Operation OVERLORD, 39, 238
Patton's Third Army, 87, 238, 240–41, 275
Sixth Armored and Seventy-Ninth Infantry Divisions, 238, 241
XV Corps, Fifth Armored, Eighty-Third, and Ninetieth Infantry Divisions, 238
British Chiefs of Staff (BCS)
COSSAC invasion plan (Aug. 1943), 40, 102
cross-channel attack, secured postponement of, 33
cross-channel invasion (1944), agreed to, 52
Eisenhower SHAEF supreme Allied commander in chief, 52
Operation OVERLORD, 24, 29–30
final full-scale briefing (May 15), 105–107
Operation RANKIN, 25, 30
Operations ANVIL, or DRAGOON, opposed, 283
US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) joined, 23 (see also Combined Operations Command)
British Expeditionary Force (BEF)
Ardennes offensive, 58
Brooke commander of II Corps, 45
German forces held back on road to Dunkirk allowing the evacuation of 338, 226 British and French troops to England (June 1940), 45, 58
Gort commander in chief of, 58
landed in France (Sept. 1939), 57–58
Montgomery was rescued from Dunkirk, 331
Operation DYNAMO (May–June 1940), 76
British Intelligence Service, 96, 109, 133
British Special Operations Executive (SOE), 25
British Territorial Army, 57
Brittany (France)
Allied advance into Brittany and pursuit of Wehrmacht, 231
Allied target according to Hitler, 124
Americans and British forces after D-Day, 192
Americans capture of Cherbourg, St. Lo opened door to Brittany, 99
breakout into (Aug. 1–12, 1944), 238, 240
final OVERLORD Plan (May 1944), 40, 99
German Seventh Army in Normandy and Brittany, 133
Hitler's abortive counterattack on Patton's advance into Brittany, 238
logistical support for campaign to defeat Germany, 37
Operation COBRA (July 25–Aug. 1, 1944), 223, 226, 231
Operation FORTITUDE, 133
Operation OVERLORD and American logistical needs, 235
Patton and VIII Corps, 234
Patton's Third Army to capture Brittany region and seaports, 105–106, 235
Patton to clear Brittany, seize seaports, and cover First US Army's right flank, 99
Rommel's Seventh Army defended Normandy and Brittany, 121
US First Division and the Second Armored Division, 225–26
William the Conqueror, 236
See also Operation FORTITUDE
Brittany Sweepstakes (Aug. 1–12, 1944), 238–41
Brooke, Sir Alan (British chief of imperial general staff)
Allied invasion of France vs. forty-six German divisions, 28
Allies should invade Sicily or Sardinia, 28
background, 43–45
Battle of the North Atlantic, 22
Casablanca Conference (1943), 27–29, 28
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 45
chief of the imperial general staff, 45
Churchill assured the cross-channel invasion command, 46
commander in chief of the Home Forces, 45
Eisenhower, final judgment on, 54
Imperial Defence College in London, 57
master strategist of Britain's military effort, 45
Montgomery, Sir Bernard Law
corps commander of, 57
guardian of, appointed himself, 58
most capable British general of World War II, 45
Normandy invasion, doubts about, 22
Normandy operation, 24
northwestern Europe, invasion of, 29
Operation GYMNAST, 26
Operation OVERLORD, 30–31
Operation TORCH, 28
photograph, 44
Quebec Conference (Aug. 1943), 20
quotation, 19
US war production required for invasion, 22
war of attrition, 22
Browning, Frederick (British lieutenant general), 309–10
Caen (Normandy, France)
armored divisions and liberation of France, 40
British airborne secured Pegasus Bridge, 158
British and Canadian objective for Caen, 99
British armored advance into, 110
British faced defeated German forces, 102
British parachute units seized, 142, 143
COSSAC plan, 40, 99
D-Day objective of Second British Army, 106
D-Day objective of Third Infantry Division, 158
German panzer attack, 139
Granville-Vire-Argentan-Falaise-Caen corridor, 106
Marcks requested a panzer counterattack, 150
Montgomery, Sir Bernard Law
