Changing Methods of Warfare by Land, Air and Sea, 1939-45 » D-Day, Arnhem and the French Resistance

Taking the war back to Europe

This lesson is part of the Paper 2 Section B breadth study on the changing nature of warfare, 1919-2011. By 1944 Germany held most of western Europe. To beat Germany, the Allies (Britain, the USA, Canada and others) had to land an army in France and fight their way east. This was one of the hardest tasks in the history of warfare, because soldiers had to cross the sea and attack a coast that the enemy had spent years fortifying. Germany had built the Atlantic Wall, a line of bunkers, guns, mines and beach obstacles along the coast.

Key terms:

• Amphibious operation: an attack in which troops are carried across the sea and land on an enemy coast.
• Paratrooper: a soldier who is dropped by parachute from an aircraft behind enemy lines.
• Resistance movement: a secret organisation of civilians who fight an occupying army, for example by sabotage (damaging railways, bridges and communications) and by passing on intelligence.
• Deception: a plan to trick the enemy about where, or when, you will attack.

D-Day, 6 June 1944

The invasion of Normandy, in northern France, was code-named Operation Overlord. Its first day, 6 June 1944, is known as D-Day. The Supreme Commander was the American general Dwight Eisenhower. The landings were delayed by one day because of bad weather.

The Allies could have attacked at the Pas de Calais, where the sea crossing was shortest, but the Germans expected this and defended it heavily. So the Allies chose the Normandy coast, and landed on five beaches: Utah and Omaha (American), and Gold, Juno and Sword (British and Canadian). Success depended on several things working together:

• Paratroopers first. In the night before the landings, thousands of American and British airborne troops, landing by parachute and glider, arrived behind the beaches. They captured bridges and crossroads, such as Pegasus Bridge, and made it harder for German reinforcements to reach the coast.
• Special equipment. Tanks that could swim ashore or clear mines and obstacles went in with the first waves. Afterwards the Allies towed in huge parts of artificial harbours, called Mulberry harbours, so that supplies could be unloaded even though they had not captured a port.

The landings succeeded, though not without cost. At Omaha Beach the Americans faced strong defences and suffered heavy losses before they got off the beach. By the end of the day the Allies held a foothold in France, and more men and supplies poured in over the following weeks. Paris was freed on 25 August 1944.

Arnhem, September 1944

In September 1944 the Allied commander Field Marshal Montgomery tried to win the war quickly. Operation Market Garden had two parts. In "Market", paratroopers would be dropped to seize a chain of bridges across rivers in the Netherlands. In "Garden", a British tank force would drive up a single road, crossing the bridges, and reach the last bridge, over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem. From there the Allies could swing into Germany's industrial heartland, and Montgomery hoped to end the war by Christmas.

The plan failed. About 10,000 men of the British 1st Airborne Division landed near Arnhem from 17 September. Things went wrong:

• They were dropped several miles from the bridge, so the Germans had time to react.
• Their radios often did not work, so commanders could not talk to each other or call for help.
• Two German SS panzer divisions were resting in the area. The Allies had not expected such strong forces.
• The tank force was slowed on the single road, so it did not arrive in time.

A small British force, led by Lieutenant-Colonel John Frost, held one end of the Arnhem bridge for about four days but could not hold on. The survivors of the division were pulled back across the river on 25-26 September. Only around 2,000 got back. The war did not end by Christmas, and it went on until May 1945. Arnhem shows the risks of using paratroopers: they were lightly armed and relied on being relieved quickly.

The French Resistance

Many French civilians, men and women, refused to accept German rule. Resistance groups began small, but they grew, and Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) trained agents and dropped weapons to them. In 1944 the groups were joined together as the French Forces of the Interior, and the Maquis (bands of fighters hiding in the countryside) were an important part. The Resistance helped in three main ways:

• Sabotage. Before and after D-Day, coded BBC radio messages told Resistance groups to cut railways, roads and telephone lines. This slowed German reinforcements. Troops such as the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich took far longer to reach Normandy than the Germans had planned, partly because of sabotage and Allied air attacks.
• Intelligence. Resistance members sent information to Britain about German defences, troop movements and the positions of guns.
• Help for the Allies. They helped shot-down Allied airmen to escape, and in the summer of 1944 they fought alongside Allied armies as France was freed.

The Resistance was dangerous work. Anyone caught could be tortured, sent to a camp or shot, and the Germans carried out reprisals against civilians. In the village of Oradour-sur-Glane on 10 June 1944, 642 men, women and children were killed by German troops.

Change and continuity

What changed: armies now used parachute troops and landed from the sea with air power, specialised tanks and artificial harbours all working together, and civilian resistance became part of the plan. What stayed the same: success still depended on surprise, speed and supply, and the Allies were still fighting an enemy in strong positions. Arnhem showed that a clever plan could fail if communications broke down or the enemy was stronger than expected.

Exam-style question

Explain TWO ways in which the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944 were similar to the German invasion of France in 1940. [6 marks]

Remember: in May 1940 German tanks and dive-bombers broke through the Ardennes at Sedan on 13 May and reached the Channel on 20 May. One way on its own can score no more than half marks, so write two paragraphs and mention both invasions in each.

Recap

• D-Day (6 June 1944) combined deception, air and sea power, paratroopers and special equipment to land on five Normandy beaches.
• Arnhem (September 1944) failed because of poor radios, strong German forces and a tank force held up on one road.
• The French Resistance carried out sabotage, gathered intelligence and helped Allied airmen.
• These operations were new in their scale and teamwork, but still depended on surprise, speed and supply.