Opening of a second front in Western Europe. The problem of opening a second front

2. Opening of the Second Front

As stated earlier, the Western Allies at the Tehran Conference of 1943 committed to opening a Second Front in May 1944. During this period, the Red Army was already decisively advancing on the Eastern Front and was rapidly approaching its borders. The political situation in the world began to develop in favor of the Soviet Union. This prompted the Anglo-American command to open a Second Front on June 6, 1944, with the landing of Anglo-American troops in Normandy - the Normandy landing operation, codenamed Overlord.

The overall leadership of the Allied military operations in Europe was entrusted to the commander of the expeditionary forces, General D. Eisenhower. At the head of the English group of troops was Field Marshal B. Montgomery.

In terms of scale and number of forces and equipment involved, it was the largest landing operation of the Second World War. The Allied landing on the coast was successful and, having created a bridgehead south of Cannes, at the end of July the Allied forces began a general offensive in Northern France.

The preparation of American-British forces for the landing in Northern France began almost at the end of 1943, after the Tehran Conference and was characterized by the achievement of a surprise landing of a large group of troops on an unequipped coast, ensuring close interaction between ground forces, air force and naval forces during the landing and in during the struggle for the bridgehead, as well as the transfer in a short time through the strait zone of a large number of troops and materiel.

The operation was extremely secret. In the spring of 1944, for security reasons, transport links with Ireland were even temporarily stopped. All military personnel who received orders regarding a future operation were transferred to camps at the embarkation bases, where they were isolated and prohibited from leaving the base.

In addition, the operation was preceded by a major operation to misinform the enemy about the time and place of the invasion of Allied troops in 1944 in Normandy.

The plan of action for the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Operation Overlord was to land on the Normandy coast, seize a bridgehead and then, having accumulated the necessary forces and material resources, launch an offensive in an easterly direction to occupy the territory of North-Eastern France.

This plan gave great chances of achieving surprise, since the Nazi leadership believed that landing large forces in Normandy was impossible. German defenses here were much weaker than in the Pas-de-Calais Strait area. At the same time, the plan adopted by the Allies also took into account negative aspects. The English Channel had a considerable width - up to 180 km; the landing force had to land, as a rule, on an unequipped shore; the distance from here to strategic objects on German territory is much greater than from Pas-de-Calais, and on the way to the German borders it was necessary to overcome such a serious water barrier as the Seine River.

To land in Northern France and conduct further offensive operations, the Allies concentrated a large group of troops in the British Isles - 39 divisions, 12 separate brigades and 10 commandos and rangers. Allied forces were fully equipped and reinforced. The American infantry division consisted of 14.2-16.7 thousand people, the British - 19-21 thousand and the Canadian - 14.8-18.9 thousand people. Falin V.M. Second front. Anti-Hitler coalition: conflict of interests / V.M. Falin. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2000. - 574 p. P. 412.

One of the most important factors favoring the Allied landing was the active actions of French patriots. Members of the Resistance movement sabotaged the defensive measures of the Nazis, committed various acts of sabotage, primarily disrupting the transport system of the invaders.

The coast of Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands was defended by the troops of the German Army Group B under the command of Field Marshal Evin Rommel, consisting of 528 thousand people, two thousand tanks, 6.7 thousand guns and mortars, supported by aviation consisting of 160 aircraft. The Allied expeditionary force under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower consisted of over 2.8 million people, about 10.9 thousand combat and 2.3 thousand transport aircraft, about 7 thousand ships and vessels. These troops outnumbered the opposing group of German troops in ground forces and tanks by three times, artillery by 2.2 times, aircraft by more than 60 times, and warships by 2.1 times. Orlov A.S. Behind the scenes of the Second Front / A.S. Orlov. - M.: Veche, 2011. -76 p. P. 14.

The plan for the Normandy landing operation envisaged landing sea and airborne assault forces on the coast of the Bay of Sensk and seizing a bridgehead 15-20 kilometers deep, and then, having accumulated the necessary forces and material resources, on the 20th day of the operation, launch an offensive in an eastern direction with the aim of occupying the territory of the North. Eastern France, and reach the line of Avranches, Donfront, Falaise.

Since the end of April 1944, Allied aviation carried out systematic raids on important enemy targets in France and during May-June disabled a large number of defensive structures, control posts, airfields, railway stations and bridges. During this period, strategic aviation carried out massive attacks on military-industrial facilities in Germany, which sharply reduced the combat effectiveness of German troops.

At 6:30 a.m. on June 6, following massive air strikes and naval artillery fire, the Allied forces began landing on the Norman coast.

Simultaneously with the transition of the amphibious assault forces, allied aviation attacked artillery, resistance centers, control posts, as well as concentration areas and enemy rear areas. At night, two American airborne divisions were landed northwest of Carentan and one British airborne division northeast of Caen, which provided significant assistance to the amphibious assault in landing and capturing bridgeheads.

During the operation, the main forces of five infantry and three airborne divisions, consisting of over 156 thousand people, 900 tanks and armored vehicles, and 600 guns, landed on the Normandy coast.

By the end of the day, the Allied forces had captured five bridgeheads ranging in depth from two to nine kilometers. The German troops defending it, having suffered significant losses from aviation and naval artillery fire, offered little resistance. The passage of the landing troops across the English Channel in stormy weather was unexpected for the German command, which reacted very slowly to the landing of the Allied troops and did not bring up operational reserves from the depths to disrupt it, and only when they approached the shore did they begin to put their troops on combat readiness.

Having concentrated up to 12 divisions on the captured bridgeheads in three days, the allied forces resumed the offensive on June 9 to create a single bridgehead. By the end of June 12, they occupied the coast with a length of 80 kilometers along the front and 13-18 kilometers in depth and increased the grouping of troops to 16 divisions and several armored units. The deployment of Operation Overlord forces on June 6, 1944 is shown in the diagram in the Appendix.

