The origins of the Overlord Operation
Even at the
darkest hours whereas the defeat appears imminent, the British Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill, remain convinced that the only means of beating German
would be to carry the war in the French territory. To be done, he lays down
three objectives : initially, definitively to draw aside the threat of an
Nazi invasion ; then to involve and equip a new English army ; finally and
especially to associate this task the industrial and material potential of
the United States of America.
The "Combined
Operations"
At the beginning
of the war, there is not any machine of landing and null troop does not have
experience of amphibians operations. Churchill sets up an organization baptized
"Combined Operations", to prepare raids on specific objectives on
the continent, and in the same time, he orders the creation of specialized
units of attack - commandos - operational dice July 1940 including one small
group which launches an attack on the island of Guernesey.
Indecisions
of the Allied
On December
7, 1941, Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in the Pacific : USA enters the war
actively while the troops of Hitler are nailed on the ground with at Moscow's
gates by the terrifying Russian winter. At the conference of Washington in
January 1942, the Allied decide to coordinate their military strategy. Churchill
then recommends an attack against Germany by the Mediterrannee, thus striking
the "soft belly" of Europe.
But Americans,
as for them, want to force Germans to withdraw from the East front a maximum
of troops, relieving the pressure undergone by the Red Army while launching
an attack on the coasts of the English Channel. The conference ends without
any precise agreement, but Americans suggest an operation, baptized "Sledgehammer",
consistent in an landing close to Calais during the summer 1942. This initiative
would double of a massive concentration of troops in Great Britain in forecast
of an invasion of great scale in France, called "Round-up" at the
beginning of the year 1943.
It is imperatively
necessary to come to assistance of the Soviets by opening a second front of
the West from Europe. But where ? There resides all the difficulty. All these
projects, at this time, are only seen bus spirit in the absence of machines
of landing and knowing that the submarines Nazis make the law in the Atlantic,
the transport of men and material, from America into England, is impossible.
In October
1941, Chruchill names a young captain, Lord Moutbatten, at the head of the
"Combined Operations" with these instructions : "You must prepare
the invasion of Europe because, unless carrying the combat against Hitler
on ground, we will never gain this war". The second objective is always
to encourage the German troops to dismantle the East front.
Raid on Dieppe
The raid on Dieppe in August 1942 is entrusted to the 2nd Canadian division, supported by the new Churchill tanks of 40 tons, which must land right in front of the objective, while the commandos attack on the sides to neutralize the coastal batteries installed on cliffs. But the Royal Navy does not want to risk its large units in narrow water of the English Channel, the attack is not preceded by a preparation of marine artillery. Thus, dice Canadians put their foot on the French ground, they are hung on the beach exposed to the shootings and only some of them manage to cross the concrete dam and to infiltrate downtown. Semi-officially, of the reinforcements which were to be sent to the combat, were not it because the allied would have liked in truth "to test" the Atlantic Wall. The enemy movements would have been observed, timed and analyzed in order to prepare an attack of greater scale later. If one follows this theory, the Canadian soldiers who fought courageously, who died in the combat, who were wounded, made prisoners or reported missing "would have been sacrificed" to make it possible the allied to collect lessons for a new landing.
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Photographs of the raid on Dieppe: (click on a photograph to increase it)
The beaches are strewn with corpses and wrecks |
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Marc Laurenceau - copy not autorised - E-Mail : dday-overlord@club-internet.fr