Western Front (World War II)

This article is about the West European theatre. For the 1941–1944 Soviet military formation, seeWestern Front (Soviet Union).For the 1941–1945 East European theatre, seeEastern Front (World War II).

Western Front
Part of theEuropean theatre of World War II
Clockwise from top left:Rotterdamafter theBlitz,GermanHeinkel He 111planes during theBattle of Britain,Alliedparatroopers duringOperation Market Garden,American troops running throughWernberg,Germany,Siege of Bastogne,American troops landing atOmaha BeachduringOperation Overlord
Date 3 September 1939 – 8 May 1945(1939-09-03–1945-05-08) (5 years, 8 months and 5 days) Location NorthernandWestern Europe Result 1939–1940:Axisvictory Occupation of most of Western and Northern Europe by Axis troops End of theFrench Third Republicand creation of theVichy regime Strategic stalemate following theBattle of Britain Continuation with theDefense of the Reichand theBattle of the Atlantic Beginning of theNorth AfricaandEast Africacampaigns 1944–1945:Allied victory Fall of Nazi Germany (concurrently with theEastern Front) Fall of theVichy Regime Liberation of occupied countries in Western and Northern Europe Beginning of theIron Curtainand theCold War Territorial changes Partition of Germany(1945)
Belligerents
Allies 1939-1940 France United Kingdom Poland Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg Norway Denmark(9 April 1940) Canada Czechoslovakia	Axis 1939-1940 Germany Italy
1944-1945 United States United Kingdom •Newfoundland France Canada Poland Belgium Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Czechoslovakia Italy	1944-1945 Germany Italian Social Republic
Commanders and leaders
1939–1940 Maurice Gamelin Maxime Weygand John Vereker, Lord Gort William Boyle, Lord Cork Władysław Sikorski Henri Winkelman Leopold III Émile Speller Otto Ruge William Prior 1944–1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt# Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower Winston Churchill Bernard Montgomery Arthur Tedder Omar Bradley Jacob L. Devers George S. Patton Courtney Hodges William Simpson Alexander Patch Miles Dempsey Trafford Leigh-Mallory† Bertram Ramsay† Charles de Gaulle Jean de Tassigny Kenneth Stuart Harry Crerar Kazimierz Sosnkowski Stanisław Maczek	1939–1940 Walter von Brauchitsch Gerd von Rundstedt Erich von Manstein Heinz Guderian Fedor von Bock Wilhelm von Leeb Erich Raeder Nikolaus von Falkenhorst Prince Umberto 1944–1945 Adolf Hitler† Heinrich Himmler† Hermann Göring† Gerd von Rundstedt Karl Dönitz Günther von Kluge† Walter Model† Albert Kesselring Erwin Rommel† Johannes Blaskowitz† Hermann Balck Paul Hausser Benito Mussolini Rodolfo Graziani
Strength
1939–1940 7,650,000 troops (total) 1944–1945 ~5,412,219 troops (total that served) 4,500,000 troops (total as ofVictory in Europe Day)	1939–1940 5,400,000 troops (total) 1944–1945 ~8,000,000 troops (total that served) ~1,900,000 troops (peak)
Casualties and losses
1940 2,121,560–2,260,000casualties, including 73,000 killed and 15,000 missing 1944–1945 164,590–195,576 killed/missing 537,590 wounded 78,680 captured 10,561 tanks destroyed 909 tank destroyers destroyed Total: ~3,000,000 casualties	1940 160,780–163,650 casualties,including 49,000 killed or missing 1944–1945 263,000–655,000 killed 400,000+ wounded 4,209,840 captured Total: 5,000,000–5,400,000+ casualties
Civilian casualties: 1,650,000 dead

TheWestern Frontwas amilitary theatreofWorld War IIencompassingDenmark,Norway,Luxembourg,Belgium,the Netherlands,theUnited Kingdom,France,andGermany.TheItalian frontis considered a separate but related theatre.The Western Front's 1944–1945 phase was officially deemed theEuropean Theaterby the United States, whereas Italy fell under theMediterranean Theateralong with theNorth African campaign.The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and June 1940 after their defeat in theLow Countriesand the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with theBattle of Britain.The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat (supported bya massive strategic air warconsidered to be an additional front), which began in June 1944 with theAllied landings in Normandyand continued until thedefeat of Germanyin May 1945 with itsinvasion.

