_UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II_

                           Pictorial Record

                       THE WAR AGAINST GERMANY:
                          EUROPE AND ADJACENT
                                 AREAS

                      CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY
                          UNITED STATES ARMY
                        WASHINGTON, D.C., 1989




                   First Printed 1951--CMH Pub 12–3

     For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government
                            Printing Office
                       Washington, DC 20402-0001




                  UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II

                Kent Roberts Greenfield, General Editor


                         _Advisory Committee_

                            James P. Baxter
                      President, Williams College

                           Henry S. Commager
                          Columbia University

                          Douglas S. Freeman
                         Richmond News Leader

                           Pendleton Herring
                    Social Science Research Council

                             John D. Hicks
                       University of California

                         William T. Hutchinson
                         University of Chicago

                           S. L. A. Marshall
                             Detroit News

                           E. Dwight Salmon
                            Amherst College

                         Col. Thomas D. Stamps
                    United States Military Academy

                           Charles S. Sydnor
                            Duke University

                           Charles H. Taylor
                          Harvard University


               _Office of the Chief of Military History_

                     Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward, Chief

    Chief Historian                     Kent Roberts Greenfield
    Chief, World War II Division        Col. Thomas J. Sands
    Editor-in-Chief                     Hugh Corbett
    Chief, Pictorial Section            Capt. Kenneth E. Hunter


                        ... to Those Who Served




                               Foreword


During World War II the photographers of the United States armed forces
created on film a pictorial record of immeasurable value. Thousands
of pictures are preserved in the photographic libraries of the armed
services but are little seen by the public.

In the narrative volumes of UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, now
being prepared by the Office of the Chief of Military History of the
United States Army, it is possible to include only a limited number
of pictures. Therefore, a subseries of pictorial volumes, of which
this is one, has been planned to supplement the other volumes of the
series. The photographs have been especially selected to show important
terrain features, types of equipment and weapons, living and weather
conditions, military operations, and matters of human interest. These
volumes will preserve and make accessible for future reference some
of the best pictures of World War II. An appreciation not only of the
terrain upon which actions were fought, but also of its influence on
the capabilities and limitations of weapons in the hands of both our
troops and those of the enemy, can be gained through a careful study of
the pictures herein presented. These factors are essential to a clear
understanding of military history.

This book deals with the European Theater of Operations, covering the
period from the build-up in the United Kingdom through V-E Day. Its
seven sections are arranged chronologically. The photographs were
selected and the text written by Capt. Kenneth E. Hunter; the editing
was done by Miss Mary Ann Bacon. The written text has been kept to a
minimum. The appendixes give information as to the abbreviations used
and the sources of the photographs.

    Washington, D. C.                         ORLANDO WARD
    6 February 1951                           Maj. Gen., USA
                                              Chief of Military History




                               Contents


    _Section_                                                 _Page_

      I. THE BUILD-UP IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE
             AIR OFFENSIVE, EUROPE                                1

     II. NORMANDY CAMPAIGN                                       73

    III. NORTHERN FRANCE CAMPAIGN                               147

     IV. RHINELAND CAMPAIGN: 15 SEPTEMBER 1944–15 DECEMBER
             1944                                               211

      V. ARDENNES-ALSACE CAMPAIGN                               261

     VI. RHINELAND CAMPAIGN: 26 JANUARY 1945–21 MARCH
             1945                                               325

    VII. CENTRAL EUROPE CAMPAIGN                                379

         APPENDIX A: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS                      439

         APPENDIX B: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS                            440

         INDEX                                                  443




                               SECTION I

The Build-up in the United Kingdom and the Air Offensive, Europe[1]


The build-up of the United States Army in the United Kingdom, from
January 1942 until June 1944, with the huge amounts of supplies
necessary to equip and maintain the forces and to prepare for the
invasion of northern Europe was a tremendous undertaking. It involved
the transportation of men and supplies across the Atlantic during a
time when the German submarine menace was at its peak. The United
States Navy played a vital role in transporting men and supplies and
in protecting the convoys while en route. During this period the
administrative task was enormous since facilities for quartering and
training such large forces and for storing supplies and equipment
had to be provided within the limited area of the United Kingdom.
In October 1942 some of the units stationed in the United Kingdom
were sent to the Mediterranean for the invasion of North Africa. The
build-up continued after this, well-trained units arriving from the
United States. As the time for the invasion of France approached,
battle-tested units from the Mediterranean theater were transferred
to England to prepare for their part in the assault. In spite of
the limited terrain available, large-scale maneuvers and realistic
amphibious operations were conducted. In the early spring of 1944 joint
exercises of the ground, sea, and air forces which were to make the
attack in Normandy were held along the southern coast of England. The
last of these exercises was held in early May, the units then moving to
the staging areas and embarkation points for the invasion.

While the ground forces were being equipped and trained the Allied
air forces bombed the fortress of Europe. The Royal Air Force Bomber
Command carried out the air assault by night and the United States
Eighth Air Force by day. The first U. S. participation in the bombing
of Europe from British bases was on 4 July 1942, when American crews
flew six British bombers. During the fall of 1942 the Eighth Air Force
prepared the Twelfth Air Force for the invasion of Africa, and it was
not until the beginning of 1943 that U. S. bombers began to attack
Europe from England in large-scale raids. From that time on the attacks
on Germany continued with increasing intensity and shattering power
until, in February 1944, the German Luftwaffe attempted to sweep the
U. S. bombers from the skies over Europe. After a battle of one week’s
duration over important industrial cities of Germany, the Luftwaffe was
beaten and supremacy of the air was in Allied hands where it remained
until the end of the war.

  [Illustration: NORTHERN IRELAND

   U. S. TROOPS arriving in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The first
   U. S. troops to cross the Atlantic after the declaration of war
   by the United States went to Northern Ireland in January 1942.
   In the same month the Special Observer Group was replaced by
   Headquarters, United States Armed Forces in the British Isles.
   Shortly thereafter the center of concentration was transferred
   from Ireland to England and the rapid build-up of personnel
   commenced. Logistical planning began in April 1942. This
   build-up of men and supplies was to become one of the greatest
   logistical undertakings in military history. Supplies were
   shipped from the United States in ever increasing quantities
   until, during the month of June 1944, approximately 1,000,000
   long tons were received in the United Kingdom.]

  [Illustration: NORTHERN IRELAND

   U. S. TROOPS marching through the streets of a town in Northern
   Ireland escorted by a British sergeant. The first U. S. troops
   to arrive in Ireland were 18 officers and 18 enlisted men, the
   advance party for the first contingent. By 1 June 1944 there
   were 1,562,000 U. S. troops in the United Kingdom. During the
   early months after the United States’ entry into World War II a
   large part of the equipment was similar to that of World War I.
   In the succeeding months much was done to improve all types of
   equipment and many of the changes may be seen in the pictures
   that follow in this volume.]

  [Illustration: NORTHERN IRELAND

   TRAINING IN IRELAND, FEBRUARY 1942. Before leaving the United
   States members of the U. S. armed forces normally had completed
   their training, but to keep the men at the peak of their
   fighting fitness programs in firing, field exercises, and
   special problems were begun under varying weather and terrain
   conditions. Men in their late teens or early twenties made the
   finest soldiers as they had stamina and recuperative power
   far beyond that of older men. This physical superiority often
   determined the issue in heavy and prolonged fighting.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   INFANTRY MAN WITH WEAPONS. Soldier is holding a .45-caliber
   Thompson submachine gun M 1928A 1; from left to right are:
   60-mm. mortar M 2, British antitank gun, .30-caliber U. S. rifle
   M 1 with bayonet M 1 attached, .30-caliber Browning machine
   gun M 1919A 4, hand grenades, .45-caliber automatic pistol M
   1911A 1, .30-caliber U. S. rifle M 1903 with grenade launcher
   M 1 attached, .30-caliber Browning automatic rifle M 1913A 2,
   and 81-mm. mortar M 1 (top). Infantryman has just completed an
   obstacle course (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: SCOTLAND

   SOLDIERS LAND FROM AN ASSAULT BOAT during a training exercise
   in Scotland, July 1942. The base of fire of a rifle platoon was
   its automatic weapons. The riflemen concentrated their fire on
   the impact area blocked out by the automatic weapons. The base
   of fire of a U. S. rifle squad in World War II was the Browning
   automatic rifle (BA R). The man in right foreground is armed
   with this weapon. The two men behind the soldier with the BA R
   are armed with .30-caliber U. S. rifles M 1.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TWO TYPES OF U. S. HEAVY, FOUR-ENGINED BOMBERS. Consolidated
   B-24 Liberators on a bombing mission over Europe (top); Boeing
   B-17 Flying Fortresses dropping bombs on enemy installations in
   Bremen, Germany, while flak bursts around them (bottom). The
   first U. S. air unit to engage in combat over Europe was a light
   bombardment squadron. Flying British planes, six U. S. crews
   joined six RAF crews in a daylight attack against four airdromes
   in the Netherlands on 4 July 1942. On 17 August twelve B-17’s,
   accompanied by four RAF Spitfire fighter squadrons, attacked the
   marshalling yards at Rouen, France, and successfully completed
   the first U. S. attack over Europe. From these small beginnings
   the number of planes taking part in the raids grew until the
   average per raid in 1943 was 570 heavy bombers, a figure that
   was to be almost doubled in 1944.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   THREE TYPES OF ESCORT FIGHTER PLANES over England. From top to
   bottom: Lockheed P-38 Lightning, North American P-51 Mustang,
   Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. P-47’s were the first to join the
   British Spitfires in providing escort for heavy bombers, the
   P-38 was available in small numbers in October 1943, and the
   P-51 began to appear in January 1944. At first the 47’s flew top
   cover, but before long they began to drop down and engage the
   enemy fighter planes. As the war progressed the escort opened
   out more and more until it became a huge net to envelop the
   enemy.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   A BRITISH POLICE SERGEANT gives road direction to a U. S. first
   sergeant during a march. By the end of June 1944 there was a
   total of 140,656 Negro personnel in the European Theater of
   Operations assigned to both combat and service units. The M 1
   helmet worn by the sergeant was standardized on 9 June 1941,
   and mass production began shortly thereafter, it replaced the
   earlier M 1917A 1 helmet shown in preceding pictures.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEMBERS OF THE FIRST OFFICER CANDIDATE SCHOOL (OCS) in the
   United Kingdom decontaminating a building that has been
   subjected to mustard gas (top). Machine gun training at OCS
   (bottom). Qualified enlisted men were selected from units
   stationed in the British Isles and sent to this school where,
   upon the successful completion of the courses of instruction,
   they were commissioned second lieutenants in the Army of the
   United States. The first class began in September 1942 and there
   were in all seven classes, each lasting for approximately three
   months. The OCS in England graduated and commissioned a total of
   472 men.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   A FIGHTER PILOT, Standing beside his plane in England, wearing
   an oxygen mask and helmet equipped with earphones. Over his
   leather flying jacket is a life preserver. A number of young
   men from the United States joined the Canadian and British
   air forces before America’s entry in the war. When the U. S.
   declared war these pilots were transferred to the U. S. air
   force. The strength of the U. S. air force in 1940 was about
   43,000 men and 2,500 planes. In early 1944 there were 2,300,000
   men and 80,000 aircraft.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   INTERIOR OF A B-17 showing two .50-caliber Browning machine
   guns. These planes were highly complex machines, well armed,
   with machine guns in front, rear, sides, top, and bottom. The
   man in the picture is working on the gun turret which protruded
   beneath the fuselage. The tank on top of this turret was for
   oxygen.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   AN ORDNANCE SPECIALIST in the repair of optical equipment cleans
   a pair of field glasses, England, September 1942. Ordnance
   responsibility extended to “everything that rolls, shoots,
   is shot, or is dropped from the air.” Its complete catalogue
   contained 35,000 separate items, ranging from watch springs and
   firing pins to 20-ton howitzers and 40-ton tanks.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   A REPAIRED M 3 MEDIUM TANK is given final check by Ordnance
   personnel. Every tank, gun, or vehicle, damaged either by an
   accident or later in combat, which could be repaired meant
   one less new tank to be supplied. As the war progressed the
   medium tank underwent changes as did a great deal of other U.
   S. equipment. It became lower so as to present a more difficult
   target, the riveted hull was replaced by a welded or cast hull,
   and toward the end of the war the suspension system was changed.
   These, and other mechanical changes, with the addition of better
   armament and armor, made the vehicle a more formidable fighting
   machine, better able to combat enemy tanks.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   PARATROOPERS having their parachutes inspected before taking
   off for a practice jump, England, October 1942. These troops
   were equipped with specially designed clothing and equipment
   including helmets with a new type fiber liner and chin strap,
   jump suits with large pockets that could be securely fastened,
   and boots that laced higher up the leg and which had reinforced
   toes and stronger ankle supports.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   SOLDIER BEING TRAINED in the correct method of attack when armed
   with a knife. Note the difference between the uniform worn by
   the infantryman here and that worn by paratroopers on opposite
   page.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   AN ENGINEER COMPANY AT WORK ON AN AIRFIELD in England. By 1
   June 1944 a total of 129 airfields was available in the United
   Kingdom for the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces. In addition there
   were 3 base air depots, 7 combat crew and replacement centers,
   2 reconnaissance and 1 photographic reconnaissance fields,
   19 troop carrier fields, 11 advance landing grounds, and 2
   miscellaneous fields. Living quarters for more than 400,000 air
   force personnel had to be furnished, plus many thousands of
   square feet of space for storage.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   B-17 LANDING, after having dropped two flares to indicate that
   it has wounded crew members aboard, while two medical crews
   stand by to give first aid to the wounded (top). During raids
   over enemy territory crew members were sometimes wounded by flak
   or gunfire from enemy fighter planes. A crew member receiving
   medical attention as soon as his plane lands (bottom). In this
   case blood plasma is being administered. Blood plasma, which is
   whole blood minus the corpuscles, was given to those who had
   lost blood or were in shock. The plasma increased the volume of
   blood and kept the blood stream going. When casualties arrived
   at a hospital whole blood was administered to replace the blood
   lost and also to relieve shock before further treatment was
   begun.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   ENLISTED MEN OF THE ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT operating caterpillar
   tractor cranes to unload a crated gun carriage (half-track)
   which weighed approximately 20,000 pounds. The Ordnance
   Department maintained a large depot at Tidworth, England.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   BOMBS BEING UNLOADED at a U. S. Air Corps Ordnance Depot in
   England. After being stacked the bombs were covered with
   camouflage nets such as those behind tractors at left center of
   picture. Facilities for storing bombs in any other manner were
   limited. These stacks became common sights along the country
   lanes and roads in England during the war years. (1,000-pound
   bombs; crawler-type revolving crane on tractor mounting with
   diesel engine.)]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEDIUM M3 TANKS in an Ordnance Depot, England (top). Combat
   tracked vehicles temporarily stored before being issued to the
   using units (bottom). After a vehicle arrived in the United
   Kingdom there was much to be done before it could be issued to
   the using unit. Tanks were received from the United States with
   about 500 items of accessory equipment, including small arms,
   radio, tools, gun sights, and other incidentals, packed in
   waterproofed containers; many were coated with a rust-preventive
   compound. The job of preparing an M 4 tank took approximately
   fifty working hours. Accessories were unpacked, cleaned, tested,
   and installed; the motor and all mechanical components were
   checked and tuned. When a vehicle left the Ordnance depot it was
   completely supplied, including ammunition and rations.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   A 105-MM. HOWITZER MOTOR CARRIAGE M 7 on maneuvers in England,
   March 1943. This was an open-top, lightly armored vehicle and
   was the principal artillery weapon of an armored division.]

  [Illustration: NORTH ATLANTIC

   U. S. NAVY PLANE attacks and sinks a German submarine in the
   North Atlantic, June 1943. The sinking of a British liner
   without warning by a German submarine off the coast of Scotland
   on 3 September 1939 opened the battle of the Atlantic, which
   continued until 14 May 1945 when the last U-boats surrendered at
   American Atlantic ports. Enemy submarines, traveling alone or in
   wolf packs, sank many Allied ships but by the middle of 1943 the
   menace had been reduced to a problem. This was accomplished by
   the use of the interlocking convoy system that provided escort
   protection along the important convoy routes, small escort
   aircraft carriers and destroyer escorts, and planes, from which
   hunter-killer groups were formed to seek out and destroy the
   U-boats.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: SCOTLAND

   LIGHTERS PULL ALONGSIDE THE QUEEN ELIZABETH to unload U. S.
   troops in Scotland (top). Representatives of the American Red
   Cross serving refreshments to Waacs who have just arrived in
   Scotland (bottom). On one trip the Queen Elizabeth carried a
   record load of 15,028 troops. Between December 1941 and June
   1944 the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth transported a large
   portion of the total number of troops to the United Kingdom,
   running alone through seas in which their great speed was their
   chief protection against enemy submarines.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   BOMBS TUMBLE FROM THE BAYS OF AN OVERTURNED B-24 BOMBER. The
   plane was caught in a heavy flak belt while on a mission over
   Germany. During 1943 the enemy became much more aggressive
   as he shifted his fighters from the Russian front and the
   Mediterranean theater to western Europe. The German day fighters
   continually harassed U. S. heavy bombers, sometimes following
   them far out to sea on their withdrawal.]

  [Illustration: NORTH SEA

   A ROYAL AIR FORCE SEA RESCUE LAUNCH picking up the crew of a
   B-17 which crashed into the North Sea while returning to its
   base in England after a bombing raid over Germany. The crew
   members are in rubber boats and are flying a kite to which is
   attached the aerial of a short wave radio used to signal and
   give their position to the rescue craft. Many bombers were shot
   down over enemy territory and their crews captured, killed, or
   wounded; others were badly damaged and crashed into the North
   Sea on their return; while still others managed to return to
   their bases even though damaged. Many crews of the planes forced
   down at sea were rescued in the manner shown here.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   SOLDIERS PLACING A BANGALORE TORPEDO under barbed wire during a
   training problem in England, August 1943. When fired, the charge
   would explode and clear a path through the obstruction. This
   method was not only faster than cutting through the wire, but
   also did not expose the men unnecessarily to enemy fire.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEMBERS OF AN AIRBORNE DIVISION loading a ¼-ton 4x4 truck into
   a British Horsa glider (top). By removing the tail section,
   the glider could be unloaded in approximately seven minutes.
   Airborne infantrymen in a U. S. glider (bottom). In this
   picture men are armed with .30-caliber U. S. rifles M 1903A 3;
   .30-caliber U. S. rifles M 1; .45-caliber Thompson submachine
   gun M 1; 2.36-inch rocket launcher M 1A 1; and .30-caliber
   Browning automatic rifle M 1918A 2. Machine guns, mortars, and
   light artillery weapons were dropped by parachutes and brought
   in by gliders along with other supplies which made the airborne
   troops a compact fighting unit.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   AERIAL VIEW OF SCHWEINFURT, GERMANY, October 1943. This city
   was the center of the ball-bearing factories, one of the
   target priorities picked for destruction by the strategic
   air force. The order of these priorities was as follows: (1)
   submarine construction yards and bases, (2) aircraft industry,
   (3) ball-bearing industry, (4) oil industry, (5) synthetic
   rubber plants, and (6) military transport vehicle industry. The
   Schweinfurt raid had considerable significance at this time
   because the Americans were still trying to prove the feasibility
   of daylight precision bombing. This crucial raid was made by a
   force of 228 heavy bombers and there ensued one of the greatest
   battles in Eighth Air Force history. From the German frontier
   at Aachen, where the fighter escort had to leave the bombers
   because of limited gasoline capacities, to Schweinfurt and
   return wave after wave of enemy fighters attacked the bombers.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   BOMBS STRIKING THE BALL-BEARING FACTORIES at Schweinfurt,
   Germany, October 1943. Flak over the target was intense but good
   visibility enabled the bombers to make an accurate run and more
   than 450 tons of high explosives and incendiaries were dropped
   in the target area. Heavy damage was inflicted on the major
   plants. The cost to the attackers was also severe. Sixty-two
   bombers were lost and 138 were damaged. Personnel casualties
   were 599 killed and 40 wounded. Such losses could not be
   sustained and deep penetrations without escort were suspended.
   Schweinfurt was not attacked again for four months and the
   Germans were given a chance to take countermeasures, which they
   did with great energy and skill.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   HEAVY BOMBERS ON A MISSION over southwestern Germany, December
   1943. Planes at upper level are Boeing B-17’s; those at
   lower level are Consolidated B-24’s. After the Schweinfurt
   raid unescorted bomber raids were discontinued until 1944
   when long-range fighters equipped with wing tanks were able
   to provide fighter escort for the B-17’s and B-24’s as far
   as Berlin. By 1944 the Luftwaffe, although still offering
   a formidable defense, basically had decayed and was very
   vulnerable to Allied air power that was being concentrated
   against it. By April 1944 the Allies had achieved air
   superiority which permitted full-scale air attacks on Germany,
   an indispensable prerequisite for the invasion of Normandy.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   B-17’s DROPPING BOMBS OVER BREMEN, December 1943. Control of
   the air started with an attack on the Focke-Wulf plant at
   Bremen in April 1943, but the main attacks did not get under
   way until that summer. On six successive days in late July
   Allied air forces attacked the German aircraft industry so
   successfully that the production rate started downward. It was
   not until February 1944 that the decisive air battle came,
   when for a period of six days of perfect weather a continuous
   assault on the widely dispersed German aircraft-frame factories
   and assembly plants seriously reduced the capabilities of the
   Luftwaffe. Subsequent attacks affected the entire aircraft
   industry and it never fully recovered.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   BRITISH FIRE FIGHTERS combating a fire started by bombs during
   a German night attack over London, February 1944. The Battle
   of Britain began in August 1940 and continued on a large scale
   through October. During the air blitz over England the Luftwaffe
   suffered irreparable losses from which its bombardment arm never
   recovered, even though smaller attacks were carried out until
   late in the war. In daytime raids over England during the Battle
   of Britain from August to October 1940, the Germans lost 2,375
   planes and crews, while the British lost 375 pilots.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   A BRITISH SPITFIRE FIGHTER chasing a German V-bomb over England.
   Only fast low-level ships, such as the British Spitfire or the
   U. S. P-47 or P-51, were good at this type of pursuit since the
   robot bombs averaged well over 300 miles per hour. These bombs,
   launched from sites along the invasion coast of France and the
   Low Countries, caused considerable damage in England and in
   addition were a demoralizing factor in that one never knew when
   or where they would strike. The launching sites were placed
   on the list of targets for the Allied air forces, but because
   these sites could be easily moved and camouflaged they were
   not completely destroyed until the invasion forces took over
   the areas in which they were located. The first of the V-bombs
   appeared over England on 13 June 1944.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEMBERS OF AN ENGINEER UNIT operating multiplex machines in the
   process of preparing maps from aerial mosaics. Relief and other
   features were plotted from photographic diapositives, contained
   in the conical shaped holders on the beam in background of lower
   picture, to sheets on which control and check points have been
   plotted. In these two photographs contours are being drawn on
   the maps by use of the multiplex machine. Contrary to general
   opinion, France was not a well-mapped country. During World
   War I detailed maps showed primarily trench fortifications and
   special small areas. The Engineers were responsible for making
   maps, which required the services of highly trained personnel.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEMBERS OF AN ENGINEER TOPOGRAPHICAL BATTALION preparing maps
   of Europe prior to the invasion of France. In 1944 more than
   125,000,000 maps giving more complete details than those shown
   here were printed for the invasion alone. An average of 867
   tons of maps was shipped each month from the United States. In
   addition, 3,695,750 salvaged enemy maps were used for reverse
   side printing. Large-scale maps showing beach and underwater
   obstacles on the American and British assault beaches were
   produced by the U. S. Army Engineers in preparation for the
   invasion.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   ANEMOMETER AND WIND DIRECTION INDICATOR being checked by an
   enlisted man of a weather section. Improvements in weather
   forecasting, instrument bombing technique and equipment, and
   operating procedures had advanced so much that whereas in 1942
   U. S. bombers could operate on an average of only six days per
   month, in the last year of the war they averaged twenty-two days.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEMBERS OF A FIGHTER GROUP being briefed before taking off on a
   mission England, 1944]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   WACS WORKING IN THE COMMUNICATIONS SECTION of the operations
   room at an air force station. No opportunity was overlooked to
   replace men with personnel of the Women’s Army Corps both in the
   United States and overseas, Wacs were given many technical and
   specialized jobs to do, as well as administrative and office
   work. The Medical Corps employed the largest number of Wacs
   in technical jobs, but other technical services such as the
   Transportation Corps, Signal Corps, Ordnance Department, and
   Quartermaster Corps had many positions that could be performed
   by women as efficiently as by men.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MAIL FOR UNITS STATIONED IN ENGLAND being sorted. The handling
   of the mails through the Army Post Office (APO) was a function
   of the Adjutant General’s Department. Mail normally was
   delivered to the armed forces with the least possible delay as
   it was an important morale factor for men stationed away from
   home. During the last week of May 1944 an artificial delay of
   ten days was imposed on the forwarding of all American mail to
   the United States and elsewhere, and the use of transatlantic
   telephone, radio, and cable facilities was denied to American
   personnel. British mail was strictly censored by the military
   authorities from April 1944 until the invasion on 6 June 1944.
   These precautionary measures were taken to assure the secrecy
   of the coming invasion. In addition, a block was also placed on
   diplomatic correspondence of all countries except the United
   States, Great Britain, and the USSR.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   ARTILLERY UNITS TRAINING IN ENGLAND. A liaison plane flying
   over a battery of 105-mm. howitzers M 2A 1 (top). A 155-mm. gun
   firing (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   155-MM. GUNS AND 105-MM. HOWITZERS (top and bottom respectively)
   stored in England, 1944. After about 2,250 rounds had been
   fired, the barrel of the 155-mm. gun had to be replaced; in
   howitzers the number of rounds was higher.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES, TANK CARS, AND FREIGHT CARS lined up in
   England to be used on the Continent after the invasion (top).
   Caterpillar tractors and bulldozers stored at an Engineer depot
   to be used after the invasion of France (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   20 GROSVENOR SQUARE, LONDON, U. S. Headquarters of the European
   Theater of Operations (top). U. S. enlisted men passing Number
   10, Downing Street, residence and office of the Prime Minister
   of Great Britain (bottom). During the period of the build-up
   in the British Isles, activities and plans were formulated
   for the large and small units scattered throughout the United
   Kingdom in a group of buildings located near the American
   embassy in London. This group of buildings housed the offices
   of the personnel whose task it was to co-ordinate the activity
   and training of units and, in addition, to handle the problems
   relating to the build-up of supplies for the invasion.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   A COLUMN OF HALF-TRACKS advancing along a road during the
   training period in England (top). The second, third, and fourth
   vehicles in the picture are 75-mm. gun motor carriages M 3.
   This was the first standardized U. S. self-propelled antitank
   weapon used in World War II, and provided high mobility for the
   75-mm. gun. It was replaced in March 1944 by the 76-mm. motor
   gun carriage M 18, and in September 1944 was declared obsolete.
   Temporarily stored half-tracks (bottom). These vehicles were
   used as gun and howitzer motor carriages, antiaircraft gun
   carriages and personnel carriers.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   ARMORED UNITS PARTICIPATING IN MANEUVERS in England. In the
   spring of 1944 intensified training was given to all units which
   were to take part in the invasion of Normandy. Light tank M 5A 1
   (top), medium tank M 4A 1 (bottom). The U. S. tank was designed
   as a weapon of exploitation to be used in long-range thrusts
   deep into the enemy’s rear where it could attack his supply
   installations and communications. This required great endurance,
   low consumption of gasoline, and ability to move long distances
   without a break-down.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEN OF A SERVICE SQUADRON SALVAGING A FUEL TANK from the wing of
   a P-51. These tanks helped to make the bomber escort planes into
   long-range planes which gave fighter protection to the heavy
   bombers. The tanks, the fuel from which was consumed first, were
   dropped when empty and the plane then used gasoline from its
   permanent tanks.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

