on 11 December 1941. On 11 December 1941, three days after the United States
declared war on Japan, Germany
declared war on the U.S. Italy also
declared war on the U.S. the same day. That same day, the United States, in its turn,
declared war on Germany and
Italy.
Europe first and
allies of Nazi Germany. The established grand strategy of the Allies was to defeat Germany and its allies in Europe first, and then focus could shift towards Japan in the Pacific. This was because two of the Allied capitals, London and
Moscow, could be directly threatened by Germany, but none of the major Allied capitals were threatened by Japan. Germany was the United Kingdom's primary threat, especially after the Fall of France in 1940, which saw Germany overrun most of the countries of
Western Europe, leaving the United Kingdom alone to combat Germany. Germany's planned invasion of the UK, Operation Sea Lion, was averted by its failure to establish air superiority in the Battle of Britain. At the same time, war with Japan in East Asia seemed increasingly likely. Although the US was not yet at war with either Germany or Japan, it met with the UK on several occasions to formulate joint strategies. In the 29 March 1941 report of the
ABC-1 conference, the Americans and British agreed that their strategic objectives were: (1) "The early defeat of Germany as the predominant member of the Axis with the principal military effort of the United States being exerted in the Atlantic and European area; and (2) A strategic defensive in the
Far East." Thus, the Americans concurred with the British in the grand strategy of "Europe first" (or "Germany first") in carrying out military operations in World War II. The UK feared that, if the United States were diverted from its main focus in Europe to the Pacific (Japan), Hitler might crush both the Soviet Union and Britain, and would then become an unconquerable fortress in Europe. The wound inflicted on the United States by Japan at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, did not result in a change in US policy. Prime Minister Winston Churchill hastened to Washington shortly after Pearl Harbor for the Arcadia Conference to ensure that the Americans didn't have second thoughts about Europe First. The two countries reaffirmed that, "notwithstanding the entry of Japan into the War, our view remains that Germany is still the prime enemy. And her defeat is the key to victory. Once Germany is defeated the collapse of Italy and the defeat of Japan must follow."
Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the
Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the
Kriegsmarine (German navy) and aircraft of the
Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, the United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. The convoys, coming mainly from
North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States from 13 September 1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the
Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) after their Axis ally Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940.
Operation Torch . November 1942. The United States entered the war in the west with
Operation Torch on 8 November 1942, after their Soviet allies had pushed for a second
front against the Germans. General
Dwight Eisenhower commanded the assault on
North Africa, and Major General
George Patton struck at
Casablanca.
Allied victory in North Africa The United States did not have a smooth entry into the war against
Nazi Germany. Early in 1943, the
United States Army suffered a near-disastrous defeat at the
Battle of the Kasserine Pass in February. The senior Allied leadership was primarily to blame for the loss as internal bickering between American General
Lloyd Fredendall and the British led to mistrust and little communication, causing inadequate troop placements. The defeat could be considered a major turning point, however, because General Eisenhower replaced Fredendall with General Patton. Slowly the Allies stopped the German advance in
Tunisia and by March were pushing back. In mid-April, under British General
Bernard Montgomery, the Allies smashed through the
Mareth Line and broke the Axis defense in North Africa. On 13 May 1943, Axis troops in North Africa surrendered, leaving behind 275,000 men. Allied efforts turned towards Sicily and Italy.