1939–1940: Axis victories

On 1 September 1939, World War II began with the Germaninvasion of Poland.In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September. The next few months in the war were marked by the Phoney War.

Phoney War

Main article:Phoney War

The Phoney War was an early phase of World War II marked by a few military operations inContinental Europein the months following the German invasion of Poland and preceding theBattle of France.Although the greatpowersof Europe haddeclared waron one another, neither side had yet committed to launching a significant attack, and there was relatively little fighting on the ground. This was also the period in which theUnited Kingdomand France did not supply significant aid to Poland, despite theirpledged alliance.

The French forces launched a small offensive, theSaar Offensiveagainst Germany in theSaar regionbut halted their advance and returned. While most of the German Army was fighting against Poland, a much smaller German force manned theSiegfried Line,their fortified defensive line along the French border. At theMaginot Lineon the other side of the border, French troops stood facing them, whilst theBritish Expeditionary Forceand other elements of theFrench Armycreated a defensive line along the Belgian border. There were only some local, minor skirmishes. The BritishRoyal Air Forcedropped propaganda leaflets on Germany and the first Canadian troops stepped ashore in Britain, while Western Europe was in a strange calm for seven months.

In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France had both begun to buy large numbers of weapons from manufacturers in the United States at the outbreak of hostilities, supplementing their own production. Thenon-belligerentUnited States contributed to theWestern Alliesby discounted sales of military equipment and supplies. German efforts to interdict the Allies' trans-Atlantic trade at sea ignited theBattle of the Atlantic.

Operation Weserübung

While the Western Front remained quiet in April 1940, the fighting between the Allies and the Germans began in earnest with theNorwegian Campaignwhen the Germans launchedOperation Weserübung,the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. In doing so, the Germans beat the Allies to the punch; the Allies had been planning an amphibious landing in which they could begin to surround Germany, cutting off her supply of raw materials fromSweden.However, when the Allies made a counter-landing in Norway following the German invasion, the Germans repulsed them and defeated the Norwegian armed forces, driving the latterinto exile.TheKriegsmarine,nonetheless, suffered very heavy losses during the two months of fighting required to seize all of mainland Norway.

Battles for Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and France

Main articles:German invasion of Luxembourg,Battle of the Netherlands,Battle of Belgium,andBattle of France

In May 1940, the Germans launched the Battle of France. The Western Allies (primarily the French, Belgian and British land forces) soon collapsed under the onslaught of the so-called "blitzkrieg"strategy. Following the German breakthrough at Sedan, the BEF, along with the best of the French and Belgian armies, became trapped in Flanders. With the use of paratroopers and concentrated firepower, the Belgian and Dutch armies surrendered after several days. Luxembourg fell within the first day.

The majority of the British and elements of the French forces escapedat Dunkirk.This was due to the combined factors of poor weather, Germans mishaps, and the incredible number of British civilian ships assembled for the undertaking. Following the conclusion of events at Dunkirk on June 4, the Wehrmacht commenced Fall Rot, an offensive against the remaining French armies. With most of the French armies either destroyed or taken prisoner, the Germans quickly broke through the French lines, taking Paris on June 14. As France was falling, the British began the strategic withdrawal of all remaining British troops from France, via French ports still under Allied control.

With the war all but decided, Italy also declared war on the UK and France, but made little progress. With the situation becoming dire, French Prime Minister Philippe Pétain signed the Second Armistice of Compiègne on June 22, 1940, with its terms taking effect on the 25th of June. The terms of the armistice called for the occupation of Northern France, along with the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine into the German Reich. Italy also was allowed a small occupation zone in the southeast. France was allowed to continue its existence in the form of Vichy France, a rump state of the former French Republic, led by Philippe Pétain. The Vichy regime was allowed to keep their colonial empire and navy, as some of Hitler's few concessions.

