Normandy
landings/D-Day
Alice and Elena
Essential Question
Assess the reasons for the German defeat of the Normandy landings/D-Day.
Vocab
Normandy landing/D-Day- Armada-
1.
Break down of the
question
What was the Normandy
landings/D-day?
2. What was the most significant
reason for the German defeat?
3.
Reason 1
4.
Reason 2
What happened?
●
●
June 6, 1944, the day the Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of
Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control during World War
II.
D-Day is the largest seaborne attack in world history
○ 1,000 British bombers droped 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries placed at the
Normandy assault area
While, 3,000 Allied ships crossed the English Channel in preparation for the invasion of
Normandy (D-Day)
Hitler was expecting an attack on northwestern Europe in the spring of 1944.
○ He hoped to repel the Allies from the coast with a strong counterattack that would delay future
invasion attempts, giving him time to throw the majority of his forces into defeating the Soviet
Union in the east.
○ Once that was accomplished, he believed an all-out victory would soon be his.
○
●
Strategy
The allies had planned to attack Normandy, France. They would attack using all
their ships to form an armada (fleet of warships), the attack, if successful, would
enable the allies to free France from Nazi control.
Problem
The weather pushed back the date on which they were able to finally attack. Another
problem was the obstacles put in the sea, which made it even more dangerous for
soldiers trying to reach shore, and even ships, as underwater bombs were planted to
make things more difficult.
Reasons they lost
REASON 1;
●
Hitler - choice of strategy- Hitler was sure that the allies would attack at a different location,
and therefore he put all his good soldiers to the north and east of the Seine River, and left were
the older, or lower performing soldiers, who were put on the Normandy beaches, which was
where the attack took place.
○ “Marches by day are obvıously excluded ın good weather,.. The troops must constantly be
prepared for low flyıng attacks so that all means of protectıon for them agaınst aır attacks
can be ımmedıately put ınto effect...[c]amouflage ın all forms must be stressed agaın and
agaın." –Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt a German Field Marshal
○ After hıs fırst check ın Russıa, hıs fıgure began to shrınk, and towards the end he was
regarded as a blunderıng amateur ın the mılıtary fıeld, whose crazy orders and crass
ıgnorance had been the Allıes’ greatest asset. All the dısasters of the German Army were
attrıbuted to Hıtler; all ıts successes were credıted to the German General Staff.—B. H.
Liddell Hart (B. H. Liddell Hart, The German Generals Talk (New York: Morrow,
1948), 3)
Reasons they lost
REASON 2;
●
Mistrust- Hitler's mistrust of his generals, and at the same time their mistrust of Hitler,
meant that they had their own problems within their own army. “Hitler's mistrust of his
generals and the generals' mistrust of Hitler were worth a king's ransom to the Allies.”
○ “Hıtler dıstrusted hıs successors, as he dıstrusted hıs predecessors, who had been too
soft. ...Therefore the whole programme of conquest, from begınnıng to end, must be
carrıed through by hım, personally. Nor could ıt be left to hıs subordınates, hıs
generals. He dıstrusted hıs generals too.” Blitzkrieg to Defeat: Hitler’s War
Directives 1939-1945, edited by H.R. Trevor-Roper (New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1965), xv-xvi.)
Significance of
the Battle
D-Day was a very significant
battle for the German defeat,
the defeat enabled the allies to
get France back from Nazi
control, and therefore Germany
realized that total-defeat was
inevitable. This attack meant
that for Germany to win was
close to impossible.
Bibliography
History.com Staff. "D-Day." Hıstory.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 8
Dec. 2016.
Murray, Kelly. "The Effects of D-Day." The Effects of D-Day. Mount Holyoke
College, n.d. Web. Dec. 2016.
@ASPI_org. "The Significance of D-Day | The Strategist." The Strategıst.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 10 June 2014. Web. 8 Dec. 2016.