     P-51’S IN FORMATION. Each plane in this formation has
    two wing tanks attached.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   A MEDICAL BATTALION QUARTERED IN TENTS, Cornwall, England
   (top). A U. S. hospital installed in Quonset huts (bottom). The
   hospital plan in the United Kingdom called for over 90,000 beds
   in existing installations, conversions, and new constructions.
   The program was later increased by 30,000 beds by using tents
   for the hospital units.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   U. S. ARMY NURSE, wearing a helmet and fatigue uniform,
   preparing an intravenous injection; a kerosene lamp provides
   illumination. Hospital personnel worked under conditions
   similar to those they might encounter upon their arrival on the
   Continent after the invasion. Army nurses gave widely varying
   types of skilled service, some of them in field hospitals and
   others in the general hospitals farther behind the lines. World
   War II was the first war in which nurses received full military
   benefits and real instead of relative officer rank. There were
   more than 17,000 Army nurses in the ETO in May 1945.]

  [Illustration: NORTHERN IRELAND

   FIRING GERMAN WEAPONS. In order to become familiar with German
   weapons and to learn the capabilities of enemy arms, U. S.
   infantrymen fired them during training in Northern Ireland in
   the spring of 1944. The men in the top picture are firing a
   German standard dual-purpose machine gun (7.92-mm. M. G. 34).
   The soldier in the bottom picture is firing a German rifle
   (7.92-mm. Karbiner 98K--Mauser-Kar. 98K) which was the standard
   shoulder weapon of the German Army and very similar to the U. S.
   rifle M1903.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEMBERS OF AN ARMORED INFANTRY REGIMENT firing U. S. weapons
   during training in England. In 1941 the Ordnance Department
   began its experiments with the rocket launcher, which resulted
   in the invention of the 2.36-inch rocket launcher (bazooka).
   This was the first weapon of its type to be used in the
   war. Designed originally as an antitank weapon, it was used
   effectively against machine gun nests, pillboxes, and even
   fortified houses. It required only a two-man team--a gunner and
   a loader--and as it weighed only a little more than a rifle it
   could be carried everywhere (top). The crew of a 60-mm. mortar
   M2 firing at a simulated enemy position (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   AN ENLISTED MAN ON GUARD DUTY at a rail junction in Wales where
   American-made locomotives were stored. The United States shipped
   1,000 locomotives and 20,000 railroad cars to the United Kingdom
   for use on the Continent after the invasion. In addition, 270
   miles of railroad were constructed in England to facilitate
   movements. The Transportation Corps was responsible for the
   movement of men and supplies by land and water, and for the
   operation and supply of a great deal of this equipment. Since
   much of the railroad equipment in Europe had been destroyed
   or damaged by preinvasion bombing by the Allied airforces,
   locomotives and cars had to be supplied by both the United
   States and the United Kingdom for use in Europe.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   AN LST ARRIVES IN PLYMOUTH, England, carrying an LCT(6) as
   deckload, after crossing the Atlantic under its own power (top).
   The LCT was unloaded by sliding it over the side of the LST into
   the water (bottom). A great many landing craft were needed to
   mount the coming invasion. These were built in the United States
   and the United Kingdom.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   OUTDOOR STORAGE OF FIELD WIRE which was to be used after
   the invasion of France by the Signal Corps for telephone
   communications. The large rolls contained one mile of wire
   while the smaller ones had a half-mile capacity (top). The
   Quartermaster Corps, after salvaging shoes, supervised the
   rebuilding of them in English shoe factories and returned the
   remade shoes to troops in the field. Bottom picture shows shoes
   before and after being rebuilt.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEN OF A QUARTERMASTER UNIT STORING FIELD RATIONS in a warehouse
   in England, March 1944 (top). The U. S. Army was unquestionably
   better fed than any other in history. However, food in combat
   can never be the same as that in garrison or cantonment, since
   field rations must be nonperishable, compact, and easily carried
   by the individual soldier. Combat rations were improved as the
   war progressed and C rations were supplied in a more varied
   assortment. Engineer construction supplies stored in England in
   preparation for the invasion of Normandy (bottom). The large
   rolls of wire netting were to be used on the invasion beaches to
   make improvised roadways for vehicles.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   PARATROOPERS MAKING A MASS JUMP during their training in
   England. In practice jumps prior to the drop into Normandy there
   were numerous casualties. The injured were quickly cared for and
   the experience showed airborne medics what they could expect
   during the actual invasion.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   REPUBLIC P-47 FIGHTER PLANES (top) and Boeing B-17 heavy bombers
   (bottom) lined up on an airfield in England before being issued
   to the units who will fly them over the Continent against the
   enemy.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   ENGINEERS CONSTRUCTING A PONTON BRIDGE in England during the
   training period (top). Members of an antiaircraft artillery unit
   receiving instruction from a British officer while training with
   a 40-mm. automatic antiaircraft gun M1 (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   GUN CREW OF AN ANTIAIRCRAFT ARTILLERY GROUP operating a 90-mm.
   gun M1 near the coast of England, April 1944. In order to cope
   with the latest developments in the fields of high-altitude
   bombing, a 90-mm. antiaircraft gun with longer range, greater
   muzzle velocity, and a larger effective shell-burst area was
   introduced.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   EXHAUST STACKS AND AIR-INTAKE VENTS being installed on a medium
   tank M4 (top). After the installation was completed, the tank
   was tested off the coast of England (bottom). In addition to
   stacks, the tanks were further waterproofed by sealing all
   unvented openings with tape and sealing compound to render the
   hull watertight. Special attachments permitted rapid jettisoning
   of any waterproofing equipment which might interfere with
   satisfactory operation of the vehicles when on shore. These
   methods were first successfully used in the invasion of North
   Africa in November 1942. All vehicles which were to be driven
   ashore in Normandy under their own power, through water, and in
   the face of enemy fire, were waterproofed. Ordnance inspectors
   checked the vehicle in the marshalling yards a few hours before
   the tanks were loaded for the invasion.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   LCT(R) FIRING ROCKETS DURING A TEST in Portsmouth Harbor,
   England (top). Close-up of the rocket launchers (bottom). These
   ships converted from landing craft, tank, were equipped to fire
   as many as 1,000 rockets.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   LANDING MANEUVERS. During late April and early May 1944 these
   were held for the invasion troops. Infantrymen landing from an
   LGI(L) (top). A combination gun motor carriage M15A1 landing on
   the beach from an LCT (bottom). This was a highly mobile weapon,
   capable of a concentration of rapid fire, and designed for
   antiaircraft defense.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   WATERPROOFED TANK RECOVERY VEHICLE M31 being loaded on an LCT
   during training along the English coast (top). For camouflage
   purposes, the normal appearance of the tank was retained as far
   as possible. A simulated turret without cupola was used and
   dummy 75-mm. and 37-mm. guns were mounted in place of the real
   guns. Actual armament was limited to two .30-caliber machine
   guns. A half-track 81-mm. mortar carrier M21 maneuvering on
   a road in England (bottom). The mortar could be used on the
   vehicle or separate from it.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   BOAT-LANDING DRILL during a training exercise, Slapton Sands
   near Weymouth, Devon, England, May 1944. The infantrymen shown
   here have their equipment as complete as it will be during the
   actual invasion landings. They are descending ladders into an
   LCVP. Standing with his back to the camera at the top of the
   ladder is an officer, identified by the broad white vertical
   stripe painted on the back of his helmet. Noncommissioned
   officers had a similar horizontal stripe painted on their
   helmets.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEN AND TRUCKS ON THE UPPER DECK OF AN LST near Slapton Sands in
   May 1944. As D Day drew nearer loading exercises and amphibious
   operations were practiced by the invasion troops. The greatest
   advantage the United States was to have in equipment over the
   Germans was the multiple-drive motor equipment, principally the
   ¼-ton truck and the 2½-ton truck. Shown in the picture are:
   ¼-ton 4×4 truck, ¾-ton 4×4 weapons carrier truck, 1½-ton 6 × 6
   personnel and cargo truck and 2½-ton 6×6 truck.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   AMPHIBIAN TRUCKS CARRY SUPPLIES ASHORE from a coaster under the
   protection of a smoke screen during landing maneuvers (top).
   A 2½-ton amphibian truck hitting the beach during maneuvers
   (bottom). These versatile trucks proved invaluable in bringing
   supplies to the beaches during the early stages of landing and
   during the build-up after the invasion of Normandy. During
   one of the amphibious exercises, which were made as realistic
   as possible, two LST’s were sunk by German E-boats. In other
   respects the training was successful and valuable lessons were
   learned.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   LCVP’S CIRCLING NEAR THE MOTHER SHIP while waiting for the
   signal to land on the beach during landing operation training at
   Slapton Sands (top). Members of an armored unit being briefed at
   a marshalling area (bottom). At the conclusion of the training
   exercises in May all the assault, follow-up, and build-up troops
   moved from their camps to marshalling areas for final staging.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   MEN AND EQUIPMENT BEING LOADED INTO LST’S (top) and LCVP’s
   (bottom) during the first days of June 1944 at one of the
   “hards” (paved strips running to the water’s edge) in southern
   England for the invasion of Normandy. The training given the
   assault forces during the amphibious exercises was so thorough
   that the final loadings for the invasion were accomplished with
   a minimum of delay and confusion and resembled another exercise
   more than the real thing. Two and one-half years after the first
   U. S. troops sailed for the United Kingdom, the training and
   preparation was completed and the large invasion force of U. S.
   and Allied troops was to receive its real test in battle against
   the enemy.]

  [Illustration]




                           NORMANDY CAMPAIGN


  [Illustration: NORMANDY

   The American and British Invasion Beaches and the Allied Advance
   during the Normandy Campaign 6 June 1944 to 24 July 1944]




                              SECTION II

                           Normandy Campaign


On 6 June 1944 the Allied military forces invaded northern France.
After long study of the German strength, including coastal defenses and
the disposition of enemy troops, the Allied commanders selected the
beaches along the Bay of the Seine for the assault landings. The two
beaches to be used by troops of the First U. S. Army were given the
names of Utah and Omaha. Those on which the British and Canadians of
the British Second Army were to land were named GOLD, SWORD, and JUNO.
The assault began at 0200 on 6 June when airborne troops were dropped
behind the beaches with the mission of securing exits from the beaches.
Planes of the Allied air force bombed the coastal defenses and shortly
after sunrise the Navy began shelling the beach defenses. At 0630 the
first troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. The sea was rough and
the assault forces met varying degrees of enemy opposition, but the
beachheads were secured and the assault and follow-up troops moved on
to accomplish their missions. The U. S. forces landing on Utah Beach
moved northwest to clear the northern portion of the Cotentin Peninsula
and capture the port of Cherbourg. Those landing on Omaha Beach
advanced southward toward Saint-Lô. The troops of the British Second
Army were to advance in a southeast direction from Caen.

The enormous build-up of men and material began immediately after the
assault. This operation was made most difficult because of the lack
of port facilities, but before the invasion plans had been made for
the construction of artificial harbors. The plans were quickly put
into effect and the harbors were almost completed when a summer gale
struck the Channel coast destroying most of the construction work. By
using amphibian trucks and Rhino ferries, and by drying out LST’s, the
build-up over open beaches progressed much faster than was anticipated
and men and supplies were poured into France in ever increasing
numbers.

While the beachheads were expanded and the build-up continued, the
infantry and armored units fought their way through the hedgerow
country toward their objectives. The fighting was slow and costly
as enemy opposition stiffened in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent
the Allied advance. With the capture of Cherbourg and Saint-Lô the
initial missions of the U. S. forces were completed and the forces
were then assembled in preparation for the drives south and west from
the beachhead toward Avranches and the Brittany Peninsula. The British
forces were to push southward from Caen exploiting in the direction of
Paris and the Seine Basin. These attacks were scheduled to begin on 19
July 1944 but because of bad weather the supporting aerial assault was
delayed and the breakout of Normandy did not get under way until 25
July.