In six weeks of fighting, the combined allied armies suffered more than 375,000 killed or wounded, as well as 1,800,000 soldiers becoming prisoners of war. Meanwhile, Germany suffered a more modest 43,110 killed and 111,000 wounded. Hitler had expected a million men to die in the conquest of France. Remarkedly low casualties and France's quick defeat led to a massive rise in morale among the German people. With the fighting ended, the Germans began to consider ways of resolving the question of how to deal with Britain. If the British refused to agree to a peace treaty, one option was toinvade.However, Nazi Germany'sKriegsmarine,had suffered serious losses in Norway, and in order to even consider anamphibious landing,Germany's Air Force (the Luftwaffe) had to first gainair superiorityorair supremacy.

1941–1944: Interlude

Main articles:List of Commando raids on the Atlantic WallandDefence of the Reich

With theLuftwaffeunable to defeat theRAFin theBattle of Britain,the invasion of Great Britain could no longer be thought of as an option. While the majority of the German army was mustered for theinvasion of the Soviet Union,construction began on theAtlantic Wall– a series of defensivefortificationsalong the French coast of theEnglish Channel.These were built in anticipation of an Allied invasion of France.

Dieppe's pebble beach and cliff immediately following the raid on 19 August 1942. Ascout carhas been abandoned.

Because of the massive logistical obstacles a cross-channel invasion would face, the Allied high command decided to conduct a practice attack against the French coast. On 19 August 1942, the Allies began theDieppe Raid,an attack onDieppe,France. Most of the troops were Canadian, with some British contingents and a small American and Free French presence along with British and Polish naval support. The raid was a disaster, almost two-thirds of the attacking force became casualties. However, much was learned as a result of the operation – these lessons would be put to good use in the subsequent invasion.

For almost two years, there was no land-fighting on the Western Front with the exception ofcommandoraids and theguerrillaactions of theresistanceaided by theSpecial Operations Executive(SOE) andOffice of Strategic Services(OSS). However, in the meantime, the Allies took the war to Germany, with astrategic bombing campaign- the USEighth Air Forcebombing Germany by day andRAF Bomber Commandbombing by night. The bulk of the Allied armies were occupied in theMediterranean,seeking to clear the sea lanes to theIndian Ocean,repluse the Axis from North Africa, and commence the invasion of Italy, partly to capture theFoggia Airfield Complex.

Two early British raids for which battle honours were awarded wereOperation Collarin Boulogne (24 June 1940) andOperation Ambassadorin Guernsey (14–15 July 1940). The raids for which the British awarded the "North-West Europe Campaign of 1942"battle honourwere:Operation Biting– Bruneval (27–28 February 1942),St Nazaire(27–28 March 1942),Operation Myrmidon– Bayonne (5 April 1942),Operation Abercrombie– Hardelot (21–22 April 1942),Dieppe(19 August 1942) andOperation Frankton– Gironde (7–12 December 1942).

A raid onSarkon the night of 3/4 October 1942 is notable because a few days after the incursion the Germans issued a propaganda communiqué implying at least one prisoner had escaped and two were shot while resisting having their hands tied. This instance of tying prisoner's hands contributed to Hitler's decision to issue hisCommando Orderinstructing that all capturedCommandosor Commando-type personnel were to be executed as a matter of procedure.

