D-Day: The last great
battle of World War 2.
By
Irene Curran.
By 1944 the war’s outcome wasn’t in doubt, but early
hopes that it would be over in Christmas, proved misplaced. For example in
The Allied naval force which crossed the Channel was
huge. “ At 0900 (June 5th) the 1st group of landing craft
left Spithead , off Portsmouth , after this a continuous stream of shipping
headed out towards Mid Channel rendezvous place (Point Z) “[4].
General Eisenhower’s difficult order to sail was a good decision but
nonetheless the wind had reached force 5. This made it difficult for the flat
bottomed craft crews and passengers to land but they managed. The first to land
(a few minutes after
The first American troops started landing on
Some 55 minutes after the U.S landings on
[1] R. Holmes, The Second World War in Photographs.
Page 295.
[2] E. Fynes, European History 1870 -1966. Page 217.
[3] E. Fynes, European History 1870 – 1966. Page
217-218.
[4] D. Miller, Great Battles of WWII. Page 87.
[5] D. Miller, Great Battles of WWII. Page 87 – 88.
[6] D. Miller, Great Battles of WWII. Page 88.
[7] D. Miller, Great Battles of WWII. Page 88.
[8] D. Miller, Great Battles of WWII. Page 88.
[9][9][9][9] D. Miller, Great Battles of WWII. Page 88.
In the Anglo-Canadian sector, meanwhile, the first
sign of activity had been almost imperceptible. At
The run in for the British and Canadian craft had been
shorter than for the Americans and they arrived in better order. But they too
met fierce resistance. On ‘Juno’ beach, landing craft, tanks and bulldozers
were soon ablaze, their metalwork twisting weirdly in the heat. But the terrain
in the easterly sector was less favorable to the defenders than at ‘
The Luftwaffe (the German Air Force) was so dominated
by the Allied forces that it managed fewer than 30 sorties over the invasion
area. Thus, by
Fighting inshore, the Allies did encountered
difficulties. Thanks to the success of the airborne landings, the flanks of
beachhead were firmly held, but efforts to break out of the centre were
frustrated by fierce German resistance and counterattacks, particularly around
In
fact, the Germans were also depressed, for their bitter defence was using up
men and equipment that could not be replaced. Moreover, the Americans were now
able to profit from the deployment of most of the enemy's armour against the
British to break into the base of the
These setbacks brought about a crisis in the German
high command, which in any case now suffered unforeseeable casualties. Dollman,
commander of the 7th Army, died suddenly on June 28, just after the
surrender of the main garrison in
Operation Anvil – the landing of troops on the French
Riviera – had occurred without setbacks and by early September had linked
up with troops from
Overlord.
SHORT QUESTIONS
Q1 Long review of a
source.
One of the books that I used for this project was D-Day: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches
by S. Ambrose. This book is about the young men born into the false promise of
the 1920's and brought up in the bitter realities of the Depression of the
1930s.The literature they read as youngsters was anti-war and cynical,
portraying patriots as fools. But when the test came, when freedom had to be
fought for or abandoned, they fought. On the basis of 1400 oral histories from
the men who where there, this book reveals how the intricate plan for the
invasion of France in June 1944 had to be nearly abandoned before the first
shot was fired. The true story of D-Day, as Stephen Ambrose relates it, is
about the citizen soldiers – junior officers and enlisted men – taking the
initiative to act on their own to break Hitler’s Atlantic Wall when they
realized that nothing was as they had been told it would be.
The book starts with a brief account of the assault on
Pegasus bridge by the British Paras, and then takes us back to the beginning
and the reasons a second front was needed. It looks at the main generals, pays
tribute to planners, engineers, British innovation and British intelligence,
and then goes through the battle area by area, step by step. There is a large
chunk of the book that focuses on Omaha Beach, and it is clear this was the
place where the invasion nearly failed. The less detailed accounts of the
Q2. Bibliography.
1. Holmes, R. The
Second World War in Photographs.
2. Miller, D. Great
Battles of World War 2, Greenhill
Books.
3. Ambrose, S.
D-day,
Q3.Short Review
One of the books
that I used for this project was Great
Battles of World War 2 by David Miller. This book was published by
Greenhill Books in
Q4.Skills.
Two skills that I learnt while doing this project were: 1 Computer
Skills: I learnt how to use Microsoft Word and how to use the Internet to find
information.
(2) I also learnt how to write a Leaving Certificate
essay properly with footnotes and a Bibliography at the end (a list of books).