Western Front 1944-1945
Operation Barbarossa began Stalin's endless cries for a second front in Western Europe, to relieve pressure on his Soviets. He begged them as early as 1942, but at that point the Western Allies simply did not have enough men or materials to conduct such a massive operation. So began the build-up for Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe.
As early as 1941, Churchill formed "specially trained troops of the hunter class" that would conduct small raids on Hitler's Europe. On March fourh, their first succsessful mission was completed on the north-western Norwegian coast, destroying fuel dumps. On August 19, the most ambitious raid yet began, carried out by the Canadians and the British. It was a dismal faliure. Commandos supposed to destroy a defense battery were spotted by a German patrol and were thus unable to complete their mission. When the actual landings commenced, some tanks got to the beaches, but all roads inland were now blocked, and worse, the attackers came under murderous fire. Out of a force of 6100, 1027 were killed and 2340 captured.
Afterwards, planning for Operation Overlord, as the operation was to be called, began in earnest. The location was narrowed down to two choices: the Pas-de-Calais (near Dunkirk) and Normandy (near Cherbourg). At first glance, the Calais area was more favorable, for it provided a more direct route to Germany. But on closer examination, the Calais area did not have substantial ports, and was heavily defended. Normandy, on the other hand, had a working port nearby, Cherbourg, and was not nearly as heavily defended. The final destination was set at Normandy. Five divisions were to be landed at five beaches, and so a massive armada of naval and air power was built up to support the invasion. The final date was set at June 5. But the weather forced Eisenhower to postopne it one day. After that, he gave the go-ahead.
Map of June 6-9, Normandy
The D-Day invasion forces consisted of the U.S. First Army, under General Omar Bradley, and the British Second Army under General Miles Dempsey. Both armies were part of the Twenty-First Army Group, under command of Bernard Montgomery. The whole thing was run by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On the night of June 5-6, airborne troops of the British 6th and the American 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions landed on the east and west flanks, respectively, while French Resistance fighters sabotaged communication and transportation networks. At 5:30 A.M., the invasion beache were wracked by a bombardment from 2000 Allied ships. At Utah Beach, the tides carried the fleet away from the original beach. But resistance from the Germans was weak and those landing at Utah soon linked up with their airborne comrades. Omaha, however, was another matter. The Omaha Beach defenders had recently been strengthened by the German 352nd Infantry division, and had in fact just completed an anti-invasion exercise. Casualties were high, but the US First Infantry Division eventually secured the beach only after 3000 had been killed or wounded. Further east, the 50th Northumbrian Infantry Division landed on Gold Beach, reaching the outer fringes of Bayeux after pushing aside heavy opposition in Le Hamel. On Juno, the Canadians and British fought to create a foothold. Last but not least, the Third British Infantry Division secured the extreme left of the beacheads. By the end of the day less than 2500 had been killed by the dazed Germans and 150,000 were ashore.
The Normandy Bridgehead June 10-18
Despite notable success, it was no time for celebration. Many objectives had not been taken, most importantly the town of Caen, where the British had failed to penetrate the German defenses. On the American side, the port of Cherbourg had to be captured, for it contained the best port facilities in the region. For the most part, main German efforts focused on the British and the Canadians, allowing the Americans to push inland and west, reaching the Contentin Peninsula. On 18 June, the west coast was reached,and the US VII Corps made their way toward Cherbourg. US troops reached the town on 25 June. On 29 June the city's garrison surrendered. But the port facilities had been destroyed and the temporary harbor that the Americans had set up, "Mulberry", was destroyed in a storm, and further south the Americans were bogged down in a deadlock in the Normandy hedgerows.Map of the conquest of the Cotentin Peninsula
Meanwhile, the British were having troubles of their own. Their Mulberry harbor had also been destroyed. The British VIII Corps launched Operation Epsom. They managed to cross the river, but pulled back due to German reinforcements. Then, Montgomery decided to attack Caen directly. He launched Operation Charnwood, where on July 7, heavy bombers ransacked Caen as a preparation for the assault. On July 8, troops moved forward, but due to heavy losses, the attack was called off the next day, with the Allies holding only the northern half of the town.
Then, the VIII Corps attacked east of Caen on 18 July, in Operation Goodwood. Intended to be a breakthrough, it finished the job of capturing Caen, but soon after, the loss of over 400 tanks among other things convinced commanders to call the whole thing off.
