The Battle of France - 1944

Battle of France from Time, 1944 - big

tanks as flamethrowers, from ILN 1944/09/02

Battle of France began after Falaise Gap closed

• map (or big) from ILN 1944/08/19

Aug. 15 - Kluge's staff car straffed

• replaced by Model who retreated to the Seine

Aug. 15 - DRAGOON replaced ANVIL

• Alexander Patch's Seventh Army landed at Toulon
• Marseilles became key port
• 57,000 Germans surrender

Aug. 19 - Patton reached the Seine at Mantes

• same time as Model

Aug. 23 - French 2nd Armored Division first to enter Paris

• German Gen. von Choltitz surrendered, left the city and Seine bridges intact

Aug. 25 - Liberation of Paris - DeGaulle arrived

• wanted march through center of Paris
• DeGaulle was the symbol of victory in "The French Campaign 1944" by March of Time

American troops in tank passing the Arc de Triomphe after the liberation of Paris, from Patch-NA

American troops of the 28th Infantry Div. march down the Champs Elysees, Paris, in the "Victory Parade," August 29

General Charles de Gaulle speaks to the people of Cherbourg from the balcony of the City Hall during his visit to the French port city on August 20

C-47 transport plane from LC

Corridors into Germany from Time, 1944/09/11 - big

Aug. 31 - Patton ran out of gas at the Meuse river

• Ike instead gave the gas and C-47s to Monty

Sept. 1 - Eisenhower plan to advance on a broad front

• Monty in north through Belgium to the Ruhr
• Bradley in the center through Moselle corridor
• 8th Army in the south through Belfort Gap

Sept. 3 - British entered Brussels

Sept. 3 - Collins' 7th Corps of the 1st Army took Mons

• broke German lines below Brussels and above the Ardennes to reach Aachen next 6 weeks

Sept. 4 - Monty took Antwerp, but not Scheldt estuary

Lowland Flank from Time, 1944/09 - big

liberation of Brussels, from ILN 1944/09/16

captured Germans in Antwerp - 10 yr old boy and his major, from ILN 1944/09/16

Sep 15-Dec 1944 from USMA

Sept. 5 - Patton began Lorraine offensive

• bloody and slow, heavy rains, lack of supplies
• see War of Attrition

Sept. 17-25 - Monty's Operation MARKET GARDEN to seize Holland bridges and Rhine bridgehead at Arnhem using 82nd and 101st U.S. Airborne now integrated into the Allied First Airborne Army under Lt. Gen. Louis Brereton and his deputy Lt. Gen. Frederick 'Boy' Browning.

• U.S. took Waal and Nijmegen
• but British lost 7500 of 10,000 paratroopers
• "A Bridge Too Far" - Cornelius Ryan

Parachutes open overhead as waves of paratroops land in Holland during operations by the 1st Allied Airborne Army, from Patch-NA

Gen. Urquhart, Brit 1st Airborne from ILN 1944/10/07

Holland flooded by retreating Germans, aerial view from ILN 1944/11/04

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