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