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The Normandy Invasion
Allied forces used 2,395 aircraft in the airborne landings, and 6,939 vessels including combat and landing craft. The Allied forces incurred an estimated 10,000 casualties on D-Day. Total German casualties are unknown but guessed to be between 4,000 and 9,000. More than 2,500 Allied forces were killed on D-Day.
Operation Cobra
After the invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord, Allied forces fought to gain yardage in France for the first two months of the war. With France’s rolling terrain and numerous hedgerows, the Germans’ strategic position on hilltops deterred progress.
The slow going prompted a British armored unit attempt, known as Operation Goodwood. It failed in its primary objective but did focus the Germans’ attention and resources in and around Caen while U.S. Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley readied U.S. troops for Operation Cobra along the Germans’ left flank.
The massive assault succeeded, starting with two devastating airstrikes — the first of which killed about 150 American troops behind U.S. lines — on consecutive days (July 24-25), puncturing seven large holes in the Germans’ defenses and allowing the Allied troops to capture strategic bridges and cities, roll up the Germans’ left flank and break out of Normandy.
On Aug. 1, the Third Army was committed to the fight under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, who would chase the beaten enemy across France.
Operation Market Garden: “A bridge too far”
The Allies’ success in France forced the battered German troops to flee east after 25 of their 38 divisions in Normandy were destroyed, 240,000 men were killed or wounded and another 200,000 were taken prisoner.
Confident the war would be done by Christmas, the Allies, with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in charge, began planning their path to Germany. The overly ambitious assault paired airborne troops, code name “Market,” and ground troops, “Garden,” in an intricate plan to secure key bridges and cover over 60 miles in two days on “Hell’s Highway.”
On Sept. 17, 1944, paratroopers initiated the attack with a daylight jump. The assault initially went as planned as members of the U.S. 101st and 82nd Airborne began securing bridges, but German resistance led to subsequent targets being blown up.
The British XXX Army group also met resistance and failed to achieve Eindhoven, leaving the plan behind schedule on the first day.
Despite warnings from the Dutch Resistance of Panzer units, the British 1st Airborne attacked the city of Arnhem, which was deemed a strong vantage point from which to attack the Ruhr. The Dutch Resistance was correct, and the British 1st Airborne endured eight days of heavy battering before being evacuated.
After days of short supplies, lost bridges and surrounded troops, Operation Market Garden was deemed a failure.
Battle of the Bulge
By mid-August, Hitler began planning a week-long campaign to recapture the port of Antwerp in Belgium by forging a path through the forested ridges of the Ardennes region. The attack utilized speed, surprise, reserve special forces Panzer units and bad weather – Hitler’s personal meteorologist analyzed long-range forecasts to predict the best time to inhibit the Allies’ aerial support.
By mid-December, Hitler’s “Operation Watch on the Rhine” mobilized to within 2 miles of the front line, where on Dec. 16, the advance began across an approximately 60-mile stretch of thinly guarded Allied terrain. Caught off guard by the attack, the Allies scrambled to protect two major road juncture towns, Bastogne and St. Vith. While the Allies’ counterattack was successful in delaying the Germans’ schedule, the Germans still pushed westward but opted to ignore their objective of capturing Bastogne.
By Dec. 23, the Germans encircled the town, forcing the approximately 11,500 men in the 101st Airborne and members of the 10th Armored Division stationed there to ration their ammunition. However, after four German soldiers approached under a white flag with a note demanding surrender, division commander Anthony McAullife responded with one word: “Nuts!”
Clear skies on Dec. 23 allowed Allied planes to drop supplies for the divisions. On Dec. 27, the U.S. 4th Armored Division linked up with the stranded divisions; the 101st claimed it didn’t need saving. The Allies regained the upper hand and over the next few weeks contained the bulge in Allied lines, with all ground lost regained by late January.
Operation Detachment: The Battle of Iwo Jima
On Feb. 19, 1945, at 6:45 a.m., the U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima.Iwo Jima, a key island in the Bonin chain, was targeted as a desirable location where B-29 bombers damaged over Japan could land. Not having to return all the way to the Marianas would assist in the bombing campaign against Japan, only 660 miles north. The Americans began applying pressure to the Japanese defense of the island in February 1944, when B-24 and B-25 bombers raided the island for 74 days. It was the longest pre-invasion bombardment of the war, necessary because of the extent the Japanese — 21,000 strong — fortified the island, above and below ground, including a network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and detailed installations.
On the day of the invasion, Cmdr. Tadamichi Kuribayashi instructed his troops to wait an hour for the beach to fill with Americans, ensuring that every shot would inflict maximum damage. The Marines, stranded on soft volcanic sand, were unable to dig proper foxholes and received the full force of seven Japanese battalions’ fire. By evening, more than 550 Marines were dead and more than 1,800 were wounded. The capture of Mount Suribachi, the highest point of the island and bastion of the Japanese defense, took four more days and many more casualties. When the American flag was finally raised on Iwo Jima, the memorable image was captured in a famous photograph that later won a Pulitzer Prize.
BATTLE FACTS
Well-prepared
The Japanese forces were outnumbered by U.S. forces by a margin of 5-to-1, but they had time to fortify the island. The result was a complex labyrinth of tunnels and caves dug deep into the island. At least two Japanese soldiers who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima were able to live underground and avoid detection by occupying U.S. forces until they surrendered in 1949.
Costliest battle
The Battle of Iwo Jima was the deadliest battle in U.S. Marine Corps history. The battle made casualties of one in four U.S. troops, a staggering percentage with U.S. forces numbered close to 100,000. Over 23,000 of them were Marines, with nearly 6,000 dead. Japanese forces are believed to have numbered over 21,000 at the start of the battle. Only about 1,000 were taken prisoner. The other 20,000 were killed or committed suicide.
Code Talkers
Navajo code talkers were credited with winning the Battle of Iwo Jima.In “The Code Book,” author Simon Singh writes that members of the Navajo tribe who relayed messages using a code based on their tribal dialect at Iwo Jima performed flawlessly, and he quotes Maj. Gen. Howard Connor as saying: “Without the Navajos, the Marines never would have taken Iwo Jima.”
Medal of Honor
The battle accounted for one-third of all Medal of Honor awards for Marines in World War II. The medal has been awarded over 464 times during World War II. Of those, 82 were awarded to Marines throughout the entire war, 23 of them for gallantry in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima alone.