and German Twenty-First Panzer Division, 109, 124, 127
“plan” of, 92–93, 99–100
plan to take and hold Caen ensured its failure, 163
Ninth Canadian Infantry Brigade, 156–57
North Nova Scotia Highlanders, 157
Operation OVERLORD, 87–88, 106–107, 163
photograph, 265
Rommel and Twenty-First Panzer, 136, 141, 154, 158–59, 163
Second SS and Ninth Panzer moved to, 135
Staffordshire Yeomanry and 185th Brigade, 158
Third British Division, 160
Third Division and Twenty-Seventh Armored Brigade, 161
Caen-Bayeux bridgehead objectives, 87–88
Caen Canal Bridge (code-named Pegasus Bridge), 139–40
Caen Conundrum, 205–207
Calais (northern France)
Allies wanted Hitler to believe they would invade at Calais with diversionary attack in the Balkans or Norway, 97, 111
Atlantic Wall, 119
channel seaport, major, 96
Crerar's First Canadian Army of cleared channel ports, taking Dieppe, encircling the German Fifteenth Army, 300
fell on Oct. 1, 300
Germans wrecked the port, causing serious supply crisis for Allies, 300
Rommel forces of, 132
Rundstedt defended English Channel fortresses to starve Allies of logistical support needed for advance into Germany, 307
See also Pas-de-Calais
Callahan, Raymond (historian), 268, 319
Canada
ABC Conference (Washington, DC), 23
British Second Army, Canadian troops in, 99
Caen, objective for, 99
capture of Caen by British and Canadian forces, 100
Crerar commander of First Canadian Army, 99
Gold and Juno Beaches, 143, 154–55
OVERLORD command appointments, 52
Third Canadian Division at Juno Beach, 99, 156
See also Crerar, Henry
Canadian-British bridgehead, 160
Carrell, Paul (historian), 244, 267
carrier pigeons and Allied intelligence, 133
Casablanca Conference (1943), 27–29, 28, 62
CCS. See Combined Chiefs of Staff
Chalfont, Alun (historian), 314, 327
Chateau de La Roche-Guyon (France)
Kluge and Model met (Aug. 17), 282–83
Kluge met Rommel regarding conditions in Normandy, 197
Model's staff conference (Aug. 18) during the Allied Falaise operations, 264–65
Pemsel called Speidel regarding Allied invasion, 142
Rommel called Speidel regarding delayed panzer counterattack, 160
Rommel's headquarters, 110, 124–25, 135
Cherbourg (Cotentin peninsula)
Americans advanced to, 179, 186
Americans to take Cherbourg, capture St. Lo, and advance to Avranches, 99
Bradley was advancing toward, 190
British and American armored units to land and fan out around German Atlantic Wall, 87
delay, 186–89
Engli
sh Channel storm (Oct. 8) damaged, 316
EPSOM battle (June 29), 193
German destruction of Cherbourg Port (June 1944), 189
German E-boats
British radar noted departure of, 103
conducted nightly sorties on Allied warships, 169
German forces in garrison of, 126–27
major port vital for successful invasion and deployment of large numbers of troops, 37
Morgan and large buildup of forces, 39
naval bombardment, 187
Operation ANVIL, 40
Operation SLEDGEHAMMER, 23
OVERLORD and hamlet of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, 110
supplies for American forces, 40
Tenth Destroyer Flotilla smashed German Eighth Destroyer Flotilla west of, 169
Churchill, Winston (British prime minister)
acquiesced to War Cabinet's choice of Montgomery as OVERLORD's British ground commander, 62
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay made Allied commander of the Naval Expeditionary Forces, 24
Allied landing in France, vetoed 1942, 26
American commander for invasion of northwestern Europe, 33
Arcadia Conference and campaign requirements, 40
armistice (1940), unwilling to negotiate an, 117
assault across the English Channel on German sea-front in France, 21–22
Brooke and cross-channel invasion command, 46
Brooke appointed chief military advisor, 45
Casablanca Conference (1943), 27–29, 28
had pneumonia and bedridden for several weeks, 61–62
