Introduction
The Second World War started on 3 September 1939, with Britain and France declaring war on Germany. This came about as a result of increasing greed for land / territory on the part of Nazi Germany throughout Europe. They started first by re-claiming reparations territories lost in World War I, ie. The Rhineland, the Saar coalfields, which was in direct conflict with the Treaty of Versailles, and later invading nearby countries such Austria, and later Poland, which turned out to be the final trigger of the start of the war. The D-Day attack took place closer to the end of the war, on 6 June 1944. D-Day can be considered a turning point in the war because it severely damaged the Germans army both mentally and physically, breaking
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their morale. Why was the attack planned? The D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy was planned for the purpose of stopping Hitler from building up strong defences on the Eastern Front of France against Soviet advance. (Source J) Before the summer of 1941, The Soviet Union had done most of the resistance against the Axis countries (ie. Germany, Italy, Japan etc), and Joseph Stalin encouraged the Western Allies (ie. Britain and the United States of America) to open a second entrance point onto the European continent. (Source L). What planning went into the attack by the attacking power? The attack was first planned for 1 May 1944, but was postponed until June to make more time to get together more equipment and soldiers. It was necessary for the event to happen on a night with full moon, good weather and a calm tide. The Allies put together an enormous operation to make the Germans believe that Pas-de-Calais would be the most likely place for any such plans to occur, for example fake equipment, a decoy army, double agents and fake radio transmissions. Lastly, on the day of the attack bad weather conditions prevented them from launching, and it was postponed for a further 24 hours. (Source G). Describe the attack The invasion of Normandy was known as the biggest amphibious assault ever executed in war time.
It began in darkness. Firstly there were three divisions of airborne troops, delivered by parachute and by glider. There were some glider accidents in the process, which took lives. Some paratroopers were shot down as they descended. As the survivors landed they were widely scattered but they got together in groups and managed to execute many ground operations as planned. (Source L).
The attack covered a 50 mile stretch of coast. (Source F). The total armoury involved was five army divisions in the first phase of attack, and more than 7000 sea vessels. 11 000 aircraft were also dispatched. Altogether 75 215 British and Canadian troops and 57 500 American troops landed by sea on the day. A further 23 400 were landed by air. (Source D). This operation was known as Operation Overlord. (Source F).
Source B states, “It was wonderful. There they were, marching in to die, just as if they were going to a ball game... the Germans had hidden themselves in cliffs facing the beach, and were pouring deadly mortar fire down upon the advancing Americans... They did not have any cover except bomb-made mounds, but they pushed forward, with men falling every way you could look. It was heart-breaking...”
By the end of the day, there were 132 715 men ashore, and by June 12 there were 2 000 000 troops in
Normandy. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning and the end of the war in Europe. Describe the mistakes made in the attack or what went wrong with the attack Initially the American bombers missed the Nazi encampments by 5 kilometres, so most of the bombing was unsuccessful. When the American troops arrived on Omaha Beach, powerful tides swept many of them and their boats and floating tanks back out to sea. (Source C). After ten minutes almost every officer was dead or wounded. There were nearly 3000 American casualties in the first few hours. By 10am only 300 troops had successfully reached shore, and by night time were still in inadequate in their numbers. The United States army did not have any of Hobart’s funnies. What were the results of the attack? This should refer to both short term and long term consequences On the short term: the troops moved further inland though Normandy farming land fighting German troops as they went. Operation Cobra on July 25 to 31 the troops broke though German resistance and moved on fast to Paris. (Source L) Germanys strength was failing with some Nazi soldiers on 16 years old. Paris fell in August after a battle called The Battle of the Bulge. Allied forces drove on fiercely to the German border were they met up with the Russian troops. (Source C) They regrouped during winter owing to the failure of Market-Garden but they entered Germany in January 1945. Hitler committed suicide on April 30. (Source J) By spring, on May 8 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally. The allied nations (ie Britain and the commonwealth countrys, the USSR and the USA) had the victory. Conclusion As we have discussed, D-Day was truly a watershed moment in World War 2. If it had not been successful, the chances are that many more lives would have been lost in a longer, ongoing battle and Germany may have had the victory.
Before the landings were to begin, the coastal German defenses had to be adequately prepped, and softened by a combination of a massive battering by United States ships, and bombing by the United States Air Force. Between the hours of 0300 and 0500 hours on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal defenses. As soon as the preliminary bombing was over, the American and British naval guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline (D' Este 112). A British naval officer described the incredible spectacle he witnessed that day: "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning; both the naval and air bombardments were unparalleled. Along the fifty-mile front the land was rocked by successive explosions as the shells of ships' guns tore holes in fortifications and tons of bombs rained on them from the skies. Through billowing smoke and falling debris defenders crouching in this scene of devastations would soon discern faintly hundreds of ships and assault craft ominously closing the shore.
The night before the attack Eisenhower ordered that the thousands of war ships, military and civilian, depart from English ports. They carried the assault force of one hundred and fifty-six thousand Allied soldiers through the English channel. Thousands of war planes flew close to the attack site until the attack. A fleet of warships bombarded German fortifications along the beaches. One hundred and thirty-five thousand men and twenty thousand vehicles invaded the beaches. In the next few days, the Allies secured the beaches. Some of the most important beaches in this battle are Omaha, Utah, and Juno beaches.
Over 1,200 troops that is was being lead by William Prescott towards Bunker Hill, But after the soldiers ran out of Amo they hurried back away from Bunker Hill. The amount of people lost just from that attack were 226 killed and 800 wounded. after all that the British had brought more over 6,000 men. Around 3 pm Howe was wanting to attack but A few hour later hims was ready so he opened fire.
