Module 12 – Course of WWII

Last module, we examined the causes of World War II – The common causes to address were the failure of the
Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, as well as the rise of Hitler and his aggressive policies,
especially his incursions into Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Another important item to note was the allies’ policy of appeasement and the ways that they attempted to
appease Hitler in an effort to avoid war (which wasn’t very successful).

We can see that by September of 1939, the policy of appeasement had failed and Britain had declared war on
Germany. That declaration in the fall of 1939 started the process by which Europe was then launched into the
second major war in twenty years.

Today, we are going to begin charting the course of World War II.

There are three phases to this war: The first phase of the war (1939-1941) clearly belonged to Germany. The
second is the entrance of the United States as well as the war on the Pacific Front, The Holocaust, and
shifting Russian loyalties (1941-1942). The third and final phase is the Allied Victories (1942-1945). We will
look at each phase in turn.

Let’s start by looking at some characteristics of World War II.

Now, World War I and II were similar in some respects – they had the same outcomes, the same key players,
and similar fronts in the war in Europe (both East and West); however, unlike World War I – which was defined
by stalemate and attrition – World War II was a war of rapid movement!

World War II was also even more of a “world” war than World War I – as most of the fighting in World War I
took place in Europe, whereas in World War II we have fighting in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific
Islands.

World War II is what we call a “total war” – that is, war reached the home front in most countries, and targeting
civilians became as much of a strategy in the war as battles on the battlefront!

First Phase of War:

The German Invasion of Poland

You will remember that the whole war starts with the German invasion of Poland! This happens on September
1, 1939 and is at least somewhat of a surprise because Hitler had signed a non-aggression pact with Poland in
1934 (remember)!

But, if you look on a map you can see why this territory is so desirable – it separates Germany proper from
Prussia, and allows for greater access to the coast.

Now, you will remember that Poland was a member of the League of Nations as well as an ally of Britain and
France and the three had a non-aggression pact in times of war. So, when Hitler invaded on September 1, it took
only until Sept. 3 for the allies to declare war.

Now, the German invasion of Poland is a textbook case for understanding how the German war machine works;
true to form, Hitler had told the Nazi Reichstag that Poland had tried to invade Germany.
Poland’s army in 1939 was totally unprepared for the new warfare it found itself in. Poland, like many armies,
had large cavalry forces. What modern aircraft the Polish Air Force had were caught on the ground. In a lot of
battles, Hitler’s advantage came from catching the allies off guard.

Remember that while he had been preparing and planning a war for years, the allies had all been trying to avoid
one.

Krakow fell on September 6 1939, the fort of Danzig fell on September 7 1939, and the Soviets entered Western
Poland on September 17, 1939.

The organized Polish resistance ended on October 6, 1939; the Germans and the Soviets divide up Poland as
planned into East and West partitions. The whole matter is conducted in less than 5 weeks, but the German
presence in Poland will be horrific. Over the course of the war, about 6,000,000 Polish people will die –
3,000,000 of them in the Holocaust.

You may be wondering, how did Germany and Russia do this?

The answer lies in the German Blitzkrieg.

You will remember from World War I that the German army was usually victorious provided that it was
moving; Hitler knew this and made a concerted effort to keep World War II moving at such a rapid pace and
with such a huge commitment of men and arms and force that he would always outrun and outmaneuver the
allied forces.

Blitzkrieg means lightning war (moving at lightning fast speed) and the name was invented by Joseph
Goebbels, one of Hitler’ most trusted advisors, and head of the Propaganda Ministry. Now, the Germans
weren’t the inventors of this type of warfare, in fact the idea had been around for some time and has been
credited to an English man, but they were the only ones who really tested it! Essentially, Blitzkrieg was a
maneuver tactic where armored, but mobile columns or tanks would break through the enemy lines, supported
by artillery and attack aircraft. Once the columns were through the line, they would not stop but continue into
the enemy rear, disrupting their supply lines and cutting off units. The armored columns were followed by
infantry units that would exploit the gaps and surround the isolated enemy units. The tactic worked most
effectively in Europe against the French and the Netherlands, and in the beginning of the conflict against the
Soviet Union. Its success was due to a combination of surprise and favorable terrain. Though the German
blitzkrieg was generally very successful, it did suffer from some difficulties: it was heavily dependent on the
element of surprise, on good weather and good terrain, especially since it was just a huge concerted effort.