By this time, the German command had pulled up three tank and motorized divisions to the bridgehead, bringing the grouping of its troops in Normandy to 12 divisions, and attempted to cut through the grouping of Allied forces between the Orne and Vire rivers. However, without proper air cover, the German divisions suffered heavy losses and lost their combat effectiveness.

On June 12, formations of the American First Army began an offensive from the area west of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in a westerly direction and on June 17 reached the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, captured Carteret, June 27 - Cherbourg, and on July 1 completely cleared the peninsula of fascist troops.

By June 30, the Allied bridgehead reached 100 kilometers along the front and 20-40 kilometers in depth with the Anglo-American troops located on it; 23 airfields were equipped for basing tactical aviation. They were opposed by 18 German divisions, which had suffered heavy losses in previous battles. Constant attacks by Allied aircraft and French partisans on their communications limited the ability of the German command to transfer troops from other areas of France.

During July, American troops, continuing to expand the bridgehead, advanced 10-15 kilometers southward and occupied the city of Saint-Lo. The British focused their main efforts on capturing the city of Caen, which their troops captured on July 21. By the end of July 24, the Allies reached the Lesse line south of Saint-Lo, Caumont, and Caen, creating a bridgehead of about 100 kilometers along the front and up to 50 kilometers in depth. The size of the bridgehead was approximately 2 times smaller than that provided for in the operation plan. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People (1939-1945) / Ed. I.N. Churkina. -Ulyanovsk: Ulyanovsk State Technical University, 2009. - 64 p. P. 50 As a result of the operation, the allied expeditionary forces, having absolute supremacy in the air and at sea, captured a strategic bridgehead and concentrated a large number of forces and resources on it for a subsequent offensive in Northwestern France.

In July-August 1944, during the Falaise operation, the allied forces broke through the defenses of the fascist German troops and, having a significant superiority in forces and means, within a month, with the active support of French partisans, liberated all of Northwestern France and Paris. On August 15, 1944, American-French troops landed in Southern France, and by September 10 they liberated Southern and Southwestern France.

The Battle of Normandy lasted over two months and involved the establishment, retention and expansion of coastal beachheads by Allied forces. It ended with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Falaise Pocket at the end of August 1944. With the invasion of Normandy by our country's Western allies and their further advance to the east, Germany found itself in the grip of two fronts. The collapse of the Third Reich was a foregone conclusion. The losses of the Nazi troops amounted to 113 thousand people killed, wounded and prisoners, 2117 tanks and assault guns, seven submarines, 57 surface ships and combat boats, 913 aircraft. Allied forces lost 122 thousand people, 2395 tanks, 65 surface ships and vessels, 1508 aircraft. About 800 ships during the landing during the storm were thrown ashore and damaged. Military Encyclopedia / Ed. S.B. Ivanova. - M.: Voenizdat, 2004. V. 8 vol. - 5000 p.

Taking advantage of the enormous superiority in forces and means, the allied forces carried out a number of successful operations in 1945 and reached the river by the beginning of May. Elbe and to the western regions of Austria and Czechoslovakia, where they met with Soviet troops. The liberation of Italy was also completed.

Thus, the second half of 1944 was characterized by the further strengthening of military cooperation between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and the expansion of strategic interaction between the Soviet armed forces and Anglo-American troops in Europe. The main feature of 1944 was the opening of the Second Front. The American-British command carried out a major landing operation in Normandy. By the end of 1944, fascist troops were completely expelled from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of Italy, and from many areas of Holland. The total area of the territory liberated by the Allies was 600 thousand square meters. km with a population of about 76 million people.

The landing of the Allied forces in Western Europe undoubtedly contributed to the acceleration of the final defeat of Nazi Germany, which was now forced to fight on two fronts. However, it must be said that the opening of the Second Front was undertaken at a time when, through the heroic efforts and enormous sacrifices of the Soviet people and its Armed Forces, the Hitlerite Reich had already suffered severe defeats, as a result of which the fascist bloc in Europe began to fall apart.

During the Great Patriotic War, 1944 went down in history as the year of decisive victories of the Soviet army. The Armed Forces of the USSR carried out outstanding offensive operations, the liberation of Soviet land was completed, military operations were transferred to enemy territory (to Europe). The defeat of Germany was no longer in doubt. Vilkotsky V.B. The second front - its significance in the Great Patriotic War / V.B. Vilkotsky // Samizdat. - 2011. - [Electronic resource] Access mode: http://samlib.ru/w/wilxkockij_w_b/wtorojfront-egoznacheniewwelikoj otechestwennojwojne.shtml

fascism front war second

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To the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy (Operation Overlord)

The solemn celebration of the 70th anniversary of the start of Operation Overlord corresponds to the ideas embedded in the public consciousness of the West that only after June 6, 1944, a turning point occurred in the Second World War, and the liberation of Europe from Hitlerism began. Admission to these celebrations became evidence of a positive or negative assessment of a particular country, regardless of its historical role in the victory over Nazi Germany and its allies.

Therefore, a vicious campaign was launched in the West against the invitation of the president of our country, who made a decisive contribution to the victory. But Poroshenko, who had not yet been sworn in, was unconditionally invited to the celebrations, whose election victory was made possible, in particular, thanks to the rampant neo-Nazi forces in Ukraine.

Why was the front in Western Europe considered “second”?

No similar celebrations with the invitation of heads of government and member states of the anti-Hitler coalition have ever been held on the occasion of the anniversaries of the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad and the Kursk Bulge, which really became a turning point during the Second World War. No wonder. Western media are usually silent about such dates. In school textbooks in Western countries it is almost impossible to find references to these battles, as well as to the military operations of the Red Army in general. The front, which was opened by the allies of the USSR in Normandy and then called the “second” throughout the world, is now, thanks to many years of efforts to process the public consciousness, portrayed as decisive in the battles of 70 years ago.