Invasion of Sicily and Italy The first stepping stone for the Allied liberation of Europe was invading Europe through Italy. Launched on 9 July 1943, Operation Husky was, at the time, the largest
amphibious operation ever undertaken. The American seaborne assault by the
US 7th Army landed on the southern coast of Sicily between the town of Licata in the west, and Scoglitti in the east and units of the 82nd airborne division parachuted ahead of landings. Despite the elements, the operation was a success and the Allies immediately began exploiting their gains. On 11 August, seeing that the battle was lost, the German and Italian commanders began evacuating their forces from Sicily to Italy. On 17 August, the Allies were in control of the island, US 7th Army lost 8,781 men (2,237 killed or missing, 5,946 wounded, and 598 captured). , October 1943. Following the Allied victory in Sicily, Italian public sentiment swung against the war and Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini. He was dismissed from office by the
Fascist Grand Council and
King Victor Emmanuel III, and the Allies struck quickly, hoping resistance would be slight. The first Allied troops landed on the Italian peninsula on 3 September 1943 and Italy surrendered on 8 September, however the
Italian Social Republic was established soon afterwards. The first American troops landed at Salerno on 9 September 1943, by
U.S. Fifth Army. However, German troops in Italy were prepared, and after the Allied troops at Salerno had consolidated their beachhead, the Germans launched fierce counterattacks. However, they failed to destroy the beachhead and retreated on 16 September and in October 1943 began preparing a series of defensive lines across central Italy. The US 5th Army and other Allied armies broke through the first two lines (
Volturno and the
Barbara Line) in October and November 1943. As winter approached, the Allies made slow progress due to the weather and the difficult terrain against the heavily defended German Winter Line; they did however manage to break through the
Bernhardt Line in January 1944. By early 1944 the Allied attention had turned to the western front and the Allies were taking heavy losses trying to break through the Winter Line at
Monte Cassino. The Allies landed at
Anzio on 22 January 1944 to outflank the Gustav line and pull Axis forces out of it so other allied armies could breakthrough. After slow progress, the Germans counterattacked in February but failed to stamp out the Allies; after months of stalemate, the Allies broke out in May 1944 and Rome fell to the Allies on 4 June 1944. Following the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944, the equivalent of seven US and French divisions were pulled out of Italy to participate in Operation Dragoon: the allied landings in southern France; despite this, the remaining US forces in Italy with other Allied forces pushed up to the
Gothic line in northern Italy, the last major defensive line. From August 1944 to March 1945 the Allies managed to breach the formidable defenses but they narrowly failed to break out into the Lombardy Plains before the winter weather closed in and made further progress impossible. In April 1945 the Allies broke through the remaining Axis positions in
Operation Grapeshot ending the Italian Campaign on 2 May 1945; US forces in mainland Italy suffered between 114,000 and over 119,000 casualties.
Strategic bombing , 8th Air Force Commander from January 1944 to V-E Day Numerous bombing runs were launched by the United States aimed at the industrial heart of Germany. Using the high altitude
B-17 and
B-24, the raids had to be conducted in daylight for the drops to be accurate. As adequate fighter escort was rarely available, the bombers would fly
in tight, box formations, allowing each bomber to provide overlapping
machine-gun fire for defense. The tight formations made it impossible to evade fire from
Luftwaffe fighters, however, and American bomber crew losses were high. One such example was the
Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, which resulted in staggering losses of men and equipment. The introduction of the revered
P-51 Mustang, which had enough fuel to make a round trip to Germany's heartland, helped to reduce losses later in the war. In mid-1942, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) arrived in the UK and carried out a few raids across the
English Channel. The USAAF
Eighth Air Force's B-17 bombers were called the "Flying Fortresses" because of their heavy defensive armament of ten to twelve machine guns, and armor plating in vital locations. In part because of their heavier armament and armor, they carried smaller bomb loads than British bombers. With all of this, the USAAF's commanders in Washington, DC, and in Great Britain adopted the strategy of taking on the Luftwaffe head-on, in larger and larger air raids by mutually defending bombers, flying over Germany, Austria, and France at high altitudes during the daytime. Also, both the US Government and its Army Air Forces commanders were reluctant to bomb enemy cities and towns indiscriminately. They claimed that by using the B-17 and the
Norden bombsight, the USAAF should be able to carry out "precision bombing" on locations vital to the German war machine: factories,
naval bases,
shipyards, railroad yards, railroad junctions, power plants, steel mills, airfields, etc. In January 1943, at the
Casablanca Conference, it was agreed
RAF Bomber Command operations against Germany would be reinforced by the USAAF in a Combined Operations Offensive plan called Operation Pointblank. Chief of the British Air Staff MRAF Sir
