wwii in europe: 1943 & d-day. italy & a second front july 1943 - allies invade sicily, then...
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WWII in Europe:1943 & D-Day
Italy & a Second Front• July 1943 - Allies
invade Sicily, then Italy.– Italy declares war on
Germany!• Mussolini is overthrown
and arrested.– Eventually found and
killed in 1945– Allies do not take all of
Italy until April, 1945.
• Nov 1943 - Tehran Conference – Soviet Union asks Allies
to open a second front in mainland Europe.
• Was losing thousands of lives a day.
• Roosevelt and Churchill agree.
• Where must an invasion be launched from?
First…
• The Allies had to gain air superiority. They did this through carpet bombing.– Scattering a large
number of bombs over a large area.
• Instills fear• Hits desired targets, but
also kills a lot of civilians
Preparing for D-Day• Southern English Coast
– Allies build forces, Late 1943 – June, 1944.
Where should an invasion be launched from?
Operation Fortitude• Fake army at Dover
– Design to make Hitler think that the Allies will land invasion at Calais.
German Defenses• The “Atlantic Wall”
– Machine-gun nests– Barbed-wire fences– Land and water
mines – Underwater
obstructions.
D-Day Timeline• June 6th, 1944
– Midnight: • Warships depart from
Southern England– 1,000 RAF aircraft
begin pounding German forces on Normandy coast.
– 23,000 British and American “airborne” parachute behind enemy lines.
– Dawn: • 150,000 Allied troops
come ashore.• Intense fighting ensues.
– Within a week:• 2 million Allied forces
were in Normandy.
Hedgerow Country
Hedgerow Country
Hedgerow Country