![]() ![]() The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. For it was here that American and German combat soldiers met in the decisive struggle that broke the back of the Nazi war machine.During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. “Nevertheless, it can be said that the Ardennes campaign epitomized them all. ![]() Eisenhower, in his 1969 book, The Bitter Woods. “The Ardennes campaign of 1944-45 was only one in a series of difficult engagements in the battle for Europe,” wrote John S.D. About 100,000 Germans were killed, wounded or captured. Department of Defense, 1 million-plus Allied troops, including some 500,000 Americans, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, with approximately 19,000 soldiers killed in action, 47,500 wounded and 23,000-plus missing. The war ended less than five months later with Germany’s May 7 surrender. The day after Christmas, units of Patton’s rapidly approaching Third Army finally arrived, broke through the German lines, and rescued the troops.”Ĭlaiming victory of the battle on January 25, 1945, and the Allies headed for Berlin. “This was interpreted by German officers as a more colorful-and negative-response to their demand. Anthony McAuliffe: ‘Nuts!’” the Bloodiest Battle states. “When the Germans sent a message demanding the surrender of the 101st on December 22, they got a one-word response from its commander, Brig. "The first time by identifying Springfield as the capital of Illinois the second by locating the guard between the center and the tackle on a line of scrimmage the third time by naming the then-current spouse of a blonde named Betty Grable." Omar Bradley recalled, according to the Washington Post. "Three times I was ordered to prove my identity," Gen. troops would ask suspected Germans to answer American trivia questions. After brief deliberation American officers found them guilty, and ordered the usual penalty for spies: death by firing squad.” Under the rules of the Hague Convention these Germans were classifiable as spies and subject to an immediate court martial by a military tribunal. “They spoke excellent English and their slang had been tuned up by close association with American prisoners of war in German camps. “The Nazis were carefully groomed for their dangerous mission,” LIFE magazine reported in 1945. ![]() ![]() “But I didn’t really know cold until the Battle of the Bulge.” Nazis Sent in Imposters and Changed Road SignsĪnother Nazi strategy was to attempt to infiltrate the Allied troops. “I was from Buffalo, I thought I knew cold,” baseball Hall of Famer and WWII veteran Warren Spahn said in The Love of Baseball. More than 15,000 “cold injuries”-trench foot, pneumonia, frostbite-were reported that winter. Hitler’s mid-December timing of the attack-one of the bloodiest of the war-was strategic, as freezing rain, thick fog, deep snow drifts and record-breaking low temperatures brutalized the American troops. Even American civilians, who had thought final victory was near were sobered by the Nazi onslaught.” Troops Faced Severe Cold British veterans waited nervously to see how the Americans would react to a full-scale German offensive, and British generals quietly acted to safeguard the Meuse River's crossings. “Police in Paris enforced an all-night curfew. Belgian townspeople put away their Allied flags and brought out their swastikas,” the center writes. “For those who had lived through 1940, the picture was all too familiar. The surprise German attack broke through the front on day one as stories quickly spread of massacred soldiers and civilians, according to the U.S. ![]()
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