The D-Day Invasion

1. Set Focus
Pose this essential question: How can one day change the course of a war?

2. List Vocabulary
Share some of the challenging vocabulary words in the article. Encourage students to use context to infer meanings as they read.

• antisemitic (p. 19)
• armada (p. 20)
• amphibious (p. 20)
• tenaciously (p. 20)
• feint (p. 20)
• logistical (p. 21)

3. Engage
Have students recount what they already know about World War II and the U.S.’s involvement in the conflict. Revisit this discussion after the lesson, having students share new insights they’ve gained.

4. Read and Discuss
Ask students to read the Upfront article about D-Day. Review why the article is a secondary source. (It was written by someone who didn’t personally experience or witness the events.) Then pose these critical-thinking questions and ask students to cite text evidence when answering them:

• Four years after the war began, why did the Allied nations believe an “invasion of epic proportions” was necessary? (In the past four years, Hitler’s “war machine” had managed to occupy much of Europe, and the Nazis were implementing their plan to imprison and exterminate millions of Jewish people. In order to defeat them, Allied forces believed they needed to do something major to change the course of the war.)

• Why were the stakes of the Normandy invasion so high? Was General Dwight D. Eisenhower confident that the invasion would succeed? Explain. (The stakes were high because the weather before the invasion was bad and the German forces were going to be difficult to defeat. Eisenhower was not completely confident they would succeed, and even wrote a note accepting blame in case the invasion failed.)

• Why was D-Day “a logistical miracle”? (D-Day was “a logistical miracle” both because it was an enormous undertaking that involved thousands of ships and bombs, and millions of Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics, and others, and because its success also allowed supplies to be delivered that enabled the Allies to liberate Europe.)

• What impact did the invasion’s success have on the war? (According to the article, the success of the invasion was the turning point in the war that laid the groundwork for an overall Allied victory. The invasion allowed for important logistical improvements and changed people’s perception about who was winning, which dramatically boosted morale.)

5. Use the Primary Sources
Project, distribute, or assign in Google Classroom the PDF ‘Marching Together to Victory,’ which features General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s message to soldiers on the eve of D-Day. Discuss what makes the document a primary source. (It provides firsthand evidence concerning the topic.) Have students read the text and answer the questions below (which appear on the PDF without answers).

• How would you describe the tone and purpose of this document? (The tone can be described as encouraging. The purpose is to bolster the courage of the troops who were going to invade Normandy.)

• What main ideas about the invasion does Eisenhower convey through his order? (In his order, Eisenhower conveys the following main ideas: The invasion will lead to an overall Allied victory, the invasion will be challenging, the enemy has been weakened, and the invasion will be a success.)

• Eisenhower refers to German troops as “the German war machine.” What ideas or images does his language evoke? Why do you think he uses this language? (Student answers will vary but some may note that machines are complex, efficient, and have many moving parts that work together. Some may imagine a war fought by machines instead of people. They may say that Eisenhower uses this language to convey the idea that the enemy is formidable or inhuman.)

• What does Eisenhower mean when he says “the tide has turned!”? How does he support this claim? (Eisenhower is saying that the German army is no longer as strong as it was and that the Allied forces are now on track to win the war. He supports his claim by discussing the victories of prior battles fought by the Allied forces (the “United Nations”), as well as the efforts of civilians back home (the “Home Fronts”) that have led to reserves of weapons, ammunitions, and troops.)

• Based on the Upfront article, did the tone of Eisenhower’s order match his true feelings? How do his assessments and predictions compare with what happened on D-Day? (Based on the article, Eisenhower was not as confident as he portrays himself to be in this document and he actually suspected the operation might fail. However, his assessments are accurate­—the invasion was very challenging, the enemy forces were strong, the invasion did succeed, and many attribute the overall victory of the Allies to its success.)

6. Writing Prompt
Why was the landing at Omaha considered “a catastrophe”? Research the landing and, in a brief essay, explain what went wrong.

7. Quiz & Skills
Use the quiz to assess comprehension and Analyze the Photo to practice visual analysis.

8. Classroom Debate
Should the U.S. have gotten involved in the war earlier?

9. Personal Accounts
Have students explore the Virginia Military Institute’s digital collection of oral histories to read about D-Day as it was experienced by the soldiers themselves.  To access, visit digitalcollections.vmi.edu, select the “Military Oral History” collection, then the “D-Day and Normandy” topic.