Field MarshalErwin Rommelvisiting theAtlantic Walldefences near the Belgian port ofOstend

By the summer of 1944, when an expectation of an Allied invasion was freely admitted by German commanders, the disposition of troops facing it came under the command ofOB West(HQ inParis). In turn, it commanded: theWehrmachtNetherlands Command (Wehrmachtbefehlshaber Niederlande) or WBN, covering the Dutch andBelgian coasts;Army Group B,covering the coast of northern France with the German15th Army(HQ inTourcoing), in the area north of theSeineand the7th Army,(HQ inLe Mans), between the Seine and theLoiredefending the English Channel and the Atlantic coast; andArmy Group Gwith responsibility for theBay of Biscaycoast andVichy France,with its1st Army,(HQ inBordeaux), responsible for the Atlantic coast between the Loire and the Spanish border and the19th Army,(HQ inAvignon), responsible for theMediterranean coast.

It was not possible to predict where the Allies might choose to launch their invasion. The chance of an amphibious landing necessitated the substantial dispersal of the German mobile reserves, which contained the majority of their panzer troops. Each army group was allocated its mobile reserves. Army Group B had the2nd Panzer Divisionin northern France,116th Panzer Divisionin the Paris area, and the21st Panzer Divisionin Normandy. Army Group G, considering the possibility of an invasion on the Atlantic coast, had dispersed its mobile reserves, locating the11th Panzer DivisioninGironde,the2nd SS Panzer DivisionDas Reichrefitting around the southern French town ofMontauban,and the9th Panzer Divisionstationed in theRhone deltaarea.

The OKW retained a substantial reserve of such mobile divisions also, but these were dispersed over a large area: the1st SS Panzer DivisionLeibstandarte SS Adolf Hitlerwas still in theNetherlands,the12th SS Panzer DivisionHitlerjugendand thePanzer-LehrDivisionwere located in the Paris–Orleans area, since the Normandy coastal defence sectors or (Küstenverteitigungsabschnitte– KVA) were considered the most likely areas for an invasion. The17th SS Panzergrenadier DivisionGötz von Berlichingenwas located just south of the Loire in the vicinity of Tours.

1944–1945: The Second Front

See also:Western Front command tenures (World War II)

Allied landing in Normandy

Main article:Operation Overlord

Routes taken by theD-Dayinvasion

On 6 June 1944, the Allies beganOperation Overlord(also known as "D-Day") – the long-awaitedliberation of France.The deception plans,Operation FortitudeandOperation Bodyguard,had the Germans convinced that the invasion would occur in thePas-de-Calais,while the real target wasNormandy.Following two months of slow fighting inhedgerowcountry,Operation Cobraallowed the Americans to break out at the western end of thelodgement.Soon after, the Allies were racing across France. They encircled around 200,000 Germans in theFalaise Pocket.As had so often happened on theEastern FrontHitler refused to allow a strategic withdrawal until it was too late. Approximately 150,000 Germans were able to escape from the Falaise pocket, but they left behind most of their irreplaceable equipment and 50,000 Germans were killed or takenprisoner.

The Allies had been arguing about whether to advance on a broad-front or a narrow-front from before D-Day.If the British had broken out of the Normandybridgehead(orbeachhead) aroundCaenwhen they launchedOperation Goodwoodand pushed along the coast,facts on the groundmight have turned the argument in favour of a narrow front. However, as the breakout took place during Operation Cobra at the western end of the bridge-head, the21st Army Groupthat included theBritishandCanadianforces swung east and headed for Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern Germany, while theU.S. Twelfth Army Groupadvanced to their south via eastern France, Luxembourg and theRuhr Area,rapidly fanning out into a broad front. As this was the strategy favoured by theSupreme Allied Commander,GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower,and most of the American high command, it was soon adopted.

Liberation of France

Main article:Liberation of France

Further information:Operation Dragoon

Crowds of French people line the Champs Élysées following theLiberation of Paris,26 August 1944.

On 15 August the Allies launchedOperation Dragoon– the invasion of Southern France betweenToulonandCannes.TheUS Seventh Armyand theFrench First Army,making up theUS 6th Army Group,rapidly consolidated this beachhead and liberated Southern France in two weeks; they then moved north up the Rhone valley. Their advance only slowed down as they encountered regrouped and entrenched German troops in theVosges Mountains.

