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Text Box: World War Two: D-Day to VE Day

D-Day: Day of Deliverance/Operation Overlord (June 6, 1944)
Involved Great Britain, Canada, and the USA.
Launched from England on the coast of Nazi-occupied France.
It was to be a three-phase attack.
Air
Naval
Land

Phase One: Air Attack
Bombing and Parachuting
Aircraft bombed German defences
Paratroopers dropped.
Gliders flown in to seize bridges and roads.
Air forces would attempt to control the skies over Normandy.

Phase Two: Naval Attack
Clearing and Delivering.
7000+ ships cleared lanes through mine fields.
Over 100,000 troops delivered.
20,000 vehicles
Equipment
A very difficult task that had to happen very quickly.

Phase Three: Land Forces
Assaulting and Securing
The main objective (job) of the invasion was to secure the coast of France so that the Allies could launch more attacks.
USA: Omaha Beach and Utah Beach
Great Britain: Gold Beach and Sword Beach
Canada: Juno Beach

D-Day: Day of Deliverance
Some Interesting Facts:
Originally scheduled for June 5, but was cancelled due to fog.
Over 3 million troops crossed the English channel from England to France during D-Day.
The battle around Normandy lasted another two months.

D-Day Plus…Falaise
Closing the Falaise Gap became the new objective for the Canadian military. This was the German escape route. Canadian and US soldiers closed it off. By the end of August, the Allies have captured Falaise and now occupy all of Normandy.

D-Day Plus…Battle of the Scheldt (October-November 1944)
The Allies needed to open up the port in Antwerp, Belgium. In order to get there, the Canadians had to clear the river joining Antwerp to the sea (called the Scheldt River) in Holland. This became known as the Battle of the Scheldt. To take the Scheldt, the Canadian army had to flood part of Holland. By November, the Germans gave up, which allowed us to open the river to Antwerp.

D-Day Plus…VE Day
After the Scheldt, the Canadian army spent most of the winter in trenches. In February, they join the Allied offensive to go West and cross the Rhine River into Germany. At the same time, the Soviet Red Army is attacking from the East. The Red Army was 6,000,000 soldiers strong.

Victory in Europe
On April 30, 1945, with the Allies in Germany (West) and the Soviet Red Army squeezing from the East, Hitler commits suicide. Two days later, on May 2, the Soviets take Berlin. On May 7, Germany surrenders. For Allied troops in Europe, the war is over. May 8 becomes known as VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Now the Allies turn their attention to Japan.

May 8, 1945: Victory in Europe

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