On June 6, 1944, the long-awaited landing of troops of the anti-Hitler coalition on the northern coast of France began, which received the general name "Suzerain" ("Overlord"). The operation was prepared for a long time and carefully, it was preceded by difficult negotiations in Tehran. Millions tons of military cargo were delivered to the British Isles . On the secret front, Abwehr was misinformed by British and US intelligence agencies regarding the landing area and many other measures that ensured a successful offensive. At different times, both in our country and abroad, the scale of this military operation, depending on the political situation, has been exaggerated, sometimes underestimated. The time has come to give an objective assessment of both her and her consequences at the West European theater of World War II.
Stew, condensed milk and egg powder
As is known from the films, Soviet soldiers, participants of the war of 1941-1945 called the American stew, condensed milk, egg powder and other food products that came to the USSR from the USA under the Lend-Lease program as the "second front". This phrase was pronounced with a somewhat ironic intonation, expressing little concealed contempt for the "allies." This meaning was invested in him: while we are shedding blood here, they are slow in starting the war against Hitler. In general, they sit out and wait to enter the war at a time when both Russians and Germans will weaken and deplete their resources. And then the Americans and the British will come to share the laurels of the winners. The opening of the Second Front in Europe was postponed; the Red Army continued to bear the brunt of the hostilities.
In a sense, this was exactly the case. Moreover, it would be unfair to reproach F. D. Roosevelt for not hurrying to send the American army into battle, but for waiting for this most successful moment. In the end, as the president of the United States, he was obliged to think about the good of his country and act in its interests. As for Britain, without American help, its armed forces were technically unable to carry out a massive invasion of the mainland. From 1939 to 1941, this country alone waged a war with Hitler, she managed to survive, but there was not even any talk about the onset. So there’s nothing particularly to blame for Churchill either. In a sense, the Second Front existed all the time of war, and until D-Day (the day of the landing), it fettered significant forces of the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. Most (about three quarters) of the German navy and air fleet were engaged in operations against Britain.
Nevertheless, without detracting from the merits of the Allies, our participants in the Great Patriotic War always rightly believed that they had made a decisive contribution to the cause of a common victory over the enemy.
Was it necessary?
The condescending and contemptuous attitude toward allied assistance was cultivated by the Soviet leadership throughout the post-war decades. The main argument was the ratio of Soviet and German casualties on the Eastern Front with similar numbers of dead Americans, British, Canadians and the same Germans, but already in the West. Nine out of ten Wehrmacht soldiers killed laid their heads in battles with the Red Army. Near Moscow, on the Volga, in the Kharkov region, in the mountains of the Caucasus, on thousands of nameless skyscrapers, the ridge of a military machine was broken near unknown villages , easily defeating almost all European armies and conquering countries in a matter of weeks, and sometimes even days. Maybe the Second Front in Europe was not needed at all and could have been done without it? By the summer of 1944, the outcome of the war as a whole was a foregone conclusion. The Germans suffered monstrous losses, human and material resources were sorely lacking, while Soviet military production reached unprecedented speeds in world history. The endless “leveling of the front" (as Goebbels propaganda explained the constant retreat) was essentially an escape. Nevertheless, JV Stalin persistently reminded the Allies of their promise to strike Germany from the other side. In 1943, American troops landed in Italy, but this was clearly not enough.
Where and when
The names of military operations are chosen so as to embed in one or two words the entire strategic essence of the upcoming action. In this case, the enemy, even recognizing it, should not guess about the main elements of the plan. The direction of the main attack, the technical means involved, the timing and the like details for the enemy must remain a secret. The upcoming landing on the northern European coast was called Overlord. The operation was divided into several stages, which also have their own code designations. It began on D-day with Neptune, and ended with Cobra, which implies advancement into the interior of the mainland.
