Activities

Confidence and Concerns: Allied Advances into Germany
Guiding Question:
Overview:
This lesson asks students to put themselves in the context of late fall/early winter 1944 as advisors to military planners. Students will determine what the Allies could consider their biggest strengths but also their largest concerns as they crafted their strategy to defeat Germany. Students will analyze a variety of primary sources and draft a memo with their strategic recommendations for Allied military planners.
Activity
Historical Context
Following Operation Market Garden, Allied forces faced more and more German resistance as they closed in on the German border. As winter 1944 approached there was little doubt that the Allies were winning the war and Germany was struggling to defend itself and reduce its losses, however there was still a significant amount of fighting strength left in the German high command and its forces. This lesson encourages students to consider causes for confidence and concern as the Allies strategized about the final phase of the war in Europe. Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery is the final resting place for many men, like Private First Class Clark B. Allen Jr., who lost their lives fighting in the push into Germany.
Objectives
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to
- Determine the fighting conditions that existed in western Germany in the early winter of 1944;
- Analyze a group of primary sources;
- Assemble a list of strengths and concerns facing the Allied forces in late 1944; and
- Recommend a strategy for Allied military planners.
Standards Connections
Connections to Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.7 Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Connections to C3 Framework
D2.His.16.9-12 Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.
Materials
- Computer access for students to view the ABMC interactive timeline
- Primary Source Packet
- Primary Source Organizer (with Teacher Answer Key)
- Small Group Discussion Organizer (with Teacher Answer Key)
- Strategy Memo
Lesson Preparation
- Secure access to computers (if you are viewing the ABMC interactive timeline online)
- Print one Primary Source Packet per student. You can print out one copy of the packet per group if necessary.
- Print one copy of each handout (Primary Source Organizer, Small Group Discussion Organizer, and Strategy Memo Assignment) per student.
- Print one grading rubric for each student.
Procedure
Confidence and Concern (75 minutes)
- Introduce the lesson and objectives.
- Divide students into small groups of three to four students each.
- Distribute to each student one copy of the Primary Source Packet, the Primary Source Organizer, and the Small Group Discussion Organizer.
- Direct students to divide up the documents. Some are easier to analyze than others (for example, the photographs might take less time than the excerpts from the Strategic Bombing Survey) so teachers and students should take this into account.
- Ask each student to read and analyze his or her primary source document(s) and then fill in the corresponding row on the Primary Source Organizer. Students may need teacher assistance with outside knowledge. Refer to the Primary Source Organizer Teacher Key as needed.
- Direct students to share with the rest of their group.
- While each group member is sharing, the other members should record the findings in the corresponding row of the Primary Source Organizer.
- Direct students to look at Small Group Discussion Organizer. As a group, they should fill in this T-chart.
- Debrief as a whole class. Create a master T-chart on the whiteboard. Students should add to their own T-charts any new information. Refer to the Small Group Discussion Organizer Teacher Key as needed.
- Direct students to examine the remaining secondary sources and add to the T-chart:
- Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial Visitors Booklet excerpt
- World War II Interactive Timeline
- Teacher Note: Direct students to click on 1944 at the bottom of the timeline, then to look specifically for the Ardennes-Alsace Campaign and the Rhineland Campaign. If there is extra time, students should explore the many resources on this site.
Assessment Materials
- Distribute the Strategic Memo assignment and rubric.
- Ask individual students to write a memo as if they were military advisors in early 1944 giving recommendations to the decision makers about how to proceed. In their memos, students must take a stand with a clearly written thesis and defend it using historical evidence.
Methods for Extension
- Students can do in-class oral presentations (PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.) instead of writing a memo.
- Students can select an additional primary source they would have added to the set in this lesson and explain why they think it would enhance understanding of the reasons for Allied confidence and concern.
- Teachers can share casualty numbers to students at the U.S. Army Medical Department's The Fight For the Hürtgen Forest.
- Students can use the ABMC website at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery to learn more about the cemetery and search those buried there.
- If you do not review the ABMC World War II Interactive Timeline in class, you could assign students to view it at home.
- The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains U.S. military cemeteries overseas. These cemeteries are permanent memorials to the fallen, but it is important that students know the stories of those who rest here. To learn more about the stories of some of the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice, visit the Understanding Sacrifice Interactive Map.
Adaptations
- The Strategic Bombing Survey is the most difficult primary source to analyze as it is the longest section of text. Be sure to assign it accordingly. You may consider assigning this one primary source as homework in advance of this activity.
- Teachers can provide a list of defined key terms.
- Teachers can add guiding questions for analysis of photographs and charts.
- Teachers can add more information to the photographs and charts (dates, titles, etc.).
- Teachers can project the entirety of the lesson and guide class discussion while observing the videos, interactives, and primary sources together.
Sources
Primary Sources
Infantrymen Pushing through the Hurtgen Forest in Germany, 1944.
National Archives and Records Administration (6928094)The procession of German prisoners captured with the fall of Aachen marching through the ruined city streets to captivity, October 1944.
National Archives and Records Administration (541597)American soldiers look down the Siegfried Line, 1944.
United States Department of the Army, National Archives and Records Administration (292569)Annex No. 4 to After Action Report, 104th Infantry Division, November 1944.
National Archives and Records AdministrationAnnex No. 5 to After Action Report, 104th Infantry Division, November 1944.
National Archives and Records AdministrationUnited States Strategic Bombing Survey Summary Report (excerpts), September 30, 1945.
National Archives and Records Administration
Secondary Sources
ABMC Burials and Memorializations Search
American Battle Monuments CommissionHenri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial Visitors Booklet
American Battle Monuments CommissionHenri-Chapelle American Cemetery Website
American Battle Monuments CommissionWorld War II Interactive Timeline
American Battle Monuments Commission