Lesson video

Hello, welcome to history here at Oak National Academy.

My name is Mr Newton and I'll be your teacher today, guiding you through the entire lesson.

Right, let's get started.

Over the next few lessons, we'll be thinking about our big inquiry question which events turned the tide in the story of the Second World War? This is the question we will use to investigate the unfolding events of the war, the outcome of which was not certain from the outset.

Nazi Germany had dominated Europe in the first two years of the war, however, in 1941 the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union radically changed the direction of the Second World War.

Winston Churchill was convinced the tides had turned for the Allies, a view that was bolstered by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the American entry into the war.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to explain why America's entry into the war and the D-Day landings were major turning points in the Second World War.

Before we begin, there are a few keywords that we need to understand.

Isolationism is the policy or practise of showing interest only in your own country and not being involved in international activities or war.

D-Day was the day during the Second World War when the Allies began their invasion of Europe by attacking the coast of northern France, it's also known as Operation Overlord.

Amphibious relates to both land and water and in warfare that means consisting of naval and air forces involving the landing and establishing of forces on a hostile shore.

And finally, munitions are military weapons such as guns and bombs.

Today's lesson is split into three parts.

We'll first look at America's entry into the war and their involvement in the war in Asia.

And then the second part of the lesson we'll move our focus towards Europe and look at D-Day, and then the final part of the lesson we'll look at how the Second World War comes to an end in Europe.

Right, let's start the lesson with America and the Pacific War.

So, in the 1930s, America had adopted a policy of isolationism.

Most Americans wanted to avoid war.

In the post-First-World-War atmosphere, President Franklin D.

Roosevelt, who you can see in the photo on the left, promised that American soldiers would not be sent into more conflict.

Despite this, Roosevelt supported the Allies in the Second World War and loaned them money.

And this financial support was needed, as by June 1940, the war had reached the North African coastline.

And in the photo we can see German troops in a North African desert.

So how did the Second World War spill over into Africa? So Germany's ally, Italy, had attacked British Egypt.

So two and a half years, forces from the British Empire fought Italian and German forces in the deserts of North Africa.

Egypt was strategically important because of the Suez Canal.

It was a vital passage which linked the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, enabling Britain's armies to be supplied in Asia.

So, America had maintained their policy of isolationism, choosing instead to loan money to the Allies.

However, in December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, inflicting the worst naval disaster in US history.

And therefore America ended its policy of isolationism.

The US redirected its mighty economy towards fighting Japan and her ally, Germany.

What this meant was that the Americans used their industrial power, their power of production, to tip the balance of the war in favour of the Allies.

In other words, they had the money, the factories, the people to pour huge resources into the war.

They would soon be sending vast amounts of armaments, weapons, troops, tanks, ammunitions.

In fact, American factories were producing the same number of aircraft as had been destroyed at Pearl Harbour every two days, like the P40 aircrafts you can see in the photo.

Within six months of Pearl Harbour, the Japanese occupied most of southeast Asia.

The extent of which you can get an idea from the map on the left.

This included the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, Burma, modern-day Myanmar, the Western Pacific Islands and most of the Dutch East Indies or modern-day Indonesia.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Why did America end its policy of isolationism and enter the Second World War? A, the attack on Pearl Harbour, B, the defeat in North Africa, C, to avoid economic collapse, D, to support Italy.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was A, the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Okay, let's continue.

The capture of Singapore was a particular disaster for the British, 15,000 soldiers were killed and 130,000 were captured.

Those captured faced brutal treatment by the Japanese.

The Japanese followed a military code of honour that viewed surrender as dishonourable.

Therefore, when Allied soldiers surrendered, the Japanese saw their captives as shameful inferiors because their code dictated that an honourable soldier would kill themselves rather than be taken captive.

As a result, many Japanese considered it justified to treat prisoners of war cruelly and thousands were tortured, worked to death, or executed.

The photo on the left shows US troops surrendering to the Japanese in the Philippines.

Eventually there was a turning point in the Pacific War when the US Navy stopped the Japanese Empire's expansion at the Battle of Midway in June 1942.

