Drive to Victory
From D-Day to the
Philippines
B-17 Flying Fortress!
n  Length=
74 Ft!
n  Wing Span= 103 Ft!
n  Crew= 10!
n  Guns= 13 .50 Caliber!
n  Bombs= 8,000 lbs!
n  Range= 1850 Miles!
n  #= 12,500 built!
Turning Back the German Army
n  Casablanca
Conference (FDR/WC)- Strategy
n  Not
ready for France Assault yet (GB wimps)
n  Sicily and Italy first= Continue Soft
Underbelly
n  Continue Strategic Bombing and start “Total
Warfare”
•  RAF and US 8th Air Force
•  1943-45 53,000 tons of bombs/month
•  Creates oil shortage/wrecks railroads/aircraft factories/
U-boat pens/manufacturing centers
•  Firebombing (Dresden/Hamburg)
Memphis
Belle
Question- Moral Dilemma?? !!
n  Strategic
Bombing (Military only) VS Total
Warfare (Military and Civilian) !
n  Evaluate
the benefits of Total Warfare
over just strategic bombing. (Pros/Cons)!
n  Is
Total Warfare ethically/morally ok in
times of war? Could it actually save
lives?!
Soft Underbelly
n  Striking
at the Soft Underbelly
n  Eisenhower
in charge- Patton and “Monty” have
troops
n  July 10, 1943 land on Sicily.
n  Italy panics-
•  Mussolini arrested/King surrenders 9/8
•  Hitler takes control, puts Mussolini back and digs in
n  Germans
at Cassino/US lands at Anzio - 5 tough mos
•  Take Rome by May 1944; Italy falls May 1945
•  Bloody campaign- 300,000 Allies die
Monte Casino!
The Battle of Monte Cassino:
Jan-May of 1944
Huge religious Abbey
used by Germans to
stop Allied drive up
the spine of Italy
American bombing finally
destroys Abbey
Controversial- ok to bomb
a religious structure?
Beaches at Anzio!
Fighting through Italy!
The Battle for Sicily:
June, 1943
General
George S. Patton
The Italian Campaign
[“Operation Torch”] :
Europe’s “Soft Underbelly”
§  Allies plan assault
on weakest Axis
area - North
Africa - Nov.
1942-May 1943
§  George S. Patton
leads American
troops
§  Germans trapped
in Tunisia surrender over
275,000 troops.
The Allies Liberate Rome:
June 5, 1944
Big 3
Churchill
FDR
Stalin
Stalin= “Open a 2nd Front in France NOW”
!
Turning Back the German Army cont…
n  Tehran
n  Stalin-
Conference (FDR/WC/Stalin)
Promises to launch offensive from East once
we invade France in 1944
n  Break up Germany after war
n  Soviets would help vs Japan after Germany falls.
n  Agrees with FDR’s “United Nations” idea
Tehran Conference!
Gen. Eisenhower Gives the Orders for DDay [“Operation Overlord”]
US General Dwight Eisenhower was chosen by the
Big 3 at the Tehran Conference (Nov. 28-Dec. 1,
1943) as the Supreme Allied Commander and was
responsible for the D-Day Invasion.
Operation Overlord
n  Now
invade France- FDR chooses Ike
n  Operation
Overlord
n  Penetrate the “Atlantic Wall” (Rommel in charge)
n  French coast heavily fortified but we have surprise
n  Hitler believed invasion at Calais (closest)
n  Allies put fake tents, tanks, craft to fool them
n  “Operation Fortitude”
n 
Huge resources- 1.5 m troops/12,000 planes/5
million tons of equipment trained and ready!
Inflatable Tank (Fortitude)!
Inflatable Tank!
The Third Reich built the Atlantic Wall.
These fortifications extended from the SpanishFrench border all the way to Norway.
Invasion of Normandy
5KNA Productions 2012
Overlord
n 
Planning Operation Overlord cont…
n  Time matters! Every 6 weeks get all three……
•  Night crossing with low tide at dawn needed
•  Full Moon needed for paratroopers to see land
•  Good Weather - no rain or heavy waves
n 
Weather delays on June 5, Ike gives command to go June 6
•  This will be D-Day; Now often called the “Longest Day”
Beach Obstacles!
If we fail…..!
Longest Day
n  7,000
ships w/ 100,000 troops.
n  23,000
paratroopers were dropped, gliders, 45% in
wrong places, clickers, hedgerows
n  Huge bombardment by ships and bombers
n  Five
beaches code: Utah, Omaha, Gold,
Juno, and Sword
n  Waves
of landings take place
n  Fight for land inch by inch and take the beaches
n  130,000 troops on beach and inland by end of day.
D-Day Beaches!
Longest Day Con’t
Americans in charge of Utah and Omaha Beaches
n  Utah finds little resistance (wrong drift)
n  Omaha is terrible - Landings have drifted
•  Best German defenses- troops/topography of beach
•  Landing bogs down, troops killed, little headway made
•  Almost cancelled until we finally get foothold
n  Pointe
du Hoc
•  100 ft cliffs between beaches with German guns
•  2nd Ranger Battalion
•  Ropes/ladders- make way and eventually take out guns
The landing was preceded by a gathering of troops, weapons and ships to England.
Fuel Supply
Bombing at Pointe du Hoc
Paratroopers
The Drop
A Glider
!
DDay
Landing !
Normandy Beach today
It was Hell!
Two Prong Attack- Japan
n  Nimitz-and
MacArthur= Island Hopping
n  Only
take essential islands/locations
n  Too bloody and takes too long to get each one
n  Others will “Wither on the Vine” and die
n  End
result- Possible Invasion of Japan!
n  Guadalcanal
(2 year battle) – Basilone!
•  Back and forth; naval power and the 1st Marines!
n  Bloody
Tarawa- Media’s influence!
Guadalcanal!
Going ashore at Tarawa!
Tarawa!
Landing Craft at Peleliu!
Nimitz and Island Hopping
n  Island-Hopping
n  Brutally
cont…
tough to take a Japanese held island
•  Dug in with underground caves/tunnels
•  “Bushido”- Fight with honor and refusal to surrender
•  Night time attacks/charges
•  10+ to 1 = Japanese to American deaths
n  Mariana
Islands, B-29’s could reach J from here
•  Saipan, Tinian, and Guam all taken by Aug, 1944
•  Civilian deaths/Cliff Suicides
n  B-29’s
begin bombing of mainland Japan.
B-29 Super fortress 3,250 mile
range!
MacArthur
n  MacArthur
Returns to the Philippines
n  The March on to Tokyo
Guinea and Peleliu (1st Marines) – not
needed!
n  Decides now to return to the Philippines- Oct 1944
n  Huge force assembled- 700 Ships/160,000 troops
n  Lands on Leyte Coast in West Philippines
n  Mac= “People of the Philippines, I have returned”
n  New
Battle of Leyte Gulf
n  Leyte
Gulf
n  Largest
Naval battle in history
n  Trick American carriers
n  Hit American Troops on coast
n  Use of “Kamikaze” for first time
n  J withdraw at last moment or invasion would have
been lost.
n  Battle for Philippines is slow and brutal - 80,000
Japanese soldiers died
n  By March 1945 the Philippines were under
American control.