Charles Portal was put in charge of the "strategic direction" of both British and American bomber operations. The text of the Casablanca directive read: "Your primary object will be the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial and economic system and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened.", At the beginning of the combined strategic bombing offensive on 4 March 1943 669 RAF and 303 USAAF heavy bombers were available. In late 1943, 'Pointblank' attacks manifested themselves in the infamous Schweinfurt raids (first and second). Formations of unescorted bombers were no match for German fighters, which inflicted a deadly toll. In despair, the Eighth halted air operations over Germany until a long-range fighter could be found in 1944; it proved to be the P-51 Mustang, which had the range to fly to Berlin and back. USAAF leaders firmly held to the claim of "precision bombing" of military targets for much of the war, and dismissed claims they were simply bombing cities. However, the American Eighth Air Force received the first
H2X radar sets in December 1943. Within two weeks of the arrival of these first six sets, the Eighth command permitted them to area bomb a city using H2X and would continue to authorize, on average, about one such attack a week until the end of the war in Europe. In reality, the day bombing was "precision bombing" only in the sense that most bombs fell somewhere near a specific designated target such as a railway yard. Conventionally, the air forces designated as "the target area" a circle having a radius of 1000 feet around the aiming point of attack. While accuracy improved during the war, Survey studies show that, overall, only about 20% of the bombs aimed at precision targets fell within this target area. In the fall of 1944, only seven percent of all bombs dropped by the Eighth Air Force hit within 1,000 feet of their aim point. The only offensive ordnance possessed by the USAAF that was guidable, the VB-1
Azon, saw very limited service in Europe and in the
CBI Theater late in the war. Nevertheless, the sheer tonnage of explosives delivered by day and by night was eventually enough to cause widespread damage, and, more importantly from a military point of view, forced Germany to divert resources to counter it. This was to be the real significance of the Allied strategic bombing campaign—resource allocation. To improve USAAF fire bombing capabilities a mock-up German village was built and repeatedly burned down. It contained full-scale replicas of German homes. Fire bombing attacks proved successful, in a single 1943 attack on Hamburg about 50,000 civilians were killed and almost the entire city destroyed. With the arrival of the brand-new
Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, command of the US Air Forces in Europe was consolidated into the
United States Strategic Air Forces (USSAF). With the addition of the Mustang to its strength, the Combined Bomber Offensive was resumed. Planners targeted the Luftwaffe in an operation known as '
Big Week' (20–25 February 1944) and succeeded brilliantly – losses were so heavy German planners were forced into a hasty dispersal of industry and the day fighter arm never fully recovered. The dismissal of General
Ira Eaker at the end of 1943 as commander of the
Eighth Air Force and his replacement by an American aviation legend, Maj. Gen
Jimmy Doolittle signaled a change in how the American bombing effort went forward over Europe. Doolittle's major influence on the European air war occurred early in the year when he changed the policy requiring escorting fighters to remain with the bombers at all times. With his permission, initially performed with
P-38s and
P-47s with both previous types being steadily replaced with the long-ranged
P-51s as the spring of 1944 wore on, American fighter pilots on bomber defense missions would primarily be flying far ahead of the bombers'
combat box formations in
air supremacy mode, literally "clearing the skies" of any
Luftwaffe fighter opposition heading towards the target. This strategy fatally disabled the twin-engined
Zerstörergeschwader heavy fighter wings and their replacement, single-engined
Sturmgruppen of
heavily armed Fw 190As, clearing each force of
bomber destroyers in their turn from Germany's skies throughout most of 1944. As part of this game-changing strategy, especially after the bombers had hit their targets, the USAAF's fighters were then free to strafe German airfields and transport while returning to base, contributing significantly to the achievement of air superiority by Allied air forces over Europe. On 27 March 1944, the Combined Chiefs of Staff issued orders granting control of all the Allied air forces in Europe, including strategic bombers, to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the
Supreme Allied Commander, who delegated command to his deputy in
SHAEF Air Chief Marshal
Arthur Tedder. There was resistance to this order from some senior figures, including Winston Churchill, Harris, and
Carl Spaatz, but after some debate, control passed to SHAEF on 1 April 1944. When the Combined Bomber Offensive officially ended on 1 April, Allied airmen were well on the way to achieving air superiority over all of Europe. While they continued some strategic bombing, the USAAF along with the RAF turned their attention to the tactical air battle in support of the Normandy Invasion. It was not until the middle of September that the strategic bombing campaign of Germany again became the priority for the USAAF. The twin campaigns—the USAAF by day, the RAF by night—built up into massive bombing of German industrial areas, notably the
Ruhr, followed by attacks directly on cities such as
Hamburg,
Kassel,
Pforzheim,
Mainz and the often-criticized
bombing of Dresden.