Communist Russian dominance in postwar Eastern Europe, hoped to prevent potential, 25, 62
cross-channel attack, secured postponement of a, 33
D-Day desire to view from the deck of a Royal Navy ship (June 1), 111–12
diversionary maneuvers, insistence on, 22
Exercise THUNDERCLAP of OVERLORD planning (Apr. 7), 98–100
indirect war strategy better suited Britain, 25
Ismay, personal chief of staff, 45
military decisions, meddling in, 45
Montgomery met Churchill at Marrakech (Dec. 1943) to review OVERLORD plans, 80–81
Mountbatten the new supreme commander in Southeast Asia, 46
Normandy operation, 24
Operation DRAGOON/ANVIL, 283–84
Operation HUSKY, 33
“Operation Mothball,” 37–38
Operation OVERLORD, 30–31, 38, 46, 62
final full-scale briefing (May 15), 105–107
Operation TORCH, US commander appointed chief of, 27
quotation, 15
Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor attack (Dec. 1941), 19–21
Second Washington Conference (June 1942), 25–26
supreme commander for each theater of operations, 20
Tehran Conference (Iran, Nov.–Dec. 1943), 30–31
See also “Big Three”
Clark, Mark (US general), 29
Clausewitzian principle, 27
COC. See Combined Operations Command
Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS)
directive to clear German forces from France and the Low Countries, 39
formation of, 23
met fifty-six times since July 1942, 27
Morgan, Frederick
advocates for artificial harbors (code-named Mulberries), 90
appointed chief of staff to the supreme Allied commander, 33
Operation OVERLORD
to force Germans to retreat, 39
target date of May 1, 1944, 41
Quebec (Quadrant Conference) and review of Morgan's plan, 40–41
US-British staff to plan the future amphibious assault, 33
Combined Operations Command (COC)
Anglo-American officers chose Normandy, 37
Mountbatten, head of, 35–36, 91, 119
Nazi-occupied Europe, British raids along coasts of, 36
Rattle Conference (June–July 1943), 36–37
training headquarters at Largs in Scotland, 36
Commonwealth's war needs, 25
“Communications Zone” (COM Z), 285–86
Cosmos (Nazi spy code name), 108
COSSAC
British Chiefs of Staff, 40
identified Pas-de-Calais and coast of Normandy west of the Seine estuary as invasion sites, 36
Montgomery belittled COSSAC plan for OVERLORD, 39
OVERLORD, COSSAC was a rough draft for, 41
planners learned important lessons from Dieppe debacle, 36
planning for suitable landing area for the cross-channel invasion, 35–36
proposed landing beaches, 40
See also Morgan, Sir Frederick E.
Cotentin Peninsula (Normandy)
Allied airborne divisions, 88
Allied fleet off Normandy, 143
Allied real target, 124
Allied target according to Hitler, 124
American paratroopers, 142
Bradley and roads intended for breakout to Coutances, 198
Bradley had cut off the Germans (June 18), 186
code-named Utah, 143
Eighty-Second Airborne Division (June 18), 165, 179
Eisenhower, Bradley, and Montgomery wanted airborne divisions, 88
German defenders would stop the Allied invasion, 40
German Ninety-First Air Landing Division and mobile units, 127, 142
landing beaches, COSSAC proposed, 40
Marcks's LXXXIV Corps, 127, 142
Reichert anticipated Allied landing, 142
Rommel's defensive battles, 210–11
Rommel's inspection of (May 17), 135
route for Allied offensive thrust into Germany's industrial Ruhr, 124
US First Division and Second Armored Division, 225
See also Juno Beach; Omaha Beach; Utah Beach
Crerar, Henry (Canadian general)
Antwerp, 300–301, 308, 315
Canadian army, 57
Falaise-Argentan Pocket, 246, 249–50
First Canadian Army captured Dieppe, 300
First Canadian Army commander, 99, 246, 249
Imperial Defence College in London, 57
Montgomery's directive to Bradley, Dempsey, Patton, and Crerar regarding advance against German positions near Falaise, 232
Montgomery's headquarters (June 1), 112
Operation TOTALIZE, 249–50