The concept of a “second front” was first used by Stalin in his message to Churchill on September 3, 1941, in which he returned to his earlier proposal to open “a front against Hitler in the West (Northern France) and in the North (Arctic).” Pointing out that the Soviet Union found itself “facing a mortal threat,” Stalin wrote: “There is only one way out of this situation: to create a second front somewhere in the Balkans or in France this year.”

This concept was constantly used by Churchill, starting with his response to Stalin on September 6, 1941. And soon the words “second front” became commonly used, because the first, or main front, was considered the Soviet-German one. The correctness of such assessments, which were formed during the Second World War, is evidenced by the data provided by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences G.A. Kumanev. He wrote: “Of the 1418 days and nights of the existence of the Soviet-German front, active operations lasted here for 1320 days, while on the Western European front - 293.” Kumanev noted that the length of the Soviet-German front ranged from 3,000 to 6,200 km, while the length of the Western front was 800 km.

"Of the total number of casualties suffered by the Nazi army in World War II, more than 73% occurred on the Eastern Front." Kumanev also pointed out that on the Soviet-German front, Germany and its allies lost over 75% of their aviation, 74% of their artillery, 75% of their tanks and assault guns.

The Myth of the Insurmountable Atlantic Wall

It should also be taken into account that during the three years of the war, the “second front” was an abstract concept that did not reflect reality. Our country's Western allies were responsible for this state of affairs. Rejecting Stalin's proposals to open a second front, Churchill invariably referred to the insurmountability of the German defense along the English Channel coast. In the fall of 1941, he wrote: “In France alone, the Germans have forty divisions, and the entire coastline has been fortified for more than a year with purely German zeal and is bristling with guns and barbed wire.” Churchill argued that the implementation of a British landing would be in the hands of Hitler and would cause damage not only to England, but also to the USSR. He wrote: “To launch a landing in large forces would mean suffering a bloody defeat, and small raids would only lead to failure and would cause much more harm than good to both of us.”

True, whenever the Allies discovered that the Red Army could enter Western Europe without them, they stopped talking about the difficulties of landing across the English Channel. This happened after the start of the Red Army's counteroffensive during the Battle of Moscow, and then after the Battle of Stalingrad. However, when the Germans went on the offensive, the Allies again remembered that a landing across the English Channel could be a disaster for the Allies and even for the Red Army. Therefore, they retracted their obligations in Churchill’s message to Stalin on July 18, 1942, that is, at the height of the Nazi offensive that began three weeks ago, and then in Roosevelt’s message, which Stalin received on June 4, 1943, after abandoning the Red Army Kharkov and Belgorod and the Germans began preparing for Operation Citadel. It was only after November 1943, when the Red Army continued its offensive along the entire Soviet-German front, that the Allies did not renounce their commitments that they had made at the Big Three Conference. Then in Tehran they informed Stalin about the preparation of a landing operation in Northern France, called “Overlord”.

It would seem that in the two years that have passed since the Allies announced to the whole world their intention to open a second front, the Germans could actually make their defenses along the English Channel impregnable. However, this was hampered by the demands of the Soviet-German front. German Lieutenant General B. Zimmermann wrote after the war: “Despite the fact that the High Command did everything possible to strengthen the West with troops and weapons, all the measures taken in 1943 were only a drop in the ocean, since the East urgently demanded new forces ... The Germans therefore failed to create operational reserves in the West! The construction of the Atlantic Wall was still far from completion... If the Atlantic Wall had been built with the expectation of maneuverable defense, then perhaps it would have acquired decisive importance, but this is not the case. did not happen, and therefore the rampart only required “garrisons”, which in essence were completely helpless here.”

Despite the fact that German intelligence had comprehensive information about the imminent Allied invasion, the military leadership of the Reich continued to keep its main forces on the Soviet-German front.

By June 1944, 165 of the most combat-ready divisions were located there. The 59 less combat-ready Wehrmacht divisions were scattered, according to general and historian Kurt Tippelskirch, along the entire coast “from Antwerp to the Bay of Biscay.” According to his estimate, these divisions had no more than "50% of the staff strength." American General Omar Bradley recalled that the German divisions “were extremely heterogeneous. Seventeen divisions were field divisions and intended for counterattacks. However, most of them had long been left without transport, except for the most necessary. Therefore, they did not have the mobility required in maneuver warfare. Twenty The four coastal defense divisions were also extremely heterogeneous in composition and had even less mobility due to lack of transport. The remaining divisions were training units, staffed mainly by recruits."

Relying on the power of Anglo-American military technology

In preparation for Operation Overlord, the Allies used the enormous potential of the US and British military industries. Thanks to this, the Allies had an undeniable superiority over the Germans in the air force. At the beginning of the invasion, Tippelskirch wrote, “the Allies had at their disposal 5,049 fighters, 1,467 heavy bombers, 1,645 medium and light bombers, including torpedo bombers, 2,316 transport aircraft and 2,591 gliders. At the same time, only 500 German aircraft were concentrated on French airfields , of which only 90 bombers and 70 fighters were in full combat readiness."

This advantage was strengthened by the targeted actions of Anglo-American aviation. In January 1944, Allied aviation destroyed 1311 German aircraft, in February - 2121, in March - 2115. English historian Max Hastings wrote: “However, what was more catastrophic for the Luftwaffe was not the loss of aircraft, but the loss of experienced pilots, which grew much faster than replacement them... By June, the Germans no longer had enough pilots or aircraft to provide more than symbolic resistance to the Allied invasion of France."

