D-Day coursework

GCSE: History

Following the breakout of the Second World War in September 1939, a number of Nazi victories had increased Hitler’s stronghold on Europe. This culminated in the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, in which the British and French forces were forced to retreat steadily until they had to be evacuated from Dunkirk; this had led to the capture of France by Nazi forces over the next month. However, Hitler then unwisely decided to invade Russia in June 1941, but the German army was forced to retreat from the East after the Battle of Stalingrad in September 1942 due to a combination of factors. In North Africa, Field Marshal Rommel’s Afrika Korps was defeated by British forces at El-Alamein in October 1942, and was driven off Africa by British and American forces at Tunisia in May 1943. Consequently, with Germany on the retreat on both the Eastern and Southern fronts, it was deemed imperative to launch a large-scale invasion of France to defeat Germany. This decision was made at an Allied conference in Washington D.C. in January 1942 (a proposal they named Roundup), but a significant amount of preparation and coordination was required to make such an important assault successful.

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