1944

To get you started: 1944 - Soviet offensive gathers pace in Eastern Europe. - D Day: The Allied invasion of France.Paris is liberated in August. - Guam liberated by the US Okinawa, and Iwo Jima bombed.

Use your textbook, the big PPT, the revision booklet and the internet.

Also include info about any major air, naval, land battles or developments

D-DAY
D-Day is the allied invasion of Franceon the 6th of June 1944. The landings took place along an 8o km stretch of Normandy coastline which were divided into five different parts and code named by US, British and Canadian troops, ‘Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.’ On the 25 of August Paris was liberated.


 * Why was D-Day a success?**


 * **Allied Strengths** ||  **German Weaknesses**  ||
 * * Thorough preparations since 1942, including training of troops and the build-up of equipment and supplies.
 * Leadership of Eisenhower who turned the Allied armies into a ‘team’
 * The location of the landings was kept a secret
 * Allied control of the air and sea, this meant the landing craft were free from attack
 * The use of the air force to bomb communications in theNormandyarea and slow down German reinforcements to the area
 * The lessons ofDieppe- no attack on defended ports. || * The Germans had lost the control of airspace overNormandy
 * They had to defend a long French coastline and were bound to be weak in certain areas.
 * They were taken in by the allied bombings of theCalaisarea and thought the attack would take place here
 * They were slow to send reinforcements to theNormandyarea. On the day of the invasions Hitler was still convinced it was a decoy and that the real landings would be nearCalais. This gave the Allies precious time to establish a bridgehead and not to be driven straight back into the sea. ||


 * Battle** **of Leyte Gulf** (23-26 Oct, 1944)

(consisted of 4 major battle shown above 1 Battle of Sibuyan Sea 2 Battle of Surigao Strait 3 Battle of Cape Engano 4 Battle off Samar)
 * Also known as the “Second Battle of the Philippine Sea”
 * Considered the largest navel battle of WWII and possible the largest in history
 * Fought in the waters near the Philippine islands of Leyte
 * Combination of US and Australian forces against the Imperial Japanese navy
 * Started as a strategy by the US to isolate Japan from the countries it had occupied in theSouth East Asia
 * In particular depriving its supply of vital oil resources
 * Japanmobilized its navy in defence of the invasion but could not defeat the US navy
 * Japanhad fewer aircraft then the Allied forces had sea vessels (which shows the difference in power of the two sides)
 * The majority of Japans surviving ships, lacking fuel, remained in their bases fro the rest of the Pacific War
 * This was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organised //kamikaze//attacks
 * Suicide attacks by Japanese military aviators designed to destroy warships more effectively then was possible with conventional attacks


 * Battle** **of the Philippine Sea** (19-20 June, 1944)
 * Fifth major “carrier-vs-carrier” engagements betweenAmericaand Japanese naval forces
 * Effectively eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy’s ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions
 * Nicknamed “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” by America because of the severely disproportional loss ratio upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners
 * A pilot supposedly remarked “this is like a old-time turkey shoot!” during the battle
 * This outcome is primarily attributed to American improvements in pilot and crew training, war technology, and ship and aircraft design


 * __ Russia’s preparation against Germany __**

The Soviet offensive of Eastern Europe was called Operation Bagration (Ba-grat-ion) which countered Germany's invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa.

Russia’s plans were top secret until they were unveiled for the first time on the training ground. They developed technology which could turn a tank into a minesweeper on the field, it was a device that attached to a tank which looked like a steamroller. The commander General Rokkosovsky was planning an offensive. Tactically, Russia purposely tried to give the impression that they were primarily defensive, which is what Germany’s //Blitzkrieg// worked so well against. To the contrary, Russia was successfully pushing Germany out. A line which seperated Germany and Russia’s offensive lines was called the Viella-Russian Balcony, it was very firm Germany had no idea how and where the Soviet union would attack. When Germany decided to send reinforcements to Ukraine, Soviet surprise attacked, this movement was called Operation Bagration, June 1944. Compared to other battles, this was by far the greatest Soviet victory in numerical terms. The Red Army liberated a vast amount of Soviet territory whose population had suffered greatly under the German occupation. In order to show the outside world how victorious they had been, 50,000 German prisoners were paraded through Moscow. It was very symbolic, and humiliating for Germany, since was 90 minutes of ridicule down the streets of Moscow. Germany never fully recovered from their resources lost from Operation Bagration, they lost about a quarter of its Eastern Front manpower, similar to the percentage of loss at Stalingrad. The offensive attack on Germany had been so great that some German generals committed suicide.