Operation Husky: Opening of the offensive

[Note: Seaborne landings will be covered in this post. Airborne and Commando raids would be documented separately]
The seaborne landings were initially thrown off-course due to the strong winds, but the element of surprise was maintained because none of the defenders was expecting an attack in those conditions. The landings began in the early hours of 10 June along a 169-km long coastline, with the British and Canadians landing on the eastern tip, whereas Americans landed on the Western. Trouble experienced was from offshore sandbanks and weather conditions instead of the Axis armies. Some units landed on the wrong beaches altogether. But due to the poor quality of defensive operations, Allies were able to make up for lost time.

Once the Axis commanders took stock of the situation, the Allies began to meet resistance. The US 1st Infantry in Gela was attacked by an Italian mountain division. The Hermann Goring Panzer Div., which was due to advance along with them had failed to turn up at the place which was supposed to be the landing zone of the British 505th Para. During afternoon, artillery shelling from the USS Boise and the USS Shubrick slowed down the armored support due to reach the Gela beachhead. The infantry accompanying them was subsequently dispersed.

 

Canadian troops land at a Sicilian beachhead

By evening, 3 American, 3 British, and one Canadian infantry division was well established on the shor, and Syracuse port had been captured largely intact. Fear of an air onslaught by the Axis air forces was nullified. Allied aircraft operating from Malta and the surrounding regions kept attacks at bay. Unfortunately however, attacks on the day of invasion were successful. Italian and Luftwaffe bombers sank a minesweeper, a hospital ship and a destroyer. In the following days, many more such ships were sunk by Stukas and Italian planes.

Operation Husky: Planning and preliminary offensives

PLANNING AND DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES
After routing out the Afrika Korps, the only logic would mean striking into south Europe from north Africa to open up the Mediterranean Sea for shipping. The natural choice would be Sicily. The plan was to have two armies, one at the south-eastern tip of the island, and other at the southern coast. These armies were to receive support from naval gunfire, as well as close air support. The Eastern Task Force (Force 545) consisted of the British 8th Army was led by Gen. Montgomery, whereas the Western Task Force (343) was commanded by Lt. Gen. Patton, consisting of the US 7th Army. Both reported to General Harold Alexander, commander of the 15th Army Group.

 

General George Patton

 

General Harold Alexander, C-in-C, 15th Army Grp.

Patton group consisted of 3 Infantry Divisions, the U.S. 1st and 3rd, to be launched from Tunisia, and the U.S. 45th Div., to be launched form Algeria. Additionally, the US 2nd Armored div. was to be held as a mobile reserve, and would be induced into combat as required.
Monty group consisted of 4 Infantry Divisions and one independent brigade, organized into the XIII Corps, commanded by Gen. Miles Dempsey. The 231st Infantry was assigned the port of Suez as a launch-pad, whereas the UK 51st Division sailed from Tunisia and Malta. The 1st Canadian division, a new addition to the Corps, sailed in directly from the UK.

 

Gen. Miles Dempsey, C-in-C, XIII Corps

In addition to the Amphibious landings, airborne divisions as well as some British commandos were to be flown in to secure key bridges and high ground. This mission was undertaken by the British 1st Airborne, whereas the US 82nd Airborne was held as a reserve, under command of Maj. Gen. Matthew Ridgeway.
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The Allied navies had also been grouped into two forces for the invasion. The Eastern Naval Task Force had been formed from the British Mediterranean fleet, and commanded by Adm. Bertram Ramsey.

 

Adm. Bertram Ramsey

 The Western Naval Task Force was formed from the US 8th Fleet, commanded by Adm. H. Kent Hewitt.

 

Adm. Kent Hewitt

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The air forces in North Africa were re-organized into the Mediterranean Air Corps, commanded by Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder.

