gen. dwight eisenhower chosen by fdr as supreme allied commander brits & soviets wanted gen....
TRANSCRIPT
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower chosen by FDR as Supreme Allied Commander
Brits & Soviets wanted Gen. George C. Marshall
Roosevelt cannot spare Marshall
Gen. Bernard Montgomery chosen as ground comm. in charge of operational planning of invasion
British and Soviets want George C. Marshall
FDR picks Dwight D. Eisenhower
NORMANDY
4x the distance
Weaker defenses
PAS-DE-CALAIS
Shortest route across channel
Strongest German defenses
Allies decide on Normandy
Hitler initially expected Normandy
Rommel & Rundstedt convinced him wld come at the Pas-de-Calais Shortest route across
channel Shortest route to Ruhr
Hitler knew the Ruhr was Allies’ ultimate target
Calais landing puts Allies closer to Ruhr
“Dummy”camp at Dover est under command of Patton
Also suggest a landing in Norway
Four times the distance
Weaker defenses
Normandy ports
Bradley & Americans advance on Cherbourg
British & Canadians seize Caen
Ike Chooses June 5
Storms in channel delays invasion
36 hour break in storm “Ok, we’ll go.” Poor weather favors
Allies
Rundstedt argued for a mobile defense Vigorous counterattack
after main landing identified
Rommel Stop invasion on the
beaches First 24 hours crucial “The Longest Day”
13,000 paratroopers jump into Normandy on night of June 5
101st “Screaming Eagles”
82nd “All American”
British 6th “Red Devils”
Missing the Drop Zone
Rundstedt convinced Normandy was a Diversion
Happy Birthday Mrs. Rommel
Panzer Divisions held in reserve
sssssssssshhhhhhhhh! Der Führer ist Schlaf!
British – 2,700
Canadian – 946
American “Bloody Omaha” 6,603 2499 kia
One million troops landed by July 1
Caen not fall until July 18
Patton’s 3rd Army breaks out
Trapping Germans in the Falaise Pocket
Mid August 1944
Over by August 22
80,000 – 100,000 Germans encircled 15,000 KIA 50,000 POWs
German military cemetery in Normandy
Over 21,000 soldiers buried here
Wehrmacht 240,000 casualties 200,000 POWs
British, Canadians, Poles 83,045 casualties
Americans 125,847 casualties
Allied air forces 16,714 killed & missing
Germany looks ripe for the taking
Over by Christmas!
Ike favors a broad front
Monty favors a single-thrust into the Ruhr
Deutschland ist Kaputt!
Logistical Problems
Supplies still coming from Normandy ports
Antwerp closer Taken in Sept. Germans control
Scheldt Estuary
41,000 airborne troops
Secure bridges over series of rivers & canals
Gain control of Rhine & cross into Germany
17,000 casualties British 1st Airborne 10,000 (2,000 get out)
SS Panzer leader from Eastern Front
Tried & sentenced to death for Malmedy Massacre
Sentence commuted & released 1956
Murdered July 13, 1976
"I recognize that after the battles of Normandy my unit was composed mainly of young, fanatical soldiers. A good deal of them had lost their parents, their sisters and brothers during the bombing. They had seen for themselves in Köln thousands of mangled corpses after a terror raid had passed. Their hatred for the enemy was such; I swear it and I could not always keep it under control."
"Imagine yourself acclaimed, a decorated national hero, an idol to millions of desperate people, then within six months, condemned to death by hanging."
"It's so long ago now. Even I don't know the truth. If I had ever known it, I have long forgotten it. All I know is that I took the blame as a good CO should have been and was punished accordingly.“
- Jochen Peiper on the Malmedy massacre
"My men are the products of total war, grown up in the streets of scattered towns without any education. The only thing they knew was to handle weapons for the Reich. They were young people with a hot heart and the desire to win or die: right or wrong – my country. When seeing today the defendants in the dock, don't believe them to be the old Kampfgruppe Peiper. All of my old friends and comrades have gone before. The real outfit is waiting for me in Valhalla."
"History is always written by the victor, and the histories of the losing parties belong to the shrinking circle of those who were there."
"I was a Nazi and I remain one...The Germany of today is no longer a great nation, it has become a province of Europe" - from an interview given in 1967 by Peiper to a
French writer