Operation Overlord

**Operation Overlord**, also known as the **Battle of Normandy**, occurred from 6 June to 30 August 1944 when the Allied Powers launched a massive invasion of continental Europe via the Normandy region of northern France. 2,052,299 troops from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth, and several occupied European countries took part in the invasion, facing over 1,000,000 German troops. The invasion began with the D-Day landings at Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and Omaha beaches in Normandy on 6 June, and the Allies broke out of the beachheads after a costly campaign through the French countryside and the hedgerows. The breakout would lead to the surrender of over 200,000 German troops in the Falaise Gap in August 1944 after they were boxed in at Chambois, and the Americans would liberate the rest of France by the end of the year.

## Operation

### Beachhead battles

After the success of the D-Day landings in Normandy, the Allies' first priority was to link up the individual beachheads. The American beachheads at Utah Beach and Omaha Beach were joined on 12 June, while the British focused on taking the strategic city of Caen. The Germans attempted to concentrate their armor at Caen for a major counterattack, and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend and the 21st Panzer Division joined at Caen and foiled Canadian attempts to capture the city from the west. A British thrust south and then east of Bayeux from 11-14 June proved abortive for the same reason, and more panzer divisions arrived in the Caen area. However, the French Resistance and Allied air forces destroyed bridges, and the panzers feared the constant Allied air threat. At the same time, the panzers had to worry about concentrating on holding the line rather than mounting a significant attack.

### Advance to Cherbourg

After securing the becahes, the Allies set about assembling to Mulberry harbors, one in the US sector and the other in the British. The US harbor began to operate on 16 June, but it was virtually destroyed by a violent storm three days later. This made it all the more important for the Americans to capture Cherbourg so that it could be used as a resupply port, so they cut off the Cotentin Peninsula by advancing across its base before turning north toward Cherbourg. Hitler ordered the garrison to defend the port to the last, and it fell on 27 June; however, the Germans destroyed the dock facilities. It would be some weeks before the port was operational, and the British failed in another attempt to outflank Caen from the west at the same time.

The Allied progress stalled in the Normandy terrain known as the *bocage*, a wooded and hilly countryside area with twisting roads bordered by banks topped with hedges and small enclosed fields. The Germans found this terrain favorable for their defense, but they had the problem of manpower, with Hitler refusing to allow for the Germans to withdraw from Normandy or to reinforce his forces there. At the beginning of July, Hitler replaced the disgusted Rundstedt with Gunther von Kluge, who was more supportive of Hitler's plans.

### Attempts on St. Lo and Caen

Bernard Montgomery, the *de facto* controller of Allied ground operations, sought to tie down the maximum amount of German armor in the east to enable the Americans to break out. On 3 July, the US First Army began to attack southward toward St. Lo, a key communications center. They faced bitter German resistance, as did the Canadians during their attempt to take Carpiquet a day later. The 12th SS Panzer Division fanatically defended the the Carpiquet airfield, frustrating the Canadians. On 8 July 1944, a massive air attack destroyed much of Caen, and the British and Canadians again assaulted Caen, supported by naval gunfire and heavy artillery fire. They broke into Caen and secured the area north of the Odon River, but the Germans held firm on the southern bank.

On 10 July, Montgomery issued his plan for the breakout: the Americans were to thrust eastward into Brittany to secure its ports and westward toward the line of Alencon-Le Mans. However, the Americans had yet to secure St. Lo, and Dwight D. Eisenhower - the supreme commander of Allied forces for the invasion of Europe - believed that the terrain in the British sector was more suitable for a breakout than that in the American sector.

### Operation Goodwood

Montgomery decided to attack the are just to the east of Caen to tie down the German armor; he let Eisenhower believe that he was planning a breakthrough instead, leading to Eisenhower authorizing the plan. Erwin Rommel, the feared panzer commander, personally briefed his subordinate commanders. On 17 July 1944, Rommel was badly injured by a fighter-bomber attack on his staff car, and he was evacuated back to Germany, while Von Kluge took over direct command of his Army Group B. On 18 July, Montgomery launched Operation Goodwood, with the RAF Bomber Command preparing the way. A shortage of approach routes meant that only one armored division could deploy at a time, but the defenders were dazed by the bombardment, and the British made good progress. The Germans would quickly recover, however, and antitank guns in villages on the flank of the advance suddenly came to life, and German tanks took up position on a dominant ridge, which marked the first major objective of the offensive. The British armor was halted, and attempts to resume the attack the following day failed, while thunderstorms on 20 July brought the operation to an end with a loss of 400 tanks. The Canadians had, however, secured the remainder of Caen. The same day, the US First Army, commanded by Omar Bradley, secured St. Lo.

### Normandy breakout

On 24 July 1944, Bradley's planned breakout from St. Lo, Operation Cobra, went into motion after four days of delays caused by bad weather; in those four days, the Allies had gained a morale boost from the 20 July plot against Hitler's life. The US Air Force bombers were recalled due to poor weather, but some did not receive the message, dropping their bombs on American positions; 130 troops, including General Lesley J. McNair, were killed by friendly fire. On 25 July, the American bombers tried again as the weather improved, but the attackers again suffered from friendly fire. The attack nevertheless weant ahead and made progress, and Kluge was prevented from sending further panzer divisions to counter the threat by Canadian attacks in the Caen area. On 30 July, the Americans entered Avranches, and the British mounted Operation Bluecoat that same day. The British planned to prevent German armor from attacking the US flank from the east, and the British largely achieved their goal. On 1 August, George S. Patton's US Third Army was sent to clear Brittany, and he sent two armored divisions to seize the ports of Brest and Lorient, both of which were instructed by Hitler to hold out to the bitter end as *festungen* ("fortresses"). The Allies were unable to take Brest until mid-September, while Lorient held out until the end of the war.