The Germans in France were now faced by three powerful Allied army groups: in the north the British 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal SirBernard Montgomery,in the center the American 12th Army Group, commanded by GeneralOmar Bradleyand to the south the US 6th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant GeneralJacob L. Devers.By mid-September, the 6th Army Group, advancing from the south, came into contact with Bradley's formations advancing from the west and overall control of Devers' force passed fromAFHQin the Mediterranean so that all three army groups came under Eisenhower's central command atSHAEF(Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces).

Under the onslaught in both the north and south of France, the German Army fell back. On 19 August, theFrench Resistance(FFI) organised a general uprising and theliberation of Paristook place on 25 August when generalDietrich von Choltitzaccepted the Frenchultimatumand surrendered to generalPhilippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque,commander of theFree French 2nd Armored Division,ignoring orders from Hitler that Paris should be held to the last and destroyed.

The liberation of Northern France and theBeneluxcountries was of special significance for the inhabitants of London and the southeast of England because it denied the Germans launch sites for their mobileV-1andV-2Vergeltungswaffen(reprisal weapons).

As the Allies advanced across France, their supply lines stretched to breaking point. TheRed Ball Express,the Allied trucking effort, was simply unable to transport enough supplies from the port facilities in Normandy all the way to the front line, which by September, was close to the German border.

Major German units in the French southwest that had not been committed in Normandy withdrew, either eastwards towards Alsace (sometimes directly across the US 6th Army Group's advance) or into the ports with the intention of denying them to the Allies. These latter groups were not thought worth much effort and were left "to rot", with the exception ofBordeaux,which was liberated in May 1945 by French forces under GeneralEdgard de Larminat(Operation Venerable).

Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine

American troops cross theSiegfried Lineinto Germany.

Main article:Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine

Fighting on the Western front seemed to stabilize, and the Allied advance stalled in front of theSiegfried Line(Westwall) and the southern reaches of the Rhine. Starting in early September, the Americans began slow and bloody fighting through theHurtgen Forest( "Passchendaelewith tree bursts"—Hemingway) to breach the Line.

The port ofAntwerpwas liberated on 4 September by theBritish 11th Armoured Division. However, it lay at the end of the longScheldt Estuary,and so it could not be used until its approaches were clear of heavily fortified German positions. TheBreskens pocketon the southern bank of theScheldtwas cleared with heavy casualties by allied forces inOperation Switchback,during theBattle of the Scheldt.This was followed by a tedious campaign to clear a peninsula dominating the estuary, and finally, the amphibious assault onWalcherenIsland in November. The campaign to clear the Scheldt Estuary along withOperation Pheasantwas a decisive victory for the Allies, as it allowed a greatly improved delivery of supplies directly from Antwerp, which was far closer to the front than the Normandy beaches.

In October the Americans decided that they could not justinvestAachenand let it fall in a slow siege, because it threatened the flanks of theU.S. Ninth Army.As it was the first major German city to face capture, Hitler ordered that the city be held at all costs. In the resultingbattle,the city was taken, at a cost of 5,000 casualties on both sides, with an additional 5,600 German prisoners.

South of theArdennes,American forces fought from September until mid-December to push the Germans out of Lorraine and from behind the Siegfried Line. The crossing of theMoselle Riverand the capture of the fortress ofMetzproved difficult for the American troops in the face of German reinforcements, supply shortages, and unfavorable weather. During September and October, the Allied 6th Army Group (U.S. Seventh ArmyandFrench First Army) fought a difficult campaign through the Vosges Mountains that was marked by dogged German resistance and slow advances. In November, however, the German front snapped under the pressure, resulting in sudden Allied advances that liberatedBelfort,Mulhouse,andStrasbourg,and placed Allied forces along theRhine River.The Germans managed to hold a large bridgehead (theColmar Pocket), on the western bank of the Rhine and centered around the city ofColmar.On 16 November the Allies started a large scale autumn offensive calledOperation Queen.With its main thrust again through theHürtgen Forest,the offensive drove the Allies to theRur River,but failed in its core objectives to capture the Rur dams and pave the way towards the Rhine. The Allied operations were then succeeded by the GermanArdennes offensive.

