'D’ Day and the liberation of France

• D-Day

  The Allied invasion of Normandy, France to liberate it from German occupation
• Allied Strategies and Targets

  • The beaches of Normandy were selected as the target for the operation, but the ultimate objective was to liberate Paris
  • Stage 1 was naval and aerial bombardments of the Atlantic Wall
  • Then airborne units would paradrop into German territory to destroy vital systems (comms) and enforce new resistance
• Strategic significance

  • The Allies now had a base in Europe from which they could launch a direct attack on Germany
  • It allowed the Russians to launch an attack on Germany from the East
  • The Liberation of France meant that the Allies could launch more frequent bombing attack on Germany
• Military significance

  • Ongoing losses for the Wehrmacht were becoming a significant issue as it meant that they became numerically reduced, overextended, undersupplied and vulnerable
• Preparations for D-Day

  1. 50 decommissioned vessels were sunk off the Normandy beaches to create breakwaters

  2. Operation Pluto: 130 km of pipeline run across the channel to supply fuel
• Misdirection

  The Allies created a phantom fighting force is SE England to broadcast false radio transmissions and build dummy military equipment to fool German reconnaissance
• Tanks: 20:1 Allied to Axis
• Aircraft: 25:1 Allied to Axis
• Casualties in the Liberation of France: Axis 400,000, Allied 200,000 (2,500 on D-Day)
• Operation Bodyguard


  The attempt to keep the invasion a secret. The Allies spared no effort to hide their true intentions from the Abwehr. In early 1944 around 1.6 million American and Canadian troops arrived in Britain for the invasion along with around 50,000 vehicles. 3 June 1944: Allied intelligence transmitted 10 phoney orders to target the Pas de Calais that they knew that the Abwehr could decipher.
• Operation Pluto


  The Allied mission to place pipelines under the English Channel from England to France so that when the time came to liberate France their oil supply would be constant and uninterrupted. They laid approx. 130 km of pipeline and supplied the invasion forces with 1.5 million litres a day.
• Operation Overlord

  • Allied Forces: 300,000 combat and support units, 7,000 naval vessels (including 4,000 landing craft) and 12,000 aircraft
  • Axis Forces: 180,000 troops and 1,500 field guns. As well as the Atlantic Wall.
• The Invasion of Normandy

  More than 7,000 Allied ships left British seaports, set for Normandy. 12,000 Allied paratroopers were dropped behind Enemy lines in 6 waves. 0300, 6 June, 1944: 50,000+ Allied soldiers boarded LST's 5km off the coast. The beach was divided into 5 attack zones: Utah & Omaha (U.S.), Gold & Sword (British) and Juno (Canadian).
• After Kursk, the Germans began a fighting retreat, giving up much of what they had captured since June 1941.
• Kharkov (August 1943) - Soviets lost 85 000 troops, compared to the Germans' 11000
• Smolensk (August to October 1943) Soviets lost 450 000 troops, while the Germans lost between 100 000 and 200 000 men
• Kiev (November 1943) - Soviets lost 118,042 men, compared to the Germans' 16,992
• Volksdeutsche

  Ethnic-Germans from Hungary, Bulgaria and elsewhere who happened to have German blood but tended to be less committed to the Nazi cause. Used to fill gaps in the Wehrmacht in the East, lowering morale as they were not as willing to die for the Nazi cause.
• Bagration - Forces Available

  • Soviet (6 times the German force): 1.7 million troops, 2715 tanks, 1355 assault guns, 10 563 artillery pieces, 2306 Katyusha rocket launchers and 11 514 advancing technology to close the technological gap. Numerical air superiority (7:1) e.g. 1744 IL-2 Sturmovik ground-attack aircraft.
  • German: Army Group Centre: 400,000 infantry units. (⅓ being Volksdeutsche) 4740 tanks and assault guns on the entire Eastern Front, of which only 553 were with Army Group Centre. Most Armoured reserves were placed in the south due to the success of the Maskirovka Camouflage tactics used by the Soviets.
• Fuhrer Directive 51 on 3rd of November 1943 ordered that all attention be turned towards the threat of the Allied invasion of France, causing a resource shortage on the Eastern Front as there was 1500 kilometres to defend in the East and not enough manpower or supply to do so.
• Initial Offensives

  1. The Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive (24 December 1943 -17 April 1944) - 2.5. million Soviet troops - aimed to liberate eastern Ukraine and cut off the German troops on the Crimean Peninsula.

  2. In the north, after a 900-day siege that cost the lives of over 1 million civilians, the Soviets launched the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive (14 January -1 March 1944), relieving Leningrad on 27 January 1944.

  3. The Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive (9 June - 9 August 1944) was aimed at forcing Finland out of the war, succeeding on 19 September 1944.
• Operation Bagration

  Coordinated to coincide with D Day, 22 June 1944 (third anniversary of Op. Barbarossa). The aim was for the Red Army to completely destroy German forces in Belarus, and clear the path for the route into Poland and Germany.
• Days after the end of Bagration, on 23 August 1944, Romania decided to abandon the Nazi cause, change sides and fight with the Soviets. A few weeks later, a coup d'etat in Bulgaria saw it change sides and join the Allies. With the loss of their Finnish allies on 19 September, and the attempt of the Hungarians to sign an armistice with the Soviets, Germany now fought on almost completely alone.