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   FULLY EQUIPPED PARATROOPER, armed with a Thompson submachine
   gun M1, climbing into a transport plane to go to France as the
   invasion of Normandy gets under way. At approximately 0200,
   6 June 1944, men of two U. S. airborne divisions, as well as
   elements of a British airborne division, were dropped in vital
   areas to the rear of German coastal defenses guarding the
   Normandy beaches from Cherbourg to Caen. By dawn 1,136 heavy
   bombers of the RAF Bomber Command had dropped 5,853 tons of
   bombs on selected coastal batteries lining the Bay of the Seine
   between Cherbourg and Le Havre.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A MARTIN B-26 MEDIUM BOMBER flying over one of the invasion
   beaches, early on D-Day morning. All planes which supported the
   invasion operations, with the exception of the four-motored
   bombers, were painted with three white and two black stripes
   for identification purposes. At dawn on D-Day the U. S. Air
   Forces took up the air attacks and in the half hour before the
   touchdown of the assault forces (from 0600 to 0630) 1,365 heavy
   bombers dropped 2,746 tons of high explosives on the shore
   defenses. This was followed by attacks by medium bombers, light
   bombers, and fighter bombers. During the 24 hours of 6 June
   Allied aircraft flew 13,000 sorties, and during the first 8
   hours alone dropped 10,000 tons of bombs.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   GUN CREW ALERT aboard the cruiser USS Augusta, as landing craft
   approach the coast of France during the invasion, 6 June 1944.
   The three landing craft nearest the Augusta are an L C T(6), an
   L B V, and an L B K. While the Allied air forces were bombing
   installations along the invasion beaches the Allied sea armada
   drew in toward the coast, preceded by its flotillas of mine
   sweepers. Bad weather conditions and high seas had driven the
   enemy surface patrol craft into their harbors, and the 100-mile
   movement across the English Channel was unopposed. By 0300 the
   ships had anchored in the transport areas some thirteen miles
   off their assigned beaches, and the loading of troops into
   landing craft and the forming of the assault waves for the dash
   to the beaches began. At 0550 the heavy naval support squadrons
   began a 45-minute bombardment which quickly silenced the major
   coast-defense batteries.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   OMAHA BEACH ON 6 JUNE 1944. From Grandcamp, cliffs extend
   eastward to Arromanches-les-Bains with only two breaks, one in
   the Vierville-Colleville region which was the V Corps area.
   The Aure River behind Omaha Beach is a serious obstacle for a
   distance of ten miles from its mouth, near Isigny. Between the
   Vire and Orne Rivers the area is covered to a depth of forty
   miles inland by bocage (land divided into small fields by
   hedges, banks, and sunken roads). Observation was limited, and
   vehicle movement was restricted to the roads. The highlands that
   extend across the invasion front, with a depth up to twenty-five
   miles, are broken with steep hills and narrow valleys. Although
   narrow, the roads in this area are generally good. Vital initial
   objectives were the towns of Carentan, Saint-Lô, Bayeux, and
   Caen.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   U. S. TROOPS WADING ASHORE FROM AN L C V P at Omaha Beach during
   the assault. Elements of two U. S. infantry divisions, with
   engineer troops and tanks of an armored unit, made the first
   landings. The beaches selected for these landings were about
   7,000 yards in length. From the beach the ground curves upward
   and is backed by bluffs that merge into the cliffs at either end
   of the sector. H Hour was at 0630 6 June. The mission of V Corps
   was to secure a beachhead in the area between the Vire River and
   Port-en-Bessin, from which troops would push southward toward
   Caumont and Saint-Lô, conforming to the advance of British
   Second Army to the east.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN WADING ASHORE FROM AN LCT(6) (top). Troops leaving
   an LCVP to wade ashore (bottom). Half-tracks and 2½-ton
   amphibian trucks can be seen on the beach, and in the background
   men marching in columns start southward toward the bluffs. On
   the shelf the enemy strung barbed wire and planted mines. Lanes
   had to be cleared through these obstacles before the infantry
   could advance. Beyond this strip containing obstacles, the enemy
   laid out firing positions to cover the tidal flat and the beach
   with direct fire, both plunging and grazing, from all types of
   weapons. The men landing were fired upon from these positions,
   which for the most part had escaped destruction during the
   prelanding bombardment.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SURVIVORS OF AN LCVP which sank off Omaha Beach coming ashore in
   an LCR(S). The high seas added to the difficulties in getting
   ashore. Landing craft were in some instances hurled onto the
   beaches by the waves and some of the smaller ones were swamped
   before reaching shore. Others were flung upon and holed by the
   mined underwater obstacles. Some of the assault troops were
   swept off their feet while wading through the breakers. Of these
   some were drowned and those who reached the beach were often
   near exhaustion. Because of the rough seas many of the men were
   seasick during the crossing and arrived on the beach with their
   combat efficiency temporarily impaired by the experience.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ARMY MEDICS ADMINISTERING BLOOD PLASMA to a survivor of a sunken
   landing craft on Omaha Beach. D-Day casualties for the V Corps
   were in the neighborhood of 3,000 killed, wounded, and missing.
   The two assaulting regimental combat teams lost about 1,000 men
   each. The highest proportionate losses were taken by units that
   landed in the first few hours, including engineers, tank troops,
   and artillerymen. The D-Day casualties of V Corps were much
   higher than those suffered by VII Corps, where the assaulting
   seaborne division lost 197 men, including 60 lost at sea.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   WOUNDED U. S. TROOPS OF V CORPS, waiting to be evacuated, take
   shelter under the cliffs near the beach in the Colleville area
   (top). Some German troops and laborers rounded up on Omaha
   Beach (bottom). The assault troops reached the line of the
   Bayeux-Carentan road on 7 June. The following day U. S. forces
   established contact with the British on the American left flank.
   On 9 June U. S. divisions advanced rapidly south and west
   reaching the Caumont-Forêt de Cerisy-Isigny line by 11 June.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEMBERS OF A SHORE FIRE CONTROL GROUP operating Signal Corps
   radios. Man at left is operating an SCR 284, while the second
   man operates the hand generator GN 45; man at right is using a
   hand-held radio set, “handie-talkie” SCR 536 (top). An enlisted
   man looks up a number before placing a telephone call on a field
   telephone EE 8 (bottom). The function of the Signal Corps was to
   furnish radio, wire, and messenger communications. Often Signal
   Corps personnel went inland, sometimes ahead of the infantry, to
   observe and correct the fire from the naval guns offshore.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   UTAH BEACH, 6 JUNE 1944. In the VII Corps zone the smooth and
   shallow beaches in the vicinity of Saint-Martin-de-Varreville
   are backed by sand dunes that extend inland 150 to 1,000 yards.
   Behind the sand dunes the low ground had been inundated for a
   width of one to two miles, restricting travel from the beaches
   to four easily defended causeways. Farther inland the Merderet
   River, running parallel to the coast, and the Douve River, from
   which the ground rises northward to the hills around Cherbourg,
   restrict traffic to the established roads. Sainte-Mère-Eglise,
   Saint-Sauveur, and Barneville are key points on the road nets
   leading to Cherbourg. Southeast of Utah Beach the Douve and
   Vire Rivers flow into the shallow, muddy Carentan estuary which
   marked the boundary between VII and V Corps.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ASSAULT TROOPS LANDING ON UTAH BEACH ON D-DAY (top). Men and
   equipment along Utah Beach on D Day (bottom). The mission of
   VII Corps was to assault Utah Beach on 6 June 1944 at H Hour,
   0630, and to capture Cherbourg with a minimum delay. The
   troops, landing just west of the Vire estuary, encountered less
   opposition than any other Allied forces on D Day.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN RESTING ALONG THE SEA WALL and beginning to move
   inland, 6 June (top). Advancing southward through the inundated
   low ground (bottom). Fortunately, the first elements landed
   considerably south of the designated beaches in areas less
   thickly obstructed and where enemy shore defenses were less
   formidable than those opposite the intended landing beaches.
   While airborne troops seized the causeways through the inundated
   low ground to prevent enemy reinforcements from reaching the
   beach, the seaborne assault troops struck northwest toward
   Montebourg, on the road to Cherbourg.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN ENEMY SHELL HITS THE BEACH where U. S. troops are advancing.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   GERMAN CASEMATED FORTIFICATION inland from the beach (top);
   destroyed enemy gun emplacement (bottom). During 1943 the
   Germans had developed heavy frontal defenses at all the
   principal harbors from Den Helder to Brest. As the invasion
   threat grew, Cherbourg and Le Havre were further strengthened,
   while heavy guns were installed to block the entrance of the Bay
   of the Seine. Between the ports stretched a line of concrete
   defense positions and coastal and flak batteries. A program of
   casemating the coastal guns and strengthening the defense posts
   was still in progress on 6 June. The beaches were mined and
   obstacles were placed in the water offshore and on the beaches,
   but there was no secondary defense line behind the coastal
   defenses which the Germans thought would stop the invading
   troops.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEMBERS OF THE FOLLOW-UP DIVISION aboard an LCI(L) headed for
   Utah Beach on D Day. Other LCI’s in the background have barrage
   balloons flying overhead. These balloons were attached by cables
   to ships crossing the Channel so as to keep low-flying enemy
   strafing planes away from the craft.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A MEMBER OF AN ENGINEER UNIT using a mine detector SCR 625. The
   ground outlined with white tape had not been cleared of enemy
   mines and enemy signs were used to mark the mined areas. Army
   and Navy demolition teams, following the assault infantry, found
   the beach less thickly obstructed than expected, and Utah Beach
   was cleared in an hour. Engineers prepared exits from the beach
   by clearing lanes through the mine fields.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   GLIDERS BEING TOWED BY C-47 TRANSPORTS over the English Channel
   carrying reinforcements for the airborne divisions, 7 June
   (top). A British Horsa glider wrecked while landing (bottom).
   Six thousand six hundred men of one of the two U. S. airborne
   divisions were scattered over an area 25 miles by 15 miles in
   extent, and 60 percent of their equipment was lost. In general,
   however, these men accomplished their mission successfully.
   Other gliders were flown in on 6 June but suffered considerable
   casualties. (CG4A WACO.)]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   GLIDERS AND TOW PLANES CIRCLING before the gliders are cut loose
   for a landing, 7 June. On the ground are gliders which landed
   the previous day, many which were wrecked in landing. While one
   airborne division of the U. S. forces held the exits to Utah
   Beach and stuck southward toward Carentan, the other airborne
   division, despite heavy shelling in the Sainte-Mére-Eglise area,
   also established contact with the infantry troops pushing inland
   from Utah Beach early on 7 June.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN LCT(5) LOADED WITH REINFORCEMENTS moving toward the beach on
   7 June. In left center is an LCT(R); at right center is an LBV.
   In the background supply ships wait to discharge their cargoes
   (top). U. S. Air Force glider pilots in an LCVP on their way to
   a larger ship which will take them back to England (bottom).
   After landing their gliders the pilots made their way to the
   beach to await shipping to return them to their bases.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AMPHIBIAN TRUCKS (DUKW’s) bring supplies ashore on Utah Beach,
   8 June (top). Men and supplies come ashore; on the beach are
   LCT’s (bottom). Between 7 and 12 June the Allies concentrated
   their efforts on joining the beachheads into one uninterrupted
   lodgement area and on bringing in men and supplies.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A RAILROAD BRIDGE ACROSS THE SEINE destroyed by bombers of the
   Allied air force. Even though hampered by poor flying weather
   during the first week after D Day, the Allied air force bombed
   bridges across the Seine and Loire Rivers. This seriously
   hindered the movement of enemy troops and supplies, and trains
   had to be constantly rerouted in an attempt to reinforce the
   Germans trying to hold the assault forces in the area of the
   beachheads.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   WRECKED TRAIN. Three trains were held up on this single track,
   in the vicinity of Chartres, when fighter bombers knocked
   cars off the track. With the track thus blocked the movement
   of trains was stopped and much of the undamaged rolling stock
   later fell into Allied hands. Within an arc extending from the
   Pas-de-Calais through Paris to the Brittany Peninsula, 16,000
   tons of bombs were dropped on coastal batteries, 4,000 tons on
   airfields, and 8,500 tons on railway targets between 6 and 11
   June.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TRÉVIÈRES AND THE SURROUNDING AREA showing the bocage type of
   terrain. U. S. forces advancing inland from the Omaha beachhead
   were checked by the enemy in the Formigny-Trévières area on
   7 June. Formigny was cleared on 8 June. On the same day the
   U. S. troops held their positions north and east of Trévières
   and patrolled the outskirts of the town. The town was shelled
   by navy guns in the late afternoon. The approach to Trévières
   from the high ground just north of the Aure River was strongly
   defended and the enemy forces continued to hold out in this area
   until 10 June when the attacking U. S. forces outflanked and
   captured the town. The fall of Trévières marked the end of enemy
   resistance north of the Forêt de Cerisy.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   U. S. GUN CREW FIRING A 3-INCH ANTITANK GUN M5 at a house in
   which enemy troops are holding out (top). In the advance of the
   Allies from Utah Beach toward Cherbourg the enemy was often cut
   off in small groups and surrounded. The enemy groups in many
   cases would refuse to surrender, even though they were cut off
   from their own forces, and had to be eliminated one group at a
   time. A 90-mm. gun M1 of an antiaircraft battery firing near
   Vierville (bottom). Though enemy air attacks were not a serious
   threat to the Allies and very little opposition was encountered,
   antiaircraft batteries were always on the alert.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MULTIPLE GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M16 with its four .50-caliber
   machine guns firing at the enemy in support of an infantry
   advance (top). This vehicle was a weapon of an antiaircraft
   artillery unit, but the lack of enemy air activity in Normandy
   made possible its use in other roles. U. S. artillerymen
   emplacing a 155-mm. howitzer M1 in a camouflaged position
   (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   FORMATION OF DOUGLAS A-20’s over France. The infantry and
   armored attacks were, when possible, preceded by concentrated
   air attacks. Employing carpet bombing methods, thousands of
   tons of bombs were dropped. Fragmentation bombs were used to
   break enemy resistance without causing extensive cratering
   which would hinder the advance of tanks. Although these attacks
   were temporary in effect, the results greatly aided the initial
   ground attack. Casualties to the enemy were few, but he was
   stunned by the weight of the bombing and considerable confusion
   ensued.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENGINEERS LAYING WIRE MATTING in the construction of a landing
   strip near Sainte-Mère-Eglise (top). A Republic P-47 Thunderbolt
   bursting into flames after crash landing on the strip; still
   attached to underside of the wing are rockets which were not
   fired (bottom). An important factor in insuring the success of
   the Allied close-support operations lay in the establishment
   of landing strips in Normandy, from which fighter planes could
   operate. Work began as soon as a footing was obtained on shore
   and by 9 June planes were operating from these strips.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A QUARRY NEAR OMAHA BEACH used by engineer units to supply rock
   and stone for the construction of roads. The tremendous amount
   of traffic on the roads in Normandy, as men and supplies were
   brought into France over the beaches required the services of
   many engineer units to keep the roads in good repair. Most of
   the roads leading to the beaches were not hard surfaced but were
   constructed of rock and gravel.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENLISTED MEN PREPARE TO LAUNCH A BARRAGE BALLOON over one of
   the beaches in Normandy. Balloons were attached to cables and
   by means of winches could be raised or lowered to the desired
   altitude. These balloons were used to protect ships and beach
   installations from low-flying enemy aircraft. When the balloons
   were in position the enemy would not fly low over the beaches
   for fear of running into the cables which kept the balloons in
   place.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEDICAL CORPS MEN TREATING AN ENLISTED MAN for a wrist wound.
   When casualties entered a battalion aid station within a few
   hundred yards of the front, they were immediately screened and
   sorted. Wounds were redressed, and perhaps morphine or other
   drugs were given when available. Those whose wounds permitted
   were evacuated to the rear, while those whose wounds did not
   permit further evacuation were held, treated, given plasma, and
   then moved farther back.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN EVACUATION HOSPITAL with a 750-bed capacity, Normandy, 24
   July (top). Army surgeons perform an operation out-of-doors
   (bottom). In World War II the number of deaths per hundred
   casualties was one half of that during World War I. Responsible
   for this reduction was the surgical skill and painstaking care
   rendered by personnel of the Medical Corps aided by better
   surgery, the sulfa drugs, penicillin, plasma, and whole blood.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENEMY PRISONERS, taken during the first days of fighting,
   awaiting transportation to England. During the first week
   following the invasion landings the Germans lost some 10,000
   men as prisoners. The enemy forces that manned the static beach
   defenses were largely Russians and other non-Germans, but were
   under German officers. Of the German troops, many companies were
   found to be composed of men either under 20 or over 45 years
   of age. Many of these were of low medical categories and their
   morale was not of the best.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A MILITARY POLICEMAN studying French aboard a transport while
   waiting for the landing craft which will carry him to the
   beach in Normandy. In addition to handling informational and
   recreational activities of all kinds, the Special Services
   Division of the Army Service Forces distributed pocket-sized
   soldier guides to the customs and languages of the countries
   where members of the armed forces served. The Army, recognizing
   that the strain created by war must be counteracted by healthy
   diversional activities, arranged motion pictures and USO shows,
   and distributed books, magazines, and athletic and other
   recreational equipment to members and units of the armed forces.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   CARENTAN. The approach to Carentan from the east is blocked
   by the Vire-Taute Canal. U. S. forces advancing to secure the
   bridge on the road from Isigny met with enemy resistance from
   the houses and hedgerows on the east bank and it was not until
   midnight of 10 June that the enemy was driven out and defensive
   positions were established by U. S. troops. Other U. S. troops
   moved along the Bassin à Flot and crossed the canal on 12 June,
   moving rapidly into the center of Carentan which by then was
   ringed by attacking troops. This trap was closed too late to
   capture most of the German defenders, who escaped to the south
   during the night of 11–12 June.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   U. S. TROOPS MOVING INTO CARENTAN, 12 June (top). A 105-mm.
   howitzer M3 firing at enemy positions during the fighting at
   Carentan (bottom). During the night of 11–12 June, Carentan
   was set ablaze by artillery and naval gunfire, and early on
   the morning of 12 June U. S. troops entered the town. Its fall
   marked the effective junction of the two U. S. beachheads and
   the linking up of the two corps of the First U. S. Army.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   U. S. PARATROOPERS PATROLLING THE STREETS OF CARENTAN in a
   captured German Volkswagen (1. Pkw. K. 1 (typ 82)) (top).
   Airborne troops in a jeep towing a British 6-pounder Mark III
   antitank gun in Carentan (bottom). The enemy counterattacks
   against the U. S. forces in Carentan were unsuccessful in their
   attempts to recapture the city, but were persistent enough to
   limit the U. S. advance to gains measured in hundreds of yards.
   However, on 17 June 1944 U. S. troops reached the west coast in
   the vicinity of Barneville, cutting the German forces into two
   groups, one south of the Carentan-Barneville line, the other in
   the Cherbourg area.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   DOUGLAS A-20’S DROPPING BOMBS on a probable flying bomb
   launching site. The first flying bombs fell on England during
   the night of 12–13 June 1944, and the regular attacks began
   three days later. The smallness, the effective nature of
   camouflage, the comparative mobility, and the ease with which
   the V-1 launching sites could be repaired made effective bombing
   attacks on them difficult.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   PART OF A GERMAN ROCKET INSTALLATION captured by U. S. troops.
   Many of these flying bomb sites were captured by the Allies as
   they advanced. Although the air force had destroyed some by
   bombing, most of the sites were taken by advancing troops and
   destroyed.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A PORTION OF THE ARTIFICIAL HARBOR AT OMAHA BEACH. This harbor
   was in the Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer area of Omaha Beach and was
   known as “Mulberry A.” Breakwaters were formed by sinking ships
   and concrete caissons, and steel bridging formed causeways to
   the beach. The harbor, construction on which began on 7 June
   1944, was designed to provide moorings for seven Liberty ships
   and twelve coasters at one time. By 19 June it was 90 percent
   completed.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENGINEERS LAYING STEEL MATTING on Omaha Beach at the exits
   of the causeway which extend to the piers of the artificial
   harbor (top). Vehicles moving from one of the piers over the
   causeway to the shore (bottom). These floating causeways to the
   beach rose and fell with the tide. The artificial harbors were
   constructed to facilitate the unloading of the large numbers of
   men and material.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   DAMAGE TO THE ARTIFICIAL HARBOR AND LANDING CRAFT caused by
   the storm. The greatest detriment to the Allied build-up was
   not the enemy, but the weather. From 19–22 June 1944 one of
   the worst summer gales in Channel history hit the Bay of the
   Seine. Unloading operations were virtually stopped, the floating
   steel caissons broke free and sank, the concrete caissons moved
   or were broken up, and the beach was strewn with hundreds of
   stranded and damaged craft. The line of sunken ships remained
   fairly well intact, but as a whole the artificial harbor was
   destroyed and useless.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A TRUCK ON THE BEACH (2½-ton) and one starting down the ramp of
   an LST (1½-ton). After the storm wrecked the artificial harbors
   emergency measures, such as using 2½-ton amphibian trucks to
   bring men and supplies ashore and “drying out” landing ships
   and coasters, were employed. By “drying out” the vessels (as
   in picture) and unloading directly on the beaches, unloading
   operations were carried out.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TRUCKS FULLY LOADED with men and supplies leaving a Rhino ferry
   and being helped ashore by a bulldozer (top). A ¾-ton weapons
   carrier rolling through the surf toward the beach under its
   own power (bottom). All the vehicles which made these landings
   through the surf had been waterproofed before leaving England.
   Since they were able to travel only a short distance on land
   under their own power when waterproofed, the waterproofing
   material was removed soon after the vehicles landed.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TRUCKS AND AMPHIBIAN TRUCKS (each is a 2½-ton truck) on a beach
   in Normandy. In spite of the damage caused by the storm, by 26
   June Omaha Beach was discharging 122 percent of its planned
   cargo capacity. By this time 268,718 men, 40,191 vehicles,
   and 125,812 tons of cargo had been discharged over Omaha
   Beach alone. By 1 July the Allied commanders were not as much
   worried about a German counterattack that would threaten the
   beachhead as about the possibility that the enemy might bring in
   sufficient reserves to create a stalemate in Normandy. More room
   was needed by the Allies to bring in men and supplies to support
   a sustained drive toward the Seine.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   UNIT ADVANCING TOWARD CHERBOURG stops to inspect a German
   multipurpose gun (8.8-cm. Flak). When the enemy retreated from
   the vicinity of Montebourg he destroyed the gun by splaying the
   barrel. This multipurpose weapon emerged as the most publicized
   artillery piece of the German Army during the North African
   campaign. It was primarily an antiaircraft gun adaptable to
   antitank and general artillery use. In its role as an antitank
   gun it was fitted with a shield. In its mobile form it was towed
   on four wheels, usually with an 8-ton half-tracked tractor.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   RESULTS OF ARTILLERY FIRE AND BOMBINGS in Montebourg (top).
   A 155-mm. howitzer M 1 firing on the defenses of the city of
   Cherbourg (bottom). On 19 June Montebourg fell to the U. S.
   forces and Valognes was taken the following day. The advance on
   Cherbourg was continued by three U. S. infantry divisions. An
   attack on Cherbourg was launched on the afternoon of 22 June,
   after an 80-minute air and artillery bombardment of the outer
   defenses, but the enemy at first fought back with determination.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

    HILL 171 AREA      BOIS DU MONT DU ROC

   THE BOIS DU MONT DU ROC AREA. On 22–23 June the U. S. troops
   launched an attack from the valley to seize Hill 171. The
   critical enemy defense areas at Flottemanville-Hague and Hill
   171 were closely pressed and before dark on 23 June the area of
   Hill 171 was reached and 400 enemy prisoners were taken. The
   Flottemanville-Hague defenses were bombed by Allied planes and
   the defenses were taken by the ground forces shortly thereafter.
   The enemy’s fortified line protecting Cherbourg was then broken
   and the U. S. troops were ready for the final drive to the city.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   FORTIFICATIONS AROUND CHERBOURG DAMAGED by Allied shelling and
   bombardment. The German defenders refused to surrender the city
   to the attacking U. S. forces, and on 22 June a co-ordinated
   attack was launched by the attackers, supported by aircraft of
   the tactical air forces and heavy artillery fire. However, no
   real break-through was achieved by this bombardment and the U.
   S. troops resorted to the methodical reduction of the strong
   points. It was not until 24 June that the main defenses cracked,
   and the next day the three attacking infantry divisions,
   supported by heavy naval bombardment, reached the outskirts of
   the city.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TWO U. S. INFANTRYMEN ROUTING A SNIPER during street fighting in
   Cherbourg (top). German prisoners taken in Cherbourg (bottom).
   By 25 June U. S. forces were fighting in the streets of the
   city while the Germans demolished the port facilities. At 1500
   on 26 June the German commanders surrendered. The Arsenal
   held out until the following morning and fanatical groups had
   to be eliminated one by one. A certain number of the enemy
   still remained to be rounded up in the northwest corner of the
   Cotentin Peninsula, but on 1 July all resistance in the northern
   Cotentin came to an end.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A MEMBER OF AN ENGINEER UNIT, operating a bulldozer, clears a
   street in Cherbourg (top). Members of an Engineer unit stationed
   in Cherbourg take time out to prepare a meal in the doorway
   of a house (bottom). C and K rations were generally issued to
   troops in combat. Where there was more time for the preparation
   of food, troops were given the “10 in 1” ration which contained
   more variety than the C and K rations. When units were more
   permanently settled regular messes were set up, but during
   the early days on the Continent just after the invasion, and
   while the supply situation was still critical, troops resorted
   to eating rations that could be more easily transported and
   prepared.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

    FORT DU ROULE      ARSENAL AREA

   A PORTION OF CHERBOURG showing the inner harbor and docks. Fort
   du Roule, built high and secure into a steep rock promontory
   which stands immediately back of the city, dominated the entire
   harbor area. It was primarily a coastal fortress but was also
   defended against a ground attack. The P-47’s which bombed the
   fort did little damage to the subterranean tunnels housing the
   big guns. The fort was finally taken by infantry troops armed
   with machine guns, mortars, grenades, pole charges, and rifles.
   The fort surrendered in sections and it was not until late on
   25 June that the complete surrender was accomplished. After the
   rest of the city had been taken the Arsenal still held out.
   This structure, partially protected by a moat, was high-walled
   and well-armed. On 27 June the Arsenal surrendered bringing to
   an end all organized resistance in the city. With the fall of
   the city every effort was made to clear the harbor and repair
   docking facilities as quickly as possible.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   THE FIRST SHIP-TO-SHORE GASOLINE LINE, put in operation at
   Cherbourg. During the assault phase the Allied forces relied on
   canned gasoline, but by 3 July bulk supply was being introduced
   by ship-to-shore pipeline which brought in part of the large
   quantities of gasoline necessary to the Allied forces.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ORDNANCE MEN CUTTING ANGLE-IRON with acetylene torches (top). An
   M5 light tank equipped with a hedgerow cutter (bottom). During
   the fighting in Normandy armored vehicles found the hedgerows a
   serious obstacle which they could neither cross over nor break
   through. An enlisted man of an Ordnance unit in Normandy devised
   the method of attaching to the front of tanks rake-like cutters
   improvised from heavy angle-iron salvaged from the underwater
   beach obstacles which the Germans had placed to wreck landing
   craft. During a period of 48 hours maintenance companies of
   the Ordnance Department turned out 300 of these cutters, which
   enabled the tanks to open passageways through the hedgerows of
   Normandy, and play an important part in the advance leading to
   the break-through at Saint-Lô.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   .30-CALIBER BROWNING MACHINE GUN M1919A4 being fired through an
   opening in a hedgerow by an infantryman. The July offensive,
   one of the most difficult and bloody phases of the Normandy
   Campaign and known as the Battle of the Hedgerows, was conducted
   from 7 to 20 July 1944. Four U. S. Army corps, ultimately
   employing twelve divisions, were involved in the effort. German
   reinforcements stiffened, particularly in the hills protecting
   Saint-Lô, and the U. S. forces in the Cotentin Peninsula fought
   their way southward, alongside the U. S. troops east of the Vire
   River, to win ground for mounting the attack which was to break
   through the German defenses at the end of the month of July.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A 3-INCH GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M10 moving along a road near
   Saint-Fromond. While the British Second Army battled furiously
   against enemy armored strength to the east, the First U. S. Army
   struggled forward on both sides of the Vire River in their drive
   on Saint-Lô. The advance was laborious because of the nature of
   the terrain and the poor weather conditions. The enemy rallied
   to prevent any break-through to Saint-Lô, and the British
   redoubled their efforts in the Caen area where the Germans had
   most of their 900 tanks.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TWO GERMAN PANTHERS, heavy tanks (Pz. Kpfw.-7.5-cm. Kw. K.
   42-L/70), knocked out on a road near Le Désert (top). A
   damaged German self-propelled assault gun (Stu. G. IV with
   Stu. K. 40-L/48) near Périers (bottom). During the fighting in
   the Saint-Lô area the German forces included two corps with
   elements of no less than twelve divisions, including two armored
   divisions. The losses sustained by the enemy armored units
   removed the possibility of a further large-scale counterattack
   west of the Vire River.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   GERMAN PANTHER (top). U. S. medium tanks M4A1 pass German medium
   tanks (Pz. Kpfw. IV) which were knocked out in the July fighting
   near Saint-Lô (bottom). In hedgerow fighting tanks were expected
   to give great assistance, by their fire power, in dealing with
   hedgerow strong points but there was always the problem of
   getting them through the embankments fast enough to maintain
   their support to the infantry.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ARMY MEDICAL AID MEN preparing to evacuate wounded (top). U.
   S. troops along a sunken road during the advance to Saint-Lô
   (bottom). The U. S. losses during this campaign totaled nearly
   11,000 killed, wounded, and missing. The Germans, as a result of
   the action, were prevented from regrouping and wore down their
   last immediate reserves for use against a break-through.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN INFANTRY PATROL picking its way through the blasted ruins of
   Saint-Lô (top). Allied and German shelling and Allied aerial
   bombing reduced Saint-Lô to ruins (bottom). The original
   objectives of the July offensive were not attained except for
   the capture of Saint-Lô on 18 July 1944 and the high ground
   suitable for launching the break-through attempt. The ground won
   was sufficient to give the troops more room and better jump-off
   positions which they needed to break out of Normandy.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SAINT-LÔ IN RUINS after the capture of the city by the U. S.
   forces. It was shelled both by the attacking Allied forces who
   needed the area to stage troops who were to break out of the
   hedgerow country of Normandy, and by the enemy forces who were
   trying to prevent the U. S. troops from taking the city.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN RESTING IN THEIR FOXHOLE. Rain, which continued for
   6 days, delayed the air bombardment and in turn the advance
   of the First Army which had scheduled an attack for 19 July
   1944. During this period the men were compelled to huddle in
   their foxholes under the dripping hedgerows in conditions of
   extreme discomfort, while the enemy, also entrenched behind the
   natural defenses of the country, was alert to every movement.
   The low-lying country became a sea of mud, stopping further tank
   operations during this period.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   JEEP SPLASHING THROUGH A FLOODED ROAD IN NORMANDY. The rains,
   which held up the advance, flooded the dirt roads which by
   this time were in a bad state of repair from the heavy traffic
   and shelling. On the front of the jeep is an iron bar used
   to cut thin strands of wire that the enemy strung across the
   roads level with the heads of the occupants of vehicles, which
   traveled with tops and windshields down.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN FIRING FROM A HEDGEROW. The man in the foreground
   is shown about to fire a fragmentation grenade using a U. S.
   rifle .30-calibre M1 with a grenade launcher M7 (top). Grenade
   has just been fired (bottom). The terrain through which the
   Allied troops fought was favorable to the defense. In the close
   bocage countryside, dotted with woods and orchards and with
   fields divided by tree-topped embankments where armor could not
   well be employed, the infantry had to wage a grim struggle from
   hedgerow to hedgerow and from bank to bank, harassed by snipers
   and machine gun posts. On 24 July the troops of the U. S. First
   Army were waiting for the weather to clear sufficiently for an
   air attack before they attempted to break out of Normandy in the
   area of the Périers-Lessay-Saint-Lô road.]

  [Illustration]




                       NORTHERN FRANCE CAMPAIGN


  [Illustration: NORTHERN FRANCE

   The Allied Advance during the Northern France Campaign 25 July
   1944 to 14 September 1944]




                              SECTION III

                      Northern France Campaign[2]


On 25 July 1944 the Allied forces fighting in Normandy were able to
begin the offensive to break out of Normandy and carry to the German
frontier. Preceding the ground attack planes of the Allied air forces
dropped more than 3,390 tons of bombs on enemy positions on a narrow
front in the vicinity of Saint-Lô. The air attack’s crushing power and
its paralyzing effect on the German forces opened the way for a rapid
and powerful drive by Allied armored and infantry units. Cities were
captured in quick succession and the enemy troops were forced to flee
in a disorderly retreat.

The armored spearheads led the way out the Brittany Peninsula which
was quickly occupied, with the exception of the fortresses of the port
cities which were to continue to fight until after the German borders
had been reached. While part of the U. S. forces were overrunning the
Brittany Peninsula, the major portion turned toward the east in the
direction of Paris, and British and Canadian troops moved southward
from Caen along the road to Falaise. The battle of the Falaise-Argentan
pocket was a disastrous defeat for the German forces who were trying to
prevent the Allies from moving eastward. During the fighting in this
area elements of two German armies were so disorganized and destroyed
that their effectiveness was greatly impaired.

Paris surrendered on 25 August and by the 27th all enemy resistance
ceased there. The advance continued toward the eastern borders of
France, where the Allies stopped their rapid drive, and though a few
further advances were made, 14 September 1944 found them consolidating
their positions along the Moselle River and northward in Belgium and
Holland. The major port cities of Le Havre and Antwerp, which were
badly needed by the Allies as ports of entry for men and materials,
were captured.


                             INTRODUCTION

During the Northern France Campaign the expanding Allied forces
reorganized. The Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force,
moved to the Continent of Europe. The 21 Army Group was made up of the
British Second and the Canadian First Armies. The 12th Army Group,
composed of the First and Third U. S. Armies, became operational. In
August 1944 Allied forces invaded southern France and moved northward
to join those in northern France. This force, made up of the U. S.
Seventh and French First Armies, made a junction with the northern
group on 11 September. Also during this period the U. S. Ninth Army
became operational and took over the reduction of the Brittany
fortresses.