The blitzkrieg depended heavily on the invention of some new weaponry. Essentially, the Germans had to
invent tanks that could move quickly; these were called Panzers and the Germans tested several different
versions of them, settling on the Panzer IV as the fastest and most reliable weapon.

They produced over 9,000 of them and the panzer became the German’s most popular choice of weaponry.
It usually had a crew of about 4 people and it weighed about 25 tonnes!

So, with these new tactics in hand and Poland efficiently divided up, where would Germany turn its attention to
next? Indeed, that became a question that the Allies found themselves asking.

That is when something coined “The Phony War” took place:

Just as it had been in the interwar years, the opening years of World War II were defined by a lot of posturing:
after Poland fell in record time, things calmed down and this led to some confusion. Everyone was in position –
the Germans and the Soviets had split up Poland so that it had disappeared from the map; British forces had
crossed the English Channel and landed on the northern coast of France; the Germans were ready and armed in
the Rhineland; the French on the Maginot Line [the chain of fortifications guarding France’s eastern frontier]
and everyone was just waiting for something to happen. Even the Netherlands and Belgium were bracing for
war, but nothing seemed to be happening. There was a bit of submarine warfare, but all in all the Western front
was pretty quiet. People began to refer to the period between October 1939 and April of 1940 as a sitzkreig or
a phony war because nothing else had happened! In fact, people began to feel a bit complacent, like maybe all
of this was for nothing and a great war could actually be avoided – hopeful I know!
However, even though nothing seemed to be happening, countries were still scheming.

Then, on April 9, 1940 the Germans set a new plan in action: they suddenly invaded Denmark and Norway and
held them by the end of the month. The whole point of this plan was to secure an outlet to the Atlantic and make
certain that the German forced didn’t get bottled up in the Baltic Sea. The Scandinavian coastline was also
strategic to stopping British and French shipping as well as good ports for submarine warfare. It was at this
point that Neville Chamberlain of England resigned leaving the position of prime minister to Winston Churchill.

By May 10, 1940, they were invading the Low Countries. The German strategy involved taking as much
territory as possible as quickly as possible; this was done as a way to succeed before the Allied forces could
mount a defense. It worked amazingly. Luxembourg fell in one day; the Netherlands fell in 5 days; Belgium
took a couple of weeks to fall.

Hitler was clearly advancing on France: by securing the Low Countries, Hitler was in a position to outflank
France’s Maginot Line.

The major forces met at Dunkirk. Dunkirk is located in northern France about 10km from the Belgium border;
It was a harbour area and the Germans were able to effectively trap the allied forces there. This is where the
Germans had the upper hand and forced them either to surrender or withdraw: the major forces chose to
evacuate and the British were successful in evacuating 340,000 men back to England in about a week’s time [if
there is a bright side to any of this]. Dunkirk is called a miracle from the allied forces, as German mistakes
permitted the British escape, whereas the Germans see Dunkirk as a major blunder – the moment when they
could have wiped out the British forces but failed to do so. The British army was driven from the continent, yes,
leaving its equipment behind, but Churchill starts giving riveting speeches about how Germany will never take
the island; that England did not get defeated, they are just regrouping. Perhaps, most importantly, however, the
Battle of Dunkirk leaves the French alone to face the Germans.

See this link to see some Dunkirk footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OILohJMETeQ&feature=related

This is when the allies suffer The Fall of France.

Germany began its offensive against France early in June of 1940. Since the Germans had defeated Belgium
they could advance southward from the north, rendering the Maginot line useless. The French fought a
desperate, losing battle; their army was not trained or equipped for the new kind of war; there were scenes of
utter confusion. Civilians, carrying whatever goods they could save, blocked roads attempting to flee southward
while German planes bombed and machine-gunned the fleeing refugees, spreading panic and disorder. The
Germans were coming down from the North; Mussolini was invading from the South – pandemonium ensued.
On June 14, the Germans invaded Paris and French resistance collapsed; the French cabinet resigned instead of
surrendering. Some flee the country to assist in the British war effort or escape to French possessions in
Northern Africa where they can continue the war from there. It only takes a couple of weeks for France to fall.

