Operation Overlord

1
Operation Overlord

• Disembarkment Day
• June 6, 1944
• Invasion of Europe

2
Fortress Europe (Invincible)

• Germany has had four years to prepare for this
  day
• French coast is heavily fortified
• pill boxes
• anti-tank barriers
• good internal supply lines

3
Operation Overlord

• Years in preparation
• Need to initally hit the beach with
• 176,475 men
• 20,111 vehicles (trucks, jeeps, etc.)
• 1,500 tanks
• 12,000 plane providing air cover
• Germany has been reduced to 119 fighters

4
Why Normandy ?

• Least heavily protected stretch of coast because
  it is the most forbidding
• We can capture the port of Cherbourg
• Germans blew up the docks but
• Allies had anticipated that and had constructed
  docks they floated over and sank in the harbor

5
Invasion Route Destination
6
Invasion Map
7
Germans Caught by surprise!

• Rommel had returned to Germany
• Allowed the allies to take the beaches before a
  Panzer tank division was sent in
• By June 27, one million men had been unloaded at
  the port of Cherbourg

8
Invasion of Germany

• Aachen is the first German city taken in Oct of
  1944 (Only bridge standing crossing the Rhine
  River)
• Battle of the Bulge
• Germans want to take the port city of
  Antwerp(Belgium)
• German Panzer division and best infantry push a
  60 to 90 mile bulge in allied lines
• City of Bastogne surrounded 101st airborne
  trapped, saved by Patton

9
Battle of Bulge Statistics

• Over 1 million men fight in battle
• 600,000 Americans involved in battle (more than
  Gettysburg)
• 500,000 German involved in battle
• 55,000 British involved in battle
• 100,000 German casualties, killed, wounded or
  captured.
• 81,000 American casualties, including 23,554
  captured and 19,000 killed.
• 1,400 British casualties 200 killed.
• The Malmedy Massacre, where 86 American soldiers
  were murdered, was the worst atrocity committed
  against American troops during the course of the
  war in Europe.
• In it's entirety, the Battle of the Bulge, was
  the worst battles - in terms of losses - to the
  American Forces in WWII.

10
Bastogne Battle Map
11
Important Facts for End of WWII in Europe

• April 29, 1945- Hitler commits suicide
• May 7, 1945- General Alfred Jodl surrenders
  German army to Allies
• May 8, 1945- V-E Day
• (Victory in Europe)