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To The Ardennes

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Early on the morning of 6 June 1944, combined British-American forces under the supreme command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower assaulted the German-fortified Normandy coast of France.

Operation OVERLORD, as the invasion plan was called, had been in preparation more than two years, and represented the culmination of Allied hopes to return to the European continent and destroy the German armies in the west.

First troops to reach French soil were the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, and the British 6th Airborne Division. All were dropped in vital areas in the rear of German coastal defenses shortly after midnight of 6 June. Aerial bombardment began at about 0300, and three hours later Naval escorts, including battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, joined the battle.

Behind this screen of fire landing craft swarmed the beaches; the first waves of assault infantry and tanks landed at 0630. Elements of the First U.S. Army - under my command - and the Second British Army climbed ashore west of the Orne River and on the east of the Cotentin peninsula. With airborne assistance the British quickly won a beachhead and pushed inland to the approaches of Bayeux and Caen. In the center of the U.S. V Corps, under Major General (now Lieutenant General) Leonard T. Gerow, met unexpected enemy strength, but seized a foothold. On the right the U.S. VII Corps, under Major General (now General) J. Lawton Collins, quickly secured a beachhead on the east coast of the Cotentin.

Despite fierce resistance the landings were merged into a secure beachhead within a week, and limited advances were made in all areas. Men and supplies were hurried ashore. An average of 37,500 men landed each day, and in the first five days 16 Allied divisions were concentrated in France. Our first major objective was won after the VII Corps cut the Cotentin peninsula on 18 June, and went on to capture the port of Cherbourg nine days later. This port was to prove vital for many months in building up and maintaininq our forces.

click image to enlarge Here is how interdiction worked in winning the Battle of France. Rail yards are attacked by heavy and medium bombers. Line of interdiction is set up by knocking out all rail bridges along a river or other natural barrier. Second line of interdiction is set up, isolating the area between the two. Rail traffic in isolated area is immobilized by dive bombing and strafing attacks. Motor vehicles and roads, which enemy has been forced to use, are now hit. Allied force breaks out of enemy ring (now, weakened by lack of supplies) and starts series of flanking movements.

During the next 30 days United States forces fought through the tenaciously-held hedgerow country of Normandy. The object was to gain elbow room and secure a lodgement for building up forces large enough to launch decisive blows. These hedgerows, three to five feet high, and covered by dense growth, afforded the enemy an excellent natural protection which he capitalized. The first big Allied drive came with the breakout at St. Lo. On 25 July, after an unprecedented saturation bombing of enemy lines, the First U.S. Army pierced German defenses and reached Granville five days later. On 1 August, while the First Canadian and Second British Armies pushed south and west, the Third U.S. Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., became operational and joined the First U.S. Army under Lieutenant General Courtney H. Hodges. These armies were formed into the 12th Army Group under my command.

While the First Army moved toward Mortain the Third Army struck southward, from Avranches, poured troops and supplies through the gap there, and then struck south, east, and west. With the enemy's left flank crumbling, destruction of the German Seventh Army west of the Seine became a distinct possibility. With General Eisenhower's approval I took steps to exploit the situation by directing the Third Army to make its major effort eastward toward the Laval-Le-Mans-Chartres area, leaving only minimum forces to clear Brittany.

On August 7 the Germans made a desperate attempt to cut the Avranches corridor at Mortain and isolate the Third Army, but they failed after three days of bitter fighting. Soon large elements of the Third Army were completely in the rear of the Germans, and the attack was directed northward toward Alencon in conjunction with a 21st Army Group attack toward Falaise. Our aim was encirclement of the enemy. Before this encirclement was completed by a meeting of U.S. and Canadian troops at Chambois on 19 August, considerable of the enemy's forces managed to escape, but his losses in killed and captured totaled 70,000.

Continuing eastward, the Third Army captured Orleans, Chartres, and Dreux, and crossed the Seine near Melum south of Paris on 24 August. The next day Paris was liberated by the First Army. With exception of the seizure of Brest, St. Nazaire, and Lorient, which were under attack or being contained, the objective of Operation OVERLORD was achieved just 80 days after the invasion.

Meanwhile, the Seventh U.S. Army, under Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch, with elements of the First French Army attached, had assaulted the southern coast of France on 15 August between Cannes and Toulon, and advanced rapidly up the Rhone Valley. Success of this drive and our victory in the Falaise-Argentan pocket, afforded an opportunity to send strong forces to the Ruhr industrial area, and to the Saar.

Allied forces crossed the Seine, and between 26 and 30 September overran northern France, Luxembourg, Belgium and southern Holland. The Third Army had crossed the Meuse and pushed rapidly to the Moselle. By 11 September the First Army had penetrated the Siegfried Line near armyachen, and on the same day elements of the Third Army contacted the Seventh Army and closed the escape route for German forces remaining between the Rhone and Loire rivers. Thus the Allies had formed a continuous front from Switzerland to the North Sea.

After reaching the Siegfried Line in the north, and the Moselle River in the south, the Allied drive lost its momentum. The advance of more than 400 miles in a month and a half had left us with over-extended supply lines. Too, our offensive was blunted by the heavily-fortified defense belt the enemy had had time to man. In addition, we had spread out on a front several times that held in the beachhead.

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By November plans were made for resumption of a major offensive to carry us across the Rhine. Preceded by the heaviest close support air bombardment that had yet been delivered, this attack was launched on 16 November north of the Ardennes by the First and Ninth Armies. The Ninth, under Lieutenant General William H. Simpson, had by that time been deployed on the left of the First Army. Progress was slow, but by 3 December the Ninth had reached the Roer River, and on the 13th the First was launching an attack to seize the Schmidt dams which controlled the flooding of the Roer Valley.

In the South, a Third Army attack was more successful. By 22 November it had captured Metz, and in early December penetrated the Siegfried defenses in the vicinity of Saarlautern. Still farther south the Sixth Army Group, which had attacked on 13 November, was having success. The First French Army was breaching the Belfort Gap and reaching the Rhine, while the Seventh Army had broken through the Saverne Gap, cleared Strasbourg, and penetrated the Siegfried Line near Wisembourg.

By mid-December - except for a pocket at Colmar - Allied forces had closed to the Rhine from Basle to the German border and were driving into Germany on a wide front. Extending this front northward, the Third Army was closing to the Siegfried Line as far north as Luxembourg. The First Army had reached the Roer in the north, held the Our River sector from south of Malmedy to the border of Luxembourg, and was advancing slowly through the Hurtgen Forest toward the Roer dams. The Ninth Army had reached the Roer northeast of armyachen.

This was the disposition of our forces when the enemy, on orders from Hitler, launched the offensive to be known as The Battle of the Bulge.

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