Operation Market Garden

Dutch civilians celebrate the liberation ofEindhoven.

Main article:Operation Market Garden

The port of Antwerp was liberated on 4 September by the British 11th Armoured Division.Field MarshalSir Bernard Montgomery,commanding the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, persuaded theAllied High Commandto launch a bold attack,Operation Market Garden,which he hoped would get the Allies across the Rhine and create the narrow-front he favoured.Airborne troopswould fly in from the United Kingdom and take bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands in three main cities;Eindhoven,Nijmegen,andArnhem.TheBritish XXX Corpswould punch through the German lines along the Maas–Schelde canal and link up with the airborne troops of theU.S. 101st Airborne Divisionin Eindhoven, theU.S. 82nd Airborne Divisionat Nijmegen and theBritish 1st Airborne Divisionat Arnhem. If all went well XXX Corps would advance into Germany without any remaining major obstacles. XXX Corps was able to advance beyond six of the seven airborne-held bridges but was unable to link up with the troops near the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem.

The result was the near-destruction of the British 1st Airborne Division during theBattle of Arnhem,which sustained almost 8,000 casualties. The offensive ended with Arnhem remaining in German hands and the Allies holding an extended salient from the Belgian border to the area between Nijmegen and Arnhem. A Germanattempt to recapture the salientended in failure in early October.

Winter counter-offensives

American soldiers taking up defensive positions in theArdennesduring theBattle of the Bulge

Main article:Battle of the Bulge

The Germans had been preparing a massive counter-attack in the West since the Allied breakout from Normandy. The plan calledWacht am Rhein ( "Watch on the Rhine" )was to attack through the Ardennes and swing north to Antwerp, splitting the American and British armies. The attack started on 16 December in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Defending the Ardennes were troops of the US First Army. Initial successes in bad weather, which gave them cover from the Allied air forces, resulted in a German penetration of over 80 km (50 mi) to within less than 16 km (10 mi) of theMeuse.Having been taken by surprise, the Allies regrouped and the Germans were stopped by a combined air and land counter-attack which eventually pushed them back to their starting points by 25 January 1945.

The Germans launched a second, smaller offensive (Nordwind) intoAlsaceon 1 January 1945. Aiming to recapture Strasbourg, the Germans attacked the 6th Army Group at multiple points. Because the Allied lines had become severely stretched in response to the crisis in the Ardennes, holding and throwing back theNordwindoffensive was a costly affair that lasted almost four weeks. The culmination of Allied counter-attacks restored the front line to the area of the German border and collapsed theColmar Pocket.

Invasion of Germany

Main article:Western Allied invasion of Germany

In January 1945 the German bridgehead over the riverRoerbetween Heinsberg and Roermond was cleared duringOperation Blackcock.This was followed by a pincer movement of theFirst Canadian ArmyinOperation Veritableadvancing from the Nijmegen area of the Netherlands, and the US Ninth Army crossing the Roer inOperation Grenade.Veritable and Grenade were planned to start on 8 February 1945, but Grenade was delayed by two weeks when the Germans flooded the Roer valley by destroying the gates of theRur Damupstream. Field MarshalGerd von Rundstedtrequested permission to withdraw east behind the Rhine, arguing that further resistance would only delay the inevitable, but was ordered by Hitler to fight where his forces stood.

By the time the water had subsided and the US Ninth Army was able to cross the Roer on 23 February, other Allied forces were also close to the Rhine's west bank. Von Rundstedt's divisions, which had remained on the west bank, were cut to pieces in the ''battle of the Rhineland' – 280,000 men were taken prisoner. With a large number of men captured, the stubborn German resistance during the Allied campaign to reach the Rhine in February and March 1945 had been costly. Total losses reached an estimated 400,000 men.By the time they prepared to cross the Rhine in late March, the Western Allies had taken 1,300,000 German soldiers prisoner in western Europe.