The first drop done by the paratroopers was on June 6, 1944 in Normandy. This drop did not result as planned. Planes were flying at a high velocity and at a short distance from the ground. Therefore one of the planes got hit. They arrived at Carentan which they captured and flew back to Aldbourne.
The third term is Overlord, which was the code name for the entire Allied plot to invade and free France and Western Europe. The fourth term is Neptune, which stood for the first phase of Operation Overlord, including the planning of the Normandy assault, the movement of the armada across the English Channel, and the battle for the beaches. The fifth term is the Atlantic Wall, which was the German's first line of defense in the west along the English Channel coast of France. The wall was only partially completed by June of 1944 and included guns, beach obstacles, and minefields. The part of the wall directly across from England was manned by Field Marshal Rammel's seventeenth and eighteenth armies, which contained thirty-seven divisions.
World War II began on September 1, 1939. It all started when Hitler wanted to expand his territory, and he had planned to invade Poland on this day. Then two years later in 1941 Japan bombed America in which is known as Pearl Harbor and General Eisenhower entered America into World War II. America then joined the Allied powers and helped fight against the Axis powers. The major countries that took part as the Allied Powers in World War II was the United States of America, Great Britain, France, and Russia.Their main goal was to stick together and to defend each other from the attacks of the Axis Powers. The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan.General EIsenhower had been planning an attack on the beaches of Normandy in France.
The Great War, now known as World War II, devastated Europe, leaving political and economic instability in Germany to aid the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) Party. World War II began when Hitler invaded Poland on the 17 September 1939. The war lasted from 1939 to 1945 and directly involved over 100 million people. With an estimated death toll of 75 million, World War II was the deadliest conflict in history. Although there can be no definite turning point, many historians consider the Battle of Stalingrad to be the greatest and most significant battle in the war.
The battle took place during the end of the World War 2, on February 19, 1945 30,000 Marines landed on the shores of the island. The first soldiers that landed weren't attacked by the Japanese. They thought that the bombings from US planes and battleships may have killed the Japanese, but that was not the case. The Marines took heavy causalities, as the American bombings had not been effective. The generals who had planned the attack thought it would take about a week to take control of the island. They were wrong, it took 36 days.
The Battle of Britain started on July 10, 1940 after German air forces flew over Britain, dropping bombs and clashing with opposing British air forces. It is described as one of the main turning points in the war, due to the fact that it caused the Germans to come to a realization that
World War II began in 1939 when the German armies decided to invade parts of Europe, therefore causing Europeans to retaliate against the Germans (World War 1). World War II began because those countries which were defeated in World War I (Germany, Italy, and Japan) were greatly devastated by the loss. Their countries were suffering from economical problems and were also left in bad conditions after World War I. They had lost much territory and now were practically in debt for the damages which they had done during the war (1). These countries figured that the only way for them to get out of economic depression and revive their country was to take land from other countries, which was one of the reasons why the war began.
The sea invasion of Iwo Jima was and still is the largest of any in all the years of the United States Marine Corps history. This invasion was also the most devastating. More than 26,000 Marines lost their lives while when trying to take over this small volcanic island. Pretty much all of the twenty-one thousand Japanese soldiers protecting the island were killed only two thousand were taken as prisoners. The rest were killed or missing. "Tokyo was just 650 miles to the North, less than three hours' flight time." (Alexander 208). On February 23, 1945 seventy-two thousand Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima with all their guns blazing. Dodging and weaving the heavy fire from the Japanese's m.g.s, they had mounted in the jagged rocks. But that was the least of the Marines worries they had heavy 320mm mortars and powerful rockets. And their wicked 25mm automatic machine cannons. That was just the landing these Marines went to hell and back before it was all over.
...ery pieces, and headed by 1000 British and American tanks. The British attacked northward on October 29th and overran elements of the 164th German Division and an Italian Bersaglieri battalion. Another extensive barrage heralded the event and the aerial bombardment went on nonstop. Rommel began plans for withdrawal, even though this would be very costly if the enemy commander was aggressive. When Rommel receives a radio message from Hitler to keep fighting, Rommel felt be trade from Hitler and Rommel disobey and retreated.
Before the troops landed on the island, 13,000 rounds were fired at the island. The pr-invasion lasted a week and was used to soften the island for the troops. April 1st became landing day or "love day" as some of the troops called it. The U.S. 10th Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Simon Bolivar Buckner landed on the Southeast coast of the island. The landing at Okinawa was the grea...
The war started in September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded the territory of Poland, which was allied with Great Britain and France. German officials signed a peace treaty in August 24-25 with the Soviet Union to prevent them from acting in the invasion and to stay in peace between both countries. So Great Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany the day of September 3, 1939. After this event, Canada also declared war on Germany at September 10, 1939. Germany rapidly crushed Poland, since it had an incredible army with 100 infantry divisions and six armored divisions. Due to the peace treaty between Germans and Soviets, in September 17th the Soviet also invaded and took eastern Poland. Later in the year, on November 30th, the USSR invaded Finland while Great Britain and France where occupied with Germany. At this time, Japan was in the Far East, and had Asia in turmoil. Imperial Japan invaded china and various other territories ...
The time finally came today, US Forces attacked the on the beaches of Normandy at 6:30 am June 6, 1944. The source on scene proclaimed its intensity and gruesomeness… By dawn this morning, there were already thousands of paratroopers and glider troops already on the ground behind enemy lines, securing bridges and exit roads. Once we arrived at Omaha beach the U.S. forces faced heavy resistance and many casualties are being reported. Bomb’s were dropping from 2000 feet and our troops on the ground invading the beaches and starting to push their way inland.