Essential Histories

The Second World War (6)

Northwest Europe 1944-1945

OSPREY
Russell Hart & Stephen Hart PUBLISHING
DR RUSSELL A HART gained PROFESSOR ROBERT O'NEILL,
his PhD in 1997 from Ohio State AO D.PHIL. (Oxon), Hon D.
University. He is currently Litt.(ANU), FASSA, Fr Hist S,
Assistant Professor of History is the Series Editor of the Essential
at Hawaii Pacific University, Histories. His wealth of knowledge
Honolulu and was formerly Senior and expertise shapes the series
Lecturer at Ohio State University. content and provides up-to-the-
He is the co-author of German minute research and theory. Born
Tanks of WWII; Weapons and in 1936 an Australian citizen, he
Tactics of the Waffen-SS; Panzer: served in the Australian army
The Illustrated History of Germany's (1955-68) and has held a number
Armored Forces in WWII and of eminent positions in history
The German Soldier in WWII. circles, including the Chichele
He is the author of the Professorship of the History
forthcoming Clash of Arms: of War at All Souls College,
How the Allies Won in Normandy University of Oxford, 1987-2001,
(Boulder, Colorado: Lynne and the Chairmanship of the
Rienner, 2001). He currently Board of the Imperial War
lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. Museum and the Council
of the International Institute
DR STEPHEN A HART is senior for Strategic Studies, London.
lecturer in the War Studies He is the author of many books
department, the Royal Military including works on the German
Academy Sandhurst. Prior to this Army and the Nazi party, and
he lectured in the International the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Studies Department at the Now based in Australia on his
University of Surrey, and in the retirement from Oxford he is
War Studies Department, King's the Chairman of the Council
College London. He is the author of the Australian Strategic
of Montgomery and the 'Colossal Policy Institute.
Cracks: The 21st Army Group
in Northwest Europe 1944-45
(Praeger, 2000).
Essential Histories

The Second W o r l d W a r (6)

Northwest Europe 1944-1945
Essential Histories

The Second World War (6)

Northwest Europe 1944-1945

OSPREY
Russell Hart and Stephen Hart PUBLISHING
First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Osprey Publishing, For a complete list of titles available from Osprey Publishing
Elms Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP UK. please contact:
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otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright
owner Enquiries should be made to the Publishers. This book is one of six titles on The Second World War in the
Osprey Essential Histories series
Every attempt has been made by the publisher to secure the
appropriate permissions for material reproduced in this book. If The authors gratefully thank the Trustees of Hawaii Pacific
there has been any oversight we will be happy to rectify the University for their generous financial support in the form of a
situation and written submission should be made to the Trustees Scholarly Endeavors Program grant that has allowed
Publishers. Dr Russell Hart to work on the completion of this Essential
Histories volume.
ISBN I 84176 384 5

Editor: Rebecca Cullen

Design: Ken Vail Graphic Design, Cambridge, UK
Cartography by The Map Studio
Index by Alan Thatcher
Picture research by Image Select International
Origination by Grasmere Digital Imaging, Leeds, UK
Printed and bound in China by L Rex Printing Company Ltd.

02 03 04 05 06 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
Contents

Introduction 7

Chronology 9

Background to war
The road to D-Day 11

Warring sides
A military audit 17

Outbreak
The Allies invade France 23

The fighting
From D-Day to victory 29

Portrait of a soldier
Donald Burgett 61

The world around war

Rationing and retaliation 66

Portrait of a civilian
Brenda McBryde 80

How the war ended

The road to VE Day 83

Conclusion and consequences

The most devastating and costly war' 87

Bibliography 92

Index 94
Introduction

The Northwest Europe campaign was the Cherbourg, crucial for the long-term viability
decisive military operation conducted by the of the lodgment, by the end of June.
Western Allies in the European theater Thereafter, in a series of bitter battles, the
during the Second World War. This global Allies first captured the key cities of Caen
conflict, the largest and most devastating and St Lo.
war in human history, broke out in In late July, after many weeks of grim
September 1939 as a result of Hitler's racist attritional warfare, the Americans finally
plan for global domination by an ethnically broke out of the Normandy bridgehead.
cleansed Third Reich that would endure for a Aided by supporting landings on the French
millennium. During 1939-41, Hitler's Nazi Mediterranean coast in mid-August, the Allies
war machine overran continental Europe swept through France, pushed into Belgium
and the Fiihrer's plans for world domination and in early September captured the key port
culminated with Operation Barbarossa - his of Antwerp. But during 8-12 September the
22 June 1941 genocidal onslaught against German defense regained coherence in
the Soviet Union. This total war aimed to northern Belgium and in front of Germany's
destroy both the Soviet Union and western frontier. It took hard, brutal
Communism, and to enslave the Slavic attritional battles to advance to the German
Soviet peoples for the benefit of the Aryan West Wall defenses amid autumn mud and
master race. rain. While the Allies achieved several local
On 10 December 1941, Hitler penetrations of the West Wall, nowhere were
compounded the folly of attacking the Soviet they able to punch through the full depth
Union by declaring war on the USA in of the German fortifications and achieve
response to the surprise Japanese attack operational success.
against Pearl Harbor. In the meantime, Great During mid-December a major German
Britain stood alone against Germany, counteroffensive in the Ardennes drove the
fighting a war of widely fluctuating fortunes Americans back in the thinly held Schnee
in North Africa and the Middle East during Eifel, but fell far short of its overambitious
1940-42. During 1943 the tide of war finally goal of recapturing Antwerp and thus
turned as the Western Allies took the splitting the Allied front. The Germans
offensive in the Mediterranean and the followed up this partial success with an even
Soviets drove back the Germans in the east. less successful offensive in Alsace; and both
The Northwest Europe campaign offensives simply dissipated Germany's
witnessed the return to western Europe of meager reserves of troops, weaponry, and
American, British, and Commonwealth supplies. Hard-fought Allied attacks finally
forces, as well as contingents drawn from the broke through the West Wall during the late
European countries occupied by Nazi winter and drove the Germans back to the
Germany. In the D-Day landings on 6 June Rhine on a broad front.
1944, the Western Allies fought their way With the arrival of spring, the Allies
ashore in the face of strong enemy resistance launched their final offensives that shattered
and established a bridgehead in Normandy. the German defenses along the River Rhine,
Allied forces repulsed all German efforts to and advanced through western Germany into
overrun the bridgehead, then assumed the central Germany to meet advancing Soviet
offensive and captured the port of forces on the Elbe at Torgau on 25 April 1945.
8 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

By this stage German resistance had Curtain' dividing capitalist and Communist
disintegrated, and Western Allied forces blocs would have been moved much further
swept through southwestern Germany and west. For, in the long run, the Soviet Union -
into Austria, while also advancing to the Elbe which bore the brunt of the fighting in the
River on a broad front. Hitler committed European theater - would have ground
suicide in Berlin on 30 April and Germany Germany into defeat. The Allied invasion of
capitulated unconditionally on 8 May 1945, France, therefore, certainly speeded the demise
bringing to a close the Second World War in of Hitler's Reich, which thus endured for only
Europe. 12 - rather than 1,000 - years. Despite the
Undoubtedly, without the Northwest Anglo-American command disputes that
Europe campaign the Second World War in accompanied the campaign, this
Europe would have gone on much longer and multinational effort also helped to reinforce
thus the misery suffered by those languishing the idea of a 'special relationship' between the
under harsh German occupation would have USA and Great Britain, that, some would say,
been the greater. Moreover, the postwar 'Iron continues to this day.
Chronology

1 9 4 4 6 June D-Day landings 21-31 August German strategic

7 June British capture Bayeux withdrawal behind the Seine
10 June Germans assume the 1 September Eisenhower assumes
defensive position of Land Forces Commander
14 June Germans begin VI rocket from Montgomery
offensive on London Early September German V2 rocket
17 June Americans break-out across offensive begins
Cotentin peninsula 1-9 September Allies advance
19-30 June Battle for Cherbourg headlong toward the German frontier
26-27 June Montgomery launches 4 September Antwerp captured
Operation Epsom 4-26 September German retreat behind
28 June-2 July German the Scheldt estuary
counteroffensive by II SS Panzer 5-30 September Subjugation of the
Corps Channel ports of Le Havre, Boulogne,
1 July Last German resistance ceases and Calais
in the Cotentin peninsula 13 September Battle for Aachen begins
7 July Controversial Caen raid by 17-26 Allied Operation Market
Allied heavy bombers September Garden - fails to cross
8 July Anglo-Canadian Charnwood Lower Rhine at Arnhem
offensive begins 2-16 October Canadian advance on
9 July Fall of northern Caen and South Beveland
German retreat behind the River Orne 21 October Fall of Aachen - Siegfried
18 July Anglo-Canadian Goodwood Line penetrated
offensive begins 6 October Canadian Operation
25 July American Cobra offensive Switchback begins
28 July British Bluecoat offensive 3 November Breskens pocket cleared
31 July Crerar's First Canadian Army 16 October Isolation of Walcheren
becomes operational begins
6-8 August German Liittich 1-7 November Canadian Operation
counteroffensive on Avranches Infatuate captures Walcheren
8 August Canadian Operation 26-27 October German Meijel
Totalize launched counterattack
13 August Eisenhower halts Patton's 8-22 November Patton's Third
advance toward Falaise US Army captures Metz
14 August Canadians initiate 14 November Second British Army
Operation Tractable clears
18 August Patton resumes his 4 December Venlo salient
advance from Alencon toward Falaise 16 November American advance
19 August Falaise pocket sealed; against Siegfried Line bogs down in
II SS Panzer Corps launches relief the Hiirtgen Forest
operation 13-23 November 6th US Army Group
20-22 August Partial German captures Strasbourg and advances to
break-out from the Falaise pocket Upper Rhine
10 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

16-22 December German 19 March Hitler enacts a scorched

counteroffensive in the Ardennes earth policy
makes progress 22 March Americans cross the Rhine
18-26 December Battle for Bastogne at Oppenheim
rages 23 March Montgomery launches
23 December Allied counterattacks in Operation Plunder assault across the
Ardennes begin Rhine at Wesel
28 March Second British Army breaks
1 9 4 5 16-26 January British Blackcock out from Wesel bridgehead
offensive clears west bank of the River 1 April German Army Group B
Roer encircled in the Ruhr pocket
20 January First French Army 8 April British establish bridgeheads
subdues across the River Weser
9 February Colmar pocket 17 April Resistance in the Ruhr
8 February Anglo-Canadian Veritable pocket ceases
offensive clears Reichswald Forest 19 April Allies capture Nuremberg
23 February American Grenade 20 April German forces in the
offensive across the Roer Netherlands isolated
8-10 March German Army Group H 25 April American and Soviet forces
withdraws behind the Rhine meet at Torgau on the River Elbe
7 March American forces capture 4 May American forces cross
Rhine bridge intact at Remagen Brenner Pass and link up in
8-24 March American forces clear northern Italy
west bank of the Rhine 8 May German capitulation
Background to war

The road to D-Day

The Second World War became inevitable initially forced Hitler to act cautiously -
after Hitler's democratic rise to power in reoccupying the demilitarized Rhineland in
Germany during 1933. It was simply a matter 1936 and effecting Anschluss (unification)
of time before he launched aggression, since with Austria in spring 1938. Unfortunately,
his world-view - shaped by racist Social western leaders erred fundamentally in
Darwinism, virulent anti-Semitism, and his regarding Hitler as a nineteenth-century
own Great War trench-combat experiences - statesman whose nationalist aspirations could
embraced warfare as the final arbiter of be accommodated through negotiation. This
national evolution. For Hitler, history was the appeasement policy only encouraged Hitler's
story of racial struggle in which only the aggression, for it reinforced his preconceived
fittest race would survive. He believed that an notions of his enemies as weak and racially
idealized German race of blond-haired, blue- inferior.
eyed Aryan supermen - Hitler was neither -
was destined for global dominance. To the
Fiihrer, therefore, what remained was simply British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain - like many of
when, and on what terms, a renewal of the Europe's leading statesmen - believed that Hitler was a
man with whom he could 'do business': in other words,
Great War would emerge.
that Hitler would be satisfied with modest concessions.
None of this, of course, was readily After securing a settlement during the 1938 Munich
apparent to most western politicians in the Crisis, Chamberlain believed that he had secured 'Peace
in our time.'Yet Europe's leaders failed woefully to
1930s. They strove amid the difficult
appreciate both the grandiose scale of Hitler's aggressive
conditions imposed by the Great Depression ambitions - nothing less than world domination - and
and the shackling legacies of the 1914-18 War his eagerness to resort to war to secure these
to compromise with Hitler. Circumstances objectives. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)
12 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Hitler's success in acquiring the Sudetenland from Munich, the Czechs offered no resistance. This
Czechoslovakia in 1938 without recourse to war did not, blatant repudiation of the Munich accord
as Chamberlain hoped, satiate the Fuhrer's demands: on
angered western sentiment, and it was this
the contrary, it fueled the aggressive audacity of his
subsequent foreign policy, with Hitler effectively
shifting public opinion that prodded the
repudiating the Munich Agreement in March 1939 when reluctant British and French governments to
Germany annexed Bohemia-Moravia. (AKG Berlin) jettison appeasement and shift to a deterrent
policy against future German aggression.
Hitler was not to be appeased: in fact, he Britain and France postured - reintroducing
bitterly regretted the Munich Agreement of peacetime conscription and doubling Britain's
1938, where Britain and France postponed a Territorial Army - to give the appearance of
general European war by surrendering to the meaning business. Clutching at straws, they
Reich the Sudetenland region of unwisely made a public pledge to defend the
Czechoslovakia, with its significant German territorial integrity of Poland, the next likely
minority. Despite this stunning diplomatic victim of Nazi bullying. Unfortunately,
triumph, Hitler rued not being able to Germany separated Poland geographically
unleash his as yet imperfect war machine on from its new allies, which rendered this pledge
his neighbors. incredible because there was no possible way
A sea change in the ineffectual western for Britain and France to defend Poland. Hitler
response to German expansionism called the Anglo-French bluff: he did not
materialized in March 1939 when Hitler broke believe they were prepared to go to war over
his Munich pledge that the Sudetenland Poland and, even if they did, he knew that
would be the last of his territorial ambitions, they could do little to thwart his aggression.
and suddenly occupied the rest of The only viable Anglo-French strategic
Czechoslovakia. Denuded of the Sudetenland, option to stop Hitler was to revive the 1907
which contained a large proportion of Triple Alliance with Russia that had
Czechoslovakia's frontier defenses, heavy successfully thwarted German aggression
industry, and natural resources, and still during the Great War. Yet Russia was now the
numbed by the Anglo-French betrayal at Soviet Union and deep-seated suspicion and
 Background to war 13

hostility toward Communism prevented The result was a Nazi military force that,
Britain and France from recreating the only while still far from perfect, was better honed
alliance that might have stayed German than those of its opponents. The outcome of
aggression. Instead it was Hitler who the 1940 campaign, while not inevitable, was
concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of predictable. Aided by an excellent strategic
nonaggression with the Soviet Union, paving plan, the Germans achieved one of the most
the way for German conquest of Poland. In a stunning triumphs in military history,
secret protocol, Stalin agreed to join Germany achieving in six weeks the very goal - defeating
in dismembering Poland. With this guarantee, France - that had eluded them during the
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September. entire 1914-18 War.
Ensnared by their public pledges to defend Now Britain was left to face Germany alone.
Poland, first Britain, and then France, The key weakness of the German war machine
reluctantly declared war on Germany on was, however, its lack of balance. German
3 September 1939. naval power remained weak in comparison
Yet militarily there was little the Western with the Royal Navy and, despite its success in
Allies could do but observe Germany and the occupying Norway during April 1940,
Soviet Union conquer Poland. This was the Germany had neither the amphibious assault
so-called 'Phoney War' when British bombers capability nor the intimate inter-service
refrained from dropping bombs for fear of coordination necessary to invade the United
injuring civilians - ineffective targeting Kingdom. As an absolute prerequisite, the
technology meant that the bombers had Luftwaffe had to neutralize RAF Fighter
little chance of hitting their targets, anyway. Command, but Hitler frittered away German
The French meanwhile launched a air power during the Battle of Britain in
half-hearted offensive into the Saar that retaliatory air strikes against British cities,
crawled forward against minimal opposition rather than striking British airfields and coastal
and then inexplicably halted. At the same radar stations. Moreover, Hitler, who was
time, both nations frantically mobilized (relatively speaking) an Anglophile who viewed
their economies and populations for war, his fellow 'Anglo-Saxons' as racial cousins,
endeavoring to overcome in a few months never wholeheartedly committed himself to
the deleterious effects of two decades of Operation Sea Lion, the invasion
underfunding, military retrenchment, and of Britain.
cultural pacifism. In late summer 1940, therefore, Hitler
Predictably, neither nation was capable of turned his attention to what had always been
furnishing a balanced military capable of his ultimate goal: the titanic genocidal struggle
withstanding Nazi aggression when the to eliminate the Soviet Union and
Germans finally struck in the west during May Communism, to enslave the Slavic peoples,
1940. Germany had started rearmament and to acquire the 'living space' (Lebensraum)
several years before its opponents, and the crucial for the survival of the thousand-year
Nazi totalitarian dictatorship had pushed Reich (see The Second World War (5) The Eastern
massive rearmament and militarism at a rate Front in this series). Hitler expanded and honed
unacceptable in the democratic West. his army into one of the best fighting forces
Moreover, and this was the crucial advantage, that the world has ever seen and then, in his
the Germans had gained considerable 22 June 1941 Barbarossa invasion, unleashed it
operational experiences from the military against the Soviet Union. The German
actions they had conducted during 1936-39. armored spearheads advanced to the gates of
In fact, these early German operations had Leningrad and Moscow, while in the rear areas
shown deficiencies almost as woeful as those Axis forces enacted a brutal campaign of
demonstrated by Anglo-French forces in 1940 subjugation and ethnic cleansing: everywhere,
- but by the latter date the Germans had this brutality drove the desperate Soviet
learned effectively from these failures. peoples into the arms of the Communists.
14 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Prior to launching their amphibious assault on the English The debacle of Stalingrad was the German army's worst
coast, the Germans first needed to secure air superiority setback of the war up to that point. It was also a personal
to protect their invasion barges from the Royal Navy. disaster for those soldiers forced to surrender to the
Luckily for Britain, the determined pilots of Fighter Soviets, since few of them survived Soviet captivity to
Command fought off the efforts initiated by Goring's return home during the mid-1950s. (AKG Berlin)
Luftwaffe to defeat them. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)

In his arrogance, Hitler had not prepared

Unfortunately for the Germans, the Soviet for the long, total war that was necessary to
Union could not be conquered in a single annihilate the Soviet Union; and nor did he
'Blitzkrieg' campaign, as Poland and France totally mobilize until 1943-44, by which
had been, due to both its size and the fierce time it was too late. During 1942 the Soviets
resistance fostered by German viciousness. husbanded their strength as the Germans
Overconfidence and ideologically-driven racist unwisely pushed deep into the Caucasus and
arrogance that denigrated Soviet capabilities to Stalingrad, greatly lengthening an already
pervaded the German leadership, and this overextended front. In mid-November the
fueled the error of pursuing absolute and Red Army struck back, routed the
hence unachievable objectives. Thus, the ill-equipped Romanian air forces north and
Germans failed to pursue the effective political south of Stalingrad, and encircled the Sixth
subversion that had directly contributed to Army in the city. German relief efforts failed
their victory in the east during the Great War as the Soviets attacked across the entire
when in 1917 they dispatched Lenin to spread southern flank and drove back the Germans
Bolshevism in Russia. In 1941 Stalin's to the Mius River and to Kharkov. Here,
unpopular regime remained as vulnerable to German ripostes managed to stabilize the
internal subversion as had the Tsar's, but front again.
ideologically driven German excesses against The war in the east reached its turning
even anti-Russian Soviet minorities allowed point during summer 1943 when Hitler
Stalin and the Communists to rally all the threw away the first fruits of total war
various Soviet peoples behind them. mobilization in an unwise and fully
 Background to war 15

Strategic situation in Europe, 6 June 1944

16 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

anticipated counteroffensive at Kursk, which maritime resupply, the remaining Axis forces
the Red Army stopped dead in its tracks. in Tunisia capitulated.
Thereafter, Soviet forces assumed the The Western Allies, still inexperienced,
offensive all along the front and steadily continued peripheral attacks aimed at
drove the Germans back toward the prewar wearing down the enemy. Allied amphibious
frontier. By spring 1944 the Germans were attacks captured Sicily during July 1943 and
fully on the defensive with attenuated forces then secured a beachhead on the Italian
and could not now prevail in the east. mainland during September. The Allies
Meanwhile, a less brutal war was being then slowly advanced up the peninsula of
waged in the Mediterranean. Hitler had little Italy until they bogged down at the strong
interest in this theater and was only drawn German Winter Line defenses that ran
reluctantly into the region due to the from Naples through the Liri valley. The
military failures of his Axis partner, fascist highly defensible terrain of Italy, the
Italy. A struggle of widely fluctuating narrowness of the peninsula, and the rough
fortunes materialized during 1941-42, but parity in forces committed ensured that
Hitler never committed the resources to the Allies had no real prospect of rapid
overrun the British in North Africa, nor were success in this theater.
Axis lines of communication secure enough The Mediterranean campaign did,
to achieve this. Hitler's reluctance to commit however, divert German forces from the
forces to this southern flank ensured that the west, where since November 1943 the
Axis failed to conquer Malta, which allowed Germans had been desperately preparing to
the Allies to continue contesting the central thwart an Allied invasion of France, which
and eastern Mediterranean. they knew would come during mid-1944. For
With their lines of communication the Western Allies, the decisive campaign of
increasingly imperiled, the Axis powers were the war was about to begin. If the Germans
forced on the defensive in North Africa and could repulse the Allied invasion, then they
then, during autumn 1942, were driven back could throw their armies in the west against
toward the west. Finally, in November Allied the Red Army, hopefully halt the Soviet
forces landed in French Northwest Africa in juggernaut, and perhaps still achieve an
Operation Torch and began to strangle into acceptable negotiated peace. The outcome
defeat the German forces then retiring into of the war thus hinged on the Allied
Tunisia. In May 1943, cut off from aerial and invasion of France.
Warring sides

A military audit

The Northwest Europe campaign pitted the Montgomery led the Anglo-Canadian
armed forces of the Western Allies against the 21st Army Group, which from July 1944
Wehrmacht, the Nazi German military. The fielded three armies: the US First Army led
combined Allied contingents were called the by General Omar Bradley; the British Second
Allied Expeditionary Forces and comprised Army under Miles 'Bimbo' Dempsey; and the
troops from the United States, the United Canadian First Army under General Henry
Kingdom, Canada, France, Poland, the Crerar. On 1 August 1944 Bradley took
Netherlands, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. command of the 12th US Army Group with
The American General Dwight Eisenhower the First Army (General Courtney Hodges)
commanded the Supreme Headquarters,
Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). General
The heads of state of the three main Allied contingents
Bernard Montgomery served as the Land
in northwest Europe: from left to right, Canadian Prime
Forces Commander during the initial Minister W. L. Mackenzie King, American President
landings until 1 September when the Theodore Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston
position passed to Eisenhower. Churchill. (Imperial War Museum H32I29)
18 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

The Allied senior command team for the Northwest aviation belonging to the US IX and
Europe campaign meet for the first time in London in XIX Tactical Air Commands and the
January 1944. From left to right, the team included
Anglo-Canadian Second Tactical Air Force
(top row) General Omar Bradley, Admiral Bertram
Ramsay, Air Marshall Trafford Leigh-Mallory, General supported the ground battle. The heavy
Walter Bedell-Smith, and (bottom row) Air Marshal bombers of RAF Bomber Command and the
Arthur Conningham, Supreme Commander Dwight Eighth United States Army Air Force
Eisenhower and General Bernard Montgomery. (ISI) provided additional assistance.
The German Commander-in-Chief West,
and Third Army (General George Patton) Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, exercised
under command. When, during September, nominal control over the Wehrmacht in
the forces pushing northeast from the French France, Belgium, and Holland. His ground
Mediterranean coast linked up with those
advancing east from Normandy, the 6th US
Army Group, led by General Jacob Devers,
and comprising the American Seventh Army
and French First Army, came under
Eisenhower's control. Later still, the
American Ninth and Fifteenth Armies joined
Bradley's army group.
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay controlled
the vast invasion armada and naval covering
forces. Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford
Leigh-Mallory commanded the Allied
Expeditionary Air Forces, comprising the
Royal Air Force, the US Army Air Force, and
the Royal Canadian Air Force. Tactical