This is where the fall of France becomes a bit confusing: some French soldiers, however, eagerly surrendered.
Why you ask? Well, because there are those eager to surrender and work with Germany. And, because of this,
France becomes divided. Since those who didn’t want to surrender have left office, it leaves it open for those
who want to surrender and cooperate to take office and control. And then a dictatorial government is formed
under the leadership of Marshal Henri Petain and Pierre Laval, and they cooperate with Hitler. Late in June they
sign an armistice with both Hitler and Mussolini and the repercussions are very severe. As a result of German
occupation, France becomes divided into two regions: Occupied France and Vichy France. German troops
occupy northern France, including Paris and a strip of territory along the Atlantic Coast southward to Spain, and
France is to pay for all of the costs of the German occupation (a bit of revenge for France so desperately
wanting Germany to pay for the debts of World War One remember). Moreover, the French navy is disarmed
and kept in French ports and the French government is moved to Vichy in the south. Vichy is a controversial
and hated word in French history synonymous with appeasement, surrender, and fascism to this day. It has been
highly regarded as one of the most embarrassing and unfortunate incidents in French history.

However, just because the government is complicit with Germany, doesn’t mean that the people were. In
Occupied France, underground French resistance movements worked to sabotage the German war effort – they
blew up bridges, wrecked trains, cut telephone and telegraph lines, and when they were discovered they were
usually tortured and executed.

Once France fell, Germany turned its attention towards Britain.

This brings us to The Battle of Britain

The Germans had great strategic position now that they occupied Northern France; Hitler began scattered bomb
raids on Britain, which gradually increased in intensity. These attacks were part of Operation Sea Lion, a plan to
weaken and then invade and conquer the British Isles. Now, though they had been preparing for war for about a
year before its outbreak, Great Britain really wasn’t prepared for Germany’s type of war. Hitler offered to
negotiate a peace settlement, similar to what he had done with France, but he was quickly turned down by
Churchill. England was determined not to fall. Germany then stepped up its air attacks on Great Britain, striking
civilian populations as well as railroad and industrial targets. The heaviest attacks occurred from August to
November 1940. German bombers blasted British cities with explosives and fire bombs and London was
continually bombed during September and October. In November, the city of Coventry was practically burned
to the ground.
The whole point of the battle was to lower British morale and destroy people’s will to fight. As well, they were
hoping to simply starve the British out – they had a hold over British shipping. These intense air attacks lasted
into 1941, but it didn’t work – the British stuck it out and continued to fight back.

British planes, though fewer, were better in quality than the German planes and they were piloted by some very
daring pilots who with the advancement of radar continued to bomb Germany. Both sides started using night
bombing as a way to surprise attack the other, but these were not producing the desired effects on either side.

In an effort to get somewhere, Germany will turn its attention towards the East. In essence, though we have an
active war, we have also reached a stalemate because neither side is prepared to give up and each just keeps on
going. It might have remained this way for longer, but we have a few significant shifts that are about to occur in
the war.

We are now going to look at some key turning points in the war, because the way things are going for the allies,
it does not look good. They are going to need some help if they are going to pull through this mess. Just as we
saw in World War I, help arrives in the form of American aid (both economic and military), but it also arrives
when Hitler makes the mistake of turning against one of its greatest allies – Russia.

Let’s start looking at the second phase of the war in the Soviet Union - who have gleefully annexed part of
Poland, but are now growing alarmed and angry at what Germany is doing in the Balkans. After all, if anyone is
going to take over the Balkans, it was going to be the Soviet Union [this was their turf remember]!

Now, Hitler and Stalin had met again in November of 1940 and the Soviets had asserted that the Germans
should not be in the Balkans, that that was the Soviets’ sphere of influence; but, Hitler suggested another plan –
he said that Germany should have all of Europe and that Russia should look at establishing a sphere of influence
in Asia. This, of course, was unacceptable to Stalin who believed that he and Hitler were going to divide up
Eastern Europe between them. This was also unacceptable to the Japanese who had been building their Asian
Empire during this period and called for an “Asia for the Asiatics”!

Hostilities between the two grew until June 22, 1941when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union without a
declaration of war.

The Germans were then assisted by their allies – the Hungarians, Italians, Romanians, and Finns who opened up
a 2,000 mile front in the Soviet Union.

Now, if you were Britain and what’s left of France what would you think of this? After all, Stalin had gone
behind their backs and set up a deal with Hitler.

Well, instead of saying “I told you so”, Britain declares that, although he doesn’t admire communism, anyone
fighting against Nazism is an ally of his and should receive help!

