World War 2 Dbq Essay

During World War 2 the world was fought between many countries. Germany had their allies which were Italy and Japan, and against them were Britain, France and Italy. The enemies of Germany retaliated because of Germany’s actions. Germany had invaded Poland, but in the Treaty Of Versailles the allies (Britain, France and USA) signed an agreement that they would protect Poland if Germany or if any of the enemy countries try to take over Poland. Britain and France signed this in the Peace Treaty in 1981. But when the D-day attack happened, the allies Britain, France and the USA surprise attacked the Nazi’s on one of the French beaches by pushing them back in land, which showed that Germany was already weaker than the Allies because they had been

pushed back in their own land that the Nazi’s had taken over, and Hitler couldn’t send troops through to fight back. (Source J)

The allies had planned the invasion and General Dwight Eisenhower was put in charge of Operation Overlord on Germany and their allies because they wanted to stop them from taking over more land in Europe. On the 28th of June 1919 Britain and France signed a peace treaty and had an agreement that if Germany or any of their allies attempted to invade or take over Poland. Britain and France would help fight to get Poland back from the countries that were trying to invade.

The preparations that were planned before the invasion of operation Overlord (“D-DAY”) to happen were copious amounts of planning.

They decided to not invade Calais because the Nazi’s fortifications were strongest there but they would try to invade Normandy. So they could have every detail of landing sites so they could plan every little immense detail so they got low-level aerial reconnaissance photos and even sailing backs. BBC asked the people for holiday photos along the French beaches (“10 million were sent – Source A”) they had French spy’s go over and lookout for where everything was positioned. A man named, Col Sam Bassett landed secretly at night to test that the sand was hard enough to bear the weight of the tanks; huge forces were gathered over the South of England, thousands of Americans were transported to Britain. There were months of training, practising attacks of the Nazi’s emplacement – many men were killed because of the training and planning was so realistic and intense, the allies, Britain and France, built mulberries-floating harbours that could be towed across the channel and set up once a bridgehead had been established and a series of special machines were built for example tanks that could clear mines. There was even a Spanish double agent that convinced the Germans (Nazi’s) that the main invasion was going to be in

Calais.

The attacking on the French beaches happened on 6th June 1944.

It happened in the darkness the invasion began with three divisions which were made up of airborne troops, which were delivered by parachutes or by gliders. Lots of men had died from glider crashing’s and the parachutes were shot down by the Nazi’s, the British, USA, and Canadians were along the beaches for miles and many of them had landed far from their objectives. That day there were 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces that had landed on five different beaches that stretched 2,400 miles of a heavy fortified coastal line with bunkers and land mines and water obstacles the beaches code names were Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha, and Utah. The Normandy invasion was the largest amphibious assault over launched yet. There was a five army division in the assault with over 70,000 ships as well as 11,000 aircrafts coming in that day to attack the Nazi’s. The day of Operation Overlord 75,215 British, and Canadian troops and 57,500 US troops had landed on those beaches and another 23,400 were landed air to fight against the Nazi’s (Source D). On the day of the landings 14 out of 58 Germans had to face the allies on the France beaches. The only French beach that was in serious doubt and that was Omaha which were the only ones where, success of the allied missions were in doubt. But by the 11th of June the allies (British, Canadian, USA) had served. The Contentin Pensinsula beyond Cherboug but in the progress they were

very slow as they continued to put up a fierce resistance against the allies. At the end of Normandy campaign came with the destruction of the Nazi’s 7th Army in the Falasie pocket during August. Although Britain, Canadian, USA had reached the Nazi frontier by September they decided to regroup because of winter.

There were many mistakes that went wrong in the invasion of Operation Overlord (D-Day). But the Germans suffered from great confusion in the ranks and absence of Commander Rommel because he was on leave. At first Adolf Hitler believed that the invasion was feint distraction designed to make the Germans confused and make them move away from the coming attack which was just North of Seine River. But he did not allow any of the nearby army divisions join the counterattack. So Adolf Hitler called reinforcements from further afield which caused great delays. Adolf Hitler also hesitated to call the armoured divisions to defend the Germans. And the Nazi’s were timbered by the effective allied air force, that had taken out many of the important bridges which made the Nazi army take longer detours. (Source I)

The long term effects in the attack:
• By the end of the invasion 132,715 men were on the beaches safely which took a few days.
• On the 12th of June 2 million men were in Normandy.
• After a long endless fight it was the end of the Germans because they had no more strength, most of their soldiers were 16 year boys fighting the allies.
• At the end of August Paris was destroyed which gave the Germans no choice but to push back until they could meet up and make an agreement with the Germans.
• French industry was destroyed with nothing left.

The short term effects in the attack:
• Within ten minutes of the attack every single officer and Sargent were all on the beach and American soldiers had 3000 casualties in the first hours.
• And only 300 men managed to make it to shore alive and safe by getting past the water obstacles mines bombs and boats.
(Source C)