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEDIUM TANK M4A1, equipped with a hedgerow cutter, breaking
   through a hedgerow. The build-up was continuing generally as
   anticipated and the destruction of the enemy forces progressed.
   On 23 July 1944 the Canadian First Army became operational
   on the left flank of the Allied line. The Third U. S. Army
   had begun moving to the Cotentin Peninsula on 5 July and was
   proceeding on the right flank of the Allied line.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   75-MM. HOWITZER MOTOR CARRIAGES M8, partially concealed by a
   hedgerow, preparing to fire on enemy positions near Marigny
   (top). M5 light tanks pass through the streets of Coutances
   (bottom). The first attack was launched on a narrow front across
   the Périers road west of Saint-Lô. This attack was supported
   by heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. While the spearhead
   units advanced in the direction of Coutances, the rest of the
   First U. S. Army was to exert strong pressure and harass any
   attempted enemy withdrawal. Marigny was taken on 26 July and,
   though the enemy resisted stubbornly while trying to keep a
   corridor open for the withdrawing German forces, Coutances fell
   on 28 July.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENGINEERS WEARING CAMOUFLAGE SUITS clean out a street in Canisy
   (top). Infantry troops set up a 57-mm. antitank gun M1 (bottom).
   Advances south from Saint-Lô reached Tessy-sur-Vire on 28 July,
   while another attack farther east met with severe resistance in
   the vicinity of Forêt de Cerisy. In the British-Canadian sector
   the advance had been halted by a strong enemy belt of antitank
   guns, dug-in tanks, and mortars.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MAIL CALL AT THE FRONT (top). The receiving of mail was always
   an important morale factor and every effort was made to get it
   to the men as quickly as possible. Infantrymen reading German
   propaganda leaflets during a rest period (bottom). German planes
   dropped propaganda leaflets in an attempt to discourage the
   Allies in their advances. These had little effect on the troops
   and the advances continued with all possible speed.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   PRISONERS TAKEN BY THE ALLIES during the early part of August.
   Many of the men of the enemy forces were non-Germanic, some
   were Russians or members of Russian units who had been captured
   by the Germans on the eastern front and sent to Normandy as
   part of the enemy defense units. As the enemy retreat began to
   degenerate into a disorderly rout many prisoners were taken, and
   on 28 July 4,500 were captured.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   FRENCH WOMAN, returning to her home after the German withdrawal,
   passes a knocked out self-propelled antitank gun (Pz. Jaeg. 38
   with 7.5-cm. Pak. 40/3). Many of the civilians left their homes
   and towns during the fighting and returned afterwards, often
   to find that they had lost their homes during the artillery
   shelling and aerial bombing. However, in some cases the civilian
   population stayed in the towns during the fighting.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MOTOR COLUMN ADVANCING ALONG A ROAD near Coutances. On 29 July
   U. S. armored divisions trapped an enemy column about seven
   miles southeast of Coutances. Fighter bombers came in and
   attacked the closely jammed columns of vehicles destroying 137
   tanks and over 500 other vehicles.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN ARMORED COLUMN led by a light armored car M8 stops for a few
   minutes during its advance to Avranches (top). An M4 medium tank
   moving through a street in Avranches (bottom). On 30 July an
   armored division closely followed by an infantry division closed
   in on Cranville. Another armored division entered Avranches and
   secured two bridges across the Sée River. The break-through was
   completed by 31 July, the area between Granville and Avranches
   was cleared of enemy pockets of resistance, and the U. S. forces
   struck southward in the direction of Villedieu.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ARMORED VEHICLES FIRING ON ENEMY TROOPS during the advance
   southward (top). Tanks and trucks of a French armored division
   in the assembly area after landing and before starting south to
   join the U. S. forces (bottom). On 1 August 1944, as the U. S.
   forces poured around the crumpled German flank at Avranches, a
   major revision was effected in the organization of the Allied
   forces. The Third U. S. Army became operational and at the same
   time the 12th Army Group headquarters also became operational
   and assumed command of the First and Third U. S. Armies. The 21
   Army Group was at this time made up of the British Second and
   the Canadian First Armies.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SÉE RIVER

   AVRANCHES AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY. After the fall of the
   city the Allied drive gained momentum and the advancing troops
   swept out of Normandy. Turning toward the east and the west in
   two attacks, the Allies drove to the German frontier and the tip
   of the Brittany Peninsula.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AMMUNITION BEING UNLOADED at an Ordnance dump after it had
   been brought inland from the beach (top). During the advance
   of the Allies south following the breakout from Normandy a
   maximum effort was required to keep all the using units supplied
   with ammunition. Tankers of an armored unit reloading their
   .30-caliber ammunition belts during the drive southward (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A BULLDOZER (tractor, earth moving crawler, diesel) pulling
   a jeep from a crater (top). Engineers using a truck-mounted
   revolving crane swing a section of a treadway bridge into place
   over the Vire River near Pontfarcy (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN TAKING A BREAK, their M1’s leaning against the wall
   of a destroyed building. The Third U. S. Army drove southward
   from Avranches on 1 August with the mission of clearing the
   Brittany Peninsula and securing the ports. The attacks were
   spearheaded by armored divisions against only scattered
   opposition and by 3 August Loudéac was reached, infantrymen were
   closing in on the fortress of Saint-Malo, armored units were
   striking toward Vannes and Nantes, and Rennes had been captured.
   The 21st Army Group and First U. S. Army met dogged enemy
   resistance, but Mortain was occupied by the latter.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN INFANTRYMAN USING HIS HELMET AS A BASIN while washing at
   a town pump. The weather during this period was hot and dry;
   inland from the coast there was little fog. The advancing men
   took every opportunity during the rapid advances to stop for a
   quick wash.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN M4A1 MEDIUM TANK rolls through a battered French village.
   After the rapid advances through the Brittany Peninsula, U. S.
   forces were left in front of the main port cities to contain the
   enemy. The Third U. S. Army turned eastward driving with strong
   armored forces on the general axis of Laval-Le Mans-Chartres.
   The terrain that would be encountered in a drive to the Seine
   would be favorable for the use of armor, and the weather was
   expected to be good. On 4 August Mayenne was captured and
   contact with First U. S. Army units was established. During the
   next five days the drive to the east continued for a distance of
   85 miles and the cities of Angers and Le Mans were taken.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN FIGHTING IN HEDGEROWS near Mortain. Shortly after
   midnight on 7 August a German counterattack struck the U. S.
   infantry division in the area of Mortain. By morning, when the
   enemy had penetrated the First Army line some three or four
   miles, Allied aircraft equipped with rockets attacked the enemy.
   Three U. S. divisions were quickly shifted to the area and for
   the next three days a fierce battle raged as the Germans tried
   to cut the corridor through which the Third Army was advancing
   onto the plains of western France. On 11 August, Mortain was
   re-entered by the First Army.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   U. S. ARTILLERY OBSERVATION POST near Barenton, between Mortain
   and Domfront. After the failure of the German counterattack in
   the vicinity of Mortain the only alternative for the enemy was
   to retreat, and a gradual withdrawal was made toward the Seine
   River. During this period two simultaneous battles were fought:
   one by First Army troops and those of 21 Army Group around the
   Falaise-Argentan pocket, the other by the Third Army which was
   driving hard to the Seine River.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN OF THE FIRST ARMY advancing in the vicinity of
   Sourdeval against the withdrawing enemy forces. The Canadian
   First Army advancing southward along the Caen-Falaise road
   was to join forces with the U. S. troops advancing eastward.
   The Germans put up a strong defense against the Allied troops
   advancing to encircle them.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN M 4 MEDIUM TANK, rolling into Dreux, passes a German
   antitank gun (7.5-cm. Pak. 40). On 14 August the Third Army was
   ordered to leave sufficient forces to hold Argentan and to take
   advantage of the enemy’s disorganization by continuing the main
   advance to the east. Advances were made against Dreux, Chartres,
   and Orléans. On 15 August Dreux was captured and on 17 August
   the First Army took over at Argentan. On 18 August the Third
   Army forces swung north to seize crossings of the Seine River
   below Paris and to begin the deep encirclement of the German
   troops south of the river.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TWO TYPES OF U. S. TRACKED VEHICLES, each mounting a 105-mm.
   howitzer. 105-mm. howitzer motor carriage M7 (top); medium tank
   M4A3 with 105-mm. howitzer (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   CONVOY CARRYING GASOLINE ALONG RED BALL HIGHWAY. These are
   4–5-ton trucks (tractors) towing 2,000-gallon semitrailers
   (top). A 12-ton truck towing a 45-ton trailer loaded with
   ammunition, stops along Red Ball Highway (bottom). With the
   resistance offered by the retreating enemy at a minimum during
   this period, fuel was a more vital requisite than ammunition.
   Approximately a million gallons of gasoline were needed at the
   front every day to enable the armored columns to maintain their
   headlong rate of advance.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MILITARY POLICEMAN DIRECTS TRAFFIC ON RED BALL HIGHWAY. The
   three essential supplies were food, ammunition, and gasoline,
   and to get these to the armored spearheads as quickly as
   possible a system known as the Red Ball Express was instituted.
   By this, a circular one-way traffic route was established across
   France from the beachheads to the fighting zone and back again.
   All civilian and local military traffic was prohibited the use
   of the Red Ball Highway, and along it the convoys swept at high
   speed day and night.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   RAILROAD EQUIPMENT BEING UNLOADED FROM A SEATRAIN at Cherbourg.
   Motor convoys could not handle the vast quantities of supplies
   needed to maintain the Allied fighting forces and it was
   necessary to supplement these convoys with rail transportation.
   The first scheduled run was made between Cherbourg and Carentan
   on 11 July 1944, using mostly salvaged French equipment. As soon
   as the Cherbourg port facilities were sufficiently restored,
   equipment was brought over from England and put into service.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   DESTROYED RAILROAD EQUIPMENT. So greatly had the French
   railroads suffered that over 900 locomotives and a third of
   the rolling stock used had to be supplied from Allied sources
   in England. In addition to replacing locomotives and cars,
   bridges had to be constructed, wrecked trains had to be cleared,
   and tracks had to be replaced. Damage by Allied bombings at
   every major junction and marshalling yard had to be repaired.
   These tasks fell to men of the Corps of Engineers and the
   Transportation Corps.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN INFANTRYMAN ARMED WITH AN M 1 RIFLE looks at two
   German rocket launchers left behind by the enemy (8.8-cm.
   Racketenpanzerbuchse). The German weapon was of larger caliber
   and was heavier than the U. S. rocket launcher but similar in
   appearance and operation.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SIGNAL CORPS MAN OPERATING A SWITCHBOARD BD71. This small
   switchboard weighed approximately fifty pounds, had six
   lines, and was used with headset HS30, ear plugs, and chest
   set microphone. The set was generally used by regiments and
   smaller units. When the break-through came at the end of July
   1944 the speed of the advances imposed a heavy strain on the
   communications personnel. Spearhead units relied mostly on radio
   communications, but a line net of great complexity was required
   in the rear areas to cope with the amount of traffic involved.
   Civilian communications were of limited value because of the
   lack of maintenance during the years of war destruction, and
   within four months of D Day the Allies laid over 100,000 circuit
   miles of telephone line.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A PORTION OF THE CITY OF FALAISE which was occupied on 17
   August by Canadian First Army troops who had pushed down the
   Caen-Falaise road. This city on the northeast corner of the
   Falaise pocket was on the north corner of the encirclement in
   which the German troops were trapped.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A PORTION OF THE CITY OF ARGENTAN, the southeast corner of the
   Falaise pocket. On 12 August the Third Army armored divisions
   were at Argentan and Ecouché with infantry divisions in support.
   The enemy struggled to escape from the pocket through the gap
   between Falaise and Argentan and concentrated on removing his
   armored units, leaving the infantry to hold off the Allies.
   A considerable part of eight armored divisions managed to
   escape from the closing Allied pincers but left behind a great
   proportion of their equipment. On 20 August the trap was closed
   on more than seven infantry divisions and parts of two armored
   divisions. By 22 August the enemy in the pocket had been
   eliminated.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN PICKING THEIR WAY THROUGH DEBRIS and rubble
   in Domfront in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. When the
   Falaise-Argentan pocket was closed, Allied divisions inside the
   pocket pressed in on the remnants of the German divisions.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN FIRING ON THE ENEMY during the house-to-house
   fighting in Saint-Malo (top). Infantrymen prepare to fire on
   enemy positions in Saint-Malo with their .30-caliber Browning
   machine gun M1917A1 (bottom). During the rapid advances to the
   east, the fighting on the Brittany Peninsula was still going on.
   On 17 August the last Germans in the citadel of Saint-Malo had
   been captured, and the U. S. division taking the city was moved
   to the southeast to cover the Loire flank west of Tours.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   THE HARBOR AT SAINT-MALO. In the strongly defended forts in and
   around the harbor stubborn groups of Germans held out against
   the U. S. attacking forces.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SWABBING OUT THE BARREL OF AN 81-MM. MORTAR M 1 before firing.
   During the battle of the Falaise-Argentan pocket U. S. artillery
   poured shells of all calibers into the pocket, and Allied
   aircraft hammered the Germans relentlessly.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   PREPARING TO FIRE A 60-MM. MORTAR M2. The intense artillery
   fire and aerial bombing littered the countryside with all types
   of German vehicles and equipment. German commanders were able
   to control only small groups of their troops, so great was the
   confusion.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN, ARMED WITH CARBINES M1 AND RIFLE M1, discuss the
   action in which they have taken part (top). Engineers of an
   armored division relax in a French town during the advance of
   the U. S. troops (bottom). In the battle of the Falaise-Argentan
   pocket the Allies did not accomplish the utter destruction of
   the German forces in Normandy, but the enemy troops were broken
   as an effective fighting force and the way across France was
   open. During this period enemy losses included 70,000 killed and
   captured.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEN AND VEHICLES ADVANCING TOWARD PARIS (3-inch gun motor
   carriage M10). Mopping-up the Falaise-Argentan pocket was
   assigned to troops of the 21 Army Group, while the First Army
   forces moved eastward. The Third Army was again moving eastward,
   and by the evening of 25 August the Allies held most of the
   Seine River west of Paris. On 15 August the Seventh U. S. Army
   invaded southern France and moved northward to join forces with
   the Allies in northern France.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   240-MM. HOWITZER M1 FIRING on one of the Brittany fortresses
   (top). Cannoneers sight their 105-mm. howitzer M3, from a
   camouflaged position, during the seige of Brest (bottom). By
   25 August only the three fortresses of Brest, Lorient, and
   Saint-Nazaire still offered resistance. A co-ordinated attack
   was launched on Brest by three infantry divisions supported by
   artillery of all calibers.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN AND AID MEN ADVANCE ON BREST. In this area the
   Germans blew up pillboxes to avoid their capture and some of the
   U. S. attackers were killed or wounded in the blasts.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A PORTION OF THE HARBOR AT BREST. This city on the Atlantic
   Ocean, with its good docks and harbors, was desirable as a
   supply port of entry. The enemy forces held out here until 18
   September 1944, at which time the Allies had moved so far to
   the east that the distance from Brest to the front lines was
   too great to make Brest an important landing point. Also the
   port was so badly damaged during the fighting that it became
   practically useless.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEMBERS OF THE FRENCH RESISTANCE FIGHTING in the streets of
   Paris. The Allies had originally intended to bypass Paris so
   as to avoid its destruction in an assault. On 19 August 1944
   fighting between the Germans and the French Forces of the
   Interior broke out in the city. The French were soon in need of
   relief, because of the shortage of ammunition, and Allied forces
   were shifted to take the city. Meeting with little resistance,
   a French armored division and a U. S. infantry division entered
   the city and by noon on 25 August the German commander formally
   surrendered.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   PARISIANS SCATTER as a German sniper fires at them during the
   celebration of the Allied entry into Paris (top). U. S. troops
   march down the Champs Elysées during a victory parade in Paris
   (bottom). The last German resistance ceased in Paris on 27
   August, and the next day the city was turned over to a French
   general who was to be the military governor.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN 8-INCH GUN M1 BEING TOWED INTO POSITION by a high-speed
   18-ton M4 tractor (top). The crew of an 8-inch howitzer fires
   on the enemy across the Seine River (bottom). The Canadian
   First Army cleaned up the enemy pockets west of the Seine by 31
   August, and the U. S. forces regrouped to pursue the enemy east
   of the river and begin their drive toward Germany.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TOWED 155-MM. GUNS M 1 CROSS A BAILEY BRIDGE over the Seine. U.
   S. troops advanced northeast from the Seine River bridgeheads to
   take Reims and Châlons-sur-Marne.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   3-INCH GUN AND .50-CALIBER MACHINE GUN of an M10 tank destroyer
   fire on enemy troops trying to destroy a Marne River bridge.
   On 26 August Château-Thierry was captured. On 28 August
   Châlons-sur-Marne was taken and the following day Reims fell.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN M4A1 TANK passes a burning German vehicle. By 30 August
   Saint-Dizier was reached and on 31 August the ground east of the
   Meuse River near Commercy was seized while Verdun was captured
   and the Meuse River crossed in that area. At the end of August
   the drives of the First and Third U. S. Armies were slowed down
   by lack of fuel.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENGINEERS LAYING A GASOLINE PIPELINE in France. In an effort to
   transport fuel to the front-line units of the Allies, three fuel
   pipelines were laid across France. This also relieved the road
   traffic which became more and more congested as the number of
   Allied troops in France increased.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEDICAL AID MEN MOVE UP UNDER FIRE to give first aid to a
   wounded infantryman (top). A wounded German is given medical aid
   by U. S. soldiers (bottom), by 3 September first army troops had
   cleared most of the army’s zone south of the Belgian border.
   On that day the remnants of twenty disorganized divisions were
   trapped before they could reach the Belgian border and 25,000
   men were quickly liquidated. The British entered Brussels on 3
   September and were also closing in on Le Havre, one of the major
   port cities on the coast.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   A LIGHT ARMORED CAR M8 ENTERING BELGIUM. On 1 September 1944,
   Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), was
   established at Versailles and assumed the active direction of
   the 12th and 21 Army Groups. During this period the main problem
   was that of supplying the racing armored columns since the only
   points of entry were the beaches and Cherbourg, a distance too
   far removed from the Allied forces advancing to the German
   frontier. By early September supply trucks were traveling 600 to
   900 miles in round trips to carry fuel, ammunition, and rations
   to the combat units.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   75-MM. HOWITZER MOTOR CARRIAGES M8 in Belgium (top). 155-mm. gun
   motor carriage M12 firing in Belgium (bottom). In spite of the
   shortage of supplies the pursuit of the enemy continued between
   4 and 14 September 1944, with the greatest Allied gains being
   made on the northern front. On 4 September the British forces
   captured the port city of Antwerp, one of the greatest prizes
   of the war. On 12 September the city of Le Havre surrendered.
   These two cities were of extreme importance because of their
   port facilities and their nearness to the battle front. In both
   harbors the enemy had carried out measures to render the ports
   useless, but they were not too badly damaged to prevent repair.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   LIGHT ARMORED CAR M8 of a reconnaissance unit stops during its
   drive through Belgium toward the border of the Netherlands
   (top). Advancing infantrymen ride on a 3-inch gun motor carriage
   M10 (bottom). By 14 September 1944 the sustained drive of the
   First Army had stopped and the Germans were fighting on their
   own soil for the first time in many years.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN MOVING AN ASSAULT BOAT down to the banks of the
   Moselle River at Dornot (top); crossing the Moselle (bottom).
   Efforts to obtain enough gasoline were generally unavailing and
   most of the units of the Third Army were halted at the Moselle.
   On 5 September a crossing was made north of Nancy while on 8
   September another was made below Metz. The Germans made numerous
   counterattacks and occupied the forts around Metz, determined to
   hold the line in this area.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   BOEING B-17 FLYING THROUGH HEAVY FLAK over Germany en route to a
   target (top). The Heinkel aircraft factory during an air attack
   (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MARTIN B-26’S RETURNING FROM A MISSION along the German border
   in support of the Third Army’s ground attack. The medium bomber
   in the upper foreground of the above picture had operated in the
   ETO for some time, as is shown by the dark-painted fuselage. The
   plane in the lower foreground has an unpainted fuselage which
   enabled it to attain higher speeds.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRY MEN CROSS THE MOSELLE as a ¼-ton truck carries wounded
   men to the rear (top). M4A1 medium tank fording a canal
   (bottom). On 10 September an attack was launched to secure
   bridgeheads over the Moselle below Epinal, which was reached on
   14 September. The city of Nancy fell on 15 September.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN ADVANCING in the outskirts of Brest. While the Third
   Army was battling a determined enemy on the Moselle, U. S.
   forces were still trying to reduce the fortress of Brest. On 5
   September the Ninth U. S. Army became operational in France and
   assumed the task of eliminating the remaining fortresses on the
   Brittany Peninsula.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN 8-INCH GUN M1 FIRING ON GERMAN INSTALLATIONS in Brest.
   Artillery units attacking Brest were reinforced, mostly with
   medium and heavy caliber guns and, after sufficient ammunition
   had been accumulated, a strong attack was launched on 8
   September by three infantry divisions.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   90-MM. GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M36 firing at an enemy pillbox in
   Brest (top). 76-mm. gun motor carriage M18 guarding a street
   intersection in Brest (bottom). On 14 September the fortress of
   Brest was still for the most part in German hands, despite all
   efforts to reduce the strongly fortified positions.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   NEWLY CONSTRUCTED TREADWAY PONTOON BRIDGE over the Moselle River.
]




                          RHINELAND CAMPAIGN

                  15 September 1944–15 December 1944


  [Illustration: RHINELAND

   The Allied Advance during the Rhineland Campaign 15 September
   1944 to 21 March 1945]




                              SECTION IV

                          Rhineland Campaign

                   15 September-15 December 1944[3]


On 15 September 1944 the Allied forces that had invaded southern France
came under control of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary
Force. This added the 6th Army Group to the forces opposing the enemy
along the German frontier, making a total of forty-eight Allied
divisions in the European Theater of Operations. In a little over three
months, 6 June-15 September 1944, the Western Allies had carried their
offensives from the Normandy beaches to the western borders of Germany.
During the next three months little, if any, progress was made. Several
factors contributed to this general slowdown. As fall and winter
approached, rain, mud, and snow greatly hindered operations and made
living conditions extremely trying. The terrain became more difficult
since many rivers and streams had to be crossed and rough, wooded, and
hilly country was encountered. Enemy resistance stiffened as the Allies
reached the German border. But more important than any other single
factor was the problem of supplying the large forces which had advanced
so rapidly that they had outrun their supplies.

During this period, as the Allies came to the West Wall and the Rhine,
severe fighting took place all along the front. Some of the most
difficult operations of the war in western Europe occurred during the
Rhineland Campaign as battles were fought in the Arnhem area, the
Schelde estuary, the Huertgen Forest, the Aachen sector, the Metz and
Saar regions, and the Belfort and Saverne Gaps. On 15 December the
efforts of the Allies in the Rhineland were interrupted when the enemy
broke through the lines in the Ardennes, causing a shift of troops to
the Ardennes to reinforce the lines there.

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENLISTED MAN WALKING THROUGH MUD in his bivouac area. The
   Allied advance was halted at the German border by poor weather
   conditions, difficult terrain, stiffening German resistance,
   and, most of all, by lack of supplies. At this time the decision
   was made to employ the greatest strength in the north to attain
   flanking bridgeheads across the lower Rhine River beyond the
   main fortifications of the West Wall. This area was chosen
   for the drive since the terrain to the south was considered
   unsuitable for a rapid advance because of the mountainous and
   forested country.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   PLANES TOWING GLIDERS take off for the invasion of the
   Netherlands, 17 September 1944. The First Allied Airborne Army
   launched its attack to secure a bridgehead across the Rhine in
   the Arnhem area. Complete surprise was achieved and the drops
   and glider landings were effective and in most cases were
   made in the prescribed areas. During the following ten days
   the fighting was severe with repeated German counterattacks.
   However, the railroad bridge across the Waal River in the
   Nijmegen area was captured on 20 September and remained in
   Allied hands. By the end of September the corridor was widened
   somewhat and the operation was considered a success even though
   the Allies were forced to evacuate most of the attacking troops
   after numerous casualties were suffered.]

