Analysis Of Walcheren, A Small Dutch Island At The Western End Of The Beveland Peninsula

With German forces on the run following the Allied success at Normandy and the breakout and pursuit across France, Allied forces were staged to enter Germany in late summer 1944. Both Field Marshal Montgomery and General Bradley clamored to be given the priority of effort. General Eisenhower chose Montgomery’s Operation MARKET GARDEN as the plan for action. It called for airborne forces to open the route for a ground force to move more than sixty miles up a single road, ending up north of the Rhine River near Arnhem, Netherlands. By accomplishing this task, the German Ruhr industrial heartland would be within easy grasp. But the operation failed. The ground force

     The object of the German offensive was to push through the Belgian Ardennes, cross the Mousse, retake Antwerp and its harbor facilities, thrust to the north and reach the sea which they almost succeed in doing. This would cut off the Allied troops in Holland and Belgium, making it impossible for them to withdraw. The success of the operation depended on three important

“The battle [is also] known by different names. The Germans [called it] ‘Operation Watch on the Rhine’, while the French [called] it ‘Battle of the Ardennes’. [American and Britain] called it the Ardennes Counteroffensive.” The main goal for the Germans for this offensive was to split the British and American forces in half and capture the port city of Antwerp. This would “cause an encirclement of four allied armies and [force] a peace negotiation” (Cirillo). The Germans almost had complete surprise when the offensive was launched on “December 16th, 1944, at 05:30” and the offensive start with “an artillery barrage of over 1,600 artillery pieces.” The assault took place across an “80 mile front [that] the 6th Panzer Army had to cover” (Quarrie 1). “The attack was led by one of the best equipped German divisions on the western front, the 1st SS Panzer Division.” This was the lead unit for the 6th Panzer Army and was the lead division for the assault. The 26th Infantry was covering the part of the front where the push started. They were caught completely by surprise. “Equipped with only 32 M4 tanks, 57 anti-tank guns and thousands of battle-weary men” (MacDonald 1). The initial assault went well for the Germans and they break through the thinly defended American lines. Just “20 hours in [from the start of the assault] German forces are just 55 miles out from their objective”. By this time the casualty rate is below from what the

The invasion of Normandy, also known as Operation Overlord or D-Day, was perhaps one of the most important battles in the human history. The invasion took place on June 4, 1944, at the Coast of Normandy in France. Troops from over twelve countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America participated in the fight against Germany. Although the battles were enduring and hard-fought, the Allies achieved the final victory; the Allies were finally able to set their feet on the European soil again. The Allied invasion of Normandy was a major turning point of the war that led to the ultimate liberation of Europe from the Nazi forces.

On June 6th, 1944, the main Allied forces of World War 2 conducted Operation Overlord, now known as D-Day: the greatest invasion in military history. This was a major turning point in the war, however the win was surprising. Germanic and Nazi soldiers should have won the battles on and around the Normandy beaches that day for a multitude of reasons: firstly, they had the rest of France, meaning that Nazis could bring in materials safely, easily, and quickly, and as the Germans were there first, they had time to fortify the area with better defense such as anti-tank guns and minefields; secondly, they had better ground on many beaches, such as the cliffs on Omaha and the dunes on Juno; and finally, they had better equipment such as clothing designed to survive harsher weather conditions, and more rations to survive on. For these reasons, Nazi soldiers should have won the infamous 1944 invasion.

NORMANDY - The Battle of Normandy that took place during World War II, which lasted from June 1944 until August 1944. The codename for this operation was Operation Overload and then 14 000 Canadians took part, who were assigned 8 kilometers. This took place at Brittany coast of France at Normandy beach codename for “Juno beach.” Many of the soldiers who participated in the war were from the Allied forces – the Unites States, The Britain, and Canada. But, there were also troops from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Australia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Poland.

The Allied battle front in the autumn of 1944 made an end to the war by Christmas look likely. They had liberated most of France in a matter of months, and were now marching towards the Ruhr River, which was the gateway to the heartland of Germany. However, the Allies had moved so far so fast that their supply lines had not caught up with them. The closest dock was where they had landed on D-Day, and the need for a closer port became more persistent everyday. During the Overlord campaign, which was the landing in France,

The Germans at Dieppe were informed ahead of time by German U-boats and French double agents. Allies weren’t aware what had occurred, and made their way into Dieppe. Allies thought the element of surprise would work and catch the enemy off-guard, but it was the opposite. As soon as the allies beached, they were slaughtered. Loss of life was unimaginable.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied troops invaded Western Europe from the sea. The Allied armies spent several months preparing for this large amphibious attack. There were air attacks that were meant to keep German forces from moving troops in to protect these areas. So on June 6 the allied forces invaded the French coastline to move the German army out of Western Europe.

This involved getting British tanks across the Rhine River and into Germany so that the Allies could continue their push against the Germans (Ambrose 179). After only ten days in Holland, the operation had ultimately failed. The failure was attributed with the Allies being outmanned, fighting elite German troops, and bad coordination between American infantry and British tanks (Ambrose 213). The rest of their time in Holland was spent on the front line. Eventually, they got to return to France to rest, and after awhile, were sent into Bastogne, Belgium to help with a counterattack against the Germans, who had surrounded the Allies as a part of the Battle of the Bulge.

On June 6, 160,000 allied troops landed along a fifty mile stretch of land to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircrafts helped on the invasion. Once on the beach they faced death, without any shields or protection for two hundred yards, due to the sacrifices each man made that day Fortress Europe had been breached.

Germany sought to conduct a massive counter-offense to seize control of the Allied Forces’ main hub of Antwerp. The German Army intended to split

The specific contributions combat engineers made during this operation primarily came from within the 82nd Airborne Division. Under the leadership of Brigadier General (BG) James Gavin, his paratroopers were tasked with dropping in northeast Netherlands to secure bridges at the towns of Grave and Nijmegan. The 82nd Airborne Division’s primary target was securing the bridges at Nijmegan to facilitate the Allied Forces XXX Corps, who would be arriving through Nijmegan to a town called Arnhem. Arnhem was a town that laid on the German / Dutch border. Allied Intelligence determined that two SS Panzer Divisions of German forces occupied that town.

The Normandy Invasion may have been the single most important battle on the Western Front of World War II. Much planning went into the siege of these beaches that ensured a tough, but inevitable victory, as well as other factors, such as the exploitation of the Germans’ ignorance of the attack.

The first troops deployed into battle were paratroopers. Over thirteen thousand U.S. paratroopers were dropped by an armada of C-47s behind German lines before dawn. Their mission was to seize bridges, disrupt communications, and prevent German soldiers from reinforcing the Normandy beaches as the Allied assault hit the coastline (Alberecht). Heavy cloud coverage made for difficult navigation and forced many of the paratroopers to jump “blind”. This resulted in them being scattered over a 100-square mile radius. Thirty-five percent of these soldiers landed at their designated drop point, while many others died when they landed in fields flooded by the Germans. Despite all of this, the remaining troops were able to secure their intended positions (Dry).