The photo shows USS Yorktown during the Battle of Midway.

This was shortly after she was hit by three Japanese bombs on the same day.

We can see dense smoke in the distance and this is from the fires caused by a bomb that has punctured the ship.

The aircraft carrier would eventually sink and 141 men were killed.

Nonetheless, the Battle of Midway was a decisive naval and air battle which is widely considered a turning point in the Pacific War.

However, that's very easy for anyone to say now with the benefit of hindsight.

At the time, these soldiers were in the depths of war and no one really knew what would happen next.

The Pacific War raged on.

The Japanese Emperor and his military would not surrender their occupied territory.

It would take years of bitter fighting with soldiers slashing through dense jungles and trudging through swamps to take back the Pacific one island at a time.

In the photo we can see American forces landing on one of many Pacific islands contested with the Japanese.

In the meantime, the Allies now looked to open another front to hasten the end of the Second World War.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Why did the Japanese treat prisoners of war particularly brutally during the Second World War? A, they had advanced military technology, B, they had superior numbers, C, they lacked resources, D, they viewed surrender as dishonourable.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was D, they viewed surrender as dishonourable.

Okay, great, let's move onto task A.

What I want you to do here is complete the following sentence starters.

And you can see I've given you three sentence starters which I want you to complete.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So there's many ways you could have completed those sentences, but compare your answers with what I have here.

So for the first sentence your answer may include, after the attack on Pearl Harbour, President Roosevelt ended America's policy of isolationism and redirected its mighty economy towards fighting Japan and her ally Germany.

And for the second sentence starter, you could have written the Japanese conquered territories across southeast Asia and their treatment of prisoners of war was brutal as they followed a military code of honour that viewed surrender as dishonourable.

And finally, in June 1942, there was a turning point in the Pacific War when the US Navy stopped the expansion of the Japanese Empire at the Battle of Midway.

Okay excellent, so we've got some idea of how the events are unfolding in Asia, let's now move our focus to Europe and look at D-Day.

By 1944, Churchill, Roosevelt, and their generals had spent two years making plans for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France.

And the map shows the state of the war at that time.

We can see the Allies in red and the Axis powers in blue.

We can see that the Soviet Union's Red Army had already begun pushing the Nazi Army back into eastern Europe and it was now up to Britain, America, and Canada to begin pushing the Nazis out of western Europe.

Unknown to Germany, the Allies targets were the beaches of Normandy here.

However, the Germans had built a defensive barrier to prevent such an attack and this has been represented by the black line on the map which goes along the western coast of Europe.

So along this defensive barrier the Germans had built a series of fortifications along the French coast known as the Atlantic Wall.

This was a vast network of bunkers, forts, and artillery batteries.

In the photo we can see a German general, General Rommel, inspecting the Atlantic Wall in 1943.

This photo is interesting because not only does it show the extent of the fortifications on the coast of France, breaching them would be a major operation, but it also shows that the Germans were anticipating an eventual Allied attack.

At this point, America's entry into the war had boosted the Allies with thousands of fresh soldiers, tanks, planes, and crates of munitions.

The American general, Dwight D.

Eisenhower, was appointed the Supreme Allied Commander.

More than a million American and half a million Canadian troops were now camped in Britain.

So it seemed inevitable that an Allied attack would come, however the Germans did not know when or where the attack would take place.

The Allies had also fooled the Germans.

The Allies had created a fake army in the southeast of England which included pretend buildings and inflatable tanks.

Then they allowed one of their spies to leak information to the Germans, tricking them into thinking they were going to land at Calais.

In the summer, after waiting for favourable weather conditions to cross the English Channel, the Allies launched their invasion of Western Europe.

A very brief window of clear weather was forecasted and D-Day had arrived.

The day before, the Allies used BBC radio to broadcast a poem called Chanson d'automne.

This was the signal to the French resistance that Operation Overlord would soon begin and that they should prepare to begin sabotaging railway lines.

On 6th June, British, American, and Canadian troops took part in the largest amphibious invasion in history.

