D Day and the Liberation of Europe

How the Battle was a success for Hitler

On paper, such a major offensive seemed slightly absurd, since Germany had been on the retreat since D Day. Yet to begin with, the Germans had some successes: the allies were caught by surprise, having little intelligence on the battle due to German soldiers in American uniforms spreading misinformation in the enemy camp, as well as changing road signs and cutting phone lines. In addition, the allies were weakened by the low cloud and foggy weather, which hindered the use of the RAF's typhoons and the USAAF's Mustangs.

The Battle Plan

Hitler aimed to use three armies: one would take the port of Antwerp (affecting allied supply), another would attack the centre of the American forces, and the third army would create a buffer zone to stop American reinforcements from retaliating.

The Allied Crossing into the Rhine

In March 1945, Britain France and American finally broke through the Rhine and into the heart of Germany. Churchill and Montgomery wanted to get to Berlin before the Soviets did following this success. However, Eisenhower refused, who was now considerably calling the tune due to their armaments being much bigger in size than Britain's.

German Mistakes and Weaknesses

German strategy in World War Two overall was majorly impacted by the D Day landings, with divisions being transferred from several theatres of war, including Russia, weakening German efforts there. Meanwhile, German resources were also pulled by the Atlantic Wall. While Hitler had stated that he would "quickly throw the allies back into the sea", the German response to D Day was slow and confused, due to Germany's complex command structure, as well as due to an overall lack of resources for any counter attack. It had to feed in basic armoured divisions, which resulted in a war of attrition of which the allies would win, due to their superiority in men and material.

The role of the Air Forces

Before the attack launched, some 200,000 tons of bombs were dropped on France by the allies, which hindered German efforts to reinforce the beaches. For the actual D Day attack, there were various types of operations simultaneously in place. A number of supplies were dropped by planes to reach the French resistance, which built up their fighting effectiveness and caused disruption to German command. The air forces also major transport and communication hubs such as railway lines and bridges. Air patrols were also used to prevent German activity over the channel ports, and they were also used to make a "bubble" around the beach head, supporting the allied troops below. Some of these planes were brought in specially from Arthur Harris's Bombing efforts on Germany, despite his opposition. This "bubble" was a major success, with only two Luftwaffe fighters being able to make an appearance at the D Day landings. However, the lack of Luftwaffe presence was also due to the role of the USAAF in the German Bombings. Meanwhile, the planes also brought in men and supplies to the beach head in vast numbers, along with paratroopers.

The significance of D Day

D Day was the largest military operation by sea in history, and had great significance. While the Germans had heavily defended their borders, this was overcome by the Allies ultimately through the use of trickery, which made the Germans point their defences in the wrong direction, as well as through air attacks weakening German defences, and the role of paratrooper landings. While the land fighters were eventually able to get ashore, their progress was more slow, due to heavy enemy bombardment, which still had to be dealt with despite the deception of "Fortitude South". Nevertheless, casualties were less than expected, probably due to the years of planning that had gone into the operation, and the establishment of a firm foothold in France would lead to it's liberation, and thus the ability to totally defeat Germany. On Germany's side, some 400,000 troops were lost, and the liberation of France stopped Germany from exploiting further it's economic and manpower resources.

The Advantage of Letting the Soviets get Berlin

Eisenhower didn't want casualties to be higher than necessary, and since plans for the reoccupation of Germany had been worked out at Yalta, the allies would have had to hand over Berlin (as well as a considerable amount of further territory) to the Soviets anyway once the war was over. In addition, America has certainly not fought the war in order to let Britain's Montgomery ride triumphantly into Berlin with their forces.

The early origins of "The Second Front"

It was in May 1942 that Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov had pressed the allies to directly attack German occupied Europe, which Churchill initially refused due to the lack of manpower. However, the Russians continued to persist Churchill on such an invasion, as they had been doing most of the hard fighting in the east, while the USA was also in favour of invading Germany due to their resources. Churchill still resisted however, convinced that a sea-Bourne attack was militarily unsound. Churchill thus preferred action in the Mediterranean and Africa, due to the fact that there were so many troops already there, followed by an attack on next door Sicily. It was only at the Tehran Conference, by which point British influence was fading, that the D Day landings were agreed to.

