Normandy Landings (D-Day)

Normandy Landings

Clarissa NitihardjoIB History HL002171-012

Bandung International School

PREPARATION FOR D-DAY

• Grand Alliance (Britain & America) started to prepare since 1942

• Allies chose June 1944 and beaches of Normandy• Germans thought Allies would choose Calais and

Boulogne• General D. Eisenhower was in charge

– Supreme Commander over all Allied soldiers– Because majority of equipment and forces would

come from USA

PREPARATION FOR D-DAY• Equipments

– 2 “Mulberry” harbors– “Gooseberry” shelter piers– Waterproof tanks and lorries– Specially design tanks for beaches– 7000 SHIPS!

• 4000 would land soldiers and their weapons• 3000 bombard from sea or carry supplies• > ¾ were British

PREPARATION FOR D-DAY

• Men had to be specially trained–On English south coast cleared from

inhabitants–Could not be hidden from Germans

• However Germans still didn’t know where the landings would take place

• Decoy from Allies Calais was regularly bombed

D-DAY

• OPERATION OVERLOAD– Weeks before: Allies bombed bridges, roads

and railways German difficult to reinforce• Beginning of June 1944 everything was

ready– Eisenhower: 6 June

• Troops were already on landing craft• They could suffer from seasickness

– Germans: impossible due to heavy seas

D-DAY• Airborne troops were dropped in advance to seize

bridges and protect landing• Warships bombarded coastline• 6:30 a.m. the landings began• Five beaches

– Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword– Four landings went well– Omaha: against top division of German army– Omaha: 3000 American casualties in first few

hours

D-DAY

• Germans could not prevent the landings– Caught off guard– Allied command of the air

• Source BAs the landing craft reached the beach they faced heavy

shelling, machine gun and rifle fire. It came from the cliffs above the beach. Men were hit as they came down the ramps of the landing craft and as they struggled through the defenses towards the land. Many others were killed by mines. –US Army report on Omaha landings

Newspaper headlines for D-Day, 6 June

Timeline6 June - End of the day, Allies captured 10km of beach.

- Mulberry harbors and Gooseberry piers were brought across the Channel

27 June - Cherbourg was captured became Allies’ port.- First three months after D-Day: Allies landed 4million tons of supplies and nearly 0.5million vehicles

8 July - Captured Caen

15 Aug -Second invasion in the south of France- Less than 1 month, joined up the armies in the north

25 Aug - Paris was entered

3 Sep - Brussels was liberated

Why was D-Day a success?

ALLIED STREGHTS GERMAN WEAKNESSES

• Thorough preparations (since 1942) • Lost control of air space over Normandy

• Leadership of Eisenhower Allied armies = “team”

• Weak on the four beaches

• Location of landing was kept a secret • Taken by the Allied bombing in Calais

• Controlled the air and sea • Slow on sending reinforcement to Normandy area

•Used air force to bomb communications and slow down German reinforcement

• Hitler was still convinced it was decoy and the real landing would be near Calais

• Took lessons from Dieppe—no attack on defended ports

European War Ends

ARNHEM OPERATION (SEPT 1944)

• Montgomery: opportunity to quicken the advance• Aim: parachute troops behind the Germans in

west Holland and outflank German Siegfried defenses

• 17-18 Sept at Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem• Ground advance linked up with Americans at

Eindhoven and Nijmegen– Weeks of fighting: withdrew with loss of half their troops

• Slow advance towards Rhine continued– Nov: Metz, Strasbourg, Belfort were in Allied hands

BATTLE OF THE BULGE(DEC 1944)

• Hitler’s last gamble to win– Extended the age limit to 16-50 1 million

extra troops– Concentrated his limited resources on one

last offensive• Aim: break through to Antwerp, separate

Allies and force them to agree to peace• 16 Dec: 30 Divisions attacked Americans

– Americans were driven back 40 miles

BATTLE OF THE BULGE(DEC 1944)

• German success was due to– Surprise—Americans did not expect an attack– December mists: American planes failed to

detect German• German couldn’t breakthrough to Antwerp

– Americans held on the vital road at Bastogne– Powerful forces attacked the bulge created by

German

BATTLE OF THE BULGE(DEC 1944)

• Results– Delayed the Allied advance to Berlin– Hitler used up his last reserves of resources– Russian troops would reach Berlin first

CROSSING THE RHINE

• General Patton (America)– forced a crossing near Mainz on 22 March

• General B. Montgomery (Britain)– near Wessel 23 March

• German– disintegrate

RUSSIAN FRONT

• Germans had retreated since Stalingrad in January 1943

• End 1944: Russians cleared Germans out– Liberated Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and

Yugoslavia

Timeline25 April Russian forces finally encircled Berlin

Eisenhower halted

30 April Hitler shot himself in his underground headquarters in Berlin

2 May Berlin fully in the hands of the Red Army

5 May German forces in the West surrendered

REASONS FOR GERMAN DEFEAT

• STRENGTH OF THE GRAND ALLIANCE– Britain: base for the invasion of France and

bombing of Germany– USSR: vast reserves of manpower– USA: wealth, resources, forces

• HITLER’S MISTAKES– Failure at Dunkirk and Battle of Britain– Fateful decision to attack Russia– Slow reinforcements to Normandy

REASONS FOR GERMAN DEFEAT

• SURVIVAL OF BRITAIN 1940-1– Due to Churchill’s leadership

• FAILURE OF OPERATION BARBAROSSA– Germany had to fight a war on two fronts– Defeat at Stalingrad

• ALLIED AIRPOWER– Total air control in Normandy full advantage

• D-DAY LANDINGS– Diverted German forces from Eastern Front

THANK YOU