Operation Tomahawk

Operation Tomahawk was a Korean War military operation, which was carried out by the 187th Infantry Regiment, an element of US 101st Airborne Division, on March 23, 1951. It was a complement of Operation Courageous. The objective of these simultaneous military offensive was to encircle and destroy several Chinese army units in the area near Munsan, about 25 km to the north of Seoul, near the parallel 38th line.

The 3,500 men of the 187th Regiment dropped from C-119 Flying Boxcar transport aircraft. Once on the ground, they  were immediately reinforced by armored units that were already waiting for them. Immediately, they began to attack the communist positions. After vicious fighting, most of the Chinese troops fell back to their former positions. Thus, the American forces managed to gain territory from the retreating enemy.

Below, troops from the 187th Infantry Regiment during Operation Tomahawk in March, 1951.

Below, an M26 Pershing heavy tank. Its powerful gun always came in handy to provide fire support when there was no artillery pieces available, and the infantry appreciated it.

Operation Crimp

Operation Crimp was a military offensive of the Vietnam War. It was conducted by American and Australian forces in Binh Duong Province, in South Vietnam, from January 8 to January 14, 1966. Under the overall command of Major General Jonathan O. Seaman, about 8,000 troops of the US Army’s 1st Infantry Division, which included the US 173rd Airborne Brigade and the US 3rd Infantry Brigade, participated in Operation Crimp. Attached to the US 173rd Brigade was one Australian battalion from the 1st Royal Australian Regiment.

The main objective of Operation Crimp was to destroy the Vietcong headquarters which lay in concealment underground in Cu Chi, in the Province of Binh Duong. There was a system of tunnels which led to the main headquarters. They covered more than 120 miles. During the battle, specialized sappers, called tunnel rats, were sent in on search and destroy missions to annihilate any hiding enemy soldiers and to plant explosives to destroy the tunnels.

Preceded by artillery fire and napalm and airstrikes, Operation Crimp was initiated at 09:30 hours on January 8. Airmobile operation began with the first American units being inserted by helicopter to the north, west and south. The US 3rd Infantry Brigade, commanded by Colonel William Brodbeck, was inserted by helicopter and by road. In the north, 1st Royal Australian Regiment was inserted into its landing zone (LZ March) 1.9 miles to the south-west. Amid strong resistance, the Australians fought their way through the maze of bunkers, punji stakes and booby traps but they were eventually able to force a Viet Cong regional force company to withdraw as they continued their advance. This area was heavily seeded with trip wires connected to shells and grenades dangling from branches.

The task of breaking into and exploring the communist tunnels started on January 9, with the objective now switching to the location, clearance and destruction of the tunnel complexes. Whereas standard US Army practice was to seal, blow up or otherwise attempt to render tunnel systems unusable with smoke, tear gas and explosives before quickly moving on, the Australians spent the next few days laboriously searching and mapping the complexes they found using military engineers. Led by Captain Sandy MacGregor, the Australian sappers from 3 Field Troop systematically tackled the tunnels, using telephone line and compasses to plot the subterranean passages. Small-scale contacts between the communists and the Australians continued and MacGregor was later awarded the Military Cross for his leadership.

The Australians kept on searching the tunnels, finding a large quantity of documents and equipment, and by January 10 they had seized 59 weapons, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, 100 fragmentation grenades, one 57-mm recoilless rifle, explosives, clothing and medical supplies. At least 11 Vietcong had also been killed in the fighting. Contact also continued, and overnight the Australians killed another five Vietcong outside their perimeter, while numerous actions occurred during the day as the US 173rd Brigade maintained its sweep. The US 3rd Brigade subsequently uncovered a significant tunnel complex themselves; while they attempted to clear the tunnels, heavy hand-to-hand fighting broke out above ground and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Haldane was later awarded the Silver Star for his actions when he rushed a bunker while under fire armed only with a pistol, in order to give first aid to a number of wounded soldiers. His courage inspired his men to complete the assault, and ultimately helped ensure the successful evacuation of the casualties and the capture of their objective.

More than 11 miles of tunnels had been uncovered and searched by the Australians. A large quantity of documents had been recovered, including more than 100,000 pages detailing operational structure as well as the name of agents operating in Saigon. 90 weapons were also captured, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition and enough equipment. During Operation Crimp the brave Australians had faced stiff resistance, suffering 8 killed and 29 wounded, while claiming 27 Vietcong killed and a further 30 probably killed. The Americans had also been involved in heavy fighting and their casualties included 14 killed and 76 wounded. Total communist casualties included 128 confirmed killed, and another 190 probably killed, as well as 92 captured and another 509 suspects detained. Half of the American and Australian troops that were killed in this battle were lost to booby traps rather than to enemy gun fire.

Below, troops of a reconnaissance platoon advancing amid rice paddies during Operation Crimp

Operation Cedar Falls

Operation Cedar Falls was the largest ground operation led by US Army units against the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. It was initiated on January 8, and ended on January 28, 1967. The objective of this large-scale search and destroy mission was to eliminate the Iron Triangle, which was a major Vietcong stronghold. Located near Saigon, the Iron Triangle was a base of operation from which the communist guerrilla force carried out attacks on South Vietnamese Army’s and US bases.

To eradicate the Iron Triangle as a Vietcong stronghold, Operation Cedar Falls also entailed the complete relocation of the area civilian population to new villages in order to isolate them from communist contacts and influence, as well as the defoliation of whole areas. To successfully carry out Operation Cedar Falls, more than 30,000 US and South Vietnamese troops were deployed, supported by military aircraft such as the F-105 fighters.