The target was the beaches of Normandy.

And if you have a look at the map, it shows the five beaches they targeted.

The two beaches to the west were codenamed Utah and Omaha and these were allocated to the Americans.

Gold and Sword were allocated to the British, whilst the Canadians took Juno.

Shortly after midnight, British and American paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy to secure bridges inland.

And I can give you the approximate locations on the map.

The Americans landed behind Utah Beach and the British landed behind Sword Beach.

Okay, let's focus on the British mission.

So British gliders dropped troops to secure two bridges inland.

The British mission was led by Major John Howard.

They were deep diving wooden and canvas gliders into enemy territory ahead of the Allied invasion.

Their daring mission was to fight their way towards two crucial bridges, Pegasus and Horsa and hold onto them for as long as they could.

Within the main invasion that would come later, were another group of elite commandos whose mission it was to break out of the beaches and reinforce the glider teams at the bridges.

The photo shows the gliders used in the capture of Pegasus Bridge.

So you might ask why are they trying to capture these bridges.

After the invasion would take place, the Allied troops would need a way to get out and travel inland.

These bridges allowed Allied troops to exit the beaches.

They could also prevent German tanks coming in the other direction, making their way towards the beaches where the invasion was.

In the end, both bridges were captured by British commandos.

Okay, now let's focus on the American mission.

Meanwhile, American paratroopers had missed their planned drop zone, leaving them scattered widely across the area behind Utah Beach.

Have a look at the photo.

Is there anything unusual you notice about this Church in Normandy? Let me help you a little bit here and highlight this area and let's zoom into this church tower.

You may have noticed something hanging from the roof.

There is a memorial on this church tower.

What do you think the purpose of the memorial is? Pause the video, have a quick discussion, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

This is a memorial for US Paratrooper John Steele in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first village to be liberated by the US Army during Operation Overlord.

The village had been firebombed, some buildings were on fire, and the fire illuminated the sky, making easy targets of the paratroopers who were mistakenly dropped over the village.

Some paratroopers were sucked into the fire, many hanging from trees and utility poles were shot before they could be cut loose.

US Paratrooper John Steele was wounded in his leg by German anti-aircraft fire and then his parachute got caught in the church tower.

He hung there for two hours, pretending to be dead before the Germans took him prisoner.

Luckily, he was able to escape four hours later when American troops liberated the village.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What major event in June 1944 led to Nazi Germany fighting on two fronts in Europe? A, the Battle of the Bulge, B.

the D-Day landings, C, the liberation of Paris.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew it was B, the D-Day landings.

Okay, let's have another check.

Why was the Parachute Memorial erected in Sainte-Mere-Eglise? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So your answer could've included that it was the first village to be liberated by the US Army during the Operation Overlord.

That the Allied paratroopers were the first soldiers to take part in the D-Day operation as they were dropped behind enemy lines just before dawn.

And that the town wanted to remember the US's contribution to the Second World War and their liberation.

So the brave British and American paratroopers carried out their missions, fighting through the night.

And just before dawn, the Allied Air Force and Navy bombarded the German coastal defences.

And then finally, 7,000 ships carrying more than 150,000 men stormed the beaches of Normandy.

The stakes were high, if they failed it would take years to launch another operation of this scale.

If they succeeded, they had a foothold to begin forcing the German Army back and liberate Europe.

Have a look at the photo.

It shows American soldiers disembarking from an amphibious vehicle during D-Day.

And we're looking out towards the beaches and we can see how once the ramp at the back of the amphibious vehicle has opened down into the sea, Germany machine guns would open fire and the soldiers were like sitting ducks.

And they had to quickly move towards the beach in front of them.

Fighting was fierce, many soldiers never made it out of their boats, as troops were cut down by the entrenched German machine gun positions.

Others drowned in neck-deep water, dragged down by their heavy kits.

Surviving soldiers waded through deep waters, bullets snapping over their heads with mines and barbed wire adding further defences.

These soldiers would then hope to find cover, but the Atlantic Wall ominously overlooked them with their concrete pillboxes armed with heavy machine guns, artillery, and even flamethrowers.

