need help with ww2 paper

[7h0m4z]

Greetings once again, I am writing a paper on D-day which I am suppose to analyze from various sources. Now my teacher told me to pick a narrowed topic of D-day which could be formulated into a question. Now I know generally about this event but I can't think of a narrowed subject...can I write about how Hitler took a sleeping pill that night and could've prevented D-day if the panzers were deployed to the beaches if he didn't took that sleeping pill? ..I don't really know..help me out guys

[titget]

couple ideas..dont know if they'll help or not..but you could look at the signifigance of the LCVP's (landing craft vehicle personnals) or known as the Higgins boats, after Andrew Higgins, who developed them..you could ask if the assault would have been as succesful without the invention of the LCVP's..and look at D-Day that way..Ive read a lot of sources that say the Higgins boats were vital in the success of D-day..

Or you could talk about Operation Bodyguard..and its importance of D-Day..just of few thoughts

[ArmedPacifist]

Well since your teacher will probably give you extra marks if you mention Canadian acheivements, you could ask the question as to whether or not the landings would have been successful if it were not for the failed Dieppe raid which occured previously.

[James]

Well, you could ask your teacher for more guidance. Your needs aren't completely clear to me. Was D-Day an assigned general topic? Or soemthing you picked?

I would definitely encourage you to write about Canadian achievements. Perhaps you could figure out a way to write about how lessons learned at Dieppe contributed to Allied (and Canadian) victory on D-Day. To expand on what ArmedPacificst wrote above - Maybe something along the lines of "What if the Allies hadn't learned lessons at Dieppe, and had tried to conduct the D-Day landings at Pas de Calais?"

Figure out what they DID learn at Calais, show how it contrubuted to success, and then maybe speculate about what might have happened if Dieppe hadn't happened.

Of course, one could probably write a lengthy book about this. What are the requirements for your paper?

[Hunterhr]

Write about how even if the panzers had made it to the beach, it wouldn't have made a whole lot of difference.

There was a whole lot of naval gunfire waiting for them if they made it to the landing beaches.

[7h0m4z]

What are the requirements for your paper?

if your interested...

Internal Assessment -- Individual student evaluation done by the teacher of a subject on a particular piece of work or the accumulation of work (depends on the subject) and communicated to the IB Curriculum and Assessment office (IBCA). Internal assessments are criteria-based. Samples of candidates’ work, which represent a range of performance, low to high are also submitted to markers. Oral exams, portfolios, lab books and essays all comprise parts of internal assessment.

Plan of investigation 100-150 words

Summery of evidence 500-600 words

Evaluation of sources 250-400 words

Analysis 500-600 words

conclusion 150-200 words

list of sources.

well basically im in this ib program and we have to write this paper to be marked in switzerland or something and the teacher gave us topics so i choose D-day. oh well thanks for the ideas.

[Kersh]

One of my personal favorite topics, and one that I have chosen on a few different occasions, is the Allied efforts to disrupt German efforts to produce heavy water (required for nuclear weapons) and destroy the German's current supply. It involved a number of operations, an invention of the "Bouncing Betty" bomb, and a few tragedies along the way. Check up on Knut Haukelid, he is one of my heroes, and is largely responsible for the outcome of actions. It's a great tale of dedication, commitment, and accomplishment.

[kitatatsumi]

Good luck on the paper. If you set it up correctly now, the whole thing will write itself. a few suggestions:
1) dispell a myth, example: (would the panzers really had made a difference? ) OR (there is alot of talk about black soldiers on DDay: how much of it is true?)
2) make a comparison: exmple: (Hitler's idea to fight the battle inland versus Rommel's idea to stop the invasion on the beach? what were the arguments for each?)
3) Changes (how has the percetion or portrayal of the battle changed through new academic study and the introduction of new evidence? compare the "idealized depictions "The Longest Day"(pre vietnam) to more "realistic" depictions such as Sav Pvt Ryan or Ambrose (post vietnam) AND (use newspaper articles from the 1940s and compare to what we know today)...
4) many of the Normandy defenders were concscripts of Eastern European origin ( perhaps you could do us a favor and shed some light on "who did the Allies actually fight that day?")
5) Use data and archives. (if you look at the actual dates that certain soldiers were KIA or wounded, you should be able to discern a pattern...what does this pattern tell you?) OR (how long was an Allied officer trained versus a German one, and how were thier trainings different, what do thier differences tell you?)
6) Think outside the box (compare Normandy to Dieppe OR Normandy to Tarawa OR Normandy to Inchon: how were they different?)
AND FINALLY
7) Disagree with someone (look into JStor or Picarta and find an article written by some pompous professor about D Day...and call BS on him)

in short: i really want to reiterate how useful databases like Jstor are at this stage in your paper.

and dont forget to run you final copy by someone
"Spell cheque off ten Mrs mini of my mist takes that eye maid"

looking forward to reading your paper on MP.net

Best of luck,
mm

[DANJANOU]

if you want to go with a Canadian theme, the Dieppe Lessons thing has been done to daeth.

Try exposing the popular myth the Juno Beach was a cake walk compared to the other beaches and that is the reason for the Canadian’s penetrating farther inland than any other units, and actually taking most of their objectives.

The myth that they walked over a bunch of under strength, over aged, medically unfit defenders is just that total BS.

Look at stats and contemporary accounts of the battle (Mark Zuehlke’s Juno Beach for example). Juno was the second most fortified beach of the five after Omaha including three seaside villages turned into bunkers and the bombardment barely took out 14% of these. It was also the last force to go ashore, intially supposed to be 15 minutes behind everyone else (say good bye to surprise) and pushed back another 30 minutes due to weather and other delays. Casualties at Juno were the second highest of any of the beaches again after Bloody Omaha, and in the case of the initial 6 assault infantry battalions reached as high as 50%.

[Martino]

HERE IS A GOOD ONE.

What if the airborne was sent in on June 5th and the invasion was delayed (Weeks?) by bad weather.

ANOTHER GOOD ONE:

What if "Garbo" and operation "Fortitude" failed and the Germans knew about Normandy.



What if there were no:

"Hobart's Funnies"

What if there was German Air support.
What if there were guns on Pt. DuHac.
What if the invasion was delayed and took place weeks maybe months later.
W

[California Joe]

^ Listen to DANJANOU, he was there.

[DANJANOU]

What if there were no: "Hobart's Funnies"

I think that was called Omaha and/or Utah Beach.

BTW Joe "Pheque off"

[California Joe]

I think that was called Omaha and/or Utah Beach.

BTW Joe "Pheque off"

You know you're my hero.

[Martino]

I think that was called Omaha and/or Utah Beach.

BTW Joe "Pheque off"

Uhhhhhh????

Hobart's Funnies were specialy designed tanks.

Sherman tanks with duplex drive systems. (These tanks could ferry themsleves to the beach, but failed on Omaha do to rough seas.)
The flail tank.(A sherman with chains on a spinning drum that cleared mines.)

AAAAAAAHHH. Therer are too many

[7h0m4z]

Thanks for the advice and yes i have to do a Canadian theme but on well. Yeah the Dieppe comparison is like beating a dead horse, Ill take you cake walk idea into great consideraton.