Western Front (World War II)

The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The Italian front is considered a separate but related theatre.^{[nb 11]} The Western Front's 1944–1945 phase was officially deemed the European Theater by the United States, whereas Italy fell under the Mediterranean Theater along with North Africa. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and June 1940 after their defeat in the Low Countries and the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat (supported by a massive strategic air war considered to be an additional front), which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in May 1945 with its invasion.

This article is about the West European theatre. For the 1941–1944 Soviet military formation, see Western Front (Soviet Union). For the 1941–1945 East European theatre, see Eastern Front (World War II).

One was an opportunity taken by US forces when the Germans failed to blow up the at Remagen, one crossing was a hasty assault, and two crossings were planned. Bradley and his subordinates quickly exploited the Remagen crossing made on 7 March and expanded the bridgehead into a full-scale crossing.

Ludendorff bridge

Bradley told General Patton whose had been fighting through the Palatinate, to "take the Rhine on the run".^[41] The Third Army did just that on the night of 22 March, crossing the river with a hasty assault south of Mainz at Oppenheim.

U.S. Third Army

In the North was the name given to the assault crossing of the Rhine at Rees and Wesel by the British 21st Army Group on the night of 23 March. It included the largest airborne operation in history, which was codenamed Operation Varsity. At the point the British crossed the river, it is twice as wide, with a far higher volume of water, as the points where the Americans crossed and Montgomery decided it could only be crossed with a carefully planned operation.

Operation Plunder

In the Allied 6th Army Group area, the US Seventh Army assaulted across the Rhine in the area between and Worms on 26 March.^[42] A fifth crossing on a much smaller scale was later achieved by the French First Army at Speyer.^[43]

Mannheim

(1962). "Pétain : sa carrière, son procès" [Pétain: his career, his trial]. Grands dossiers de l'histoire contemporaine [Major issues in contemporary history] (in French). Paris: Librairie Académique Perrin. OCLC 1356008.

Aron, Robert

Szélinger, Balázs; Tóth, Marcell (2010). "Magyar katonák idegen frontokon" [Hungarian soldiers on foreign fronts]. In Duzs, Mária (ed.). Küzdelem Magyarországért: Harcok hazai földön (in Hungarian). Kisújszállás: Pannon-Literatúra Kft. p. 94. 978-963-251-185-6.

ISBN

Clarke, Jeffrey J.; Smith, Robert Ross (1993). Riviera to the Rhine. United States Army in World War II., European theater of operations. Washington D.C.: Center of Military History. 978-0-16-025966-1. CMH Pub. 7–10.

ISBN

Ellis, John (1993). The World War II Databook: The Essential Facts and Figures for all the combatants. BCA. 978-1-85410-254-6.

ISBN

(1995). Blitzkrieg-Legende: Der Westfeldzug 1940, Operationen des Zweiten Weltkrieges [The Blitzkrieg Myth: The Western Campaign in 1940, Operations of the Second World War] (in German). München: R. Oldenbourg. ISBN 3-486-56124-3.

Frieser, Karl-Heinz

Gootzen, Har and Connor, Kevin (2006). "Battle for the Roer Triangle" 978-90-90-21455-9.See [1]

ISBN

Hastings, Max. (2004). Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 0-375-41433-9.

ISBN

Holland, James. Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France (2019) 720pp

Hooton, E. R. (2007). Luftwaffe at War; Blitzkrieg in the West. London: Chevron/Ian Allan. 978-1-85780-272-6.

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Hooton, E.R. (2010). The Luftwaffe: A Study in Air Power, 1933–1945. London: Classic Publications. 978-1-906537-18-0.

ISBN

MacDonald, Charles B. (1993) [1973]. The Last Offensive. United States Army in World War II., European theater of operations (Special commemorative ed.). Washington D.C.: Center of Military History. 41111259. CMH pub. 7-9-1.

OCLC

Matloff, Maurice. Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944 (1959).

online

; Millett, Allan R. (2000). A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War. Cambridge, Mass. & London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00163-X.

Murray, Williamson

Seaton, Albert (1971). The Russo-German War. New York: Praeger Publishers.

Shepperd, Alan (1990). France, 1940: Blitzkrieg in the West. Oxford: Osprey. 978-0-85045-958-6.

ISBN

Weigley, Russell F. (1981). Eisenhower's Lieutenants. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 0-253-13333-5.

ISBN

Willis, Frank Roy (1962). The French in Germany, 1945–1949. Stanford: Stanford University Press..

Zaloga, Steve; Dennis, Peter (2006). Remagen 1945: Endgame against the Third Reich. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. 1-84603-249-0..

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Zaloga, Steve (2015). Armored Champion: The Top Tanks of World War II. Stackpole. 978-0811714372.

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