Western Front
Learn about this topic in these articles:
D-Day in pictures
- In D-Day in pictures
…of paratroopers descended on the Normandy countryside behind the German defenses. At about 6:30 am some 3,000 Allied landing craft began discharging men onto a stretch of beaches between Cherbourg and Le Havre. The Allied plan was to seize a beachhead within range of fighter coverage from air bases in…
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role in World War II
- In World War II: The war in the west, September 1939–June 1940
During their campaign in Poland, the Germans kept only 23 divisions in the west to guard their frontier against the French, who had nearly five times as many divisions mobilized. The French commander in chief, General Maurice-Gustave Gamelin, proposed an advance…
Read More - In World War II: The Allied invasions of western Europe, June–November 1944
The German Army high command had long been expecting an Allied invasion of northern France but had no means of knowing where precisely the stroke would come: while Rundstedt, commander in chief in the west, thought that the landings would be…
Read More - In World War II: The German collapse, spring 1945
…from Kesselring’s command to the Western Front, and in April the thin German defenses in Italy were broken by an Allied attack. A surrender document that had been signed on April 29 (while Hitler was still alive) finally brought the fighting to a conclusion on May 2.
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