MOCK EXAM a failure or a success ?????

 

MOCK EXAM  a failure or a success ?????

DO NOT FORGET THAT IF THE TOPIC AT THE TOP OF THE EXAM PAPER DOES NOT CONTAIN A QUESTION MARK ,  ADD IT YOURSELF TO BE ABLE TO FIND THE ISSUE THAT YOU HAVE TO TACKLE

MOREOVER I HAVE JUST NOTICED THAT I FORGOT TO INDICATE THAT THE PHOTO WAS TAKEN by Robert  capa the most famous photo journalist of the time .he was the only civilian journalist to land on D day at Omaha beach risking his life to take several pictures which were then damaged  when developed.thus he managed to save a few among which this photo showing several wounded soldiers on Omaha beach being rescued by their comrades in one of the fiercest battlefield of D day .

He was also the photographer who took this well-know shot of the Sapnish republiscan being shot during the Sapnish civil war in 1936.he died in 1954  whilst reporting on the Indochina war .

INTRODUCTION  :

Define the historical circumstances of the D day/ date/ several beaches: names and natonalities of the various troops on the ground and the plan of action.

A that stage let me focus on the issue at end: might we consider the D day as a failure or as a success.But I may be as bold as to add that we might wonder first of all of which side we are talking about ? The Allies or the germans?Of course the first document might give us a clue at to which side to pick and thus I  have taken the decision to delve into the actions of the allied forces all the more as the second document  consists of a speech made by Winston Churchill the leader of the British forces.

We have here side by side the political vision of a leader who sole purpose is to inform but also to reassure the public and justify  the decisions made.

On the other hand we are faced with the reality on the ground .

Hence my decision to start with  ChUrchill’s speech to then delve into the photo which will provide us maybe with a reality check.

DOCUMENT 1 THE SPEECH 

Who?remember that Churchill was not that in favour of a landing as the British troops were weary after 4 years of conflict that they had carried out mostly on their own.He leaned much more in favour of  massive bombing which he believed would  compelled the germans to yield and sign the armistice.

Moreover he feared the loss of a huge number of casualties

When ? date :6 th of june so after the events

Content : focus  and explain in details  the following quotes from the text

THE PASSAGE OF THE SEA : fewer loss than expected as the german aircraft was depeleted and unable to respond/ THE NUMBER OF BOATS INVOLVED IN OPERATION NEPTUNE ( the naval side of Operation overlord )

.THE BATTERIES  : explain what you know about THE ATLANTIC WALL  and operation transportation with the bombing of the sites  and why it was not as effective as it should have been .

ALONG THE WHOLE FRONT  : so does not get into details because at that stage he is aware that some landings have been more complicated than others .that is why he is full of caution in his speech adding “ IN SOME CASES “ because the progress of the troops are not even .

Thus in this very speech Churchill admits although in subdued terms that progress has been made , that they are by and large successful but yet they have not managed to reach  most of their objectives which were to get out of the beaches as fast as possible and to move inland in a sift progression to get access to the main towns and thus hinder any German moves and reinforcement.

And indeed the photograph  to which we are turning our attention to now  makes that as obvious as possible .

 

DOCUMENT 2

Brief description of the scene

THEN SPECIFY WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT OMAHA  : why did the Americans meet with fierce resistance there and encounter far more difficulties than the British on the other beaches.

Quote the number of casualties as a whole ( roughly 5,000) and more specifically on Omaha beach.( 3,000) so Omoha got the lion share of the deceased.

HERE ARE EXTRA ANSWERS IF YOU WISH TO ADD TO MRS BOURGEOIS ‘ LESSON

Most of the casualties were caused by US Military incompetence.

1. The USAAF missed with its target and bombed 3 miles behind the beach

2. The US Army plan called for the direct assault of the beach exits using engineer equipment that was obselete in WW 1 ('Bangalore Torpedo's)

3. More than half the DD tanks were launched too far out and sank

4. Direct assault on concrete bunkers without armoured and engineer support is certain to be costly

5. The US failure at Omaha was almost entirely due to poor planing and inadequate equipment. (2 months later the US Army had to 'borrow' British engineer tanks for the assault on the fortress at Brest).

6. -allied inteligence had successfully located most of the heavy gun positions supporting Gold-Juno-Sword, and one way or another they had been suppressed (para attack or naval gunfire) However at Omaha (2-3 miles back from the beach) There was a major gun position that had been missed

TRANSITION bearing these facts in mind , we might now answer the elephant in the room :

 D Day a failure or a success ?

Cf why did they fail

 https://echodesdeviennes.blogspot.com/2025/11/lesson-term-euro-friday-21-st-of.html

MOREOVER on the first day the allies did not achieve their objectives

1.However ,a stark contrast of the successful landing onto Normandy beach would be the airborne invasion with 23 thousand troops.However these paratroopers were scattered carelessly with only one sixth of the paratroopers reaching the designated points and most were left with insufficient arms .There was an extremely high casualty rate ,with more than 12 thousand dead by the end of the operation.Surprisingly , the most common cause of these deaths were drowning!

2. capturing CAEN

The Allies wanted to take the strategically important city of Caen. Bad weather on D-Day persisted late into the morning, and poor visibility inland made it easier for the 21st Panzer Division to avoid aerial attacks.Caen was only reached and liberated on JULY the 7 th thus almost a month after the landing with Cherbourg liberated on the 1st of july  so far later than expected

3. still By the end of D-Day, the Allies had landed as many as 155,000 troops in France by sea and air, 6,000 vehicles including 900 tanks, 600 guns and about 4,000 tons of supplies and, astonishingly, had achieved complete surprise in doing it. The Atlantic Wall had been breached.

CONCLUSION 

Some might  add after the careful study of both documents that some might regard D day as a glass full or as a glass half empty : in other words either you focus on the final outcome of the operation and have a look at the bigger picture and at the final victory  on the armistice of May the 8 th .

But others might scrutinize the plans that Overlord was supposed to abide by and the year it took to achieve that final victory  which somehow belies ( dementir) the triumphant prtrayal some might draw of operation overlord.

Still one might fin dit useful  on tha last leg of our study to quote Eisenhower, the suprême commander of the Allied forces «  Plans are worthless but planning is everything « .