In the final months of World War II Allied Forces, commanded by United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower, were on the offensive and had pushed deep into German territory. The Germans had suffered significant losses of troops and equipment after five years of warfare. Any chance of winning meant the Germans would have to make a stand. Hitler discussed his strategy with his top generals. While they agreed that capturing the city of Antwerp, a major Allied supply hub, would inflict a devastating blow to the Allied Forces, they disagreed with Hitler’s plan of assaulting through the heavily wooded area of the Ardennes. Furthermore, the plan was to attack under the protection of poor weather to mitigate the use of Allied airpower, which was a major Allied advantage. Hitler believed that a complex assault would catch Allied commanders off-guard causing them to be slow to react. The Allied lines were spread very thin in the Ardennes, even to the point of “an average of 73 men per mile.” Moreover, this specific area was used for training new units and for allowing battle-tested, experienced units to rest and …show more content…
Surprise delays enemy reactions, overloads and confuses enemy decision makers and command and control systems, induces psychological shock in enemy soldiers and leaders, and reduces the coherence of the enemy defense. In essence, surprise is catching the enemy off-guard in order to gain the upper hand during a conflict. The Germans executed surprise flawlessly, meaning the Allies had no idea of the ensuing attack. Nor did they foresee the incredible size of the impending German assault. For ten days the Germans capitalized on the momentum of their surprise and pushed the Allies back; however, once their momentum dwindled, it took the Allies almost triple the amount of time to regain their initial positions and decimate German
With German forces on the run following the Allied success at Normandy and the breakout and pursuit across France, Allied forces were staged to enter Germany in late summer 1944. Both Field Marshal Montgomery and General Bradley clamored to be given the priority of effort. General Eisenhower chose Montgomery’s Operation MARKET GARDEN as the plan for action. It called for airborne forces to open the route for a ground force to move more than sixty miles up a single road, ending up north of the Rhine River near Arnhem, Netherlands. By accomplishing this task, the German Ruhr industrial heartland would be within easy grasp. But the operation failed. The ground force
Adolf Hitler and his actions are the cause of World War II. “Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who don't want to fight in this world of eternal struggle they don't deserve to live, ” by Adolf Hitler. This is an important quote since Hitler believed in the power of war. His parents died when he was young, so he went into the army very young and fought in World War I.
Britain and France desperately awaited the moment when the US would fully join in the fighting in Europe during World War II, and D-Day brought that full fledged involvement. If not for the efforts of the United States of America, its cooperation and planning with its allies, the invasion would not have been successful. It was successful, however, due to previous planning, the level of supplies and men from the US combined with the European allies, as well as the divided German forces. D-Day was the beginning of liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. Hitler had known that in order for the Allies to be successful, there would have to be an invasion of mainland Europe - which his forces controlled most of - and that it would come from northwestern Europe, with Great Britain being the jumping off point. But if he was expecting the attack, why was he not better prepared? The planning that had gone into the invasion at the beaches of Normandy on the coast of France had been thorough and extensive, with a large part of that planning being the intentional disinformation about the location of the invasion, thus fooling the Nazi leader. These factors explain why Operation Overlord was successful, and thus became the turning point in the world war.
The raid on Dieppe emphasized the importance of strategic planning, causing the Allies to initiate prior air bombings that weakened the German defences. Similar to the raid at Dieppe, secrecy was deemed essential to the success of D-Day. The planned smoke screens to hide the incoming Allied troops failed, most of the attacks were late, and surprise was lost in the early hours of the raid on Dieppe, advising Canada to reform their plans for D-Day. As a result, Operation Fortitude was introduced as a deception strategy in which dummy airfields and planes, inflatable tanks, and fake fleets were placed in Norway and Pas de Calais. This diversion convinced Germans that the Allies would attack further north and east, and not in Normandy.2 The
The Battle of The Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the largest battle fought by the U.S. Army and started December 19, 1944 and was the last major offensive the axis army launched(C-1). More than 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched off to reverse the ebb in Hitler's fortune(A-1). The death toll was insanely high and every step you took there was a body sure enough within 10 feet of you. But the attack was a surprise to the allies with several ignored warnings that the Germans were going to strike. But some of the generals distrusted the plan and did not think that it could work, advising Hitler not to attack now and to wait, but Hitler, Hitler didn't care about what anyone thought, he thought one thing and that was victory as soon as possible. So the Germans advanced with an attempt to split the allied armies in the northwest by
World War II was a devastating war where millions of soldiers and civilians died. Adolf Hitler played a huge part in World War II and was one of the major reasons the war happened. Hitler started to take over countries like Austria with little or no resistance. When he later tried to invade Poland, Britain declared war. Even though there was very little fighting at the time Britain declared war. Hitler’s ideas and goals for Germany were what initially caused World War II and later led to the holocaust. His need for more space for Germany led him to start taking over countries and initially started the war with Britain and he wanted a superior Aryan race which is the reason for the Holocaust. Hitler stated the three reasons for starting this war in his Journal Mein Kampf. His goals were to get rid of the Treaty of Versailles, make a Greater Germany, and he wanted more living space for his people.
