March to Berlin

1. March to Berlin

2. After the Breakout • After Normandy, Allies begin to move • Supply issues • Cherbourg only usable port • Allies moving too fast • Train lines blown up • Red Ball Express

3. Liberation of Paris – Aug 24-26 • Orders to evacuate • German commander ordered to destroy Paris bridges and the city • General von Choltitz could not • Some fighting, but the city is spared

4. Liberation of Paris – Aug 24-26

5. Liberation of Paris

6. Liberation of Paris

7. Market–Garden – Sept ‘44 • Supplies were limited • Priority to Monty over Patton • Eliminate V-2 rockets • Strike a blow into Germany • Paratroopers secure highway into Holland & bridges • British 2nd armor • Around Siegfried Line into Germany • Cut off Ruhr

8. Market Garden • British and American Airborne secure bridges road • British 2nd Army and Guards Armor could push through and into Germany • High risk, high reward mission • Needed precise execution, surprise, and tough fighting

9. Why it failed • Bad intelligence – fighting good troops • Coordination between allies - shaky • Thin front of attack allowed for… • too much congestion • vulnerability to flank attacks

10. Aftermath of Market Garden • British 1st Airborne lost 8,000 of 10,000 men • Eisenhower believed M-G was a risk that had to be taken…press the enemy as they retreat

13. Russians on the Move • After Stalingrad, no major offensives • July 43 – Battle of Kursk • Nov 43 – Russia is back to pre-war borders • Supply issues slow them • July 44 – Attempts assassination of Hitler • Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg

14. Reconquest – Foreshadowing the Cold War • August 44 – Warsaw Uprising • No Soviet help • Sept 44 – Russians invade Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, & Hungary – they fall • Fall 44 – No retreat • Feb 45 – 60 miles from Berlin

15. Battle of the Bulge – Dec ’44-Jan ‘45 • Last German counterattack • Achieved surprise • Three armies into Belgium & Holland • Bastogne – Gen. McAuliffe • Patton’s 3rd Army

16. Deception • 25 German divisions • Allies thought the Germans had 4 • Achieved complete surprise • Allied overconfidence • Offensive made no sense • Germans concealed their forces well

17. Biggest Battle in US Army History • Used American mobility • 600,000 American soldiers involved • 20,000 dead, 20,000 captured, 40,000 wounded • Two American divisions completely destroyed

20. Allies Enter Germany • Feb 1945 - Americans enter Germany (cross Rhine) • March – All 7 western allied armies were in Germany • No point to continue the war at this point • April 1945 – Allies 50 miles from Berlin

21. Who would get to Berlin? • Feb 1945 – Yalta Conference – zones of occupation • Berlin was in Soviet zone • Ike’s forces were spread out and under supplied

22. The Big 3 at Yalta

23. Mussolini’s Death

24. VE Day • April 16 – Russians attack Berlin • Street fighting • Hitler in underground bunker • Suicide – April 30, 1945 • Germans Instrument of Surrender – May 7, 1945 – Reims, France • V-E Day: May 8, 1945 • Surrender to Russians – May 9

25. Alfred Jodl – Reims, France

26. Nuremburg Trials

27. A- Bomb • Why? • Costly invasion • Japanese brutality • They ignored the Potsdam Declaration • Nuclear fission Bombs • Aug 6 – Hiroshima • Aug 8 – USSR declared war on Japan – invaded Manchuria • Aug 9 - Nagasaki

28. VJ Day • August 14, 1945 – unconditional surrender • VJ Day • Sept 2, 1945 – Formal Surrender – USS Missouri, Tokyo Bay