The shells exploded, the sand was stained with blood, and the beach was strewn with bodies.

It was a scene of chaos.

Some troops had made it to shore in the wrong location, their landing craft having been pushed off course by strong tides, often the German defences were wholly intact after the naval bombardment was inaccurate.

Such is the trauma of war, some soldiers froze with fear, some wandered in a daze, others laid on the beach, crying for their mothers, others whispered prayers.

On Gold Beach, British soldiers witness Sergeant Stanley Hollis race up the beach dealing with a German bunker single-handedly.

Hollis would be the only British soldier awarded the Victoria Cross on D-Day for showing courage in the presence of the enemy.

The group of elite commandos whose mission was to reinforce the glider team who had successfully taken Pegasus Bridge were now making their way across Sword Beach.

At 8:40AM, to rally their troops, their piper, Private Bill Millin, dressed in a kilt, played his bagpipes amid the chaos of the landing.

It was an astonishing sight.

In this time of extreme danger, it seemed to send a surge of pride through the troops that could hear the pipes of Scotland, reminding them of home and why they were fighting for their lives and those of their loved ones.

Within minutes, the commandos were rushing the beach and blasting through the German defences to make their way to Pegasus Bridge where the pipes would play again.

Back in Britain, at an aircraft factory, the workers were having lunch.

The manager burst into the canteen and announced, ladies and gentlemen, we have landed in France.

The canteen spontaneously erupted into a chorus of Land of Hope and Glory, many had tears in their eyes, thinking of loved ones fighting across the Channel.

Then the bell rang to signal the end of lunch and the factory workers went back to work, working for victory.

On 6th June, British, American, and Canadian troops had taken part in the largest amphibious invasion in history.

The fighting continued through the day, but by nightfall, all five beaches at the Normandy landing site had been captured by the Allies.

The Atlantic Wall had fallen.

And we can see the scale of Operation Overlord in the photo.

This is a photo of the landing ships unloading supplies on Omaha Beach mid-June 1944 and here they're preparing for the breakouts from Normandy where Allied forces can begin liberating the rest of France and beyond.

The barrage balloons floating overhead have steel cables hanging from them, making it difficult for enemy aircraft to attack.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What was the result of the D-Day landings? Select two correct answers.

A, the capture of all five beaches by the Allies, B, the failure to capture any beaches, C, the fall of the Atlantic Wall, D, the immediate surrender of Germany.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew it was A, the capture of all five beaches by the Allies and C, the fall of the Atlantic Wall.

Okay, let's move onto task B.

What I want you to do here is discuss why D-Day was a high risk operation.

And to help you to have that discussion, make sure your discussion includes the challenges and dangers they faced and the potential for victory.

Pause the video, have a discussion, then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So you may have discussed the following.

So D-Day was risky because they had to breach the Atlantic Wall and there was concrete fortifications with machine guns.

Also the fighting was fierce, there were deep waters, machine gun fire, mines, barbed wire, many casualties.

And it involved immense organisation, paratroopers, bombardment, and the largest amphibious invasion in history.

And furthermore, if the Allies had failed, it would take years to launch another operation.

However, the potential for victory was the fact that if they succeeded, they had a foothold to begin forcing the German Army back and liberate Europe.

Okay, excellent, let's move onto the final part of the lesson, the end of the war in Europe.

So after the success of D-Day, troops battled out of Normandy.

The photo shows American soldiers in Normandy and we can see the destruction that the war had on places like France.

Before long, Paris was liberated.

In an attempted counterattack, Hitler used up the last of Germany's strength at the Battle of the Bulge, taking place between December 1944 to January 1945.

Despite surprising the Allies, the Germans were eventually beaten back.

Then the Allies pressed remorselessly into German territory.

The map shows the situation that Hitler now faced in 1945.

The white areas were controlled by Nazi forces, the pink areas were controlled by the Allies and the red areas show the recent Allied advances.