 

Air Cheif Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder

This Corps consisted of the US 9th Air Force, 12th Air Force, and RAF squadrons which provided major air support. Even the Malta Air Corps HQ provided valuable support.
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PRELIMINARY OFFENSIVES
The Allied Strategic bomber force began attacking major airfields in Sardinia, Sicily, and generally South Italy, Industrial targets in Italy and the major ports like Messina, Naples, and ports of Sardinia were also targeted. The idea was to maintain uncertainty as to where the invading forces would land. By the 10th of July, only two airfields remained intact in Sicily. Most Axis aircraft had been moved onto the mainland. Airmen flew almost 42,000 sorties over the region in the days leading up to the landing.
I have written about Opn. Mincemeat ((Refer: http://varunpendse.blogspot.in/2013/07/last-night-i-dreamed-deadly-dream.html ))
earlier in the blog, which was a deception plan attached to Opn. Husky. A corpse with documents chained to his body was let into the Spanish coast, which portrayed Greece as the target of the landings. These letters were written by the top brass themselves, and hence signatures were found to be authentic documents.

Operation Ambassador

Operation Ambassador was another of the first British Commando operations. In similarity with Opn. Colossus, there were no immediate military gains, but the experience derived from this raid helped subsequent raids.
The Wehrmacht had occupied the islands situated in the English Channel. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill thought that the newly formed British Commandos would be suitable for a raid and subsequent control of these islands. The raiding party consisted of 140 men in total. 100 men from No. 11 Independent Company under Maj. John Slater, and 40 men from No.3 Commando under Maj. Ronnie Todd.
The raid had been scheduled for the night of 12-13 July, but was postponed to 14-15 July. On 1745 hrs, the raiding party boarded two RN Destroyers along with six High-speed motor launches to ferry them to the island.
Like mentioned before, the operation was a failure. Under Maj. John's plan, the Independent companies would attack the airfield while the Commandos would create a diversion. But unfortunately, one launch landed up on entirely the wrong island due to a faulty compass, two launches broke down in the middle of the sea.
The Commandos reached the shore, soaking wet though. They discovered barracks and a few machine gun nests, but they had been abandoned long before. As the Destroyers were scheduled for pickup at 0300 hrs, and had orders to leave the soldiers behind in case of a delay, the commandos returned to the beach. The only inflicted damage was a cut telephone line. They found that they had to swim out to the boats almost 100m from the beach, and it was discovered that 3 of the men couldn't swim, and were left behind with additional French currency. During evacuation, a dinghy ferrying weapons from the beach again crashed into a rock, killing the pilot and two escorts. Slater suggested sending a submarine to get the three men, but they'd surrendered, and the Admiralty declined.
After the conclusion of the operation, it's planning quality and conduct has been called into question. As mentioned earlier, most of the equipment was not serviceable (compass, motor launches) or inadequate for the job. Some tasks assigned were impractical and not been practiced beforehand, eg. the wire intended to be used as a roadblock was too heavy to be carried from the beach.
On the political side, the raid was a disaster. Churchill was furious at the comical progress and outcome of the raid. It was being circulated that the entire commando concept was in Jeopardy.
The Independent Coy.'s were disbanded, and the first 12 Commando Battalions were raised out of them. Almost the full year they spent only in training. The successes of the Commandos in future operations such as Overlord were due to the expertise gained from the first failures. 

Ardennes Counter-offensive: southern front

Southern attacks: Erich Brandenberger

The U.S. 112th Infantry under the 28th Infantry Division offered stiff resistance to Brandenberger's forces crossing the Our river bridges, upsetting their schedule by two days. But unfortunately the 109th and 110th infantry were spread so thinly that their position was easily bypassed. Both offered stiff resistance and threw the Germans off-schedule by several more days. The transport confusion on the German side, and the resistance of American strongpoints bought time for the U.S. 101st Airborne to reach Bastogne and set up defences.
By 19th December, as senior Allied commanders met in Verdun, it was known that Bastogne had ben bypassed and would be subsequently beseiged by the 2nd Panzer, 26th Volksgrenadier, and the PanzerLehr of 67th Panzer Corps. (The seige took place on the 21st morning)