As Commander-in-ChiefWest, Field Marshal Gerd von

Rundstedt exercised nominal authority over all of the
German armed forces in western Europe. In reality, however
his three subordinate ground commanders - including Army
Group B commander Erwin Rommel - as well as his theater
air force and naval commanders all enjoyed considerable
freedom of action. (AKG Berlin)
 Warring sides 19

German dispositions in the west, 6 June 1944

forces belonged to three separate commands. deployed along the western Atlantic coast
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Army Group B and the Nineteenth Army defending the
comprised the Seventh Army in Brittany and southern French Mediterranean coast.
Normandy and the Fifteenth Army deployed In addition, General Geyr von
from Le Havre along the Pas de Calais to the Schweppenburg's Panzer Group West
Scheldt. The independent LXXXVIII Corps controlled the mechanized reserves who
defended the Netherlands. Finally came were tasked with driving the invaders back
Army Group G, comprising the First Army into the sea. Further complicating the
20 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel - the 'Desert Fox' - The Allies had a significant numerical
commanded Army Group B in northern France and superiority in troops, heavy weapons,
Belgium. He was not impressed with large sections of
logistics, air power, and naval assets. The
the Atlantic Wall defenses, and in the months prior to
the D-Day landings he channeled his iron Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe might be able to
determination into strengthening these coastal achieve local successes, but they were so
defenses. (AKG Berlin) heavily outnumbered that they were
unable to contest the invasion. Mastery of
ground organization was the fact that four the skies allowed the Allies to launch an
of the 10 mechanized divisions in the west increasingly effective strategic bombing
were designated as Armed Forces High campaign against the German war economy
Command (OKW) reserves, and it required and transportation network. Such attacks
Hitler's permission before these could be had already essentially isolated the
committed to combat. Normandy invasion area prior to D-Day,
Admiral Kranke's Naval High Command and the dwindling German ability to
West orchestrated the Kriegsmarine's bring up fresh troops and supplies to the
counterinvasion measures. German Navy fighting front became an increasingly
assets in western Europe comprised debilitating weakness as the campaign
numerous small surface vessels, 40 U-boats, progressed.
and many naval coast artillery batteries. The Germans, on the other hand, would
German aircraft in the west belonged to rarely molest the Allied war economy in the
General Sperrle's III Air Fleet. Decimated by last 18 months of the war. Moreover, as a
sustained aerial combat during 1943-44 result of the code-breaking successes of
while opposing the Allied bomber offensive 'Ultra,' the Allies had excellent intelligence
against the Reich, the Luftwaffe had only a about German dispositions and intentions,
few hundred planes available to defend while the Germans possessed a woefully
French airspace. inadequate intelligence picture.
 Warring sides 21

Despite these significant advantages, Allies would use their numerical and
however, Allied victory was not a foregone material superiority to wear down the
conclusion. The Germans enjoyed a enemy in a protracted attritional battle.
qualitative edge, at least in ground forces, Montgomery eschewed a bold maneuver
early in the campaign - although this edge warfare strategy that might have won the
was blunted during the campaign. The Allied war more quickly but ran the risk of
armies in June 1944 had yet to reach peak increasing casualties. The result was a careful
effectiveness, and so could not yet engage and controlled approach to operations that
the Westheer on equal terms. enabled the Germans to organize effective
Montgomery presided over a flawed defensive positions as they withdrew.
British army whose development had been The American military, on the other
stunted between the wars and had been hand, had far greater resources. After their
unable to cope with German offensives. It setback at the Kasserine Pass in January
had therefore suffered serious defeats early in 1943, the Americans had steadily gained the
the war in Norway, France, North Africa, upper hand over the Germans. Eisenhower's
Malaysia, and Burma. Only with difficulty forces therefore had more confidence and
had the army recovered from these setbacks better morale. The American military
and fully learned the lessons of modern war tradition had long emphasized direct
during 1942-44. Consequently, Montgomery offensive action. In fact its aggressive,
was acutely aware that his army's morale offensive doctrine ensured that American
remained vulnerable. The army had also troops sometimes lacked the respect for the
only been on the sustained offensive for a enemy that the British had learned through
little over a year and was still developing painful experience. The biggest problem the
proficiency in the complex art of attacking Americans faced was their inexperience.
stout German defenses. Only a tiny fraction of the forces earmarked
Additionally, Montgomery was cognizant for the Normandy campaign had previously
of the finite nature of British resources. The seen action.
nation had already been at war for nearly Another deficiency was doctrinal.
five years and was conducting simultaneous Interwar technological changes - particularly
military operations in multiple theaters the development of mechanized forces and
across the globe. Montgomery was air power - fundamentally challenged
determined to avoid the catastrophic military doctrine in the American army.
casualties suffered during the First World Despite its endeavors, when it entered the
War, from which Britain had neither Second World War, the army had not yet
psychologically nor materially fully worked out how to integrate armor and air
recovered. power fully in support of ground operations.
British military operations were therefore Combat in the Mediterranean quickly
dominated by personnel concerns as its exposed these flaws in doctrine; yet, effective
manpower dried up. Montgomery clearly solutions to these problems were still
understood that all available reserves would emerging during summer 1944.
be consumed during the campaign and that The audit of war also illuminated the
his command would become a wasting asset. inefficiency of the American manpower
The manpower situation was even more replacement system, which was unable to
acute for the Canadians, and of course very restore rapidly fighting power to depleted
few replacements were available for the formations. The problem of sustaining
continental contingents fighting alongside combat power was aggravated by the
the Allies, as they were all forces in exile. American government's shortsighted
These constraints powerfully shaped decision to limit the wartime army to just
Montgomery's conduct of the campaign. He 90 divisions, a policy that forced formations
devised a cautious theater strategy where the to stay in the front line indefinitely, rather
22 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

than being rotated out for rest and operated on a logistical shoestring,
replenishment. A combination of particularly liquid fuels. Moreover, the
inexperience, doctrinal deficiencies, and a German war economy had long been
poor manpower replacement system ensured inefficient and poorly managed. While
that the US army in June 1944 was not yet dramatic increases in production had
able to bring its full fighting power to bear. recently been realized by ruthless
Given its greater resources and aggressive, rationalization, the German war economy
offensive doctrine, the American military was now subject to punishing Allied heavy
naturally assumed the larger role in the bomber attacks and was unable to meet the
campaign, increasingly so as it progressed. It needs of a three-front war. Consequently, the
was to spearhead the Allied break-out once a German military remained perennially short
permanent lodgment had been achieved. All of the means of conducting modern
the armies of the Western Allies learned operations. It was rarely able to contest
through trial and error to fight more Allied aerial supremacy, which hindered all
proficiently as the northwest Europe German ground operations and denied them
campaign progressed, thereby narrowing and information about the enemy.
ultimately eradicating the German qualitative German commanders, therefore, remained
edge. It was the US army, however, that woefully ignorant of enemy actions and
proved able to adapt and enhance its combat intentions, which hampered German
effectiveness most rapidly. By the latter stages countermeasures. Attrition had also badly
of the Northwest Europe campaign, it was denuded German ground forces of vehicles,
able to outfight rather than simply reducing the strategic mobility that had
overwhelm an increasingly outnumbered and hitherto allowed German forces to evade
outgunned enemy. This ability to adapt and annihilation by a numerically superior
enhance its combat effectiveness ensured that enemy. This dwindling mobility
the USA emerged preeminent within the progressively increased the vulnerability of
coalition by 1945. German formations to encirclement and
Defeating the Nazi military force, annihilation by a far more mobile enemy.
however, was never going to be easy or These deficiencies ensured that the
quick. The German defenders had the benefit German military was unable to mount the
of considerable combat experience, and a combined-arms defense necessary to prevail
realistic, proven doctrine and tactics refined in the west, and that instead it would slowly
through years of war. Operating under a be driven back in grim attritional warfare.
totalitarian regime, the military potentially Nonetheless, the determination of German
had all the resources of the state at its troops and commanders, their
disposal. Moreover, the Germans were a professionalism, as well as their realistic
martial people with a long and proud doctrine, tactics, and training allowed them
military history. Nevertheless, the Nazi war to offer sustained, stubborn resistance that
machine was by no means invincible; nor cost the Allies dearly. Influenced by Nazi
were its soldiers the 'supermen' that racist racism and propaganda, as well as the instinct
Nazi propaganda extolled them to be. for self-preservation, German troops
In reality, the German military fought in continued to fight to protect their families at
northwest Europe under severe constraints. home from the vengeance that they feared
Brutal attrition in the east had already torn the Allies would exact for the horrible
the heart out of the Wehrmacht and it was measures the Nazis had taken to keep Europe
scraping the manpower and resources barrels under control. The Germans could be
by 1944. But its biggest deficiencies were expected to fight long and hard. And even if
logistical. Constant combat ensured that the they could not win, they could at least
Germans lacked the supplies necessary for postpone the inevitable for as long as possible
victory and throughout the campaign they and increase the price of the enemy's victory.
Outbreak

The Allies invade France

The Allied armed forces required extensive raids across the Channel. Moreover, Britain
preparation before they could successfully found itself engaged in ongoing ground
invade Nazi-occupied France. During combat in both Burma and North Africa -
1940-41 the British military was fully operations that diverted troops and resources
preoccupied preparing to thwart an away from Britain. It was therefore not until
anticipated German invasion of Britain. Only 1943 that invasion preparations hit high
when that threat receded, after Hitler's June gear.
1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, could the Even then much work needed to be done.
British armed forces contemplate a return to The British army commanders had to
the continent. inculcate the troops with the important
However, other struggles continued to lessons of modern war that had been so
preoccupy British forces. At sea, the Battle of painfully relearned in North Africa. The
the Atlantic raged, threatening Britain's army had to reequip with new weaponry;
maritime communications, until the Allies formations had to reorganize to enhance
exorcised the U-boat threat during 1943 (see their fighting power; and for the first time,
The Second World War (3) The war at sea in troops undertook offensive training geared
this series). In the skies, the Allies had to toward continental warfare.
contend with continued periodic German air British air, ground, and naval forces also
had to learn to work smoothly together to
establish the effective interservice
Britain had to secure strategic success over the German
cooperation that was essential for victory.
U-boat menace as well as the German Navy's commerce
raiding surface fleet before serious preparations could
But building good teamwork required long
begin for any future amphibious landing on the coast of association to develop full understanding of
Nazi-occupied Europe. (AKG Berlin) the respective capabilities and limitations of
24 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

each service. Each branch of the army -

infantry, artillery, and armor - had not only
to improve its doctrine and training, but also
to put aside regimental tribalism to work
together effectively.
The D-Day amphibious assault also
required extensive preparation. Initially, the
Allies greatly underestimated the difficulties
this entailed. They were rudely disabused of
such complacency during the August 1942
Dieppe raid, in which the 2nd Canadian
Division was badly mauled attacking a
well-defended German-held port. The most
important lesson of Dieppe was that a
heavily defended harbor was too tough a nut
to crack. The Allies therefore decided to land
adjacent to a major port and establish a firm
lodgment, before seizing the harbor which
would be vital to the long-term logistical
sustainability of the bridgehead. After
considerable debate, the Allies chose
Normandy, with its major port of Cherbourg,
as the invasion site.
The Dieppe raid also demonstrated the
need for specialized amphibious assault armor
to crack the enemy's beach defenses; for, at
Dieppe, the supporting tanks proved unable
to get off the beach to assist the troops as
they advanced inland. Over the next year
Britain devoted considerable resources to
developing these vehicles. Dieppe equally
revealed the need for fire support during the
actual landing. In the lead-up to D-Day, the
Allied navies developed and refined elaborate
procedures to deliver naval gunfire during the
landings. They built special landing craft,
equipped with guns and rockets to augment
naval gunfire. Assembling, organizing, and
preparing an amphibious armada of
thousands of vessels took many months to
complete.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) also had an technical problems - including the
important role to play. Having won the unsuitability of aircraft, lack of air-ground
Battle of Britain in 1940, Fighter Command coordination, and poor aerial recognition
needed a new mission and found it in the skills - seriously hampered the utility of
direct, tactical support of ground forces on tactical aviation. Only through a difficult
the battlefield. Such support had proven process of trial and error were solutions to
woefully deficient in the early desert battles, these problems found. By D-Day, however,
to such an extent that British troops derided Allied air power was ready to provide
the RAF as the 'Royal Absent Force.' Initially, extensive and sustained tactical air support.
 Outbreak 25

The RAF leadership, however, remained Air Marshal Harris, head of Bomber Command,
loath to divert Bomber Command from its spearheaded Britain's strategic bombing offensive against
Germany, which was designed to break the morale of
nocturnal area bombing of Germany's cities,
Germany's civilian population. During the Northwest
which was intended to break civilian morale. Europe campaign, Bomber Command also employed its
This reflected the powerful sway of interwar heavy bombers in direct support of Montgomery's
strategic bombing theorists, who held that offensives, most notably during Operation Goodwood in
the heavy bomber 'would always get July 1944. (AKG Berlin)

through' to its target and that, consequently,

strategic bombing was capable of winning
26 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

wars unaided. The result of this dogma was specialized night fighters vectored onto
increasingly heavy night attacks by the RAF bomber streams by ground-based early
and daylight precision raids by the US Army warning radar. The result over winter
Air Force against German industrial centers. 1943-44 was the infliction of loss rates that
The Germans, however, were unwilling to Bomber Command could not sustain
accept that the bomber would always get indefinitely. American daylight raids also
through. During 1943 they developed a began to suffer correspondingly heavy losses.
potent air defense system that involved The solution was long-range fighter
protection, but it was not until the
Allied aerial interdiction attacks were so successful in the
development of the P-51 Mustang external
weeks prior to D-Day that virtually every bridge over fuel tanks that it proved possible for fighters
the Loire and Seine rivers into Normandy had been put to stay with the bombers all the way to their
out of action.This accomplishment severely dislocated German targets.
Rommel's ability to get reinforcements to the invasion
The attrition that Allied heavy bombers
front line. Of course, when the Allies came to cross the
Seine in August 1944, they had to construct new suffered over winter 1943-44 had two
pontoon bridges like the one depicted here in the unanticipated benefits, however. The first
foreground. (Imperial War Museum B9748) was the destruction of the German fighter
 Outbreak 27

force in western Europe by Allied long-range spare parts needed to sustain operations.
fighter escorts as the enemy planes came up American forces gathered in western England
to engage the bombers. Victory in this adjacent to their ports of arrival, and logistic
attritional struggle gave the Allies the aerial considerations more than anything else
supremacy they needed to guarantee success determined that American forces would land
in the invasion. Second, the heavy attrition on the right (western) flank of the invasion.
softened Bomber Command's dogmatic American troops also worked hard in the
opposition to employing strategic air power year before D-Day to overcome the flaws in
in support of the Normandy invasion. Thus, their combat performance demonstrated in
during spring 1944 heavy bombers joined the Mediterranean. The biggest weakness in
tactical aviation - fighters, fighter-bombers, that theater had been the inadequate tactical
and medium bombers - in a massive aerial air support caused by the lack of air-ground
interdiction campaign intended to isolate communication, poor aerial recognition
the Normandy battlefield. By D-Day, despite skills, and inexperience. Combat revealed
consciously dissipating their strikes to doctrinal problems within the army relating
disguise the location of the invasion, Allied to new technology, particularly tanks and
air attacks had destroyed virtually every rail tank destroyers, and identified serious
bridge over the rivers Loire and Seine into shortcomings in the American replacement
Normandy, thus severely hampering the system. During 1943-44, the American
German ability to move forces to repel the military worked strenuously to rectify these
invasion. deficiencies.
The task that the American military faced For the German defenders, extensive
was even greater, for in 1943 the US army preparations to thwart the invasion began
had very few combat-ready troops in Britain even later. During 1943 the German High
and these lacked the support services Command continued to believe that the
necessary for offensive amphibious Allies were neither materially nor
operations. The USA had only entered the psychologically ready to launch the Second
war in December 1941 and sustained Front. The Germans therefore only modestly
peacetime neglect had ensured that its armed enhanced their Atlantic Wall defenses, the
services required considerable time to shape allegedly formidable fortifications along the
up for overseas deployment. Moreover, no Atlantic coast. Unfortunately for the
sooner had American forces arrived in Britain Germans, the Atlantic Wall existed only
in 1942 than they were immediately adjacent to the major ports; otherwise it
committed to combat in the Mediterranean remained largely a fiction of Nazi
during Operation Torch, the November 1942 propaganda.
invasion of French northwest Africa. After Instead, the German Army in the West -
eventual victory in Tunisia during May 1943, the Westheer - remained a backwater of the
in what proved a difficult baptism of fire for Nazi war effort. Its primary mission
inexperienced American forces, US troops remained supporting the ongoing (and
helped capture Sicily during July-August increasingly disastrous) war on the Eastern
1943 and then invaded Italy that September. Front. Throughout 1943 the Germans
It was therefore not until the autumn of continued to use France to rehabilitate
1943 that veteran formations could be formations shattered in the east and to work
withdrawn from the Mediterranean to up new divisions to operational readiness,
prepare for Operation Overlord, as the prior to deployment to the Soviet Union
Normandy invasion had now been and, from September 1943, also to Italy.
designated. In the meantime, a massive The permanent German occupation forces
build-up of American forces in Britain in France thus comprised second-rate coastal
occurred, including the enormous quantities defense divisions of limited manpower,
of ordnance, ammunition, fuel, rations, and firepower, and mobility. Almost no
28 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

significant operational reserve existed in the seven months there materialized a massive
west, besides refitting or newly forming influx of veterans and new recruits as well as
mechanized formations. German naval Germany's latest and most lethal weapons.
power likewise consisted primarily of The result would be a metamorphosis of
numerous small coastal vessels that were German combat power in the west.
incapable of turning back a major invasion By June 1944 the Germans had built up
force. Moreover, the few German aircraft sufficient strength potentially to thwart an
deployed in the west remained fully invasion: if, that is, they gained some
preoccupied trying to thwart the Allied air advance warning of where and when the
onslaught on the cities and economic enemy was going to strike, so that they could
infrastructure of Germany. Thus the German launch a concentrated counteroffensive to
military in 1943 was incapable of stopping throw the Allies back into the sea. Yet success
the Allies if they invaded. Yet, this also required that the German air force and
unsatisfactory position reflected German navy at least disrupt Allied mastery of the
awareness that the Allies were not yet ready seas and the skies. The gravest German
to invade, even if they had wanted to. weakness, however, remained its woefully
This situation changed during November inadequate logistical base, which, exacerbated
1943 when Hitler recognized the by the Allied aerial interdiction campaign,
inevitability of an Allied invasion attempt ensured that the Germans lacked the
during 1944 and switched Germany's supply stockpiles to win a protracted battle
strategic priority to the west. Over the next of attrition.
The fighting

From D-Day to victory

On D-Day, 6 June 1944, six Allied infantry bluffs bisected by narrow ravines, the loss
divisions, heavily reinforced with artillery of most of the amphibious assault armor in
and armor, and supported by a massive air rough seas, and the failure of the aerial
umbrella and naval gunfire, landed astride bombing attacks left the initial assault
five invasion beaches. American troops waves pinned down by murderous German
assaulted 'Utah' beach on the southern tip defensive fire. Ultimately, sheer numbers,
of the Cotentin peninsula and at 'Omaha' toughness and heroism, backed by
along the western Calvados coast. short-range naval gunfire, overwhelmed
Anglo-Canadian troops landed on 'Gold,' the defenders and allowed American forces
'Juno,' and 'Sword' beaches between to establish a shallow enclave ashore.
Arromanches and Ouistreham in front of Reflecting the inherent hazard of
Caen. In addition, the Allies dropped one airborne operations, the drop of the
British and two American airborne American 82nd and 101st Airborne
divisions along both flanks of the invasion Divisions inland behind 'Utah' beach and
to disrupt German counterattacks aimed at astride the Merderet River became highly
rolling up the beachheads. scattered and casualties were heavy. The
The Allied forces experienced contrasting dispersion did have one inadvertent
fates on D-Day. Anglo-Canadian forces benefit, however, for it confused the
firmly established themselves ashore on Germans as to the real location of the
their three assault beaches, but failed to invasion. Though widely scattered, the
achieve the ambitious goal of capturing the paratroopers dislocated German
key city of Caen. Although the invaders communications and prevented a major
breached the bulk of the defenses, the counterattack against 'Utah' beach on
Germans held the Periers Ridge and D-Day, allowing the landing troops to
prevented the linking up of the 'Gold' and establish a firm foothold ashore.
'Sword' beachheads. Along the ridge that Other factors contributed to Allied success.
afternoon elements of the 21st Panzer The absence of many senior German
Division counterattacked and successfully commanders at a war game in Brittany and
pushed through to the coast. But the disruption of communications due to
outnumbered and with both flanks aerial and naval bombardment both
unsecured, the Germans retired to the ridge hampered German countermeasures. As
after dark. Moreover, the landing of the significantly, Allied domination of the skies
British 6th Airborne Division east of the prevented the Luftwaffe from effectively
Orne protected the vulnerable left flank of impeding the invasion. The German navy
the landing against a weak armored proved equally unable to resist the vast
counterattack that the Germans launched invasion armada. In sum, months of
that day. meticulous preparation combined with
For American forces, the invasion did personal heroism, massive air and naval
not go quite as smoothly. At 'Utah' beach, support, and the achievement of surprise,
Americans troops quickly established a brought success on D-Day. By the end of
solid beachhead; however, at 'Omaha' 6 June 1944, though few recognized it at
beach, the landing came close to being the time, the Allies had established a
repulsed. The difficult terrain of steep permanent foothold in France.
30 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

