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D-Day
June 6th, 1944
What was the situation in 1944?
• The Russians have
•
defeated the Germans
and are advancing in
the East
The Allies are
victorious in Africa
and launch an assault
on mainland Italy
through Sicily
The Russian Front
• On August 23rd, 1939,
•
•
Stalin and Hitler signed a
“Non-Aggression Pact”
which vowed not to
interfere in each other’s
business
On June 22nd, 1941,
Germany invaded the Soviet
Union
Having purged his military
of many of its best officers,
Stalin and the Soviets were
not ready for war
The Eastern Front
• Operation “Barbarossa” –
•
•
•
began on June 22nd, 1941
The early days saw the
Germans drive into the Soviet
Union almost reaching
Moscow by October
The German army besieged
Leningrad for what was to
become a two year struggle
ending in the death of more
than one million civilians
When the severe Russian
winter arrived the Nazi
offensive broke down and the
German attack was halted
The Tide Turns
• The Nazis needed supplies and
•
•
•
resources to continue the war so
victory in the Soviet Union was
essential
From Sept. 14th, 1942 – Feb. 2nd,
1943 – the Germans and Russians
fought for the strategic city of
Stalingrad on the Volga River
Hitler and the Nazis lost the battle
– 500 000 German and other
troops were killed or taken
prisoner
By the Autumn of 1943 the
Germany army of 2.5 million
soldiers faced an army of 5.5
million Soviet soldiers
Italy
• From July 10th to August 17th – the Allies including the
•
•
•
•
Canadians fought and took Sicily from the German Army
– Codenamed “Operation Husky”
The Campaign of Italy was designed to take the
pressure off their Russian Allies and pull German troops
out of north-western Europe readying the area for
Operation “Overlord”
9th September, 1943 the attack began on Italy
The Canadians were forced to fight for every metre of
the mountainous terrain as the Germans refused to give
it up
Italian Campaign Animated Map
The Italians Surrender
• On the 8th of September,
1943, the Italian
Government surrenders
• The Allied planners
thought the Italian
Campaign would be over
in a matter of weeks.
• They were wrong. Italy
would represent frustration
and death for thousands of
Allied soldiers in a bitter
stagnated fight.
• It would be a year before
Allied troops entered
Rome, and the Invasion of
France would overshadow
that victory.
The Move on to France
• Having the Germans
occupied in Italy
allowed the allies to
move forward with
their plan to open up
the long awaited
western front in
Europe
The Plan
• Winston Churchill and
•
Franklin Roosevelt agreed
it was time to open up a
new front in the West
through the beaches of
France
The obvious choice for a
landing area was the Pas
de Calais so the Allies
decided to attack in
Normandy instead but
believed they had to
deceive the Germans they
intended to attack
elsewhere
Normandy It Is!
• Normandy
•
is a
peninsula
on the
French
Coast
It was
chosen
because
the
Germans
expected
the attack
to be on
the Pas de
Calais
The Criteria
1. The enemy must remain
2.
3.
4.
ignorant of the
proposed landing site
The enemy must be
prevented from bringing
up reinforcements
quickly once the allies
landed
Complete Allied air and
naval superiority in the
English Channel
Local defences must
largely be destroyed by
air and sea
bombardment
Operation “Overlord”
• There would be five
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
sectors that would
be attacked:
Utah – American
Omaha – American
Gold – British
Juno – Canadian
Sword - British
The Attack – June 6th, 1944
• Operation Overlord Simulation
The Atlantic Wall
• The Atlantic Wall was an
extensive system of coastal
fortifications built by the
Germans between 1942 and
1944
• Built along the western coast of
Europe to defend against an
anticipated Anglo-American led
Allied invasion of the continent
from Great Britain.
• Fritz Todt, the designer of the
Siegfried Line along the FrancoGerman border, was the chief
engineer
• Thousands of forced laborers
were forced to construct these
permanent fortifications along
the Dutch, Belgian and French
coasts
The Atlantic Wall
• Early in 1944, Field Marshal Erwin
•
•
•
•
Rommel was assigned to improve
the defenses of the Wall.
Rommel believed the existing coastal
fortifications were entirely
inadequate.
A string of reinforced concrete
pillboxes were built along the
beaches to house machine guns,
antitank guns, and light artillery.
Minefields and antitank obstacles
were planted on the beaches and
underwater obstacles and mines
were planted in the waters just off
shore to destroy incoming craft
By the time of the invasion, the
Germans had laid almost 6 million
mines in northern France.
The Atlantic Wall!
The Time Has Come
• On the evening of
•
•
June 5th
paratroopers
dropped in to secure
bridges for the allied
advance
Heavy bombers
dropped their
payloads on what
was supposed to be
the beach defences
In the early morning
the largest armada
of ships left Britain
for the French coast
The Canadians on D-Day
• Of the nearly 150,000 Allied
•
•
troops who landed or
parachuted into the invasion
area, 14,000 were
Canadians
The Royal Canadian Navy
contributed 110 ships and
10,000 sailors in support of
the landings while the
R.C.A.F. had helped prepare
the invasion by bombing
targets inland
Canadians suffered 1074
casualties, including 359
killed.
The Battle for Normandy
• For the first month following the
D-Day landings, a stalemate
developed during which the
Allies built up their forces
• In July Canadian troops helped
capture Caen and then turned
towards Falaise where they
aimed at joining an American
advance from the south to
encircle the German forces in
Normandy.
• By August 21, the Germans had
either retreated or been
destroyed between the
Canadian-British and American
pincers
• The ten-week Normandy
Campaign cost the Canadians
alone more than 18,000
casualties, 5000 of them fatal.
The Final Days
• In April 1945, the battle
•
•
is coming to a close.
On the 30th April, Hitler
commits suicide together
with his mistress Eva
Braun hours after they
were married.
Hitler gave strict orders
for his body to be burned,
so that his enemies
wouldn't do what they
had done to Mussolini,
who was publicly
displayed hanging upside
down.
The Soviets Arrive – Berlin Falls
• By 2 May, the Reichstag,
•
the old German
parliament falls and Berlin
surrenders to Marshall
Zukhov, who receives the
honour of being the
conqueror of Berlin.
The battle for Berlin cost
the Soviets over 70,000
dead. Many of them died
because of the haste with
which the campaign was
conducted.
VE-Day
• The major Allied ground
•
•
offensive from the west
against German territory
began on 8 February 1945
In April, Canadian troops
liberated most of the
Netherlands
The Germans formally
surrendered on 8 May 1945,
known as Victory-in-Europe,
or ‘V-E’ Day
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Following FDR’s death, Harry
Truman becomes President of
the United States
• Truman decided to use the
bomb on Japan because he
believed that it was the only
way to get the Japanese to
surrender and save American
lives
• On August 6th, 1945 a lone B29 Superfortress called the
Enola Gay by its crew took off
and headed for Hiroshima
Video
Fat Man and Little Boy
• At 8:15am the atomic bomb
•
•
•
nicknamed “Little Boy” was
dropped on Hiroshima
Within seconds two thirds of
the city was flattened and
thousands were dead
On August 11, a bomb
called “Fat Man” was
dropped on Nagasaki at
11:02 am
At noon, August 15th, 1945
– Emperor Hirohito spoke
directly to his people to tell
them Japan had
surrendered
Why Did the Allies Win?
• Complete material superiority – weapons
etc.
• More soldiers
• Better Strategy
• Technology
• Morale
• Material and financial Wealth