General Anthony McAuliffe

Eisenhower realized that it was easy for the allies to counter the Germans when they (Allies) were in the open and on the offensive instead of defensive. Hence, they ordered massive reinforcements to the area.
Eisenhower asked General Patton how much time he would take to move his Third Army and counterattack. Patton replied, (to much disbelief) that he needed only 48 hours. In truth, he was anticipating movement orders and had ordered his army to begin moving towards Bastogne before even reaching the conference.
Meanwhile, Bastogne was facing a tough time with supplies depleting. Medical officers and equipment had been captured. But thankfully weather cleared over the next few days, and supplies (mainly Ammunition) were airdropped. The perimeter of Bastogne was held all through the German attacks.
The German commander Heinrich von Luttwitz offered an "honorable surrender" to General Anthony McAuliffe, the commanding officer of Bastogne. McAuliffe replied to their offer in one word, "Nuts" This reply became historically famous. The XLVII Panzer Corps launched concentrated attacks at the western perimeter but were unsuccessful, and soon on 26th January, General Patton's 4th Armored division spearhead broke through the seige to Bastogne.
Weather conditions had improved by 23rd December, allowing Allied air-attacks. Bombing raids were carried out on supply points and infantry was machine-gunned by attacking P-47 Thunderbolts. Allied air support also supplied Bastogne with the necessary supplies including volunteer surgeons, who were flown in by military glider.
By 24th December, the German advance was effectively stalled short of the Meuse. They had run out of rations and fuel supply was critical due to being cut off from supply lines. German losses upto now were light, notably in Armor (with the exception of Joachim Peiper). In the evening, General von Manteuffel recommended a withdrawal of all forces. But it was rejected by Hitler.

The Ardennes Offensive was also significant because it was the first incident where black soldiers fought shoulder-to-shoulder with their white counterparts. Facing shortage of personnel, Eisenhower ordered for black volunteers to come forward. Till then, the black, or "colored" soldiers had been serving as drivers and support staff, (with a few exceptions of tank destroyers and Army Air Force pilots) but when Eisenhower's orders came through, over 2000 of these soldiers volunteered to fight.

Operation Carthage

Operation Carthage was an Allied air raid on the Gestapo building in Copenhagen. As the Allied armies pushed through Europe in Spring 1945, the Gestapo ruthlessly clamped down resistance movements.
Ever since the Normandy invasion, the Danish resistance had begun working in full force. On the invasion day itself, fifty Danish resistance personnel destroyed the Globus factory which manufactured parts for the V-2 rockets, and many more raids were carried out during the next six months

V-2 Rocket

The SS responded by capturing and executing eight of the saboteurs on 23 june, and proclaimed an emergency in the capital.
In answer to the SS, 10,000 shipyard workers from Denmark's largest shipyards went on strike, and soon they were followed by tens of thousands of factory workers.
On the 30th of June, Hitler's personal ambassador for Denmark, Dr. Werner Best, (picturised below)

Dr. Werner Best, Hitler's personal ambassador to Denmark

cut off electricity, gas, and water and executed a few more saboteurs. Copenhagen declared a general strike, and soon, open rebellion broke out during which a few hundreds were injured. These strikes and consequent sabotage resulted in a hold-up of several Wehrmacht divisions which were being moved to France to block and repel the invasion.
Werner's answer to this was an SS raid on EVERY police station in Denmark. 10,000 police personnel were arrested and 2000 of them were being deported to concentration camps.

Allied High Command immediately acknowledged the contribution of the Danish resistance movement and decided to help them. Intelligence was aware that the Gestapo Headquarters in Aarhus, Copenhagen, and Odense were interrogation centers, and that dangerous information about the resistance was documented in there.
On 31 October 1944, total 25 de Havilland Mosquito aircrafts compiled from 21st Squadron RAF, 464th Squadron RAAF (Australia) and 487th Squadron RNZAF (New Zealand) hit the Aarhus buildings. In eleven minutes, they destroyed the two university buildings. Eugen Schwitzgeigel, Denmark Head of the Gestapo was killed in this raid.\
Air Vice Marshal Basil Embery suggested a raid on the Copenhagen HQ in November, and subsequently received support from Svend Truelsen, the head of the Danish resistance in London.

