D-day To The Bulge (June, 1944-January, 1945)



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D-Day To The Bulge

(June, 1944-January, 1945)
1. The Beginning of the Collapse – Operation Overlord

  1. By November of 1943 the American air offensive against the German homeland was taking a progressively heavier toll on civilian morale and industrial productivity.

  2. The Soviet Red Army had recaptured Kiev in the fall of 1943. The American army was now battle hardened. The Atlantic Wall was not complete.

  3. Hitler was resigned to surrendering some of the huge land areas his forces had conquered in the East. He could not countenance the same losses in the West however. Hitler proclaimed in Fuhrer Directive 51 on November 3, 1943:


The threat from the East remains, but an even greater danger looms in the West; the Anglo-American landing! In the East, the vastness of space will, as a last resort, permit a loss of territory even on a major scale, without suffering a mortal blow to Germany’s chance for survival.

Not so in the West! If the enemy here succeeds in penetrating our defenses on a wide front, consequences of staggering proportions will follow within a short time. All signs point to an offensive against the Western Front of Europe no later than the spring and perhaps earlier… I have therefore decided to strengthen the defenses in the West, particularly at places from which we shall launch our long-range war against England (V-1 and later V-2 missiles) For those are the very points at which the enemy must and will attack; there – unless all indications are misleading – will be fought the decisive invasion battle.”


  1. Recognizing the vulnerability of France he ended the troop transfers to the East and reinforced his forces in the West. One of Germany’s most talented generals, Rommel, took command of the Atlantic Wall sector in December of 1943. He would greatly strengthen German coastal defenses. Mine laying rose from 40,000 a month to one million a month.

  2. Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold, Sword were code names for the 5 beaches to be assaulted. A huge invasion armada composed of almost 6,500 vessels gathered on the English coast.

  3. 12,000 fighters and bombers were to support the invasion. Forward air controllers would land and direct strikes on enemy strong points. Armored bulldozers would storm inland.


2. June 6th, 1944: D-Day

  1. As day dawned an awesome spectacle unfolded. The sea was filled with ships for as far as one could see. The sky thundered with planes and the coastline began to disappear under the weight of an enormous bombardment.

  2. The thousands of soldiers slogging through the surf at 6AM stretched 60 miles. Glider troops had been landed behind enemy lines to blow bridges, cut communication, and cause havoc.

  3. The Americans suffered 4650 casualties on D-Day. The Allies had a major advantage in the speed at which they were able to reinforce their forces. The Channel was an open highway with few mines or submarines.

  4. The French rail system and roads had been devastated by bombing. The Germans moved at a slow pace as a result. As the Germans fought desperately to contain the Anglo-American forces disaster struck in the east.

  5. June 22nd, 1944, the 3rd anniversary of Barbarossa, the Soviets launched Operation Bagration. In six weeks of relentless armored attack the Soviets drove 300 miles west toward the German frontier.

  6. The Germans lost a further 350,000 men killed, wounded and captured.


3. The July Bomb Plot (7/20/44) and the Breakout

  1. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a disabled officer, attempted to assassinate Hitler. He left a suitcase bomb beneath a large oaken table during a meeting attended by the dictator. He left the meeting and flew to Berlin in anticipation of Hitler’s death. Here he planned to direct a conspiracy to replace the Nazi leadership throughout Germany with military appointees.

  2. Four men who had been sitting with Hitler were killed, but the dictator survived the attempt with minor wounds. Stauffenberg, and other conspirators, was executed that evening. The involvement of military officers in the attempt left Hitler increasingly suspicious of his officers. His officers, grew more fearful than ever of their leader. Communication between the two deteriorated.

  3. Allied forces in France found their planned advance was greatly hampered by the hedgerows of bocage country. Celtic farmers had planted field boundaries two thousand years earlier. These boundaries were re-planted by succeeding generations of farmers. Over the centuries almost impenetrable banks of roots and dirt developed, often to the thickness of 10 feet.

  4. These boundaries or hedgerows transformed the land into a quilt of pastures and meadows. Each field became a tiny natural fortress owing to the ancient barriers of entangled roots that stood five feet high. German machine gun crews within the hedgerows could sweep every line of approach with gunfire.

  5. By July 6, the Allied armies were in place but were still restricted to Normandy by the ring of powerful German defenses arrayed in opposition to any Allied attempt to break out and drive east.

  6. These defenses broke on the night of July 24-25 as more than 2,000 American planes dropped high explosives, incendiaries and fragmentation bombs on German lines. Half of the defenders were killed in the air attack. The morning after the air assault, an offensive spearheaded by tanks broke the German line and the race across France began.

  7. German forces tried to escape Normandy, but slaughter followed as American air power decimated retreating German columns. Additional Allied landings took place in the south of France on August 15. By the end of the month 37 Allied divisions were in France including 20 US.

  8. The Germans had lost 450,000 men defending Normandy. Half of these men had been captured, the rest were dead. Paris was liberated on August 25.

  9. By September 11, 1944 Allied forces had reached the frontier of Germany (D+98). The Allied Commander (and future president) Eisenhower, had not expected to be at that point until D+350. It had been a stunning advance.


4. The Battle of the Bulge (December, 1944 – January, 1945)

  1. As the Allies had sprinted across France, the Red Army had been grinding into Poland. In August the Soviets reached the suburbs of Warsaw, the Polish capital. The Polish Home Army then rose up hoping to liberate their capital in the manner the Free French had liberated Paris.

  2. But the Free French had the American army to do the heavy lifting. The Red Army stopped their offensive when the Poles rose in revolt. The Polish forces were destroyed and the Red Army resumed its attack. Stalin planned to dominate Poland at the end of the war.

  3. Hitler now saw a fleeting opportunity in the West. He marshaled the last of the German army’s reserves and launched a sudden assault on a bulge in the Allied lines hoping he could retake the Dutch port of Antwerp and cut the Allied forces in Europe off from supplies.

  4. Hitler hoped “fog, night and snow” would neutralize American air power and allow his armies to encircle Allied forces, annihilate them and capture Antwerp.

  5. Bad weather from December 16 to December 21 succeeded in providing the German army with the cover it needed, but on December 22nd, the skies were clear and the American air assault began.

  6. By the end of January the Germans had been driven from the bulge in the Ardennes Forest. The Allies had lost more than 70,000 casualties the single most costly American battle of World War II.

  7. The Germans had lost 100,000 and all of Hitler’s last reserves of men, armor and aircraft.

NAME: ______________________________ DATE:___________ PER:_______
D-DAY TO THE BULGE


  1. By 1943, what was the American air offensive able to accomplish?



  1. What was the Soviet Red Army able to do by 1943?



  1. Did Hitler expect an invasion on the Western Front?




  1. What German General took charge of the Atlantic Wall?



  1. What were the code names of the 5 invasion beaches? Which ones were to be controlled by the US?



  1. What day was D-Day?



  1. What were the Russians able to accomplish with Operation Bagration?



  1. What hampered allied advancement through France?



  1. How did the Allies break the German defenses around Normandy?



  1. How many German forces were lost in the defense of Normandy?



  1. When was Paris liberated?



  1. Did the Red Army support the Poles revolt against the Nazis?



  1. What city was Hitler hoping to re-capture in the Battle of the Bulge?



  1. What was the loss to Hitler’s army in the Battle of the Bulge?


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