mercredi 16 octobre 2024

LESSON WEDNESDAY THE 16 TH OF OCTOBER

 LESSON WEDNESDAY THE 16 TH OF OCTOBER 

PROJECT D DAY 2023

Student’s PAPER

 

THE OUTCOME : what if … ?

GOAL : WHAT IF ? A POSSIBLE VERY DIFFERENT OUTCOME

 

WORDS OF THE DAY :

IN PHONETICS 

tuː beə fruːt ( ˈpɔːtə ses fruːts)

dɪˈfʌŋkt = dɪˈsiːst

tuː ˈeɪliəneɪt ˈsʌmwʌn = tuː meɪk ˈsʌmwʌn heɪt juː

tuː ˈbəʊlstə = tuː buːst = tuː ˈɡælvənaɪz

tuː biː ˈdrɑːftɪd = tuː biː ɪnˈlɪstɪd = tuː biː ɪnˈrəʊld

ɪn ðə rɪə ( ə larriere)

ɒn ðə spɜːr ɒv ðə ˈməʊmənt ( sur le kuː)

tuː ˈhɪndə = tuː ˈhæmpətuː dɪsˈrʌpt ( ˈʤiːnə)

skɔːʧt   brule)

rɪˌtæliˈeɪʃᵊn = ˌrɛtrɪˈbjuːʃᵊnrɪˈvɛnʤ

baɪ dɪnt ɒv ( ə fɔːs diː)

To bear fruit ( porter ses fruits)

Defunct = deceased

To alienate someone = to make someone hate you

To bolster = to boost = to galvanise

To be drafted = to be enlisted = to be enrolled

In the rear ( à larrière)

On the spur of the moment ( sur le coup)

To hinder = to hamper= to disrupt ( gener) 

SCORCHED  ( brulé)

Retaliation = retribution= revenge

By dint of ( à force de)

 

STEP 1 NOW WE ARE IN 2023 AND WE ARE GERMAN .

HITLER’S SON IS OUR LEADER AND WE ARE UNDER A DICTATORSHIP . YOU ARE AN OPPONENT AND HAVE FLED THE COUNTRY TO AMERICA WHERE YOU EXPLAIN WHY THE ALLIES FAILED.

 

We chose the wrong location for a landing

Eisenhower made the fateful = disastrous  decision to send us to calais and face  the strongest opposition

Our troops were too weak and composed of battle-weary ( weary = tired/ exhausted)  soldiers who suffered from battle fatigue

Our soldiers were sea sick and thus were unable to face the enemy

Some information was leaked ( to leak = fuire) to the germans

The allied got the location wrong and landed in spain

They landed on the wrong location

 The germans captured the leaders of the french resistance  and so we lost our ground support

The leader of the France libre 's demise = death deprived us of  the support of the resistance on the ground

The germans turned our double agents into triple  ones and the latter  spread fake information / hoaxes

the weather was stormy and thus our ships and landing crafts were sunk or could not even leave the ports.

The germans knew of our plans before hand and thus had strengthned = reinforced their troops just before the operation 

 

 

 

 

 

STEP 2 EXTRA MATERIAL READ THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS TO UNVEIL WHAT WENT WRONG  AND TURNED  OPERATION OVERLORD INTO A COMPLETE FAILURE ?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/how-close-did-d-day-come-to-failure/zkmd382

 

 

STEP 3 TEAM A YOU ARE A GERMAN COMMANDER  AND YOU HAVE TO EXPLAIN TO HITLER WHY YOU HAVE LOST THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY

read and be able to tell your general what went wrong.

 We were fooled by the allies

We had a lack of air support

our communication system was tampered with ( tamper with = trafiquer) and thus we could not communicate with the troops on the ground.

 our  troops were mainly  composed of Injured soldiers and thus their efficiency was sharply reduced.

 We did not have enough spare parts to replace and restore our air power 

we did not expect a landing on the 6 th of june because of the poor weather conditions which made a crossing more than unlikely ( unlikely = peu probable) 

Our leaders were at fault , being either absent, occupied elsewhere or just plain ( juste) incompetent.

 we cannot disregard The power of the resistance who sabotaged the railroads and thus prevented us from bringing a quick support to our troops

the allies had complete control of the air which is surprising considering what  the germans had managed to in 1940 with the Blitz.But from then on the Allies had bombarded most of their factories and thus  the production of planes had gone downhill ( to go downhill = etre de pire en pire) 

Hitler's suspicions had made collaboration between his generals impossible and thus hampered quick and efficient moves from the army.

 The weather was not what should be expected for a landing

Our intelligence services were at fault 

We did not master the language so we could not decipher= decode their messages

Their technology was superior

We lack the element of surprise 

Furthermore  the leaders were absent on the day.