The Allies also took care in advance of the destruction of fuel for German aviation. In May 1944, they launched raids on synthetic fuel plants.

As a result, the Luftwaffe's supply of aviation alcohol fell from 180 thousand tons in April to 50 thousand tons in June and to 10 thousand in August.

B. Zimmerman pointed out: “The superiority of the Western Allies in aviation turned in the spring of 1944 into their complete dominance in the air. The time came when Anglo-American aviation began to destroy not only military facilities, but also industrial enterprises. All the most important railway junctions; the entire transport system of the western regions fell into unimaginable chaos. Communication could now be maintained only with the help of various tricks and temporary measures. The outer ring of the Paris railway junction was subjected to such air attacks that sometimes it was completely out of order for several days... Actions. enemy fighter-bombers penetrating far into the interior of the country excluded any possibility of movement on roads during the day and caused heavy losses among troops and civilians."

As the German Admiral Marshall noted, “on the day of landing, the Western Allies took up to 6,700 aircraft into the air, which were opposed by only 319 German aircraft.”

Hastings believed that "the American victory in the air battle over Germany was achieved many weeks before the first Allied soldier set foot on the French shore."

A huge advantage was achieved by the allies at sea.

Marshall wrote: “Before the landing and during it, 317 enemy minesweepers cleared almost all German minefields. Under the cover of light ships and with the support of powerful fleet formations, which included 6 battleships, 23 cruisers and 104 destroyers, enemy landing ships approached the coast of Normandy, having previously destroyed the weak guard forces of the Germans."

Over three years, 4,600 landing craft were built in Britain. After the landing, the British and Americans began, according to Marshall, to build “artificial ports, using for this purpose 60 specially equipped merchant ships, 146 giant 6000-ton floating caissons and up to 100 floating breakwaters and piers. All this was lowered to the bottom not far from the shore and turned into an artificial barrier 8 km long."

The leaders of the operation spent a long time choosing the most suitable conditions for the landing, taking into account the state of the sea, moonlight and many other circumstances. It seemed that everything was prepared for a brilliant victory. The predominance in military equipment and material support, constant months-long training, during which the soldiers were familiarized with the conditions of the landing, convinced many of them that victory over the German troops would be quick and crushing.

Private Lindley Higgins recalled that before the invasion, “we really believed that at any moment the whole Reich was about to collapse. We believed that as soon as we landed on the other side, all the Krauts would raise their hands.”

The generals also shared confidence in an imminent victory. They also believed that this victory would lead to a new triumph for the United States and Great Britain. As O. Bradley recalled, in March 1944, General George Patton, supporting the proposal to create Anglo-American clubs, said: “The idea underlying the organization of such clubs could not be more timely, for, undoubtedly, we are destined to rule the whole world.” . Patton's words were widely publicized.

D-Day

The leadership of the expeditionary force appointed "D-Day" -

The start date of the operation is June 5. D. Eisenhower recalled: “The whole of Southern England was filled with troops awaiting the last command. Around there were piles of military materials and a mass of military equipment, prepared for transportation across the English Channel... All this powerful force was tense, like a compressed spring, ready to the right moment to rush across the English Channel to carry out the greatest landing operation in history." However, "as the prospects for decent weather became worse and worse, tensions grew among the command staff."

On the morning of June 5, as Eisenhower recalled, “our little camp was shaken by gusts of wind that reached almost hurricane force, and the rain seemed to be falling like a continuous wall.” It was impossible to even think about starting the operation. However, meteorologists promised: "By the following morning there will be a hitherto completely unforeseen period of relatively good weather lasting about thirty-six hours." Eisenhower recalled: “The possible consequences of a further delay justified the great risk and I quickly announced the decision to proceed with the landing on June 6... None of those present expressed their disagreement, on the contrary, a certain enlightenment appeared on their faces, and everyone, without further ado, headed to the command post , to immediately radio his troops with a decision that will set them in motion."

Describing the first hours after the start of Operation Overlord on the morning of June 6, 1944, Kurt Tippelskirch wrote: “At dawn, aircraft and ships bombarded the northern coast of Normandy from the Ory River to the Bay of Grand Vey and beyond with a hail of bombs and shells. They suppressed the German batteries , destroyed defensive structures, swept away wire barriers, destroyed minefields and damaged mine communication lines. Under the cover of this hellish fire, landing ships approached the shore."

However, contrary to the forecast, the weather remained bad. Tippelskirch wrote: “The storm force of the north-west raised the tide level higher than expected, the waves began to overwhelm the barriers near the shore. The raging sea threw small landing craft like shells, quite a few of them were thrown onto the reefs or capsized. Only in two points was it possible to lower amphibious tanks, with the support of which the infantry had to go to land, could not be completely removed during the storm, so they caused significant losses. The American, Canadian and British infantrymen, exhausted by seasickness, had difficulty getting out. To the shore".

Tippelskirch admitted that “eight regiments, fully staffed in wartime and concentrated at five landing points, went on the offensive against one and a half times weaker German divisions stretched along the entire coast of Normandy, of which only part could enter the battle in the areas directly attacked points." And yet, despite the clear predominance of Anglo-American forces, the Germans managed to organize counterattacks. Thanks to this, as Tippelskirch noted, “the Americans in their landing areas throughout the day did not go beyond the captured narrow bridgeheads. It was especially difficult for the two regiments advancing in the Vierville area: they came across the 352nd division here... The advancing Americans suffered heavy losses, and at times it even seemed that they would not be able to hold on."

However, in his memoirs, Dwyatt Eisenhower stated: “The landing was quite successful.” He only vaguely mentioned the bad weather on the day of the invasion and the “exceptionally fierce battle” that took place on one sector of the front.

Although the combat missions were generally completed, many soldiers realized for the first time how great the difference was between those who planned the operation and those who carried it out. Their thoughts were reflected by the writer Irwin Shaw in his novel “The Young Lions.”

