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Covering the 2nd front of the Second World War. Second front. Where and when

The political and strategic situation during the Second World War changed significantly due to events in the second half of 1944. The strengthening of the union of states and peoples, which rallied in opposition to the common enemy, continued.

The leading role in the anti-Hitler coalition belonged to the Soviet Union. The USSR made a decisive contribution to the confrontation with Nazi troops.

The government of the Soviet Union hoped for the opening of a second front during the Second World War. But the allied armies limited their actions to rear air attacks and offensive operations in Italy. The participating countries, of course, understood that the opening of a second front in the West would soon be required. In this regard, Britain and America soon launched large-scale preparations for this.

The accelerated opening of the second front was greatly influenced by the heads of the USA, Great Britain and the USSR. The heads of the USA, Great Britain and the USSR considered the main political and strategic issues of continuing allied actions. The problem of opening a second front was also resolved.

Successful offensive operations and the landing of allied forces in Europe contributed to the deterioration of the situation. The opening of the second front became the main event of the summer of 1944. From this point on, Germany had to fight a war in two directions. At the same time, according to a number of historians, the opening of a second front (due to its lateness) had to some extent limited significance in the issue of the outcome of the war as a whole. The USA and Great Britain, according to researchers, pursued primarily political goals - to strengthen their positions.

However, on June 6th, Anglo-American forces began landing from the British Isles in Northern France. The operation bore the code name "Overlord" (its naval part was called "Neptune").

The expeditionary forces of the allied armies, having landed on the Norman coast, were supposed to seize a bridgehead, and then, having accumulated the necessary forces, move further eastward, occupying the northeastern territory of France.

Simultaneously with the movement of the amphibious assault, Allied aviation began bombing artillery batteries, individual resistance centers, enemy rear areas, headquarters, and troop concentrations. The impacts were quite strong in the regions of Boulogne and Calais. Thus, the enemy's attention was diverted from the actual landing area.

As a result, by July 24, the Allied expeditionary forces, having landed in Normandy, occupied an almost hundred-kilometer bridgehead along the front. However, the operation plan called for a size twice as large. The complete dominance of the Allied forces at sea and in the air ensured a high concentration of resources and forces.

The Allied landing on the Norman coast was the largest-scale landing operation with a strategic purpose. During the preparation process, the Allied forces were able to solve many problems. As a result, the surprise of the offensive and the clarity of interaction between aviation and ground forces, the Navy and the Airborne Forces were ensured.

The summer military operations of the Soviet troops also contributed to the fairly successful implementation of the operation. The Red Army's offensive forced the German command to transfer its main reserves to the eastern part of the front.

In the second half of 1944, military cooperation increased noticeably, and strategic interaction between Soviet and Anglo-American forces in Europe expanded.

As a result of joint actions, by the end of 1944, the German army was completely expelled from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and some Italian regions and areas of Holland. Thus, the actions of the joint forces made it possible to clear an area of about 600 thousand kilometers from the invaders.

Operation Overlord

began 70 years ago Normandy Operation or Operation Overlord"- Allied strategic operation to land troops in Normandy (France).

The decision to open a second front against Nazi Germany in Western Europe during World War II was made by the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain after negotiations in London and Washington in June 1942. At the Tehran Conference of 1943, the Western Allies committed to opening a second front in May 1944.

However, the Second Front was opened only on June 6, 1944 as a result of the landing of Anglo-American troops in Normandy.

The Normandy operation was carried out in two stages:

Operation Neptune - code name for the initial phase of Operation Overlord - began on June 6, 1944 (the date is also known
known as "D-Day"), ended on July 1, 1944. Its goal was to gain a bridgehead on the continent, which lasted until July 25;

Operation Cobra - the breakthrough and offensive across French territory was carried out by the Allies immediately after the end of the first operation (“Neptune”). At the same time, from August 15 until the beginning of autumn, American and French troops successfully carried out Southern French operation, as a complement to the Normandy operation. Further, having carried out these operations, the Allied troops advancing from the north and south of France united and continued their offensive towards the German border, liberating almost the entire territory of France.

