D-day

1
D-day

• June 6th, 1944

2
What was the situation in 1944?

• The Russians have defeated the Germans and are
  advancing in the East
• The Allies are victorious in Africa and launch an
  assault on mainland Italy through Sicily

3
The Russian Front

• On August 23rd, 1939, Stalin and Hitler signed a
  Non-Aggression Pact which vowed not to
  interfere in each others business
• On June 22nd, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet
  Union
• Having purged his military of many of its best
  officers, Stalin and the Soviets were not ready
  for war

4
The Eastern Front

• Operation Barbarossa began on June 22nd, 1941
• The early days saw the Germans drive into the
  Soviet Union almost reaching Moscow by October
• The German army besieged Leningrad for what was
  to become a two year struggle ending in the death
  of more than one million civilians
• When the severe Russian winter arrived the Nazi
  offensive broke down and the German attack was
  halted

5
The Tide Turns

• The Nazis needed supplies and resources to
  continue the war so victory in the Soviet Union
  was essential
• From Sept. 14th, 1942 Feb. 2nd, 1943 the
  Germans and Russians fought for the strategic
  city of Stalingrad on the Volga River
• Hitler and the Nazis lost the battle 500 000
  German and other troops were killed or taken
  prisoner
• By the Autumn of 1943 the Germany army of 2.5
  million soldiers faced an army of 5.5 million
  Soviet soldiers

6
Italy

• From July 10th to August 17th the Allies
  including the Canadians fought and took Sicily
  from the German Army Codenamed Operation
  Husky
• The Campaign of Italy was designed to take the
  pressure off their Russian Allies and pull German
  troops out of north-western Europe readying the
  area for Operation Overlord
• 9th September, 1943 the attack began on Italy
• The Canadians were forced to fight for every
  metre of the mountainous terrain as the Germans
  refused to give it up
• Italian Campaign Animated Map

7
The Italians Surrender

• On the 8th of September, 1943, the Italian
  Government surrenders
• The Allied planners thought the Italian Campaign
  would be over in a matter of weeks.
• They were wrong. Italy would represent
  frustration and death for thousands of Allied
  soldiers in a bitter stagnated fight.
• It would be a year before Allied troops entered
  Rome, and the Invasion of France would overshadow
  that victory.

8
The Battle for Italy

• When Italy formally surrendered on September 8th,
  the Italians separated into two camps, pro-Allied
  and pro-German factions.
• On September 9, the Allies landed Americans at
  Salerno and the British landed at Taranto
• By September 26 the Allies had built a force of
  189,000 men and 30,000 vehicles.
• Following the Italian surrender, the German Army
  took control of the defence of Germany

9
Ortona

• Ortona is an ancient city that consists of narrow
  streets and connected houses
• Much of Ortona was reduced to rubble, making it
  difficult for the Canadians to use tanks
• The Germans barricaded themselves in houses and
  mined the streets
• The fighting was house-to-house-literally the
  Canadians blasted their way through walls to get
  from building to building.
• The battle continued over Christmas Day, 1943 but
  three days later the Germans withdrew.

10
The Liberation of Rome

• Following the fall of Ortona the Allies ground to
  a halt due to blizzards and drifting snow at the
  end of December
• The Allied focus then turned to the western front
  where it was considered to have the best chance
  of a breakthrough towards Rome.
• It took four major offensives between January and
  May 1944 before the Allies including British, US,
  French, Polish, and Canadian Corps broke through
• Rome was declared an open city by the German army
  and the Allies took possession on June 4th.

