5th U. S. Infantry Division (Irwin)
V U. S. Corps (Huebner)
9th U. S. Armored Division (Leonard)
2d U. S. Infantry Division (Robertson)
69th U. S. Infantry Division (Reinhardt)
VII U. S. Corps (Collins)
1st U. S. Infantry Division (Andrus)
3d U. S. Armored Division (Hickey)
104th U. S. Infantry Division (Allen)
XVIII U. S. Airborne Corps (Ridgway)
8th U. S. Infantry Division (Moore)
78th U. S. Infantry Division (Parker)
97th U. S. Infantry Division (Halsey)
86th U. S. Infantry Division (Melosky)
13th U. S. Armored Division (Wogan)
Fifteenth U. S. Army (Gerow)
66th U. S. Infantry Division (Kramer)
106th U. S. Infantry Division (Stroh)
16th U. S. Armored Division (Pierce)
XXII U. S. Corps (Harmon)
82d U. S. Airborne Division (Gavin)
101st U. S. Airborne Division (Taylor)
94th U. S. Infantry Division (Malony)
XXIII U. S. Corps (Balmer)
Ninth U. S. Army (Simpson)
29th U. S. Infantry Division (Gerhardt)
XIII U. S. Corps (Gillem)
5th U. S. Armored Division (Oliver)
84th U. S. Infantry Division (Bolling)
102d U. S. Infantry Division (Keating)
XVI U. S. Corps (Anderson)
79th U. S. Infantry Division (Wyche)
8th U. S. Armored Division (Devine)
95th U. S. Infantry Division (Twaddle)
75th U. S. Infantry Division (Anderson)
35th U. S. Infantry Division (Baade)
17th U. S. Airborne Division (Miley)
XIX U. S. Corps (McLain)
83d U. S. Infantry Division (Macon)
2d U. S. Armored Division (White)
30th U. S. Infantry Division (Hobbs)
TWENTY-FIRST ARMY GROUP (Montgomery)
79th British Armored Division (Hobart)
Second British Army (Dempsey)
1 British Corps (Crocker)
8 British Corps (Barker)
15th British Infantry Division (Barber)
11th British Armored Division (Roberts)
6th British Airborne Division (Bols)
12 British Corps (Ritchie)
7th British Armored Division (Lyne)
53d British Infantry Division (Ross)
52d British Infantry Division (Hakewell-Smith)
30 British Corps (Horrocks)
3d British Infantry Division (Whistler)
43d British Infantry Division (Thomas)
51st British Infantry Division (McMillan)
Guards Armored Division (Adair)
First Canadian Army (Crerar)
1 Canadian Corps (Foulkes)
49th British Infantry Division (Rawlins)
5th Canadian Armored Division (Hoffmeister)
2 Canadian Corps (Simonds)
Polish Armored Division (Maczek)
2d Canadian Infantry Division (Matthews)
3d Canadian Infantry Division (Keefler)
4th Canadian Armored Division (Vokes)
FIRST ALLIED AIRBORNE ARMY (Brereton)
13th U. S. Airborne Division (Chapman)
IX Troop Carrier Command (Williams)
52d Troop Carrier Wing (Clark)
53d Troop Carrier Wing (Beach)
50th Troop Carrier Wing (Chappell)
FIRST TACTICAL AIR FORCE (Webster)
XII Tactical Air Command (Barcus)
First French Air Corps (Geradet)
NINTH U. S. AIR FORCE (Vandenberg)
IX Tactical Air Command (Quesada)
XIX Tactical Air Command (Weyland)
XXIX Tactical Air Command (Nugent)
IX Bombardment Division (Anderson)
SECOND BRITISH TACTICAL AIR FORCE (Coningham)
83 Group (Broadhurst)
84 Group (Hudleston)
85 Group (Steele)
2 Group (Embry)
38 Group (Scarlett-Streathfield)
46 Group (Darvall)
C. THE GERMAN GROUND FORCES
THE GERMAN COMBAT DIVISIONS WERE OF several types. The principal ones were:
Infantry divisions, consisting after D-day of three infantry regiments of two battalions each, with an authorized strength of approximately 12,000 officers and men.
Panzer Grenadier divisions, comprising two motorized infantry regiments of two battalions each, a motorized artillery regiment, and six battalions of supporting troops, with an authorized strength of approximately 14,000 officers and men.
Panzer divisions, corresponding to our armored divisions, consisting of two Panzer Grenadier regiments, a tank regiment, a Panzer artillery regiment, and five battalions of supporting troops, plus service troops, a personnel total of 14,000 officers and men.