  [Illustration: THE NETHERLANDS AND GERMANY

   PARATROOPERS ADVANCING UNDER ENEMY FIRE in the Arnhem
   area (top). A captured German self-propelled assault gun
   (Sturmgeschuetz 7.5-cm. Stu. K. 40) (bottom). During the entire
   operation in the Netherlands which lasted for thirty days, from
   17 September to 16 October 1944, over 5,500 planes and 2,500
   gliders transported 34,000 men, and over 1,900 vehicles, 500
   artillery pieces, and 5,000 tons of supplies. The airborne army
   suffered more than 13,000 casualties in killed, wounded, or
   missing.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   INFANTRYMEN FOLLOWING A TANK during the advance north of Aachen
   (top). Infantrymen riding on an M4 medium tank-dozer through the
   West Wall, while others follow on foot (bottom). The last two
   weeks in September were spent by the First Army in probing the
   enemy’s defenses along the frontier. On 2 October an attack was
   launched across the German border about eight miles north of
   Aachen. Progress during the next two weeks was slow as troops
   fought their way through six miles of West Wall, or “Siegfried
   Line,” fortifications.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A 57-MM. ANTITANK GUN M1 being unlimbered from a half-track
   during the street fighting in Aachen (top). A Browning
   .30-caliber machine gun M1919A4 being fired at the enemy in
   Aachen (bottom). The German troops in Aachen refused a surrender
   ultimatum on 11 October 1944, and during the next three days the
   city was subjected to intense aerial bombardment and artillery
   fire. Infantrymen entered the city on 13 October and after
   fierce house-to-house fighting almost completely occupied Aachen
   by 20 October. The following day the garrison surrendered,
   making Aachen the first German city to fall to the Allies. The
   First U. S. Army then began preparations for a drive to the
   Rhine as soon as supplies and reinforcements should become
   available.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

    WEST RAILROAD YARDS      LOUSBERG

   A PORTION OF THE CITY OF AACHEN. During the bitter fighting the
   Allies found it necessary to use all types of artillery weapons,
   from the 155-mm. gun to the smaller guns of tank destroyers,
   at point blank range to reduce the heavily fortified buildings
   occupied by enemy troops.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   BRIDGEHEAD ACROSS THE MOSELLE south of Metz near Arnaville.
   While the U. S. First Army was driving toward the Rhine in the
   vicinity of Bonn and Cologne, the Third Army was holding its
   positions pending the improvement of the supply situation. The
   Ninth Army moved up from Brittany and took its position between
   the First and Third Armies in the Ardennes sector. The battle
   of Brest ended on 18 September 1944, and except for enemy
   resistance in the Atlantic coast port cities of Lorient and
   Saint-Nazaire, the Brittany Peninsula was completely in Allied
   hands.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   M4 MEDIUM TANKS on a street in Lunéville (top). U. S. troops
   firing a captured German 88-mm. gun in the vicinity of Metz
   (bottom). The period from 25 September to 7 November 1944 was
   the most unproductive phase of the U. S. Third Army’s operations
   on the Continent. Troops closed in on the Moselle north of
   Thionville and consolidated their positions east of Nancy. On 18
   September the Germans launched a counterattack near Lunéville
   but were stopped in their tracks. Two other attacks on 22 and 24
   September were also stopped and the Germans began to retreat on
   the night of 1–2 October.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   FIVE-GALLON WATER CANS loaded in a quarter-ton trailer
   being filled at an Engineer water point. The Engineers were
   responsible for the purification of drinking water and set up
   water points from which all units located in the area drew their
   daily supply.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   BREAD BEING PLACED ON COOLING RACKS in a Quartermaster bakery
   after being removed from the ovens.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRY MEN FIRING a .30-caliber Browning machine gun M1917A1
   on the outskirts of Metz (top). Infantry patrol entering Metz
   (bottom). For two months the U. S. Third Army was stalled in
   the vicinity of Metz, the fortress which would have to be
   captured before any substantial advance eastward could be
   made. Metz dominated three invasion routes into Germany from
   France: the valley of the Moselle through Trier and Coblenz; the
   Kaiserslautern Pass through Saarbruecken to Mainz and Worms; and
   the route through the Saverne Gap from Sarrebourg to Strasbourg
   and the Rhine. Only once in modern times had the fortress of
   Metz fallen to an attacking army--in 1871 the defending French
   troops surrendered to the Prussians.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   90-MM. GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M36 in Metz. The capture of Metz was
   hindered by rain and floods which canceled the heavy air support
   and made the advance difficult for the ground forces. The attack
   started on 8 November with only artillery support and it was
   not until 22 November that the city was finally clear of all
   enemy pockets of resistance. The last of the forts which ringed
   the city was taken on 13 December. The Third Army was then
   confronted by one of the strongest sections of the West Wall,
   and since its reduction would require a vast amount of artillery
   support, the attacks were suspended until the necessary
   ammunition could be brought up.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

    MOSELLE RIVER CANAL  FORT ST. JULIEN  ROUNDHOUSES  FORT DE QUEULEU

   THE CITY OF METZ showing the location of two of the forts which
   ringed the city. These and other forts presented problems to the
   assaulting troops.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY AND FRANCE

   THANKSGIVING DINNER AT THE FRONT. During October and November
   1944 the cold, rain, fog, and floods made living conditions of
   the front-line troops miserable. The battle against the weather
   was as difficult as that against the enemy.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ENGINEERS HAULING BRIDGING EQUIPMENT in flooded areas of the
   Moselle River. The flooded rivers and smaller streams made the
   task of bridging extremely difficult during this period of the
   fighting along the German frontier since, in addition to the
   wider than normal spans necessary to cross the rivers, the
   weather was cold and rainy, adding to the hardships of those
   employed in the task.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TRACK EXTENSIONS being put on the track of a medium tank. The
   maneuverability of tanks and other tracked vehicles was greatly
   hampered by mud along the front lines. Confronted by a problem
   more serious than anticipated, Ordnance personnel quickly
   designed and started production of track extensions at the rate
   of 156 separate pieces for each tank. Civilian manufacturing
   facilities were utilized in France and Belgium and before the
   program was completed 1,500,000 extensions had been made and
   welded to the tank tracks.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN M4A3 MEDIUM TANK fitted with track extensions maneuvering
   through soupy ground. Track extensions were so devised as to
   give better flotation and traction through the November mud.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   105-MM. HOWITZER M3 shelling enemy positions. After the capture
   of Aachen the First and Ninth Armies prepared for a new
   offensive. The initial objectives were to capture bridgeheads
   over the Roer River in the vicinity of Dueren and make advances
   toward Juelich. At the same time the defensive positions in the
   Ardennes area were held. After a four-day delay the weather
   cleared and planes of the Allied air forces began the attack.
   Several towns including Dueren and Juelich were reduced to
   rubble.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEDIUM TANKS FIRING during the assault toward the Roer River
   (top). 155-mm. gun motor carriage M12 firing on enemy held
   positions (bottom). In spite of the elaborate preparations made
   for the attack and the great concentration of combat power,
   progress was extremely slow. Each of the towns was woven into a
   network in which each house had to be reduced, and each foot of
   the muddy ground was defended to the last by the enemy troops.
   The attack plowed on determinedly in the mud and cold and on 3
   December 1944 the Ninth Army came to the Roer. The First Army
   also attacked until the river was reached. (Note the newer type
   track with cleats on the treads to give better traction.)]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   3-INCH GUN MOTOR CARRIAGES M10 move up in the Huertgen Forest
   area. Troops of the First and Ninth Armies had been fighting
   their way toward Schmidt since September in one of the most
   bitterly contested actions of the war. One of the major
   obstacles in the advance was the Huertgen Forest which covered
   roughly the triangle of Aachen-Dueren-Monschau. In the vicinity
   of Schmidt were dams which controlled the level of the Roer
   River, and while these were still in enemy hands water could
   be released flooding the valley of the Roer. It was therefore
   considered necessary to take this area and the dams before the
   river was crossed by the attacking U. S. forces.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   INFANTRYMEN pushing through the Huertgen Forest near Vossenack,
   Germany (top). Vehicles moving up a muddy road through the
   forest (bottom). The Germans had strengthened this natural
   barrier by the clever use of wire, pillboxes, and mines, and
   the U. S. infantrymen, restricted by the rough wooded terrain,
   were forced to fight for the most part without the aid of
   artillery or air support. On 13 December the attack on the dams
   was renewed but the going was still slow. Casualties to the two
   armies advancing in this area were high.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

    KALL RIVER      OUTSKIRTS OF VOSSENACK      KALL RIVER

   KOMMERSCHEIDT AND THE SURROUNDING AREA. The terrain of the
   Schmidt and Vossenack areas, like that of the Huertgen Forest,
   was hilly and wooded. The Roer River dams in this area were
   important objectives for the Allies during this part of the
   campaign.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TIRED, DIRTY, HUNGRY INFANTRYMEN eat their first hot meal after
   fifteen days of siege of the town of Huertgen.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   BATTLE-WEARY GERMANS who were among the last to surrender after
   the battle of the Huertgen Forest which lasted for several weeks.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MINE EXPLODER T1E3 attached to a medium tank. This model was an
   improvement over the earlier one because of its chain-driven
   exploder disks. On the first models the exploder disks rolled
   freely and were not power driven. The new model also had a
   higher degree of indestructibility and greater maneuverability
   and could be driven in mud eighteen inches deep and across
   broken terrain. The T1E3 could be driven across a Class 70
   military bridge.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   FIRING ROCKETS during the fighting in the Huertgen Forest area.
   In the above pictures 4.5-inch multiple rocket launchers T27 are
   mounted on 2½-ton trucks and consist of eight tubes in a single
   bank. Two banks are mounted on each of the trucks with the
   rockets being fired at half-second intervals.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE AND GERMANY

   FOG OIL being used to produce a smoke screen to limit
   observation during river crossings. This function of the
   Chemical Warfare companies was utilized in covering the
   activities of troops at ports, airfields, docks, and harbors
   in addition to concealing vital points from direct enemy air
   observation during advances and river crossings. When the danger
   of aerial attack was practically eliminated it was still used
   against ground observation. By means of a generator the fog
   oil was converted into a white fog which was used effectively
   whenever the wind conditions were not strong enough to disperse
   the screen too rapidly.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   90-MM. ANTIAIRCRAFT GUN M 1 being fired at a German flying bomb
   passing over Belgium. Liege was subjected to an attack by these
   robot bombs and suffered considerable damage. Because of the
   great speed of these weapons it was difficult to combat them,
   but later with the utilization of the newly developed proximity
   fuse, the seriousness of the threat of the flying bombs
   diminished.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SEVENTH ARMY VEHICLES CROSSING THE MOSELLE. During the
   later half of September the 6th Army Group’s positions were
   consolidated, boundaries were adjusted, divisions were shifted
   into their proper zones, and plans were made for the advance to
   the Rhine.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   4.2-INCH CHEMICAL MORTAR being fired during the advance of the
   Seventh Army, October 1944.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   THREE INFANTRYMEN of the Seventh Army looking down on a village
   in France from a hilltop which has been under heavy mortar and
   artillery fire.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN CLIMB UPON AN M 5 LIGHT TANK in preparation for an
   advance. In November 1944 the Seventh Army was to make the main
   effort of the 6th Army Group in an advance toward Sarrebourg
   and Strasbourg. In the south the French First Army was to drive
   through the Belfort Gap.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   ARTILLERY LIAISON PLANES grounded in the Seventh Army area.
   In the Vosges mountains snow drifted over the roads, the
   temperature dropped below freezing, and streams overflowed their
   banks.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRYMEN OF THE SEVENTH ARMY advance through snow and
   sleet. The attack of 6th Army Group was to breach the Vosges
   mountains whereupon the two armies would join in the Rhine plain
   to isolate the enemy’s Vosges positions. Short of artillery
   ammunition, the troops slugged it out with the enemy over
   difficult terrain and in increasingly bad weather, with the
   infantry carrying most of the burden.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SEVENTH ARMY ARTILLERYMEN loading a 105-mm. howitzer M 2A 1. The
   attack was launched, after an all-night artillery preparation,
   in a snow storm on the morning of 13 November 1944. At noon on
   14 November the French First Army jumped off in its attack. On
   16 November the French broke through the Belfort defenses and
   on 20 November reached the Rhine. Mulhouse fell on 22 November
   despite a quickly established enemy defensive line.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A 105-MM. HOWITZER MOTOR CARRIAGE M 7 being fired on German
   positions in the Rhine Valley (top). Infantrymen wait in a
   shallow zig-zag trench before advancing (bottom). On 20 November
   Sarrebourg was captured and on 22 November Saverne fell. By
   27 November Strasbourg and its ring of defending forts had
   been taken. After the collapse of the enemy positions in the
   Vosges, the Seventh Army attacked northward and by the middle
   of December had crossed the German frontier on a 22-mile front
   and penetrated the West Wall defenses northeast of Wissembourg.
   In the meantime the German forces which had been driven from
   the Vosges maintained their bridgehead in the Colmar area,
   which became known as the Colmar pocket before it was finally
   liquidated.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY AND BELGIUM

   REWARDS FOR STANDING IN LINE: men receiving typhus booster shots
   (top); men exchanging their French and Belgium francs for German
   marks (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM AND GERMANY

   WOUNDED SOLDIERS BEING EVACUATED in tracked vehicles during the
   winter months. Cargo carrier M 29 (top); half-track personnel
   carrier M 3 (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   OPENING THE VALVE ON A GASOLINE PIPELINE. The critical fuel
   situation of September, which had stalled the armored divisions
   at the West Wall, was materially improved by December. At
   that time three main pipelines were constructed or under
   construction: one for the northern armies, one for the central
   armies, and another for the southern armies.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   FIVE-GALLON CANS BEING FILLED WITH GASOLINE at a distribution
   point. On 15 December 1944 the armies had from a five-to
   nine-day supply of gasoline on hand while the Ninth Air Force
   had over 600,000 gallons of aviation gasoline and oil stored in
   the Namur area.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   ARMY SUPPLIES BEING UNLOADED at Antwerp. The greatest single
   factor in the improved supply situation was the port of Antwerp
   which became operational on 27 November. Despite heavy attacks
   from the German “V” weapons the port discharged cargo which was
   badly needed by the forces fighting along the German frontier.
   Utah and Omaha Beaches ceased operations in November and then
   only the larger port cities were used as supply ports of entry.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AMPHIBIAN TRUCKS LOADING SUPPLIES into railroad cars after
   bringing them ashore from ships in the harbor of Le Havre (top).
   In addition to Antwerp, the major Allied ports were Le Havre,
   Ghent (opened in January 1945), Rouen, Cherbourg, and Marseille.
   An enlisted man reading a directive, signed by the theater
   commander, concerning the conservation of tires, an effort made
   to curtail the wasteful use of equipment and supplies (bottom).
   While in general the supply situation was much improved over
   that in September there were still critical shortages in a wide
   variety of items including antifreeze, tires, post exchange
   rations, miscellaneous signal equipment, and some winter
   clothing.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   2½-TON TRUCKS PICK UP RATIONS at a Belgian railhead (top).
   10-ton semitrailers loaded with rations at Antwerp, ready to
   be hauled to the forward depots (bottom). The multiple-drive
   motor transport vehicles were continuously on the move and made
   possible the supplying of troops during the rapid advances.]

  [Illustration]




                       ARDENNES-ALSACE CAMPAIGN




                               SECTION V

                       Ardennes-Alsace Campaign


In mid-December 1944 the Allies stopped along the German border,
but continued to attack in the Saar and Roer regions, while they
concentrated the majority of their strength for an attack in the north.
The Germans, taking advantage of their continuous front along the
West Wall, planned a counterattack to strike the Allies in one of the
weakest portions of the line--the Ardennes sector. The ultimate goals
of this German operation were to capture the port city of Antwerp,
sever the major Allied supply lines emanating from that port, and
destroy the Allied forces north of the Antwerp-Brussels-Bastogne line.

Early on the morning of 16 December the German armies struck the
Allied troops located in Belgium and Luxembourg. The Allies holding
this portion of the line were too thinly dispersed to offer any great
resistance against the powerful enemy attack and were forced to fall
back. While the defenders fought the Germans, Allied armies shifted
their drives and troops were rushed to the Ardennes to reinforce the
hard hit units along the front from Monschau to Echternach. After
severe fighting during late December 1944 and early January 1945 the
Germans were defeated and by 25 January the Allies were once more
ready to move toward Germany through the West Wall defenses. During
the Ardennes-Alsace Campaign winter set in and the cold weather and
snow-covered terrain made operations and living conditions extremely
difficult.

During this period the British forces in the north eliminated the
Germans in the Roermond triangle and captured the enemy bridgehead west
of the Roer River. The U. S. and French troops of the 6th Army Group
fought a determined enemy in Lorraine and Alsace and by 25 January had
driven the attacking Germans back across the Moder River.

The Ardennes-Alsace Campaign, which delayed the Rhineland Campaign
for six weeks, secured no major terrain objectives for either side.
The Germans, who had employed some of their best remaining units,
lost nearly 250,000 men, 600 tanks and assault guns, and about 1,600
airplanes. The Allies suffered 72,000 casualties.

On 6 January 1945 the Fifteenth U. S. Army became operational on the
Continent and was assigned to the 12th Army Group, taking over many of
that army group’s responsibilities in the rear areas.

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   GERMAN SOLDIER WITH AMMUNITION BELTS moves forward during the
   enemy counterattack in the Ardennes. German morale was higher
   than at any time since the Allies had landed, partly because the
   individual soldier had been propagandized into believing that
   this was the opportunity to destroy the Allied troops in the
   west. At 0530 on 16 December 1944 three German armies attacked
   on a 50-mile front in eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg.
   This battle was popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   ENEMY TROOPS PASS BURNING U. S. EQUIPMENT. The initial German
   attacks, following a heavy artillery preparation, were launched
   all along the front, roughly from Monschau to Echternach. The
   first objective was to secure the high ground of the Hohe Venn
   but the drive by the enemy met with stiff resistance and he was
   forced to commit his armor before noon on 16 December. Further
   attacks in the northern sector were no more successful and by
   night the Germans were still fighting at the approaches to the
   Elsenborn Ridge.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   A GERMAN SOLDIER waving members of his unit forward. Spurred
   on by expressions of the German commanders such as “Forward to
   and over the Meuse” and “We gamble everything now--we cannot
   fail,” enemy troops drove forward in a determined effort to
   defeat the Allies. South of the Elsenborn Ridge in the vicinity
   of the Losheim Gap U. S. troops were overwhelmed and forced to
   withdraw. By evening the enemy, though blocked in the north, had
   broken through the thinly held American line and drove toward
   Stavelot and Huy, the first objective on the Meuse River. Still
   further to the south in the Echternach area, the U. S. forces
   stopped the enemy after he had made limited gains. The Allied
   situation along the front was extremely grave.]

  [Illustration:

   TYPICAL ARDENNES TERRAIN. The rough, wooded tableland of the
   Ardennes in eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg is broken by
   many small streams which become serious obstacles during periods
   of heavy rain or thaw. The Ardennes contains a fair primary but
   poor secondary road system. Because of the rough terrain the
   main centers of the road net assumed great importance during the
   Battle of the Bulge. Heavy snow made infantry maneuver difficult
   and seriously limited tank movement.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   GERMAN “KING TIGER” OR “TIGER ROYAL” heavy tank passing a line
   of captured U. S. soldiers being marched to the rear (top).
   U. S. prisoners of the enemy taken during the early fighting
   in the Battle of the Bulge (bottom). Two U. S. regiments near
   Saint-Vith were surrounded and most of the men were taken
   prisoner before U. S. reinforcements could arrive on the scene.
   The enemy attacks on Elsenborn Ridge were stopped by these U. S.
   reinforcements on 17 December, but this help came too late to
   save from capture the men shown above and those of an artillery
   battery who were caught by an enemy armored column south of
   Malmédy.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   AN INFANTRYMAN PAUSING IN HIS ADVANCE through the forest. During
   the first ten days of the battle confusion reigned as hastily
   shifted troops arrived to reinforce the efforts of the isolated
   units attempting to halt the enemy attack.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   A BATTERY OF 155-MM. HOWITZERS M1 being emplaced (top). Members
   of an airborne division moving up through the forest (bottom).
   On 18 December German patrols passed through a gap between
   Malmédy and Saint-Vith and continued as far west as Werbomont.
   Other enemy troops tried to push north through Stavelot but
   were stopped by a blown bridge over the Ambleve River and by
   an improvised task force consisting of U. S. infantrymen,
   engineers, and tank destroyers. Engineer demolitions and
   effective use for the first time of the new proximity fuze
   by artillery strengthened the north shoulder of the growing
   salient. During the first week of the Battle of the Bulge most
   planes were grounded because of extremely poor flying weather.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   BATTLE-WEARY TROOPS being relieved of front-line duty as
   reinforcements arrive to take over (top). Infantrymen batter
   down the door of a house where German snipers are holding out
   in the town of Stavelot (bottom). On 19 December the north and
   south flanks continued to hold, and road centers of Saint-Vith
   and Bastogne were still occupied by U. S. troops though almost
   surrounded by the enemy. The enemy captured Stoumont but the U.
   S. forces strengthened the line between Malmédy and Stavelot and
   with additional reinforcements began to attack the enemy east
   of Stoumont. To the south the enemy took up blocking positions
   south of the Sauer River with some troops as far west as the
   Arlon-Bastogne highway.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   CREW OF A MULTIPLE GUN MOTOR CARRIAGE M16 waiting to fire on
   an enemy plane as vapor trails fill the sky. On 20 December
   control of the First and Ninth U. S. Armies passed to the 21
   Army Group, while the Third U. S. Army and a corps of the First
   Army remained under 12th Army Group control. On 23 December
   the weather cleared sufficiently for planes of the Eighth
   and Ninth U. S. Air Forces and the British Bomber Command to
   begin a large-scale aerial assault on German positions and
   installations. The German planes which were sent up in greater
   strength than at any other time since the invasion were no
   match for the Allies. On Christmas Day the First U. S. Army
   launched an attack and made contact with the British forces in
   the northern section of the front. For the first time since 16
   December a continuous Allied front was established.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   PART OF AN ARMORED DIVISION of the Third Army moving into the
   Ardennes. At the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge Third Army
   was regrouping for an attack on the West Wall in the Saar area.
   On 18 December an armored division was turned north toward the
   Ardennes sector and was followed by an infantry division the
   next day. The 6th Army Group was turned north to take over the
   area held by Third Army, which during a period of six days broke
   off its general attack in the Saar region, turned left, moved
   more than a 100 miles over unknown winter roads, and mounted an
   attack with six divisions.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   C-47’s CARRYING SUPPLIES to surrounded U. S. troops in Bastogne
   (top). Infantrymen in Bastogne (bottom). While Third Army
   was advancing to relieve the armored and airborne troops in
   Bastogne, the battle for the city was being waged. The enemy
   surrounding the city numbered 45,000 while within Bastogne there
   were about 18,000 U. S. troops. The commander of the troops in
   the city refused to surrender to the Germans and continued to
   hold out against all attacks. The defenders, cut off from their
   sources, were supplied by airdrops during this period. On 24
   December over 100 tons of supplies were dropped.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   INFANTRYMEN FIRE AT GERMAN TROOPS in the advance to relieve the
   surrounded paratroopers in Bastogne. In foreground a platoon
   leader indicates the target to a rifleman by actually firing
   on the target. In Bastogne the defenders were badly in need of
   relief, they were attacked nightly by German aircraft, supplies
   were critically low in spite of the airdrops, and the wounded
   could not be given proper attention because of the shortage of
   medical supplies. After an advance which had been slow, U. S.
   relief troops entered Bastogne at 1645 on 26 December 1944.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   INFANTRYMEN ADVANCE ON BASTOGNE (top). Prisoners taken during
   the advance on Bastogne being evacuated (bottom). With the
   arrival of U. S. relief troops were forty truckloads of
   supplies which were delivered during the night of 26 December.
   625 wounded men were evacuated from the area and the battle
   continued since the enemy had shifted a large portion of his
   attacking troops in this area. On the night of 26 December when
   the German advance was halted the Third Army, consisting of
   eight divisions and parts of two other battered divisions, faced
   elements of eleven German divisions between the Meuse and the
   Moselle.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   105-MM. HOWITZER MOTOR CARRIAGE M7 of an armored unit on the
   alert near Bastogne. By 27 December more than thirty-five corps
   artillery battalions were firing approximately 19,000 rounds of
   ammunition daily in support of the Third Army. By the end of
   the year that army was supported by over 1,000 guns of 105-mm.
   caliber or larger. Christmas night the Third Army’s artillery
   began using the new proximity fuze, which proved particularly
   effective in interdicting road junctions and harassing enemy
   positions.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   ENGINEERS UNLOADING BARBED WIRE which was used in defensive
   measures against counterattacks.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   ENGINEER PLANTING AN ANTITANK MINE on the shoulder of a road as
   a defensive measure during the fighting in the Ardennes.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

    BASTOGNE CREEK      RAILROAD

   BASTOGNE AND THE SURROUNDING AREA. Although the corridor which
   had been opened to Bastogne remained in U. S. hands it was far
   from secure as it was less than 300 yards wide in some places.
   The Germans were passing to the defensive in other sectors and
   concentrating on their attacks in the Bastogne area. The mission
   of the Third Army was to widen the corridor, push attacks on
   Saint-Vith, and at the same time reinforce its attacking units.
   During this period of the fighting in Europe adverse weather
   conditions added greatly to the problems, and the snow-and
   sleet-covered roads hampered the movement of troops.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   SOLDIER TAKES TIME OUT TO WASH HIS FEET and put on dry socks.
   The cold weather combined with the snow and dampness caused many
   cases of trench foot during this period. It was difficult when
   wearing the regular leather shoes to keep one’s feet dry and
   warm, but frequent washing and changing of socks helped.]