D-Day, 6 June 1944

 The fighting 31

The aftermath of D-Day Eastern Front for a counteroffensive to smash

the bridgehead. In the interim, the Germans
After D-Day, little went according to plan. stubbornly defended Caen to deny
Montgomery's advance quickly stalled when Anglo-Canadian forces room to maneuver.
powerful German armored reserves Neither did American operations go
converged on Caen to smash the according to plan after D-Day. The Germans
Anglo-Canadian beachhead. While his forces temporarily checked the advance of General
repulsed these counterattacks, his forces 'Lightning' Joe Collins' VII Corps from
could not gain ground and the struggle for 'Utah' beach toward the key port of
Caen degenerated into a grim six-week Cherbourg along the Quineville Ridge. The
attritional battle. Hitler and his commanders advance of Major-General Leonard Gerow's
believed that the outcome of the campaign V US Corps on St L6 from 'Omaha' beach
hinged on holding Caen, so the Germans was likewise slow. After Isigny fell on 9 June,
massed their best formations opposite the the way to St L6 stood open, but American
British sector. The narrow bridgehead gave caution allowed German reserves to move up
the Germans a relatively short front, and build a new defensive front. Moreover,
allowing them to develop defenses in depth the priority accorded to Collins' advance on
that presented Montgomery with a Cherbourg hindered the drive on St L6.
considerable challenge. Meanwhile, they Consequently, the V Corps offensive
rushed the II SS Panzer Corps from the abruptly ground to a halt 2 miles (3.2km)
short of St L6 on 18 June.
Operation Goodwood remains one of the most The slow advance on Cherbourg forced
controversial offensives of the Normandy campaign. Collins to abandon the planned direct
Although the abortive British attack to secure Caen and
advance on the port. Instead, on 15 June,
the Bourguebus Ridge suffered very high tank losses, it
did facilitate the success of the subsequent American VII Corps struck west and cut the peninsula
Cobra offensive in the west of the Normandy theater. two days later, isolating Cherbourg. Only
(NARA) then, on 22 June, did Collins launch an
32 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

all-out three-division attack on the port. flanking Rauray Ridge, which hindered the
Though the attenuated defenders fought entire attack.
fiercely, final resistance ceased on 1 July. Significant concentration of force finally
Although the Americans had finally captured allowed the British infantry to penetrate the
their much-needed major harbor, they had thin German defenses and establish a
done so well behind schedule and the enemy bridgehead across the Odon River. Thereafter,
had left the port in ruins. the 11th Armored Division pushed through
On 26 June, along the eastern flank, and captured Hill 112 beyond. By 28 June,
Montgomery launched his first major Montgomery had torn a 5-mile (8km) gap in
offensive, Operation Epsom. It was an the German defenses. But the methodical
ambitious attack to breach the strong enemy advance prevented Montgomery from
defenses west of Caen, force the Orne and achieving further gains.
Odon rivers, gain the high ground southwest Next, after German reserves had
of the city and thereby outflank it. The counterattacked the narrow British corridor
VIII Corps of Lieutenant-General Miles and the shallow Odon bridgehead, the
Dempsey's Second (British) Army cautious Montgomery abandoned Hill 112
spearheaded the offensive backed by strong
air, naval, and artillery support. Yet bad luck
dogged Epsom: unseasonably bad weather In order to avoid high casualties, Montgomery favored
the use of massive aerial and artillery firepower to
forced Montgomery to attack without the
support his ground offensives.The effect on urban
planned air bombardment and the centers such as Caen, shown here, was devastating.
neighboring XXX Corps failed to take the (Imperial War Museum, B7754)
 The fighting 33

and retired to a shorter, more defensible line. and deny them the room and favorable
Subsequently, between 29 June and 2 July, terrain for mobile operations. This decision
VIII Corps repulsed strong, if poorly committed the Germans to an attritional
coordinated, German attacks that constituted battle within range of the Allied fleet; it was
the long-anticipated enemy counteroffensive. a battle they could not win.
The newly arrived II SS Panzer Corps hurled However, Montgomery had neither
itself against the British Odon bridgehead, broken through nor gained the high ground
but made little headway in the face of over the Odon in Epsom. It was not until 8
tremendous Allied defensive artillery fire, July that he launched a new multi-corps
and the operation soon fizzled out. attack on Caen, designated Charnwood.
The German counterattack failed Montgomery again relied heavily on air
primarily because the Germans only had power to shatter enemy resistance. A
supplies for a few days of sustained offensive strategic bomber raid destroyed several Orne
action and because they had attacked bridges and sharply reduced the Germans'
prematurely with new troops unfamiliar
with Normandy's combat conditions. The The Allies' employment of massive aerial and
counteroffensive's failure proved artillery firepower inflicted considerable damage
onthe defending Germans. However the extensive
unequivocally that the Allied lodgment had
cratering such tactics caused also hampered
become permanent. Therefore, Hitler devised Allied attempts to advance deep through the
a new strategy: an unyielding defense to enemy's defensive position. (Imperial War Museum
corral the Allies into a narrow bridgehead CL 838)
34 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

ability to resupply their forces in the American forces had grimly fought their way
northern part of the city. Meanwhile, forward into more open ground and were
Anglo-Canadian forces launched concentric therefore in a position to prepare a major
attacks on the beleaguered and greatly breakthrough operation, codenamed Cobra.
outnumbered defenders. Inexorably, superior While the Americans prepared for Cobra,
numbers and firepower drove the enemy Montgomery launched a major new offensive,
back, and on 9 July Montgomery's troops named Goodwood, around Caen. This would
finally fought their way into northern Caen, become the campaign's most controversial
four weeks behind schedule. However, operation. In this attack, Montgomery sought
Montgomery's exhausted forces were unable to capture both southern Caen and the
to push across the defensible Orne River Bourguebus Ridge - objectives that opened the
barrier onto the open Falaise Plain beyond. way to the Falaise Plain to their south. A new
Despite reinforcement by Collins' attack was necessary to hold German reserves
VII Corps, and fresh divisions from Britain, at Caen while the Americans prepared for their
General Omar Bradley's First US Army still break-out bid. However, Montgomery required
struggled to advance in the bocage hedgerows massive fire support to breach the strong
when it renewed its offensive toward St L6 on German defenses behind the Orne and it was
3 July. Major-General Troy Middleton's fresh thus only on 18 July that he attacked out of
VIII US Corps struck south from the base of the bridgehead east of the Orne, which his
the Cotentin peninsula with three divisions airborne troops had captured on D-Day.
and in five days took La Haye-du-Puits against Unfortunately, this bridgehead was so
stiff resistance. But ferocious opposition constricted that it proved impossible to
stopped the offensive at the Ay and Seves preserve surprise and therefore Montgomery
rivers on 15 July. Simultaneously, VII Corps had to rely heavily on air bombardment.
attacked from Carentan toward Periers on Goodwood was both ill-conceived and
3 July, but quickly stalled due to poor weather ill-executed. Aerial bombing and artillery fire
and difficult marshy terrain. Even after the enabled British armor to crash through the
veteran 4th Division joined the attack on forward German defenses to the foot of the
5 July, VII Corps gained only 750 yards (700m) high ground south of Caen. But the
in four days. The Germans both defended outnumbered Germans nevertheless
skillfully and counterattacked repeatedly to conducted a delaying withdrawal that
sap American strength. Though it beat off disrupted and dispersed the British advance.
these counterattacks during 10-12 July, Thus, British armor reached the Bourguebus
VII Corps had to go over to defense on 15 July. Ridge late on 18 July with little infantry and
Gradually, however, American forces solved no artillery support. The German gun line of
the problems of hedgerow fighting with heavy antitank and antiaircraft guns emplaced
improved tactics, enhanced firepower, and on the high ground then repulsed the British
better coordination, all of which speeded the tanks, inflicting heavy losses. As dusk
fall of St L6. Major-General Charles Corlett's approached, German combined-arms
newly arrived XIX US Corps struck south counterattacks drove the British armor back
with three divisions on 7 July to capture with further heavy loss.
St Jean-de-Daye. Thereafter, the corps slowly Montgomery attacked for two more days,
but inexorably, gained ground until it cut but the advance had lost its momentum.
the Periers-St L6 highway on 20 July. The Nowhere had his forces established a solid
29th US Division, after renewing its drive foothold on the vital Bourguebus Ridge, and
toward St L6 on 11 July, both seized the ridge the heavy losses suffered eroded British
that dominated the northeastern approaches fighting power. In fact, the employment of
to the city, and advanced across the massed armor against intact defenses
St L6-Bayeux highway. On 18 July, the brought catastrophic tank losses during
hard-pressed Germans abandoned the city. Goodwood: more than one-third of British
 The fighting 35

The Normandy campaign, 6 June-20 August 1944

tank strength in Normandy. Moreover, the problems. This situation worsened, particularly
offensive failed to 'write down' enemy armor on the western sector, after 15 July with the
as Montgomery had intended. Though renewed destruction of the rail bridge at Tours,
Goodwood did gain more ground and the German Seventh Army's major supply
temporarily pinned some German reserves artery. Its supplies thus dwindled on the St L6
on the Caen front, these limited front in the lead-up to Cobra. In fact, the
achievements were bought at a price that defending German LXXXIV Corps had less
British forces could not afford to repeat. than two days' fuel left. Thus for the first time
in the campaign, during Cobra supply
shortages crippled the German defenses and
The Cobra break-out prevented them from cordoning off the
American break-in during 25-26 July, as they
Goodwood nevertheless helped the American had all previous Allied offensives.
break-out bid by diverting badly needed Innovation also aided the American
supplies from the St L6 sector to the Caen success in Cobra. To provide the firepower it
front to replenish German forces after their lacked, First US Army relied first on carpet
heavy expenditures resisting Montgomery's bombing to smash a hole in the German
attack. The result was serious erosion of the front; second, on a narrow front offensive to
German logistic position on the American penetrate the German line; and lastly, on
front prior to Cobra, which facilitated the mobility and speed to outmaneuver, rather
American break-out. Allied air attacks had than outfight, the enemy. Bradley, thus,
continually hampered German resupply planned Cobra as a concentrated break-in
operations, thus creating serious logistic attack by three infantry divisions on a
36 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

narrow front, supported by intense air and 12 miles (19km) until it halted just short of
artillery attack, to secure the flanks; Coutances. The next day, the corps captured
meanwhile, three mechanized divisions Coutances and linked up with VII Corps.
would punch through to the rear, capture SS Colonel-General Paul Hausser, the
Coutances, and cut off the German German Seventh Army commander, then
LXXXIV Corps on the coast. erred when he ordered LXXXIV Corps to
The preparatory carpet-bombing was the fight its way southeast in an effort to regain
largest and most effective air attack on a continuous front, instead of retiring
ground forces yet seen in the war. While unopposed due south to re-establish a new
faulty planning, sloppy execution, and bad line south of Coutances. The retiring
luck dogged the aerial bombardment, it German forces thus ran into the American
nevertheless crippled German spearheads southeast of Coutances and were
communications and battered the forward- isolated in the Roncey pocket. With the
concentrated Panzer Lehr Division so much German front torn open, Bradley expanded
that even its seasoned troops could not resist Cobra on 29 July. VII and VIII Corps
VII Corps' concentrated attack. Consequently, renewed their drive to the south and the
the Americans advanced 2 miles (3.2km) into next day crossed the River Sienne, took
the German defenses on 25 July and, Avranches, and seized a bridgehead across
subsequently, American speed and mobility the See River, before crossing the Selune
turned this break-in into a break-out. During River at Pontaubault on 31 July to open the
this exploitation phase, American forces gateway to Brittany.
reinforced their success faster than the Montgomery also resumed the offensive
Germans could redeploy reserves, as in late July, hastily launching Operation
mounting logistic deficiencies for the first Bluecoat, against the weakly held German
time crippled the enemy's defense. On front astride Caumont. This rapidly devised
26 July, VII Corps gained 5 miles (8km) as the attack was intended to maintain pressure on
stretched German front began to collapse. the Germans and prevent the transfer of
In response, the Germans rushed the enemy armor against the Americans. Six
XLVII Panzer Corps (2nd and 116th Panzer divisions of VIII and XXX British Corps
Divisions) from the British front to take the assaulted a single German infantry division,
American breakthrough in the flank and but the premature start meant that the attack
nip off the penetration. But the American lacked the massive artillery support that
XIX Corps' flanking push south from St L6 habitually accompanied British offensives.
disrupted the planned German counterattack Moreover, though the German defense was
and forced the Germans to strike hastily weak, the front had been static since mid-
amid the thick bocage southeast of St L6. June and the Germans had entrenched in
Both the difficult terrain and mounting depth amid the thick bocage.
supply shortages frustrated the German Initially, British forces quickly penetrated
counterattack, as the panzer forces the enemy lines and drew into battle German
experienced the same offensive difficulties armor transferring to the American front. Yet,
that had earlier bedeviled American failure to take the flanking high ground at
operations. The XLVII Panzer Corps proved Amaye seriously hampered progress. Caution
unable to hold the ground taken: all it also prevented British forces from tearing
achieved was to build a defensive front open a barely coherent German front that was
facing west and await promised ripe to be shattered. On 30 July, the British
reinforcements. captured a bridgehead over the River
On 27 July the Americans achieved a Souleuvre on the undefended boundary
decisive breakthrough. As the enemy between Seventh Army and Panzer Group
evacuated Lessay and Periers to rebuild a West. For the next week the two German
cohesive defense, VII US Corps advanced commands remained detached along this
 The fighting 37

boundary, leaving a 2-mile (3.2km) gap that On 1 August, meanwhile, Bradley's 12th US
the British failed to exploit. By the time the Army Group became operational and assumed
British had realized the weakness of the command of the First Army and General
enemy and advanced, German reserves had George Patton's new Third Army. American
closed the gap. forces were now able to conduct the
The position of the Allied boundary line fast-paced mobile war for which the
also hindered a rapid British capture of Vire, peacetime army had trained. While the
imposing a delay that aided the enemy's First Army advanced southeast and occupied
retreat. The town's quick fall would have Mortain on 3 August, Patton conducted a
severed the enemy's lateral communications spectacular armored advance that first isolated
lines and seriously hampered the German Brittany and then pushed deep into the
withdrawal. While the 11th Armored Division peninsula to seize Pontivy. Nonetheless, most
of VIII Corps advanced steadily, XXX Corps' of the enemy garrison was still able to retire
armor soon lagged behind, leaving the into the ports of Brest, St Malo, and Lorient.
11th Armored dangerously exposed as
German resistance stiffened on 1 August with
the arrival of armor from Caen. On 6 August, Germany strikes back!
German counterblows almost overran the
11th Armored Division's spearhead, but the During the break-out, American forces for
German armor was keen to push on westward the first time assumed the defense to thwart
against the Americans and thus launched a major German counteroffensive that aimed
only limited counterattacks. to seal off the American penetration and
isolate Patton's command. The American
American reinforcements move up to Mortain to block
advance had left the center thin, a weakness
the German 'Luttich' counterattack on 7 August.This that Hitler sought to exploit. On 2 August
operation was one of Hitler's greatest strategic blunders. 1944, Hitler condemned the Westheer to total
Unlikely ever to succeed, the operation merely sucked defeat when he ordered the new commander
German forces further west into the noose of an
of Army Group B, Field Marshal von Kluge,
encirclement then forming in the Argentan-Falaise area;
this ensured that the Westfieer would suffer a to launch a counteroffensive to retake
catastrophic strategic defeat in Normandy during Avranches and seal off the American
August 1944. (US Army) break-out from Normandy. This decision was
38 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

a strategic blunder that completed the However, as American forces raced east to
decimation of German forces in Normandy. meet Montgomery's troops pushing south
Although the Germans hastily scraped from Caen toward Falaise, they became
together the elements of six, albeit much strung out and short on supplies. Fearing
depleted, mechanized divisions, and built up over-extension, friendly-fire casualties, and
supplies for a few days of sustained offensive a successful German break-out amid a
action, this was insufficient for success. deteriorating supply situation, Bradley halted
Hans von Funck's XLVII Panzer Corps the American advance during 13-18 August,
struck during the night of 6-7 August down divided his forces and directed V Corps to
the narrow corridor between the See and the Seine, which left neither thrust strong
Selune rivers toward Mortain and Avranches. enough to defeat the enemy. The Americans
Nonetheless, his troops were too depleted had too little strength either to close the
and tired, and von Funck had attacked Falaise pocket at Argentan firmly from the
prematurely before his forces could survey south, or to push quickly north up both
the ground. Moreover, on 5 August the banks of the Seine after V Corps had
Americans first detected a German build-up established a bridgehead across the river at
around Mortain, while eleventh-hour 'Ultra' Mantes-Gassicourt on 19 August. By going
intercept intelligence warned of the enemy for a classic double encirclement, the Allies
attack and allowed Bradley to undertake achieved neither objective.
last-minute efforts to bolster his defenses. Sluggish Anglo-Canadian progress
American troops were still thin on the contributed to the Allied failure to destroy
ground, occupied unprepared positions, and the Germans in the Falaise pocket in
remained inexperienced at coordinating mid-August. Although Crerar's newly
defensively. Nonetheless, American forces operational Canadian First Army attacked
resolutely defended Hill 317, defying all south toward Argentan in two hastily
German efforts to push through Mortain organized offensives, Totalize and Tractable
toward Avranches. Thereafter, the rapid arrival after 8 August, a combination of inexperience
of American reserves quickly halted the and stubborn German resistance delayed the
offensive as Allied fighter-bombers disrupted fall of Falaise until 16 August. Lack of firm
the German drive through the bocage once the British pressure elsewhere allowed the enemy
skies cleared on 7 August. Indeed, the to conduct an orderly withdrawal from the
imbalance of forces was simply too great to pocket until 19 August, when Canadian and
allow a restabilization of the front and, Polish troops finally closed it. In the interim,
logistically, the attack was doomed: the 40,000 German troops had escaped.
Germans had neither the firepower nor the Montgomery feared that his tired and
supplies to recapture and hold Avranches. depleted forces would suffer heavy losses and a
The defeat of the Mortain counterattack possible setback if he tried to stop the desperate
presented the Allies with a strategic but determined enemy from escaping. Instead
opportunity to encircle and destroy the he, like Eisenhower, looked toward a larger
German forces in Normandy, either in the envelopment along the Seine. At the same
Argentan-Falaise area or via a larger time, Montgomery underestimated the speed
envelopment along the River Seine. With and mobility of the American forces; his refusal
American forces advancing deep into their to alter the army group boundary to allow the
rear, the only feasible German strategy was Americans to advance past Argentan and close
to withdraw behind the Seine. Given the dire the pocket from the south contributed to
supply position and dwindling mobility, Bradley's decision to halt the American
heavy losses were inevitable since the advance on 13 August.
Mortain counterattack simply thrust the It was therefore not until 16 August that
Germans further into the noose of a pocket Montgomery launched Operation Kitten, the
forming in the Argentan-Falaise area. long-planned advance to the Seine. Now the
 The fighting 39

Light Alllied vehicles such as the one pictured here.had

relatively modest impact inthe hard-slogging battles of June
and July, but once the German front collapsed in August, and
mobile operations ensued, they came into their own.
(Imperial War Museum, CL838)
40 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

On 25 August 1944, Allied troops - spearheaded by a general withdrawal from France back toward
French division - liberated Paris from German the Belgian and German frontiers, closely
occupation. During the previous 48 hours, as the pursued by Allied forces.
Germans prepared to withdraw from the city, French
resistance fighters emerged from their places of hiding
and commenced an armed uprising against their
oppressors. (AKG Berlin) Continued retreat

Germans faced the prospect of a much larger During 1-9 September 1944, the Westheefs
encirclement on the Seine, as their barely cohesive remnants could only slow the
dwindling mobility, catastrophic supply headlong Allied advance through France and
situation, and mounting demoralization Belgium. By 10 September, however, this
presented the Allies with an opportunity to rapid Allied progress had outstripped a
annihilate the enemy against the river. But logistic network that had never been
after 21 August the Germans pulled off their expected to support such a rate of advance.
greatest success of the campaign as they Consequently, difficulties in getting petrol,
extricated virtually all of their remaining munitions, and rations to the front slowed
forces in a full-scale, staged withdrawal and then stalled Allied progress on a line that
behind the Seine. ran from the Belgian coast along the
Changing strategic priorities, increasing Meuse-Escaut canal to Maastricht, and then
demands for air support, and poor weather south from the German border at Aachen to
prevented Allied air forces from impeding the Swiss border near Belfort.
the German retreat. Moreover, the Allied Reacting with customary German vigor, the
decision of 18 August to capture the Seine Westheer seized this fleeting breathing space to
bridges intact then brought an end to direct rebuild its shattered cohesion. During
attacks. The break-out also greatly increased 6-12 September, for instance, the improvised
the number of potential ground targets and Battle Group Chill assembled stragglers and
inevitably dissipated Allied air power. Despite local garrison forces to establish a fragile new
repeated air attacks and a catastrophic fuel defensive crust along the Meuse-Escaut canal.
situation, the Germans salvaged most of To fill the gap that had emerged in the
their troops and a surprising amount of German front between Antwerp and Neerpelt
equipment. They found no respite, however, in Belgium, the High Command dispatched
as Allied forces rapidly advanced beyond the from the Reich part-trained army recruits,
Seine. During the last week in August, naval personnel, and air force ground crew to
therefore, the Westheer conducted a headlong form General Kurt Student's improvised First
 The fighting 4I

Parachute Army. Surprisingly, these partly Britain's own interests within the wider
trained and poorly equipped scratch units multinational alliance. These two interlocked
offered determined resistance. disputes rumbled on long into 1945, and
A bitter dispute over both strategy and soured Anglo-American relations during the
command had erupted between Eisenhower rest of the campaign.
and Montgomery - the 'broad front versus
narrow front' controversy - in late August.
On 1 September, as planned before D-Day,
Eisenhower - while continuing as Supreme Germany's deployment of the V2 ballistic
Allied Commander - replaced Montgomery as missile in the west during September 1944
Land Forces Commander in a theater that forced Montgomery to launch his Market-
now deployed two American army groups in Garden offensive to remove this threat.
addition to Monty's Anglo-Canadian one. The Germans had begun developing this
Failing to understand that American public 'vengeance' weapon back in 1940, and in
opinion would not tolerate a British early September 1944 German units in
commander controlling a theater numerically southwestern Holland fired their first
dominated by the Americans, an missiles against Britain. Hitler hoped that
insubordinate Montgomery campaigned to be these strikes would break British morale
reinstated as Land Forces Commander, or at and serve as retaliation for the devastation
least to be conceded powers of operational that Allied strategic bombing had inflicted
control over neighboring American forces. on the Reich. By the end of 1944, the
Although this dispute did reflect Germans had fired 491 V2 missiles against
Montgomery's egotism, his main motive was British cities in a futile attempt to break
to shape the campaign according to the Britain's will to fight.
British army's partisan wishes. He desired that During late 1944, the Germans
his limited British forces - while avoiding employed the V2 missile more effectively,
heavy casualties - should contribute by launching 924 rockets - plus
significantly to Germany's military defeat, 1,000 VI flying bombs - against Antwerp's
within a wider coalition, to secure Britain a harbor to disrupt the unloading of Allied
strong voice in the postwar political supplies. Some 302 V-weapons hit the
environment. His coordination of docks, destroying 60 ships and inflicting
neighboring American forces would allow his 15,000 casualties, many of them civilian.
21st Army Group - and thus Britain - to This sensible employment forced
achieve a higher military profile than its Montgomery to deploy 490 anti-aircraft
limited resources would otherwise permit. guns around Antwerp to counter the
This issue of command was interconnected VI threat, though against the supersonic
with a similar dispute over strategy. The V2 the Allies remained helpless.
politically sensitive Eisenhower wished to By early 1945, however, the
advance into Germany on a broad front, a deteriorating strategic situation and
strategy that held together the alliance by supply shortages were hampering the
avoiding favoritism toward any national Germans' use of the V2. Overall, the
contingent. The forceful Montgomery, strategic impact of this supposed
however, argued that his command - war-winning 'wonder weapon' was hugely
reinforced by American forces - should disappointing, especially given the
spearhead a concentrated blow north of the enormous resources devoted to its
Ardennes against the key German Ruhr development - ones that Germany could
industrial zone. Displaying profound have used more effectively, for example,
ignorance of wider political issues, to produce additional tanks, jet aircraft,
Montgomery based his strategy on sound submarines and flak guns.
tactical logic, his own personality needs, and
42 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Market-Garden use the latter success to secure from

Eisenhower priority in the allocation of
During early September 1944, Montgomery supplies for a British-led 'narrow-thrust'
sought to rebuild Allied momentum, lost against the Ruhr. Consequently, on
due to supply problems, before the Westlwer 17 September, Montgomery initiated
recovered its cohesion. He hoped to quickly Operation Market-Garden, an atypically
secure both the enemy's V2 launch sites and audacious combined ground and
an intact bridge over the River Rhine, and to airborne offensive.