The landing sectors were mainly the beaches of Normandy, which received code names « Omaha», « Sword», « Juneau», « Gold" And "Utah».

The invasion began with massive night parachute and glider landings, air attacks and naval shelling of German coastal positions, and early on the morning of June 6, a naval landing began. The landing took place for several days, both during the day and at night.

The operation lasted more than two months and consisted of the creation, retention and expansion of coastal bridgeheads by forces
advancing. It ended with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Falaise Pocket at the end of August 1944.

In terms of its scale and quantity, the forces and equipment involved, this landing became the largest landing operation of all wars.

The High Command tried in every possible way to ensure the secrecy of its preparation and the surprise of the landing of a large group of troops on an unequipped coast, to ensure close interaction of all branches of the military both during the landing and during the battles for the bridgehead, as well as the transfer in a short time across the strait of a large number of troops and materiel .

The coast of Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands was defended by the troops of the German Army Group B under the command of Field Marshal E. Rommel, consisting of about 530 thousand people, two thousand tanks, 6.7 thousand guns and mortars with minor aviation support of up to 160 aircraft . However, the preparation of their positions in engineering terms was not fully completed.

The Allied expeditionary force under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower reached 3 million people, about 10.9 thousand combat and 2.3 thousand transport aircraft, as well as about 7 thousand ships and vessels.

The plan of the Normandy landing operation envisaged landing sea and airborne assault forces on the coast of the Bay of Seine and seizing a bridgehead 15-20 kilometers deep, and on the 20th day of the operation reaching the Avranches-Donfront-Falaise line.

Since the end of April 1944, Allied aviation carried out systematic raids on important enemy targets in France and during May - June disabled a large number of defensive structures, control posts, airfields, railway stations and bridges. During this period, strategic aviation carried out massive attacks on military-industrial facilities in Germany, which sharply reduced the combat effectiveness of German troops.

On the night of June 6, simultaneously with the approach of amphibious assaults, allied aviation launched massive attacks on artillery, control points, as well as concentration areas and enemy rear areas. At night, two American and one British airborne divisions were landed northwest of Carentan and one British airborne division northeast of Caen, which, despite some inconsistency in actions, provided significant assistance to the amphibious assault in landing and capturing bridgeheads. At the same time, the Airborne Forces also suffered significant losses (up to 40% of the total losses of the allies in the first days)

The passage of the landing troops across the English Channel in stormy weather was unexpected for the German command, which, despite intelligence warnings, was not ready to repel it. So, Field Marshal Rommel,
succumbing to assurances about bad weather, he left for Germany on June 5, and most of the commanders of divisions and regiments of the 7th Army, on the orders of its commander, Colonel General Dolman, left for Rennes on the night of June 6 for a meeting of the command staff followed by a military game.

At 6:30 a.m. on June 6, following massive air strikes and naval artillery fire, the Allied forces began landing on the Norman coast. The German troops defending it, having suffered significant losses from aviation and naval artillery fire, offered little local resistance. By the end of the day, the Allied forces
captured five bridgeheads ranging in depth from two to nine kilometers. The main forces of five infantry and three airborne divisions, consisting of at least 156 thousand people, 900 tanks and armored vehicles, and 600 guns, landed on the coast of Normandy.

The German command reacted very slowly to the landing of the Allied troops and did not immediately move operational reserves from the depths to disrupt it, still not believing that the enemy’s main landing operation had begun here.

Even 5 weeks after D-Day, misinformed German generals believed that the landing in Normandy was a “sabotage”, and still waited for the main forces in Pas-de-Calais, fearing to transfer their well-equipped 15th Army to the aid of the 7th. Here the Germans made an irreparable mistake. When they realized that the Americans had deceived them, it was too late - the allies began their offensive and breakthrough from the bridgehead.

