44-8-25 Siegfried Line Campaign 45-3-7

Paris Delivered (1944) > .

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Battle of Germany - mfp >> .

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Siegfried Line Campaign (Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine), was a phase in the Western European Campaign of World War II.

This phase spans from the end of the Battle of Normandy, or Operation Overlord, (25 August 1944; close 30 August 1944) incorporating the German winter counter-offensive through the Ardennes (commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge) and Operation Nordwind (in Alsace and Lorraine) up to the Allies preparing to cross the Rhine in March of 1945. This roughly corresponds with the official United States military European Theater of Operations Rhineland and Ardennes-Alsace Campaigns.

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The Allies crossed the Rhine at four points. One crossing was an opportunity taken by U.S. forces when the Germans failed to blow up the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen; another was a hasty assault; and two crossings were planned:

• The U.S. First Army aggressively pursued the disintegrating German troops, and on 7 March they unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge across the Rhine River at Remagen. The 9th Armored Division quickly expanded the bridgehead into a full scale crossing.
• Bradley told General George S. Patton—whose U.S. Third Army had been fighting through the Palatinate—to "take the Rhine on the run". The Third Army did just that on the night of 22/23 March, crossing the river with a hasty assault south of Mainz at Oppenheim.
• In the north, the Rhine is twice as wide, with a far higher volume of water than where the Americans crossed. Montgomery, commander of the 21st Army Group, decided it could be crossed safely only with a carefully prepared attack. In Operation Plunder he crossed the Rhine at Rees and Wesel on the night of 23/24 March, including the largest single drop airborne operation in history, Operation Varsity.
• In the Allied 6th Army Group area, the U.S. Seventh Army assaulted across the Rhine in the area between Mannheim and Worms on 26 March. A fifth crossing on a smaller scale was later achieved by the French First Army at Speyer.

After crossing the Rhine, the Allies rapidly advanced into Germany's heartland. The end of World War II in Europe followed soon after. 

Battle of the Bulge 1944 - Ardennes Counteroffensive - K&G > .

42-3-28 St Nazaire Raid

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The Greatest Raid - Operation Chariot - Yarn > .

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42-3-28 St. Nazaire Raid - Operation Chariot - WW2 > .

Commandos: Maverick Recruits to Elite Soldiers - Timeline > .

St Nazaire Mission - Timeline > .

Battle of the Atlantic - Naval Gazing >> .

The Atlantic Ocean was vital to the British during WW2 as it was the only way they could get supplies into the Country. They needed to keep the German Navy away from the Atlantic.

 
One way to do this was to cut off access to anywhere their Navy would be able to repair ships. The port of St. Nazaire in occupied France was the only port, outside Germany, large enough to repair the largest of the German Ships (like the Tirpitz). Without it, the Germans wouldn’t be able to control the Atlantic and wouldn't be able to stop the supply convoys from reaching the UK.

 
Putting that port out of action caused the British a dilemma. The RAF couldn’t bomb it accurately enough to destroy it, without using so many bombs that they would inflict large numbers of civilian casualties. A conventional attack from the sea was out of the question as the port was six miles up the Loire estuary and was heavily defended. The underground resistance movement and Special Operations Executive couldn’t get enough explosives into the dock to destroy it.

 
The only solution was a commando raid, codenamed: Operation Chariot. One that would see 87 bravery medals awarded and be described as the greatest commando raids ever.

HMS Campbeltown, an obsolete WW1 destroyer was sent on a one way mission to St Nazaire. A floating time bomb, its intent was to destroy the only dry dock capable of repairing Tirpitz on the North Atlantic coast. An incredibly important mission that was seen by many to be too dangerous. In many circles Operation Chariot has become known as the Greatest Raid of all time. It came at great cost and was achieved only through the extreme bravery of those involved.

