D-Day 6 th June 1944

Aims of the lesson By the end of this lesson you will Understand why the Allies launched a second front in June 1944 Describe the events of D-day in detail Evaluate the success of the allied attack and the German response to it

The background In 1941 Germany invaded the USSR – initially successful but got bogged down Stalin asked GB and the USA to open a second front in order to take 3m German troops away from the Russian front Churchill wanted to defeat the Germans in Africa first – Stalin thought that he did this to weaken the USSR

Operation Overlord American General Dwight D Eisenhower was put in charge of the invasion of France Operation Overlord He led the Germans to believe that the invasion would take place in a the Pars de Calais – the shortest crossing point

The deception The city of Calais was bombed heavily to trick the Germans Dummy camps were built in Kent and wooden tanks built A phantom army was moved around southern England Only a few Germans believed that the landings would occur in Normandy

6 th June 1944 The scale of the invasion took the Germans by surprise Five separate landing beaches – Gold, Juno and Sword (GB and Canada) Utah and Omaha (USA) Hitler thought it was a trick and kept his troops near Calais – by the time he worked out what has happening it was too late and the allies had a bridgehead

The landings Grim on day one – 3600 British and Canadians killed or wounded – 6000 Americans – most on Omaha beach By the end of day one soldiers had landed and had begun to move inland By 12 th June allied troops were in France – the Germans fought hard and the going was tough By 25 th August Paris was liberated