Second World War · 1944-1945

D-Day and the liberation of western Europe

On 6 June 1944 Allied armies landed on five beaches in Normandy. Within three months Paris and Brussels were free; by spring 1945 the Allies crossed the Rhine. Students locate the beaches, follow the liberation on the map and weigh its cost.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1938
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

On 6 June 1944 Allied armies landed on five beaches in Normandy. Within three months Paris and Brussels were free; by spring 1945 the Allies crossed the Rhine. Students locate the beaches, follow the liberation on the map and weigh its cost.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why the Allies opened a second front in France in 1944.
  • Locate the five D-Day beaches and name the countries that landed on each.
  • Follow the liberation of France, Belgium and the Netherlands on the map.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1938

The Normandy coast

Open the map in 1938 and zoom in on the coast of Normandy, where the Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches lay. Why not land at Calais, the shortest crossing?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1938

Paris

Follow the river Seine to Paris. Ask the atlas: "Who liberated Paris in August 1944?" Why did the French want to enter their capital first?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1938

The Bulge

Move to the Ardennes in Belgium and Luxembourg. In December 1944 Germany attacked here one last time. Find Bastogne. Why does this forest keep appearing in the history of the world wars?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Stalin had asked for a second front in the west since 1941. Why did the Western Allies wait until 1944?
  2. The Allies tricked Germany into expecting the main landing near Calais. Why was deception so important?
  3. More than 150,000 soldiers landed on D-Day. What had to be planned to make that possible?
  4. French resistance fighters sabotaged railways and bridges before and after D-Day. How did that help?
  5. For French civilians in Normandy, liberation also meant bombing and the loss of homes. How should both sides of that story be remembered?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Julius Caesar, who crossed the Channel to Britain in 55 and 54 BC. Then compare: why is a landing from the sea one of the hardest operations in war, and how did Eisenhower's planners solve it in 1944?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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