“The people on the scene,” wrote I. Shaw, “were not consulted about the duration of air preparation. They were not briefed by weather forecasters about the rise or fall of tides in June and the possible likelihood of storms. They did not sit in meetings at which it was discussed how many divisions could be lost to reach the desired milestone by 16.00... They see only helmets, vomit, green water, geysers from explosions, clouds of smoke, crashing planes, blood plasma, underwater obstacles, guns, pale, meaningless faces, a disorderly crowd of drowning people, who run and fall, and all this has nothing to do with what they have been taught since they left their studies and their wives to put on the military uniform of their country... When a person on the scene is wounded or wounded neighbor, when a sailor on the bridge shouts in a high-pitched girlish voice: “Mom!”, because he has nothing below the waist, then the person on the scene thinks that he is in a terrible mess and he cannot imagine that 80 miles away from him there is a person who foresaw this trouble, prepared it and can now report... that everything is going according to plan.”

Informing Stalin on June 7 about the progress of the operation, Churchill wrote: “We crossed with small losses. We expected to lose about 10 thousand people. We hope to have the better part of a quarter of a million people on shore this evening, including a significant number of armored forces landed ashore from special vessels or those that reached the shore under their own power."

Secondary front?

For almost 50 days (from June 6 to July 24), the Allies continued to build up their forces on the French coast, making only partial progress. During this time, 2,876,439 US, British and Canadian troops and a huge amount of military equipment were landed in France. On July 25, an offensive began deep into the European continent.

On August 24, Anglo-American troops entered Paris, and Ernest Hemingway, who accompanied the American troops as a war correspondent, described the excitement he felt when he saw the “grey and as always beautiful city” through his binoculars.

American General Omar Bradley wrote: “By September 1, a pitiful handful of demoralized enemy soldiers remained on the Western Front... We marched victoriously along the roads of Europe, full of optimism and bright hopes... The enemy’s defeat east of Paris was so crushing that our troops rushing rapidly forward on 2.5-ton trucks, they began to consider such a rapid advance as a harbinger of an imminent transfer to the Sino-Burmese-Indian theater of operations. This feeling of optimism even gripped the headquarters, whose officers tirelessly took into account the vehicles and talked about the possibility of getting home. for Christmas."

However, as Bradley admitted, “September 1944 is marked on our calendars as the month of great bankruptcy... Our push to the Rhine was unsuccessful, and with it our cherished dream of a speedy surrender to Germany dissipated.”

Why did the Anglo-American troops, which were significantly superior to the German ones in terms of the degree and quality of armament, “get stuck,” in Bradley’s words, “in the steel teeth of the Siegfried Line”? This was largely explained by the “human factor,” primarily by the low military and psychological preparation for combat operations of the American soldiers and officers who made up the majority of the expeditionary force.

Hastings wrote: “Some American units were dangerously unprepared; they were led by commanders insufficiently competent to perform the task that had to be solved... From the first to the last day of the war, the American army could never be mistaken for anything other than what it was in fact - civilians in military uniform... Where in the German army officers made up only 2.86% of the personnel, in the American army there were 7% of them, and many of them had never been even close to the front."

Hastings noted that, once in the armed forces, everyone who could afford it tried to get a job in those branches of the military that were not associated with actions on the battlefield. He wrote: “During the Second World War, young Englishmen from privileged backgrounds still gravitated to infantry and tank regiments, while their American counterparts preferred more prestigious assignments in the air force, the Office of Strategic Services, administrative positions in the army or diplomatic department.

Serving as an officer in combat units at the front never became fashionable among young Americans...

The army suffered many losses due to poor use of weapons and, oddly enough, insufficient armament of the soldiers. Hastings noted: “The amount of small arms ammunition in a German infantry company was more than twice that of an American infantry company: 56,000 rounds and 21,000.” Only after the war did it become clear that they did not want to overload the American soldier with ammunition at the expense of the food he was carrying in his duffel bag.

Having half as much ammunition as the Germans, American soldiers received much larger food rations than the Germans. Max Hastings wrote: "The daily ration of each American soldier in Normandy was six and a half pounds, compared with just over three pounds for the German soldier." At the same time, the Americans were determined to have “one ounce of sweets, two ounces of biscuits and one packet of chewing gum for each person.” As a result, American soldiers found it difficult to pass with their tightly packed duffel bags where the distance between the walls was small and they scolded the English carriages for having too narrow doors.

And yet, despite their concern for the food supply, Americans, as in all the wars in which they had participated since the Revolutionary War, did not tolerate the conditions of an uncomfortable, military life and were often sick.

The Germans' marksmanship and disease caused significant damage to the American army. According to Tippelskirch, “the American infantry continuously suffered significant losses, in addition, many were out of action due to illness. The drain of manpower gradually took on such proportions that the command, in order to increase the combat strength of its divisions, had to ... replace men on a massive scale, if possible.” personnel at headquarters, except for military personnel, by women, and also to remove excess service personnel from Air Force units."

Despite the fact that the Allied forces on the Western Front significantly exceeded the German ones (in terms of personnel the ratio was 2: 1, in armor - 4: 1, in aviation - 6: 1), the German army launched an offensive on the Belgian plateau on December 16, 1944 Ardennes. Explaining the motives for German actions, the English historian Chester Wilmont argued: “The German offensive in the Ardennes was military in nature and was Hitler’s response to the failure of the Allies’ attempts to use their capabilities in the fall. But it also had a political goal, since Hitler sought to split the Grand Alliance, force allies to sign a compromise peace and not let the Russians into Germany."

Charles Wilmont called this offensive the “Pearl Harbor of the war in Europe.” The Allied defenses were broken and American units in Bastogne were surrounded.