Operation Overlord troops and equipment going up the bluff from Omaha Beach to
Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer on D+1, 7 June 1944. The second European front that the Soviets had pressed for was finally opened on 6 June 1944, when the Allies launched an
invasion of Normandy. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower had delayed the attack because of bad weather, but finally, the largest amphibious assault in history began. After prolonged bombing runs on the French coast by the Army Air Forces, 225
US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs at
Pointe du Hoc under intense enemy fire and destroyed the German gun emplacements that could have threatened the amphibious landings. Also before the main amphibious assault, the American
82nd and
101st Airborne divisions dropped behind the beaches into
Nazi-occupied France, to protect the coming landings. Many of the
paratroopers were not dropped on their intended landing zones and were scattered throughout Normandy. As the paratroops fought their way through the
hedgerows, the main amphibious landings began. The Americans came ashore at the beaches codenamed '
Omaha' and '
Utah'. The landing craft bound for Utah, as with so many other units, went off course, coming ashore two kilometers off target. The
4th Infantry Division faced weak resistance during the landings and by the afternoon were linked up with paratroopers fighting their way towards the coast. At Omaha the Germans had prepared the beaches with
land mines,
Czech hedgehogs and
Belgian Gates in anticipation of the invasion. Intelligence before the landings had placed the less experienced German 714th Division in charge of the defense of the beach. However, the highly trained and experienced 352nd moved in days before the invasion. As a result, the soldiers from the
1st and
29th Infantry Divisions became pinned down by superior enemy fire immediately after leaving their landing craft. In some instances, entire landing craft full of men were mowed down by the well-positioned German defenses. As the casualties mounted, the soldiers formed impromptu units and advanced inland. The small units then fought their way through the minefields that were in between the Nazi machine-gun bunkers. After squeezing through, they then attacked the bunkers from the rear, allowing more men to come safely ashore. By the end of the day, the Americans suffered over 6,000 casualties.
Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II. The beach is on the coast of Normandy, France, facing the English Channel, and is long, from east of
Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes to west of
Vierville-sur-Mer on the right bank of the
Douve River estuary. Landings here were necessary to link up the British landings to the east at
Gold Beach with the American landing to the west at
Utah Beach, thus providing a continuous lodgement on the Normandy coast of the
Bay of the Seine. Taking Omaha was to be the responsibility of United States Army troops, with sea transport and naval artillery support provided by the US Navy and elements of the British Royal Navy. On D-Day, the untested 29th Infantry Division, joined by the veteran 1st Infantry Division and nine companies of
US Army Rangers redirected from
Pointe du Hoc, were to assault the western half of the beach. The battle-hardened 1st Infantry Division was given the eastern half. The initial assault waves, consisting of tanks, infantry, and combat engineer forces, were carefully planned to reduce the coastal defenses and allow the larger ships of the follow-up waves to land. The primary objective at Omaha was to secure a beachhead of some five miles (eight kilometers) depth, between
Port-en-Bessin and the
Vire River, linking with the British landings at Gold Beach to the east, and reaching the area of
Isigny to the west to link up with
VII Corps landing at Utah Beach. Opposing the landings was the German
