page_title: Battle for Brest
section_title: Prelude
hierarchical_section_title: Battle for Brest / Prelude
caption_attribution_description: English: NW France by mid-August, 1944. The Allies manage to occupy the Breton countryside and are already moving east towards Paris. The blue arrows represent the approach routes to Brest and other ports. Français&#160;: Le nord-ouest de la France, à mi-août 1944. Les Alliés préparent la Libération de la Bretagne et avancent vers Paris. Les flèches bleues figurent l’avancée vers Brest et les autres ports de la façade atlantique.
context_page_description: The Battle for Brest was fought on the Western Front during World War II. Part of the Allied plan for the invasion of mainland Europe called for the capture of port facilities, in order to ensure the timely delivery of the enormous amount of war materiel required to supply the invading Allied forces. It was estimated that the 37 Allied divisions to be on the continent by September 1944 would need 26,000 tons of supplies each day. The main port the Allied forces hoped to seize and put into their service was Brest, in northwestern France.
context_section_description: Soon after Normandy was invaded, the Mulberries were towed from England and deployed on the French coast. Unfortunately for the Allies, one of them was destroyed after less than two weeks. Supplies were then mainly landed directly via the beaches, but this process was not as efficient.
  Cherbourg, at the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy, was captured by the Americans who landed on Utah Beach, but the German garrison destroyed its harbour facilities before surrendering. Cherbourg was the only major port in the Allied invasion area. Soon after, the Germans in the Brittany peninsula were isolated by a north-south breakthrough accomplished by George S. Patton's Third United States Army, exploiting the success of Operation Cobra. The US VIII Corps was diverted into Brittany to capture Brest and secure the northern flank of the breakthrough. Wehrmacht troops trapped in Brittany retreated to the fortified ports in the peninsula, as US Third Army troops moved in and surrounded them. The Brest garrison, Festung Brest, meaning "Fortress Brest", as German propaganda referred to surrounded cities, was put under the command of General der Fallschirmtruppe Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, a paratroop veteran of the Afrika Korps. His forces consisted of the German 2nd Parachute Division, 266th Infantry Division, 343rd Infantry Division and other Wehrmacht elements, in all some 40,000 fighting men.
  The old fortress city of Saint-Malo was captured by the 83rd Infantry Division ("Ohio") on 17 August, but its small port facilities were sabotaged by the defenders. A German garrison stationed at nearby Cézembre Island surrendered only after days of heavy shelling by warships and strong air strikes, when their naval guns were already disabled. The aerial bombing of the island marked one of the first uses of napalm bombs. It was clear that the Germans would deny the Allies the use of French ports as long as possible by defending the fortresses built around them and severely damaging their docks.
  Brest was reached by American troops on 7 August 1944.
caption: NW France by mid-August, 1944. The Allies manage to occupy the Breton countryside and are already moving east towards Paris. The blue arrows represent the approach routes to Brest and other ports
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