Within the German forces a sharp distinction was made between the Wehrmacht, or ordinary army units, and the Schutzstaffel units which bore the prefix SS. The latter originally enrolled only specially selected members of the Nazi party, constituting a political and military elite which enjoyed special favors and privileges not accorded the Wehrmacht. The SS units were considerably stronger in both complement and fire power than comparable army units. Combat attrition and the frantic recruiting of replacements reduced the political and racial “purity” of the SS toward the end of the war but its troops continued until the end the most fanatical German fighters.
Equally fanatical in their resistance were the Volksgrenadier (People’s Infantry) divisions, organized in September 1944; the personnel of these was interchangeable with the SS divisions. The use of the words “People’s” and “Grenadier”—an honorary name bestowed upon the infantryman by Hitler in 1942—signified that these outfits were composed of elite fighters chosen for the defense of Germany in a mortal emergency. Although the Volksgrenadier divisions usually numbered less than 10,000 in personnel, they were extremely strong in automatic weapons, particularly submachine guns, and consequently could put up effective last-ditch resistance. This composition contrasted sharply with that of the Volkssturm units organized later in the war.
Strongest of the various types of infantry were the parachute divisions, part of the ground combat forces, but controlled by the German Air Force. These were carefully selected, well-trained and -equipped crack infantry divisions, with only a small percentage of the troops trained as parachutists. Because they had an authorized strength of 16,000 officers and men and a larger allotment of machine guns than the normal infantry divisions, the parachute troops were the best fitted of the German units for stout resistance on an extended and open front.
Assault troops and units that had distinguished themselves in combat were given the honorary title “Sturm.” Only a few divisions were so honored. In the closing months of the war, however, this distinction was given for morale purposes to the frantically organized groups of old men and young boys who were known as the Volkssturm (People’s Assault) troops.
Troops chosen for a special assault mission or one of a desperate character were usually formed into battle groups known by the name of their commander, e.g., Kampfgruppe Stoeckel. These varied from less than company to division strength and rarely remained independent for more than a month, but often retained as an honorary award for successful performance their battle-group designation even after their incorporation into a larger unit. Toward the end of the war they lost their specific-mission character and usually were composed of remnants of badly mauled regiments.
GLOSSARY
OF MILITARY CODE NAMES
THE CODE NAMES DESIGNATING MILITARY PROJects or operations in World War II were primarily intended as a security measure against enemy intelligence agencies, although convenience of reference was an important by-product. For this purpose, roughly ten thousand common nouns and adjectives, non-descriptive of operations and geography,
were compiled early in the war under the direction of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff. After selection, the alphabetical order of the words was scrambled, the list was published in a classified catalogue, and blocks of words were assigned to each theater of operations and to the Zone of the Interior in the United States. Local headquarters in each theater later added to this original list code names that either were not restricted to common nouns and adjectives or were descriptive of the designated operation. Not to be confused with code names are title abbreviations formed from initial letters: COSSAC (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander); SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force); PLUTO (Pipe Line under the Ocean).
Following is a list of selected code names, including some theater additions to the original catalogue, and their definitions; in the case of operations which were executed, the date the operation was started is given.
Code Name Definition Operation Initiated
ANVIL Allied operation in Mediterranean against southern France in 1944 (name was changed to Dragoon).
August 15, 1944
APOSTLE I Operation for the return to Norway following the surrender of Germany and the cessation of all organized resistance in Europe.
May 10, 1945
APOSTLE II Operation for the return to Norway following the surrender of all German forces in Norway and the cessation of armed resistance in that country while German resistance continued elsewhere.
ARCADIA Roosevelt-Churchill Conference, Washington, December 1941–January 1942.
ARGONAUT Malta and Yalta Conferences: Roosevelt and Churchill, Malta; Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, Yalta; January–February 1945.
ASHCAN Special detention center for captured civilians of political status equivalent to that of Von Papen.
AVALANCHE Amphibious assault against Naples—U. S. Fifth Army Salerno landings.
September 9, 1943
BAYTOWN Invasion of Italian mainland opposite Messina—British Eighth Army.
September 3, 1943
BODYGUARD Allied over-all strategic deception plan.
BOLERO Operation of transferring American forces from the United States to the United Kingdom.
BRIMSTONE Operation for the capture of Sardinia.
CHOKER I Airborne operation against the Siegfried Line in vicinity of Saarbrücken, Germany.
CHOKER II Airborne operation for crossing the Rhine in vicinity of Frankfurt, Germany.
CLARION Operation by Allied air forces designed to paralyze the German transportation system.
February 22, 1945
CORKSCREW Operation against Pantelleria, Italy.
Mid-June 1943
CORONET Planned operation against Honshu, Japan.
CROSSBOW Air attacks against V-bomb and rocket sites.
DRAGOON Allied operation in Mediterranean against southern France (previously called Anvil).