352nd Infantry Division, a large portion of whom were teenagers, though they were supplemented by veterans who had fought on the Eastern Front. The 352nd had never had any battalion or regimental training. Of the 12,020 men of the division, only 6,800 were experienced combat troops, detailed to defend a front. The Germans were largely deployed in strongpoints along the coast—the German strategy was based on defeating any seaborne assault at the waterline. Nevertheless, Allied calculations indicated that Omaha's defenses were three times as strong as those they had encountered during the Battle of Kwajalein, and its defenders were four times as many. Very little went as planned during the landing at Omaha Beach. Navigation difficulties caused the majority of landing craft to miss their targets throughout the day. The defenses were unexpectedly strong, and inflicted heavy casualties on landing US troops. Under heavy fire, the engineers struggled to clear the beach obstacles; later landings bunched up around the few channels that were cleared. Weakened by the casualties taken just in landing, the surviving assault troops could not clear the heavily defended exits off the beach. This caused further problems and consequent delays for later landings. Small penetrations were eventually achieved by groups of survivors making improvised assaults, scaling the bluffs between the most heavily defended points. By the end of the day, two small isolated footholds had been won, which were subsequently exploited against weaker defenses further inland, thus achieving the original D-Day objectives over the following days． With the Beaches secured, the Allies needed to secure a deep-water port to allow reinforcements to be brought in, with American forces at the base of the
Cotentin Peninsula the target was
Cherbourg, at the end of the Cotentin. The US
VII Corps immediately began making their push after the beaches were secured on 6 June, facing a mix of weak regiments and battlegroups from several divisions who used the
bocage terrain, flooded fields and narrow roads to their advantage which slowed the American advance. After being reinforced, VII corps took control of the peninsula in fierce fighting on 19 June and launched their assault on Cherbourg on 22 June. The German garrison surrendered on 29 June, but by this time they had destroyed the port facilities, which were not made fully operational until September.
Battle of Saint-Lô The Battle of Saint-Lô is one of the three conflicts in the Battle of the Hedgerows (fr), which took place between 9–24 July 1944, just before Operation Cobra. Saint-Lô had fallen to Germany in 1940, and, after the Invasion of Normandy, the Americans targeted the city, as it served as a strategic crossroads. American bombardments caused heavy damage (up to 95% of the city was destroyed) and a high number of casualties, which resulted in the martyr city being called "The Capital of Ruins", popularized in a report by Samuel Beckett.
Battle of Carentan The Battle of Carentan was an engagement between airborne forces of the United States Army and the German Wehrmacht during the Battle of Normandy. The battle took place between 10 and 15 June 1944, on the approaches to and within the city of
Carentan, France. The objective of the attacking American forces was the consolidation of the US beachheads (Utah Beach and Omaha Beach) and establishment of a continuous defensive line against expected German counterattacks. The defending German force attempted to hold the city long enough to allow reinforcements en route from the south to arrive, prevent or delay the merging of the lodgments, and keep the US First Army from launching an attack towards Lessay-Périers that would cut off the
Cotentin Peninsula. Carentan was defended by two battalions of Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 6 (6th Parachute Regiment) of the 2nd Fallschirmjäger-Division and two Ost battalions. The 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division, ordered to reinforce Carentan, was delayed by transport shortages and attacks by Allied aircraft. The attacking 101st Airborne Division landed by parachute on 6 June as part of the American airborne landings in Normandy, was ordered to seize Carentan. In the ensuing battle, the 101st forced passage across the causeway into Carentan on 10–11 June. A lack of ammunition forced the German forces to withdraw on 12 June. The 17th SS PzG Division counter-attacked the 101st Airborne on 13 June. Initially successful, its attack was thrown back by Combat Command A (CCA) of the US 2nd Armored Division
Operation Cobra After the amphibious assault, the Allied forces remained stalled in Normandy for some time, advancing much more slowly than expected with close-fought infantry battles in the dense hedgerows. However, with Operation Cobra, launched on 24 July with mostly American troops, the Allies succeeded in breaking the German lines and sweeping out into France with fast-moving armored divisions. This led to a major defeat for the Germans, with 400,000 soldiers trapped in the
Falaise pocket, and the capture of Paris on 25 August.
