Gordon L. Rottman - Victory 1945: Western Allied Troops in Northwest Europe

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Osprey Publishing

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This electronic edition published in 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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Print ISBN: 978-1-4728-0947-6

PDF ebook ISBN: 978-1-4728-0948-3

ePub ebook ISBN: 978-1-4728-0949-0

Editor: Martin Windrow

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TITLE PAGE Gemunden, Germany, April 1945: American Red Cross Canteen Corps girls, wearing their dark gray overcoats, hand out donuts to the crew of a 76mm-gun M4A3E8 Sherman of the separate 756th Tank Battalion. The Panzerfaust crate at bottom right is now just firewood to heat the victors coffee. (Tom Laemlein/Armor Plate Press)

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Many of the photos in this book come from the Imperial War Museums huge collections, which cover all aspects of conflict involving Britain and the Commonwealth since the start of the 20th century. These rich resources are available online to search, browse, and buy at

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to Tom Laemlein of Armor Plate Press, and to Ren Chartrand, for their photographic support.

Extra appreciation goes to Martin Windrow for his contributions to the text.

NOTE ON UNIT DESIGNATION DIFFERENCES

British and Canadian infantry brigades had three battalions, like US regiments. US groups were also multi-battalion, regiment-equivalent commands.

British and Canadian armored and artillery regiments were battalion-size, their squadrons and batteries company-size, and troops platoon-size. However, US cavalry reconnaissance squadrons were battalion-size; their troops were company-size, and composed of platoons.

The British and Canadian rifle section was equivalent to the American squad.

ARTISTS NOTE

Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the color plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. All reproduction copyright whatsoever is retained by the Publishers. All inquiries should be addressed to:

Peter Dennis,

Fieldhead, The Park, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire NG18 2AT, UK

The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this matter

CONTENTS

Training Tactics

Organization

Origins and strength Organization Casualties Equipment

Deployment

Swimming, flail, and flamethrower tanks

Acronyms used in this text, in addition to standard abbreviations of unit titles:

OVERVIEW

The greatest amphibious assault in history began in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Just 11 months later Western Allied troops were on the coast of the Baltic Sea, beyond the Elbe river, and inside Czechoslovakia, and Victory in Europe was proclaimed at the beginning of the second week of May 1945. During those 11 months operations on a momentous and unprecedented scale were carried out successfully, though at a high cost in casualties, and hampered by unexpected delays and setbacks. The purpose of this book is to outline the changes that were experienced by the Allied armies during this campaign, seen essentially from the viewpoint of the infantry.

* * *

Allied planners had expected that if they could establish a secure Normandy beachhead, the Germans would make strategic withdrawals in order to exploit their expertise in maneuver warfare in the open country to the south and east. Nobody had imagined that the Wehrmacht in Normandy would choose to fight a prolonged battle of attrition that they could only lose. By the time the Allies finally broke out in late August 1944 with the Canadians and British on the left (northern) flank of the eastward hook, and the US armies on their right German forces in northern France had effectively been destroyed, and were unable to contest the very rapid Allied advances to the Seine river and beyond. However, the German decision to fight for nearly three months over every yard of the superb defensive terrain of the Normandy bocage had inevitably cost the attacking Allies very high losses in infantry and tanks.