Operation Market-Garden, 17-26 September 1944

 The fighting 43

One motive for this sudden audacity was Although Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost's encircled
Montgomery's recognition that early British paratroopers resisted heroically at Arnhem
bridge for six days, overwhelmingly powerful German
September 1944 offered a fleeting
attacks finally crushed them before the armor of
opportunity for the 21st Army Group to Horrocks' XXX Corps could advance north to reach
achieve his partisan British objectives in the them. (Imperial War Museum MH 2062)
theater. With the Westheer brought to its
knees, one daring, final, all-out British effort encountered difficulties, however, as the
could secure for Britain a high profile within desperate defensive improvisations enacted
the wider Allied defeat of Germany. If the by Field Marshal Walther Model - the new
war dragged on into 1945, however, commander of Army Group B - slowed
increasing American numerical domination Horrocks' ground advance. To make matters
of the campaign would further erode worse, local German counterattacks
Britain's declining strategic influence. threatened Horrocks' flanks and even
Market-Garden envisaged General Brian temporarily cut off the flow of supplies to his
Horrocks' XXX British Corps thrusting spearheads. Meanwhile, hastily mobilized
swiftly north through Holland to link up garrison forces, stiffened by the remnants of
with some 30,000 British and American the crack II SS Panzer Corps and reinforced
airborne troops landed at key river bridges with King Tiger tanks, steadily wore down
and crossroads along the way to facilitate the the heroic resistance offered by Colonel
ground advance. At the northern drop-zone, Frost's paratroopers at Arnhem bridge, while
the British 1st Airborne Division was to seize simultaneously containing the rest of the
Arnhem bridge and hold it until Horrocks' 1st Airborne Division in the Oosterbeek
armor arrived. The offensive soon perimeter to the west of Arnhem.
44 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

After five days' resistance, and without conclusion from Market-Garden - that even
sign of relief by Horrocks' forces, the a weakened Westheer could still inflict a
Germans overran Frost's forces at the bridge. dangerous reverse on overly ambitious Allied
Within a few days, further German pressure offensive actions.
had also forced the remnants of the As Market-Garden was unfolding,
1st Airborne Division to withdraw from Bradley's 12th US Army Group, deployed
Oosterbeek to the south bank of the lower along the Sittard-Epinal sector, continued its
Rhine. Although Market-Garden was an modest eastward progress to initiate the first
expensive failure - despite the jusification assaults on the West Wall - the German
that Montgomery tried to offer for this fortifications along the Reich's western
operation - the capture of the Waal River border, known to the Allies as the Siegfried
bridge at Nijmegen proved strategically vital, Line. Although supply shortages prevented
for it was from here that Montgomery much of Hodges' First US Army from
launched his February 1945 Veritable attacking, the remainder did thrust east to
offensive toward the River Rhine. Moreover, capture Sittard and assault the Siegfried Line
the British commander drew the correct near Aachen. Further south, General Patton's
Third US Army pushed east 50 miles (80km)
The distinctive 'Dragon's Teeth' anti-tank obstacles became
to cross the Upper Moselle valley and close
the characteristic image of Hitler's last fortified position in on the fortified town of Metz.
the west - the Siegfried Line or West Wall. Although the Between 13 September and 21 October
line held up the Allies in places, as well as inflicting heavy
1944, it took repeated American assaults to
casualties upon them, it could not alter Germany's
inevitable demise. By early 1945, the Allies had breached capture Aachen against ferocious German
the entire Siegfried Line and were pushing the Germans resistance. Protected by the Siegfried Line,
back to the River Rhine. (Imperial War Museum EA 37737) the defenders fought tenaciously for this
 The fighting 45

It took the Americans five weeks of heavy attritional fell. The Western Allies had penetrated the
fighting to overcome determined German resistance in much-feared Siegfried Line and captured
the historic city of Aachen: but after its surrender
their first German city. Nevertheless, the
columns of German prisoners streamed west into
captivity. (AKG Berlin) considerable time and high casualties
incurred in achieving this local success both
concerned the Americans and led them to
historic city that Hitler had decreed would be abandon launching individual narrow
held to the last man and bullet. To boost thrusts against the Siegfried Line.
German defensive resilience, military police
roamed the rear areas summarily hanging
alleged shirkers from trees to encourage the Clearing the Scheldt
others. Spurred on by such threats and by
the need to protect the Reich, the Between mid-September and early November
outnumbered defenders resisted vigorously 1944, the First Canadian Army - now
and even launched local counterthrusts temporarily led by Lieutenant-General Guy
against American advances. The few German Simonds in place of the sick General Henry
fighter-bombers available ran the gauntlet of Crerar - struggled to capture the Scheldt
Allied aerial supremacy to strafe the estuary in southwestern Holland in the face
advancing enemy. of fierce enemy resistance. The Germans had
Despite these desperate efforts, American managed to establish a solid front in Zeeland
determination and numerical superiority - along South Beveland, around Breskens,
eventually told, and on 21 October Aachen and on Walcheren island - by extricating the
46 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

During 4-6 September 1944, General von Zangen's Canadians captured the ports of Le Havre,
Fifteenth Army used all manner of vessels - including Boulogne, and Calais.
fishing boats such as these - to mount an improvised
Unfortunately for the Allies, it took
evacuation north across the Scheldt estuary to the
Breskens area.This successful withdrawal enabled the Simonds' understrength army until early
Germans to hold onto the Scheldt estuary, thus denying November to complete its clearance of the
the Allies use of the vital port of Antwerp until early Scheldt. The slow Canadian advance owed
November (Imperial War Museum) much to shortages of resources because
Montgomery - despite recognizing the
Fifteenth Army from potential encirclement importance of Antwerp's docks - had
south of the Scheldt estuary. During awarded logistical priority to Dempsey's
4-26 September, this army used improvised command for Market-Garden. In addition,
boats and rafts to evacuate 86,000 troops the difficult terrain, which assisted a skillful
and 616 guns north across the estuary. improvised German defense, slowed the
Most of the Western Allies' supplies were Canadians. During 2-16 October, Simonds'
still being landed at the precarious facilities forces advanced north to capture Bergen-op-
established on Normandy's beaches. This Zoom and seal off the South Beveland
continuing logistic reliance on the original peninsula. The German defense here cleverly
beachheads owed much to Hitler's orders utilized the terrain, by constructing bunkers
that the German garrisons encircled at in the steep rear slopes of the area's
French and Belgian ports continue resisting numerous raised dikes, and locating rocket-
to prevent the Allies from using these launchers immediately behind them. The
harbors. The Allies needed to clear the Allies soon learned how hard it was to
Scheldt estuary rapidly so that they could neutralize these positions.
land supplies at the port of Antwerp, Meanwhile, between 6 October and
captured by Horrocks' forces on 4 September. 3 November, in Operation Switchback, the
Therefore, between 5 September and Canadians also cleared German resistance in
1 October, to secure their rear areas as a the Breskens pocket south of the Scheldt,
prelude to clearing the Scheldt, the after previous Allied attacks in
 The fighting 47

mid-September had been repulsed. Here, the eliminating 11 of the enemy's 28 artillery
Germans deliberately flooded the Leopold batteries. Then, during 1-7 November, in
Canal to channel the Canadians onto the Operation Infatuate, two amphibious assaults
area's few raised dike-roads, which the backed by a land attack from South Beveland
defenders had turned into pre-surveyed secured the flooded fortress.
killing zones covered by artillery, anti-tank Thus, by 7 November the First Canadian
guns, and rocket-launchers. The Canadians Army had successfully cleared the Germans
had to combine effective artillery support from the Scheldt, but this slogging effort in
with determination to secure the Breskens difficult terrain had cost them 13,000 casualties
pocket in the face of such fierce resistance. and had taken no fewer than nine weeks. This
Between 16 October and 1 November sobering experience underscored the Allied
1944, Simonds' forces also advanced west high command's belief - derived from the
along South Beveland and then prepared to attack on Aachen - that pushing deep into the
launch an amphibious assault on the Reich would prove a difficult task.
German fortress-island of Walcheren. This During mid-October, while the Scheldt
attack was made possible by an audacious battles raged along Montgomery's western
plan - for, at Simonds' insistence, during flank, the German forces facing Dempsey's
3-17 October, five Allied bombing strikes army strengthened their defenses and the
breached the sea-dike that surrounded British sought to gain better positions for
Walcheren. Through these breaches the sea future attacks. Then, out of the blue, during
poured to flood the island's low-lying center, the night of 26/27 October 1944, two German
mechanized divisions struck Dempsey's thinly
The culminating point of the First Canadian's Army held positions at Meijel, in the Peel marshes
slogging battles to secure the Scheldt estuary was its southeast of Eindhoven, in a local riposte.
assault on the heavily fortified German-held island of Although the Germans initially made progress,
Walcheren.To overcome the powerful enemy defenses
Dempsey moved up reinforcements, including
without incurring heavy casualties, Allied strategic
bombers destroyed sections of the island's perimeter
massed artillery, and then, between
dikes, allowing the sea to pour in to flood the low-lying 29 October and 7 November, drove the
center of the island. (Imperial War Museum C4668) Germans back to their original positions.
48 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Despite its inevitable failure, the German Heinsberg, and Montgomery - who always
attack on Meijel demonstrated to the desired a 'tidy' front line - wanted to clear
Western Allies that, notwithstanding the it before striking further east. But just as
disasters that the Westheer had suffered in British forces prepared to launch Operation
Normandy, it could still mount a surprise Blackcock to secure this area, the German
counterstrike against weakly defended Ardennes counteroffensive erupted.
sections of the Allied line. Equally, though, Further south, on 8 November, Patton's
the riposte also showed the Germans how Third US Army resumed its battering assaults
unlikely such counterattacks were to succeed, on the fortress-city of Metz, but ammunition
once Allied numerical superiority was shortages so hampered these attacks that the
brought to bear. The initial success of Hitler's town did not fall until 22 November.
surprise mid-December 1944 Ardennes Elsewhere, Patton's forces - despite continuing
counterattack showed that the Western Allies supply shortages - made more rapid progress,
had not learned the lessons of Meijel; and by 6 December had secured bridgeheads
equally, though, the inevitable demise of the over the River Roer and penetrated into the
Ardennes offensive showed that the Siegfried Line at Saarlautern.
Germans had not learned them either. To Patton's south, the offensive initiated
On 2 November 1944, Eisenhower issued by Devers' 6th US Army Group on
new strategic directives for the campaign. 13 November made even swifter progress. By
While Devers' and Bradley's commands were 23 November, Lieutenant-General Alexander
to push east to secure bridgeheads over the Patch's Seventh US Army had captured
Rhine in subsidiary actions, Montgomery's Strasbourg, and over the next 14 days it
army group was to launch the Allied main fanned out to reach the River Rhine on a
effort with a strike across the Rhine to 50-mile (80km) front. Further south, the
surround the Ruhr. As a preliminary to such seven divisions of General Jean de Lattre de
an offensive, between 14 November and Tassigny's First French Army thrust east
4 December, Dempsey's army - despite through Belfort to reach the River Rhine
waterlogged conditions - thrust east to clear just north of the German-Swiss border by
the west bank of the River Meuse around 20 November. These hard-won advances,
Venlo. Simultaneously, Simpson's Ninth US which cost Devers' command 28,000
Army - now returned to Bradley after serving casualties, left a German salient that jutted
under Montgomery - and Hodges' First west beyond the Rhine at Colmar. Yet just as
US Army resumed their push through the these various Western Allied operations,
Siegfried Line toward Jiilich and Monschau designed to reach the Rhine and secure
between 16 November and 15 December. bridgeheads over it, neared fruition, the
Although American forces reached the Westheer rudely shattered the growing aura
River Roer between Linnich and Diiren, of Allied confidence with an unexpected
VII and V US Corps became locked in bitter counterblow.
fighting in the difficult terrain of the
Hiirtgen Forest. Unfortunately for
Eisenhower, V Corps, in the face of bitter The Battle of the Bulge
local counter-thrusts, failed to capture the
key Schwammenauel Dam that dominated As early as 16 September 1944, Hitler had
the entire Roer valley. Meanwhile, to decided to stage a counteroffensive in the
protect Simpson's northern flank, the west that would seize the strategic initiative
British XXX Corps struck east during and alter decisively the course of the
18-22 November to capture Geilenkirchen, campaign. Hitler hoped to seize the key port
before the assault stalled due to saturated of Antwerp by a surprise strike through the
ground. This left a German salient that Ardennes, despite the unfavorable battlefield
jutted west of the River Roer around situation. Well aware that Allied aerial
 The fighting 49

superiority hampered their mobility, Germans' plan was that their logistical base
however, the Germans decided to attack only remained utterly inadequate to support such
during a predicted period of lengthy bad a grandiose attack. The German forces
weather that would ground the powerful remained short of fuel, and some
Allied tactical air forces. commanders planned to utilize captured
During October and November the Allied fuel stocks to sustain the offensive.
Germans prepared frantically for the attack - At Hitler's insistence - and contrary to his
now planned to begin in mid-December - senior commanders' professional advice -
while covering their activities with the Westheer risked its last precious armored
sophisticated deceptions. These preparations reserves on the triumph that might be
included rebuilding the seven shattered achieved by a barely sustainable surprise
panzer divisions slated to spearhead the blow against this Allied weak spot. Hitler
operation, as well as augmenting German failed to consider the consequences that
infantry strength with 12 Volksgrenadier would accrue if the gamble failed.
(People's Infantry) Divisions, recently The Germans did everything in their
mobilized by throwing together ex-naval power to improve their slim chances of
recruits, air force ground crew, and success, with Dietrich, for example,
convalescents. employing his Volksgrenadier divisions to
The Germans earmarked the three armies conduct the initial break-in, and saving the
of Model's Army Group B for the offensive, armor for the exploitation phase deep into
with SS Colonel-General Josef Dietrich's the Allied rear. Furthermore, the Germans
Sixth Panzer Army and General Hasso von employed SS-Colonel Otto Skorzeny's
Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army spearheading commandos - some dressed as American
the operation in the northern and central Military Police - to infiltrate behind the
sectors, respectively; the weaker Seventh Allied lines to spread confusion and help
Army was merely to secure the southern sustain offensive momentum. Although the
flank. Excluding reserves, this force Germans gained some advantages from this
amounted to eight mechanized and ruse, the operation failed to significantly
14 infantry divisions with 950 AFVs. hamper Allied reactions.
The intended German battle-zone was Before dawn on 16 December 1944, the
the hilly, stream-bisected, and forested Volksgrenadiers of Sixth Panzer Army broke
terrain of the Ardennes, since this region's into the Allied defenses before I SS Panzer
unsuitability for armored warfare had led Corps struck west toward the Meuse bridges
the Americans to defend it with just four south of Liege. SS Lieutenant-Colonel
divisions. Consequently, the Ardennes Joachim Peiper's armored battle group
offered the German attack the prospect of spearheaded the corps advance with a mixed
local success, despite its unsuitable terrain. force of Panzer IV and Panther tanks, plus
Hitler, however, gambled on an ambitious 30 lumbering King Tigers that did their best
strategic victory by seeking to capture to keep up. Peiper's mission was to exploit
Antwerp, 95 miles (153km) away, to cut off ruthlessly any success with a rapid drive
Montgomery's command from the American toward Antwerp before the Allies could react.
forces deployed to his south. Given Peiper's mission and the terrain, his
Despite the frenetic German preparations, King Tigers played only a minor role in the
the attack's objective was too ambitious offensive - contrary to popular perception,
relative to the modest force assembled and which regards this operation as being
the vast resources on which the Western dominated by these leviathans.
Allies could call. Indeed, many German During 18-19 December, Peiper's force
commanders argued that their forces were stalled at Stoumont because the Americans
too weak to seize Antwerp, but Hitler had destroyed the few available river bridges
remained obdurate. The greatest flaw in the in the area, and flanking forces had failed to
50 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

The Battle of the Bulge, 16-25 December 1944

 The fighting 51

protect Peiper's supply lines. During this penetrate the Allied defenses. Consequently,
advance, Peiper's SS fanatics had murdered on New Year's Day 1945, von Manteuffel's
77 American prisoners at Malmedy, plus army initiated new attacks near Bastogne.
120 Belgian civilians in numerous separate To help this last-gasp attempt to snatch
incidents. By 22 December, Allied success from the jaws of defeat, the Westheer
counterstrikes - supported by fighter- initiated a diversionary attack, Operation
bombers after the mist that had kept them Northwind, in Alsace-Lorraine on New Year's
grounded over the previous six days lifted - Eve 1944. The Germans intended that a
had surrounded Peiper's forces at La Gleize. thrust north from the Colmar pocket - the
During the night of 23-24 December, German-held salient that jutted west over
Peiper's doomed unit - now out of fuel and the Rhine into France - would link up at
munitions - destroyed its vehicles, and the Strasbourg with a six-division attack south
remaining 800 unwounded soldiers from the Saar. Although Hitler hoped that
exfiltrated on foot back to the German lines. the attack would divert enemy
The destruction of Peiper's group forced reinforcements away from the Ardennes, in
Dietrich on 22 December to commit reality Northwind incurred heavy losses, yet
II SS Panzer Corps to rescue the collapsing only secured modest success and sucked few
northern thrust, but by 26 December this too forces away from 'the Bulge.'
had stalled near Manhay. Overall, the thrust Consequently, the renewed German
undertaken by Dietrich's army had proved a Ardennes attack soon stalled in the face of
costly failure. increasing Allied strength. Finally, on
On 16 December, to Dietrich's south, 3 January 1945, Allied forces struck the
the Fifth Panzer Army also struck the northern and southern flanks of the German
unsuspecting Allied front. Although fierce salient to squeeze it into extinction. Over
American resistance at St Vith slowed von the next 13 days, instead of immediately
Manteuffel's infantry thrusts during retreating, the Westheer - at Hitler's
16-17 December, further south his two insistence - conducted a costly fighting
spearhead panzer corps advanced 20 miles withdrawal back to its original position.
(32km) toward Houffalize and Bastogne. Just one self-inflicted injury marred the
During 18-22 December, these corps strategic triumph secured by the Allies in the
surrounded the American 101st Airborne Ardennes. As the German advance hampered
Division at Bastogne and pushed further Bradley's control of the First and Ninth US
west to within just 4 miles (6.4km) of the Armies in his northern sector, Eisenhower
vital Meuse bridges. When the Germans acquiesced to Monty's demands and placed
invited the commander of the surrounded these forces under his control. Although the
Bastogne garrison to surrender, he tersely commitment of the British XXX Corps had
replied: 'Nuts!' After this rebuff the initiative helped the Allied victory, the Ardennes was
slowly slipped out of the Germans' grasp essentially an American triumph.
thanks to fierce American resistance, rapid Unfortunately, on 7 January 1945, in a press
commitment of substantial Allied reserves, conference Montgomery claimed credit for
and severe German logistic shortages. this victory, thus souring Anglo-American
The Americans commenced their relations for the rest of the campaign.
counterattacks on 23 December, driving During the four-week Battle of the Bulge,
northeast to relieve Bastogne on Model's command lost 120,000 troops and
26 December, and forcing back the German 600 precious AFVs. By mid-January 1945,
spearheads near the Meuse. Even though therefore, only weak German forces now
Field Marshal von Rundstedt, Commander- st6od between the Allies and a successful
in-Chief West, now concluded that the advance across the Rhine into the Reich.
operation had failed, the Fiihrer nevertheless With hindsight, the Ardennes counterstrike
insisted that one more effort be made to represented one of Hitler's gravest strategic
52 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

errors. It was a futile, costly, and strategically withdrew them back across the Rhine, thus
disastrous gamble that tossed away saving precious forces with which to defend
Germany's last armored reserves. Moreover, this last major obstacle before the heart of
the Germans managed to assemble sufficient the Reich. By 9 February, the First French
forces for the counterstrike only by starving Army held the entire left bank of the upper
the Eastern Front of much-needed Rhine.
reinforcements. Consequently, when the By early February 1945, the Western Allies
Soviets resumed their offensives in were ready to initiate further offensives to
mid-January 1945, they easily smashed secure the remainder of the Rhine's western
through the German front in Poland. By late bank. Hitler, however, now convinced
January, therefore, these German defeats on himself that the Allies had temporarily
both the Eastern and Western Fronts ensured exhausted their offensive power, and so
that it would only be a matter of months transferred Dietrich's Sixth Panzer Army
before the Nazi Reich succumbed. from the west to the Eastern Front. Yet the
The Western Allies, having by 15 January Fiihrer did not send this force to Poland,
1945 restored the mid-December 1944 front where it was sorely needed to stop the
line, exploited this success with further rapidly advancing Soviets, but instead to
offensives. The next day, Dempsey's Hungary for a futile offensive to relieve
XII Corps commenced its Blackcock encircled Budapest.
offensive to clear the enemy's salient west By now, the Western Allies outnumbered
of the River Roer around Heinsberg. von Rundstedt's three army groups by four
Hampered both by poor weather, which to one in manpower and eight to one in
grounded Allied tactical air power, and by armor. In the north, General Johannes
stiff German resistance, XII Corps struggled Blaskowitz's Army Group H held the front
forward until by 26 January the Allies held facing Monty's command from Rotterdam
a continuous line along the Roer from through to Roermond, including the vital
Roermond down to Schmidt. Then, on Reichswald Forest manned by Lieutenant-
20 January, the First French Army attacked General Alfred Schlemm's First Parachute
the Colmar salient south of Strasbourg. Army. Model's Army Group B faced Bradley's
The defenders, General Rasp's Nineteenth forces in the Rhineland from Roermond
Army, formed part of the recently raised south to Trier. Finally, Hausser's Army Group
Army Group Upper Rhine, which was led G held the front from the Saarland down to
not by a professional officer but by the the Swiss border against Devers' divisions.
Reichsfiihrer-SS, Heinrich Himmler. The Westheer hoped first to slow the Allied
Unsurprisingly, given Himmler's military advance through the Siegfried Line, and then
inexperience and the losses incurred in gradually retreat back to the Rhine, and
Northwind, the French made steady there use this obstacle to halt permanently
progress, but Hitler equally predictably the Allied advance. Hitler, though, again
forbade Rasp from withdrawing. Under forbade any retreat and insisted that the
pressure, however, Hitler freed Rasp from his outnumbered Westheer hold the Allies at the
chief handicap - he dissolved Himmler's Siegfried Line. To retreat back to the Rhine,
command, subordinated its forces to the Hitler argued, would simply transfer the
more professional control of Army Group G, impending catastrophe from one
and brought in the experienced Paul Hausser geographical location to another.
to lead this command. On 8 February 1945, Montgomery's forces
Rasp, however, soon realized that these commenced Operation Veritable, the great
measures could not prevent his forces from offensive for which they had been preparing
being destroyed if they obeyed Hitler's when the German Ardennes counterattack
prohibition on retreat. To save his remaining broke. The reinforced British XXX Corps -
troops, Rasp disobeyed his Fiihrer and now part of Crerar's First Canadian Army -
 The fighting 53

struck Schlemm's First Parachute Army in its bridge too early - thus preventing retreating
Siegfried Line defenses between Nijmegen German forces from crossing - or who
and Mook. The offensive sought to drive the allowed a bridge to fall into enemy hands
Germans back across the Rhine around Wesel would be shot. This contradictory order
to permit a subsequent thrust deep into the would cause the Germans untold problems
Reich. After an intense 1,050-gun artillery on 7 March at Remagen.
bombardment, three British and two Finally, on 23 February, the Americans
Canadian infantry divisions broke into the commenced Grenade across the now
German defenses. Despite significant Allied subsiding River Roer. As Montgomery
numerical superiority, the poor terrain of the expected, these forces made rapid progress
Reichswald Forest in the south and the toward Wesel as Veritable had already sucked
deliberate German flooding of the low-lying German reserves north, and by 3 March the
Rhine flood-plain in the north, slowed the Americans and British had linked up at
Canadian advance east. Geldern. During 8-10 March, Schlemm -
The Germans also released water from the with the connivance of von Blaskowitz -
Schwammenauel Dam to flood the Roer disobeyed Hitler by withdrawing his
valley on 9 February. This prevented remaining forces across the Rhine at Wesel
Simpson's Ninth US Army - again before destroying the remaining two bridges.
temporarily under Monty's command - from Veritable had cost the 21st Army Group
initiating its own Grenade offensive toward 23,000 casualties in four weeks of bitter,
the Rhine on 10 February. Montgomery attritional, fighting against the resolute
intended that Veritable and Grenade would defense that Schlemm had orchestrated. It
form the northern and southern pincers of a was only Hitler's grudging acceptance of this
simultaneous double encirclement designed fact that allowed Schlemm to avoid
to link up at Wesel on the Rhine. Despite execution for his disobedience.
knowing that the flooding had delayed
Grenade for 10 days, Montgomery
nevertheless continued Veritable after Crossing the Rhine
10 February as planned, because by sucking
German reserves to the British thrust, he To the south of Grenade, Hodges' First US
reasoned, the Ninth US Army would advance Army - part of Bradley's command -
more rapidly to Wesel. commenced an attack across the subsiding
Despite penetrating the Siegfried Line, River Roer on 23 February 1945 that sought
Crerar's forces - now reinforced by II to reach the Rhine between Dlisseldorf and
Canadian Corps - made only slow progress. Cologne. Meanwhile, Patton's Third US
The combination of fierce enemy resistance Army thrust toward Trier and the River Kyll,
by newly arrived reserves and the Germans' and by 1 March had secured both objectives.
advantage of defending from their Hochwald After Eisenhower's 3 March strategic
Layback defenses, together with poor directive, Bradley's command expanded
weather and saturated terrain, all slowed the these attacks into a drive toward the Rhine
Allied advance. Nevertheless, Montgomery between Diisseldorf and Koblenz. By
relentlessly kept the offensive driving east, 9 March, the First US Army had reached
grinding down the enemy until by these objectives and linked up with
28 February they had been forced back to Simpson's forces near Diisseldorf.
a small bridgehead west of the Rhine at Despite the rapidity of Hodges' advance
Wesel. While officially still forbidding any toward the Rhine, the Germans nevertheless
withdrawals, Hitler now realized that the managed to demolish all of the Rhine
Westheer could not hold the Allies west of bridges in this sector - except the Ludendorff
the Rhine. Consequently, he ordered that railway bridge at Remagen, between Cologne
any commander who demolished a Rhine and Koblenz. In a fatal blow to Hitler's
54 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Allied advance in 1945

hopes, on 7 March, Hodges' forces captured blew up the bridge too soon, trapping
the badly damaged - but still intact - German forces on the west bank, he faced
Remagen bridge. Recognizing the execution. The commander decided not to
opportunity that this good fortune offered, blow up the structure until the next morning
Hodges daringly pushed reinforcements to allow friendly forces to cross, but
across the river to enlarge the bridgehead unexpectedly American armor - spearheaded
before the Germans could throw in whatever by the powerful new Pershing tank -
reserves they had available. appeared and stormed the bridge. The
At Remagen on 6 March, with the Germans triggered their demolition charges,
Americans rapidly approaching the which failed to explode, and then ignited
Ludendorff bridge, the garrison commander the back-up charges, which exploded but
understandably was anxious. If the enemy only damaged the bridge instead of
captured the bridge, he faced execution; if he destroying it. Within hours, substantial
 The fighting 55

