ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

The Battle out of Normandy 1944

Updated on April 12, 2013
Troops on tbe beach during D day
Troops on tbe beach during D day | Source

One of the aims of the Invasion was for British and Canadian troops to engage all available German troops and armour in heavy battles. The purpose of this was to act as a decoy so that the American 1st Army could break out of Normandy with a reduced opposition.

The American progress was slower than expected owing to the geographical terrain, flooded marshes, and the bad weather which made it very difficult to get accurate air support.

SAINT-LO

The main objective of the Americans was a market town on the River Vire called Saint Lo. Panzer divisions were brought from other parts of France to defend the town. The town was eventually captured on the 18th July after a blood bath where the Americans had 40,000 cvasualties.

General Patton had arrived in Normandy and in the lst week of June he launched the great American offensive to drive the Germans out of Normandy

Whilst the Americans were organising their offensice the British launched their powerful offensive, "Operation Goodwood". It had two objectives, firstly to clear out the Germans east and south of Caen, therefore opening up the Caen-Falaise road, and secondly to pin down German armour so the Americans could break out.

General Patton
General Patton
Monument to the dead at Mont Picon
Monument to the dead at Mont Picon

Operation Goodwood

The British objective was Mont Pincon in Eastern Brittany which was difficult and  troops were regularly ambushed or killed by mines in the road or on grass verges. Once they reached the slopes of Mont Picon there was vicious fighting and many died, but eventually the Hussars pushed on and took the mountain.

Now that the troops were on the move there was concern that the Germans were still in position to the south of Caen. The Allies planned to take Falaise and push the Germans back to the River Seine. A night attack took place on the 7thAugust. The Allied losses were devastating, vehicles were lost in bomb craters, there were traffic jams  with devastating  enemy fire as they stood with nowhere to go. Amongst all this was inaccurate bombing by the Allied planes bombing Allied forces rather than the German forces. The fighting was the toughest of the whole campaign and was called off three days later as the loss of men and machinery had been so severe.


Falaise Road
Falaise Road

Closing the Falaise Gap

A new plan was made to trap the Germans in the Falaise Gap by taking control of a narrow corridor, some 20 miles by 15 miles. The Canadians were tasked to do this and then move on to Argentan to join up with the Americans. The offensive started on 14th August in the middle of a drought with a shortage of water. The troops were attacked by mosquitoes and flies and the vehicles created dust clouds wherever they went. It took 3 days, but the Canadians captured Falaise but in doing so the town was razed to the ground. The Germans fought to get out of the trap as the battle moved through the countryside.

The polish division joined up with the Americans and trapped the Germans within the gap. These men were either slaughtered or taken prisoner. The reports were that 10,000 Germans died and 50,000 were taken prisoner.

Moving on through Europe

By the middle of August the Allies held nearly all of North Western France to the Seine in the East and the Loire in the South. On the 25th August the German Military Governor of Paris surrendered to the Free French who were serving with the American 1st army. The Allies continued on through Belgium and Holland in the direction of the German Ruhr valley. More Allied forces had landed in the South of France at Marseilles and were pushing to the North and East. At the same time the Red Army was pushing the Germans away from their borders and the British were pushing in Italy. Berlin was in sight.

The Invasion of Normandy enabled the conquest of Europe. Allied casualties including killed, wounded and missing amounted to 210,000 whilst German casualties were 300,000 plus. Without the sacrifice of these brave men the conquest of German occupied Europe would have been impossible.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)