  [Illustration: LUXEMBOURG

   AN ENLISTED MAN PUTS ON A NEW PAIR OF SHOEPACS. The shoepac,
   which was supplied to as many of the troops as possible at
   this time, helped to overcome the heavy incidence of trench
   foot among the U. S. troops fighting in cold and extremely wet
   climates. This shoe was rubber-bottomed with a leather top and
   was worn with a heavy ski sock and felt innersole.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   INFANTRYMEN WEARING SNOW CAPES over their normal clothing.
   Snow caught the U. S. troops without adequate camouflage, and
   strenuous efforts were made to improvise white suits out of
   mattress covers and linen collected from the civilians.]

  [Illustration: LUXEMBOURG

   CAMOUFLAGED LIGHT ARMORED CAR M 8 and one that has not been
   painted white, showing the effectiveness of snow camouflaging
   (top). A crew member of a 90-mm. gun motor carriage M 36
   throwing paint on the bogie wheels after painting the vehicle
   (bottom). Tanks, vehicles, and guns were camouflaged with white
   paint.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: LUXEMBOURG

   KNOCKED-OUT U. S. MEDIUM TANKS. During the last few days
   of December 1944 the main effort in Third Army zone was
   concentrated in the vicinity of Bastogne, while the situation
   in the rest of the army area remained static. Armored and
   infantry attacks achieved small gains during which many German
   counterattacks were made. Echternach was re-entered on 29
   December and all enemy forces south of the Sauer River were
   cleared. The armored divisions continued to advance. One, in
   repulsing several counterattacks, suffered heavy casualties. On
   3 January 1945 the last German attack was made on Bastogne. It
   was unsuccessful.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEN OF AN INFANTRY DIVISION climbing into box cars to move
   from the Brittany Peninsula to the U. S. Third Army zone. On 9
   January 1945 a new attack was started after fresh troops had
   been brought into the battle area. The Germans offered fierce
   resistance in order to keep open their escape route to the east.
   On 16 January elements of an armored division of Third Army
   contacted those from First Army, closing the German salient just
   one month after the enemy had launched his counteroffensive in
   the Ardennes.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   INFANTRYMEN BIVOUACKING IN THE WOODS (top); field mess (bottom).
   Living conditions during the best of times were not too pleasant
   for the combat soldier, but during the winter the hardships were
   greatly increased.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: LUXEMBOURG

   U. S. LIGHT TANKS which were captured by the enemy during the
   Battle of the Bulge. Some of the more serious U. S. losses
   during this period were 1,284 machine guns, 542 mortars, 1,344
   jeeps, and 237 tanks. Not all of these losses were the result
   of units being overrun--there was some evidence of unnecessary
   abandonment of equipment, particularly among inexperienced
   troops.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   MEMBERS OF AN ARMORED UNIT STAND GUARD beside their dug-in
   medium tank near Manhay, Belgium. From 27 December 1944 to 2
   January 1945 the First U. S. Army was reorganizing and preparing
   to attack the Hotton-Houffalize axis. Heavy fighting continued
   all along the First Army front and by 30 December the important
   traffic centers of Marche, Hotton, and Manhay were secured.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   AIRBORNE INFANTRY MEN on the alert man their .30-caliber machine
   gun (top). A member of a cavalry reconnaissance squadron checks
   his .30-caliber machine gun (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   AIRBORNE TROOPS LOADING A SHELL into a 75-mm. pack howitzer M8.
   Between 16 December and 27 December First army artillery units
   fired more ammunition than at any other time during the war
   except during the Normandy Campaign. An average of 800 weapons
   fired over 750,000 shells.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY AND BELGIUM

   LOADING A 105-M M. SHELL into the howitzer of a Priest (top);
   snow on the camouflage net over a 155-mm. howitzer M1 helps
   conceal its position (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   AN ARTILLERY PLANE with newly attached skis taking off (top);
   observation planes grounded during the bad weather (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEN STRINGING BARBED WIRE DURING A BLIZZARD (top); tank crews
   keeping warm as they eat their rations (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   MANHAY, BELGIUM. On 3 January 1945 an attack was launched west
   of Manhay in the First Army zone. Visibility was reduced to
   200 yards and the temperature was near zero. The few roads
   were coated with ice and the snow off the roads was waist deep
   making it extremely difficult to maneuver. During the first day
   advances of almost 4,000 yards were made before a heavy snowfall
   halted the assault. On 5 January the attack was resumed and the
   La Roche-Vielsalm road was cut. La Roche was captured by the
   British on 10 January. The British troops were then withdrawn
   to regroup for the Rhineland Campaign. The Germans began to
   withdraw from the tip of the salient after becoming convinced
   that they had lost in their attempt to halt the Allies.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   ELEMENTS OF THE FIRST AND THIRD ARMIES made contact at
   Houffalize on 16 January. While the U. S. units were still
   understrength, replacements to the theater had increased.
   Despite heavy fighting and poor living conditions, morale was
   high.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   155-MM. GUN M1A1, with its barrel camouflaged by white cloth,
   firing in the Ardennes. The junction of First and Third Armies
   at Houffalize marked the achievement of tactical victory in the
   Ardennes. On 17 January the First Army reverted to 12th Army
   Group, but the Ninth U. S. Army remained under 21 Army Group.
   With the enemy withdrawing from the Ardennes the Allies resumed
   their advance toward the Rhine.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   TWO GERMAN PRISONERS BEING BROUGHT IN (top). Papers of a U. S.
   vehicle driver being checked by a guard at a road intersection
   (bottom). During the fighting in the Ardennes some German
   paratroopers were dropped behind the U. S. lines. Others dressed
   in U. S. uniforms and driving U. S. vehicles were operating
   behind the American lines.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   “KING TIGER” OR “ROYAL TIGER” (Pz. Kpfw. VI (B) “Tiger” with
   8.8-cm. Kw. K. 43) (top). This tank, weighing 75 tons and
   designed for defensive warfare or for penetrating strong lines
   of defense, made its appearance in combat in 1944. It had
   heavy frontal armor and an 88-mm. gun which could traverse 360
   degrees. Germany heavy tank, the Panther (Pz. Kpfw. with 7.5-cm.
   Kw. K, 42-L/70) (bottom). This tank, introduced in 1942, weighed
   47 tons and had sloping frontal armor and a 75-mm. high-velocity
   gun.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   BARBED WIRE BEING STRUNG as a defensive measure in the event of
   another enemy counterattack. In mid-January the enemy was still
   able to maintain a cohesive line, but the critical situation on
   the Russian front made necessary the shifting of troops to the
   eastern front while withdrawing to the security of the West Wall
   all committed troops facing the western Allies.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A SIGNAL CORPS LINEMAN repairing damaged telephone lines.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A TRUCK-MOUNTED CRANE swinging the barrel of an 8-inch gun
   from its transport wagon (top), and placing it on its carriage
   (bottom). The gun and cradle were transported on one vehicle and
   the carriage on another.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   A CAMOUFLAGED 8-INCH GUN M1 located in the southern portion of
   the Third Army zone. This gun was capable of firing a 240-pound
   projectile a distance of 20 miles. The troops left in this area
   were placed on the defensive during the fighting in the Ardennes
   sector. Heavy artillery in the area fired on enemy installations
   in the triangle of the Moselle and Saar Rivers and West Wall
   fortifications.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   A MEMBER OF A GLIDER REGIMENT, armed with a rifle and a rocket
   launcher, returning from a three-hour tour of guard duty.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   A TANKER SEWS HIS CLOTHING on an old sewing machine in front of
   his M4A3 medium tank.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   SUPPLIES MOVING THROUGH BASTOGNE, 22 January 1945, on their way
   to the front-line troops. By the first of the year material
   losses in the Battle of the Bulge had been replaced and the
   combat units were again prepared to move forward.]

  [Illustration: LUXEMBOURG

   MEDICAL AID MEN dragging a boatload of medical supplies down a
   snow and ice covered road to the banks of a stream they are to
   cross. From 17 to 24 January the Third Army continued to attack
   through Houffalize and reached the northern tip of Luxembourg
   on 24 January. In an advance to the east bridgeheads north of
   Clervaux on the Clerf River were secured on 23 January. During
   this period most of the area between the Sauer and the Our
   Rivers was cleared of enemy resistance. In a hurried effort to
   withdraw as many vehicles as possible the enemy lost over 1,700
   vehicles to planes of the U. S. XIX Tactical Air Command.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   A MEMBER OF AN 81-MM. MORTAR CREW listening to firing orders
   from a battalion command post.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   INFANTRYMEN ADVANCING UNDER ENEMY SHELL FIRE. On 15 January
   1945, on the left of the First Army zone, an attack was begun
   from the Butgenbach-Malmédy positions. By 19 January First Army
   had secured the defiles southwest of Butgenbach. The attack
   launched toward Saint-Vith continued to gain ground, and on 23
   January Saint-Vith was recaptured.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   FIRST ARMY TROOPS, wearing snow camouflage capes, advance.]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   MEN OF AN AIRBORNE UNIT preparing to board trucks which will
   take them to a rest area after being relieved at the front. On
   24 January the First and Third Armies’ boundary was shifted
   north in the general line Saint-Vith-Losheim-Ahr River and
   attacks were to be renewed on the Saint-Vith-Bonn axis. First
   Army was to breach the West Wall and secure the high ground in
   the vicinity of Blankenheim, while Third Army was to attack with
   its left wing to cover the First Army.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   AN M5 LIGHT TANK guarding a road in the U. S. Ninth Army area,
   22 January. With the collapse of the German salient in the
   Ardennes, preparations were made for the offensive to the
   Rhine by 21 Army Group. The Germans held the triangle south of
   Roermond between the Meuse and Roer Rivers. This was a serious
   threat to the left flank of the Ninth Army and had to be
   eliminated before the army could advance across the Roer to the
   Rhine plain. The task of eliminating this salient was assigned
   to the British Second Army and by 26 January was completed.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SEVENTH ARMY TROOPS entering a fortress of the Maginot Line,
   near Bitche, France, which had been taken in the December
   fighting. Reduction of the strongly defended forts of the
   Maginot Line was halted when the Ardennes fighting began. The
   new Seventh Army front included the three following areas: the
   Saare Valley in Lorraine; the low Vosges mountains; and the
   northern Alsace plain between the mountains and the Rhine.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEMBERS OF A SEVENTH ARMY ARTILLERY UNIT unloading powder
   charges for their 240-mm. howitzer (top); 3-inch gun motor
   carriage firing on enemy positions at night (bottom). On 20
   December 1944 the 6th Army Group abandoned its offensive and
   relieved the Third Army in the region westward to Saarlautern
   to defend against any enemy penetration in Alsace-Lorraine. The
   offensive was stopped even though many pillboxes in the West
   Wall had been taken, and during the last ten days of December
   the Seventh Army regrouped its forces and deployed its troops.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   CONVOY MOVING UP in the Seventh Army area during the fighting in
   Alsace (top); vehicles moving over snow-covered roads through
   the Vosges mountains (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   BITCHE, FRANCE. The Seventh Army prepared an alternate
   main line of resistance along the old Maginot Line
   (Sarreguemines-Bitche-Lembach-Hatten-Sessenheim) and a final
   defensive position along the eastern slope of the Vosges. On 1
   January 1945 the Germans attacked in the area between Sarre and
   Rohrbach and drove ten miles into the U. S. lines, where the
   appearance of powerful armored reserves of the U. S. forces and
   Allied counterattacks caused the enemy to curtail its operation.
   Another New Year’s Day attack by the Germans in the Bitche area
   was a more serious threat. After stubborn fighting on the part
   of the Allied troops the attack spent itself on 7 January. In
   the Bitche salient the fighting continued until 20 January
   before becoming stabilized.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TANKS OF AN ARMORED UNIT moving along a slippery road during a
   heavy snowstorm. In other 6th Army Group areas there was action
   along the front. As U. S. troops withdrew to the Maginot Line so
   that French troops could take over this portion of the front,
   the Germans followed closely. French troops in the Strasbourg
   area contained an enemy attack from the Colmar pocket. There was
   heavy activity in the U. S. zone near Hatten where the enemy,
   after suffering heavy losses, failed to break through the U. S.
   troops.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   CAMOUFLAGED TANKS and infantrymen, wearing snow camouflage
   capes, moving over a snow-covered field. Toward the end of
   January a heavy snowfall slowed operations and on 25 January the
   enemy struck his final blow near Haguenau, France. On 26 January
   the Germans were driven back across the Moder River.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEMBERS OF A CANNON COMPANY near Haguenau keep warm as best they
   can.]




                          RHINELAND CAMPAIGN

                     26 January 1945–21 March 1945


  [Illustration: RHINELAND

   The Allied Advance during the Rhineland Campaign 15 September
   1944 to 21 March 1945]




                              SECTION VI

                          Rhineland Campaign

                       26 January-21 March 1945


At the successful conclusion of the Ardennes-Alsace Campaign the Allies
again turned their attention to the Rhineland. Between 26 January and
21 March a major objective was achieved: the German troops which tried
to halt the advance were cut off and destroyed, thus eliminating future
enemy action west of the Rhine.

When the Rhineland Campaign ended the Allied Expeditionary Force
numbered over 4,000,000 men organized into a well-balanced military
machine, with combat elements ready to strike the final blow against
the disintegrating enemy forces. On 21 March 1945 the First U. S. Army
held a bridgehead across the Rhine about twenty miles wide and eight
miles deep and had six divisions on the eastern bank of the river,
while the remaining Allied troops were prepared to cross in their
respective zones.

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   DEEP SNOW SLOWED MILITARY TRAFFIC. With the completion of the
   Ardennes-Alsace Campaign the Allies again began their advance to
   the Rhine after having been delayed for six weeks.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY AND FRANCE

   RIFLEMEN moving through snow-covered, wooded terrain (top). A
   105-mm. howitzer M3 firing in support of the infantry advance
   (bottom). On 24 January the First U. S. Army was to begin an
   attack to breach the West Wall and secure the high ground in the
   vicinity of Blankenheim, while part of the Third Army was to
   attack with its left wing to cover the First Army. The rest of
   the Third Army front was to begin an aggressive defense.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM AND GERMANY

   ADVANCING THROUGH THE SNOW, men wearing camouflage suits blend
   in with the snow-covered ground, while those without white
   suits stand out plainly (top). Infantrymen waiting in their
   snow-covered foxhole for an artillery barrage which will start
   an offensive (bottom). On 7 February 1945 the attack was halted
   with both the First and Third Armies deep in the enemy’s
   fortified zone.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   FRONT OF AN M24 LIGHT TANK showing its 75-mm. gun, newer type
   track, and torsion bar suspension. When the offensive halted
   attention was given to attacking the Roer dams. The enemy took
   advantage of the wooded country, deep valleys, many streams,
   poor roads, and the fortifications of the West Wall in an
   effort to halt the advance. Bitter fighting developed but by 2
   February the U. S. forces had reached a point within two miles
   of Schleiden. On 8 February the Canadian First Army struck
   the German forces west of the Rhine, the first of a series of
   attacks that were to destroy the enemy.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

    SARREBOURG      SARRE RIVER      NIEDERLEUKEN BEURIG

   SAAREBOURG AND THE SARRE RIVER AREA. This picture is typical of
   the rolling, wooded country, broken by river and deep valleys,
   through which Allied troops advanced during the fighting along
   the German frontier. The area was important during the Lorraine
   campaign since the enemy forces might join the German troops
   striking northwest from the Colmar pocket, or at least threaten
   the rear of the U. S. Seventh Army.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   AN M4 MEDIUM TANK-DOZER cleaning a street in Colmar (top).
   German pillboxes along a road leading to the Colmar plain
   (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   THE TOWN OF BREISACH, Germany, during a heavy artillery
   shelling.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

    VAUBAN CANAL      WIDENSOHLEN CANAL      RHONE-RHINE CANAL

   NEUF BRISACH, FRANCE. On 20 January 1945 U. S. and French
   troops of the 6th Army Group began an offensive converging in
   the direction of Breisach, Germany, on the eastern bank of the
   Rhine. This operation was aimed at the total reduction of the
   Colmar pocket west of the Rhine. On 1 February the U. S. forces
   had advanced to within three miles of Neuf Brisach while on the
   same day the French troops closed up to the Rhine. By 9 February
   the Colmar pocket had been eliminated.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

    CITADEL      ROER RIVER

   THE ROER RIVER AT JUELICH, GERMANY. The U. S. Ninth Army’s
   assault northeast from Juelich was to be the first of a series
   of U. S. drives to the Rhine. This attack was to begin on 10
   February 1945. On 9 February the Germans blew open the discharge
   valves of the dams in the Schmidt area and although the area
   was cleared of enemy troops by the evening of 10 February, it
   was too late to stop the flooding of the area. The Roer River
   attained a width of 400-1,200 yards, a high water condition
   which was to last for two weeks, and prevented the scheduled U.
   S. attack.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   LOADING .50-CALIBER AMMUNITION into the wing of a P-47
   Thunderbolt fighter plane. On 22 February one of the greatest
   aerial operations of the war was carried out by nearly 9,000
   aircraft taking off from bases in England, France, the
   Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy. The targets, the German
   transportation facilities, covered an area of over a quarter of
   a million square miles.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   DESTROYED RAILYARD AT RHEINE, Germany, on the main line leading
   from Berlin and Hannover into the Netherlands. One of the most
   important targets of this attack was the German railway system.
   The enemy’s attempts at defense were completely ineffective
   as the bombs hit control points, railroad yards, roundhouses,
   and bridges. The attack so seriously crippled traffic that the
   railroad system did not recover during the war.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   ROER RIVER TREADWAY PONTON BRIDGES. Early on the morning of
   23 February the Ninth Army jumped off after a heavy artillery
   preparation. Covering the right flank was a corps of the First
   Army. Because the enemy was surprised by this attack only
   moderate opposition was encountered and by the end of the first
   day bridgeheads two to four miles deep were held, infantry
   troops were east of the Roer River, and seven bridges were being
   completed under a heavy screen of smoke.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A PORTION OF MUENCHEN-GLADBACH. After crossing the Roer the U.
   S. units advanced to within seven miles of the Rhine and closed
   in on Muenchen-Gladbach by 28 February. On 1 March one infantry
   regiment cleared the city which had a population of 170,000 and
   was the largest German city captured up to that time. Located
   twelve miles from the Rhine, it was one of the approaches to
   the Ruhr. On 3 March contact was made with the British and by 5
   March the U. S. Ninth Army had closed up along the Rhine on its
   entire front.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEDIUM TANK M26 WITH A 90-MM. GUN equipped with a muzzle brake,
   introduced in combat early in 1945 (top). Both the light tank
   M24 and the medium tank M26 used a torsion bar type suspension
   which replaced the volute spring suspension of earlier models.
   Troops of the U. S. First Army approaching the Rhine (bottom).
   In the First Army area an attack was launched on 23 February
   simultaneously with that of the Ninth Army in the north. By 5
   March First Army troops had secured all their initial objectives
   west of the Rhine.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE AND GERMANY

   A GERMAN ANTIAIRCRAFT GUN on medium tank chassis (Pz. Kpfw.
   IV with 2-cm. Flakvierling 38) (top). German 380-mm. rocket
   projector on Tiger E chassis (Sturmmorser) (bottom). The German
   insistence on holding west of the Rhine cost two enemy armies
   large quantities of material and heavy losses in manpower.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   155-MM. MOTOR GUN CARRIAGE M12 firing on enemy installations
   (top). Infantrymen searching for snipers in Pruem, Germany
   (bottom). In the Third Army area probing attacks toward the West
   Wall were resumed on 7 February 1945. Self-propelled 155-mm.
   guns proved particularly effective in knocking out pillboxes,
   and by 12 February Pruem was cleared.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY AND BELGIUM

   C-47’s DROPPING SUPPLIES TO INFANTRY TROOPS (top). 2?-ton truck
   bogged down in the mud (bottom). Weather and terrain placed
   a heavy burden on engineer troops maintaining the roads. As
   the ground began to thaw one of the main supply lines became
   impassable for a time. Over 190 plane loads of rations,
   gasoline, and ammunition were dropped to one division to
   maintain its attack.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: LUXEMBOURG

   INFANTRYMEN MOVING PRISONERS to the rear across a river near
   Echternach (top). Assault troops crossing the Our River
   (bottom). Bridgeheads were secured over the Our and Vianden was
   cleared by 20 February. Between Vianden and Echternach troops
   pushed into the West Wall.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   FRIED EGGS BEING SERVED FOR BREAKFAST, a special treat for the
   men stationed near the West Wall (top). Troops moving through
   dragon’s teeth of the West Wall fortifications (bottom). By
   23 February two corps of the Third Army had fought their way
   through the West Wall to the Pruem River.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   CAVALRY RECONNAISSANCE TROOPS passing a German 75-mm. antitank
   gun in the outskirts of Saarburg, Germany (top). Firing a
   .30-caliber machine gun M1917A1 (bottom). On 21 February
   Saarburg was cleared by one task force of the Third Army, while
   a part of an armored division drove north and cleared the tip of
   the Saar-Moselle triangle the next day.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: BELGIUM

   A SIGNAL CORPS MOTION PICTURE CAMERAMAN wading through the
   mud of the February thaws while photographing the activities
   of a military unit. By the end of February the Third Army was
   advancing toward Trier and Bitburg. By 5 March 1945 Trier was
   captured and preparations were being made for the final drive to
   the Rhine.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TROOPS OF THIRD ARMY waiting for the order which would start a
   drive to the Rhine. The two armored vehicles are German armored
   personnel carriers (top). Tanks and infantry entering Andernach
   (bottom). The Rhine city of Andernach was captured on 9 March
   and contact was made with U. S. First Army units the next day.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A MEDIUM TANK of an armored division of the U. S. First Army
   knocked out by enemy artillery fire. During the first week of
   March the First Army advanced toward the Rhine with parts of its
   forces while others launched a strong attack from Euskirchen to
   converge on the Third Army area in the vicinity of Ahrweiler.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   HANDIE-TALKIE. An infantryman, armed with a carbine equipped
   with a grenade launcher M8, using a handie-talkie radio SCR 536.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   AN ARTILLERYMAN DIRECTS FIRE, using an azimuth instrument M1 for
   spotting and observing.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   THE CITY OF COLOGNE on the banks of the Rhine. U. S. First
   Army forces took Cologne on 7 March. The enemy had withdrawn
   most of the veteran troops who had defended the city and left
   its Volkssturm troops to be battered by the advancing U. S.
   soldiers. By 9 March the First Army zone was cleared of enemy
   troops west of the Rhine.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   FIRST ARMY MEN AND EQUIPMENT crossing the Ludendorf railroad
   bridge which became known as the Remagen Bridge. This was
   the only bridge across the Rhine which was left intact. The
   attention of the First Army was focused at Remagen during the
   critical days of securing a bridgehead over the Rhine. The
   capture of this bridge was an unexpected windfall, because the
   retreating enemy troops had placed charges and were to blow the
   bridge at 1600 on 7 March. The first U. S. troops reached the
   bridge at 1550 and as the first charges began to explode army
   engineers cut the wires to the others. Thus the bridge, while
   damaged, was still intact and enabled the U. S. forces to cross
   the river.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   THE LUDENDORF BRIDGE four hours before it collapsed (top). The
   bridge after it fell into the Rhine (bottom). After capturing
   the bridge troops were rushed across in pursuit of the
   retreating Germans while the engineers set to work to repair the
   damage. Enemy planes made repeated attacks on the bridge and it
   was shelled by long-range artillery. At 1430 on 17 March the
   bridge buckled and fell into the river only a few hours before
   the repairs would have been completed.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   PONTON BOATS AND FLOATS being moved to the Rhine in the Remagen
   area (top). Treadway bridge across the Rhine near Remagen
   (bottom). During the period 11–16 March the bridgehead was
   expanded north and south and all attacks gained ground despite
   the arrival of enemy reinforcements. Treadway and heavy pontoon
   bridges were built across the river. As the Rhineland Campaign
   came to an end, six divisions were east of the Rhine and six
   more were ready to cross in the First Army zone.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

    HONNEF      ASBERB HILL 441      BRODERKONSBERG

   ROLLING, WOODED AREA EAST OF THE RHINE, typical of that
   encountered by the Allied troops in their advance into Germany.
   A small portion of Honnef, between Bonn and Remagen, may be seen
   in the extreme upper left portion of picture.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEDICAL AID MAN dressing the wounds of an infantryman.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   WOUNDED SOLDIERS being evacuated by air to hospitals in Paris
   and London.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

    SARREBOURG      BEURIG

   AN ENLISTED MAN looking across the Saar River valley between
   Serrig and Saarburg. The village of Serrig is in the foreground.
   In this area the forward edge of the West Wall, over two miles
   deep, followed the eastern bank of the Saar River. An antitank
   ditch skirting the southwestern side of the village of Serrig
   and a communication trench in the lower right hand corner are
   visible. U. S. vehicles may also be seen dispersed through the
   area.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   SPRING CLEAN-UP. An artilleryman takes time out for a bath
   during a warm spring afternoon while other members of the
   105-mm. howitzer crew remain near their piece.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A MEDIUM TANK being ferried across the Moselle River (top).
   Artillery shelling Bingen (bottom). From 11 to 13 March the
   Third Army cleaned out the Germans who remained north of the
   Moselle. The Third Army next regrouped its forces and started an
   attack toward Bingen and Bad Kreuznach to prevent the enemy from
   retreating across the Rhine. The attack was then to continue
   southeast to secure a crossing site somewhere between Mainz and
   Worms. At the same time a drive to Kaiserslautern was to begin
   and Coblenz was to be reduced.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   ENEMY EQUIPMENT destroyed during the U. S. advance (top).
   Infantrymen moving on the double past a fire started by enemy
   shelling (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A THREE-MAN ARTILLERY CREW preparing to fire a multipurpose
   88-mm. gun captured in Germany.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE AND GERMANY

   LIGHT TANK M24 firing (top); medium tank M26 crossing a muddy
   field (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   SOLDIERS WATCHING VAPOR TRAILS left by bombers on their way to
   bomb Germany.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   INFANTRY MEN USING FOOTBRIDGES to cross a river while engineers
   complete a Bailey bridge. On 15 March three corps of the Seventh
   Army began attacks, one in the heart of the important Saar
   industrial area around Saarbruecken, the second driving toward
   Zweibruecken and Bitche, and the third from the Moder River.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   75-MM. HOWITZER motor carriage M8 firing on enemy positions.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TUBE AND RECOIL MECHANISM OF AN 8-INCH GUN M 1 on the way to the
   front.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SEVENTH ARMY TROOPS ENTERING BITCHE (top). Infantrymen marching
   cross-country on their way to Germany (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   DRAGON’S TEETH, part of the West Wall defenses (top).
   Infantrymen climbing over obstacles as they advanced through the
   West Wall into Germany (bottom). The advance of the Seventh Army
   through the dense mine fields and fortification of the West Wall
   was necessarily slow.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   155-MM. MOTOR GUN CARRIAGE M12 FIRING.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE AND GERMANY

   TWO TYPES OF MINE DETECTORS. At left, AN/PRS-1 type; at right,
   SCR 625 (top). Mine detectors were developed by the Signal Corps
   primarily for use by Engineer troops. Signal Corps repairmen
   splicing wires of an underground cable which was damaged by
   artillery fire (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY AND FRANCE

   INFANTRY PLATOON BEING BRIEFED before making an assault (top).
   Soldiers taking a ten-minute break during a march to the front
   lines (bottom).]