Operation TRACTABLE, 250, 258–60
OVERLORD's final full-scale briefing (May 15), 105–107
photograph, 301
Cunningham, Sir Andrew (British admiral), 27, 57, 85–86, 89
Davies, Norman (historian), 314, 333–34
D-Day (June 6, 1944)
controversies, critical perspective on, 17–18
D-Day beaches objectives attained, 162
deception and secrets
Cicero (Turkish agent) photographed false information he sold to the Germans, 96
Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle with eight code words, 98
D-Day announced by US air force major general at a reception, 98
deception campaigns Operations Bodyguard, Fortitude North, and Fortitude South, 96–97
First US Army Group (FUSAG) under General George S. Patton, fictional, 96–97
German Enigma ciphers, Britain's Ultra code-breaking program cracked the, 97
Kane, Thomas P. (US sergeant), 97–98
Montgomery's double (Meyrick James) traveled to Gibraltar and North Africa to fool the German intelligence (May 25), 108–109
Operation JAEL (deception plan), 96
Operation NEPTUNE's communication plan, stolen briefcase containing, 98
Operation ZEPPELIN (Balkans and Greece invasion deception plan), 96
OVERLORD operation, 189,000 invasion maps prepared for, 97–98
three-part deception plan: Fortitude North, Fortitude South, and Bodyguard, 96–97
OVERLORD D-Day objectives, 87<
br />
seventy-fifth anniversary, 15
strategy
air and sea armada crossed the English Channel; seven thousand Allied ships; NEPTUNE armada, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers; troop transport convoys; and Allied air support (June 6), 115–16
airborne assault to go forward (May 29), 110
Allied aircraft destroyed every bridge over the Seine River between Paris and the coast (May 30), 110
BIGOTed the ultimate secret code of D-Day, 114
Caen-Bayeux bridgehead objective of British, 87–88
D-Day air and sea armada reconnaissance report by Captain Frank Dillon, 116
dress rehearsal (May 15), 105–107
Eisenhower delayed invasion for twenty-four hours due to bad weather (June 5), 114–15
Eisenhower launched D-Day in bad weather, surprising the Germans (June 6), 114–15
Eisenhower viewed OVERLORD armada from his war camp (SHARPENER) northwest of Portsmouth Harbor (June 2–3), 112
Exercise THUNDERCLAP of OVERLORD planning (Apr. 7, 1944), 98–100
new intelligence, unnerving (May 26), 109
Norfolk House conference (Jan. 1944), 87
Operation NEPTUNE (May 28), Ramsay ordered launch of, 109–10
Patton doubts Montgomery's plan, 91–93
preparing the forces, 101–104
Ultra intelligence intercepts estimated Germans with fifty-five divisions in Western Europe on D-Day, 99
See also Gold Beach; Juno Beach; Omaha Beach; South Beach; Sword Beach; Utah Beach
de Gaulle, Charles (French general)
Armée Secrete (FCNL), organized, 181
background, 179
Champs-Élysées, French victory parade down (Aug. 26), 280–81, 281
Choltitz and surrender of Paris (Aug. 23), 279–80
commander of Fourth Armored Division, 179
D-Day and de Gaulle's Free French, 181
Eisenhower ordered Bradley to send Gerow's V Corps to aid Leclerc's French Second Armored Division in freeing Paris, 279
Eisenhower's decision to liberate Paris, 283
Eisenhower's SHELLBURST headquarters in Normandy (Aug. 20), 278–79
France, surrender to Germans (June 1940), 117
Free French Forces, fled to England and assumed leadership of, 179–80
Free French told the people to mobilize for resistance, 278
French Army, modernization of, 69
French Communist Party, 181
French government in exile, Roosevelt and Churchill were skeptical of de Gaulle's, 181
French underground campaign, 182
Hitler demanded Choltitz to leave Paris in ruins, 279–80
Leclerc's final assault on Germans in Paris, 280
Nazi army had marched into Paris, 182
opposed surrender and feared arrest, 180
OVERLORD, briefing on, 182
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