dwight
Eisenhower
•The invasion was code named
Operation Overlord
•It was a huge and complicated
plan. Every detail was vital to
success
The Plan
Invasion Plan
 American and British paratroopers were dropped off inland of the assigned
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beaches. This was to suffocate a major counter account from the Germans by
seizing roads, bridges and railways. All beaches were heavily bombed to soften
defenses.
Largest armada in the world’s history gathered around the beaches and
bombarded them before the deployment of the infantry
Americans sent 3 soldier divisions at beaches code named Utah and Omaha
British sent 2 soldier divisions at beaches code named Gold and Sword
Canadians sent 1 soldier division to the beach code named Juno
Omaha was the bloodiest battle out of all the landing sites. Americans on Omaha
beach were faced against the tough Nazi veterans from the 352nd infantry
division. The beach was the most fortified out of the five beaches with large
stone cliffs offering defense for the Germans bunkers and artillery. Initial
landings suffered heavy casualties
Sword suffered low casualties, but Gold was hit fairly hard due to a fortified
village near the beach
Juno Beach
 Had the second highest casualty rate (second to Omaha) at 961
 Canadians first wave of soldiers consisted of the 3rd Canadian Infantry
Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Division ( more than 21,400
soldiers)
 The objective was to capture the Caen-Bayeux road and the Carpiquet
aerodrome.
 In the beginning, the assault looked like a disaster. Juno was well
defended. Canadian front lines were met with a hail of machine guns and
mortars destroying landing crafts and tanks. But it later turned around as
more numbers were unloaded.
 Despite the tough German defenses the Canadians made the largest
advance at D-Day of any of the other beaches, yet they still fell just short
of their objective.
Top Left: loading the
landing craft
heading for Juno
Bottom left: Landing
at Juno
Top Right: Unloading
Supplies
Results
 Operation Overlord was a success!
 Allies now had a foothold on Europe. This allowed huge
the Allies to flood France with supplies and men.
 This sparked the end of Germany’s unchallenged control
of Western Europe.
 By July, the Allies had over one million soldiers
entrenched in France.
The Allies Advance into Europe
 The battle into France was
slow, it took almost a month to
take Caen, a city in Normandy
which was supposed to have
been taken within 24 hours of
D-Day
 Paris was taken in late August
without a fight
 By winter, the Allies were
approaching the border with
Germany
 They bomb many German
cities to rubble such as
Dresden and Hamburg
Canada liberates the Netherlands
 While the USA and Britain were advancing east, Canada was
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given directions to advance north and liberate the
Netherlands (aka Holland) from the Germans
Many Dutch people were starving because Germany cut off
their rations to the Dutch
During the winter of 1944-1945, Germany launched one last
counter attack called the Battle of the Bulge where they
nearly broke American lines and split American and British
forces
The Canadians entered and liberated the Netherlands in April
1945 at a cost of 6,300 dead
From there, they headed into Germany, meeting the Red
Army on the Baltic coast on late April
The Eastern Front
 The Soviet Union stormed
through eastern Europe at great
cost of life to both sides
 In January 1945, they crossed
the Oder River into Germany
 They then fought an extremely
difficult battle for Berlin, losing
300,000 soliders
 Soviet Marshall Zhukov was
not concerned with human life
Italian Front
 In April 1945, the Allies
broke through in Italy
 The Germans
surrendered
 Italian partisans
captured Mussolini while
he was attempting to
escape Italy
 He was hung from a gas
station in Milan
Downfall
 Hitler committed suicide on April 30th 1945 after ordering
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the destruction of his people
German command fell to Admiral Dontiz, who surrendered
on May 7th 1945 (V.E. Day)
The Soviets ran amok in Germany to take revenge on the
devastation of their country
They permitted murder, looting and raping
Estimates of German women raped range from 10,000 to 2
million
In eastern Germany, there was also incidents of Ethnic
Cleansing, as the Soviets and local inhabitants sought to
remove the German presence from their area
The fall of Japan
 Japan began to lose ground
on all fronts in 1945
 The Americans began
bombing Japanese cities
 100,000 people died during
the Tokyo firebombing
 The decision was made to
drop the Atomic bomb on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
 The Americans estimated
they would receive 1 million
deaths if they invaded Japan
The Atomic Bomb
 The Atomic bombs were part of the Manhattan Project to
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develop a nuclear weapon
Most of the work was done in the deserts near Los Alamos, New
Mexico, USA. The Uranium was from Canada
Many of the scientists involved were Jewish refugees from Europe
They wanted to develop a bomb to drop on Germany before the
Germans completed a bomb themselves
The A Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th 1945
at a cost of 70,000 dead civilians
The Americans nuked Nagasaki on August 9th when Japan did not
surrender
Japan then surrendered
Canada ended the war with the
worlds fourth largest army, fourth
largest airforce and third largest navy
1.1 Million servicemen 46,000 deaths