The United States, who are sort of involved in the war, agree to provide some aid to the Russians as well.
Now, the beginning of Germany’s war with Russia plays out largely the same as the rest of World War II: the
German Panzers are tremendous and the Russian armies are driven back. Within a short time, Moscow and
Leningrad, which used to be Petrograd, and before that St. Petersburg, were under siege. Before long, however,
the Germans found themselves in an awkward position. Things weren’t going quite as smoothly as they had
hoped and instead they found themselves facing the first real formidable and resourceful enemy.

The Soviets made use of scorched-earth tactics and guerrilla warfare to make life difficult for the Germans.
The Russian civilians and retreating armies carried away what they could and destroyed everything else
rendering the territory that Germany gained rather useless and more of a hindrance than a help. Also, many
Russian soldiers remained behind and hid out in swamps and forests bombing and attacking bridges, railroads,
and trains.

Now, Hitler had thought that Russia would have gone down as he descended upon Moscow, so their resistance
really screwed up his timetable and he found himself battling against another enemy, what the Russians referred
to as Generals Frost and Mud. The Germans really weren’t all that equipped for a winter war, especially one in
Russia. It was in the winter that the Russians decided to launch their counter-attack which signaled the first time
in World War II that the Germans were forced to retreat. Moreover, they were pulling increasingly more
German resources from Western Europe into the Eastern Front.

We need to ask ourselves why exactly Hitler did this – why invade the Soviet Union? It was all part of the
master plan, what Hitler referred to as the creation of a “New Order” for Europe. Hitler had envisioned Europe
as a single political and economic system ruled from Berlin and dominated by the Aryan race. According to this
plan, Russia was needed to serve Germany as a producer of food and raw materials. Russians were considered
to be part of the Slavic race and were determined to be “racially inferior.” At this time, Hitler also ordered the
complete annihilation of the entire Jewish population of Europe. This was referred to as the Final Solution to
the Jewish problem. It was unbelievably barbaric and made possible through Hitler’s propaganda and
manipulation – enough people bought into the whole idea that it could be made possible.

By the thousands, Jews across German-occupied Europe were transported to Eastern Germany and Poland,
where they were herded together in concentration camps.

Among the most famous of these camps were Dachau and Buchenwald in Germany and Treblinka and
Auschwitz in Poland. It has been said that as many as 15,000 people were murdered each day at Auschwitz.
Once people were placed in these camps, some were used as slave labourers. Most, however, were murdered by
poison gases or shot, sometimes hundreds at a time. When they arrived in the camps, they were tattooed with a
number that was used to identify them. Some were also used for medical experiments – things like pain
toleration without anesthesia, measuring how long people could survive in sub-zero temperatures, and perhaps
most disgusting - what people did if given the option of sacrificing themselves for their children or someone
else.

Gold from their teeth, eyeglasses and all other valuables became the property of the Third Reich. In total, over 6
million Jews were murdered. Nearly as many non-Jews including Slavs, Gypsies, the disabled, homosexuals,
Catholics, resistance fighters were also murdered.

Now, one of the greatest and most haunting controversies surrounding Holocaust history is whether or not the
Allied forces knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it.

Rumours of mass extermination had begun to reach America and Britain by 1942 and by the end of that year,
most people knew what was happening. We do know that in Vichy France, they willingly transported and
deported French Jews to the death camps and there was also complicity in Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia.
People have often asked, if the British were bombing everywhere in Germany, why were none of these massive
camps targeted? It is difficult to know the true answer to this. We know that the Dutch tried to save their
citizens and that the Danes transported all of their Jewish citizens to neutral Sweden when word broke out about
what Hitler was doing. We know that some of the Italians had tried to protect people from the death camps;
what is interesting is that Mussolini himself had a Jewish mistress, but condoned the Nazi’s extermination
policies – odd indeed!

Some claim that the allies might have thought that these camps were work camps like the internment camps in
Canada and America or the POW camps in the rest of Europe. Others claim that there was no way that the
Allies would have believed that something of this magnitude was possible. Some thought that the claims were
exaggerated or even fabricated. And still many thought, instead of attacking the camps that they could
eventually get rid of them by getting rid of Hitler.

So, though news of the Holocaust had begun to travel throughout the world, it was not one of the main reasons
pulling anyone else into the battle.

The Americans, in fact, were rather thrust into the war, than merely pulled in as they were in World War I.
When war initially broke out in 1939, the Americans found themselves in a bit of a quandary; opinions were
divided and only the course of the war would dictate American actions.