Operation Lüttich Operation Lüttich was a code name given to a German counter-attack during the Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain from 7–13 August 1944. (Lüttich is the German name for the city of Liège in Belgium, where the Germans had won a victory in the early days of August 1914 during World War I.) The offensive is also referred to in American and British histories of the Battle of Normandy as the Mortain counter-offensive. The assault was ordered by Adolf Hitler, to eliminate the gains made by the First United States Army during Operation Cobra and the subsequent weeks, and by reaching the coast in the region of Avranches at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, cut off the units of the Third United States Army which had advanced into Brittany. The main German striking force was the
XLVII Panzer Corps, with one and a half SS Panzer Divisions and two Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions. Although they made initial gains against the defending US VII Corps, they were soon halted and Allied aircraft inflicted severe losses on the attacking troops, eventually destroying nearly half of the German tanks involved in the attack.[2] Although fighting continued around Mortain for six days, the American forces had regained the initiative within a day of the opening of the German attack. The German commanders on the spot had warned Hitler in vain that there was little chance of the attack succeeding. The concentration of their armored reserves at the western end of the front in Normandy soon led to disaster, as they were outflanked to their south and the front to their east collapsed. This resulted in many of the German troops in Normandy being trapped in the Falaise Pocket.
Falaise Pocket After Operation Cobra, the American breakout from the Normandy beachhead, the
Third US Army commanded by Lieutenant General
George S. Patton rapidly advanced south and south-east. Despite lacking the resources to defeat the US breakthrough and simultaneous British and Canadian offensives south of
Caumont and
Caen, Field Marshal
Günther von Kluge, the commander of
Army Group B, was not permitted by Hitler to withdraw but was ordered to conduct a counter-offensive at
Mortain against the US breakthrough. Four depleted panzer divisions were not enough to defeat the First US Army. Operation Lüttich was a disaster, which drove the Germans deeper into the Allied envelopment. On 8 August, the Allied ground forces commander, British General
Sir Bernard Montgomery, ordered the Allied armies to converge on the Falaise–Chambois area to envelop Army Group B, the First US Army forming the southern arm, the
British Second Army the base and the
First Canadian Army the northern arm of the encirclement. The Germans began to withdraw on 17–19 August, and the Allies linked up in Chambois. Gaps were forced in the Allied lines by German counter-attacks, the biggest being a corridor forced past the
1st Polish Armored Division on
Hill 262, a commanding position at the mouth of the pocket. By the evening of 21 August, the pocket had been sealed, with c. 50,000 Germans trapped inside. Many Germans escaped but losses in men and equipment were huge. Two days later the Allied Liberation of Paris was completed and on 30 August, the remnants of Army Group B retreated across the Seine, which ended Operation Overlord.
Operation Dragoon On 15 August 1944, the
US 7th Army, spearheaded by the
3rd Infantry Division and
36th Infantry Division and other Allied forces landed in southern France between
Cannes and
Hyères. Their aim was to secure the southern half of France and in particular to capture
Marseille as the main supply harbor for the Allies in France. The operation was a success and forced the German
Army Group G to abandon southern France and to retreat under constant Allied attacks to the
Vosges Mountains. By the time the operation finished on 14 September 1944, US forces suffered 2,050 killed, captured or missing 7,750 other casualties, on 15 September 1944 the Allied forces of the operation were renamed the
Sixth Army Group and placed under Eisenhower's command.