Despite significant losses, the Allied forces managed to concentrate up to 12 divisions on the captured bridgeheads in three days, and on June 9 they resumed the offensive to create a single bridgehead. By the end of June 12, they occupied the coast
with a length of 80 kilometers along the front and 13-18 kilometers in depth and increased the grouping of troops to 20 divisions.

By this time, the German command had pulled up three reserve tank and motorized divisions to the bridgehead, bringing the grouping of its troops in Normandy to 12 divisions. It made an unsuccessful attempt to cut through the group of allied troops between the Orne and Vir rivers. However, without proper air cover, the German divisions suffered heavy losses from the Allied
aviation and quickly lost their combat effectiveness.

On June 12, formations and units of the American 1st Army began an offensive from the area west of Sainte-Mère-Eglise in a westerly direction and on June 17 reached the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, and on June 27 captured Cherbourg, completely clearing the peninsula of fascist troops by July 1.

The offensive of the Anglo-Canadian troops, launched on June 25-26 to capture Caen, did not achieve its goal. Despite powerful fire support from aviation and artillery, they were unable to overcome the fierce resistance of the Nazis and only slightly advanced west of Caen.

By the end of June, the Allied bridgehead reached 100 kilometers along the front and 20-40 kilometers in depth with the Anglo-American troops located on it; 23 airfields were equipped for basing tactical aviation. They were opposed by up to 18 significantly battered German divisions. Constant attacks by Allied aircraft and French Resistance partisans on their communications limited the ability of the German command to transfer troops from other areas of France.

However, one of the main reasons that did not allow strengthening the Wehrmacht in the west was Soviet offensive in Belarus.

During July, American army troops, continuing to expand the bridgehead, advanced 10-15
kilometers and occupied the city of Saint-Lo. The British focused their main efforts on capturing the city of Caen, which their troops captured on July 21.

By the end of July 24, the Allies reached the Lesse line south of Saint-Lo, Caumont, and Caen, creating a bridgehead of about 100 kilometers along the front and up to 50 kilometers in depth.

As a result of the operation, the Allies, having absolute supremacy in the air and sea, seized a strategic bridgehead
and concentrated a large amount of forces and resources on it for a subsequent offensive in the eastern direction.

The losses of the Nazi troops amounted to about 115 thousand people, 2120 tanks and assault guns, seven submarines, 57 surface ships and combat boats, 913 aircraft.

Allied forces lost 122 thousand people, 2.4 thousand tanks, 65 surface ships and vessels, over 1.5 thousand aircraft. Near During the landing during the storm, 800 ships were washed ashore or sank.

The subsequent Allied offensive in Normandy in August 1944 caused the collapse of the entire German Western Front, with German forces only able to re-establish a new front line in September 1944 on Germany's western border, with
using the Siegfried Line.

Thus, it can be argued that the Normandy offensive was important in achieving Victory over fascism, but it was not some kind of key and defining battle. Undoubtedly, it shortened the time required to achieve success in the war, helped save human lives, and was one of the factors that the bloody war ended in May 1945, and not in the summer of 1946.

June 6th marked 70 years since the landing of the Western Allies in Normandy (northern France) and the opening of the second front.

The Second Front is a conventional name in the Second World War of 1939-1945. the Western European front, which England and the United States pledged to the USSR to open in the summer of 1942. In the West, this event is considered perhaps the most important in the history of the Second World War. But there are different opinions on this matter in the post-Soviet space.

Some experts believe that the opening of a second front had little effect on the course of the war. In their opinion, the Allies deliberately delayed the opening of the second front, and opened it only when they realized that the USSR had launched a large-scale offensive operation along the entire length of the front from the Barents to the Black Sea and alone could liberate all of Europe.

Other experts believe that if the second front did not solve anything, it is not clear why Stalin sought its opening so much and then spoke so enthusiastically about the operation.

There is another point of view: the victory over fascism was common and cannot be divided between the victorious countries.

The history of the opening of the second front by the Allies, the course of the war before and after this event are described in detail in numerous historical documents, in the memoirs of military leaders and participants in heroic battles. I will only briefly touch upon this greatest period, when irreconcilable countries - the USSR and Great Britain - were able to unite in the fight against a common enemy - Nazi Germany...

