Operation Overlord & Operation Neptune -> The Second Front – June 1944

1. Operation Overlord & Operation Neptune -> The Second Front – June 1944 Eisenhower – supreme allied commander Montgomery – Br. Field Marshall – commander of invasion ground forces June 6, 1944 – D-Day Why the delay? • • • End of July 1944 – Allied forces secure area around Caen – drive to Paris begins 1.3 million Allied troops had landed – 120,000 casualties – 500,00 German casualties

2. The Second Front – June 1944 Operation Overlord - Army(Operation Neptune – Navy)-> June 6, 1944 – D-Day Identify the following: • Landing at Normandy Beaches –>Why? • Calais -> shortest sea route (German expected the attack) • German defences -> Atlantic Wall -> • “Mulberry” –> • “Pluto” – > • Operation Fortitude – > “funnies” • Bombing decoy-> • Paratrooper drop (7-8 hours before attack) – secure bridges, crossroads

5. Four Ghost Army Soldiers: Strong Enough To Lift An Inflatable Tank. A "Dummy Convoy": Every Vehicle And Weapon In This Photo Is Rubber. (Image Courtesy of Rick Beyer.)

6. Germans Reaction: • Beachhead achieved -> troop landing success on day 1 –> 60,000 soldiers • 1 week –> 300,000 soldiers • 3 months –> 2 million soldiers, 12,000 aircraft, 1000’s of paratroopers • Hitler’s forces = 600,000, 300 aircraft

7. Juno Beach –>

8. Canadian Third Division – captured Caen, Dieppe, Calias, Scheldt estuary in Belgium and the liberation of Holland • August 1944 – Romania joins Allies (Germany loses 23% of oil) Germany – Battle of the Bulge –> counter-offensive stops Allies

9. commanders knew defeat was inevitable • Hitler – continued to control military and political decisions • Group of army officers attempt to assassinate Hitler – July 20, 1944 – Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg – briefcase with a bomb – Hitler moves to the other side of the table leg and survives blast – somewhat injured • 5,000 suspected officers executed • - Filed Marshal von Kluge, Normandy commander in chief – Erwin Rommel • - declining morale of German troops • August 15 – invasion of southern France (US) • Hitler continues to refuse defeat • - launches counteroffensive – drag war another 6 months • - Ardennes region – along German-Belgium border • - January 1945 – German defences collapse – 180 Russian divisions cross the Vistula River into Germany • March 1945– Allies cross the Rhine • April 1945 - Russians take Berlin (April 30 – Hitler commits suicide) • May 8 – Germany surrenders unconditionally (after 12 years of Nazi power)

10. Reorganizing Europe Yalta Conference Crimean Peninsula – Feb. 4-11/1945 Roosevelt – ill (last meeting) decide fate of defeated Germany Rossevelt’s – >German people as a whole - lawless conspiracy against the decencies of modern civilization - pay 20 billion in compensation – 50% to Soviets - Stalin – partition of Poland – Churchill and Roosevelt balked -delay request - defeated Germany would be demilitarized and Nazi’s routed - divided into four zones of occupation – zone for each of the Big three and one for France – Berlin would also be occupied the same way

11. United Nations as a new organization -replace League of Nations San Francisco, April 1945 – all countries allied against Axis Powers invited to attend – several countries join war against Germany to be part of new world order General Assembly Security Council – 5 permanent members – Br. U.S., China, Soviet Union, France – each had a veto or right to overturn a decision – decide on intervene in disputes that threaten international peace and security World Bank International Monetary Fund - lend money to countries whose economies in trouble - prevent wild fluctuations in world currencies – lend money to war torn Europe, assist in rebuilding, poor countries for ec. development - ensure stability and prosperity in the postwar era

12. Hitler is destroyed -wavered between continued resistance or withdraw remaining troops to the Alpine areas of southern Germany and Russia – decided to remain in Berlin – attempted scorched earth orders – contemplated use of new and deadly gases – massacre of prisoners - April 22, 1945 – abandoned all powers – took them back the next day - April 30 – Hitler and Eva Braun – air-raid shelter of the Reich Chancellory in Berlin – committed suicide – bodies never recovered - May 8, 1945 – VE Day – German forces surrendered unconditionally - Germany – no government, cities and factories in ruin, transportation system destroyed – fate in hands of Allies

13. Potsdam Conference Soviet demands – Western Allies revise view of Soviet 1944 – aware of crucial role of Soviets in defeat of Third Reich – see the potential dominant force in postwar Europe Br. and U.S. – view Soviets with caution – mark the beginning of Cold War Berlin, July 17, 1945 – Truman, Stalin, Churchill - Manhattan Project – nuclear weapon just tested in New Mexico - Churchill defeated at the polls – Clement Attlee new leader - Stalin – takes advantages of changes – est. puppet gov’t in Poland – deals with opposition ruthlessly - consolidate gains in Eastern Europe - little accomplished at Potsdam Conference - - Germany administration – Control Council of four military commanders of occupied zones - arrest former members of SS and Nazi Party

14. Nuremberg Trials – “crimes against humanity” - • each power took what it wanted from zone of occupation as reparation payment • - Soviet Union – one-quarter to industrial equipment in Br and U.S. sectors • - disintegrating alliance – no discussions of the fate of Eastern Europe or Germany • - Europe divided – Communist controlled East, democracies controlled West • Churchill – “the descent of an iron curtain between us and everything to the eastward next 40 years

15. Impact on Society - living in constant fear of attack – living hundreds of km away – no guarantee – new weapons, planes - food rations – food became more scarce - Europe devastated or destroyed - Germany – Sept. 4/39 – War Economy Decree – closed down the production of all consumer goods except essentials, rationing - - survive on diet of black bread and potatoes - hot water rationed - single bar of soap/month