A large number of American aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Many prisoners were captured, among whom was the future American writer Kurt Vonnegut. On January 1, 1945, the Germans went on the offensive in Alsace.

Then came Churchill’s famous appeal to Stalin for help in the form of military action on the Soviet-German front. For the sake of the Western allies, it was decided to accelerate the offensive of the Red Army in January 1945. The Germans again transferred the vast majority of their forces to the East. However, despite the massive surrender of the Germans to the Allies and secret negotiations with Himmler about surrender to the Western powers, the Anglo-American troops were clearly lagging behind the Soviet troops in their advance towards the center of the Reich.

that "the Russian armies will undoubtedly capture the whole of Austria, and will enter Vienna. If they also capture Berlin, will they not have an overly exaggerated idea that they have made an overwhelming contribution to our common victory, and may this lead to them to a state of mind that will cause serious and very significant difficulties in the future. Therefore, I believe that from a political point of view we should move as far east as possible in Germany and if Berlin is within reach, we will undoubtedly must take it."

And although in his desire to stop the Red Army, Churchill was even ready to resort to the help of German soldiers, giving the order not to disarm them, but to keep them on standby (Operation “Unthinkable”), these efforts were made too late and led to nothing. General Patton's dream that an Allied triumph would demonstrate the right of the United States and Great Britain to rule the world proved illusory. Although the Western Allies were able to liberate France and Belgium and then occupy the western part of Germany, the contribution of the second front to the defeat of Hitlerism was obviously less significant than the contribution of the Red Army.

Special for the Centenary

1. The problem of opening a Second Front

The problem of opening a Second Front existed from the moment Nazi Germany attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941, and remained one of the most acute in relations between the main participants in the anti-Hitler coalition, members of the “Big Three” - the USSR, the USA and England.

The opening of the Second Front was preceded by a long and complex history. Let's try to briefly trace: why did the Soviet Union persistently strive for its opening? Why did the Second Front become a reality only in the fifth year of the war?

The Soviet leadership raised the question of the early opening of a Second Front in Western Europe to the United States and Great Britain from the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Thus, already in June 1941, British Prime Minister W. Churchill and US President F. D. Roosevelt promised I. Stalin all support in the fight against their common enemy. The leaders of the allied states stated that they were ready to provide assistance to the USSR in everything.

July 18, 1941 I.V. Stalin, in his personal message to W. Churchill, raised the question of opening a Second Front in Europe in Northern France. Its opening was necessary to divert significant forces of Nazi troops from the main Soviet-German front, and would make it possible to quickly defeat the forces of Nazi Germany, as well as reduce losses of the Red Army and the civilian population.

At the same time, each government understood the landing in its own way: the Soviet government believed that the war on the Eastern Front, where Hitler’s leadership concentrated the bulk of its armed forces, created favorable opportunities for intensifying the actions of the Western allies directly on the European continent.

The British government, concerned about its safety, considered the landing as an unjustified waste of manpower and weapons. As Prime Minister W. Churchill wrote in his memoirs about the war: “...England is not yet ready to take such a serious step for a number of reasons. At the landing site, it is necessary to ensure not only supremacy at sea, but also supremacy in the air... The basis for a successful landing of any landing force in the presence of strong enemy resistance should be the presence of a huge armada of specially designed landing craft, primarily self-propelled tank barges. To create this armada, as has been and will be shown, I have long exerted all my efforts. Even a small armada could not be ready before the summer of 1943, and a sufficiently powerful armada, as is now generally accepted, could not be created before 1944. During the period described, the autumn of 1941, we did not have air supremacy over enemy-occupied territory... The landing craft were still being built. We did not even have in England an army as large, as well trained and as well equipped as the one we had to face in France.” Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with US Presidents and British Prime Ministers during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Collection of documents in 2 volumes. T.1. - M.: M-in foreign. Affairs of the USSR, 1973. - P. 113. - [Electronic resource] Access mode: http://library.rsu.edu.ru/archives/7080.

Having assessed the military situation in the world at that time, the British Prime Minister could not give a positive answer to Stalin’s call to open a second front in Europe in 1941. However, in June 1941, in the first days of the Great Patriotic War, three conversations between the British Ambassador to the USSR R. Cripps and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov. As a result of the work they did, on July 12, the “Agreement between the governments of the USSR and Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany” was signed. This “Agreement” became the first document on mutual assistance between the Soviet Union and England, which testified to the interest of both parties in establishing allied relations. Subsequently, the Soviet government repeatedly referred to this “Agreement” in an attempt to induce the British side to agree to the opening of a second front in Europe. After the failure of Hitler's attack on Moscow, the British government began to more realistically assess the place of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition. Recognizing the decisive role of the Soviet Union in the war with Nazi Germany, W. Churchill wrote to J.V. Stalin on February 11, 1942: “There are no words to express the admiration that we all experience from the continued brilliant successes of your army in the fight against the German invader. And I cannot resist sending a word of gratitude and congratulations on everything that Russia is doing for the common cause.” The Second World War in the memoirs of Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Cordall Hall, William Leahy, Dwight Eisenhower / Comp. E. Ya. Troyanovskaya. - M.: Education, 1990. - P. 49. - [Electronic resource] Access mode: http://library.rsu.edu.ru/archives/7080

In January 1942, at a conference in Washington, 26 states signed the Declaration of Participation in the War against Germany, but only three powers were capable of waging war on the proper scale: the Soviet Union, the United States and England. However, the Allies, pursuing their own interests, including not excluding the possibility of the destruction of the USSR by Nazi Germany, deliberately delayed the opening of the Second Front, as well as the mutual exhaustion of the USSR and Germany and the creation of conditions for the establishment of their world domination, in every possible way delayed the opening of the Second Front.