After Germany attacked the USSR, Churchill became a forced ally of Stalin. It was very difficult for Stalin to create an anti-Hitler coalition with the British Prime Minister Churchill, the organizer of the “crusade” against the young country of the Soviets with the British Expeditionary Force, which occupied Transcaucasia and shot 26 Baku commissars. But many of those who died were Koba-Stalin’s comrades in the fight against tsarism and knew him well personally. However, the leader of the USSR could only find in England at that moment a real ally in the fight against fascism.

Was it easy for Churchill to sit down at the negotiating table with a dictator whose hands were up to his elbows in blood? After all, dispossession, Stalin’s purges with executions and the Gulag were well known in the West. But the prime minister of the British government saw how fascist aviation was leveling English cities and understood: help and decisive alliance could only be expected from Soviet Russia.

The Japanese attack in late 1941 on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor finally brought another ally to Stalin: the United States, led by President Roosevelt. Stalin appointed the disgraced Jew Litvinov as ambassador to the United States and created to help him in February 1942 the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), headed by the great actor, head of the Moscow Jewish Theater Solomon Mikhoels. The members of the JAC were given the task of traveling to the United States, asking for money from rich Jews, but most importantly, influencing American public opinion in order to bring the opening of a second front closer. After Litvinov signed an agreement with the United States, supplies of military equipment, ammunition, uniforms, medicines, and, importantly, rich food parcels to the USSR became possible. The volume of American supplies under Lend-Lease amounted to more than 11 billion US dollars.

But Stalin's main task is to force the West to open a second front. Throughout the year, there were diplomatic negotiations and correspondence between the governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain on the issue of creating an anti-Hitler coalition. On May 26, 1942, in London and June 11 in Washington, agreements on an alliance in the war against Nazi Germany were signed, and an anti-Hitler coalition was created.

The next task of the USSR's foreign policy was the opening by the allies of a second front in Europe. The absence of a second front allowed the Wehrmacht command to keep its main forces in the East without fear for its Western Front. The Soviet government, based on the difficult situation on the Soviet-German front in 1941-1942, insisted that England and the United States open a second front in 1942 with all perseverance. During Soviet-American negotiations in June 1942, an agreement was reached between the governments of the USSR and the USA on the opening of a second front in Europe in 1942. V. M. Molotov obtained the same consent from the British government. But in fact, England was not going to fulfill its obligations and put forward all sorts of reservations in order to postpone the opening of the second front to 1943. In addition, British Prime Minister W. Churchill did everything possible to persuade US President F. Roosevelt to abandon commitment and concentrate efforts on the landing of Anglo-American troops in North Africa. In a letter to I. Stalin on July 18, and then during negotiations in Moscow in August 1942, W. Churchill announced England’s refusal to open a second front in Europe in 1942. This was also confirmed on behalf of US President F. Roosevelt and the US Ambassador to Moscow A. Harriman, who was present at the negotiations.

The Allies' promise to open a second front was not fulfilled in 1943 either. The delay is interpreted differently by military experts today. According to pro-Soviet experts, this was due to the fact that the Anglo-American coalition was counting on the weakening of the USSR, on the fact that after a grueling war the USSR would lose its importance as a great power. But when Germany suffered its first strategic defeat in World War II near Moscow, views changed dramatically. There were concerns in the West that the Soviet Union might emerge from this war too strong. And if it really turns out to be too strong, it will begin to determine the face of the future Europe. This explains, in many ways, Churchill's resistance to the opening of a second front in 1942. Although there were technical and other prerequisites for inflicting defeat on the Germans precisely in 1942, using the factor of diverting the overwhelming majority of the German armed forces to the East and, essentially, the coastline (2000 km!) of France, Holland, Belgium, and Norway open to invasion , and even Germany itself for the Allied armies. The Nazis then did not have any long-term defensive structures along the Atlantic coast. Moreover, the American military insisted and convinced Roosevelt that a second front was necessary, possible, and its opening would make the war in Europe, in principle, short-lived and force Germany to capitulate. If not in forty-two, then, at the latest, in forty-three. But such calculations did not suit Great Britain and conservative figures, of whom there were plenty on the American Olympus. According to the ideology of Churchill and those who shared this ideology in Washington, it was necessary to “detain these Russian barbarians” as far in the East as possible. If not to break up the Soviet Union, then to weaken it to the limit. First of all, by the hands of the Germans. This is how the task was set.