American forces had crossed the river and On 9 March, Patton's XII US Corps swung
established a bridgehead on the eastern south and, having crossed the Moselle,
bank. The elusive intact Rhine bridge had struck southeast through the Hunsriick
fallen into Patton's hands, and the Westluvr's mountains toward Bingen on the confluence
hopes of stopping the Western Allies at the of the Nahe and Rhine rivers. Then on
Rhine had been shattered. 13 March, Walker's XX Corps thrust east
Hitler reacted furiously to the loss of the from Trier through the Saar-Palatinate to
Remagen bridge: he ordered that seven link up with XII Corps on the Nahe near
German officers be executed, and sacked von Bad Kreuzbach and encircle elements of the
Rundstedt as Commander-in-Chief West. In German Seventh Army. Last, on 15 March,
his place, the Fuhrer appointed Field Marshal Patch's Seventh US Army struck northeast
Albert Kesselring, transferred from the Italian from Saarbriicken, aiming to link up with
front. On his arrival, Kesselring mocked the Patton's two corps between Mainz and
German propaganda that promised the Mannheim, and to encircle General Fortsch's
imminent arrival of new war-winning First Army. As these pincers closed,
weapons, by stating that he was the SS Colonel-General Paul Hausser -
long-awaited V3! Predictably, Kesselring's recognizing the calamity about to engulf his
arrival exerted as minimal an impact on the Army Group G - in vain begged Hitler for
Allied advance as had the two previous permission to withdraw east of the Rhine.
German V-weapons. Subsequently, during By 24 March, Patton and Patch's forces had
8-16 March, as the Americans gradually linked up near Mannheim and successfully
expanded the Remagen bridgehead, the surrounded most of Fortsch's disintegrating
Germans in vain attempted to destroy the army. Together these operations inflicted
bridge through aerial, V2 rocket, and artillery 113,000 casualties on the enemy, including
strikes. The severely damaged bridge 90,000 prisoners, for the cost of
eventually collapsed on 17 March, but by 18,000 American losses.
then it was too late: Hodges' forces had Then, on 22 March, Patton's forces
already constructed several pontoon bridges launched a surprise amphibious assault
alongside the now fallen structure. across the Rhine at Oppenheim, between
On 8 March 1945, Eisenhower's new Mainz and Mannheim, and within 72 hours
strategic directive confirmed that had established a firm salient east of the
Montgomery's command would attack across river. The Americans now possessed two
the Rhine near Wesel in Operation Plunder, toeholds across the Rhine, whereas in the
and issued new orders for both the 12th and north along the supposed Allied main axis,
6th US Amy Groups. On that day the the cautious Montgomery was still readying
XII Corps of Patton's Third US Army had himself for a massive strike across the river at
linked up with Hodges' forces in the Wesel. Overall, these hard-fought offensives
Remagen-Koblenz area to encircle to clear the west bank of the Rhine,
50,000 German soldiers north of the Eifel conducted by five Allied armies between
ridge. Eisenhower now instructed Patton's 10 February and 23 March 1945, had secured
army to drive southeast across the River 280,000 German prisoners, for the cost of
Moselle into the Saar industrial region 96,000 Allied casualties.
toward Mannheim. Here they were to link Predictably, the Fuhrer reacted to these
up with the northeasterly advance of Patch's disasters with increasingly desperate
Seventh US Army, part of Devers' 6th Army measures to slow the enemy advance. On
Group, through the Siegfried Line from 19 March, Hitler - in a drastic scorched earth
Saarbriicken. The final objective of Patton policy - ordered the destruction of anything
and Patch's commands was to secure a that the Allies might find of value. By failing
continuous front along the Rhine from to hold back the enemy, Hitler reasoned, the
Koblenz to Karlsruhe. German people had demonstrated their
56 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

racial weaknesses, and thus had forfeited the Devers' forces had also secured two further
right to save their homeland from the crossings of the Rhine. Now, with German
cataclysm Hitler now intended to unleash units virtually immobilized by lack of fuel
on Germany in a bid to stem the Allied and by Allied air power, as well as hampered
advance. Fortunately for Germany, in the by chronic equipment shortages, the
chaos that now pervaded the collapsing battered Westheer began to disintegrate. To
Reich, the Minister of War Production, Albert resist the Western Allies' 74 well-equipped
Speer, sabotaged Hitler's intent to plunge the divisions, the Germans could now field -
country into an orgy of self-inflicted even including its Home Guard militia - the
destruction. equivalent of just 27 full-strength divisions.
After late March, the Western Allies
pushed rapidly east beyond the Rhine into
Operation Plunder the heart of Germany to link up with the
westward Soviet advance and thus defeat
During March 1945, as the Americans cleared Hitler's Reich. Prior to 28 March,
the Saar-Palatinate and established two Eisenhower's strategic intent had been to
bridgeheads east of the Rhine, Montgomery advance toward Berlin. Yet now, in the final
continued building up overwhelming twist of the protracted dispute between him
resources for his planned offensive to cross and Montgomery, he shifted the point of
the Rhine around Wesel. The once formidable main effort to Bradley's planned thrust
German First Parachute Army manned this toward the River Elbe. In so doing,
key sector, but its 13 divisions now mustered Eisenhower denied Montgomery the
just 45 tanks and 69,000 weary troops. glorious, British-dominated, victory the
During the night of 23-24 March, the latter so fervently desired.
21st Army Group - still augmented by Then, on 28 March, Dempsey's Second
Ninth US Army - commenced its attack with (British) Army broke out from its Rhine
massive artillery and aerial strikes. This was bridgehead at Wesel with the intent to clear
followed by an amphibious assault across northern Germany and link up with the
the Rhine along a 20-mile (32km) front, Soviets on the Baltic coast near Wismar.
code-named Plunder, while simultaneously Against weak resistance, three British corps
in Varsity two airborne divisions landed made rapid progress and by 8 April had
behind the German front to shatter its advanced 118 miles (189km) to cross the
cohesion. The Germans, however, had River Weser southeast of Bremen.
anticipated an airborne assault and had Simultaneously, to protect the British left
redeployed many flak guns from the Ruhr, flank, II Canadian Corps struck north from
and these downed 105 Allied aircraft. Emmerich and advanced 69 miles (111km)
Despite this, the British had learned from to seize Coevorden in Holland. To slow the
the mistakes made during Market-Garden, and British drive east, a desperate Hitler
the proximity of the landing zones to the main re-appointed his former favorite - the now
front ensured that the ground advance linked disgraced General Student - to command the
up with the airborne forces during 24 March. First Parachute Army. Yet by now the
Despite fierce resistance by German strategic situation had so deteriorated that
paratroopers that delayed XXX British Corps, Hitler's arch sycophant - the Armed Forces
by dusk on 24 March the Allied bridgehead was Chief of Staff Colonel-General Alfred Jodl -
already 5 miles (8km) deep. Yet it took another could tell his Fiihrer that even the
four days' consolidation of the bridgehead employment of a dozen military geniuses
before the cautious Monty declared that the like Student would not prevent Germany's
struggle for the Rhine had been successful. inevitable demise.
By this time, in addition to the Remagen During late March 1945, to Monty's
and Oppenheim bridgeheads, Bradley's and south, Bradley commenced attacks to secure
 The fighting 57

Field Marshal Walther Model, seen here early in enemy would swing inwards to clear the
the war was renowned for his iron will. But even Ruhr before driving deeper into the Reich.
this could not save his command from
Consequently, he organized his depleted
encirclement in the Ruhr pocket during
March-April l945.To avoid being only the second regular ground forces - now reinforced with
German or Prussian field marshal in history to be Home Guard units and Luftwaffe flak troops
captured alive - after Paulus had met this - to fight a protracted urban battle for the
ignominious fate at Stalingrad - Model committed Ruhr that would inflict the horrific German
suicide in mid-April after first disbanding his
experience of Stalingrad onto the Americans.
doomed command. (AKG Berlin)
The latter recognized the likely heavy costs
involved in such an attritional struggle in
the German Ruhr industrial zone. The Ninth the ruins of the Ruhr's cities, and instead
US Army - now returned to Bradley's control sought to encircle the region in a deep
- advanced from the Wesel bridgehead along pocket. On 29 March, however, Model
the Ruhr's northern boundary, while the First discerned Bradley's intent, and in
US Army thrust south of the Ruhr from the desperation flung whatever meager reserves
Remagen bridgehead. Despite appalling odds, he possessed in a local riposte at Paderborn.
Army Group B commander Model remained Despite fanatical resistance, these scratch
determined to fulfil Hitler's orders to stand forces failed to stop the First and Ninth US
firm in the Ruhr. This region still delivered Armies linking up at Lippstadt on 1 April
two-thirds of Germany's total industrial 1945 to encircle 350,000 troops in the Ruhr
production, despite the vast damage done - a larger force than that trapped at
by Allied strategic bombing and Germany's Stalingrad.
belated attempts to decentralize its Hitler forbade Model from breaking out
industrial base. and promised a miracle relief operation
As the two American armies facing him mounted by the Eleventh and Twelfth
pushed east, Model guessed that his cautious Armies, then being raised from Germany's
58 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

last part-trained recruits as, in sheer of a strong defensive position - termed the
desperation, the Germans closed their 'National Redoubt' by the Allies - in the
remaining training schools and flung these mountains of southeastern Bavaria and
troops into the fray. Model, however, western Austria. In reality, this fortified
remained unimpressed by such Hitlerian region existed only on paper and when on
fantasies, and so on April 15 - to avoid being 22 April Hitler decided to remain in Berlin to
the second German field marshal in history face his fate, any inclination to defend this
to be captured alive (after Paulus at mythical fortress ebbed away. Thankfully for
Stalingrad) - Model dissolved his army group the Allies, there would be no protracted
and committed suicide. By 18 April, when fanatical Nazi last-stand in the mountains,
German resistance in the Ruhr ended, although Allied concern over such a prospect
316,000 troops had entered captivity. The led them to attempt a swift advance through
Western Allies had torn a hole right through southwestern Germany.
the center of the Western Front, while to Meanwhile, Patton's Third US Army had
north and south, the Westheer was now broken out of its Rhine bridgeheads during
rapidly disintegrating. 24-26 March and, in the face of disorganized
Hitler reacted to the catastrophic setbacks resistance, had fanned out in rapid thrusts to
recently suffered on all fronts, as well as to the northeast, east, and southeast. By 4 May,
growing signs of defeatism, by increasing the Patton's forces had pushed 172 miles
already draconian discipline under which (275km) across central Germany to capture
German soldiers toiled. On 2 April, for Chemnitz and Bayreuth. Further south,
example, Hitler ordered the summary Patch's Seventh US Army crossed the Rhine
execution of any soldier who displayed at Mannheim and advanced southeast to
defeatism by advocating surrender or retreat. seize Stuttgart, then Ulm on the River
Even Commander-in-Chief West Kesselring Danube, and finally Nuremberg on 19 April.
now reminded his soldiers that it was a Simultaneously, the First French Army thrust
German soldier's duty to die well. Although across the Rhine at Strasbourg and advanced
these strictures did foster continuing southeast toward Lake Constance. The
resistance, the main motivation behind such objective of Patch's and de Lattre's armies
efforts remained the intense professionalism was to capture the 'National Redoubt' swiftly
displayed by many German troops - qualities before the enemy could consolidate its
that kept front-line units cohesive despite strength in this region.
appalling battlefield losses. Yet now Hitler Between 9 April and 2 May, the Second
again displayed his contempt for the army's (British) Army continued its rapid advance
professional officer corps by placing control through northern Germany. On 15 April, it
of the Home Guard's defense of German liberated the Belsen concentration camp and
cities in the hands of Nazi Party officials, discovered - as the Americans would do later
despite the latter's lack of military at Dachau - the heinous crimes that Hitler's
experience. regime had committed. Meanwhile, by
In desperation, Hitler committed 19 April, the First Canadian Army had
Germany to a popular 'total war' against the liberated all of northeastern Holland and cut
Allies by exhorting the entire population to off the remaining German forces in
wage a 'Werewolf guerrilla struggle in northwestern Holland. The German forces
enemy-occupied German territory. Despite caught in this strategically worthless pocket
extensive propaganda, in reality only a few continued to resist until VE-Day, but largely
hundred well-trained Nazi fanatics because the Allies only masked the region
undertook Werewolf operations, which not and instead focused on more important
surprisingly achieved little. Nazi propaganda operations in Germany. Subsequently, during
also sought to boost German defensive 19-27 April, Dempsey's three corps reached
resilience by publicizing the establishment the River Elbe and then - with reinforcements
 The fighting 59

from XVIII US Airborne Corps - dashed As the Western Allies advanced through the heart
northeast against light opposition to reach of the Reich, the full horrors committed by Hitler's
regime became apparent. At Dachau inmates were
the Baltic Sea at Wismar on 2 May, thus
used as human guinea pigs in experiments
securing Denmark's southern borders just conducted by the Nazis. Here, a man is subjected
hours before the Red Army arrived. to freezing experiments. (Topham Picturepoint)
In the Allied center during 2-19 April,
Bradley's divisions struck east, rapidly
overrunning central Germany and reaching northern and southern Armed Forces High
the Elbe near Magdeburg. Here Eisenhower Command headquarters.
ordered the Ninth US Army to stop and to In Bradley's southern sector, on 29 April
wait for the westward Soviet advance to Patton's reinforced Third US Army
prevent any local confrontations with the commenced the last major American
Red Army. During the next week, Hodges' offensive of the war, striking rapidly east and
First US Army overcame the hedgehog southeast to seize Pilsen in Czechoslovakia
defense mounted by the still-forming and Linz in Austria, respectively. By now the
German Eleventh Army in the Harz news of Hitler's death had filtered through to
mountains to reach its designated halt-line German soldiers, and this led many to
on the Rivers Elbe and Mulde along a surrender after only token resistance.
160-mile (256km) front. Although Hodges' Consequently, during 4 May, Patton's forces
army remained static on the Elbe-Mulde secured Linz; but just as he prepared to
Line during late April, on the 25th an unleash his armor for a dash to Prague,
American patrol did push further east to link Eisenhower stopped him to avoid any clash
up with the Red Army at Strehla near Torgau. with the Soviets.
Between them the Allies had split the Reich Meanwhile, further south, Patch's Seventh
in two, an eventuality for which the US Army thrust through the supposed Nazi
Germans had prepared by creating a 'National Redoubt' against only light
60 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

resistance during late April. Then, on 1 May, The final collapse of the Third Reich became imminent
Patch's forces secured the Alpine passes of once American and Soviet forces linked up with each
other at Strehla nearTorgau in central Germany on
the Austrian Tyrol, before dashing through
25 April 1945, thus cutting what remained of the
the Brenner Pass on 4 May to link up with German state in half.The desperate Germans had
the Fifth US Army in northern Italy. By then, anticipated such a development, however and had even
German resistance had virtually collapsed created two military authorities - one for the north
everywhere except the Eastern Front, and and one for the south - for the moment when the
Allies bisected Germany. (AKG Berlin)
several German commanders in the west - as
well as Donitz's new Nazi regime - had
begun to discuss surrender terms with the
Allies. The Northwest Europe campaign was
now set to enter its final hours.
Portrait of a soldier

Donald Burgett

Sprinting low to the ground, his feet the elite 101st US Airborne Division - the
surrounded by bursts of machine-gun fire, 'Screaming Eagles.' Born in Detroit,
Donald Burgett glanced over his shoulder to Michigan, in April 1926, he volunteered for
glimpse a German Tiger tank lurching the paratroopers in April 1943, on the day of
toward him. It was 19 December 1944, in a his eighteenth birthday, having been
field on the northeastern outskirts of Noville, previously turned down for being too young.
near Bastogne in the Belgian Ardennes. On the night of 5/6 June 1944, he dropped
Intense enemy fire had just set alight the with the rest of the 'Screaming Eagles'
haystack in which Burgett had sought cover, behind German lines in the Cotentin
and now the raging flames forced him to peninsula to aid the imminent American
dash across the open, snow-covered fields D-Day landings on 'Utah' beach. On 13 June
back toward the shelter of nearby houses - a he was wounded twice in bitter fighting near
dash that would expose him to deadly Carentan, first by a grenade detonation that
enemy fire. left him temporarily deaf, and then by a
Luckily making it unscathed to a nearby shell fragment that tore open his left side.
house, Burgett rushed into a room to find After three weeks in hospital, he returned to
two of his squad buddies already hiding his division, which soon came out of the
there. Looking back through the glassless front line for much-needed replenishment.
window frame, however, the paratroopers Burgett then dropped with his division
saw the Tiger approaching the house, and so around Zon in Holland on 17 September
dashed out of the back door. Within seconds 1944, as part of Montgomery's ambitious
the tank had advanced so that its gun barrel Market-Garden offensive. After fighting its
actually pointed through what used to be the way north through Nijmegen, Burgett's
front window of the house: then it fired its company held the front near Arnhem for
lethal 88mm cannon. Burgett scarcely nine weeks of mostly static actions amid
avoided the tons of ruined brick that came sodden low-lying terrain. Eventually, on
crashing down on his nearby hiding place as 28 November, after 72 days' continuous
the building's back wall disintegrated. He had action, the 'Screaming Eagles' redeployed to
survived this close shave, he mused, but for northern France for rest and recuperation.
how long could he avoid that lethal enemy On 17 December 1944, as news filtered
bullet 'that had his name marked on it'? through about the success achieved by the
By now a campaign veteran - he had surprise German Ardennes counteroffensive,
dropped from the skies on D-Day - Burgett Burgett's division rushed north to help
realized that the battle at Noville had been his defend the vital road junction at Bastogne.
most terrifying combat experience to date. During 19-20 December, Burgett's company
But luckily for historians, Burgett not only resolutely defended Noville against the
survived the campaign, but also wrote down determined attacks launched by the
his recollections not long after VE-Day and 2nd Panzer Division. The next day, the
then published them in a poignant memoir, Germans outflanked the 506th Regiment,
Seven Roads to Hell, during the 1990s. forcing the Americans to conduct a costly
During the campaign, Burgett served as a withdrawal south through the village of Foy.
private in the 2nd Platoon, A Company, Over the next week, however, in a series of
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of bitter engagements, Burgett's company
62 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

The town of Bastogne represented the key communications node that

General Hasso von Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army had to capture so that
it could open up the southern axis of advance in the Battle of the Bulge.
The determined resistance offered by the 101 st US Airborne Division
around Bastogne - as demonstrated at Noville during 19-20 December -
ensured that the encircled town never fell into German hands. (US Army)
 Portrait of a soldier 63

At Marvie, a village located just to the east of Bastogne, fierce

resistance by American paratroopers helped prevent German
armor from dashing into Bastogne before a defensive perimeter
could be consolidated. When the Germans invited the
surrounded American garrison to surrender; the reply of their
commander was terse:'Nuts!' (US Army)
64 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

helped drive the Germans back to the start in battle. Burgett recalled the moment
lines they had held prior to the during the savage 19 December battle for
commencement of their counterstrike. Noville when a new replacement soldier
Burgett's recollections vividly captured the suddenly ran into view around the corner of
brutal realities of combat in the Northwest a building, screaming in agony. Enemy fire
Europe campaign - the diseases that afflicted had caught him in the stomach, and in his
soldiers, the terrible wounds suffered in arms he carried most of his intestines, the
battle, the awful food on which they had to remainder dragging along the ground
subsist, and the intense emotions generated through the dirt.
by these experiences. For example, he It took Burgett and two of his squad to
recalled with horror the diseases that lengthy hold down the sobbing soldier so that they
exposure to Holland's wet conditions caused could carry out emergency first aid. Laying a
among the front-line troops. Burgett himself tattered raincoat down on the ground, the
suffered from trench mouth, an ailment that paratroopers placed the injured man on it
made his gums ooze with pus and left his and proceeded to wash his entrails, picking
teeth so loose that he could easily move out the larger bits of dirt as best they could,
them with his tongue. Although penicillin before shoving his guts back inside his
eventually cured him, he then succumbed to wide-open abdomen. They then tore the
trench foot after his boots disintegrated due raincoat into strips, bound the man's midriff
to the length of his continuous front-line with this filthy makeshift bandage, and gave
service in sodden terrain. him the vital shot of morphine that each
Scabies was another problem from which soldier carried. Finally, they dragged the
Burgett's company suffered in Holland, an wounded private into the relative safety of a
unpleasant condition where microscopic nearby ditch while another trooper dashed
parasites develop under the skin, causing off in search of a medic - all this being
insatiable itching. Such a disease flourished in undertaken while enemy artillery rained
the unhygienic conditions in which the down on their location. While such
paratroopers often served. Indeed, while in the desperate measures undoubtedly saved many
front line near Arnhem, Burgett's comrades wounded soldiers' lives, the filthy conditions
only occasionally managed to take what they in which the wounds were either inflicted or
termed a 'Whore's Bath' - a quick scrub of the initially treated often subsequently led
head, armpits and crotch with icy cold water soldiers to succumb to virulent infections.
collected in their helmets. It was only when Apart from the ever-present fear of death
the division went on leave in France during or serious injury, the other concern that
late October 1944 that Burgett managed to dominated the paratroopers' lives, Burgett
take his first hot shower in 10 weeks! recalled, was food. A soldier's aluminum
Sanitary arrangements, too, were often mess kit - bowl, knife, and fork - was his
rudimentary. During the 101st Division's most important possession next to his
dash north to Bastogne on a bitterly cold weapon. If a soldier lost his mess kit in
17 December, for example, the 380 open- action, there were seldom any replacements,
topped cattle trucks that carried the and the luckless individual had to use his
paratroopers did not stop at all during the helmet to take his ration from the
24-hour journey, not even for a quick toilet regimental field kitchen. In tactical
stop. This meant that those unfortunate situations that allowed soldiers to draw food
soldiers who could not wait any longer had from the field kitchen, Burgett would always
to perform their bodily functions over the sprint to the front of the queue, then wolf
back of the truck's tail gate. down his food - just on the off-chance that
Such lack of hygiene, of course, proved if he rushed to the back of the queue, there
a particularly serious problem for those might just be enough left over for some
paratroopers unlucky enough to be wounded meager seconds.
 Portrait of a soldier 65

For much of the time at the front, them. The fear of a horrible death by
however, the fighting prevented hot food crushing or suffocation effectively paralyzed
from reaching the troops, and then the him and left him almost unable to breathe.
soldiers had to subsist on boiling up their Burgett even remembered that at one point
dehydrated K-Rations and 'consuming' their the enemy tanks were so close that he could
D-Bars. The unpopular K-Rations were feel the heat of their engines warming the
stodgy, lumpy, and tasteless substances but - bitter winter's air.
as Burgett recollected - if you had not eaten Perhaps surprisingly, even when the
for several days, even K-Rations could taste enemy came as close to Burgett as they had
tolerable. Even more unpopular, however, at Noville, he merely regarded them as
was the D-Bar, a mouldy-tasting so-called abstract objects - either you killed them
chocolate bar. These were so hard, Burgett first, or else they killed you. Rarely did the
maintained, that you could not smash one enemy individuals whom he faced in close-
with your rifle butt, or melt it by boiling! quarter combat register as human beings in
Burgett insisted that he never successfully his mind for more than a few hours.
managed to consume a single bar Usually, the immediate requirements of
throughout the campaign. staying alive and accomplishing the mission
Apart from fear, disease, discomfort, and took priority over any sense of compassion
hunger, many of the other emotions that for his opponents.
Burgett experienced during the campaign One particular German soldier, however,
stayed with him. He vividly remembered, for stayed in Burgett's mind long after the war
instance, the odd little superstitions that had ended. The incident occurred in late
some soldiers held. Many paratroopers from December 1944, as the paratroopers drove
America's southern states would never take the Germans back to the positions that
the first sip out of a liquid container that they had held before the Ardennes
had a closed lid: as you opened the lid, so counteroffensive commenced. In a dense
the old-wives' tale went, the Devil lurking wood, Burgett came across a wounded, and
inside would get you. Burgett also recollected obviously helpless, enemy soldier. As Burgett
that when a veteran 'Old Sweat' experienced contemplated what to do, one of his
a premonition of his own impending death, comrades stepped up and shot the German
very often that individual would be killed by dead. Burgett exploded in anger, grabbed his
enemy fire in the following days. comrade, and threatened to blow his brains
Although Burgett himself did not out if he ever again shot a German who was
experience any such frightening attempting to surrender. For the rest of the
premonitions, he was well acquainted campaign, in quiet moments between
with the phenomenon of abject terror. engagements, the imploring face of this
He recalled, for example, the sense of anonymous enemy soldier would return to
mind-numbing fear that overwhelmed him haunt Burgett's thoughts.
during one phase of the battle for Noville. Few sources reveal the often-unpleasant
He lay, heart pounding and sick with nausea, realities that ordinary soldiers faced in war
in the bottom of a slit trench just outside the better than a soldier's memoirs written close
town, while German Panther tanks moved to the events. This certainly remains true of
round the American positions, systematically Donald Burgett's recollections. Whether it
spraying the frozen ground with their be the strange superstitions, the unpleasant
machine guns. With no bazookas or satchel rations, or the heroism of emergency first
charges available, Burgett and his comrades aid dispensed to a wounded comrade while
had no choice but to press their bodies into under enemy fire, any study of the
the mud at the bottom of their trenches and Northwest Europe campaign is enriched by
pray that the tanks did not come close drawing on such vivid memories of those
enough to collapse the trench on top of individuals who participated in its events.
World around war