The German General Staff had no doubt that the opening of the Second Front would take place. 1944 is the last date when this event could take place, and, knowing the basic American technical methods, it was difficult to assume that the USSR allies would launch an offensive in the unfavorable autumn or winter months. In the spring, an invasion was also considered unlikely due to unstable weather conditions. So summer. Intelligence provided by Abwehr confirmed the massive transportation of technical equipment. The unassembled B-17 and B-24 bombers were delivered to the islands by Liberty ships, as were the Sherman tanks, and in addition to these offensive weapons, other cargoes arrived from across the ocean: food, medicine, fuels and lubricants , ammunition, marine vehicles and much more. To hide such a massive movement of military equipment and personnel is almost impossible. The German command had only two questions: “When?” and where?".
Not where they wait
The English Channel is the bottleneck between the British "Mainland" and Europe. It was here that the German generals would begin the landing if they decided on it. This is logical and complies with all the rules of military science. But that is precisely why General Eisenhower completely ruled out the English Channel when planning Overlord. The operation was to be a complete surprise to the German command, otherwise there was a considerable risk of a military fiasco. In any case, defending the coast is much easier than storming it. The fortifications of the “Atlantic Wall” were created well in advance over all previous war years, work began immediately after the occupation of the northern part of France and was carried out with the involvement of the population of the occupied countries. They gained particular intensity after Hitler realized that the opening of the Second Front was inevitable. 1944 was marked by the arrival at the supposed landing site of the Allied troops, Field Marshal Rommel, whom the Führer respectfully called either the Desert Fox or his African Lion. This military specialist spent a lot of energy on improving fortifications, which, as time has shown, were almost not useful. The American and English special services and other soldiers of the "invisible front" of the Allied forces are greatly indebted to this.
Fool Hitler
The success of any military operation to a greater extent depends on the factor of surprise and timely created military concentration, than on the balance of forces of the warring parties. A second front should have been opened on that stretch of coast where the invasion was least expected. The capabilities of the Wehrmacht in France were limited. Most of the German armed forces fought against the Red Army, trying to restrain its offensive. The war was transferred from the territory of the USSR to the territories of Eastern Europe, the oil supply system from Romania was at risk, and without gasoline all military equipment turned into a pile of useless metal. The situation was reminiscent of chess tsunzwang, when almost any move led to irreparable consequences, and even more so the wrong one. It was impossible to make a mistake, but the German headquarters nevertheless drew the wrong conclusions. This was facilitated by many actions of Allied intelligence, including the planned "leak" of misinformation, and various measures to mislead Abwehr agents and air intelligence. They even made mock-ups of transport ships located in ports far from the places of real loading.
The ratio of military groups
Not a single battle in the history of mankind has passed according to plan; unexpected circumstances always hindered this. Overlord is an operation that was planned for a long time and carefully, repeatedly postponed for various reasons, which also made no exception. However, the two main components that determined its overall success were still managed to be preserved: the enemy’s landing site remained unknown until day D, and the balance of forces developed in favor of the attackers. In the landing and subsequent hostilities on the continent took part 1 million 600 thousand soldiers of the allied forces. Against 6 thousand 700 German guns, the Anglo-American units could use 15 thousand of their own. They had 6 thousand tanks, and the Germans only 2000. One hundred and sixty Luftwaffe planes were extremely difficult to intercept almost eleven thousand Allied aircraft, including, in fairness, most of the transport Douglas (but there were a lot of Flying Fortresses ", and" Liberators ", and" Mustangs ", and" Spitfire "). An armada of 112 ships could withstand only five German cruisers and destroyers. Only the German submarines had a quantitative advantage, but by that time the means of combating them among the Americans had reached a high level.
Normandy beaches
The US military did not use French geographical concepts, they seemed difficult to pronounce. Like the names of military operations, sections of the coast, called beaches, were encoded. Four of them were identified: Gold, Omaha, Juneau and Sword. Many soldiers of the Allied forces were laid down on their sand, although the command did everything to minimize losses. On July 6, eighteen thousand paratrooper paratroopers (two airborne divisions) were landed from DS-3 aircraft and through gliders. Previous wars, like the entire Second World War, did not know this scale. The opening of the Second Front was accompanied by the most powerful artillery preparation and aerial bombardment of defensive structures, infrastructure and locations of German troops. The actions of the paratroopers in some cases were not very successful, during the landing there was a dispersal of forces, but this did not matter much. Ships went to the shore, they were covered by naval artillery, by the end of the day there were already 156 thousand soldiers and 20 thousand military vehicles of various types on the shore. The captured bridgehead was 70 by 15 kilometers (average). As of June 10, over 100 thousand tons of military cargo had already been unloaded to this lane, and the concentration of troops reached almost a third of a million people. Despite huge losses (in the first day they amounted to about ten thousand), after three days the Second Front was opened. This has become an obvious and indisputable fact.