Meanwhile, the Americans had been preparing for a major offensive to Avaranches for some time. Due to rain and other problems, the original start date, June 24, was set back to June 25. At first, the operation did not have immediate success. But, on 30 July, Avaranches was taken and the Americans got their breakthrough. Map of operation Cobra
Originally headed for the Brittany Peninsula, the Third Army, under General George S. Patton, was sent to encircle the German forces in Normandy. Hitler made his armies' situation even worse by wasting his panzer (armored) reserves in a fatal counterattack near Mortain. The German armies faced disaster. Map of the breakout from Normandy
With the British coming from the north, and the Americans coming from the south and west, German defeat was inevitable. But by the time that Falaise (why this is called the Falaise Pocket) and other key locations were in Allied hands, the Germans were in full retreat. The pocket was closed on the twentieth of August. 10,000 Germans were killed and 60,000 captured. On August 24, Paris was entered, and the German garrisons surrendered a day later. The Allies seemed unstoppable. Map of the Falaise Pocket
Meanwhile, the Allied planners had, as early as 1943, planned landings in southern France to supplement the main armies in northern France. The operation was to be named Operation Anvil. The British were against the landings, thinking that advances in Italy might be give more benefit to the Allied cause. The Americans, however, were very enthusiastically in favor of it, for large areas of territory could be made at light cost. The British had nothing to do but agree. The operation's name was changed to Operation Dragoon-because Churchill felt he had been "dragooned" into it.
But Dragoon had to be postponed, for there were not enough landing craft, and it took a while to bring up experienced forces. The invasion forces, consisting of General Patch's Seventh Army and the 8th French Army under General De Lattre, would first land near Cannes and Cavalaire. Once Toloun and Marsailles had been taken, the forces would push north to link up with forces advancing out of Normandy. Manning the defenses was the German Nineteenth Army under General Friedrich Wiese.
At roughly 4 a.m., August 15, airborne troops landed, preceeding the invasion. The main attack followed a naval bombardment, and U.S. and French formations landed with little difficulty or opposition. 94,000 men and 11,000 vehicles had benn landed that day. By June 28, Toloun and Marsailles had been captured by the Allies. The Americans attempted to trap the retreating German armies, but it did not succeed. On September 12, Patch's Seventh Army and Patton's Third Army linked up. Now a solid line near the borders of the Reich itself had been established.
Map of Allied advances September 15 to December 15 1944
General Eisenhower took personal command of all Allied forces in Europe on September First, 1944. Although he had much to be proud of, he had certain setbacks as well. The Allied advance out of Normandy had been so swift that supply lines were not able to catch up. To top it all, German resistance was ever the stronger despite the Falaise Pocket. Montgomery, now a field marshall, proposed an ambitious plan to end the stalemate, where ground forces would link up with air forces in the Netherlands and threaten western Germany. Against his better judgement, Eisenhower agreed. Three airborne divisions would land and capture the lower Rhine. Then, British armored units would link up with the airborne troops, and then attack the Ruhr. The operation would begin on 17 September. They did not take into account that the II SS Panzer Corps was in the area. Map of Operation Market-Garden
At first, initial success was enjoyed, and objectives were easily taken. But the Germans soon recovered and Arnhem held out stubbornly. The 2nd Parachute Battalion enjoyed some success, but was soon isolated. The battalion surrendered on 21 September. On the night of 25 September, the troops were withdrawn. Market-Garden had cost 7842 casualties. Eisenhower then started a broad offensive, that secured the port of Antwerp and brought the Allies to the border of Germany. But there the Allied advvance grounded to a halt.
German plans for the Battle of the Bulge
Hitler had been planning a counterattck on the Western Front for some time, and the best place to attack was obvious. 25 German divisions would smash through the Ardennes, and drive north, capturing the port of Antwerp and splitting the Allied armies in two. The Sixth Panzer Army would take Antwerp in the north, the 5th Panzer Army in the center, and the Seventh Army in the south. The Americans were outnumbered more than three to one in men, and more than two to one in vehicles. The attack would begin on 16 December. The forcast for that day would be low clouds, and that would prevent Allied air power from intervening.