Operation Market Garden The next major Allied operation came on 17 September. Devised by British General Bernard Montgomery, its primary objective was the capture of several bridges in the Netherlands. Fresh off of their successes in Normandy, the Allies were optimistic that an attack on the Nazi-occupied Netherlands would force open a route across the
Rhine and onto the
North German Plain. Such an opening would allow Allied forces to break out northward and advance toward
Denmark and, ultimately, Berlin. The plan involved a daylight drop of the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The 101st was to capture the bridges at
Eindhoven, with the 82nd taking the bridges at
Grave and
Nijmegen. After the bridges had been captured, the ground force, also known as
XXX Corps or "Garden", would drive up a single road and link up with the paratroops. The operation failed because the Allies were unable to capture the bridge furthest to the north at
Arnhem. There, the
British 1st Airborne had been dropped to secure the bridges, but upon landing they discovered that a highly experienced German
SS Panzer unit was garrisoning the town. The paratroopers had only light anti-tank weaponry and quickly lost ground. Failure to quickly relieve those members of the 1st who had managed to seize the bridge at Arnhem on the part of the armored
XXX Corps, meant that the Germans were able to stymie the entire operation. In the end, the operation's ambitious nature, the fickle state of war, and failures on the part of Allied intelligence (as well as tenacious German defense) can be blamed for Market-Garden's ultimate failure. This operation was also the last time that either the 82nd or 101st made a combat jump during the war.
Operation Queen Unable to push north into the Netherlands, the Allies in western Europe were forced to consider other options to get into Germany. In the summer of 1944, the Allies suffered from a large supply crisis, due to the long supply route. But by the fall of 1944, this had largely been resolved by the
Red Ball Express. As part of the
Siegfriend Line Campaign, the Allies tried to push into Germany towards the Rhine. As a first step,
Aachen was captured during a
heavy battle. The Germans now had the advantage of their old fortification system, the
Siegfried line. During the
Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Allies fought a long battle of attrition with the Germans, which ended initially in a stalemate, with the Allies unable to take the complete forest. The battle of the Hürtgen Forest was later absorbed by a larger offensive,
Operation Queen. During this offensive, the Allies intended to push towards the Ruhr, as a staging point for a subsequent thrust over the river to the
Rhine into Germany. However, against underestimated and stiffened German resistance, the Allies were only able to make slow progress. By mid-December the Allies were finally at the Ruhr, but by then the Germans had prepared their own offensive through the Ardennes, which was launched in the midst of an unsuccessful Allied attack against the Ruhr dams.
Battle of the Bulge On 16 December 1944, the Germans launched a massive attack westward in the
Ardennes forest, along a battlefront extending southwards from
Monschau to
Echternach, hoping to punch a hole in the Allied lines and capture the Belgian city of
Antwerp. The Allies responded slowly, allowing the German attack to create a large "bulge" in the Allied lines. In the initial stages of the offensive, American
POWs from the
285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion were executed at the
Malmedy massacre by Nazi
SS and
Fallschirmjäger. As the Germans pushed westward, General Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne and elements of the
U.S. 10th Armored Division into the road junction town of
Bastogne to prepare a defense. The town quickly became cut off and surrounded. The winter weather slowed Allied air support, and the defenders were outnumbered and low on supplies. When given a request for their surrender from the Germans, General
Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101st, replied, "Nuts!", contributing to the stubborn American defense. On 19 December, General Patton told Eisenhower that he could have his army in Bastogne in 48 hours. Patton then turned his army, at the time on the front in
Luxembourg, north to break through to Bastogne. Patton's armor pushed north, and by 26 December was in Bastogne, effectively ending the siege. By the time it was over, more American soldiers had served in the battle than in any engagement in American history. On 31 December, the Germans launched their last major offensive of the war on the Western Front,
Operation Nordwind, in
Alsace and
Lorraine in northeastern France. Against weakened American forces there, the Germans were able to push the Americans back to the south bank of the
Moder River on 21 January. On 25 January, Allied reinforcements from the Ardennes arrived, the German offensive was stopped and in fierce fighting the so-called
Colmar Pocket was eliminated. The German offensive was supported by several subordinate operations known as Unternehmen Bodenplatte, Greif, and Währung. Germany's goal for these operations was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capturing Antwerp and then proceed to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in favor of the Axis powers. Once accomplished, Hitler could fully concentrate on the eastern theater of war. The offensive was planned with the utmost secrecy, minimizing radio traffic and moving troops and equipment under cover of darkness. The Third US Army's intelligence staff predicted a major German offensive, and
Ultra indicated that a "substantial and offensive" operation was expected or "in the wind", although a precise date or point of attack could not be given. Aircraft movement from the Soviet Front to the Ardennes and transport of forces by rail to the Ardennes was noticed but not acted upon, according to a report later written by
Peter Calvocoressi and
F. L. Lucas at the
Bletchley Park code-breaking center. Near-complete surprise was achieved by a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of a heavy overcast, which grounded the Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. Fierce resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive around
Elsenborn Ridge and in the south around
Bastogne blocked German access to key roads to the west that they counted on for success. This and terrain that favored the defenders threw the German timetable behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. Improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line. With about 610,000 men committed and some 89,000 casualties, including 19,000 killed, the Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II.
