SECOND FRONT WWII SERIES
SECOND FRONT WWII FREE

After almost five years of war, nearly all of Western Europe was occupied by German troops or held by fascist governments, like those of Spain and Italy. Eisenhower, ordered the largest invasion force in history-hundreds of thousands of American, British, Canadian and other troops-to ship across across the English Channel and come ashore on the beaches of Normandy, on France’s northern coast.

SECOND FRONT WWII FREE

In its strategy and scope-and its enormous stakes for the future of the free world-historians regard it among the greatest military achievements ever.ĭ-Day, code-named Operation Overlord, launched on June 6, 1944, after the commanding Allied general, Dwight D. The battle is important because it opened the way for another front in Europe and began the process of liberating France and the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.The D-Day military invasion that helped to end World War II was one the most ambitious and consequential military campaigns in human history. However, the Allied attack had worked and the United States, Britain and Canada were all able to open their beaches to further Allied reinforcements and heavy weaponry. All three countries landed on the morning of June 6th, 1944 and faced difficult resistance from Nazi soldiers. The United States’ beaches were Utah and Omaha, Britain’s beaches were Gold and Sword, and Canada’s beach was Juno. Each country landed on their own codenamed beaches with the goal of pushing back the Nazi defences and opening the beach for Allied heavy weapons. The United States, Britain and Canada were the three main participating countries in the amphibious landings of the Normandy Invasion. Operation Overlord involved a large attack on northern France, including: amphibious landings, naval bombardment and an assault by airborne forces the night before. The Normandy Invasion began on June 6th, 1944 and was codenamed Operation Overlord. In fact, Operation Barbarossa was the last time that Nazi Germany would be the aggressor in World War II in Europe and would spend the rest of the war being pushed back to Germany and its capital of Berlin. Germany lost its entire 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad and was never able to recover from the loss. The Battle of Stalingrad would be one of the bloodiest battles of World War II and a major turning point for the overall war. Next, Hitler diverted his troops to the southern Soviet city of Stalingrad, where German blitzkrieg tactics failed to capture the city. German forces pushed quickly through the Soviet Union before they stalled at the edge of Moscow. The German attack on the Soviet Union began in June of 1941 and saw Germany make massive territorial gains against the country, which was led by Joseph Stalin. Hitler's forces broke the terms of the non-aggression pact when Germany attacked the Soviet Union as part of its Operation Barbarossa. It was believed that German troops would have to invade France across the border and go up against the Maginot Line.īeing unable to defeat Britain, Nazi Germany turned its attention towards the Soviet Union. For their part, Britain and France were mostly worried about reinforcing the Maginot Line, the defensive line built by France along the France-German border. This period of inaction was referred to as the Phoney War and saw the armies of Britain and France preparing for a war with Germany, but without any actual fighting on the western half of Europe. While Britain and France condemned the German aggression against Poland, and declared war against Germany, little action was taken in the first 8 months of World War II. Germany used its 'lighting war' strategy to quickly overwhelm and confuse enemy armies. The first weeks of the war in Europe consisted mostly of Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, unleashing its blitzkrieg tactics against Poland.

SECOND FRONT WWII SERIES

The war in Europe began at this point and unfolded as a series of major events and battles. World War II began on September 1st, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

Second front wwii