On December 16, following a brief artillery bombardment, the Germans rushed forward, pushing through the bewildered Americans. But the German advance slowed by December 18 after a series of easy breakthroughs. Increasing resistance and counterattacks, and lack of fuel, kept the Germans from reaching the Meuse River. On December 26, the tide turned, and slowly the bulge was elimenated. Map of the Battle of the Bulge
After the Battle of the Bulge, the Geman losses had been so heavy that Eisenhower decided that it was time to drive to and cross the Rhine River, the border of France of Germany. Attacks would be simultaneous, with the British 21st Army Group attacking in the north, with Operations Veritable and Grenade. In the south, the 12th and 6th Army Groups would attack in Operations Lumberjack and Undertone. After those offensives had been completed, thwo crossings-one in the north, one in the south, would encircle the German industrial productions center, the Ruhr. Map of Allied Drive to the Rhine
On February the Eighth, The 1st Canadian Army's XXX (30th) Corps executed Operation Veritable, attacking between the Rhine and Meuse Rivers, heading southeast. Initial succes was acheived, but when they reached th Reichswald (a forest), they were slowed heavily by the veteran soldiers of the German First Parachute Army, under General Alfred Schlemm. Furthermore, the flooding of rivers fouled up the brining up of reinforcments. The Reichswald was not cleared until the 16th of February, and not until February 21 was the Rhine reached. Neverthless, the objectives were reached. But Operation Grenade did not begin until June 23, due to German-induced flooding of the Roer River. But as they attacked, they encountered few German units, reaching the Rhine on 2 February. In the south, Operation Lumberjack broke through instantly, breaching the German West Wall. The 9th Armored Division reached the Rhine on March the Seventh. They reached a railroad on the Rhine. Naturally, they expected the bridge to be destroyed, but to their surprise, it was completely intact. The 27th Armored Battalion crossed at 1600 Hours. Eisenhower then changed his plans and focused on that bridge, at Remagen. The American Sixth Army Group, under General Devers, along with some of Patton's Third Army Broke through and advanced far in Operation Undertone. All the Allied armies were on the west bank of the Rhine by the end of March.
Allied crossings of the Rhine Another map of Allied Rhine crossings Despite that the Americans held a bridge over the Rhine in the south, Eisenhower still intended the main crossings to be completed in the north. The crossings, codnamed Operation Plunder, would begin on the night of 23-24 March. Once the British Second Army and the American Ninth Army had secured firm bridgheads on the east side of the Rhine, engineers would construct bridges so that reinforcments could move accross the river. The Americans would advance from their bridge at Remagen and head north and east. This was all part of a grand plan where the two columns would link up and encircle the German industrial center of the Ruhr. After the main assaults had been completed, the Canadians in the far north would encircle German forces in the Netherlands in Northern Germany. The egocentric Patton stole some glory by attacking before Operation Plunder began. At Operation Plunder, after an immense artillery barrage, on 23 March, spearhead units loaded up in their boats and set sail accross the river. At 9 p.m., the British 51st Intfantry Division landed near the town of Rees, encountering little opposition. Further south, at 10 p.m., near Wesel, the 1st Commando Brigade landed. Between the two, the 15th Scottish Division landed easily. Near Walsum and Olsoy, the American 30th and 79th Infantry Divisions landed after a short artillery bombardment. In mid-morning, 24 March, troops of the 6th British Airborne and the 17th Us Airborne Divisions landed in Hamminkeln in Operation Varsity. By end March, 20 divisions and 1000 tanks had landed, and the Allies had a firm grip on the east bank of the Rhine. But, unfortunately, the Allies were denied the opportunity to capture Berlin when, at a confrence, Berlin had been placed with the Soviets. The Western Allies would now have to be happy with advances in western Germany. Still, they acheived much.
Map of Allied advances in Germany
Eisenhower's plans for the last phase of the war was for the British 21st Army Group to advance west and then turn northeast, heading for the Baltic coast. The American Sixth Army Group, assisted by Patton's Third Army, would head southeast. The American 12th Army Group would head toward the Elbe River and link up with the Soviets. But first, they would have to deal with Army Group B, stuck in the Ruhr Pocket. After completely trapping the 325,000 troops, the Americans went inside the pocket to completely clear it, but they encountered tough resistance as they pressed inward. But the Germans soon collapsed, and on April 21, the remnants of Army Group B surrendered. Meanwhile, the British Second Army struck north and reached as far as Bremen, just south of Hamburg. The Canadian First Army encircled the Netherlands and the German Twenty-Fifth Army. The German commander called for a local cease-fire. Further south, the American Ninth Army seized Hannover. The First Army took Leipzig on April 19th. The Third and Seventh Armies cleared southwestern Germany and Czechoslovakia and entered northern Austria. Hitler commited suicide in Berlin of April 30th. On 7 May, the final arrangments for unconditional surrender were established. May 8 was named V-E Day. The war in Europe was over.
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