By the summer of 1942, the Nazi command concentrated significant forces on the Eastern Front, which significantly complicated the military situation for the Red Army, which at that time suffered a number of major defeats from superior enemy forces. At the same time, the timely opening of hostilities in the West could significantly speed up the defeat of the fascist bloc and shorten the duration of the entire Second World War.

In June 1942, People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. During his visit to Washington, Molotov nevertheless received a promise from F. Roosevelt regarding the creation of a Second Front in Europe in 1942, due to pressure on him from the progressive American public. The British government formally supported these promises, although after this W. Churchill continued to persistently persuade the American president to abandon the outbreak of hostilities in Europe and replace them with an allied landing in French West Africa. Arguing this position to the Soviet leadership, W. Churchill stated that the opening of the Second Front in Europe runs counter to the already adopted plans for the Allied landing in North Africa in October of this year. However, at the same time, he was still forced to promise that the Allies were still planning the start of large-scale military operations in western Europe for the spring of the following year, 1943.

The position of the Western allies on the issue of opening a second front was based on the principle of a thorough analysis of possible options for solving this problem. This principle was consistent with the political and strategic environment. Firstly, Nazi Germany was the most dangerous competitor of the British and American monopolies. They tried to get rid of this competitor first. Secondly, Hitler's Germany was the center, the connecting link of the fascist bloc. The defeat of this center decisively determined the defeat of the entire opposing coalition. Taking this into account, the Allies understood that the opening of a second front should be a decisive factor in solving the above problems. And the most important thing for the allies is not to make a mistake with the choice of place and time.

But, despite repeated promises, in the spring of 1943 the Second Front in northern France was never opened. The Soviet leadership expressed dissatisfaction with this fact of non-compliance by the allies with the agreements. Instead, the leadership of the United States and England approved a plan for the landing of allied troops in Sicily and southern Italy in order to implement the so-called “Balkan option” hatched by W. Churchill. In accordance with this plan, the command of the Anglo-American troops planned to enter the countries of southeastern Europe before the Red Army troops in order to cut off its path to the Balkans and Central Europe. In November 1942, the Anglo-American command landed troops in North Africa, in July 1943 - in Sicily, and then in Southern Italy.

In May 1943, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill, at a meeting in Washington, again agreed to postpone the opening of the Second Front until May of the following year, 1944. This decision was confirmed at the Anglo-American Conference in Quebec (Canada) in August 1943. Justifying their refusal to open a Second Front in Europe, Roosevelt and Churchill cited military-technical reasons. Roosevelt spoke about the lack of transoceanic transport to transport troops to England. Churchill unwittingly refuted Roosevelt, saying in a conversation with Molotov on June 9 that “the limiting factor in such an operation is not the large ships that are used for convoys, but flat landing craft.” Orlov A.S. Behind the scenes of the Second Front / A.S. Orlov. - M.: Veche, 2011. -76 p. - P. 14. Churchill did not dare to directly oppose the American opinion he knew about the advisability of invading France in May 1944. But he formulated three main conditions, without which, as he argued, this operation was impossible:

1) significantly reduce the power of German fighter aircraft in North-Western Europe before the start of the offensive;

2) start the operation only if there are no more than 12 mobile Wehrmacht divisions in Northern France and the Germans cannot form another 15 divisions in the next two months;

3) to ensure supply across the English Channel, have at least two floating harbors at the beginning of the operation.

These conditions pushed the idea of opening the Second Front on schedule - the American leadership came to the conclusion that it was necessary to take strategic planning of upcoming operations into their own hands.

“Taking into account the experience of 1942, when decisions agreed upon in April were canceled in July,” wrote the famous American historian K.R. Sherwood, “American chiefs of staff feared that the Quebec Conference would end with a new revision of the already made decision in favor of a sabotage, “eccentric operation” in the Mediterranean region against the “soft underbelly” of Europe” (as Churchill called the Balkans). Right there. - P. 15.

Specific decisions on this issue, at the insistence of the Soviet Union, were made only at the Tehran Conference on October 28 - November 1, 1943, where a meeting of the heads of the “Big Three” - the leaders of the three main states of the anti-Hitler coalition - Franklin Roosevelt, I.V. Stalin and Winston Churchill. Among the main decisions of the conference was determining the date and place of the opening of the Second Front. Disputes flared up regarding the landing site of the Anglo-American troops. Churchill proposed a landing in the Balkans, Stalin - in Northern France, from where the shortest route to the German border opened up. Roosevelt supported Stalin; America was interested in a speedy end to the war in Europe in order to be able to shift the center of gravity of military operations against Japan.

In the end, it was decided to open the second front with a landing operation of Anglo-American troops in northern France no later than May 1944. For his part, Stalin made a statement that at about the same time he would launch a powerful offensive on the Soviet-German front.

The victorious offensive of the Red Army in the summer of 1943 made a great impression on neutral countries, in particular Turkey, Sweden and Portugal. The ruling circles of Turkey were finally convinced that it was dangerous to connect their fate with Germany. The Swedish government in August announced a ban on the transport of German war materials through Sweden. Portugal hastened to transfer its military bases in the Azores to England. The results of the Battle of Kursk changed the attitude of the Allies towards the USSR even more. The ruling circles of the USA and England were gripped by panic: it became clear that “Soviet troops would be able to independently... defeat fascism and liberate Europe.” And only now, fearing that the Soviet armies would enter Central and Western Europe ahead of their troops, did the Western allies begin active preparations for an invasion of Northern France across the English Channel. Myagkov M.Yu. Second front. The Great Patriotic War. Encyclopedia / M.Yu. Myagkov; Rep. ed. ak. A.O. Chubaryan. - M.: Olma-Press, 2010. - 640 p.

