1. Normandy
Landings
Clarissa Nitihardjo
IB History HL
002171-012
Bandung International School

2. 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

4. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

10. D-DAY
• Germans could not prevent the landings
– Caught off guard
– Allied command of the air
• Source B
As 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

11. Newspaper headlines for D-Day, 6 June

12. Timeline
6 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

14. Why was D-Day a success?
ALLIED STREGHTS GERMAN WEAKNESSES
• Thorough preparations (since 1942) • Lost control of air space over
Normandy
• Leadership of Eisenhower  • Weak on the four beaches
Allied armies = ―team‖
• Location of landing was kept a secret
• Controlled the air and sea • Slow on sending reinforcement to
Normandy area
•Used air force to bomb • Hitler was still convinced it was
communications and slow down decoy and the real landing would be
German reinforcement near Calais
• Took lessons from Dieppe—no attack
on defended ports

15. European War Ends

17. 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

19. 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

20. 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

22. 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

23. CROSSING THE RHINE
• General Patton (America)
– forced a crossing near Mainz on 22 March
• General B. Montgomery (Britain)
– near Wessel 23 March
• German
– disintegrate

24. RUSSIAN FRONT
• Germans had retreated since Stalingrad in
January 1943
• End 1944: Russians cleared Germans out
– Liberated Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and
Yugoslavia

25. Timeline
25 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. THANK YOU 