  [Illustration]




                        CENTRAL EUROPE CAMPAIGN


  [Illustration: CENTRAL EUROPE

   The Allied Advance during the Central Europe Campaign 22 March
   1945 to 11 May 1945]




                              SECTION VII

                        Central Europe Campaign


The Central Europe Campaign began on 22 March 1945 with units of the
First U. S. Army across the Rhine in the Remagen area. On the night
of 22–23 March elements of the Third U. S. Army crossed the river
at Oppenheim. As the First and Third Armies crossed the Rhine the
Fifteenth U. S. Army took over the area west of the river from Bonn
to Neuss. On 26 March the Seventh U. S. Army crossed the Rhine north
and south of Worms and, after meeting stiff resistance on the river
bank, broke through the enemy and quickly expanded the bridgehead. The
Ninth U. S. Army crossed the river south of Wesel while the British
Second Army crossed north of the city. Elements of the First Allied
Airborne Army dropped east of the Rhine and linked up with the ground
troops east of the river. In many respects this was the most successful
airborne operation that had been carried out up to this time.

After the Allies were firmly established east of the Rhine the great
German industrial area of the Ruhr was encircled and the defending
troops captured. The advance through Germany was rapid and met with
little opposition except in scattered areas. The Russians drove into
Germany from the east and enemy troops in trying to escape capture
by the Russians surrendered by the thousands to the western Allies.
As the U. S., British, and Canadian troops in the north reached the
line where it was expected they would meet the Russian forces, they
halted. The Third and Seventh U. S. Armies continued their drives into
Czechoslovakia and Austria where a junction was also made with the
Russians.

On 2 May 1945 the German forces in Italy surrendered. Two days later
elements of the Seventh U. S. Army met those of the Fifth U. S. Army,
coming from Italy, at the Brenner Pass. On 9 May 1945 the surrender of
all the German forces became effective, marking the end of the war in
Europe.

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TROOPS LOADING INTO AN LCVP to cross the Rhine (top). Engineers
   constructing a pontoon treadway bridge over the Rhine (bottom).
   A steel treadway bridge was completed by 1800 on 23 March 1945,
   and the following day a heavy pontoon bridge was completed.
   By noon on 25 March a second treadway bridge was completed.
   The crossing of the Rhine in the Third Army area gained
   complete tactical surprise and the enemy offered only scattered
   resistance. By the evening of 24 March three divisions held a
   bridgehead ten miles wide and nine miles deep. These divisions
   were closely followed by two more, making a total of five on the
   east bank of the Rhine.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   INFANTRYMEN BOARDING AN LCVP to cross the Rhine (top). An
   assault boat raft ferrying a 90-mm. gun motor carriage M36
   across the Rhine (bottom). Troops of the Third U. S. Army
   first crossed the Rhine at Oppenheim on the night of 22–23
   March. Utilizing assault rafts and attacking without artillery
   or aerial preparation, six battalions were across the river
   before daybreak with a loss of only twenty-eight men killed and
   wounded. Following the assault boats were landing craft and
   DUKW’s. The LCVP’s were manned by naval personnel who arrived at
   the river an hour after the assault began.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   JEEPS AND TANKS CROSSING THE RHINE at Boppard, Germany. On 24
   March 1945 a crossing in the rugged Rhine gorge north of Boppard
   was made and by 25 March a bridgehead eight miles wide and
   three miles deep was held. A treadway bridge was constructed at
   Boppard.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   AN INFANTRYMAN COVERS A GERMAN as he surrenders. In the First
   Army area an attack from the Remagen bridgehead was carried out,
   and preparations were made to advance to the Kassel area.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   ARMORED TROOPS MOVING TO THE FRONT as prisoners are marched
   along the autobahn to the rear (top). Infantrymen entering
   Frankfurt (bottom). The bridgeheads along the Rhine were
   expanded and on 26 March Third Army troops entered Frankfurt.
   The advance moved northward toward Kassel. The Fifteenth Army
   was instructed to take over the west bank of the Rhine from Bonn
   to Neuss by 1 April, to assume command of the division which
   was guarding the Brittany ports, and to be prepared to occupy,
   organize, and govern the Rhine provinces as the 12th Army Group
   attacks progressed eastward.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   FRANKFURT ON THE MAIN RIVER, showing the Frankfurt cathedral.
   By 28 March Frankfurt had been half cleared of enemy troops and
   Hanau completely cleared. Part of a large enemy pocket west of
   Wiesbaden had been mopped up and contact was made between the
   First and Third U. S. Army troops.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   CAPTURED FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOYS who were members of the “Air
   Guard.” On 28 March First Army troops were closing up along
   the upper Lahn River. Infantry divisions quickly followed the
   armored spearheads to mop up enemy pockets of bypassed troops
   and to clear the areas which had been taken in the rapid
   advances. In six days the shallow Remagen foothold had been
   expanded to a lodgement area sixty-five miles deep. The advance
   to Kassel continued.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   CROSSING THE RHINE NEAR WORMS, GERMANY. U. S. Seventh Army
   troops crossed the Rhine near Worms at 0230 on 26 March. These
   forces met small arms and scattered mortar fire while crossing
   and, after landing on the east bank of the river, met stiff
   enemy resistance north of Worms. South of Worms the troops
   reached the far shore with little opposition but as they moved
   eastward the resistance increased. Two panzer counterattacks
   were turned back during that morning. By evening of 26 March the
   bridgehead had been expanded to an area of fifteen miles wide
   and seven miles deep.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A DUPLEX-DRIVE TANK (DD tank), with its flotation device raised,
   entering the water (top); flotation device after being lowered
   (bottom). The canvas flotation device made the tank vulnerable
   to mines and objects floating in the water.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   GERMAN PRISONERS being marched westward across the Rhine as
   troops of the Ninth Army move eastward into Germany (top).
   Enlisted men at their .50-caliber Browning machine gun HB M2,
   alert for enemy aircraft (bottom). The Ninth Army was to attack
   south of Wesel with its main bridging area at Rheinberg.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   TOW ROPE BEING ATTACHED TO A GLIDER as the First Allied Airborne
   Army prepares to take off for landings east of the Rhine in
   the 21 Army Group area. The mission of this army was to break
   up the enemy defenses north of Wesel and deepen the bridgehead
   to facilitate the link-up with the ground forces. The airborne
   troops took off from bases in England and France and converged
   near Brussels. The troops began landing on 24 March 1945 at
   1000 and during the next three hours some 14,000 troops were
   transported to the battle area by over 1,700 aircraft and 1,300
   gliders.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   PLANES AND GLIDERS loaded and waiting to take off for the
   landings east of the Rhine (top). Aerial view of planes and
   gliders before the take-off (bottom). Losses were comparatively
   light for an operation of this size. Under 4 percent of the
   gliders were destroyed and fifty-five aircraft were lost.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   LIBERATORS OVER THE RHINE shortly before they dropped supplies
   to the airborne troops which landed east of the Rhine.
   Immediately after the glider landings, a resupply mission was
   flown in very low by 250 Liberators of the Eighth U. S. Air
   Force. It met heavy flak and fourteen planes were shot down, but
   85 percent of the supplies were accurately dropped.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEMBERS OF FIRST ALLIED AIRBORNE ARMY after landing near Wesel.
   On the ground the airborne forces met with varying resistance.
   Bridges over the Issel were seized and 3,500 prisoners were
   taken. This airborne operation was the most successful carried
   out to this time. The attack had achieved surprise and the
   airborne troops reorganized quickly after landing. Ninth Army
   troops held a bridgehead nine miles wide and three miles deep by
   the end of the day (24 March).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A NINTH ARMY CONVOY on the highway leading to Muenster, Germany.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   SIGNALMEN ROLL A REEL ASHORE on the east bank of the Rhine after
   laying a submarine cable on the bottom of the river from a DUKW
   (top). Destroyed equipment left behind by the retreating enemy
   (bottom). On 25 March the First Army broke out of their Remagen
   bridgehead, the Third Army reached the Main River, and contact
   was made between the British Second Army and the Canadian First
   Army.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   WHITE FLAGS OF SURRENDER hang from buildings in a deserted
   street of a German town (top). As infantry troops march through
   a town, an old woman looks at a demolished building (bottom).
   During the advance into Germany many towns surrendered to the
   Allied troops and the buildings remained undamaged. However,
   in some towns enemy troops offered resistance and fighting and
   shelling ensued. In one week five Allied armies were on the east
   bank of the Rhine and twenty-four bridges had been constructed
   to replace those which were knocked out. During this period the
   Allied casualties were much lighter than had been expected. The
   last German line of defense had been shattered.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TWO KNOCKED-OUT GERMAN SELF-PROPELLED GUNS (Pz. Jaeg. Tiger
   with 12.8-cm. PJK 44). This vehicle, called a Jaegdtiger, was
   the most formidable self-propelled antitank gun used by the
   Germans during the war. It consisted of a 12.8-cm. PJK 44 (L/55)
   (less muzzle brake) mounted on a Tiger B chassis. The gun could
   penetrate 6 to 8 inches of armor at 1,000 yards. Weight of the
   vehicle was 77 tons.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEDIUM TANKS M26 moving through Wesel on the way to the front.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   P-47 FORCED DOWN OVER GERMANY (top). B-24 which crash-landed in
   Germany (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   GERMAN V-BOMB found by the U. S. troops as they overran Germany
   (top). An enemy jetpropelled fighter plane (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   CIVILIANS WATCHING U. S. TROOPS as they advance through
   Duesseldorf (top). A transportation corps train moving over
   a bridge which was constructed across the Rhine at Wesel by
   the engineers (bottom). With all three Allied army groups
   established on the east bank of the Rhine plans were made to
   encircle the Ruhr. By 1 April 1945 a trap was closed which
   formed a 4,000-mile square pocket and included the Ruhr
   industrial area.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   SEVENTH ARMY TROOPS ADVANCING after capturing the town of
   Mergentheim (top). Engineers operating an assault ferry across
   the Neckar River in Heilbronn (bottom). On 28 March the
   Seventh Army launched its attack out of the Worms bridgehead.
   The assault was halted on 4 April when strong resistance was
   encountered at Heilbronn. On 31 March the French First Army
   crossed the Rhine at Speyer and Germersheim and on 4 April
   captured Karlsruhe.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   4.5-INCH MULTIPLE ROCKET LAUNCHER T34 mounted on a medium tank.
   The Germans stubbornly defended the industrial area of the Ruhr
   even though an army group was caught in the trap with little
   hope of escape. On the Allied flanks, advances were made as the
   enemy began to disintegrate.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   C-47 TRANSPORT, carrying gasoline, lands on an airstrip in
   Germany (top). Ten-ton semitrailers in Germany with four
   750-gallon skid tanks loaded with gasoline (bottom). The
   versatility of these tanks made it possible to use them on a
   number of different types of vehicles. During the last months
   of the war the rapid advances of all the Allied troops made
   fuel supply a difficult problem. Fuel was transported by every
   available means to assure the troops an adequate supply.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   LINEMAN of a Signal Corps construction battalion fastening
   wire to an insulator on the top of a telephone pole at Bingen
   on the Rhine (top). Liberated slave laborers help themselves
   to food and supplies in a store in Hannover (bottom). With
   the liberation of the slave laborers who had worked in German
   factories many problems arose, and Allied Military Government
   offices were established as quickly as possible to cope with
   them.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   INFANTRYMEN AND TANKERS take time out for a short rest during
   their rapid advance. On 4 April the Ninth Army was to start an
   attack southward and the First U. S. Army was to drive to the
   north. While these two armies were eliminating the Ruhr pocket,
   the Fifteenth Army was to hold the line on the Rhine.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MACHINE GUNNERS of a First Army division covering a road
   intersection (top). Infantryman passes burning U. S. vehicles
   that were ambushed by enemy troops (bottom). During the first
   fighting in the Ruhr the enemy showed spirit. On 4 April
   ten counterattacks were launched in an attempt to break out
   of the pocket. Heavy fighting continued in many towns with
   the civilians fighting alongside German soldiers. Dug-in
   self-propelled guns supported the German infantry. The line was
   drawn tighter by the Allies and on 10 April Essen, home of the
   great Krupp armament works, was cleared by the U. S. assaulting
   troops. By 13 April the mopping-up stage had been reached.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   PRISONER OF WAR ENCLOSURE. On 14 April the Ruhr pocket was split
   in two, and prisoners arrived in such large numbers that Allied
   facilities were taxed to the limit. On 16 April the eastern half
   of the pocket collapsed and two days later the pocket ceased
   to exist. There were 325,000 prisoners, including 30 generals,
   counted as they were taken. This represented twenty-one
   divisions as well as many nondivisional units.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   INFANTRYMEN PASS A DEAD GERMAN as they cross a stream (top).
   Third Army troops climbing a steep hill in the mountainous
   region (bottom). On 10 April the Ninth, First, and Third Armies
   resumed the attack to the east with twenty-two divisions. Only
   in the Harz Mountains was any serious organized resistance
   encountered. The Germans had hurriedly assembled about 10,000
   men to form an army which was initially to break through into
   the Ruhr pocket. When that failed it was to break through to the
   Thuringian pocket. This also failed and the small army which
   represented the last of the German manpower was encircled by the
   U. S. forces.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   VEHICLES OF AN ARMORED DIVISION passing through a burning
   German town. On 18 April the three armies were along the Elbe
   River-Mulde River-Chemnitz-Plauen-Bayreuth line which was a
   restraining line established because of the probability of
   contact with the Russian troops advancing from the east. In the
   north the 21 Army Group was advancing on Bremen and the Elbe
   between Wittenberge and Hamburg.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   ENGINEERS, building a bridge across the Saale River, pull a tank
   across on one of the pontoon sections (top). Magdeburg, showing
   the results of bombing (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TANK DESTROYERS moving through the destroyed town of Magdeburg.
   Scenes such as this were found in many German cities by the
   advancing Allied forces. Most of the buildings were reduced
   to rubble by aerial attacks and artillery shelling, and many
   streets had to be cleared before the troops and vehicles could
   pass.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   TRAFFIC MOVING ACROSS THE MAIN RIVER at Wuerzburg (top). A
   medium tank climbing the bank of a small stream after breaking
   through the light wooden bridge (bottom). There was little
   activity in the 6th Army Group between 4 and 18 April except on
   the northern portion of the army area where the Third Army right
   flank was covered. On 5 April Wuerzburg was cleared after three
   days of heavy fighting.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   AN ARMORED COMBAT COMMAND moving toward Nuernberg (top). A
   German civilian, waving a white flag in surrender, comes toward
   a half-track which is about to enter Geisselhardt after shelling
   buildings in that town (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   INFANTRYMEN MOVING DOWN A STREET in Waldenburg during the
   Seventh Army advance. The French First Army cleared Baden-Baden
   and Pforzheim and by 15 April Kehl was cleared and preparations
   for crossing the Rhine at Strasbourg were made.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   INFANTRYMEN CLIMBING OVER RUBBLE as they clear snipers out of
   Nuernberg. By 18 April part of the Seventh Army was in the
   battle for Nuernberg. Other troops of that army were halted for
   nine days around Heilbronn and along the Neckar and Jagst Rivers.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   ENGINEERS MOVING PONTOONS TO THE DANUBE to start bridging
   operations (top). Infantrymen crossing the Danube over a
   footbridge (bottom). The Third Army advanced down the Danube
   while the First and Ninth Armies held in place, having reached
   the line where the meeting with the Russians was to take place.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   U. S. OFFICERS AND ENLISTED MEN MEET RUSSIAN TROOPS in Germany.
   On 30 April a division of the Ninth U. S. Army made contact with
   the Russians at Apollensdorf. Troops of the First U. S. Army had
   met Russian troops earlier.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEN OF AN ARMORED DIVISION running through the smoke-filled
   streets of a German town (top). Firing on an Austrian town
   across the German border (bottom). Most of Czechoslovakia and a
   large portion of Austria was left for the Russians to occupy,
   but the advancing troops of the Third U. S. Army entered both
   these countries during the last days of the war.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   GERMAN SOLDIERS. The First and Ninth Armies, during the latter
   part of April and early May 1945, handled thousands of German
   soldiers and civilians who were trying to escape the advancing
   Russians by crossing the Elbe River into the American zone.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   CAPTURED U-BOATS in a submarine construction and repair yard in
   Bremen harbor. Over forty submarines were found by the Allies in
   this yard.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   SUBMARINE PENS AT SAINT-NAZAIRE, on the Brittany peninsula. No
   attempt was made to capture these U-boat pens as the Allies
   advanced through France and Germany, but they were surrounded
   and contained until the end of the war.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: AUSTRIA

   TANKS AND TRUCKS of a Third Army armored division fording a
   stream during their advance into Austria. In the foreground is
   a medium tank M 4A 3 (76-mm. long-barrel gun with muzzle brake)
   with horizontal volute spring suspension and an improved, wider
   track measuring twenty-three inches.]

  [Illustration: AUSTRIA

   MOVING INTO AUSTRIA.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   GERMAN PRISONERS being marched to the prisoner of war enclosure
   by Third Army military police. During the period from 22 April
   to 7 May the Third Army took more than 200,000 prisoners while
   suffering less than 2,400 casualties.]

  [Illustration: AUSTRIA

   A GERMAN HORSE-DRAWN CONVOY moves along a winding mountain road
   in Austria to surrender. From 1 April 1945 until the end of the
   war the three armies of the U. S. 12th Army Group took over
   1,800,000 prisoners.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   SOLDIERS CROSSING THE DANUBE (Seventh Army). The two armies of
   6th Army Group launched a drive into southern Germany, the area
   where the remaining German forces supposedly were to make a
   determined stand.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   AN ASSAULT BOAT crossing the Danube. Seventh Army men met no
   opposition here. In the Black Forest and the Schwaebische Alps
   troops of the Seventh Army met some opposition and there was
   some fighting as two German armies were trapped and destroyed.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   CAPTURING GUARDS AT DACHAU, ten miles northwest of Munich
   (top). A few of the guards of the concentration camp remain
   standing with their arms raised while the majority lie on the
   ground, waiting to be taken prisoner. An enlisted man gives his
   cigarettes to inmates at Dachau (bottom). On 29 April troops of
   the U. S. Seventh Army captured Dachau and released over 30,000
   prisoners of many nationalities.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: AUSTRIA

   TROOPS TAKING COVER as members of a German officer candidate
   school fire on them. These enemy troops offered the Seventh Army
   considerable resistance before they were taken. In this area
   snow remained on the ground until late spring.]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: AUSTRIA

   SEVENTH AND FIFTH ARMY TROOPS MEET at Nauders, Austria. On 4
   May, Seventh U. S. Army troops captured the town of Brenner in
   the Brenner Pass, and a few hours later contact was made with
   elements of the Fifth U. S. Army which had fought its way up the
   Italian peninsula. On the same day Berchtesgaden was entered.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   A GERMAN CIVILIAN reading of the surrender of the German forces
   in a division newspaper. On 7 May 1945 the Germans signed the
   surrender terms which were to become effective at 0001, 9 May
   1945; 8 May, however, was designated as V-E Day (Victory in
   Europe). In some remote areas fighting continued until 11 May.]

  [Illustration: GERMANY

   MEMBERS OF THE STARS AND STRIPES STAFF grab copies of the extra
   edition as they come off the press, proclaiming V-E Day (top).
   U. S. sailor and soldier celebrate V-E Day in London (bottom).]

  [Illustration]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   MEN MARCHING TO THE DOCKS AT LE HAVRE to board a ship that will
   take them home to be discharged under the new point system. Men
   with the highest numbers of points were sent home first for
   discharge. These numbers were determined by the total number of
   months of service, total number of months overseas, number of
   awards and decorations, and the number of dependents.]

  [Illustration: FRANCE

   U. S. LIBERATED PRISONERS OF WAR leave a plane at Reims on the
   first lap of their journey back to the United States.]

  [Illustration: ENGLAND

   FLOODLIGHTS ILLUMINATE BIG BEN on the Houses of Parliament
   as the lights go on again in London on V-E night after being
   blacked out during the war years. Early in May 1945 there were
   approximately 4,500,000 troops under the command of the supreme
   commander in Europe. Casualties for the western Allies numbered
   over 800,000. At the end of the war there were nine Allied
   armies, totaling ninety-three divisions, on the Continent.]