The Entrance of America:

Prior to December 7, 1941 – the Americans were attempting to maintain a skewed sense of neutrality
remember: they had passed a series of neutrality acts that forbid Americans from selling war equipment to
belligerent nations. Eventually America passed The Lend-Lease Act, (passed in 1941) which gave the
President power to sell, transfer, lend, or lease such war materials.

Now, throughout the early period of the war, unrestricted German submarine attacks had angered the Americans
because their ships were under attack, and after the Fall of France and the Battle of Britain, the Americans
began to feel pretty bad for England. So, prior to Pearl Harbour it is pretty clear whose side the Americans are
on. However, it takes until December 7, 1941 to really get the rest of the nation on board with the war.

That date is when Japan launches an attack on Pearl Harbor. And so, on December 7, 1941, everything changed
for America. Americans who were once divided about the war were now angered and eerily united in the desire
to enter the war and win.
Almost immediately following Pearl Harbor, the Allies began to reorganize themselves. Indeed, things will get
worse before they get better, but there are a lot of lessons to be learned in the events of 1942, the harshest
perhaps, are the result of the Battle of Dieppe.

In 1942, the German Empire is still growing and despite losses all over the place, nothing seems to be stopping
them; the British have yet to realize a single victory on land and in an effort to turn things around for the Allied
forces, the Canadians try to step up. What results is probably the worst disaster in Canadian military history and
a real low point for the Allies in World War II.

Dieppe is located in Northern France and to get to it, you had to cross the English Channel.

At that time, Dieppe was the largest raid in history and it was a simultaneous coordinated effort. Dieppe was a
strategic and heavily guarded area for the Germans. In Dieppe, the key strategist, Canadian major-general
Roberts had never been in active combat before and had never served on the ground. The timing was all wrong,
the raid had been cancelled and rescheduled multiple times due to problems with weather; they had made
multiple changes to the exact route, the size of the ships involved, the number of men; they had even started out
once only to get halfway, within sight of the Germans and were forced to turn around and return home. The
attack, therefore, was not a surprise, at least not to the Germans who had actually sounded an alarm a full 8
minutes before the Allied forces had arrived.

Of the 500 soldiers that landed on the western front, only 6 soldiers returned unwounded. One historian stated
that, of the 5000 Canadians who served on the mission, nearly 2700 were either killed or captured; another
estimated that 3,367 out of 4000 Canadian were killed, injured or taken prisoner.

Earlier I told you about how the Germans had penetrated into the Soviet Union in June of 1941 and had met
considerable resistance there. Well, the German offensive in the Soviet Union continued throughout 1942. You
will remember that the Soviets represented a much more formidable force than the Germans had predicted and
the Germans found themselves struggling for every street, every house, and every piece of Soviet territory. It
was all taking an incredible toll on the German forces. In November of 1942, the Soviets had launched a
counterattack and had surrounded the German troops in what was then Stalingrad. Although Hitler had ordered
his trapped forces to fight until the death, what was left of his army in Stalingrad surrendered on January 31,
1943. This was an important victory for the Soviet forces and the Germans never fully recovered from this
defeat.
Also, the Soviet forces felt quite good about the victory – throughout 1943, they forced German troops steadily
back and by 1944, the Germans had fallen back into Poland. Of course, all of this came at a tremendous cost for
the Soviet troops.

Now, throughout 1942, Stalin had made constant demands that the British and Americans open up a second
front in Europe to relieve German pressure on Russia.

The Allies had been delaying because they didn’t feel quite ready to launch an attack, and they felt that it was
too dangerous to risk attacking, while being unprepared. They had learned that lesson from the disastrous raid
on Dieppe. However, the allied delay was causing Stalin to doubt the Allied forces’ loyalty – he began to think
that the Western powers were hoping that Germany and Russia would just destroy each other. Stalin continued
to press for an Allied attack. Not willing to meet the German forces head on in France or Germany yet, the
Allied forces chose to invade North Africa and start from there.

Now, you will remember that in the late 19th century, during the second race for colonies, that many of the
Western European nations had established protectorates in Northern Africa. These also became sites of contest
during the war. For example, under the leadership of Rommel, German armies had been able to push the
English forces back from Libya into Egypt. The tide will shift, however, by November of 1942; that is when
they launched Operation Torch commanded by Eisenhower. They invaded the coasts of French Algeria and
Morocco and easily overcame the resistance there - in fact, they set German troops running. By May of 1943,
there are no more German or Italian troops left in Northern Africa.