The Battle of Berlin

On April 16th 1945, Stalin unleashed a brutal 20 armies to crush German resistance and capture Berlin, with the western allies halting their advance to give the Soviets a free hand. While the German defence was initially stiff, it eventually succumbed to the overwhelming Russian force. The German army became quickly reduced to nothing, with children as young as 13 even being called up to replace soldiers. By April 24th, the Russians surrounded the city, and they began fighting street to street in order to reach the centre of the city, and Hitler's Chancellory. As his "thousand year reach" crumbed above, Hitler married his mistress in his Berlin bunker, before committing suicide on 30th April. On 2nd May 1945, Berlin was taken by the Soviets, with a Georgian soldier flying the red flag over the German Reichstag. On 8th May, Germany surrendered.

The role of US Land Operations

Some of the troops managed to avoid the heavy firing line - the US 4th Division on Utah Beach landed just 1,000 south of target, but it avoided the heavy German defences and thus suffered less casualties. However, others were not so lucky. On Ohama Beach, the US troops ran into stiff opposition, where the infantry were cut down by heavy German fire, causing a bloodbath. It was only after support from naval gunfire, as well as sheer guts in some exceptional officers, that the men were able to push past the Germans

The role of Paratrooper Landings

The American paratrooper landings were hindered slightly due to cloud cover, which broke formations. However, this also confused the Germans, sending their divisional reserves to attack troops they couldn't locate. Meanwhile the British landings were more successful - they quickly seized the vital "Pegasus" bridge on the Orne River, as well as disabling a German battery at Merville. A 6th Airborne Division then formed a crust to protect the eastern flank of the beach head.

The role of Canadian and British Land Operations

Their role was to take Juno and Sword beaches, supported by assault vehicles. They pushed inland rapidly, though on Sword, the British were held up NH German defensive positions along a ridge. After a counterattack was launched, some units managed to get to the coast, but were too weak to hold their positions. Thus progression in the landings had been slow due to enemy fire / heavy defences.

How the Battle was a failure

This success lasted just two days, as the Germans were unable to capitalise on their gains. While the Germans had based their attack on an onslaught, they needed the fuel to maintain it, and the German war machine had by this point ground to a halt, due in part to the Allied Bombing Offensive. As a result, the Germans had little fuel to keep their attack going, and once the weather cleared, the Americans were able to counter attack the Germans from the air. In January 1945, fuel supplies were so low that the Germans had to literally abandon their vehicles and retreat on foot. The allies won, although there was a month of stalemate fighting first. 81,000 Americans and 100,000 Germans were lost.

The role of the "Atlantic Wall"

This was the name for German defences along the European coast, from the Netherlands to the Spanish border. It was intended to prevent an allied invasion from getting a foothold on the continent, and the wall consisted of gun batteries, observation posts, bunkers and radar towers. The beach defences were further supported by army divisions, with adequate air and naval forces. The entire coast was this heavily defended, although the biggest amount of concentration is on Pas De Calais, which is the narrowest stretch of the English Channel.

The Role of Information and Deception

Throughout 1944, Britain effectively became a huge military base, with nearly 3 million members of all the forces gathered in southern England. Of these, there were some 500,000 American troops. Despite the massive concentration of people involved, the detailed plan for invasion made by Eisenhower was kept tight lipped - Germany were unable to find out when or where an attack would be, but knew it was coming. They were confused further by "Fortitude South", an elaborate plan by the Allies, which tried to deceive the Germans into thinking that the main attack would come at the Pas-de-Calais - this was the most heavily defended part of the Atlantic Wall, and on the narrowest stretch of the English Channel. A skilled team were employed to create an illusion of a large invasion being prepared from Kent, with the use of dummy tanks and aircraft from inflatable rubber, as well as even pretend radio transmissions to fool German intelligence services! The hoax was a major success - as the real invasion landed in Normandy, the allies dropped silver foil to give the impression of ships crossing from Dover, thus portraying Normandy as a diversion to the real attack at Pas-de-Calais. The Germans thus kept back reserves for this area, and only realised they had been tricked when it was too late - by this time, Normandy had been secured.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the "Atlantic Wall"

Under Rommel's supervision, six million mines were placed along the beach heads, which could not be seen by an invading force. If an invasion had happened at low tide, they would have been seen, but this would have delayed any advance. the wall was a weakness on the basis that it absorbed a huge amount of German resources, using up to 17 million cubic metres of concrete and over a million tonnes of steel, costing France alone 3.7 billion Deutschmarks. This is despite the fact that slave labour was involved in the building of the wall. In addition, while the Germans were decepted into thinking that the Pas-de-Calais (the most defended part of the wall), would be the site of attack, the landings actually took place in Normandy.

The Aim of the Battle of the Bulge

With France liberated, and allied troops now moving into Western Europe through Belgium and the Netherlands, Hitler made a last ditch attempt to try and split the allied forces in two, which would also cause them supply problems.