 

 EXTRA INFORMATION 


1.the recruits on the ground  surrendered very quickly

The troops were composed mainly of  drafted foreigners and injured soliers as the best were on the eastern front in Russia.)Thus the soldiers in Normandy  were nearly worthless as they did not speak German and could not communicate with their commanders and had no sympathy for the Germans

.

2.The German commanders were confused, getting conflicting reports

 

3.The weapons

The German weapons were of higher quality than the Allies ones but after a while the troops could not get the spare parts ( pièces de rechange) needed because of the sea embargo imposed by the Americans

 

4 the weather reports

The various German headquarters were quite confident that there would be no attack in the immediate future  because of the poor weather.

 

5  the absence of commanders

Their senior commanders in Normandy and the cherbourg peninsula  were all away on the night of the landing for a military exercise in the Pas Calais region  which was expected to be the landing site.Rommel himself arrived 14 hours later because he was in Germany at the time of the invasion for a crucial meeting with Hitler and his wife’s birthday.

 

6.The lack of air support :

 the luftwaffe had lost its  strength and its will. So there were  no reconnaissance mission  to confirm the size of the invasion and destroy the RAF planes.

 

7.No German intelligence

Hitler intelligence department  (that is the spies ) were incompetent and  treacherous as there were many double agents in their ranks.

 

8.the efficiency of operation fortitude.

The german chain of command believed that the landing would be in the pas de calais.So did not dare wake up Hitler on the day believing it was not the main invasion  but only a small operation.

 

9.Hitler’s mistrust of his generals

So he divided authority among two generals who hated each other.So the reaction was slow and disorganised which was detrimental.A point in case :Rommel asked for the panzer divisions to come swiftly to stop the invasion.But His orders were not followed by the other general and thus the tanks arrived too late all the more as

some even believed that the Allies had failed because of the positive reports of an allied defeat from OMAHA.

 

11. Hitler was determined the allies should be fought on the beaches .

That is were Hitler got it wrong .Therefore there were no units left to organise a counterattack  in the rear once the allies had managed to get out of the beaches .

 

12.The german troops lacked  training

as they were enjoying their time in France and were busy organising rommel’s Atlantic wall.

 

13. the lack of fuel

Because of American control of the sea .So the germans  had to rely mainly on horses


 

 

 

TEAM B YOU ARE ROOSEVELT  and you are telling your grandkids why you and your army won on D day.

  we benefited from the Great leader

 the story  would have been very different

we relied on a A superb strategy

we even went so far as to create A ghost army

We fooled them

We put in a major industrial effort

We duped them with operation fortitude and body guard

The knowledge we gained from previous landings was priceless

We got the upper hand = we mastered the situation

Everything went according to plan

Our diplomacy went like clockwork = according to plan

 

On top of it all we have to salute the Bravery of the Soviet troops which thus diverted massive men and material power to the eastern front.

We were lucky as the germans were looking the other way

 The bombings were most efficient to destroy the means of production 

We are extremely proud of our achievements

Under eisenhower the allies acted as one man and thus were able to act swiftly ( swiftly = quickly ) 

We had control of the sea and the air

 for the germans  it  was difficult = it was almost impossible to get access to supplies

We landed on the right day under the best weather conditions

A massive industrial productions allowed us to  rely on better equipment and gear

The soviet determination and their will to defend the country was paramount 


 

 


 

 


EXTRA MATERIAL 


 

From the bbc history channel

1)In his prison cell at Nuremberg, Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, wrote a brief memoir in the course of which he explored the reasons for Germany's defeat. He picked out three factors that he thought were critical: the unexpected 'power of resistance' of the Red Army; the vast supply of American armaments; and the success of Allied air power.

This last was Hitler's explanation too. When Ribbentrop spoke with him a week before the suicide in the bunker, Hitler told him that, 'the real military cause of defeat' was the failure of the German Air Force.

2) THE BOMBING

Bombing provided the key difference between the western Allies and Germany.

First, bombing forced the German Air Force to divert most of its fighter force to the defence of Germany, and to reduce sharply the proportion of bomber aircraft produced..

second, bombing forced Hitler and the German leadership to think of radical ways to combat the threat it posed. Huge resources were diverted to the production of vengeance, or 'V', weapons, which had a very limited impact on Britain when rockets and flying bombs began to fall in the late summer of 1944. .

thirdly,Bombing provided the key difference between the western Allies and Germany. It played an important part in sustaining domestic morale in Britain and the USA, while its effects on German society produced social disruption on a vast scale

Finally ,The use of bombers and fighter-bombers at the frontline helped to ease the path of inexperienced armies that threatened to get bogged down in Normandy and Italy.

 

STEP 3 A LONG-IN-COMING VICTORY

 

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 HOMEWORK 

revision d day pour mock exam .

la methodologie est rappelé ici :








 

 

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