LESSON TERM EURO WEDNESDAY THE 30 TH OF SEPTEMBER

 

LESSON TERM EURO WEDNESDAY THE 30 TH OF SEPTEMBER

GOAL : recap on the normandy trip

The atlantic wall

 

Word of the day

WORDS OF THE DAY

(to) tip the scale ( faire pencher la balance)

Dim ( mal éclairé sombre + vague / lointain)

Ex : i have a dim recollection of these events

 folksy = popular 

(to) bear the brunt of something  ( porter le fardeau de)= (to) shoulder something 

ex: the americans had to shoulder the fierce retaliation from the Germans 

(to) face the music = (to) face up to their responsibility

ex: Hitler had decided to fight on both fronts. Now he and his men had to face the music

(to) pound something = (to) blast sth = (to) bomb sth 

a huge gamble ( un pari énorme) 

 

document FOR IRELAND AUTORISATION + QUI NE PEUT ASSISTER NI AU COURS DE MME DEVIENNE DE 9 H 30 NI VENDREDI SOIR

STEP 1 RECAP ON THE NORMANDY TRIP AND YOUR KNWOLEDGE  WHO WILL BE THE BETTER AT THIS GAME ?

 

1.     Location of the landing AND WHY ?

2.     Type of weather necessary

3.     Type of beaches necessary : pebbles or sand AND WHY ?

4.     Moment of day for the landing  AND WHY ?

5.     Habour or beach

6.     Where to go next ? paris ? other cities ?

7.     Low tide or high tide ?

8.     Landing alone or other type of operations before ?

9.     Once landed how to ensure supplies ?

10. Type of boats to take the men on shores

11. One military commander or only one suprême commander ?

12. Do we involve the French or not ? do we involve the french resistance ?

13.  

1.     The germans expected the allies to land in pas de calais and more precisely in calais  being the shortest route to the UK and dover.

So calais was heavily defended with bunkers and casemates and large number of german soldiers.

Thus the allies decided to land in Normandy in the cotentin peninsula which offered many advantages .

First sandy beaches which made the landing easier both for men and material alike.

The dieppe landing by the candian forces in 1942 had taught them a painful lesson as the tanks landing on pebble beaches had got stuck .

Thus they did not want to face the same kind of mayhem/ disaster.

Then an operation of this size required massive stretch of lands to be able to accomodate both 160 000 soldiers plus the future supplies and different nationalities with 5 beaches being the plan.

Finally they were looking for a location that was close to the british coast to ensure that the planes  could go back and forth on a fuel tank.

Hence their choice of Normandy.

Moreover the very fact that normandy belonged to a peninsula made it easier in thei eyes to encircle the german forces and prevent them from fleeing to paris.

Besides there were limited points of access with the countryside being strewn ( be strewn = éparpillé) with rivers and swamps/ marches .Therefore capturing the bridges and the few main thoroughfares= roads would be easier.

A last point upside being Cherbourgh and its harbour which would be needed to bring in supplies afterwards.

2.     The weather had to be balmy to prevent the waters from being too choppy  and thus mitigate = reduce risks of seasickness which would be detrimental to the soldiers.

3.     The landing occured on the 6 th of june at 6 am this at daybreak to allow german positions to be visible while enabling the troops to remain slightly hidden.

The landing was preced by various operations .first the dropping from planes of paratroopers who were meant to capture the main roads and thus stop possible german reinforcement from paris

Some of these paratroopers landed with gliders to catch the germans unaware as gliders are silent.

Besides these gliders allowed a landing  right in the lmiddle of cities and closer to their target which was bridges such as the pegasus bridge.

Then at 5. 30 pounding started from the vessels and from planes .Their goal was to destroy the main cannons and batteries.But most were ineffective as i twas not easy to have a proper view of their target from the sea.The French resistance had provided them with crucial information about the location of the main batallions and cannons .And yet most of the pounding missed their target.

 

4.     The allies intended to capture the peninsula in a couple of days.But in fact it took them 20 days to reach cherbourgh faced with german nazi regiments who  put up a good fight and  oppose a fierce resistance helped by the hedgerows which led to a guerilla war where german snipers had a field day ( to have a field day = s en prendre à cœur joie) and made thousands of casualties ( morts) and wounded ( blessé) . the allies became thus easy target.

5.     To manage to bring in the necessary supplies the americans had created artifical harbours called mulberry harbours . they were basically massive block of cement on barges that floated and could be dropped in position.

Indeed you needed to keep the vessel at sea.otherwise the water would not have been deep enough  and the boats would have been stranded = run aground

Another major equpment were the landing craft with their flat bottom also called LCVP ( landing craft  vehicle and personnel)

The operation meant to bring in supplies was called the transportation operation.

Of course the landing operation had also a code name / the OPERATION OVERLORD

The whole operation was under the control of THE SUPREME COMMANDER D.DWIGHT EISENHOWER.

On the british side Churchill was in charge assisted by Genreal Montgomery on the battle field.

6.The Frech resistance was involved in the operation.

They had been made ware of the coming operation thanks to a secret message broadcasted on the BBC . the first part was broadcasted on the 1 st of june and the second part on the 5 th. The tex twas the chanson d automne by verlaine.

The resistance had carried out operations of sabotage mainly on trains to hamper ( gener) any movements of troops and supplies towards normandy and the pas de calais.

Moreover they had supplied loads of information on the location of the german troops and defenses to the allied forces.

On the day they fought as well and carried out guerilla operations as well as rescuing some of the american paratroopers who had been dropped behind enemy lines and had lost their ways/ had got lost.

Still Churchill  had been very wary ( méfiant) in involving the French because he was not certain of their support.

 

 

REINFORCEMENT

TO POUND

DROPPED THE PARATROOPERS

A STRETCH OF LAND

BEHIND THE LINES

TO LAND

 MID TIDE

HEAVILY DEFENDED

CALAIS

THE BRITISH COAST

MULBERRY ARTIFICAL HARBOUR

TO DELAY + TO POSTPONE

A GUERILLA WAR : WARFARE

A SNIPER

TO ENSURE SUCCESS

PEBBLE :: SANDY

AN EASY TARGET

DIEPPE

GOT STUCK + STRANDED

A VESSEL

GET SEASICK

A HARBOUR

HEDGEROWS

 

Homework

Read take notes and learn the lesson.