Thus, the Tehran conference showed that the Western allies fully realized the primary role of the Soviet Union in the general actions of the anti-Hitler coalition during the years; their leaders, despite ideological and social differences, were still able to agree on a joint fight against fascism. The opening of the Second Front occurred three years after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR.

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Historians identify five main theaters of World War II (territories where armed forces clashed and armies were stationed), which for convenience are usually called fronts. They should not be confused with the concept of a front, as a military formation of a specific state. Using these definitions, our article will help you understand the formulation of “opening a second front.”

Prerequisites

Since May 1941, there have been virtually no armed clashes in the Western European theater of military operations (Western Front). Active operations moved to the territory of North Africa and the Eastern Front of World War II (Eastern European Theater, Soviet-German Front). Germany sent most of its troops to capture the USSR.

Great Britain was happy with this state of affairs. When the United States, which entered the war (December 1941), insisted on the early start of new military operations in Europe, the British refused. At that time, the Americans could not carry out an offensive on their own.

Continuing to put pressure on England, the United States developed several options for opening a new front in Europe, but they were never implemented.

In November 1943, the first conference of the leaders of the USSR (Stalin), USA (Roosevelt), and Great Britain (Churchill) took place in Tehran. It was the opening of a second European front that became its main issue as part of a joint strategy to fight the Nazi countries. The new front was supposed to lead to a significant defeat of Germany along its western borders, forcing the Germans to move some troops from the Eastern Front.

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The parties could not agree for a long time on the details of the operation in France (“Overlord”), originally scheduled for May 1944. The British agreed to a compromise only after Stalin was ready to leave the meeting.

Rice. 1. Tehran Conference.

Second front

The opening of the second front in World War II is considered to be the largest landing of the Allied armies in Normandy (Northern France) and the advance across France.

The start of the Normandy operation (“Overlord”) on the Western Front of World War II was postponed several times and was kept in the strictest secrecy. After well-developed disinformation of the enemy and preparatory operations, on June 6, 1944, American, British, and Canadian soldiers (more than 3 million) landed in Normandy.

Rice. 2. Normandy operation.

By the end of July, Allied forces gained a foothold in northwestern France and, with the support of representatives of the French resistance, launched an offensive that lasted until August 25, 1944 (liberation of Paris).

The emergence of a “second front” in Europe allowed the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition to join forces, liberate Paris, break through the German western front line, and approach the especially fortified western borders of Germany (Siegfried Line).

SECOND FRONT, against Nazi Germany (June 1944 - May 1945) in Western Europe in World War II 1939-1945. Opened on June 6, 1944 as a result of the landing in Normandy of the Allied expeditionary forces under the command of US Army General D. D. Eisenhower (see Operation Overlord). The problem of the Second Front existed since the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR on June 22, 1941 (see Great Patriotic War of 1941-45). At negotiations in Washington between the USSR, USA and Great Britain in May - June 1942, an agreement was reached on the opening of a Second Front in Western Europe in the same year, which would alleviate the situation of the USSR, which bore the brunt of the war, and speed up the defeat of the enemy. However, the ruling circles of the USA and Great Britain delayed the opening of the Second Front and limited themselves to landing troops in North Africa (November 1942; see North African Landing Operation 1942), and then in Sicily (see Sicilian Landing Operation 1943) and Southern Italy (July 1943). The Allied actions distracted only small enemy forces (6-7%). Major victories of the Soviet army in 1943-1944 showed that the USSR was capable of independently defeating Nazi Germany and its allies and liberating the peoples of Europe from German occupation. At the Tehran Conference of 1943, the Western Allies committed to opening a Second Front in May 1944.

By the beginning of June 1944, 58 German divisions were stationed in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, of which 33 were “stationary” (had almost no vehicles), and 18 were being formed or restored. German aviation consisted of 160 combat aircraft. During the landing, about 10.9 thousand combat and over 2.3 thousand transport aircraft, about 2.6 thousand gliders, over 1.2 thousand combat and over 4.1 thousand landing ships, about 1.6 thousand auxiliary and merchant ships were involved , Allied troops landed on the northwestern coast of France, broke through the Atlantic Wall and, taking advantage of favorable conditions (by the beginning of July 1944, 235 divisions of Germany and its allies were operating on the Soviet-German front, and only 65 divisions in Western Europe), in August 1944 carried out the Falaise operation; then, with the support of the Resistance Movement, they liberated all of northwestern France and Paris. On August 15, 1944, American-French troops landed in the south of France and by September 10, 1944 joined forces advancing from the north. However, the Wehrmacht command managed to avoid defeat and withdraw its main forces from France. During the Ardennes Operation of 1944-45, German troops managed to seriously push back the American-British forces, which were saved from defeat by the Soviet offensive launched at the request of the allies earlier than planned (see Vistula-Oder Operation 1945 and East Prussian Operation 1945). Beginning in February 1945, American-British troops carried out a number of successful operations and by early May 1945 reached the Elbe River and the western regions of Austria and Czechoslovakia, where they met with Soviet units. The liberation of Italy was completed. Troops from Canada, France and other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition also took part in the operations.

The second front played an important role in the armed struggle against Germany and its satellites. However, even after its opening, the Soviet-German front continued to be the decisive front of the war, on which over 70% of German troops operated in 1945. During the offensive of 1944-1945, Soviet troops not only defeated the main forces of the Wehrmacht, but also provided great assistance to the Allies.

Publ.: Tehran-Yalta-Potsdam. Sat. documents. 3rd ed. M., 1971; Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with US Presidents and British Prime Ministers during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945: In 2 volumes, 2nd ed. M., 1989.

Lit.: Kulish V. M. History of the second front. M., 1971; Falin V. M. Second Front. M., 2000; Orlov A.S. Behind the scenes of the second front. M., 2001; Zolotarev V. A. Second Front against the Third Reich. M., 2005.