August 15, 1944
ECLIPSE Plans and preparations for operations in Europe in event of German collapse after the launching of Overlord.
EFFECTIVE Planned airborne operation by the First Allied Airborne Army to seize the airfield in the Bisingen, Germany, area.
EUREKA Teheran Conference: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin; November 26–December 2, 1943.
EXCELSIOR Philippine Islands.
FANFARE All operations in the Mediterranean area.
FRANTIC England-to-Russia air shuttle bombing.
GARDEN Land operation in connection with Market.
September 17, 1944
GOLD The Asnelles beach for Overlord assault landing.
GOLDFLAKE Movement of Canadian corps from MTO to ETO.
Early February 1944
GOOSEBERRY One of the artificial harbors off the coast of France in Operation Overlord. (There were five in number, which later formed the two major harbors, the Mulberries.)
GRENADE Operation by U. S. Ninth Army northeast toward the Rhine with right flank on the general line Jülich–Neuss.
February 23, 1945
GYMNAST Early planned operations against northwest Africa; originally American only and outside the Mediterranean, later enlarged to include British and assault within Mediterranean.
HANDS UP Planned air-sea operation for establishment of a port in Quiberon Bay.
HOBGOBLIN Pantelleria Island, Mediterranean Sea.
HORRIFIED Sicily.
HUSKY Invasion of Sicily.
July 10, 1943
INDEPENDENCE Operation to open the port of Bordeaux, later changed to Venerable.
INFATUATE Operation to capture Walcheren Island and free Scheldt approaches to Antwerp.
November 1, 1944
JUBILANT Planned airborne operations by First Allied Airborne Army under Eclipse conditions to safeguard and supply Allied prisoner-of-war camps.
JUBILEE Combined Allied raid on Dieppe, France.
August 18, 1942
JUNO The Courseulles beach for Overlord assault landing.
LUMBERJACK Operations north of the Moselle between Cologne and Koblenz, Germany.
February 23, 1945
MAGNET United States forces in northern Ireland.
MAJESTIC Planned operation against Kyushu, Japan.
MARKET Airborne operation to seize the bridges at Grave, Nijmegen, and Arnhem.
September 17, 1944
MULBERRY Major artificial harbor for Overlord. (Please refer to Gooseberry.)
NEPTUNE Actual operations within Overlord to be used instead of Overlord only in communications and documents which disclosed directly or by inference: (a) target area, (b) precise date of the assault, or (c) the total scale of the assault.
NESTEGG Occupation of Channel Islands either after surrender of local German garrison or after evacuation of islands by Germans.
May 9, 1945
OCTAGON Quebec Conference: Roosevelt, Churchill; September 1944.
OMAHA The St. Laurent beach for Overlord assault landing.
OVERLORD Plan and operation for the invasion of France in spring of 1944.
June 6, 1944
PANTALOON Naples, Italy.
PHOENIX Concrete barges used in Overlord artificial harbors.
PLUNDER The entire operation of crossing the Rhine north of the Ruhr.
March 23, 1945
QUADRANT Quebec Conference: Roosevelt, Churchill; August 1943.
RANKIN A Plan to return to Continent in event of the weakening of German strength and morale prior to Overlord target date.
RANKIN B Plan to return to Continent if Germany withdrew from France and/or Norway.
RANKIN C Plan to return to Continent in the event of unconditional surrender.
RED BALL The one-way express traffic route for motors from beachheads to troops and return in Overlord.
ROUNDUP Planned operation against the coast of France. (Replaced by the code name Overlord.)
SEXTANT Cairo Conference: Roosevelt, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek; November–December 1943.
SLEDGEHAMMER A planned landing on the Continent to secure a limited bridgehead in the event of a weakening of German morale or the necessity of securing diversion of enemy troops from eastern front.
SOAPSUDS The bombing of Ploesti, Rumania.
SWORD The Douvres beach for Overlord assault landing.
August 1, 1943
TERMINAL Potsdam Conference: Truman, Churchill, Stalin; July 17–August 2, 1945.
TORCH Allied landings on the west and northwest coasts of Africa.
November 8, 1942
TRIDENT Washington Conference: Roosevelt, Churchill; May 1943.
UNDERTONE Operation by Sixth Army Group south of Moselle to close on the Rhine from Koblenz southward.
March 15, 1945
UTAH The Varreville beach for Overlord assault landing.
VARSITY First Allied Airborne Army operation north and northwest of Wesel.
March 23, 1945
VENERABLE Operation by the French Army Detachment of the Atlantic to open the port of Bordeaux.
April 14, 1945
VERITABLE First Canadian Army’s operation southeast between the Rhine and the Meuse to the general line Xanten–Geldern.
February 8, 1945
WILDFLOWER Great Britain.
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