So this really highlights how the D-Day landings were a major turning point in the war as Nazi Germany was now fighting on two fronts, and this was because at the same time Soviet troops were pressing through the countries of Eastern Europe which had been under Nazi occupation.

Fighting on the eastern front was particularly fierce, four out of five German soldiers killed in the Second World War were killed on the eastern front.

In the spring of 1945, Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and executed.

His body was strung upside down from a lamppost to prove to the crowds that he had been killed.

Defeat in Europe now seemed inevitable for Hitler and the Nazis.

They had occupied the continent and brought untold suffering.

As early as 1942, rumours had been reaching Britain of the conditions in the concentration camps which the Nazis had established in Eastern Europe, yet few were aware of the whole truth.

As Soviet forces began to liberate the camps, the scale and nature of the Nazi's crimes shocked the world.

The photo on the left shows liberated prisoners at Auschwitz in January 1945.

An increasingly deranged Hitler secreted in an underground bunker in Berlin continued to issue orders to an army which was incapable of following them.

The photo on the left shows Hitler's bunker.

These concrete buildings are above the bunker.

By the end of April, Soviet forces had surrounded Berlin.

Determined to avoid the same fate as Mussolini, Hitler shot himself in the head.

His body was set on fire to prevent it falling into enemy hands.

Hitler's remains were burnt in a shell crater outside the emergency exit which is at the left on the photo.

Just days later, on 8th May, Germany surrendered unconditionally.

The photo on the left shows Soviet troops taking the Reichstag, this was the German parliament, and they're raising their flag to show their victory.

Which events led to Germany's surrender in May 1945? Select two correct answers.

A, the assassination of Mussolini, B, the capture of Berlin by Soviet forces, C, the Allies pressed from the west, whilst the Soviets pressed from the east, D, the liberation of Paris meant that Canada joined the war.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the correct answer was B, the capture of Berlin by Soviet forces, and C, the Allies pressed from the west whilst the Soviets pressed from the east.

Victory in Europe had been achieved.

Churchill announced the news on the radio that afternoon declaring that the Allies should allow themselves a brief period of rejoicing.

And in the photo we can see Churchill waving to the crowds in London as they celebrate Victory in Europe Day.

However, Churchill also had a warning.

Difficult times lay ahead with Japan still undefeated.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Which Axis power was still undefeated after the surrender of Germany? A, Egypt, B, Italy, C, Japan.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was Japan.

Okay great, let's move onto the final task, task C.

What I want you to do here is explain why America's entry into the war and the D-Day landings were major turning points in the Second World War.

So use all the knowledge you've gained in today's lesson to help you to answer this question.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So there's many ways you could've answered that question, but check your answer with what I've got here.

America's entry into the war was a turning point in the Second World War because the county redirected its mighty economy towards fighting Japan and her ally, Germany.

Firstly, America halted the expansion of the Japanese Empire and secondly, America also boosted the Allies with thousands of fresh soldiers, tanks, planes, and crates of munitions.

These resources were poured into the dangerous D-Day landings, the largest amphibious invasion in history.

Once the beaches had been captured and the Atlantic Wall breached, the Allies had a foothold to begin liberating Europe.

The D-Day landings were a major turning point in the war as Nazi Germany was now fighting on two fronts with Soviet troops also pressing through the countries of Eastern Europe.

Okay, great, let's summarise today's lesson, America's entry into the war and the D-Day landings.

So after the attack on Pearl Harbour, President Roosevelt ended American isolationism and declared war against Japan and Germany.

America's entry into the Second World War was a key turning point.

In June 1942, there was also a turning point in the Pacific War when the US Navy stopped the expansion of the Japanese Empire at the Battle of Midway.

Another turning point was the D-Day landings, the largest amphibious invasion in history.

D-Day led to Nazi Germany fighting on two fronts as Soviet troops were also pressing through countries of eastern Europe.

Well done on a brilliant lesson and hopefully you can start to build a picture of the turning points of the Second World War, the entry of America, and some of those epic stories that came out of the D-Day landings, and the sacrifices involved on both the western and eastern front.

I'll see you next time when we continue our inquiry.

See you in the next lesson.