### Mortain counterattack

As Patton's forces advanced south and threatened the German left flank, Kluge planned to withdraw to the Seine River, but Hitler insisted that he counterattack against Patton's eastern flank. Because of British pressure, Kluge was only able to assemble four panzer divisions for the attack, and they attacked at Mortain shortly after midnight on 7 August, a part of the Operation Luettich counterattack. The Americans were caught off-balance, and the Germans penetrated up to 6 miles. However, hoards of Allied fighter-bombers took to the skies and engaged the German armor with rockets, and the Allied troops on the ground threatened the flanks of the German forces. The Canadians attacked south of Caen in Operation Totalize, blocking the withdrawal of the German forces in front of the British Second Army. The Canadians did not succeed in reaching its final objective of Falaise, but the attack further restricted Kluge's options, and the failure of the Mortain counterattack allowed for Patton to thrust into Brittany and advance south to the Loire River. Patton then began to turn east to threaten the main German supply base at Alencon.

Montgomery decided to trap the German forces in Normandy as they were squeezed by the Allied advances: the Canadians were to press on to Falaise and then to Argentan, with the British on their left advancing to the Flers-Argentan road. Patton was to thrust toward the southeast of Argentan, creating a pocket with no escape routes to the east. On 12 August, Patton's troops entered Alencon, and they headed to take Alencon, which was reinforced with redeployed tanks from Mortain. Bradley ordered Patton to halt at Argentan rather than press on to Falaise, as he feared a clash with the Canadians. On 14 August, the Canadians resumed their attack on Falaise, and the 12th SS Panzer Division held them for a time on the last ridge before Falaise before retreating on 17 August, leaving most of Falaise in Allied hands. The gap between the Canadians and the American lines at Argentan was now a mere 12 miles. Hitler continued to insist on further counterattacks on Mortain as late as 16 August, and he refused to accept a withdrawal. He appointed Walter Model to replace Von Kluge, who had fallen out of his favor. Kluge was ordered back to Germany, and he feared arrest on suspicion of being involved in the July bomb plot; he committed suicide *en route*.

### Falaise Pocket

On 17 August 1944, Model ordered the 7th Panzer Army and the 5th Panzer Army to withdraw to the Dives River and take up a new defensive position, but events were moving too fast for him. The Canadians attacked across the river and reached Chambois on 18 August, and the Americans also closed up, leaving a mere 6-mile gap through which the German forces were beginning the pour. On 19 August, the gap was finally closed, and the Germans still inside it were hammered from the air. On 20 August, desperate attacks by the Germans opened a gap in the mouth of the pocket for a few hours, but by the evening it had been closed again. The battle for Normandy was at an end.

### Advance to Paris

In northern France, Model planned to form a new defense line based on the Seine River, but the Allies again moved too quickly for him. Patton was allowed to continue to advance eastward instead of advancing north of Argentan, and Montgomery had him send one corps to strike toward the port of Le Havre to trap the forces that had escaped from the Falaise Pocket. Patton sent two other corps to Chartres and Orleans, liberating the two towns. Bradley ordered Patton to halt for two days, fearing that his advance would become overextended. However, Patton's Third Army continued its thrust eastward on 18 August, taking a footbridge over the Seine west of Paris on 19 August. They established a bridgehead and secured another to the east of Paris on 23 August, and Model's battered troops were forced to continue their withdrawal eastward.

Eisenhower originally planned to bypass Paris, fearing that attacking the city would result in unnecessary casualties and collateral damage. However, the people of Paris knew that liberation was near, and they began to take direct action. On 10 August 1944, public sector workers went on strike, but the reaction of the French Resistance groups was mixed; the Gaullists considered it prudent to stand by and wait for events to unfold, while the communists sought to carry out an immediate uprising against Dietrich von Choltitz's occupying army. Fearing that the communists would seize the machinery of government, the Gaullists preempted them and began the insurrection on 19 August, and the military governor Dietrich von Choltitz, the man responsible for the destruction of Rotterdam in May 1940 and Sevastopol in 1942, was ordered to defend the capital to the last and to burn the city to the ground. However, the Swedish consul-general in Paris, Raoul Nordling, negotiated a truce with the Allies, and Choltitz refused to treat Paris the same as the Germans had treated the Polish capital during the Warsaw Uprising. On 22 August, the French Resistance commander in Paris called for every street to be barricaded, and Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for Philippe Leclerc's French 2nd Armored Division and a US infantry division to dash to the capital on 23 August. The race was won by Leclerc, who used local knowledge to reach the center via the back streets. On 25 August, Choltitz withdrew his troops east of the Seine and surrendered to Leclerc. The next day, Charles de Gaulle walked triumphantly up the Champs Elysees, signifying the Liberation of Paris and the success of the Liberation of France. On 30 August, the Third Army crossed the Meuse after liberating Reims, advancing towards the Saarland; at the same time, the Germans withdrew across the Seine, and the Canadians took Rouen. With the Germans no longer in control of France, Operation Overlord had come to a close.