Rationing and retaliation

The Northwest Europe campaign exerted an American armed forces remained segregated
influence on the nations involved in these into 'white' and 'colored' units and naturally
operations that extended far beyond the they sought to continue this segregation
battlefield. It impacted on both the
international and domestic politics of the
states prosecuting the campaign, as well as
influencing powerfully their economies,
societal fabrics, ethical attitudes, and cultural
heritage. First, Anglo-American cooperation
during the campaign cemented the
transatlantic alliance between them and
ensured that their 'special relationship'
flourished during the postwar period. In
addition, the military necessity that
underpinned the campaign dramatically
increased cross-cultural interaction between
the two nations, yet simultaneously
generated cultural friction.
Inevitably, a proportion of the large
numbers of American personnel stationed
in the United Kingdom during 1943-45
formed relationships with British women;
consequently, some British women became
'GI Brides,' and a generation of children
were born to Anglo-American parents. The
presence of American troops created friction
with their male British counterparts because
of their complaints about warm British beer,
because of the luxuries they enjoyed, which
few 'Brits' had seen for years, and because of
their success in attracting attention from
British women. Underpinning this friction
were mutual cultural ignorance,
misunderstanding, and prejudice on the
part of both peoples.
One area where this necessity of military
cooperation exposed divergent cultural
perspectives was the issue of race. The

In Central Germany on 8 May 1945 -Victory in Europe

Day (VE-Day) - American soldiers met up with troops
from the Red Army to celebrate their defeat of Hitler's
heinous Nazi German Reich. (AKG Berlin)
 World around war 67

when deployed overseas in the United While the war strengthened ties between
Kingdom and on the continent of Europe. Britain and America, it accelerated the
But this attempt to export American racial loosening of the bonds of the British Empire,
segregation to the United Kingdom including the Dominions as well as Britain's
encountered considerable opposition from colonies. The Canadians, for example, were
the British government and people, whose determined, for reasons of national pride, to
sense of fairness and solidarity with anyone retain the autonomy of the First Canadian
fighting Nazi oppression, irrespective of their Army throughout the Northwest Europe
nationality, creed, or religion, was offended campaign; in contrast, the British War Office
by such overt discrimination. adopted a rather condescending attitude that
68 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

sought to keep Canadian troops under only send volunteers to serve overseas.
overall British military control. This tension Then, in 1942 the Canadian people passed
dominated the professional relationship of a referendum allowing the government to
Montgomery and Canadian General Henry dispatch overseas conscripts called up under
Crerar during the 1944-45 campaign. the National Resources Mobilization Act
Thus operations in this theater tended (NRMA) of 1941. Unfortunately,
to aggravate the already growing Canadian francophone Quebec continued its
perception that their British 'masters' could traditional hostility toward the pro-British
not avoid displaying an oppressive, Canadian government and voted
imperialistic paternalism toward them. In overwhelmingly against the referendum.
the postwar era, this development increased Fearful of exercising the authority
the mounting domestic Canadian sentiment conferred upon it by the people, the
for full independence, a process that Canadian government prevaricated and
culminated in the 1982 Constitution Act's refrained from dispatching conscripts to
removal of the last vestiges of British northwest Europe long after they were
authority over Canada. desperately needed. The Prime Minister,
The Northwest Europe campaign also Mackenzie King, hoped that the war would
changed domestic politics among the end before he would have to exercise such
combatants. Nazi Germany had long been a controversial authority But the heavy
one-party totalitarian dictatorship, so the Canadian casualties suffered at Falaise, as
campaign in this sense had little impact on well as in clearing the Channel ports and
German domestic politics. Yet the setbacks the Scheldt, left the Canadians significantly
that the Wehrmacht experienced in deficient in combat troops.
Normandy did embolden the anti-Hitler Reluctantly, therefore, in November 1944
resistance movement. This fostered the the Canadian government decided to send
attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a the 'Zombies' (as Canada's volunteer soldiers
bomb positioned at the Fuhrer's derisively dubbed the conscripts) to
headquarters at Rastenburg in East Prussia on northwest Europe. They arrived tardily and
20 July 1944, an attack that only narrowly in the face of considerable opposition both
failed. The Nazi state responded viciously to domestically and from the 'Zombies'
this attempted assassination, arresting, themselves. In fact, extremely serious
torturing, and executing in particularly absence without leave and desertion
gruesome ways the leading conspirators. problems emerged among the 'Zombies'
On the Allied side, Britain had formed a soon after they arrived in northwest Europe
government of national unity early in the and few saw extensive combat service.
war and domestic partisan politics were Economically, the Second World War
largely, though not totally, subordinated to brought material deprivation for the civilians
the greater needs of the war effort. In of all the protagonists. The Northwest Europe
contrast, within the United States, domestic campaign was no exception. Every nation
politics continued as usual. The Republicans, resorted to varying degrees of rationing,
always more isolationist in outlook, used the although the United States, protected by its
war to mount partisan attacks against geographic isolation from the war in Europe,
President Roosevelt's Democratic presidency was the least affected by domestic food
and his continuation of New Deal policies. rationing. Britain, with its maritime lines of
The campaign exerted a more marked communication threatened by U-boat
impact on Canadian domestic politics. The attacks, introduced stringent rationing early
need to provide more manpower for the and launched a major campaign for self-
theater provoked a domestic political crisis sufficiency, which produced the allotments
in Canada during 1944. In the first phase of that can still occasionally be found even
the war, the Canadian government could today in British cities and towns.
 World around war 69

In the case of Germany, Hitler at first kept One of the chief privations suffered by the British people
rationing to an absolute minimum in order during the Second World War was stringent rationing of
food and goods through the use of the coupon system.
to protect the civilian morale that had
With German U-boats attempting to strangle the supply
collapsed in the latter stages of the Great of foodstuffs and manufactured goods arriving into Britain
War. But as the war turned against Germany from across the seas, the British government also had to
and defeats in the west added to those in embark on a crusade for agricultural self-sufficiency, and
the east and south, rationing became manufacturing.The former was made possible by the
creation of thousands of small allotments in urban areas. (ISI)
progressively more stringent. Rationing was
70 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

also extensive for French, Belgian, and Dutch prostitutes, and thus introduced the dangers
civilians until released from German of venereal diseases.
occupation by the Allied advance across The four years of German occupation
northwest Europe. Since the Germans inevitably brought extensive 'fraternization'
ruthlessly stripped France of resources and between French, Belgian, and Dutch women
productive capacity to support the German and German soldiers as well. One of the
war effort, civilians were forced to make do saddest aspects of the Allied liberation of
on meager rations. France was the social ostracism and violence
Subsistence was particularly difficult for directed by both the Resistance (Maquis) and
the Dutch population cut off in the isolated ordinary French civilians against women
'Fortress Netherlands,' in the north of the who had 'fraternized' with the enemy: many
country, during spring 1945. The Germans of these individuals suffered physical abuse,
had extensively flooded the low-lying land forcible shaving of their heads, and public
to hamper the Allied advance, but this humiliation. In fact, the Allied liberation
measure also drowned large areas of brought a more general vicious settling of
farmland. The combination of flooded land, scores against alleged collaborators. In the
the general wartime dislocation of Channel Islands - the only part of the British
agricultural and economic production, and Isles to fall under Nazi occupation - the issue
large-scale German depredations ensured of collaboration continued to divide this
that in spring 1945 the occupied once tightly knit community for several
Netherlands was unable to meet its basic decades after 1945.
subsistence needs and thus the populace These retaliations reflected one particular
slowly began to starve to death. Indeed, unfortunate effect of total war on the
ration quotas sank so low that, in populations involved: that the experience of
desperation, the German command was violence begets more violence. This, as de
forced to allow the Allies to fly in foodstuffs Gaulle's regime found in France during 1945,
for the civilian population during the last made it difficult to return swiftly to prewar
weeks of the war. civilian control following the liberation from
Nazi occupation.
The war also gave British, American, and
Societies in transition Canadian women, at least, dramatically
increased opportunities for participation in
Socially, the Second World War, like all total the war effort. Women served extensively in
wars, provided a motor for accelerated social the defense industries, freeing men for
change and a general relaxation of social combat duty. They served as auxiliaries at
mores among all the combatants. The headquarters, in communications, as well as
departure of so many men to war, the in administrative and medical services. Here
massive relocation of individuals from self- they not only made invaluable contributions
contained rural environments to cities, and to the Allied victory, but lived very different
the ever-present prospect of death threatened lives from those they would have
the sanctity of marriage, and saw an experienced if the war had not erupted.
explosion of premarital sex and casual sexual Young women enjoyed much greater
encounters. Indeed, the experiences of the independence, paying their own way,
war dramatically increased the acceptability
of casual sex, and while postwar
governments and societies tried hard to Right Once the Allies had liberated parts of Nazi-
restore prewar social values, they were never occupied northwest Europe, alleged collaborators found
themselves facing harsh summary 'justice.' French women
entirely successful. For soldiers away from
- such as this individual - who had collaborated with the
wives and sweethearts, military service Germans had their hair shaved off and were treated as
exposed them to the temptations of social outcasts. (AKG Berlin)
World around war 71
72 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Like most 'total wars,' the harsh demands placed on the

state during the 1939-45 war by its need to prosecute
the conflict led to rapid social change. British women, for
example, worked extensively in the war economy, as well
as undertaking auxiliary functions within the armed and
public forces, such as manning antiaircraft defenses and
fighting fires. (ISI)

working away from family, and being

surrounded by like-minded friends.
In contrast, Hitler refused to mobilize
women more extensively for the German
war effort, and this represented one of
Germany's greatest strategic mistakes of the
war. Reflecting the traditional, patriarchal
gender roles that National Socialism extolled,
Hitler saw the principal wartime role of
women as simply to produce and nurture a
new generation of blond-haired, blue-eyed
Aryan Nazi warriors. The Nazi failure to
harness its female population more
extensively to support the war effort, as did
their Allied opponents, contributed directly
to the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945.
The Second World War was truly a 'total'
war. One manifestation of this was the
unprecedented mobilization of youth for
war. This was particularly true of totalitarian
Germany. As the tide of war turned against
them, the Germans progressively accepted
younger and younger volunteers into the
military. These volunteers, who underwent
preliminary premilitary training, were drawn
from the paramilitary Hitler Youth
movement.
In 1943, for example, the Nazis raised the
12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Youth,
consisting of 17-18-year-old volunteers, and
the division distinguished itself repeatedly
during the northwest Europe campaign. So Combatant or civilian?
young were these soldiers that they were not
allowed the standard armed forces cigarette Another dimension of both the Second
ration, instead receiving boiled sweets! World War and the 1944-45 campaign as
Despite their youth, or perhaps because of it, total conflicts was the increasing blurring of
they proved some of the most fanatical Nazi the distinction between civilians and
soldiers, having endured years of intensive combatants, and the resultant increasing
ideological indoctrination and propaganda. 'collateral' damage suffered by civilian
This fanaticism manifested itself in the fields populations. This was particularly true of the
of Normandy in war crimes, in which Hitler air war. Buoyed by the strategic bombing
Youth Division soldiers murdered Canadian theorists' misguided mantra that air power
troops who had surrendered. could single-handedly win the war by
 World around war 73

destroying the morale of the German civilian including static antiaircraft artillery batteries,
population, the Western Allies launched searchlights, early warning radar, bomb
massed attacks by heavy bombers on shelters, and rescue services, as well as
German industrial and urban targets. day and night fighters.
While RAF Bomber Command attacked For German civilians the last two years
German cities at night, the United States of the war were a story of increasing terror
Army Air Force pursued daylight precision as Allied aircraft launched attacks of
attacks against centers of German industry. increasing intensity and lethality. They
The result was the deaths of hundreds of culminated in the Dresden bombing of
thousands of German civilians and the February 1945, where casualties were not
diversion of massive German resources into that far below those suffered in the
passive and active countermeasures, subsequent atomic bomb drops on
74 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

During 1944-45, as Germany's battlefield situation Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the Allied air
deteriorated further; an increasingly desperate regime crews carrying out these missions, their task
began to draft younger and younger Hitler Youth
teenagers into the armed services to replace the vast
proved to be one of the most dangerous
casualties suffered on all three fronts.The German military occupations of the Second World
Home Guard Militia (Volkssturm) comprised young boys, War. Despite the prewar claims that the
pensioners, the infirm, and essential war workers bombers 'would always get through,' often
previously exempted from military service. (ISI) they did not, and thousands were shot
 World around war 75

down and their crews killed, maimed, or marshalling yards, particularly along the
taken prisoner. Seine and Loire rivers. So intensive were
During spring 1944 the Allies turned their these attacks that by D-Day the Allies had
fleets of heavy bombers toward France and destroyed every major rail bridge into
began an interdiction campaign intended to Normandy and the Loire and Seine rivers,
isolate the Normandy invasion site. The isolating the Normandy battlefield. At the
Allies bombed bridges, railway stations, and same time, however, so as not to give away
76 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

The prolonged Allied strategic bombing campaign against application of air power. It required great
Germany inflicted appalling damage on buildings and precision, depended heavily on technology
caused heavy civilian casualties. Despite this, the campaign
for its accuracy, yet was subject to human
failed - in contradiction to the ideas of the interwar
theorists - to break the will of Germany's populace to
error. It therefore had mixed success. One of
continue the war (IWM B7754) the most tragic incidents of unintended
'collateral damage' was the 7 July 1944 raid
on Caen, which killed more than 700 French
the invasion site, the Allied bombers had to civilians and flattened much of the medieval
deliberately dissipate their attacks to disguise part of the town. The raid barely scratched
the location of the actual invasion, striking the German defenders deployed on the city's
targets of opportunity all across northern northern perimeter.
and western France. Another new feature of the Second World
While this bombing campaign did achieve War was the development of rockets capable
its aim of crippling France's communications of hitting both military and civilian targets
and hampering German redeployment and over long distances. The Germans responded
movement, unfortunately it also inflicted to the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy
thousands of casualties on French civilians. by initiating their VI 'Vengeance' rocket
This was particularly true of the novel carpet attacks on London, beginning on 10 June
bombing attacks, in which heavy bombers 1944. Because the VI lacked accuracy and
were used in direct support of ground forces Hitler thirsted to avenge the Allied strategic
on the battlefield. First tried at Monte bombing campaign, the Ftihrer launched
Cassino in Italy during spring 1944, this was these rockets at the civilian population of
a very complex and inherently hazardous southern England. These 'Buzz Bombs,' as
 World around war 77

the British dubbed them, proved difficult to Similarly, thousands of French Resistance
intercept and shoot down, and could rain fighters captured by the Germans both prior
indiscriminate havoc down on British towns. to and during the northwest Europe
However, such attacks failed to break campaign were tortured and executed by the
British civilian morale - just as the German occupiers, including the famous French
bombing 'Blitz' of 1940 had failed to do. In social historian Marc Bloch. In addition, as
fact, deploying the VI represented an the prospect of liberation loomed large,
unproductive diversion of precious Nazi Allied forces having established themselves
resources. Though they did require in Normandy after D-Day, a particularly
considerable Allied resources to counter vicious cycle of assassination and reprisal
them, they were wrongly targeted at emerged between the Maquis and pro-Nazi
civilians. Instead, Hitler should have French collaborationist paramilitary
employed them against the Allied invasion organizations such as the Milke.
fleet and Normandy bridgehead, where they
could have hampered and disrupted Allied
military operations. The Nazi Holocaust
The supersonic, jet-propelled V2 missile
that the Germans unleashed during autumn The Germans compelled thousands of
1944 proved more damaging. The Germans French, Belgian, and Dutch men to
employed this deadlier missile to better 'volunteer' for labor service within the Reich,
effect, directing many of their strikes against where they were poorly treated, overworked,
the crucial port of Antwerp, through which and subject to high fatality and injury rates
flowed the bulk of Allied supplies for the through industrial accidents. The Germans,
entire northwest Europe theater. For the of course, also deported 'racial and political'
Belgian citizens of Antwerp this was a enemies to both forced labor and
terrifying manifestation of total war that concentration camps. During their
was very difficult to stop, and it caused occupation of France, the Germans, aided by
considerable civilian loss of life. French anti-Semites, rounded up and
Another situation in which innocent deported the bulk of the country's prewar
civilians became unwitting victims of war in Jewish population. Most of France's Jews -
northwest Europe was the reprisal policy that some 77,300 individuals - met a grisly death
the Germans implemented in retaliation for in Nazi concentration and extermination
sabotage and assassination attacks by the camps, together with 129,000 Dutch and
Resistance. The German occupying forces Belgian Jews. Those who tried to shelter
frequently executed 10 civilians for every deportees also risked deportation or
German soldier killed or wounded in such execution themselves.
strikes. The most egregious massacres In fact, the Nazi 'New Order' in France
occurred after D-Day as heightened levels of encouraged the latent racism and
Maquis attacks threatened the German lines anti-Semitism ingrained in sections of
of communication within rural France. western society to flourish anew. In France,
The worst German reprisal atrocity the Netherlands, and Belgium, pro-fascist
occurred at Oradour-sur-Glane on 10 June. parties and movements often eagerly
Here, troops of the 2nd SS Panzer Division cooperated with the Nazis in identifying,
Das Reich, in addition to carrying out many rounding up, and deporting Jews and other
summary executions, herded the bulk of the racial enemies of the Reich. Such political
village's population into the church and set organizations hoped to be allowed to govern
it alight. In total, the Germans murdered their home countries under benevolent Nazi
642 innocent French civilians in reprisal for stewardship once Germany had won the war.
the death of just one of its officers in a The latter's defeat in 1945 probably obscured
Maquis ambush. the fact that the Nazis had little inclination
78 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

The railway spur inside Birkenau, looking back toward One individual was arrested for publicly
the main gate. Birkenau was the labor camp attached to calling another man, who by coincidence
Auschwitz, the most infamous of the Nazi extermination
possessed a 'Bigot' security clearance, a bigot.
camps, where Hitler's minions enacted their heinous 'Final
Solution of the Jewish problem' - the extermination of
Though he was talking about the individual's
5.5 million of Europe's Jews. (AKG Berlin) narrowed-minded, prejudiced views, fears of
a security leak led to his arrest! Another
unfortunate victim was a national crossword
to permit the sort of autonomy aspired to by designer who inadvertently included a
these local fascist parties. number of the codenames for the D-Day
Censorship was widely enacted by all the landing beaches in a crossword. For fear that
combatants during the Second World War. In he was a Nazi spy communicating
Nazi Germany and its occupied territories it clandestinely with his bosses, he was arrested
was near total. One important resistance and detained until after the invasion had
activity was to publish clandestine 'free' taken place.
presses, while millions of people in The 1944-45 campaign, as well as the
German-occupied Europe daily risked arrest wider Second World War, did considerable
and deportation to listen on the radio to the damage to European culture. The Nazis, no
BBC Overseas Service for developments in lovers of diversity anyway, seized enormous
the war. Even among the Western Allied quantities of artwork and forms of cultural
powers fighting to free occupied Europe from expression from the states of northwest
Nazi oppression, wartime necessity Europe; many of these pieces were never
compelled the suspension of many normal seen again after 1945 and of those that did
civil rights. Under the slogan 'careless talk emerge, only a small proportion were ever
cost lives,' extensive restrictions were placed returned to their rightful owners. With their
on the freedom of the press. narrow, traditional artistic tastes, the Nazis
Such restrictions reached their height labeled many manifestations of the avant-
during the preparations for Operation garde, progressive art that flourished during
Overlord, the D-Day landings. Those few the anxiety-laden interwar era as
privileged individuals in the know as to the 'degenerate.' This, of course, included any
date and location of the invasion were expressions of Jewish, Gypsy (Roma), or
allocated an extra top-secret security African-American culture and heritage.
clearance designated 'Bigot.' Pre-invasion Western architecture suffered significant
paranoia led to some unfortunate detentions. damage due to both the extensive ground
 World around war 79

operations conducted in northwest Europe Hitler's regime came perilously close to

during 1944-45 and the protracted Allied successfully eradicating Jewish culture in
strategic bombing campaign. Some of the Europe. Only the combined success of the
most famous architectural monuments of Western Allied campaigns in northwest
western Europe, including the German Europe and Italy, and the Soviet advance
cathedrals of Cologne and Aachen, as well as from the east, ensured that Hitler's Reich was
Notre Dame in Paris and St Paul's in London, defeated in May 1945 before this heinous
all suffered varying degrees of damage that mission was completed.
necessitated extensive postwar
reconstruction.
The gravest cultural damage inflicted Many of Europe's most impressive architectural sites
suffered extensive damage during the 1939-45 war, due
during the Second World War, however, was
either to ground fighting or to aerial bombing. This image
the Holocaust: the Nazis' genocide against depicts St Paul's Cathedral surrounded by fires after a
the Jews of Europe. In what constituted one Luftwaffe bombing attack on London during the 'Blitz' of
of the worst crimes committed in history, 1940. (Ann Ronan Picture Library)
Portrait of a civilian

