Transcript WWII Road to Berlin

WWII Road to Berlin
Mrs. Post-American Cultures II
Allies Call for
“Unconditional Surrender”
(Jan. 1943, Casablanca)
• This allows the Axis leaders to use a
huge propaganda campaign in which they
convince their citizens they will be
slaves of the Allies if they lose.
• Axis soldiers and citizens put more
effort into the war
• Roosevelt appoints
General Dwight D.
Eisenhower Supreme
Allied Commander in
Dec. 1943
• Allies know they need
to strike Hitler (who
had more than 3 years
to prepare defenses)
• By 1944, more than
3.5 million Allies
preparing in England
“In War time, truth is so precious that she
should always be surrounded by a
bodyguard of lies.”
• Allies attempt to disguise their invasions in a variety of ways:
– Spies – Double spies feeding false information
• Operations of false-invasion
– Zeppelin – Balkans (Churchill was believed to have actually prepared
for this)
– Fortitude North – Norway
– Fortitude South – Pas de Calais
• Goal: Convince Germans that invasion will
take place at Pas de Calais.
• How do you do this?
– Logical place for Allies to invade (Closest to England)
– Transmit false radio movements of troops/transports
– Exchange German prisoners (Gen. Hans Kramer) with
false information
– General George S. Patton “Blood & Guts” placed in
charge of First U.S. Army Group (Ghost Army – FUSAG)
– Fly airplanes over English Channel towards Pas de Calais
dropping aluminum to confuse radar
German aerial view
Inflatable tank
Dummy
landing
craft
•
•
•
•
•
•
9 battleships
23 Cruisers
104 destroyers
•
71 U-boats
150,000 troops
set to cross the •
English Channel
in the invasion of •
Hitler’s fortress of •
Europe
Nearly 10,000 Allied
Casualties by end of first
day (Between 4,000 and
9,000 Germans)
Failed to drive Germans;
Beachheads linked
within 5 days
July 25th – Allies break
through beach
August 25 – Paris freed
Sept. 16 – U.S. troops
reach German border
http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/d-day/88199fh.jpg
“Mulberries”: Portable harbors
brought from England
Allies land in Normandy
Omaha Beach
Rommel’s beach obstacles
Statistics on D-Day
• Greatest land, air, and sea invasion in
military history
– 50,000 motorcycles, tanks, bulldozers over 60
miles of English Channel
– 5, 333 ships and 11,000 airplanes
– 175,000 Allied soldiers fought
– Total died – 1st day – 5,000; 2,000 died on
Omaha beach
Operation Market Garden – September 1944
Market Garden – breaking into
Germany
• Montgomery convinced Eisenhower to allow a
‘direct push’ operation into Germany.
• The plan was to use 30,000 parachute troops to
seize vital bridges across the Rhine in Holland.
• An armoured thrust would then advance across
these bridges in to Germany avoiding the
German border defences (The Siegfried Line)
and encircle the Ruhr from behind.
• With the Ruhr factories taken, the German wareffort would collapse and a drive on Berlin could
take place.
Battle of the Bulge
December 1944 – the ‘Battle of the
Bulge’
• Hitler made one last offensive in the west in late
December 1944.
• The aim was to split the advancing British and
American armies and capture the Belgian port of
Antwerp (vital for Allied supplies).
• Very bad weather grounded most British/US
aircraft.
• 600 German tanks drove through the Ardennes
forest (scene of Germany’s spectacular triumph
in 1940)
Battle of the Bulge
• Despite initial success, the German tanks soon ran out
of fuel and the improving weather made them vulnerable
once more to overwhelming air attack.
• The attack failed and proved the ‘last gamble’ of the
German army in World War Two.
• From January 1945 the Americans and British began
their advance in to Germany, crossing the Rhine in
March.
• The Soviet Red Army captured Berlin in April/May 1945.
• The American and Russian armies finally linked up in the
middle of Germany at Torgau on the River Elbe.
Not home by Christmas. German troops in the forest of the
Ardennes, December 1944.
New Year’s day 1945. An American GI attempts to fire his
frozen machine gun.
The misery of war. A wounded American GI
being transported to hospital on the front of a
jeep.
Yalta conference
• This was the last war-time conference of
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.
• It was agreed that Germany would be split
in to four zones of occupation (as would
Berlin).
• Germany was to be ‘de-nazified’ and a
special trial held of its leaders.
The Big Three. The Allied leaders meet for the last time at Yalta in
February 1945 to discuss the future of Germany after the war.
Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston Churchill
to describe the
separating of
Those communist
lands of East
Europe from the
West.
Improve your knowledge
• The Russians took very high casualties to
capture Berlin in May 1945. They spent the
early occupation trying to take over all
zones of the city but were stopped by
German democrats such as Willy Brandt
and Konrad Adenauer. Reluctantly the
Russians had to admit the Americans,
French and British to their respective
zones.
April 1945 – meeting at Torgau
The Soviet and American armies met at the
town of Torgau.
The press and film reporters were anxious to
stress the American-Russian friendship
Torgau
All smiles and handshakes. American and Russian soldiers
happily pose for reporters at Torgau.
The fall of Berlin, May 1945. Soviet troops
plant the red flag on the roof of the
Reichstag.