US soldierscross theRhine riverin assault boats.

The crossing of the Rhine was achieved at four points:

• One was an opportunity taken by US forces when the Germans failed to blow up theLudendorff bridgeatRemagen.Bradley and his subordinates quickly exploited the Remagen crossing made on 7 March and expanded the bridgehead into a full-scale crossing.
• Bradley told General Patton whoseU.S. Third Armyhad been fighting through thePalatinate,to "take the Rhine on the run".The Third Army did just that on the night of 22 March, crossing the river with a hasty assault south ofMainzatOppenheim.
• In the NorthOperation Plunderwas the name given to the assault crossing of the Rhine atReesandWeselby the British 21st Army Group on the night of 23 March. It included the largest airborne operation in history, which was codenamedOperation Varsity.At the point the British crossed the river, it is twice as wide, with a far higher volume of water, as the points where the Americans crossed and Montgomery decided it could only be crossed with a carefully planned operation.
• In the Allied 6th Army Group area, the US Seventh Army assaulted across the Rhine in the area betweenMannheimandWormson 26 March.
• A fifth crossing on a much smaller scale was later achieved by the French First Army atSpeyer.

Once the Allies had crossed the Rhine, the British fanned out northeast towardsHamburgcrossing the riverElbeand on towards Denmark and the Baltic. British forces capturedBremenon 26 April after a week of combat.British and Canadian paratroopers reached the Baltic city ofWismarjust ahead of Soviet forces on 2 May. The US Ninth Army, which had remained under British command since the battle of the Bulge, went south as the northern pincer of theRuhr encirclementas well as pushing elements east. XIX Corps of the Ninth Army capturedMagdeburgon 18 April and the US XIII Corps to the north occupiedStendal.

The US 12th Army Group fanned out, and the First Army went north as the southern pincer of the Ruhr encirclement. On 4 April the encirclement was completed and the Ninth Army reverted to the command of Bradley's 12th Army Group. The German Army Group B commanded by Field MarshalWalther Modelwas trapped in the Ruhr Pocket and 300,000 soldiers became POWs. The Ninth and First American armies then turned east and pushed to the Elbe river by mid-April. During the push east, the cities ofFrankfurt am Main,Kassel,Magdeburg,HalleandLeipzigwere strongly defended by ad hoc German garrisons made up of regular troops,Flakunits,Volkssturmand armed Nazi Party auxiliaries. Generals Eisenhower and Bradley concluded that pushing beyond the Elbe made no sense since eastern Germany was destined in any case to be occupied by theRed Army.The First and Ninth Armies stopped along the Elbe andMulderivers, making contact with Soviet forces near the Elbe in late April. The US Third Army had fanned out to the east into western Czechoslovakia and southeast into easternBavariaand northern Austria. By V-E Day, the US 12th Army Group was a force of four armies (First, Third, Ninth andFifteenth) that numbered over 1.3 million men.

Final moves by Western Allies

Main article:Race to Berlin

General Eisenhower's Armies were facing resistance that varied from almost non-existent to fanaticalas they advanced toward Berlin, which was located 200 km (120 mi) from their positions in early April 1945. Britain'sPrime Minister,Winston Churchill,urged Eisenhower to continue the advance toward Berlin by the 21st Army Group, under the command of Montgomery with the intention of capturing the city. Even Patton agreed with Churchill that he should order the attack on the city since Montgomery's troops could reach Berlin within three days.The British and Americans contemplated an airborne operation before the attack. In Operation Eclipse, the17th Airborne Division,82d Airborne Division,101st Airborne Division, and a British brigade were to seize theTempelhof,Rangsdorf,Gatow,Staaken,andOranienburgairfields. In Berlin, theReichsbannerresistance organization identified possible drop zones for Allied paratroopers and planned to guide them past German defenses into the city.

