D-Day
The Germans had been expecting an Allied invasion of Northern France for long time. However , they were not sure where the invasion would take place . The Germans concentrated their troops near Calais because it was nearest to the British Isles.
Early on June 6,1944 Operation Overlord, the code name of the invasion, began. Commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower about 3,000 ships and 176,000 soldiers crossed the English Channel and landed , to the surprise of the Germans, on the beaches of Normandy, much farther to the west than Hitler’s generals had expected. Paratroopers dropped behind the German defence lines and captured bridges and railroad tracks.
Although Germany was surprised by the attack , they fought back fiercely . At one landing site, named Omaha beach, Allied troops came under heavy fire and had difficulty staying on the shore . At the end of the day, Allied forces had managed to secure the coastline and create a harbour where more troops could land. By the end of June , 1944 about a million Allied troops had reached France.
After heavy fighting , American and British armies were able to move inland . They captured Paris on August 25, 1944. After advancing to eastern France and Belgium the Allied offensive moved on but as winter came was halted west of the Rhine River .
World War II - Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Causes of World War II
- The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the NSdAP
- Blitzkrieg and the Battle of Britain
- Battle of the Atlantic
- The Holocaust
- Operation Barbarossa - The German Invasion of the Soviet Union
- Attack on Pearl Harbour - America Enters the War
- D-Day - Allied Invasion of Europe
- Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Japan Surrenders
- Life During World War II
- End of World War II
- Key Figures of World War II
- Results and Aftermath of World War II
Online Exercises
- Multiple Choice Exercise 1
- Multiple Choice Exercise 2
- Multiple Choice Exercise 3
- Crossword Puzzle 1
- Crossword Puzzle 2
- The Holocaust - Gap Fill Exerercise
- World War II - Gap Fill Exercise
- World War II - Name Matching Exercise
- Match the Sentence Halves 1
- Match the Sentence Halves 2
- Vocabulary Matching Exercise 1
- Vocabulary Matching Exercise 2
- World War II - What Happened When - Match the Dates
Downloadable PDF Text- and Worksheets
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D-Day - Allied Invasion of Europe - Text (PDF - 350 KB) - D-Day - Allied Invasion of Europe - Exercises (PDF - 64 KB)
- D-Day - Allied Invasion of Europe - Key (PDF - 73 KB)
Related Topics
Words
- Allied = the countries that fought against Germany, Italy an Japan during World War II
- although =while
- attack = an act of using weapons against an enemy in a war
- capture = to catch a person and keep them as prisoner
- command = to tell soldiers to do something ; to be the leader of an army
- concentrate = focus on
- create = make
- defence lines =the front line that a country uses to stop enemy soldiers
- difficulty = trouble, problem
- fierce = violent, strong, intense
- forces = here: army, soldiers
- halt = stop
- however =but
- inland = in a direction away from the coast into the centre of a country
- invasion = when an army of a country enters another country and takes control of it
- manage =here: were able to do
- paratrooper = a soldier trained to jump out of plane using a parachute
- secure = make safe
- shore = coast
- take place = happen
- troops = soldiers