The St Nazaire Raid or Operation Chariot was a British amphibious attack on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at St Nazaire in German-occupied France during WW2. The operation was undertaken by the Royal Navy and British Commandos under the auspices of Combined Operations Headquarters on 28 March 1942. St Nazaire was targeted because the loss of its dry dock would force any large German warship in need of repairs, such as Tirpitz, sister ship of Bismarck, to return to home waters by running the gauntlet of the Home Fleet of the Royal Navy and other British forces, via the English Channel or the North Sea.

The obsolete destroyer HMS Campbeltown, accompanied by 18 smaller craft, crossed the English Channel to the Atlantic coast of France and was rammed into the Normandie dock gates. The ship had been packed with delayed-action explosives, well-hidden within a steel and concrete case, that detonated later that day, putting the dock out of service until 1948.

A force of commandos landed to destroy machinery and other structures. German gunfire sank, set ablaze, or immobilized virtually all the small craft intended to transport the commandos back to England. The commandos fought their way through the town to escape overland but many surrendered when they ran out of ammunition or were surrounded by the Wehrmacht defending Saint-Nazaire.

Of the 611 men who undertook the raid, 228 returned to Britain, 169 were killed and 215 became prisoners of war. German casualties included over 360 dead, some of whom were killed after the raid when Campbeltown exploded. To recognise their bravery, 89 members of the raiding party were awarded decorations, including five Victoria Crosses. After the war, St Nazaire was one of 38 battle honours awarded to the commandos. The operation has been called The Greatest Raid of All within British military circles.

Urban combat

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17-3-10 Urban Combat - Room Breaching & Clearing - US Army (2011) - mhv > .

24-3-1 US Marines' Breaching Methods - nwyt > .

23-7-25 Royal Marines urban tactical insertion & close quarter battle training - F > .

23-5-11 Art of War: Urban Warfare - Warographics > .

21-3-23 RADICAL RESHAPE For The UK Military - Forces > .

20-10-19 Urban Military Operations Explained - Task & Purpose > .

20-7-14 Army Recruits - 'Rolling T' Combat Formation - BuIn > .

17-9-22 Urban Combat: Fighting Positions - mhv > .

Boot Camp - BuIn >> .

Military & Defense - BuIn >> .

Military Geopolitics Explained - Task & Purpose >> .

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Urban Survival - Garand Thumb >> .

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Breaching Explosives ..

Urban combat ..

Urban Tactics ..

Winter War - Motti Tactics

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Winter War: Finns and the Red Army fight in the Arctic - K&G > .

Finnish Ski Troops of the Winter War (1939) 1/2 - Invicta > .

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How Finland Survived a 1,000,000+ Soviet Invasion (1939-1940) - Invicta > .

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Salute to the Soviet (1945) > . 

Greatest and Deadliest Sniper in Military History - Simo Häyhä > .

Winter War - K&G >> .

24-4-26 How Finland Has Become [Almost] Impossible to Invade - Icarus > .

 

Winter War - Motti Tactics - mhv > .

Winter War - Soviet Finnish 1939-1940 War - K&G > .

How Finland Survived a 1,000,000+ Soviet Invasion (1939-1940) - Invicta > .

Greatest and Deadliest Sniper in Military History - Simo Häyhä > .

Winter War - K&G >> .

Winter War - Motti Tactics ..
Winter War - Simo "Simuna" Häyhä ..

The Winter War: A Soviet Failure

The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland in 1939–1940. The war began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League.

The Soviet Union ostensibly sought to claim parts of Finnish territory, demanding—amongst other concessions—that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons, primarily the protection of Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country. Many sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and use the establishment of the puppet Finnish Communist government and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as proof of this, while other sources argue against the idea of a full Soviet conquest.

The Soviets possessed more than three times the amount of soldiers as Finland, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks. The Red Army, however, had been crippled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of 1936–1938. With over 36,000 of its officers executed or imprisoned, the Red Army had many inexperienced senior and mid-level officers. Because of these factors, and high morale in the defending forces, Finland repelled Soviet attacks for three months, much longer than the Soviets expected. However, after reorganization and adoption of different tactics, the renewed Soviet offensive overcame Finnish defences at the borders.

Hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded territory representing 11 percent of its land area and 13 percent of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the country's international reputation suffered.[47] Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and the USSR received substantial territory along Lake Ladoga and in Northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Adolf Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful and reconfirmed negative Western opinions of the Soviet military. After 15 months of interim peace, the Continuation War between Finland and the USSR began in June 1941."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War .

Comment 1:
"Most of the territories Finland lost were already lost after the Winter War, including the second largest city and a large portion of the best arable land. The Continuation War was mainly motivated as an attempt to regain them to give the war refugees their homes back, which failed but the annexed area was mostly the same as it had been after the Winter War."

Comment 2:
"Finnish history, 1939-1945: Finland managed a stalemate in the Winter War, but finally the Soviets applied overwhelming force, and defeated the Finns. Finland lost a big part of Karelia as a result of Moscow's desire to push the border away from Leningrad; it also had to lease Hangko, a strategic port, to the USSR. In 1941, Finland joined Germany in the attack on the Soviet Union, in order to regain its lost territories. This is known to the Finns as "The Continuation War". The war on the Eastern Front went badly for the Axis, and in addition to losing what she had regained, Finland also lost the nickel-mining area and port of Petsamo; it assumed the status of a neutral state in the Cold War."

Winter War - Soviet Failure > .

The Winter War (1939-40) > .

Fire And Ice the Winter War of Finland and Russia Original > .
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Air War Over Finland 1939 to 1945 (Doc c rare footage) > .

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Salute to the Soviet (1945) > .

Greatest and Deadliest Sniper in Military History - Simo Häyhä > .

Winter War - K&G >> .

WW2: Invasion of Poland and Winter War :
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-the-invasion-of-poland-and-the-winter-war/100094/

>> MHV >> .  

Winter War - Simo "Simuna" Häyhä

Winter war

Greatest and Deadliest Sniper in Military History - Simo Häyhä > .

Finnish Ski Troops of the Winter War (1939) 1/2 - Invicta > .

Finnish "Motti" Tactics of the Winter War (1939) 2/2 - Invicta > .

How Finland Survived a 1,000,000+ Soviet Invasion (1939-1940) - Invicta > .

Winter War - K&G >> .

24-4-26 How Finland Has Become [Almost] Impossible to Invade - Icarus > .

Simo "Simuna" Häyhä; 17 December 1905 – 1 April 2002), nicknamed "White Death" by the Red Army, was a Finnish sniper. Using a Finnish-produced M/28-30 rifle (a variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle) and the Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun, he is reported by western sources to have killed 505 men during the 1939–40 Winter War, the highest recorded number of sniper kills in any major war. However, Antti Rantama (Häyhä's unit military chaplain), credited only 259 confirmed sniper kills were made by Simo Häyhä during the Winter War. Häyhä wrote in his diary, found in 2017, that he estimated he killed from 100 to over 500 Soviet soldiers (by both sniper rifle and machine/submachine gun).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War . 

Winter War - Motti Tactics ..
Winter War - Simo "Simuna" Häyhä ..

Motti Tactics - The Winter War: A Digital Retelling > .

Winter War 1939-1940 - Setup - SwFiRu Hx - WW2 > .
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Salute to the Soviet (1945) > .
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Winter War - Soviet Failure > .

The Winter War (1939-40) > .

Fire And Ice the Winter War of Finland and Russia Original > .
The Winter War of Finland and Russia > .
WW2 | Winter War of Finland and Russia - Hist > .
Air War Over Finland 1939 to 1945 (Doc c rare footage) > .
Salute to the Soviet (1945) > .

Greatest and Deadliest Sniper in Military History - Simo Häyhä > .

Winter War - K&G >> .

WW2: Invasion of Poland and Winter War :
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-the-invasion-of-poland-and-the-winter-war/100094/

>> MHV >> .