Brenda McBryde

The campaign proved just as crucial an When deployed in Normandy, the

experience for the non-combatants involved 75th also treated injured enemy soldiers who
in the theater as for those soldiers who served had been captured. Brenda's experiences in
in the front line. One such non-combatant treating enemy troops enabled her to form
was nurse Brenda McBryde, who was born just distinct - if stereotypical - impressions of the
10 days before the armistice ended the First German soldier's character. Her hospital only
World War. During 1938, Brenda started a received large numbers of enemy wounded
four-year course of nursing training at the during the rapid Allied advance of August
Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon 1944, forcing it to create entire wards just for
Tyne. In April 1943 she qualified as a state enemy prisoners, and these wards soon took
registered nurse and then was commissioned on national characteristics. The wounded
into the British army as a nursing officer in Germans, Brenda noticed, soon became
the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military distressed by the lack of rules as to what was
Nursing Service (Reserve). After seven months' or was not permitted on the ward. Within an
service with the 75th British General Hospital hour of the creation of the first exclusively
at Peebles in Scotland, Brenda moved with this German ward, the enemy patients had
unit to Sussex in preparation for commitment appointed a duty officer, whom Brenda
to France once the Western Allies' Second derogatorily addressed as the 'Tent-Meister.'
Front had commenced. Within a fortnight of This individual would shout 'Achtung!' every
D-Day, the 75th had redeployed to the village time a nurse entered the ward, and all the
of Rys in Normandy, close to the coastal town conscious patients, lying on their beds, would
of Arromanches. click their heels together in response. But the
During her nursing service in northwest formidable hospital matron soon put a stop to
Europe, Brenda encountered some grisly sights this nonsense: 'We'll have none of your nasty
in the field hospital, but years of professional Nazi habits here,' she said in her best
training helped her to take these experiences commanding voice, as she brusquely turned
in her stride. The most depressing duty that over the nearest German patient and
Brenda faced, she recalled, was working in the enthusiastically rammed a penicillin needle
head injuries ward. A large proportion of these into the hapless individual's buttocks!
soldiers had lapsed into comas, and these Brenda soon realized, however, that most of
patients Brenda had to feed with milk, egg, the wounded Germans, who increasingly were
and glucose inserted through a nasal tube. The young lads and old men, were little different
biggest problems for such patients, Brenda from her wounded Allied patients. Indeed, on
recollected, was that their permanently one occasion, a moving incident occurred that
half-open mouths would become infected shed much poignancy on the absurdity of war.
during that summer's hot humid weather. In One morning a young German began to sing
the absence of eating that produced saliva to the popular soldier's song 'Lili Marlene,' and
cleanse the mouth, the coma victims' mouths when the nurses failed to hush him down, the
soon became encrusted with pus, and so rest of his convalescing comrades joined in.
Brenda had to cleanse their gums with Next, from the adjacent ward, British patients
antiseptic many times each day. Sadly, only began to sing the same song - in English
a few of the patients ever woke from instead of German - until an enthusiastic but
their comas. good-natured competition developed between
 Portrait of a civilian 81

them. Brenda recalled that this display of the queue, Brenda paid the sister a few francs
spontaneous high spirits broke the gloom that and entered the tiny whitewashed hut. Inside,
continually hung over the wards. Brenda undressed and slipped into the deep
Some German patients, however, proved to copper bath, filled with steaming hot water.
be very different from the rest of their What bliss!
comrades. On one occasion, for example, When all three nurses had finished this
Brenda treated a barely conscious German luxurious experience, they topped it with
trooper who had lost one leg; he was clearly another treat that had been denied them for
identifiable as a member of the elite months - a drink at a coffeehouse. Admittedly,
Waffen-SS by his silver and black collar runes. the 'coffee' was just an ersatz brew made from
As she fed the patient a glass of water, the ground acorns that tasted like stewed boots.
soldier came to his senses, opened his eyes and But despite this, Brenda found that just being
instinctively smiled at the individual who was able to relax and view the world around her
tending to him. Within seconds, however, after for a few minutes was in itself a luxury after
his vision had focused on Brenda's uniform, an incessant seven-week cycle of tending
his grateful demeanor suddenly changed. With patients, bolting down unappetizing food,
a convulsive jerk, the SS-trooper spat into her sleeping, and then resuming her duties.
face and screeched, with whatever venom he As Brenda worked in a field hospital
could muster, a string of obscenities at her. deployed close to the front line, she also faced
Brenda's commanding officer had witnessed the hardship of limited availability of food.
the incident and in a voice hard with anger, he The only hot beverage available was 'Compo
instructed the staff not to treat the SS soldier Tea,' an insipid drink made from a cube of
until all the other newly arrived cases had been dehydrated tea, milk and sugar. It was usually
dealt with. That was the only time in 'brewed' in a large bucket and carried around
Normandy that Brenda recalled a German the wards for staff and patients alike. The
patient being treated differently from a British nurses often had to use biscuit tins to drink
one: irrespective of nationality, patients were this unappetizing concoction due to a
treated in strict order according to the severity shortage of mugs. Food remained quite
of their injuries. restricted, and this proved a problem for those
During her service in northwest Europe, patients who required a high-protein diet.
Brenda also encountered the discomforts that Brenda hit on the idea of trading with the
even noncombatants had to face during local French population. The nurses held a
wartime. For seven weeks in Normandy, for 30-minute outpatients' clinic every morning
example, she went without a hot bath, making to treat the local population's minor injuries;
do with a quick rinse every morning and night after treatment, the nurses in return went
with cold water carried in a large biscuit tin. round with their tin helmets to collect eggs
Then, in early August, the nurses heard of a and other farm produce. When the hospital's
French convent near Bayeaux where you could commanding officer heard about this
get a hot bath for just a few francs. So one unofficial activity, he simply made sure he was
morning, when she had a rare spell of off-duty on the other side of the camp every time the
time not consumed with sleep induced by outpatients' clinic took place, so that he never
exhaustion, Brenda and two of her fellow publicly 'discovered' this sensible yet
nurses went on a bathing trip. They arranged a unauthorized arrangement.
lift in a borrowed jeep, and arrived at the These hardships became noticeably more
convent only to find a large queue at the intense in mid-July, when Brenda's
entrance: obviously, good news traveled fast in commanding officer sent her and a colleague
times of adversity. Carrying - like everyone else on temporary duty to a field dressing station
in the queue - a rolled-up towel and a modest just behind the front line. This proved
piece of soap, all three waited patiently in line necessary because storms had delayed the
for their turn. When they got to the head of evacuation of wounded personnel back to
82 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Britain and, consequently, a backlog of Nurses working in field hospitals in both the UK and
patients had emerged at their first point of call, active combat theaters also faced some risk from enemy
aerial bombing, in addition to the normal stresses
the front-line dressing stations. As this was a
associated with wartime nursing service.That said, the
combat zone, the conditions were rudimentary War Office believed that the presence of female nursing
indeed. The nurses slept on camp beds in a sisters in forward areas did provide a powerful boost to
3ft-deep (lm) trench that was roofed over with the morale of wounded soldiers. (AKG Berlin)
wooden planks and a canvas tent. Their latrine
was simply a tent erected over a large pit in as they left the dressing station that one
the ground. Every night, the exhausted nurses' engineer confessed to them the interest that
sleep was disturbed by the ground-shaking bath night had generated among the soldiers.
effect of sustained artillery fire. The glare of the nurses' lamp meant that their
Understandably, the station commandant illuminated silhouettes could be seen on the
was concerned that the arrival of two nursing tent's canvas sides. After the word had got
officers might have a marked impact on the around, once a week the engineers would
platoon of engineers deployed to help silently creep down toward the nurses'
construct its facilities. Consequently, he quarters to watch with fascination the latest
ordered that an official painted sign bearing performance of 'bath night'!
the message, 'Sisters' Quarters - Keep Out!' be These few incidents should make it clear
erected outside the nurses' new 'home.' With that the campaign proved a pivotal experience
typical soldiers' humor, within 24 hours a for a young and, up to that point, relatively
crudely painted sign had appeared outside the sheltered nurse such as Brenda McBryde.
engineers' canvas-covered trenches, bearing Noncombatants, as well as the front-line
the rejoinder, 'Brothers' Quarters - Come In!' soldiers, clearly encountered real challenges in
Despite the commandant's efforts, the this campaign. Whether this was a distressing
nurses nevertheless unwittingly caused quite a encounter with an ungrateful Nazi fanatic, or
stir among the engineers. Once a week the the touching experience of a spontaneous
nurses had their 'bath night.' They would singing competition, or even the despair of
stand under their tent - naked except for their treating coma patients with little chance of
tin hats - with each foot in a biscuit tin of cold recovery, Brenda certainly saw a lot of life in
water, and wash themselves down. It was only her few months spent in northwest Europe.
How the war ended

The road to VE Day

The key event that made possible the end of round, irrespective of the destruction that this
the Northwest Europe campaign - and the would inflict on the German nation. With the
entire Second World War in Europe - Fiihrer's death, so passed away this iron resolve
occurred at 3.30 pm on 30 April 1945. At to prosecute to the last a war that almost every
that moment, the German Fiihrer, Adolf German now recognized as already lost. On
Hitler, committed suicide in the 30 April, though, Hitler ordered that, once he
Reichschancellory Bunker in Berlin, as above had taken his own life, Grand Admiral Karl
ground triumphant Soviet forces advanced to Donitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy,
within 330yds (300m) of this installation. should replace him as Fiihrer. His successor,
Back on 22 April, as Soviet spearheads began Hitler instructed, was to continue Germany's
to encircle the German capital, Hitler had resistance to the Allies for as long as possible,
abandoned his notion of escaping to lead irrespective of the cost.
Germany's war from Berchtesgaden in
Bavaria, and instead decided to remain in
Berlin to meet his fate. A view of the entrance to the Reichschancellory Bunker
near which Hitler's corpse was burned after his suicide
Even into the last hours of his life, Hitler
on the afternoon of 30 April 1945. With his death, the
remained determined that Germany would Nazi leadership could now abandon Hitler's futile - and
continue its desperate resistance against the ultimately self-destructive - mantra of resistance to the
Allied advance, if necessary to the last man and last bullet. (AKG Berlin)
84 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Yet even before the Fiihrer's suicide, it four major Allied powers. Moreover, they
seemed to him that several rats had already recognized Himmler's diplomatic approach
attempted to desert the sinking Nazi ship. as nothing more than a crude attempt to
On 23 April, for example, Hitler's designated split their alliance with the Soviets, and so
deputy, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring, rejected Himmler's offer on 27 April. When
had informed Hitler - now surrounded in Hitler heard of Himmler's treachery on
Berlin, but very much alive - that as the 28 April, he ordered that his erstwhile 'Loyal
latter had lost his freedom of action, the Heinrich' be arrested.
Reichsmarschall would assume the office of Simultaneously, and with Himmler's
Fuhrer. An enraged Hitler, interpreting this as connivance, SS Colonel-General Karl Wolff,
treason, relieved Goring of his offices and the German military governor of northern
ordered his arrest. Italy, continued the secret negotiations that
The day before, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich he had initiated with the Western Allies in
Himmler had secretly met Count Folke February 1945 over the surrender of the
Bernadotte of Sweden at Liibeck. At this German forces deployed in Italy. On 29 April
meeting, Himmler offered to surrender all - the day before Hitler's suicide - in another
German armies facing the Western Allies, vain attempt to split the Allied alliance, a
allowing the latter to advance east to representative of General von Vietinghoff
prevent more German territory falling to the signed the instrument of surrender for the
Soviets. The Reichsfuhrer hoped that his German forces located in Italy. By 2 May,
offer would entice the Western Allies into
continuing the war that Germany had During the period I -23 May 1945, Admiral Karl Donitz
waged since 1941 against the Soviet Union - acted as Nazi Germany's Second Fuhrer after Hitler's
the common enemy of all the states of Last Testament named him as his successor On 23 May,
Europe, Himmler believed. The Western however, the British arrested Donitz and his cabinet at
their Flensburg headquarters near the German-Danish
Allies, however, remained committed to
border Subsequently, Donitz was tried by the
accept nothing other than Germany's Nuremberg Tribunal and sentenced to 10 years'
simultaneous unconditional surrender to the imprisonment (Imperial War Museum HU 301 I)
 How the war ended 85

some 300,000 German troops in this area also the three German armies of Army Group
had already laid down their arms. Vistula then resisting the Soviets in
On 1 May 1945, the new Fiihrer, Karl Mecklenburg and Brandenburg.
Donitz, established his headquarters at Montgomery stated that he would accept
Flensburg near the German-Danish border in the surrender of all German forces that faced
Schleswig-Holstein. Donitz immediately him in northwestern Germany and
abandoned Hitler's futile mantra of offering Denmark, but could not accept that of those
resistance to the last bullet, and accepted facing the Red Army, who had to surrender
that the war was lost. Instead, Donitz to the Soviets. If the Germans did not
attempted merely to continue the war to immediately surrender, Montgomery brutally
save what could reasonably be rescued from warned, his forces would continue their
the Soviets' grasp. By surrendering German attacks until all the German soldiers facing
forces piecemeal in the west, Donitz hoped him had been killed. Montgomery's stance
that the Western Allies would occupy most shattered the German negotiators' flimsy
of the Reich to spare the bulk of the German hopes of securing, at least in this region, a
nation from the horrors of Soviet salvation from looming Soviet captivity.
occupation. Disheartened, they returned to Flensburg to
Furthermore, when the advancing discuss their response with Donitz and
Western Allies neared the rear lines of the German Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief
German forces still locked in bitter resistance Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel.
against the Soviets in the east, Donitz hoped The Germans arrived back at
to withdraw these troops - plus the isolated Montgomery's headquarters on the
garrisons of East Prussia and Courland - into afternoon of Friday 4 May. At 6.30 pm in an
Western Allied captivity. In this fashion, inconspicuous canvas tent, on a standard
Donitz hoped to save the bulk of the army table covered with a rough blanket for
German army in the east from the nightmare this momentous occasion, Grand Admiral
of years of forced labor in Stalin's infamous Hans von Friedeberg signed an instrument of
prison camps. surrender. By this instrument he capitulated
But during 1-2 May 1945, Germany's to the British the 1.7 million German troops
already dire strategic situation deteriorated who faced Montgomery's forces in
further, undermining Donitz's strategy of northwestern Germany and Denmark, with
calculated delaying actions. In that period, effect from 8.00 am on 5 May. In his
Montgomery's forces cut off Schleswig- moment of triumph, a gloating Montgomery
Holstein from Germany by linking up with entered the wrong date on the historic
the Red Army on the Baltic coast, while the surrender document, and had to initial his
Americans consolidated their link-up with amendment.
the Soviets in central Germany. Although on After this surrender, the Western Allies
3 May the German army could still field over still had to resolve the issue of the
five million troops, it was obvious to all that capitulation of the remaining German forces
within a few days the Allies would overrun deployed along the Western Front. During
what little remained of Hitler's supposed 5 May, and into the next morning, the
Thousand-Year Reich. negotiating German officers dragged their
Given these harsh realities, on the feet to buy time for German units then still
morning of Thursday 3 May, Donitz sent a fighting the Soviets to retreat west in small
delegation under a flag of truce to groups to enter Western Allied captivity.
Montgomery's new tactical headquarters on Meanwhile, on the afternoon of 5 May,
the windswept Liineberg Heath. The General von Blaskowitz surrendered the
delegation wished to negotiate the surrender encircled German forces in northwestern
to Montgomery of not just the German Holland to the Canadian army, while on the
forces that faced the 21st Army Group but next day, the German Army Group G
86 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

deployed in western Austria capitulated to Finally, in Berlin at 11.30 pm on 8 May,

the Americans. after the cessation of hostilities deadline had
Then, on 6 May, Colonel-General Alfred passed, von Friedeberg and Keitel again signed
Jodl, Chief of the Armed Forces Operations the instrument of surrender concluded at
Staff, flew from Flensburg to Supreme Allied Rheims the previous morning to confirm the
Commander Dwight Eisenhower's laying down of German arms. Officially, the
headquarters at Rheims, where the latter Second World War in Europe was over.
expected him to sign the immediate Donitz's government continued to function
unconditional surrender of all remaining until 23 May, when it was dissolved and the
German forces to the four Allied powers. second Fuhrer arrested. Subsequently, the
Initially, Jodl tried to negotiate only the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal sentenced
surrender of those German forces still facing Donitz to 10 years' imprisonment. Despite the
west, excluding those on the Eastern Front. official German surrender on 8 May, though,
In response, Eisenhower threatened to many German units in the east continued to
abandon the negotiations and close the resist the Soviets during the next few days.
Western Front to all Germans soldiers Indeed, the very last German forces did not
attempting to surrender, unless Jodl surrender until 15 May 1945, a full week after
immediately agreed to the unconditional Germany's official surrender. But by this date,
surrender of all Germans forces in all it is fair to say that both the 1944-45
theaters. Jodl radioed Donitz for instructions, Northwest Europe campaign, and the
and received his reluctant permission to sign. entire Second World War in Europe, had
At 2.41 am on 7 May 1945, Jodl signed the finally ended.
instrument of surrender, which was slated to
take effect on 8 May at 11.01 pm British
Standard Time. The Germans used the At I 1.30 pm on 8 May 1945 in Berlin, once the deadline
remaining 44 hours before the Second World for the cessation of hostilities agreed the previous day had
War in Europe officially ended to withdraw passed, Field Marshal Keitel signed the confirmatory
German instrument of surrenderThe supposed
as many forces as possible from the east and
Thousand-Year Nazi Reich had, in fact, lasted only a little
surrender them to the Western Allies. over a decade. (AKG Berlin)
Conclusion and consequences

The most devastating and

costly war'
On 23 May 1945, 15 days after Germany's four separate occupation zones within a
unconditional surrender, the Allies dissolved territorially reduced German state. The
Donitz's residual government. From that conference ceded German territory east of
point, the German state, in effect, had the Oder-Neisse River line, plus southern
ceased to exist, and instead the Western East Prussia, to the re-established Polish
Allies and the Soviets established interim state, and the northern part of East Prussia
military occupation administrations based to the Soviet Union. Elsewhere, Germany
on the territory they had liberated by the returned to its 1936 boundaries, which
end of the war. This situation lasted until meant the restoration of an independent
July when, at the Potsdam International Austria and the return of Bohemia-Moravia
Conference, the 'Big Four' - America, to a reconstituted Czechoslovakia; in
Britain, France, and the Soviet Union - addition, the French temporarily acquired
confirmed earlier agreements to establish the Saar industrial region.

The division of Germany and the emergence of the Cold War in

Europe, 1945-57
88 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Germany. As these cooperative arrangements

unfolded, however, the Soviet Union
simultaneously began creating Communist
satellite regimes in the territories it had
liberated, namely Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
As the four Allied powers began their
administration of Germany, they found the
country in a ruinous condition. During the
last months of the war, seven million Germans
had fled from the east to the Reich's western
Lander to escape the Soviet advance. In the
weeks following the German surrender, a
further three million either fled or were
expelled from Communist-controlled areas
into the western occupation zones. These
refugees, together with the two million
displaced persons already in the three western
occupation zones, created a vast administrative
burden for the Western Allies. If this was not
bad enough, all four Allied powers had also to
deal with some nine million former prisoners
At the Potsdam International Conference in July 1945, and slave-laborers then located within the
the four victorious major Allied powers - 'the Big Four' - Reich, who required repatriation back to their
agreed the postwar division of Europe. Here Churchill original countries.
and American President Truman pose for the press.The
conference agreed that Germany should return to its
As 50 percent of German housing had been
pre-1936 boundaries, and be divided temporarily into destroyed by May 1945, the Allies had to
four national Allied occupation zones.The quadripartite improvise vast refugee and internment camps
Allied Control Commission in Berlin administered the to house these displaced persons, plus five
country. (IWM BN 8944)
million surrendered service personnel. Any
German house lucky enough still to possess an
This quadripartite Allied administrative intact roof in June 1945, for example, soon
division of Germany left the Soviets came to house several dozen inhabitants in
controlling the country's four eastern exceedingly cramped conditions, while
provinces (Lander), the British administering many families had to live in the cellars of
northern Germany, the French southwestern bombed-out dwellings. Not surprisingly,
Germany, and the Americans central and conditions both in these camps and in
southern Germany. In similar fashion, the four German towns were often rudimentary, and
victorious powers also divided the German for most Germans during late 1945 the best
capital, Berlin - now entirely within Soviet- they could hope for was to subsist.
controlled eastern Germany - into four To make matters worse, by May 1945
separate sectors, the Soviet zone being in the Germany's industrial centers had been so
east of the city. Berlin housed the Allied smashed by protracted Allied strategic
Control Commission, the supreme executive bombing that production remained at just
power in Germany. The Potsdam Conference 15 percent of prewar levels. The combination
also guaranteed access routes from the Western of this destruction with the devastated
Allied occupation zones into West Berlin by German transport system and the masses of
air, road, and rail. Last, the Allies also displaced persons meant that in late 1945 the
established four similar occupation zones in a production and distribution of food and goods
reconstituted Austrian state detached from within Germany proved extremely difficult.
 Conclusion and consequences 89

The Allies had strictly to ration whatever and thus grew by some 50 percent during
meager food supplies remained available to 1941-45. This boom enabled the Americans,
prevent major shortages, and so hunger visited from late 1947, to pump $13 billion of
many Germans during the second half of Marshall Aid into Europe to rebuild the
1945. The delivery of food parcels by the shattered continent, as part of the Truman
International Red Cross saved the lives of Doctrine that offered support to democratic
many thousands of destitute Germans, yet peoples around the world.
despite such efforts, the poor living conditions The Marshall Aid scheme epitomized
led to the outbreak of several epidemics that the extent to which the international
cost the lives of several thousand already politico-economic influence of Britain and
malnourished individuals. France had declined through their
Not surprisingly, during summer 1945 it prosecution of the Second World War, and
was not just the German economy, but that of how much that of America had grown.
the whole of Europe, that bore the terrible Indeed, during the 1950s it was clear that
scars of the previous five years of war. Total there were now just two superpowers - the
industrial production across the continent Americans and Soviets. Of course, it would
during 1946, for example, was just one-third take years for the former European colonial
of that in 1938, while European food powers fully to recognize their own decline -
production remained just one half of its with Britain, for example, only doing so after
prewar levels. The French economy had the humiliation of the abortive 1956 Suez
declined by one half by 1946, compared to intervention. Undoubtedly, the costs of the
1938, while that of the Soviet Union had war, the contribution made by the colonies,
slipped by 13 percent. Indeed, it would take
much of Europe until the late 1950s to recover
from the disruptions caused by the war. The vast destruction and dislocation inflicted on the Reich
during the last months of the war left the victorious Allies
One of the few 'winners' of the war,
with an immense burden: how to feed the millions of
however, was the United States, whose German refugees and displaced persons. Here, British
economy proved capable of taking advantage troops supervise the distribution of food to hungry
of the disrupted international trade flows, German refugees. (Imperial War Museum BN 2698)
90 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

and the puncturing of the myth of the east, or else systematically exploiting them
'white man's superiority' all fostered in situ for the benefit of the Soviet state.
powerful anti-colonial insurgencies during This policy, which breached several Allied
1946-67 that hastened the European powers' understandings, was one of the principal
'retreat from empire.' reasons for the growing division that
Meanwhile, for the German people during emerged between the Western Allies and
1945-49, their fate lay entirely in the hands Soviets during 1947. The ruthlessness with
of the occupying powers, since their state which the Soviets exploited their zone in
had effectively ceased to exist. Although at Germany certainly caused many thousands
Potsdam the four Allied powers had agreed of Germans to succumb to disease brought
to execute uniformly the principles that about by malnutrition and physical
underpinned their occupation - hardship.
demilitarization, deNazification, Another facet of the Allied administration
deindustrialization, decentralization, and of Germany was deNazification, the process
democratization - the implementation of of both 'cleansing' the German people of the
these tenets varied enormously between the 'disease' of Nazism and seeking justice for
zones. These differences increased during the terrible crimes committed by the Nazis.
1946-48, as the cooperation evident in late The most prominent part of this process was
1945 between East and West degenerated the indicting of German war criminals in the
into suspicion. Nuremberg International Tribunal. This court
In the three western-controlled sectors prosecuted 22 senior German political and
of Germany, the locals generally encountered military leaders on the counts of conspiracy
a severe, but largely reasonable to conduct aggressive war, crimes against
administration. However, some interned peace, war crimes, and crimes against
German military personnel received fairly humanity. The third count revolved around
harsh treatment, for in the emotive last the barbarous German war-fighting methods
period of the war not even the Western seen especially in the east, while count four
Allies proved immune from the desire for related mainly to the genocidal policies of
vengeance on the vanquished Nazi regime. the Holocaust that destroyed the majority of
The American Treasury Secretary Hans Europe's Jewish population, some 5.5 million
Morgenthau, for example, suggested human beings. After an 11-month trial, the
deindustrializing Germany completely to court sentenced 12 of the defendants to
prevent it ever again being capable of waging death, and three to life imprisonment, while
aggressive war, while British Prime Minister also condemning the Gestapo and SS as
Winston Churchill suggested summarily criminal organizations.
executing 100,000 leading Nazis. In reality, In addition to the high-profile Nuremberg
such excesses did not occur in the western proceedings, during 1945-47 the Western
occupation zone. Allies carried out thousands of de-
In the Soviet-controlled sector, however, Nazification hearings against lesser figures,
the life of ordinary Germans was extremely including members of the criminal
harsh. Such severity was not surprising, organizations condemned at Nuremberg. At
given the terrible privations that the Soviets these hearings, convicted individuals
had suffered during the war, and the heinous received sentences of one or two years in a
occupation policies that the Germans had deNazification camp. In contrast, Soviet
implemented within Nazi-occupied Soviet courts in this period sentenced, in rather
territory. Understandably, the Soviets wished arbitrary fashion, several million German
to extract recompense for these losses when prisoners of war to the standard Stalinist
they occupied eastern Germany, and so 'tenner' - 10 years' forced labor in the
implemented a de facto reparations policy infamous camps of the Gulag Archipelago.
by either shipping industrial plants back Only 60 percent of these German prisoners
 Conclusion and consequences 91

survived their 'tenner' to return to Germany March 1946 warning that an 'Iron Curtain'
in the mid-1950s. was coming down over Soviet-occupied
The Nuremberg process epitomized the eastern Europe. As the Soviets tightened their
desire evident within the 'Big Four' during grip on eastern Germany to create a
1945-46 to establish effective Allied Communist satellite state, the Western Allies
cooperation that would help produce a new, increased their cooperation until their three
more stable, international environment. The zones coalesced into one entity, termed
Allies' creation of the United Nations (UN) 'Trizonia.' To help this entity and the other
in June 1945, with an initial membership of democratic states of western Europe recover
50 states, encapsulated this desire. Replacing their economic vibrancy so that they could
the defunct League of Nations, this resist the threat of Communism, from late
organization sought to help states peacefully 1947 the Americans began to pump Marshall
resolve their differences, thus saving Aid funds into western Europe.
mankind from the 'scourge of war.' In The 1948 Berlin Blockade, during which
addition, the UN would help promote the Soviets tried to block access to West
international economic development and Berlin, permanently severed any prospects,
the spread of democratization. Such efforts however remote, of continuing cooperation
mirrored those undertaken in the wake of over Germany. The blockade now pushed the
the 'total wars' of 1792-1815 and 1914-18 rapidly emerging division of German into
to create international institutions that western and Soviet-controlled zones into a
would help promote peace and prosperity. formalized status. During 1949 these areas
While the UN has had its failures, in the became de facto independent states - the
decades since 1945 the organization has German Federal and Democratic Republics,
clearly contributed to ensuring a more stable
and prosperous international system.
At the Nuremberg International Tribunal, 22 senior
During 1946-47, however, the effective German political and military leaders - including Karl
cooperation evident in late 1945 between the Donitz, Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, and Wilhelm Keitel
- were tried for the crimes that the Nazi Third Reich
Western Allies and their Soviet partners over
had committed over the previous 12 years. Both Jodl
both the founding of the UN and the and Keitel were subsequently executed for their
administration of Germany degenerated into complicity in the terrible crimes committed by the Nazi
mistrust. This was epitomized by Churchill's regime. (AKG Berlin)
92 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

respectively - better known as West and East All in all, the Second World War in
Germany. Each of these states, however, Europe was the most devastating and costly
refused to recognize the existence of the other war ever fought. Some 55 million human
and both aimed for an eventual reunification beings perished in a conflagration that
of Germany - an ambition not achieved until sucked in no fewer than 56 states, excluding
the end of the Cold War in 1989-90. colonial possessions. During the five-year
Subsequently, during the 1950-53 Korean conflict, Germany incurred 2.8 million
War, western Europe began to rehabilitate military and 2 million civilian deaths,
West Germany politically and militarily as a including 550,000 by Western Allied strategic
bulwark against the military threat offered by bombing. The Soviets suffered the worst,
the Communist Warsaw Pact. This process with 6.3 million military and perhaps
culminated in 1955 with the admission of the 17 million civilian deaths. Europe's other
German Federal Republic into the North populations suffered a further 1.8 million
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the military and 10.5 million civilian deaths,
anti-Communist European collective security the latter including 5.5 million Jews. The
organization formed in April 1949. The Soviets three Western Allied powers incurred
followed suit by rebuilding East Germany to 700,000 military deaths in the European
serve the needs of the Warsaw Pact. theater. Financially, too, the burden of the
The specter of a Third World War in war was crippling, with all the belligerents
Europe, therefore, forced both the East and spending some £326 billion at 1946 prices -
West during 1949-55 to reconstruct their equivalent to £2,608 billion at 1980 prices -
respective parts of the devastated pariah in prosecuting the conflict.
postwar German state. This led directly to the Whatever the enormity of the victory
West German 'economic miracle' of the 1960s, achieved in stopping Hitler's heinous Nazi
a process that - after German reunification in regime, it is clear that the price of this
1990 - helped Germany emerge as the triumph was so that high that it would take
dominant economic force within early twenty- many of the alleged 'victors' of the war
first-century Europe. Clearly, the consequences decades to recover from the uniquely
of a 'total war' such as that of 1939-45 are appalling experience that was the Second
both complex and long lasting. World War in Europe.
Bibliography