According to pro-European experts, the Allies did not have a real opportunity to open a second front in 1941-1943. And it really took time to train troops, equip and deploy them, as well as transfer the economy to a military footing.

The fact that the Allies did not open a second front for a long time does not mean that they did not fight at all. The United States fought a war in two directions: in the east against Japan, in the west against Italian-German troops in northern Africa. Africa was chosen as the best choice for preparing a springboard for the invasion of Europe through Italy, followed by withdrawal from the war and pulling it to the side of the Allies. It would have been unwise to cross the Channel from England to France until 1944, since the Germans had foreseen this and fortified the coastline. They would simply send the soldiers to certain death. The first experience of landing on a fortified shore in 1942 in Dieppe showed the impossibility of such a procedure with the available forces; the landing party suffered heavy losses without completing its assigned tasks. In 1942, the ground forces for a full-scale invasion simply did not exist. It was necessary to first create this army, then deliver it to England and establish reliable supplies. The British really had nothing to help the USSR in Europe, while the Americans drove Rommel out of Africa, which was captured by the Germans almost to the equator. And it was not easy to cope with Rommel, because to this day he is generally recognized as one of the most outstanding commanders of his time.

On June 6, 1944, American, British and Canadian troops under the command of General Eisenhower began landing in Normandy. This is usually called the “opening of a second front in Europe.” By the end of July, the Allies had occupied a bridgehead about 100 km wide and up to 50 km deep. Overcoming stubborn resistance, the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition from the east and west moved towards the center of Germany. On April 25, 1945, a meeting between Soviet and American troops took place on the Elbe River. On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany was forced to sign an act of unconditional surrender. The most difficult war in human history has ended.

The opening of the second front, according to many, changed the course of the war and, ultimately, the 20th century. It was the opening of a new front in Normandy that was the first attempt to deal a serious blow to the Germans in Europe and brought the end of the war closer. The Allies made a certain contribution to the victory over Hitler; without their participation, the outcome of the war could have been different. The Allies significantly helped the USSR with supplies under Lend-Lease; according to many military experts, there was more benefit from Lend-Lease than from the second front. If there had been no help from the allies, especially in the first years of the war, then the USSR could have lost the war, since after the events of 1941 almost everything that could be used for defense was captured or destroyed, many factories were in a state of evacuation and could cover the needs of the Red Army in weapons, ammunition, food and other equipment. This is what A. I. Mikoyan said about deliveries under Lend-Lease years later: “Now it’s easy to say that Lend-Lease didn’t mean anything. It ceased to be of great importance much later. But in the fall of 1941 we lost everything, and if it weren’t for Lend-Lease, weapons, food, warm clothes for the army and other supplies, the question is how things would have turned out.”

In addition to deliveries under Lend-Lease, the Allies fought in Africa, Italy, France, on the seas, they bombed Germany and caused severe damage to its military infrastructure. The Allied landing in Normandy and the subsequent operation to expand the Overlord beachhead was the largest operation of World War II. Take, for example, the fact that almost 3 million people took part in it from the Allied forces alone. The landing took place on June 6, 1944, and on June 22-23, Operation Bagration began, during which Soviet troops defeated the German Army Group Center within a month. In the interval between the Allied landings and the Soviet offensive, the German command was forced to transfer most of its aircraft, mainly fighter aircraft, to the Western Front. It was from this time that Soviet aviation began to dominate the air on the Eastern Front. And this played no small role in the fact that the offensive of the Soviet troops in 1944 was successful. Of the “ten Stalinist strikes” of 1944, seven occurred after the opening of the second front.