These victories offered the Allied forces some feelings of success and satisfaction and caused them to begin to
more clearly consider the invasion of Europe. Now, eventually Churchill submitted and insisted that the Allies
launch an attack on the “soft underbelly of the Axis” – the Italians and the Balkans.

In July of 1943, the Allied forces landed in Sicily and from there began to bomb the Italian mainland in
preparation for a landing.

The Allies landed in September of 1943 in the “toe of Italy’s boot” and made their way into the mainland; in
response, the Italians surrendered unconditionally almost immediately.
You see, Italy had been undergoing some pretty dramatic changes in the previous few months – morale had
been plunging, it was pretty clear that Mussolini’s promise of an Italian Empire lay beyond the reach of the
Italians and fears over Hitler’s excesses were everywhere.

In July as the Allies landed in Sicily, the Italian King ended Mussolini’s dictatorship and had him arrested.
Marshal Pietro Badoglio became premier in his place and began secret negotiations with the Allied forces,
while the King of Italy tried to reassure Hitler that Italy was still on their side (essentially trying to buy some
time). In the meantime, Badoglio dissolved the Fascist Party, made sure that Mussolini was put in prison and
declared war on Germany.

Now, Italy has just flip-flopped again – but they do not become officially recognized as an ally to the allied
nations, instead they occupy the position of a co-belligerent – one who fights the same enemy, but is not an ally
(friend).

Now, the Germans didn’t take this loss lying down as you can imagine. They too invade Italy, they stage a raid
and free Mussolini who orders whomever will listen to him to execute all of the members of the Grand Council
and denounces all of the Italian people who have betrayed him. There is a really bitter battle waged over Italy –
one that finally ends in June of 1944 when the Allies take Rome and the German armies fall back to establish a
defensive perimeter south of the Po River between Pisa and Florence.

With Rome just within their reach, the Allies turned their attention towards France. The Allied invasion of
France would become the most pivotal moment in the war and is what we refer to as D-Day.

The whole point was to have an all-out confrontation with the enemy.

O.k., so up until this time, the Allied counter-offensive had largely been considered with meeting the Germans
in places like the Soviet Union, in Northern Africa, and in Italy, but this time they were going to meet them in
Occupied France, a strong-hold of Nazi power. It was hoped that France would be the gateway to Germany – to
Berlin.
D-Day is also known as Operation Overlord and was coordinated by General Eisenhower, who will become
President of the United States of America in 1953.

Now, the Germans were quite aware that an attack was about to take place, but they figured that it would be
farther to the north at Calais because this represented the shortest distance between England and France – they
didn’t anticipate the attack at Normandy.

Remember, the allies had learned their lesson from Dieppe; in fact, much of what went wrong in Dieppe helped
the allies to plan the invasion of the Normandy.

“In search of something salvageable from the whole Dieppe debacle is historians’ assertion that the D-Day
battle on the beaches of Normandy was made possible by this mess – that the lessons learned about timing,
coordinated attacks, artillery, and training of infantry in Dieppe eventually contributed to what became the
greatest victory of the war.” Some, however, have questioned whether Dieppe really had to happen in order for
Normandy to be successful.

At dawn on 6 June 1944 Operation Overlord began.

It was supposed to take place the day before, but bad winds had forced the delay of the plan and they allowed
the delay knowing full well that it wasn’t worth the risk this time.

The invading forces landed on 5 beaches along the Normandy coast: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
On the first day, 2,700 vessels and 1,897 landing craft sailed. The cargo was 130,000 soldiers, 12,000 vehicles,
2,000 tanks and 10,000 tons of stores. By the end of July, despite fierce resistance, the Allies held most of
Normandy. After 7 weeks, the Allies had landed 1.3 million troops, sustained over 120,000 casualties and were
moving towards Paris. Throughout August, they continued to land more forces and were assisted in their bid for
Paris by a resistance movement that felt secure enough in making itself known. Vichy was destroyed and the
Allies were beginning to cross into Germany by November of 1944.

Though the Germans will hang on for several more months, the end is in sight. Berlin is being surrounded and it
is more a matter of when it will be taken and by whom, than if it will.

Next module we are going to talk about this Allied victory in the West and in the Pacific, and what exactly the
consequences are after the dust settles and the white flags are waived.