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D-Day The Battle that Changed WW2 . D-Day. D-day was the landing of troops on the coast of western France. The USA, Canada, and Britain took part in this massive operation.
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D-Day • D-day was the landing of troops on the coast of western France. • The USA, Canada, and Britain took part in this massive operation. • There were about 156,000 men, 11,590 aircraft, and about 7,000 ships. The total casualty number for the allies was about 10,000. The German casualties was 4,000 to 9,000 men.
The Nazi Domination of Europe • In the beginning of World War Two the Nazis were taking over Europe. • In two years they took over Poland, Austria, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe. The only country left to conquer was Britain.
The Battle of Britain • Britain was the last country not under Germany’s rule in Western Europe. • The German air force (Luftwaffe) went on bombing missions almost every night attacking civilian and military targets. • The U.S made a fake company to send supplies over since they couldn’t do it directly.
Operation Overlord • To fake out the Germans and convince them that D-Day was coming in a different area the allied forces started a deception campaign. • They created the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. • The companies was filled with life sized inflatable tanks, cannons, trucks, jeeps, and airplanes. • They made the Germans believe that they would land in Norway or somewhere else.
Hitler’s Defensive Strategy • Hitler knew that there was the possibility that the Allies would land in France. • He put Erwin Rommel in charge of completing his Atlantic wall. • The Atlantic Wall was a series of bunkers, machine gun emplacements, artillery, and landmines. In some beaches you had to run through machine gun fire, under barb wire, into mine fields, and climb up and rocky cliffs. It was about 100 to 200 yards until you reached the cliffs.
Paratrooper landings • The first part of the D-Day invasion were paratroopers. • They landed behind German lines and destroyed artillery, took roads and checkpoints, and captured key machine gun positions. • Landing zones were missed and groups of paratroopers were scattered. • This confused the Germans and made them think there was more paratroopers than there actually was.
Amphibious Landings • The second part of D-Day was the amphibious landings. • The 5 beaches they landed on were Juno, Sword, Utah, Omaha, and Gold. • These troops were under tremendous fire as they headed up the beach. • Most of the casualties were taken as troops left the landing craft because machine guns would shoot at the doors of boats to take aim and when the ramp fell the men inside would get shot.
Germany’s Missteps • When Germany attacked their ally Russia it forced them to fight on two fronts. This left their forces stretched between the western and eastern front making them vulnerable to attack • Another misstep would be the severe lack of information they had on the attack. In most places the Germans had barely gotten ready when the paratroopers landed.
How Did D-Day affect the Rest of WWII D-Day marked the beginning of the end of Germany. Germany was surrounded by the Russians on the East and the Allies on the west. After D-Day the Allies and Russians were on the race to Berlin. They quickly took back France and didn’t stop their. In the end, the success of D-Day propelled the Allies to victory.
Citations “D-Day” www.history.com. A&E Television. 2/28/2012. Web.