All this certainly happened. However, it is also obvious that the Soviet Union actually made the greatest contribution to victory in the war. The Great Patriotic War lasted 1,418 days, and all this time the Soviet-German front was the main one among all theaters of military operations. The main armed forces of the warring parties were concentrated here, decisive battles took place, most of the tanks and aircraft were destroyed, and the most significant human and material losses were suffered.

The states of the anti-Hitler coalition had different tasks during the war, and there were serious disagreements between them, but they managed to overcome all this in order to achieve the then main common goal - the defeat of fascism. And today, 70 years after those events, when the political situation in the world is heating up again, especially after the tragic events that are taking place in Ukraine as a result of the intervention of the Russian Federation, relations between the European Union, the United States and the Russian Federation have deteriorated to the point of open hostility, perhaps it is worth remembering that For the sake of peace and stability on the planet, our ancestors were able to unite, despite all the differences and contradictions between them, and defeated the most terrible enemy of humanity - fascism.

I would like to hope that after the election of the legitimate President of Ukraine, the conflicting parties will be able to show political flexibility and wisdom, finally stop armed clashes, sit down at a round table, and find ways to resolve existing disagreements and contradictions.

Our planet is a grain of sand in the Universe, and the existing world is very fragile, and only together, through mutual respect, understanding and love, we can preserve it for our descendants.

Famil Jamal. First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the NGO "Justice". Odessa

In the summer of 1944, the United States and Great Britain opened a second front in Europe. On June 6, the American-British expeditionary force began landing in Northern France from the British Isles across the English Channel. The operation was prepared and carried out under the code name “Overlord” (the naval part was called “Neptune”).
The plan of action for the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Operation Overlord was to land on the Normandy coast, seize a bridgehead and then, having accumulated the necessary forces and material resources, launch an offensive in an easterly direction to occupy the territory of North-Eastern France.
On the night of June 6, simultaneously with the transition of the amphibious assault, allied aviation began to strike artillery batteries, individual resistance centers, headquarters, troop concentrations and enemy rear areas. The aircraft carried out heavy strikes on targets in the area of Calais and Boulogne in order to divert the attention of the German command from the actual direction of the landing.
Thus, in the period from June 6 to July 24, the American-British command managed to land expeditionary forces in Normandy and occupy a bridgehead of about 100 km along the front and up to 50 km in depth. The dimensions of the bridgehead were approximately 2 times smaller than those provided for in the operation plan. However, the absolute dominance of the Allies in the air and sea made it possible to concentrate a large number of forces and assets here.
conclusions
The landing of the American-British Expeditionary Force in Normandy, which meant the opening of a second front in Western Europe, was the largest landing operation of strategic importance during the Second World War. During the preparation and implementation, the Allies skillfully solved many problems: they achieved a surprise landing and clear interaction between ground forces, aviation, navy and airborne troops; carried out the rapid transfer of a large number of troops, military equipment and various cargo across the English Channel to Normandy.
The success of the operation was facilitated by the large-scale summer offensive of the Red Army, which forced the Nazi command to throw its main reserves to the eastern front. The second half of 1944 was characterized by the further strengthening of military cooperation between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and the expansion of strategic interaction between the Red Army and Anglo-American troops in Europe.
By the end of 1944, German troops were completely expelled from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, as well as parts of Italy and from many areas of Holland. The total area of the territory liberated by the allies and local resistance forces was 600 thousand square meters. km with a population of about 76 million people.
The landing of Allied forces in Western Europe helped accelerate the final defeat of Nazi Germany, which was forced to fight on two fronts.
The outstanding military successes of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, and, above all, the USSR, achieved in the second half of 1944, created the necessary military-political and strategic prerequisites for the final defeat of Germany in the near future, the liberation of the peoples of Europe and Asia and the victorious conclusion of the Second World War.

Covering the 2nd front of the Second World War. Second front. Where and when

Operation Overlord

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