                              Appendix A

                         List of Abbreviations


    BAR         Browning automatic rifle
    cm.         Centimeter
    DD          Duplex drive
    DUKW        2½-ton 6 × 6 amphibian truck
    E-boat      Small torpedo boat (German)
    Flak        Fliegerabwehrkanone (antiaircraft artillery gun)
    Jaeg.       Jaegdtiger (tank-destroyer)
    K.          Kanone (gun)
    Kar.        Karabiner (carbine)
    Kw.         Kraftwagen (motor vehicle)
    Kw. K.      Kampfwagenkanone (tank gun)
    LBK         Landing barge, kitchen
    LBV         Landing barge, vehicle
    LCI         Landing craft, infantry
    LCR(S)      Landing craft, rubber (small)
    LCT         Landing craft, tank
    LCT(R)      Landing craft, tank (rocket)
    LCVP        Landing craft, vehicle-personnel
    LST         Landing ship, tank
    M. G.       Maschinengewehr (machine gun)
    mm.         Millimeter
    OCS         Officer Candidate School
    Pak.        Panzer abwehrkanone (antitank gun)
    Pz.         Panzer
    Pz. Kpfw.   Panzerkampfwagen (tank)
    SCR         Signal Corps Radio
    SHAEL       Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force
    Stu. G.     Sturmgeschuetz (self-propelled assault gun)
    Stu. K.     Sturmkanone (self-propelled assault gun)
    U-boat      Submarine
    WAAC        Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps
    WAC         Women’s Army Corps




                              Appendix B

                            Acknowledgments


Acknowledgment is made to the Keystone Press Agency, Ltd., London,
England, for the first photograph in this volume. All other photographs
came from the Department of Defense and were taken from the U. S. Army
files, except for those accredited below to the U. S. Navy, U. S. Air
Force, and U. S. Coast Guard. (At the time these photographs were
taken, the Coast Guard was operating as a part of the Navy.)

   U. S. Navy: pp. 24, 77, 94b, 96, 110b, 122

   U. S. Air Force: pp. 8, 9, 12, 18, 19, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35,
   38, 39, 48, 49, 76, 78–79, 86–87, 94a, 95, 98, 99, 100–101, 104,
   112–13, 116, 118, 126, 129a, 130–31, 140–41, 155, 158–59, 176,
   177, 180–81, 188–89, 202, 203, 218–19, 226–27, 236–37, 266–67,
   280–81, 296–97, 318–19, 330–31, 334–35, 336–37, 339, 341, 358–59

   U. S. Coast Guard: pp. 80, 88a, 92




                  UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II


              The following volumes have been published:


The War Department

    Chief of Staff: Prewar Plans and Preparations
    Washington Command Post: The Operations Division
    Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1941–1942
    Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare: 1943–1944
    Global Logistics and Strategy: 1940–1943
    Global Logistics and Strategy: 1943–1945
    The Army and Economic Mobilization
    The Army and Industrial Manpower


The Army Ground Forces

    The Organization of Ground Combat Troops
    The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops


The Army Service Forces

    The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces


The Western Hemisphere

    The Framework of Hemisphere Defense
    Guarding the United States and Its Outposts


The War in the Pacific

    The Fall of the Philippines
    Guadalcanal: The First Offensive
    Victory in Papua
    CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul
    Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls
    Campaign in the Marianas
    The Approach to the Philippines
    Leyte: The Return to the Philippines
    Triumph in the Philippines
    Okinawa: The Last Battle
    Strategy and Command: The First Two Years


The Mediterranean Theater of Operations

    Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West
    Sicily and the Surrender of Italy
    Salerno to Cassino
    Cassino to the Alps


The European Theater of Operations

    Cross-Channel Attack
    Breakout and Pursuit
    The Lorraine Campaign
    The Siegfried Line Campaign
    The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge
    The Last Offensive
    The Supreme Command
    Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume I
    Logistical Support of the Armies, Volume II


The Middle East Theater

    The Persian Corridor and Aid to Russia


The China-Burma-India Theater

    Stilwell’s Mission to China
    Stilwell’s Command Problems
    Time Runs Out in CBI


The Technical Services

    The Chemical Warfare Service: Organizing for War
    The Chemical Warfare Service: From Laboratory to Field
    The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat
    The Corps of Engineers: Troops and Equipment
    The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Japan
    The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany
    The Corps of Engineers: Military Construction in the United States
    The Medical Department: Hospitalization and Evacuation; Zone of
      Interior
    The Medical Department: Medical Service in the Mediterranean and
      Minor Theaters
    The Ordnance Department: Planning Munitions for War
    The Ordnance Department: Procurement and Supply
    The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront
    The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume I
    The Quartermaster Corps: Organization, Supply, and Services, Volume II
    The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War Against Japan
    The Quartermaster Corps: Operations in the War Against Germany
    The Signal Corps: The Emergency
    The Signal Corps: The Test
    The Signal Corps: The Outcome
    The Transportation Corps: Responsibilities, Organization, and
      Operations
    The Transportation Corps: Movements, Training, and Supply
    The Transportation Corps: Operations Overseas


Special Studies

    Chronology: 1941–1945
    Military Relations Between the United States and Canada: 1939–1945
    Rearming the French
    Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt
    The Women’s Army Corps
    Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors
    Buying Aircraft: Materiel Procurement for the Army Air Forces
    The Employment of Negro Troops
    Manhattan: The U. S. Army and the Atomic Bomb


Pictorial Record

    The War Against Germany and Italy: Mediterranean and Adjacent Areas
    The War Against Germany: Europe and Adjacent Areas
    The War Against Japan




                                 Index


    Aachen, Germany, 217, 218–19

    Aerial bombardment. _See_ Bombardment, aerial.

    Air attacks
      Allied, 8, 24, 26, 33
      briefing for, 39
      German, 34

    Air bases. _See_ Airfields.

    Aircraft, Allied, 35
      bombers, heavy, 8, 13, 19, 26, 32, 33, 59, 202, 399
      bombers, light, 104, 116
      bombers, medium, 76, 203
      burning, 26
      damaged, 399
      fighters, 9, 48, 49, 59, 105, 338, 399
      gliders, 29, 94, 95, 214, 390, 391, 393
      identification of, 76, 95
      liaison planes, 42, 248, 294
      naval, 24
      on fire, 105
      transport planes, 94, 214, 345, 404, 435
      wrecked, 393

    Aircraft, German, 400

    Airfields
      construction of, 18, 105
      France, 391
      Germany, 404

    “Alligators,” 22.
      _See also_ Landing craft.

    Ambulances, 317
      converted jeep, 204

    American Red Cross, 25

    Ammunition
      .30-caliber, 160
      .50-caliber, 338
      240-mm. howitzer shells, 316
      German, 263
      mortar shells, 182, 245, 310

    Ammunition dump, 160

    Amphibian trucks, DUKW’s, 68, 257

    Amphibious landings. _See_ Landing operations.

    Andernach, Germany, 350

    Antiaircraft guns
      40-mm., 60
      90-mm., 61, 102, 243
      German, 343, 366

    Antitank guns
      3-inch, 102
      57-mm., 151, 217
      British, 6, 115
      damaged, 154
      German, 154, 168, 348, 397

    Ardennes Forest, 269, 270, 284

    Argentan, France, 177

    Armored vehicles, 198, 200.
        _See also_ Vehicles.
      German, 350

    Army Post Office, England, 41

    Artificial harbor, OMAHA Beach, 118

    Artillery
      8-inch guns, 192, 206, 371
      8-inch howitzer, 192
      75-mm. howitzer (pack), 292
      105-mm. howitzers, 23, 42, 43, 114, 186, 232, 250, 327, 363
      155-mm. guns, 42, 43, 193, 299
      155-mm. howitzers, 103, 125, 270, 293
      240-mm. howitzer, 186
      German, 366
      mortars. _See_ Mortars.
      observation planes, 42, 248, 294

    Artillery barrage, 364

    Assault boats, 7, 428.
      _See also_ Landing craft.

    Assault guns, German, 215, 397

    Autobahn, 384

    Avranches, France, 156, 158–59

    Azimuth instrument, 353


    Bailey bridges, 193, 369

    Ball-bearing factory, on fire, 31

    Bangalore torpedo, 28

    Barbed wire, 28, 110, 191, 207, 278, 302

    Barrage balloons, 77, 92, 97, 107, 123

    Bastogne, Belgium, 280–81, 308

    “Bazookas,” 53, 185.
      _See also_ Rocket launchers.

    Beaches
      British sector, 76
      OMAHA, 78–79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 106, 118, 119
      UTAH, 86–87, 88, 89, 97

    Belfast, Northern Ireland, 3, 4

    Beurig, Germany, 330–31

    Big Ben, V-E night, 436

    Bingen, Germany, 364

    Bitche, France, 372, 318–19

    Bivouac area, 288

    Bois du Mont du Roc, France, 126

    Bomb, robot, 35

    Bomb damage, 139, 151, 154, 156, 217, 344.
        _See also_ War damage.
      fortifications, 127
      France, 125, 178
      Germany, 339, 340, 354
      railroad bridge, 98

    Bomb strike, Schweinfurt, Germany, 30

    Bombardment. _See also_ Air attacks.
      aerial, 8, 31, 33, 116, 202
      artillery, 333

    Bombers
      heavy, B-17, 8, 13, 19, 32, 33, 59, 202
      heavy, B-24, 8, 26, 32, 399
      light, A-20, 104, 116
      medium, B-26, 76, 203

    Bombs, 1,000-pound, 21

    Boppard, Germany, 382

    Breisach, Germany, 333

    Bremen, Germany, 33

    Bremen harbor, Germany, 421

    Brest, France, 188–89, 207

    Bridges
      Bailey, 193, 369
      damaged, 98, 355, 356, 402
      footbridges, 369, 417
      ponton, construction of, 60
      ponton, heavy, 387
      railroad, 401
      treadway, 161, 208, 240, 340, 357, 382

    British troops, 4

    Broderkons Berg, Germany, 358–59

    Bulldozers, 129, 161.
      _See also_ Tractors.


    Cameras
      moving picture, 349
      still picture, 349

    Camouflage, 103, 125, 314
      8-inch gun, 305
      antiaircraft gun, 61
      armored car, 285
      German, 91, 117, 124
      gun motor carriage, 285
      helmet, 108
      howitzer, 277
      suits, 151
      tanks, 150, 204

    Canals
      Rhône-Rhine, France, 334–35
      Vauban, France, 334–35
      Vire-Taute, France, 112–13
      Widensohlen, France, 334–35

    Carbine M1, 184.
      _See also_ Small arms.

    Carentan, France, 112–13, 114, 115

    Cargo planes. _See_ Transport planes.

    Casualties, 83, 84, 108
      evacuation of, 138, 204, 253
      German, 409

    Causeway, floating, 119
      damaged, 120

    Celebration, V-E Day, 433

    Champs Elysées, 191

    Cherbourg, France, 128, 129, 130–31
      enemy fortifications, 127

    Civilians
      French, 191
      German, 396, 401, 405, 414, 432

    Clothing
      camouflaged, 151, 265, 284
      decontamination suits, 11
      German, 265
      paratroop, 16
      pilot, 12
      repair of, 307
      shoepacs, 283
      winter, 11, 284, 292

    Colmar, France, 332

    Cologne, Germany, 354

    Communications, 40, 166
      equipment, 56
      hand generator GN 45, 85
      repair of, 375, 405
      SCR 284, 85
      SCR 536, 85, 352
      short wave aerial kite, 27
      switchboard BD71, 175
      telephone lines, repair of, 303

    Construction
      airfields, 18, 105
      bridges, 369, 381
      pipeline, 196
      ponton bridge, 60

    Convoy, motor, 155, 170, 308, 317, 357, 394, 424

    Crane, truck-mounted, 161

    Cub plane, 42


    Dachau, Germany, 429

    Danube River, 417

    Debarkation of troops, Northern Ireland, 3

    Depot
      Engineer, 44
      Ordnance, 20, 22, 43

    Distribution point, gasoline, 255

    Domfront, France, 178

    Dreux, France, 168

    Duesseldorf, Germany, 401

    DUKW’s, 68, 97


    Enclosure, prisoner of war, 408

    Evacuation
      of casualties, 138, 204, 361
      of pilots, 96

    Exercise fabius, 66, 67.
      _See also_ Training.


    Falaise, France, 176

    Ferry, Rhino, 122

    Fighter planes
      P-38, 9
      P-47, 9, 59, 338
      P-47, damaged, 399
      P-47, on fire, 105
      P-51, 9, 48, 49
      British, 35
      German, 400

    Fire fighters, British, 34

    First aid. _See_ Medical operations.

    Flak, 8, 202

    Flooded area, 229, 248

    Footbridges, 369, 417

    Fort de Queuleu, France, 226–27

    Fort du Roule, France, 130–31

    Fort Saint Julien, France, 226–27

    Fort Sebastian, France, 318–19

    Fortifications, 216, 347
      dragon’s teeth, 373
      German, 91, 315, 332
      German, damaged, 127

    Foxholes, 142, 228, 328

    Frankfurt, Germany, 384, 385

    French Forces of the Interior, 190

    Fuel tank, 48


    Gas masks, wearing of, 4, 11

    Glider pilots, evacuation of, 96

    Gliders, 29, 94, 95, 214, 390, 391
      British, 29, 94
      wrecked, 94, 393

    Gun crews
      antiaircraft, 102
      naval, 77

    Gun motor carriages, 200, 225, 233, 234, 285, 344, 374

    Guns
      8-inch, 192, 206, 304, 305, 371
      155-mm., 193, 299
      antiaircraft, 90-mm., 102
      antitank, 3-inch, 102
      antitank, British, 115
      German, 91, 124, 221


    Half-tracks, 65, 217, 253, 414
      on fire, 264

    Hand grenades, 6, 142, 274

    Harbors
      artificial, 118, 120
      Antwerp, 256
      Bremen, 421
      Brest, 188–89
      Cherbourg, 130–31, 132, 172
      damaged, 120
      Saint-Malo, 180–81
      Saint-Nazaire, 422

    Headquarters, ETO, London, 45

    Hedgerow cutter, 133

    Hedgerows, 134, 144, 149, 150, 165

    Helmets, 163
      camouflaged, 108
      World War I, 4, 6
      World War II, 16

    Hill,
      Germany, 358–59

    Hospitals
      England, 50
      evacuation, 109

    Howitzers. _See also_ Artillery.
      105-mm., 114, 232, 250, 327, 363
      155-mm., 103, 125, 270, 293

    Howitzer motor carriages, 23, 251, 277, 370

    Huertgen Forest, Germany, 234, 235, 241


    Infantrymen, 128, 129, 144, 152, 162, 163, 165, 179, 182, 187,
        201, 205, 228, 238, 269, 274, 282, 376
      aboard ship, 92
      column of, 81, 89, 97, 167, 216, 249, 312, 372
      German, 197, 263, 264, 265
      in glider, 29
      wounded, 197

    Invasion. _See_ Landing operations.

    Invasion beaches. _See_ Beaches.

    Invasion operations, 96

    Invasion preparations, 70, 75.
      _See also_ Training.


    Jeeps, 29, 244, 326
      with wire cutter, 143

    Juelich, Germany, 336–37


    Kommerscheidt, Germany, 236–37


    Landing craft
      assault boat, 7, 428
      converted to rocket launcher, 63
      LBK, 77
      LBV, 77
      LCI, 64, 92
      LCR, 82
      LCT, 55, 64, 65, 77, 81, 96
      LGVP, 66, 69, 70, 80, 81, 380, 381
      LST, 55, 70, 121
      LST, deck loaded, 67
      LVT, 22

    Landing operations, 76, 78–79, 80, 81, 86–87, 88.
      _See also_ Beaches.

    Liaison plane, 42
      equipped with skis, 294

    Life preservers, 7, 12, 82

    Life raft, 27

    Living conditions, 228, 288, 322, 363

    London, 34, 45

    Lousberg, Germany, 218–19

    Ludendorf Bridge, 355, 356

    Lunéville, France, 221


    Machine guns
      .30-caliber Browning, 11, 134, 179, 217
      .45-caliber, 6
      .50-caliber Browning, 389
      .50-caliber Browning, aircraft, 13
      German, 52

    Magdeburg, Germany, 411, 412

    Mail call, 152

    Main River, Germany, 30, 385

    Maneuvers, 29, 47, 64.
      _See also_ Training.

    Manhay, Belgium, 296–97

    Map making equipment, 36, 37

    Maps
      Central Europe, 378
      Normandy, 72
      Northern France, 146
      Rhineland, 210, 324

    Marshalling area, England, 69

    Masks
      gas, 11
      oxygen, 12

    Medical aid, administering of, 19, 83, 108

    Medical aid men, 19, 83, 108, 138, 197, 204, 253, 309, 360

    Medical operations, 309, 360
      immunization, 252
      surgery, 109

    Mess, 129, 238, 288, 295, 347

    Metz, France, 224, 226–27

    Military police, 171, 357

    Mine detectors, 88, 93, 375

    Mine exploder, 240

    Mine field, German, 93

    Mines
      antipersonnel, 93
      antitank, 279

    Montebourg, France, 125

    Mortars
      60-mm., 6, 53, 183
      81-mm., 6, 65, 182, 310
      chemical, 4.2-inch, 245

    Moselle River, 201, 204, 208, 220, 226–27, 244, 364

    Motor carriages
      gun, 46, 64, 103, 135, 185, 194, 199, 207, 233, 234, 285, 344,
          374, 412
      howitzer, 150, 169, 199, 251, 277, 370

    Mud, 213, 222, 231, 234, 345

    Muenchen-Gladbach, Germany, 341


    Neckar River, 402

    Negro troops, 10, 103, 107

    Neuf Brisach, France, 334–35

    Niederleuken, Germany, 330–31

    Night firing, 316

    Nuernberg, Germany, 416


    Observation posts, 166, 353, 362

    Obstacle, tank, 216, 373

    Officer Candidates School, 11

    OMAHA Beach, 78–79, 118

    Optical equipment, repair of, 14

    Our River, 346

    Oxygen mask, 12

    Oxygen tank, 13


    Pack howitzer, 292.
      _See also_ Artillery.

    Parachute jump suit, 16, 75

    Parachutes, 58

    Parade, Paris, 191

    Paratroopers, 58, 306

    Paris, 190

    Pillbox, German, 332

    Pipeline, gasoline, 132, 196, 254

    Pistol, automatic, .45-caliber, 6

    Plasma, administrating of, 19, 83

    “Priest,” 23

    Prisoners of war
      Allied, 268, 435
      German, 84, 110, 128, 153, 239, 276, 300, 346, 383, 384, 386,
          389, 408, 425, 429

    Propaganda leaflets, German, 152

    Pruem, Germany, 344


    Queen Elizabeth, 25

    Quonset huts, 50


    Railroad
      bridge, 98, 401
      destroyed, 173
      equipment, 44, 54, 172, 173
      French, 173
      yards, 218–19, 405

    Railroads
      Belgium, 256, 258
      damaged, 339
      France, 99, 112–13, 226–27
      Germany, 339
      Recreation, 184

    Red Ball Highway, 170, 171.
      _See also_ Roads.

    Remagen Bridge, Germany, 355, 356

    Repair shop, Ordnance, 14

    Rescue launch, British, 27

    Rescue operations, 82

    Rheine, Germany, 339

    Rhine River, 354, 356, 357, 380, 381, 382, 387

    Rhino ferry, 122

    Rhône-Rhine Canal, 334–35

    Rifles. _See also_ Small arms.
      .30-caliber M1, 6, 7, 29, 144, 162
      .30-caliber M1903, 6
      .30-caliber M1903A3, 29
      .30-caliber M1918A2, 6, 29
      .30-caliber M1919A4, 6
      M1 with rifle grenade, 271
      German, 52

    River crossings, 201, 244, 346, 364, 369, 380, 381, 387, 402, 409,
        427

    Rivers
      France, 98, 140–41, 161, 201, 204, 208, 220, 226–27, 244
      Germany, 30, 330–31, 336–37, 340, 354, 356, 357, 364, 380, 381,
          382, 385, 387, 402, 411, 417
      Luxembourg, 346

    Road signs, 286, 424

    Roads
      Ardennes, 266–67, 271
      Austria, 424, 426, 427
      Belgium, 198, 280–81, 296–97, 312
      France, 78–79, 86–87, 126, 136, 138, 150, 155, 157, 158–59, 167,
          170, 185, 195, 226–27, 229, 247, 320
      Germany, 216, 234, 235, 236–37, 264, 394, 398, 425

    Rocket launcher site, German, 117

    Rocket launchers. _See also_ Small arms.
      2.36-inch, 29, 53, 185, 306
      4.5-inch, 241, 403
      German, 174

    Rocket projector, German, 343

    Roer River, 336–37, 340


    Saale River, 411

    Saare River, 330–31

    Saarrbourg, Germany, 330–31

    Saint-Lô, France, 139, 140–41

    Saint-Malo, France, 179, 180–81

    Saint-Nazaire harbor, France, 422

    Schweinfurt, Germany, 30, 31

    Seatrain, 172

    Seine River, 98

    Serrig, Germany, 362

    Shell fire, German, 90

    Small arms, 6, 29
      carbine, 184
      German, 52
      machine guns, 134, 179, 217, 291
      rifles, 162, 271
      rocket launcher, 2.36-inch, 53
      Thompson submachine gun, 75

    Smoke screens, 68, 242

    Street fighting, 205, 217, 224, 407
      Cherbourg, 128

    Submachine guns, .45-caliber, 29, 75.
      _See also_ Small arms.

    Submarine pens, German, 422

    Submarines, German, 421
      bombing of, 24

    Supply operations, 122, 132, 170, 171, 256, 257, 258, 308, 404
      aerial, 95, 345
      German, 99
      Normandy, 123
      UTAH Beach, 97


    Tank destroyer, 412

    Tanks
      damaged, 136, 137
      French, 157
      German, 136, 137, 268, 301
      light, 47, 133, 150, 247, 289, 314, 367
      medium, 15, 22, 47, 62, 137, 149, 156, 160, 164, 168, 195, 204,
          221, 230, 231, 233, 244, 307, 332, 342, 351, 367, 388, 398,
          403, 414, 419, 423
      on fire, 351
      waterproofed, 62, 388
      with hedgerow cutter, 133, 149
      with rocket launcher, 403
      with track extensions, 230, 231

    Tanks, containers
      fuel, 48
      oxygen, 13
      water, 50

    10 Downing Street, London, 45

    Tents, 50, 109

    Terrain
      Ardennes, 266–67
      Austria, 426, 430, 431
      Belgium, 280–81, 296–97
      England, 35
      flooded, 229
      France, 78–79, 86–87, 95, 98, 100–101, 126, 140–41, 158–59, 176,
          177, 220, 226–27, 318–19, 330–31, 334–35
      Germany, 236–37, 336–37, 358–59, 362, 373, 409

    Thanksgiving Day dinner, 228

    _The Stars and Stripes_, V-E edition, 433

    Tractors
      diesel, 161
      high-speed, 18-ton M4, 192

    Train, German, wrecked, 99

    Training
      England, 6, 23, 28, 29, 42, 46, 53, 58, 60, 65, 66, 68, 69
      Northern Ireland, 5, 17, 52
      Officer Candidate School, 11
      Scotland, 7

    Transport planes, C-47, 94, 345, 404, 435

    Transport ship, British, 25

    Treadway bridges, 208, 240, 340, 357, 382
      construction of, 161

    Trench, 251

    Trévières, France, 100–101

    Troops. _See also_ Infantrymen.
      German, 420
      Russian, 418

    20 Grosvenor Square, London, 45


    UTAH Beach, 86–87, 88


    Vauban Canal, France, 334–35

    V-bomb, German, 400

    Vehicles
      ambulances, 19, 109, 317, 326
      amphibian trucks, 68, 97, 123
      armored car, 156, 157, 198, 200, 285
      bulldozers, 44, 129, 161
      burning, 407
      cargo carrier, 253
      damaged, 395
      French, 190
      German, 115, 195, 420, 426
      gun motor carriages, 46, 103, 135, 185, 200, 207, 225
      half-tracks, 46, 65, 217, 414
      horse-drawn, 420, 426
      howitzer motor carriages, 150, 169, 199
      jeeps, 29, 326
      on fire, 195
      semitrailer, 258, 404
      tank recovery, 65, 216
      tractor, 20, 21, 44, 192
      trailer, 170
      trucks, 18, 121, 123, 170
      weapons carrier, 122

    Vire River, France, 161

    Vire-Taute Canal, France, 112–13


    Waldenburg, Germany, 415

    War damage, 129, 155, 364, 385, 389, 411, 412, 415, 416

    Water tanks, 50

    “Weasel,” 253

    Weather conditions, 5, 228, 229, 249, 250, 253, 255, 266–67, 288,
        295, 320, 326, 430

    Weather forecasting equipment, 38

    Widensohlen Canal, France, 334–35

    Women
      American Red Cross, 25
      Army Auxiliary Corps, 25
      Army Corps, 40
      Army nurse, 51

    Wuerzburg, Germany, 413


    ✋ U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1988 203-040/80010

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Gordon A. Harrison, Cross-Channel Attack, Washington, D. C.,
1951.

[2] See Martin Blumenson, Break-Out and Pursuit.

[3] See H. M. Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, Washington, D. C., 1950; and
Gordon A. Harrison and Forest C. Pogue, Jr., The Rhineland and Central
Germany, now in preparation for the series U. S. ARMY IN WORLD WAR II.


Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected
silently.