Normandy landings/D-Day

Alice and Elena

Assess the reasons for the German defeat of the Normandy landings/D-Day.

- Normandy landing/D-Day- - Armada-

Essential Question

Vocab

Break down of the question

1. What was the Normandy landings/D-day?

2. What was the most significant reason for the German defeat?

3. Reason 1

4. Reason 2

What happened?● June 6, 1944, the day the Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of

Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control during World War II.

● D-Day is the largest seaborne attack in world history○ 1,000 British bombers droped 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries placed at the

Normandy assault area

○ While, 3,000 Allied ships crossed the English Channel in preparation for the invasion of Normandy (D-Day)

● Hitler was expecting an attack on northwestern Europe in the spring of 1944. ○ He hoped to repel the Allies from the coast with a strong counterattack that would delay future

invasion attempts, giving him time to throw the majority of his forces into defeating the Soviet Union in the east.

○ Once that was accomplished, he believed an all-out victory would soon be his.

StrategyThe allies had planned to attack Normandy, France. They would attack using all their ships to form an armada (fleet of warships), the attack, if successful, would enable the allies to free France from Nazi control.

The weather pushed back the date on which they were able to finally attack. Another problem was the obstacles put in the sea, which made it even more dangerous for soldiers trying to reach shore, and even ships, as underwater bombs were planted to make things more difficult.

Problem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDZs442oqxA

REASON 1;

● Hitler - choice of strategy- Hitler was sure that the allies would attack at a different location, and therefore he put all his good soldiers to the north and east of the Seine River, and left were the older, or lower performing soldiers, who were put on the Normandy beaches, which was where the attack took place. ○ “Marches by day are obvıously excluded ın good weather,.. The troops must constantly be

prepared for low flyıng attacks so that all means of protectıon for them agaınst aır attacks can be ımmedıately put ınto effect...[c]amouflage ın all forms must be stressed agaın and agaın." –Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt a German Field Marshal

○ After hıs fırst check ın Russıa, hıs fıgure began to shrınk, and towards the end he was regarded as a blunderıng amateur ın the mılıtary fıeld, whose crazy orders and crass ıgnorance had been the Allıes’ greatest asset. All the dısasters of the German Army were attrıbuted to Hıtler; all ıts successes were credıted to the German General Staff.—B. H. Liddell Hart (B. H. Liddell Hart, The German Generals Talk (New York: Morrow, 1948), 3)

Reasons they lost

Reasons they lost REASON 2;

● Mistrust- Hitler's mistrust of his generals, and at the same time their mistrust of Hitler, meant that they had their own problems within their own army. “Hitler's mistrust of his generals and the generals' mistrust of Hitler were worth a king's ransom to the Allies.”○ “Hıtler dıstrusted hıs successors, as he dıstrusted hıs predecessors, who had been too

soft. ...Therefore the whole programme of conquest, from begınnıng to end, must be carrıed through by hım, personally. Nor could ıt be left to hıs subordınates, hıs generals. He dıstrusted hıs generals too.” Blitzkrieg to Defeat: Hitler’s War Directives 1939-1945, edited by H.R. Trevor-Roper (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), xv-xvi.)

Significance of the Battle

D-Day was a very significant battle for the German defeat, the defeat enabled the allies to get France back from Nazi control, and therefore Germany realized that total-defeat was inevitable. This attack meant that for Germany to win was close to impossible.

BibliographyHistory.com Staff. "D-Day." Hıstory.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 8

Dec. 2016.

Murray, Kelly. "The Effects of D-Day." The Effects of D-Day. Mount Holyoke

College, n.d. Web. Dec. 2016.

@ASPI_org. "The Significance of D-Day | The Strategist." The Strategıst.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 10 June 2014. Web. 8 Dec. 2016.