After Bradley warned that capturing a city located in a region that the Soviets had already received at theYalta Conferencemight cost 100,000 casualties,by 15 April Eisenhower ordered all armies to halt when they reached the Elbe and Mulde Rivers, thus immobilizing these spearheads while the war continued for three more weeks. 21st Army Group was then instead ordered to move northeast toward Bremen and Hamburg. While the U.S. Ninth and First Armies held their ground from Magdeburg through Leipzig to westernCzechoslovakia,Eisenhower ordered three Allied field armies (1st French, and the U.S. Seventh and Third Armies) into southeastern Germany and Austria. Advancing from northern Italy, the British Eighth Armypushed to the borders ofYugoslaviato defeat the remainingWehrmachtelements there.This later caused some friction with theYugoslav forces,notably aroundTrieste.

End of the Third Reich

Main article:End of World War II in Europe

People gathered inWhitehallto hear Winston Churchill's victory speech and celebrateVictory in Europe,8 May 1945.

The US 6th Army Group fanned out to the southwest, passing to the east of Switzerland through Bavaria and into Austria and northern Italy.TheBlack ForestandBadenwere overrun by the French First Army.Determined stands were made in April by German forces atHeilbronn,Nuremberg,andMunichbut were overcome after several days.Elements of theUS 3rd Infantry Divisionwere the first Allied troops to arrive atBerchtesgaden,which they secured, while the French 2nd Armoured Division seized theBerghof(Hitler's Alpine residence) on 4 May 1945. German Army Group G surrendered to US forces at Haar, in Bavaria, on 5 May. Field Marshal Montgomery took the German military surrender of all German forces in The Netherlands, northwest Germany and Denmark onLüneburg Heath,an area between the cities of Hamburg,Hanoverand Bremen, on 4 May 1945. As the operational commander of some of these forceswas Grand AdmiralKarl Dönitz,the newReichspräsident(head of state) of theThird Reichthis signaled that theEuropean war was over.

On 7 May at his headquarters inRheims,Eisenhower took the unconditional surrender of all German forces to the western Allies and the Soviet Union,from the German Chief-of-Staff, General Alfred Jodl, who signed the first generalinstrument of surrenderat 0241 hours. GeneralFranz Böhmeannounced the unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway. Operations ceased at 23:01 hours Central European time (CET) on8 May.Onthat same dayField MarshalWilhelm Keitel,as head ofOKWand Jodl's superior, was brought to MarshalGeorgy ZhukovinKarlshorstand signed another instrument of surrender that was essentially identical to that signed in Rheims with two minor additions requested by the Soviets.

Casualties

Main article:World War II casualties

Allied

Thanks to competent management and industrial potential, the Allies suffered relatively low losses: 1,093,000 killed/wounded/missing. Apart from about 2 million prisoners, mostly French. The United States suffered the highest losses: 147,783 killed and missing, 365,086 wounded, 73,759 captured. France suffered relatively high losses: 132,590 killed or missing, about 300,000 wounded, and 1,454,730 taken prisoner. Britain lost 58,000 killed, nearly 111,000 wounded and 56,000 captured.The rest of the allied countries lost 284,000 killed, wounded and captured (among them 24,000 killed and missing).

Axis

German losses are much more difficult to deal with, as different sources claim conflicting information. According to George Marshall, the Germans lost 263,000 killed. German historian Rüdger Overmans points to other numbers: 244,891 killed and missing on the Western Front in 1944. He also claims that in the "final battles" from January to May 1945, Germany lost 1,230,000 killed and missing, of which 1/3 on the Western Front. Due to low morale towards the end of the war, the Germans often surrendered. Unlike their colleagues on the Eastern Front and their Japanese colleagues, the Wehrmacht did not fight to the last in the defensive battles on the Western Front in 1944–1945 and for the most part surrendered when the defeat was obvious. 7,614,790 were held in POW camps by early June 1945 (including 3,404,950 who were disarmed following the surrender of Germany).

References

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