Air Vice Marshal Basil Embery

Svend Truelsen

The building was a low U-shaped structure facing south, with the two flanks running northwards. It was originally the Denmark HQ of the Shell Oil Company, and was comandeered by the Gestapo in May `1943. The operation's purpose was to destroy the records and release the prisoners.

The same formation which had attacked Aarhus was tasked with the Copenhagen raid as well. First wave of four Mosquito aircraft's was led by Wing Cdr. Bob "Pinpoint" Bateson, and it also included Vice Marshal Embery himself. (21st Squadron RAF)
Second wave was led by Wing Cdr. Bob Iredale, with Six mosquito aircraft's. (464th Squadron RAAF)
And the third wave was lead by Wing Cdr. F. H. Denton, comprised of six mosquito aircraft's (487th Squadron, RNZAF)
Accompanying them were unarmed mosquitoes of Film and Photography department.

Mosquito Mk. VI, used in the raid

As soon as the mosquitoes reached the jutland coast, Bateson throttled up to 275 miles/hr. This was the signal for the entire formation to loosen out into the fan formation. Wind was calm, but visibility was low due to the windscreens clouded with dust and pulverized insects (They were flying at tree-top height)
They soon passed the Tisso Lake, and Bateson wobbled his wings again. This time, the second and third waves banked out, leaving Bateson and a few of the escorting P-51 Mustang fighters to bomb the target alone. The second wave then made a wide circuit of the lake and proceeded to target. The third wave did another circuit and proceeded to target. This separated the waves by around one minute.
Bateson was gaining on the target. The aircraft were spread 30 feet apart. The bomb-bay doors were open and the navigator was squinting at the windsheild. He suddenly pointed the pilot towards the camouflaged building of the Gestapo... the target of the raid.

Bateson came in first, and as bullets and tracers ripped past him from roof-top gunners of the target and surrounding buildings. He dropped his bombs and banked out. Vice Marshal Embery came in next. And first three bomb-loads had hit the target
But unfortunately, Wing Cdr. Peter Kleboe, who was not in forrmation got distracted by a searchlight and crashed into his tail-plane and then into the ground.
One mustang was hit while opening fire on the Anti-Aircraft defences. The raid was over in Four minutes.
Along with Kleboe and the Mustang, four other aircraft faild to return to base. One P-51 crashed on the west coast of Jutland and the pilot was taken prisoner. Two mosquitoes of 464th Squadron were shot down, and one from 487th Squadron crashed, killing the crew.

In spite of much collateral damage like the Jeanne d'Arc school, the raid was successful in destroying the records of the Gestapo concerning the Danish Resistance. A bonus was that resistance workers salvaged two filing cabinets full of names of collaborators.
After the final raid of the RAF on the Odense HQ, the Gestapo in Denmark was crippled. Denamrk was liberated only 18 days later

Ardennes Counteroffensive: Secondary operations (Greif & Währung)

Operation Grief and Währung were two secondary operations carried out by the 9th Waffen-SS division. They were commanded by Waffen-SS Commander Otto Skorenzy

Otto Skorenzy in 1944

The idea was to have German SS units infiltrate the Allied lines under the guise of American MP's and create certain level of confusion. Their primary objectives were important bridges on the Meuse and Our rivers. The commando units were assembled from the best English-speaking soldiers in the Waffen-SS and in some cases the Wehrmacht as well.
Unfortunately, these men had little knowledge of commando tactics, and there was little time to train them. They were given crash-course style training in certain skills like Radio operations, Demolition, etc. They also studied the U.S. Army's rank-and-field structure.

Dressed in US Army uniforms (the highest US Army rank used was that of colonel), armed with US Army weapons, and using US Army jeeps, the commandos were given three missions:

• Demolition squads of 5 or 6 men were to destroy bridges, ammunition dumps, and fuel stores.