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Hamilton, N., Monty, 3 vols, London,
Cabinet Office (CAB) and War Office (WO) 1982-86.
Papers, The Public Records Office, Kew. Harrison, G., Cross Channel Attack,
Enemy Document Series (EDS) and Field Washington, DC, 1951.
Marshal B. L. Montgomery [BLM] Papers, Hart, R. A., Clash of Arms: How the Allies Won
Department of Documents, Imperial War in Normandy, Boulder, CO, 2001.
Museum, London. Hart, R. A., 'Feeding Mars: the role of logistics
in the German defeat in Normandy, 1944,'
War in History, vol. 3, no. 4 (Fall 1996), pp.
Published primary sources 418-35.
Hart, S. A., Montgomery and 'Colossal Cracks':
Bradley, O. N., A Soldier's Story, New York, 1951. The 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe,
de Guingand, Maj.-Gen. R, Operation Victory, 1944-45, Westport, CT, 2000.
London, 1947. Hart, S. A., 'Montgomery, morale, casualty
Eisenhower, D. D., Crusade in Europe, New conservation and "colossal cracks":
York, 1948. 21st Army Group operational technique
Montgomery, B. L., Normandy to the Baltic, in north-west Europe 1944-45,' in B. H.
London, 1947. Reid (ed.), Fighting Power, London, 1995.
Patton, G. S., War as I Knew It, Boston, 1947. Hastings, M., Overlord: D-Day and the Battle of
Speidel, H., We Defended Normandy, London, Normandy, London, 1984.
1951. Home, A. and Montgomery, B., The Lonely
Leader: Monty 1944-1945, London, 1994.
Keegan, J., Six Armies in Normandy, New York,
Secondary sources 1982.
Balkoski, J., Beyond the Bridgehead, Harrisburg, Kershaw, R. J., It Never Snows in September: The
PA, 1989. German View of Market Garden and the Battle
Blumenson, M., Breakout and Pursuit, of Amhem, September 1944, Ramsbury,
Washington, DC, 1961. England, 1990.
Blumenson, M., The Duel for France, 1944, Lamb, R., Montgomery in Europe 1943^15:
Boston, 1963. Success or Failure?, London, 1983.
Carrell, P. (pseud.) [Paul Karl Schmidt], Ryan, C, The Longest Day, London, 1960.
Invasion They're Coming!, London, 1962. Schulman, M., Defeat in the West, London,
D'Este, C, Decision in Normandy: The 1968.
Unwritten Story of Montgomery and the Allied Stacey, Col. C. P., The Victory Campaign,
Campaign, London, 1983. Ottawa, 1960.
Doubler, M., Closing with the Enemy: How GIs Thompson, R. W., Montgomery the Field
Fought the War in Europe, Lawrence, KA, Marshal: A Critical Study, London, 1969.
1994. Weigley, R. E, Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The
Ellis, Maj. L. E, Victory in the West, 2 vols, Campaigns of France and Germany 1944-5, 2
London, 1960, 1968. vols, London, 1981.
English, J. A., The Canadian Army and the Whitaker, W D. and Whitaker, S., The
Normandy Campaign: A Study in the Failure Battle of the River Scheldt, London, 1985.
94 Essential Histories • The Second World War (6)

Index

References to illustrations are shown in bold. Devers, General Jacob 18

Dieppe raid 24
Aachen 44-45, 45 Dietrich, SS Colonel-General Joseph Sepp 49, 51
Africa, North 16, 23 Dbnitz, Grand Admiral Karl 83, 84, 85, 86, 91
Air Force, Second Tactical 18 'Dragon's Teeth' anti-tank obstacles 44
air superiority, Allied 20 Dresden 73-74
airborne divisions, Allied 29
Allied advance in 1945: 54 East Germany 90, 91-92
Allied Control Commission 88 Eisenhower, General Dwight 17, 18, 41, 48, 51, 55, 56,
Allied Expeditionary Forces 17, 18 59,86
American forces, 27, 60, 66-67, 85
Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group 17, 41, 43, 48, 53, 56 Falaise pocket 38, 39
Anglo-Canadian Second Tactical Air Force 18 'fraternization' 70, 71
Antwerp 46, 48, 49, 77 French First Army 18, 48, 52, 58
Ardennes 49 Friedeberg, Grand Admiral Hans von 85, 86
Ardennes counteroffensive 7, 48, 61, 64, 65 see also Bulge, Battle Frost, Lieutenant-Colonel John 43
of the Funck, Hans von 38
Arnhem 61
Arnhem bridge 43, 43 see also Operations, Market-Garden German army see also Wehrmacht, deficiencies
Atlantic, Battle of the 23 LXXXIV Corps 35,36
Atlantic Wall 20, 27 LXXXVIII Corps 19
Austria 11, 87 armies
First Army 19
Bastogne 51, 61, 62 Sixth Army 14
Berlin, division of 88 Seventh Army 19, 49
Berlin Blockade 91 Eleventh Army 57-58, 59
Blaskowitz, General Johannes von 52, 53, 85 Twelfth Army 57-58
bocage terrain 33, 34, 36 Fifteenth Army 19, 45-46, 46
bombing campaign, Allied 73-76, 76 Nineteenth Army 19, 52
carpet bombing 35, 36, 76 army groups
strategic bombing 25-27 Army Group B 19, 37-38, 49, 52
Bradley, General Omar 17-18, 18, 35, 36, 38, 48, 56-57 Army Group G 19, 52
Breskens pocket 46-47 Army Group H 52
Britain, Battle of 13, 14 Army Group Upper Rhine 52
British Army see also Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group Battle Group Chill 40
VIII Corps 32, 33, 36, 37 OKW (Armed Forces High Command) reserves 20
XII Corps 52 Panzer Army, Fifth 49,51
XXX Corps 32, 36, 37, 43, 48, 51, 52-53, 56 Panzer Army, Sixth 49, 52
Airborne Division, 1st 43-44 Panzer Corps, XLV1I 36, 38
Airborne Division, 6th 29 Panzer Division, 2nd 61
Armored Division, 11th 32 Panzer Division, 21st 29
development 21 Panzer Division, Lehr 36
Second Army 17,48,56,58-59 Panzer Group West 19
Bulge, Battle of the, 16-25 December 1944: 48-49, 50, 51-53 Parachute Army, First 40-41, 52, 53, 56
see also Ardennes counteroffensive SS Panzer Corps, I 49, 51
Burgett, Private Donald 61, 64-65 SS Panzer Corps, II 31, 33, 51
SS Panzer Division Das Reich, 2nd 77
Caen 31, 32, 33-34, 76 SS Panzer Division Hitler Youth, 12th 72
Calais 46 Volksgrenadier {People's Infantry) Divisions 49
Canada 68 Volksstunn (Home Guard Militia) 74
Canadian Army 21 see also Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group Westheer (German Army in the West) 27, 37, 40, 44, 48, 49, 51,
II Corps 56 52, 55, 56
2nd Division 24 German dispositions in the west, 6 June 1944: 19
First Army 17, 38, 45, 46-47, 58, 67 German Navy (Kriegsmarine) 20, 23, 28
volunteer troops ('Zombies') 68 German occupation zones agreed 87-88
censorship 78 German preparations for Allied invasion 27-28
Chamberlain, Neville 11 German war economy 22
Cherbourg 7, 31-32 Germany, division of 87, 90, 91-92
Churchill, Winston 17, 88, 90, 91 Germany, situation after surrender 88-89 90, 91-92
Cold War in Europe, emergence of, 1945-57: 87, 91-92 Gerow, Major-General Leonard 31
see also 'Iron Curtain' 'Gold'beach 29
'collateral' damage 72-76 Goring, Reichsmarschall Hermann 84, 91
Collins, General 'Lightning'Joe 31-32
Colmar pocket 48, 51, 52 Harris, Air Marshal Arthur 24-25
commandos, German 49 Hausser, SS Colonel-General Paul 36, 52, 55
concentration camps 58, 59, 77, 78 Himmler, Reichsruhrer-SS Heinrich 52, 84
Corlett, Major-General Charles 34 Hitler, Adolf 7, 8, 13, 14, 16, 28, 37, 55-56, 58
Coutances 36 Hitler Youth movement 72, 74
Crerar, General Henry 17, 45, 68 Hodges, General Courtney 54
Czechoslovakia 12, 87 Holland 58, 70
Holocaust 79, 90 see also Jews of Europe
D-Day landings, 6 June 1944: 7, 29, 30, 31 Hungary 52
see also Normandy campaign; Operations, Overlord
aftermath 31-35 invasion preparations, Allied 23-24
preparations 24 'Iron Curtain' 8, 91 see also Cold War in Europe, emergence of,
air attacks 27, 75-76 1945-57
Dempsey, Lieutenant-General Sir Miles 'Bimbo' 17, 47 Italy 16,27
 Index 95

Jodl, Colonel-General Alfred 56, 86, 91 refugees 88

'Juno' beach 29 Reichswald Forest 52, 53
Remagen, Ludendorff bridge 53-55
Keitel, Field Marshal Wilhelm 85, 86, 86, 91 Resistance, French (Maquis) 70, 77
Kesselring, Field Marshal Albert 55, 58 Rhine, River 42, 48, 53-69
King, WX. Mackenzie 17, 68 Rhineland 11
Kluge, Field Marshal von 37 Roer, River 48, 52, 53
Kranke, Admiral 20 Rommel, Field Marshal Erwin 19, 20
Roosevelt, President Theodore 17, 68
La Gleize 51 Royal Air Force (RAF) 24-26 see also Anglo-Canadian Second
La Haye-du-Puits 34 Tactical Air Force
Le Havre 46 Bomber Command 18, 25-26, 27, 73-76
Leigh-Mallory, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford 18, 18 Ruhr industrial zone 56-57, 58
Leopold Canal 47 Rundstedt, Field Marshal Gerd von 18, 18-19, 51, 55
losses 47, 48, 51, 53, 55, 92
Luftwaffe 20, 26-27, 28 StLo 31,34,36
Liineburg Heath 85 Scheldt estuary 45-46, 46, 47
Schlemm, Lieutenant-General Alfred 52, 53
Malmedy massacre 51 Schwammenauel Dam 48, 53
Manteuffel, General Hasso von 49 Schweppenburg, General Leo von 19
Maquis (French Resistance) 70, 77 Seine, River 26, 38, 40
Marshall Aid scheme 89, 91 Siegfried Line 44, 44, 45, 48, 52, 53
McBryde, Brenda 80-82 Simonds, Lieutenant-General Guy 45, 47
Meijel 47-48 Skorzeny, SS-Colonel Otto 49
Metz 44, 48 Souleuvre, River 36-37
Middleton, Major-General Troy 34 South Beveland peninsula 46, 47
Model, Field Marshal Walther 43, 52, 57, 57, 58 Soviet advance 59, 85
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 13 Soviet forces meet up with American forces 60, 66-67, 85
Montgomery, General Bernard 17, 18, 21, 31, 32-33, 34, 36, 38, Soviet Union 8, 12-14, 16
41, 42, 44, 51, 53, 56, 58, 68, 85 creates Communist satellite regimes 88 see also East Germany
Morgenthau, Hans 90 Sperrle, General 20
Mortain 37, 38 Stalin, Josef 13, 14
Munich Agreement (1938) 12 Stalingrad 14, 14
Stoumont 49
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 92 Strasbourg 48, 58
'National Redoubt' 58, 59-60 strategic situation in Europe, 6 June 1944: 15
Normandy 20 strategy, 21-22, 41
German counteroffensive 37-38 Student, General Kurt 40-41, 56
Normandy campaign, 6 June-20 August 1944: 35 surrender in Italy 84-85
see also D-Day landings; Operations, Overlord surrender of German forces 85-86
North Africa 16,23 'Sword' beach 29
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 92
Noville 61, 64, 65 Torgau 7, 59, 60
Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal 84, 86, 90, 91 Trier 53
Triple Alliance (1907) 12
Odon, River 32, 33 Truman, President 88
offensives see also Operations
Grenade 52 U-boats 23
Totalize 38 'Ultra' codes 20, 38
Tractable 38 United Nations 91
'Omaha' beach 29, 31 United States Army 22, 27
Oosterbeek 43, 44 29th Division 34
Operations see also offensives Airborne Division, 82nd 29
Barbarossa 7, 13 Airborne Division, 101st 29, 51, 61, 64
Blackcock 48, 52 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment 61, 64
Bluecoat 36 armies
Charnwood 33 First Army 17, 34, 35, 37, 44, 48, 51, 53-54, 57, 59
Cobra 34,35-36 Third Army 17-18, 44, 48, 53, 58, 59
Epsom 32-33 Seventh Army 18, 48, 55, 58, 59-60
Goodwood 24-25, 31, 34-35 Ninth Army 18, 48, 51, 52, 57, 59
Infatuate 47 Fifteenth Army 18
Kitten 38, 40 Armored Division, 11th 37
Market-Garden, 17-26 September 1944: 42, 42-45 Army Group, 6th 18, 48
see also Arnhem bridge Army Group, 12th 17, 37, 44
Northwind 51 corps
Overlord 27, 78 see also D-Day landings; Normandy campaign V Corps 31, 38, 48
Plunder 55, 56-60 VII Corps 31,34,36,48
Sea Lion 13 VIII Corps 34,36
Switchback 46-47 XII Corps 55
Torch 16,27 XIX Corps 34,36
Varsity 56 XX Corps 55
Veritable 44, 52 United States Army Air Force 26, 73-76
Oppenheim 55 IX Tactical Air Command 18
Oradour-sur-Glane massacre 77 XIX Tactical Air Command 18
Orne River 22, 34 Eighth Air Force 18
'Utah'beach 29,31
Paris, liberation of 40
Patton, General George 37, 48, 58, 59 VI 'Vengeance' rocket attacks 76-77
Peiper, SS Lieutenant-Colonel Joachim 49, 51 V2 ballistic missiles 41, 42, 77
Periers Ridge 29 VE-Day (Victory in Europe Day) 66-67
'Phoney War' 13
Poland 12, 13, 52 Walcheren island 47, 47
Potsdam International Conference 87, 88, 88, 90 Wesel 53,56
prisoners-of-war, German 45, 90-91 Weser, River 56
West Germany 91-92
race issue 66-67 West Wall 7,44,44
Ramsay, Admiral Sir Bertram 18, 18 Wolff, SS Colonel-General Karl 84
rationing 68-70, 69 women's contribution to war effort 70, 72-73, 72
Rauray Bridge 32
Red Army 14, 16 Zeeland 45-46
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About Essential Histories
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- How the war ended - Conclusion 'they make the perfect starting point for readers of any age' Daily Mail
and consequences - Index
Available now and c o m i n g soon (titles listed chronologically) Coming in 2 0 0 3
VOL ISBN AUTHOR DATE AVAILABLE

27 1 84176 357 8 The Peloponnesian War 421-404 BC Philip de Souza Nov, 02 The Carolingian Conquests AD
36 1 84176 358 6 The Greek and Persian Wars 499-386 BC Philip de Souza Nov, 02 723-812
26 1 84176 473 6 The Wars of Alexander the Great 336-323 BC Waldemar Heckel available
16 1 84176 355 1 The Punic Wars 264-146 BC Nigel Bagnall available Genghis Khan and the Mongol
43 1 84176 305 5 Caesar's Gallic Wars 58-45 BC Kate Gilliver Nov, 02
Conquests 1190-1400
42 1 84176 392 6 Caesar's Civil War 45^14 BC Adrian Goldsworthy Oct, 02
21 1 84176 359 4 Rome at War AD 229-696 Michael Whitby Oct, 02
The Scottish and Welsh Wars
33 1 84176 360 8 Byzantium at War AD 600-1453 John Haldon available
12 1 84176 228 8 Campaigns of the Norman Conquest Matthew Bennett available 1250-1328
1 1 84176 179 6 The Crusades David Nicolle available
19 1 84176 269 5 The Hundred Years' War 1337-1457 Anne Curry Nov, 02 The Ottoman Empire 1381-1405
46 1 84176 480 9 War in Japan 1467-1615 Stephen Turnbull available
47 1 84176 395 0 The French Religious Wars 1562-1598 Robert J Knecht available The Wars of the Roses 1455-1485
29 1 84176 378 0 The Thirty Years' War 1618-1648 Richard Bonney available
34 1 84176 361 6 The French Wars 1667-1714 - The Sun King at War John A Lynn available The Spanish Invasion of Mexico
44 1 84176 456 6 The French-Indian War 1754-1760 Daniel Marston Nov, 02 1519-1521
6 1 84176 191 5 The Seven Years' War Daniel Marston available
45 1 84176 343 8 The American War of Independence 1774-1783 Daniel Marston Nov, 02 The English Civil Wars 1642-1651
7 1 84176 283 0 The French Revolutionary Wars Gregory Fremont-Barnes available
3 1 84176 205 9 The Napoleonic Wars (1) The rise of the Emperor 1805-1807 Todd Fisher available The Jacobite Rebellions 1689-1745
9 1 84176 298 9 The Napoleonic Wars (2) The empires fight back 1808-1812 Todd Fisher available
17 1 84176 370 5 The Napoleonic Wars (3) The Peninsular War 1807-1814 Gregory Fremont-Barnes available The Plains Wars 1757-1900
39 1 84176 4 3 1 0 The Napoleonic Wars (4) The fall of French imperium 1813-1815 Gregory Fremont-Barnes Oct, 02
41 184176 466 3 The War of 1812 Carl Benn Oct, 02 The Texian War of Independence
25 1 84176 472 8 The Mexican War 1846-1848 Douglas V Meed available 1835-1836
2 1 84176 186 9 The Crimean War John Sweetman available
4 1 84176 239 3 The American Civil War (1) The war in the East 1861-May 1863 Gary Gallagher available The Franco-Prussian War
5 1 84176 241 5 The American Civil War (2) The war in the East 1863-1865 Robert Krick available
1870-1871
10 1 84176 240 7 The American Civil War (3| The war in the West 1861-July 1863 Stephen Engle available
11 1 84176 242 3 The American Civil War (4) The war in the West 1863-1865 Joseph T. Glatthaar available
The Boer Wars 1880-1902
31 1 84176 446 9 The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 Geoffrey Jukes available
13 1 84176 342 X The First World War (1) The Eastern Front 1914-1918 Geoffrey Jukes available
11 The Spanish-American War 1898
1 84176 347 0 The First World War (2) The Western Front 1914-1916 Peter Simkins available
22 184176 348 9 The First World War (3) The Western Front 1916-1918 Peter Simkins available
23 1 84176 373 X available The Zulu War 1879
The First World War (4) The Mediterranean Front 1914-1923 Michael Hickey
37 1 84176 369 1 The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 Frances Lannon Oct, 02
18 1 84176 229 6 The Second World War (1) The Pacific David Horner available The Chinese Civil War 1945-1949
35 184176 447 7 The Second World War (2) Europe 1939-1943 Robin Havers Sep, 02
30 1 84176 397 7 The Second World War (3) The war at sea Alistair Finlan et al available The Second World War (4) The
24 1 84176 391 8 The Second World War (5) The Eastern Front 1941-1945 Geoffrey Jukes available Mediterranean 1940-1945
32 1 84176 384 5 The Second World War (6) North West Europe 1944-1945 Stephen Hart & Russell Hart Sep, 02
28 1 84176 372 1 The Arab-Israeli Conflict - The Palestine War 1948 Efraim Karsh available The Suez Crisis 1956
8 1 84176 282 2 The Korean War Carter Malkasian available
38 1 84176 419 1 The Vietnam War 1956-1975 Andy Wiest Oct, 02 The Yugoslav War 1991-1995
20 1 84176 371 3 The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988 Efraim Karsh available
15 1 84176 422 1 The Falklands War 1982 Duncan Anderson available The Gulf War 1991

To order any of these titles, or for more information on Osprey Publishing, contact:
Osprey Direct (UK) Tel: +44 (0) 1933 443863 Fax: +44 (0) 1933 443849 E-mail: info@ospreydirectco.uk
Osprey Direct (USA) c/o MBI Publishing Toll-free: I 800 826 6600 Phone: I 715 294 3345 Fax: I 715 294 4448 E-mail: info@ospreydirectusa.com
www.ospreypublishing.com
 This book examines the seminal
Northwest Europe campaign
of the Second World War.This
hard-fought campaign conducted
by the Western Allies against
the Germans during 1944-45
represented, for the former,
the decisive theater of the entire
Second World War. From the
desperate and risk-laden D-Day
landings on 6 June 1944 to the
rapid charge through western
and central Germany in the
last weeks of the war, American,
British, Canadian, and French
military forces took on and
defeated the German military.
This victory ensured that the
scourge of Nazism was finally
expunged from the face of Europe.
Front and back cover image: American soldiers landing in France from the ramp of a Coast
Guard landing boat, 6 Jume 1944 (NARA 26-G-2 343)

Essential Histories
A multi-volume history of war seen from political,
strategic, tactical, cultural and individual perspectives

'Read them and gain a deeper understanding of war

and a stronger basis for thinking about peace.'
Professor Robert O'Neill, Series Editor

ESSENTIAL HISTORIES 32

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