Victory in Europe, the end of World War 2

Hi! Future Ticia 2024 here, tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and I thought it would be fun to republish this Victory in Europe lesson which shows how D-Day was part of a massive victory plan among the Allies. Now I return you to Past Ticia 2013.

Victory in Europe at the end of World War 2 was a huge endeavor. I’m not just talking we landed in Normandy one day in June and the war ended. No,it was a plan that took years to figure out. This makes for an interesting history lesson to walk through with kids and a good culmination of the World War 2 Unit.

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Supplies for Victory in Europe, World War 2

Wondermaps (or make your own map), colored pencils (or vis a vis)

So, I am just so insanely glad to be going back to MOH (Mystery of History) next year.  I just sat there thinking about how happy I was to go back to Ancient History last night as I wasn’t sleeping.  The last time around when we reached the Great Wall of China, we built it on our map out of playdough.  I’m thinking this time around I’m going to have the kids use some extra bricks at our house and build one out of bricks………

End my random musings from not sleeping last night

Now let’s get started on the Victory in Europe lesson

The kids and I read through the chapter covering the victory in Europe and all I got from them was a bunch of blinking eyes.  So, I ran downstairs and found a blackline map of World War 2 Europe (if you’re covering modern history, this is a great packet of maps, it’s got most major wars during that time).  The first step to winning: Take French Algiers.  This was necessary for two reasons: 1.  They needed to get the oil fields there, and 2.  They needed a launching ground for the next step.

The next step: take Italy.  First, because Italy had been an aggressor, and also because we needed Italy as the staging for the next steps.

The Big One: D-Day and taking France

Next, we took back France.  We nominally worked with the French Resistance, but primarily this was an operation with the British.  The Allies spent months working on how to land and training the soldiers on how to get out of the boats.  Each soldier had less than a minute to de-boat, and it was an impressive undertaking to this day.  At this point, we also colored in Germany so the kids could understand what the ultimate goal was (Side note, I got to be in France during the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and that was the souvenir t-shirt I got from there).

Future Ticia 2024, at some point I should write an entire post on D-Day because I don’t think that paragraph truly clues you in to the troubles of the soldiers on D-Day. Thousands died taking that beach.

Important note on Victory in Europe

We covered this when we were studying US history. If we were studying world history, we would have also included what the Russians were doing at the time. This was all a big pincer movement designed to destroy every hope Hitler had of winning. Eventually, it became a bit of a race between the military commanders on both sides who wanted to take more ground. The leaders of the different Allied Powers had worked out a very carefully planned choreography of who would take what.

Back to the lesson

Then we retook the rest of France, which was an arduous process, and lost many men during this time.

The final step was taking Germany, which was split between us and the Russians.  There was a gentleman’s agreement between the two generals delineating which side would take what.  This is also the point when Miracle of the White Stallions took place {I should see if I ever had a copy of that book, or did I just check it out from the library 2 million times}.

Actually, the Americans took a little bit of the land it was agreed the Russians would take so they could save the Lipinzzaners.

Another side note

Huh, I did talk about how the Russians took the other half of Germany.

Back to the lesson

Victory in Europe was declared on May 8, 1945, with the total surrender of Germany.  Peace was negotiated and it was split in half, with the Soviet Union “administering” one half, and the rest of the Allies administering the other half (and this will cause problems in and of itself later on).

Future Ticia 2024 clarifying a bit more, it was divided into 1/4s with each of the major Allied powers administering 1/4 of Germany, but the United States, France, and Britain combined their parts into Western Germany.

So, that’s how victory in Europe in World War 2 was won.  Obviously, this is much simplified and doesn’t delineate all of the battles and deaths during these campaigns.  We didn’t go into the Pacific campaign that much this time around because, to be honest, I don’t know as much about it, and I could tell their interest was waning, so we’ll catch it next time around.

Future Ticia 2024, we did go into the Pacific theater in much more detail and made a special field trip to visit the Nimitz and Pacific Theater Museum.

More great history lessons

• Gandhi lesson
• Montgomery Bus Boycott lists
• Galveston Flood of 1900s
• Great Depression Dice Game
• Paul Revere Unit

Originally published April 10, 2013