• Reconnaissance patrols of 3 or 4 men were to patrol on both sides of the Meuse river and also pass on false orders to any American units they met, alter road signs, remove minefield warnings, and cordon off roads and warning of false mine-fields

• "Lead" commando units would work closely with the attacking units to disrupt the US chain of command by destroying field telephone wires and radio stations, and issuing false orders.

 American MP's created roadblocks and asked questions to passing soldiers, questions every American was expected to know. This also resulted in detaining of General Omar Bradley by error. Due to this method, most of these soldiers were captured. But one positive impact it did have was that the rumors spread by these Germans circulated all the way to the Allied High command.
One rumor spread by such captured soldiers was that Skorenzy and his personal commandos were on a mission to capture Dwight D. Eisenhower. Because Skorenzy was well known about his rescue about Benito Mussolini, security around Eisenhower was increased, and hence he wasn't quite excited about spending the christmas of 1944 alone.

Ardennes Counteroffensive: Initial stages and planning

The Ardennes counteroffensive, or "Wacht am Rhine", as the Germans called it, was the biggest German surprise attack launched by the weakened German Wehrmacht. It was a fast and furious offensive which could buy some time for the Germans. German scientists had been working in full swing and had succeeded in creating a number of breakthroughs on flight tech, armor, missiles, etc. The only problem was that they weren't yet ready to mass-produce the technology. Hence, the German Wehrmacht launched this offensive. It was also one of the largest Tank battles ever fought.
The strategic objective of the forces was the port town of Antwerp. Taking Antwerp would split the enemy forces into two. It would take the Allies around eighteen months to recover, buying enough time for the Germans. It was named the "Battle of the Bulge" because the Ardennes region pushed into German territory in the shape of a bulge. 
After the breakout from Normandy, Allied troops marched onto Germany quicker than expected. Their supply lines were stretched extremely thin, as there was a lack of Deep-Water ports to land supplies. The Cherbourg port had indeed been captured, but it had been thoroughly destroyed by the Germans. The Allied forces captured Antwerp in early days of September, fully intact, but it wasn't operational until Late November, when it's estuary was cleared of German soldiers and Mines. And then there was Opn. Market Garden, brainchild of the so-called ""Sir"" Bernard Montgomery, which again screwed the Allies as it was a HUGE failure.
The Ardennes forest was chosen on Hitler's insistence, even though many Generals objected to this, for reasons unknown. Four Armies were selected for the operation. The Sixth Panzer Army under Josef Deitrich, was to attack the North from the German town of Monschau, ad was tasked with the primary objective-Antwerp

Josef Deitrich

The Fifth Panzer Army under Hasso von Manteuffel, was tasked the middle route, with the objective of capturing Brussels

Hasso Von Manteuffel

The Seventh Army under Gen. Erich Brandenberger, was tasked to the south, from the town of Echternach, with the task of protecting the flanks.

Erich Branderberger

Also, there was the Fifteenth army in a secondary role, under the command of Adolf von Zangen. They were tasked to hold the U.S. forces in place and to launch their own attack at will.

Adolf von Zangen

Before the attack, Allies were blind to German troop movements. Through France, the Resistance provided them with the necessary information. But as they reached the German border, the source dried up. There was a major crackdown in the Wehrmacht  after the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler. Hence, security was tighter than ever. German soldiers building up in the woods were issued charcoal instead of wood to light fires. This helped to cut down on the smoke, and was less chance of the Allies detecting the build-up. The foggy weather also prevented the Allied Recon aircraft to survey the areas.For these reasons Allied High Command considered the Ardennes a quiet sector, relying on assessments from their intelligence services that the Germans were unable to launch any major offensive operations this late in the war. What little intelligence they had led the Allies to believe precisely what the Germans wanted them to believe-–that preparations were being carried out only for defensive, not offensive, operations. In fact, because of the Germans' efforts, the Allies were led to believe that a new defensive army was being formed around  the northern Rhine, possibly to defend against British attack.

 Josef Deitrich's 6th Panzer Army