11
The Move on to France

• Having the Germans occupied in Italy allowed the
  allies to move forward with their plan to open up
  the long awaited western front in Europe

12
The Plan

• Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt agreed
  it was time to open up a new front in the West
  through the beaches of France
• The obvious choice for a landing area was the Pas
  de Calais so the Allies decided to attack in
  Normandy instead but believed they had to deceive
  the Germans they intended to attack elsewhere

13
Normandy It Is!

• Normandy is a peninsula on the French Coast
• It was chosen because the Germans expected the
  attack to be on the Pas de Calais

14
The Criteria

1. The enemy must remain ignorant of the proposed
   landing site
2. The enemy must be prevented from bringing up
   reinforcements quickly once the allies landed
3. Complete Allied air and naval superiority in the
   English Channel
4. Local defences must largely be destroyed by air
   and sea bombardment

15
Operation Overlord

• There would be five sectors that would be
  attacked
• Utah American
• Omaha American
• Gold British
• Juno Canadian
• Sword - British

16
The Attack June 6th, 1944

• Operation Overlord Simulation

17
The Atlantic Wall!
18
The Time Has Come

• On the evening of June 5th paratroopers dropped
  in to secure bridges for the allied advance
• Heavy bombers dropped their payloads on what was
  supposed to be the beach defences
• In the early morning the largest armada of ships
  left Britain for the French coast

19
The Canadians on D-Day

• Of the nearly 150,000 Allied troops who landed or
  parachuted into the invasion area, 14,000 were
  Canadians
• The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 ships and
  10,000 sailors in support of the landings while
  the R.C.A.F. had helped prepare the invasion by
  bombing targets inland
• Canadians suffered 1074 casualties, including 359
  killed.

20
The Battle for Normandy

• For the first month following the D-Day landings,
  a stalemate developed during which the Allies
  built up their forces
• In July Canadian troops helped capture Caen and
  then turned towards Falaise where they aimed at
  joining an American advance from the south to
  encircle the German forces in Normandy.
• By August 21, the Germans had either retreated or
  been destroyed between the Canadian-British and
  American pincers
• The ten-week Normandy Campaign cost the Canadians
  alone more than 18,000 casualties, 5000 of them
  fatal.

21
The Liberation of Northwest Europe

• September 1944 the British captured the Belgian
  port of Antwerp it was a key victory for the
  allies because they desperately required its
  docking facilities to bring in supplies.
• The problem was that the Germans occupied both
  banks of the 70-kilometre long Scheldt River
  estuary linking Antwerp to the sea.

• In a month-long campaign beginning 6th October,
  the
• Canadians fought in appalling conditions over
  open, flooded
• ground to capture the approaches to Antwerp.
• They lost over 6300 killed or wounded in the
  process.

22
The Final Days

• In April 1945, the battle is coming to a close.
• On the 30th April, Hitler commits suicide
  together with his mistress Eva Braun hours after
  they were married.
• Hitler gave strict orders for his body to be
  burned, so that his enemies wouldn't do what they
  had done to Mussolini, who was publicly displayed
  hanging upside down.
• By 2 May, the Reichstag, the old German
  parliament, had fallen and Berlin surrendered to
  Marshall Zukhov, who received the honour of being
  the conqueror of Berlin.
• The battle for Berlin had cost the Soviets over
  70,000 dead. Many of them had died because of the
  haste with which the campaign was conducted.

23
VE-Day

• The major Allied ground offensive from the west
  against German territory began on 8 February 1945
  
• In April, Canadian troops liberated most of the
  Netherlands
• The Germans formally surrendered on 8 May 1945,
  known as Victory-in-Europe, or V-E Day

24
Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• Following FDRs death, Harry Truman becomes
  President of the United States
• Truman decided to use the bomb on Japan because
  he believed that it was the only way to get the
  Japanese to surrender and save American lives
• On August 6th, 1945 a lone B-29 Superfortress
  called the Enola Gay by its crew took off and
  headed for Hiroshima

25
Fat Man and Little Boy

• At 815am the atomic bomb nicknamed Little Boy
  was dropped on Hiroshima
• Within seconds two thirds of the city was
  flattened and thousands were dead
• On August 11, a bomb called Fat Man was dropped
  on Nagasaki at 1102 am
• At noon, August 15th, 1945 Emperor Hirohito
  spoke directly to his people to tell them Japan
  had surrendered

26
Why Did the Allies Win?

• Complete material superiority weapons etc.
• More soldiers
• Better Strategy
• Technology
• Morale
• Material and financial Wealth