Success development
In order to continue the liberation of the territories occupied by the Nazis, not only soldiers and equipment were required. The war devours hundreds of tons of fuel, ammunition, food and medicine daily. She gives hundreds of thousands of wounded to warring countries to be treated. An expeditionary force deprived of supply is doomed.
After the Second Front was opened, the advantage of a developed American economy became apparent. The Allied forces did not experience problems with the timely delivery of everything they needed, but ports were required for this. They were captured very quickly, the first was the French Cherbourg, it was occupied on June 27.
Having recovered from the first sudden blow, the Germans, however, were in no hurry to admit defeat. Already in the middle of the month they first used the FAU-1 - the prototype of cruise missiles. For all the scarcity of the Reich’s capabilities, Hitler found the resources for mass production of ballistic FAU-2s. London (1100 missile attacks), as well as the ports of Antwerp and Liege (almost 1700 FAA of two types), which were located on the mainland and were used by the allies to supply troops, were bombarded. Meanwhile, the Norman bridgehead expanded (up to 100 km) and deepened (up to 40 km). It deployed 23 airbases capable of receiving all types of aircraft. The number of personnel increased to 875 thousand. The conditions were created for the development of the offensive towards the German border, for which the Second Front was opened. The date of the general victory was approaching.
Allied Failures
Anglo-American aviation carried out massive raids on the territory of fascist Germany, dropping tens of thousands of tons of bomb load on cities, factories, railway junctions and other objects. The Luftwaffe pilots could no longer resist this avalanche in the Second half of 1944. For the entire period of the liberation of France, the Wehrmacht suffered half a million losses, and the allied forces - only 40 thousand killed (plus more than 160 thousand wounded). The Nazi tank forces totaled only a hundred combat-ready tanks (among the Americans and the British - 2 thousand). For every German aircraft, there were 25 allied ones. And there were no more reserves. The two hundred thousandth Nazi group was blocked in the west of France. Amid the overwhelming superiority of the invading army, German units often hung a white flag even before the start of artillery preparation. But there were frequent cases of stubborn resistance, as a result of which dozens, even hundreds of allied tanks, were destroyed.
On July 18-25, the English (8th) and Canadian (2nd) corps came across well-fortified German positions, their attack choked, which prompted Marshal Montgomery to further claim that the blow was false and distracting.
An unfortunate incidental consequence of the high firepower of American troops was the loss of the so-called "friendly fire" when the troops suffered from their own shells and bombs.
In December, the Wehrmacht launched a serious counterattack in the Ardennes ledge, which was crowned with partial success, but strategically could solve little.
Result of operation and war
After the outbreak of World War II, the participating countries changed from time to time. Some ceased hostilities, others began them. Some took the side of their former enemies (like Romania, for example), while others simply surrendered. There were even states that formally supported Hitler, but never opposed the USSR (like Bulgaria or Turkey). Invariably, the main participants in the war of 1941-1945, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Britain (they fought even longer since 1939) remained opponents. France, too, was among the winners, although Field Marshal Keitel, signing the surrender, could not resist the ironic remark on this subject.
There is no doubt that the Norman landing of the allied forces and the subsequent actions of the armies of the USA, Britain, France and other countries contributed to the defeat of Nazism and the destruction of the criminal political regime, which did not hide its inhuman essence. However, comparing these certainly respected efforts with the battles of the Eastern Front is very difficult. It was against the USSR that Hitlerism waged a total war, the purpose of which was the complete destruction of the population, which was also declared by official documents of the Third Reich. Our participants in the Great Patriotic War deserve all the more respect and blessed memory, who have fulfilled their duty under much more difficult conditions than their Anglo-American brothers in arms.