Colmar Pocket The Colmar Pocket (French: Poche de Colmar; German: Brückenkopf Elsaß) was the area held in central
Alsace, France by the
German 19th Army from November 1944 – February 1945, against the US 6th Army Group during World War II. It was formed when the 6th AG liberated southern and northern Alsace and adjacent eastern Lorraine, but could not clear central Alsace. During Operation Nordwind in December 1944, the 19th Army attacked north out of the Pocket in support of other German forces attacking south from the Saar into northern Alsace. In late January and early February 1945, the French First Army (reinforced by the US XXI Corps) cleared the Pocket of German forces.
Invasion of Germany By early 1945, events favored the Allied forces in Europe. On the Western Front the Allies had been fighting in Germany since the
Battle of Aachen in October 1944 and by January had turned back the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. The failure of this last major German offensive exhausted much of Germany's remaining combat strength, leaving it ill-prepared to resist the final Allied campaigns in Europe. Additional losses in the Rhineland further weakened the German Army, leaving shattered remnants of units to defend the east bank of the Rhine. On 7 March, the Allies seized the last remaining intact bridge across the Rhine at Remagen, and had established a large bridgehead on the river's east bank. During
Operation Lumberjack and
Operation Plunder in February–March 1945, German casualties are estimated at 400,000 men, including 280,000 men captured as prisoners of war.
South German Offensive The South German Offensive is the general name of one of the final offensives of World War II in Europe. The offensive was led by the Seventh and Third armies of the United States along with the
First Army of France. Soviet troops linked up with American forces in
Czechoslovakia notably in the
Battle of Slivice. The offensive was made by the US 6th Army Group to protect the 12th Army Group's right flank and to prevent a German last stand in the Alps. However, German resistance was much more fierce than in the north, which slowed the 6th Army Group's progress. However, by the end of April, many German divisions surrendered without a fight to the advancing American forces to avoid the inevitable destruction. The
VI Corps of the Seventh Army linked up with the
US Fifth Army, which fought through Italy, in the Alps as the Third Army advanced into
Austria and Czechoslovakia, where it linked up with Soviet forces advancing from the east. Fighting continued a few days after the
Surrender of Germany on 8 May, due to German forces fighting west to surrender to the Americans instead of the Soviets. , east of the
Elbe River Race to Berlin Following the defeat of the German army in the Ardennes, the Allies pushed back towards the Rhine and the heart of Germany. With the capture of the
Ludendorff Bridge at
Remagen, the Allies crossed the Rhine in March 1945. The Americans then executed a
pincer movement, setting up the
Ninth Army north, and the
First Army south. When the Allies closed the pincer, 300,000 Germans were captured in the
Ruhr Pocket. The Americans then turned east, first meeting up with the Red Army at
Torgau on the
Elbe River in April. The Germans surrendered Berlin to the Red Army on 2 May 1945. The war in Europe came to an end on
V-E Day, 8 May 1945. However, the state of war between the United States and Germany was not officially terminated until 19 October 1951. ==Pacific Theater==