Reconnaissance missions, studying and observing weather patterns and the ways the Allies kept the invasion a secret were also military strategies the Allies used to turn the tides of war. With reconnaissance planes, the Allies were able to scout the enemy’s defensive positions. With the study of weather patterns in Normandy, the Allies were able to decide which day would have the least amount of wind, waves and clouds so transport ships would not sink and bombers would have a clearer view of their targets. How the Allies kept their plan a secret was also a strategy to not let the Germans know their true agenda. The research question, what were the Allies military strategies used in preparation of the Normandy landings? The analyses of the different strategies being used in preparation and during D-Day will be shown in this essay.
During this battle, the Germans lost a lot of troops. The Germans could not stop the Western Allies, German commanders braced themselves. Hitler lost over 500,000 troops in the West. He now had a shortage of troops. Germans stole U.S. Army uniforms, weapons, and jeeps,
The Germans were well equipped with state of the art weapons, had more troops than the allies. The allies were outnumbered and outgunned. Germans devised a plan that would use machineguns up front and artillery at the back. So constant fire from the enemies, the allies couldn’t fight back. Basically it was a death trap with one way in and no way out.
Nearing the end of World War II and after the successful D-Day invasion by Allied Forces, Adolf Hitler would personally plan a counteroffensive he believed would turn the tied of the war in his favor and prevent his unconditional surrender. Historically known as the Battle of the Bulge, the Ardennes Counteroffensive, from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, would showcase the power of a full-scale German offensive while highlighting the ingenuity and heart of the United States Army as they encountered a seemingly undefeatable foe.
the allies attacked the Germans with 75,000 soldiers, more than 500 tanks and nearly 2,000 planes. In this attack Henry Rawlinson took 11 divisions. ( 3 British, 4 Canadian, and 4 Australian). Germany was not well prepared for this war they had 37,000 soldiers, 530 guns, and 369 planes. The weather didn’t help them because on that day it was foggy but it did help the Allies because it helped them cover up what they were doing. Rawlinson wanted to make the attack a surprise attack and to accomplish this he use wireless deception which included periods of radio silance and fake messages from the other part of the line. Rawlinson had a goal of achieving 8 mile advance in the first day. So to no surprise the troops and tanks advanced 8 miles in the first day, capturing 400 guns, causing 27,000 casualties, and taking 12,000 prisoners. In the first day the Allies Forces advanced 100 metres every 3 minutes. During the war heavy tanks were used to attack well defended german positions while smaller tanks called “Whippets” where used to probe german
The article discussed the German surprise but, somewhat expectation that the Americans, British,and Canadians were to land in Normandy and left Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of analyzing the beaches, setting up land mines, poisoning the nearby water supply and fields so the opposing soldiers would not stand a chance to survive. Rommel then decided that no matter what he does the Americans, British,and Canadians could not really be stopped unless the German troops were to be at that very spot and even if that time came he would not be allowed to move his troops without the permission of Hitler. Additionally, out of the 46 infantry divisions in France seven of them were untrained soldiers that mainly consisted of really young and old men however, the other troops were filled with well trained man that were many that vere veterans from the Eastern Front. Furthermore, commander Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt division had roughly 850,000 men which 60,000 of them were Russian prisoners that volunteered to be in the war instead of jail. On the other hand, Hitler actually suspected and waited from the
Hitler’s violations of the Treaty of Versailles and Britain and France’s policy of appeasement additionally led to World War II. Aggressive actions taken by Japan, Italy, and Germany added to the worldwide chaos that would eventually result in World War II. In 1931 Japan attacked Manchuria and became more involved in mainland China, the League of Nations did nothing to stop Japan and later the aggressive actions taken by Japan cause a war between China and Japan. This involvement and increased tensions would later lead to the outbreak of war in the Pacific (Lyons 49). Mussolini’s hostile invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 received no consequences from the League of Nations, further proving that the League of Nations had no power and that Mussolini
The unthinkable happened again. We didn’t think that a war would happened again and millions of people died of selfish actions. There were many reasons why WW2. One man named Adolf Hitler. He was one and manly the reason why WW2 another reason why WW2 was the League of Nations a reason why. But to most to take the blame was Hitler.
‘From the first day that he "seized power," January 30, 1933, Hitler knew that only sudden death awaited him if he failed to restore pride and empire to post-Versailles Germany.’[1] The Second World War was the deadliest battle in History. Figures estimate that over 59 million people were killed during its conflict. German leadership was under Adolf Hitler, a ruthless dictator who was the chancellor of Germany during the majority of the conflict. It is debatable that Hitler was solely responsible for the events in which lead to and occurred during the Second World War. Hitler was responsible to a large degree, however cannot be accountable for every aspect in which the