Operation Cedar Falls was planned as a hammer and anvil operation. Under the cloak of deceptive deployments on seemingly routine operations, the 25th Infantry Division with the 196th Infantry Brigade attached to it was to assume blocking positions west of the Iron Triangle, along the Saigon River, whereas one brigade of the 1st Infantry Division was assigned the same task along the Song Thi Tinh River east of the area of operations. The remaining units were then supposed to “hammer” the Vietcong against this “anvil” by rapidly moving through the Iron Triangle, scouring it for enemy troops and installations, and clearing it of civilians. A tight encirclement of the area was to prevent communist units from retreating.

Although Operation Cedar Falls was scheduled to begin on January 5, 1967, it started three days later, when weather conditions improved. It was carried out in two different phases. During preparatory phase I, January 5–9, the “anvil” was set up by positioning the relevant units along the Iron Triangle’s flank, and an air assault on Ben Suc, a key fortified Viet Cong village, was to take place on January 8 (D-day). These operations were to be succeeded by the completion of the area’s encirclement as well as a concerted drive of American forces through the Iron Triangle (the “hammer”) from both the south and the west in phase II.

The American army officers who conducted the operation later evaluated it as a success. Nevertheless, left-biased journalists gave a bleaker picture, arguing that Cedar Falls failed to achieve its main goal since the Vietcong’s setback in the Iron Triangle was temporary.

Below, a US Army’s platoon during a search and destroy mission of Cedar Falls

Tet Offensive

The Tet Offensive was a large-scale attack on US and South Vietnamese military bases and cities in South Vietnam, triggering some of the most intense and vicious battles of the Vietnam War. It was carried out by the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong guerrilla forces from January 30 to July 9, 1968.

This communist onslaught, which caught the US Army and Marines by surprise, marked a turning point in the war, which would lead to a total North Vietnamese victory by 1975, with the fall of Saigon. The Battle of Hue, Battle of Cholon, Battle of Khe Sanh, Bien Hoa, and the fierce attack on the US embassy in Saigon were the most notorious and gory events of the Tet Offensive.

Although the US and South Vietnamese units were able to hold the line and to counterattack, recovering lost ground and inflict heavy loses on the communist forces, it was a psychological victory for North Vietnam and the Vietcong as the US mass media, with all its TV networks, described and narrated the military events triggered by this offensive as a North Vietnamese victory and as if no progress had been made in the war. This mass media false perception stirred up massive peace demonstrations throughout the United States, forcing Congress to significantly cut back the military budget allocated to the war in Southeast Asia. This negative way in which the war in Vietnam would now be regarded forced the incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson to make the decision not to run for a second term in the white House as he explained it clearly on his March 31 live speech, paving the way for the Richard Nixon’s term.

The offensive was launched on the night of January 30/31, 1968, which was the anniversary of the Lunar New Year in Vietnam as it was a holiday known to the Vietnamese people as Tet. Although it was a well-coordinated and massive attack, the offensive failed to accomplish its objectives. Despite their massive commitment of forces and heavy losses, the communists were not able either to hold the cities they attacked or to rally the people inside them to their cause. They did not even manage to cripple the South Vietnamese Army. Their assaults were quickly beaten back by US and South Vietnamese troops.

Below, an M48 Patton tank provides fire support to US Marines during the Tet Offensive on the outskirts of Saigon. The US troops managed to hold their ground and later counterattack.

The Vietcong 35 battalions involved in the attacks on several targets in Saigon were also completely defeated. For the offensive against the city of Hue, the old imperial capital, the North Vietnamese Army employed two regiments, which was about 7 thousand men. However, the US Marines were able to beat the enemy back after fierce house-to-house fighting and to recover the city. Meanwhile, to reinforce their counteroffensive, the US Air Force launched air attacks, which included B-52 bombers, against concentration of enemy troops and their supply lines. Although an estimate of 40,000 communist troops were killed in action during the Tet, the United States also suffered heavy losses, with 1,400 soldiers killed and about 3,500 wounded.

The Tet Offensive Combat Footage. Archive Historical Video.

Below, Saigon, with several building burning, on February 5, 1968.

Street fighting in the ancient city of Hue during February, 1968.

Operation Crusader

Operation Crusader was the Allied military offensive to relieve the siege of Tobruk, on the coast of Libya, North Africa, during World War II. It was carried out by the British 8th Army, under General Alan Cunningham, beginning on November 18, 1941. By then, the 8th Army was composed of two Corps: the XIII Corps, which was led by Lt-General Reade Godwin Austen, and the XXX Corps, commanded by Lt-General Willoughby Norrie. Cunningham would be replaced by General Neil Ritchie on November 26.

Summary

On November 18, the British XIII Corps advanced towards Halfaya Pass in the north, moving from west to east. Meanwhile, the XXX Corps launched an attack through Sidi Rezegh to the southwest. During the first week of Operation Crusader, ferocious tank battles broke out between the German Afrika Korps and the XXX Corps’ 7th British Armoured Division.

At the beginning the German forces seemed have gained the upper hand, as they knocked out more than 50 Crusader tanks and many other British armored vehicles. However, the Afrika Korps’ attempts to encircle the British 8th Army failed. This forced the German and Italian forces to temporarily lift the siege of Tobruk. Therefore, by launching Operation Crusade, the British had won a temporary victory, but they had no armored vehicles reserves left.

The reason for the destruction of so many British tanks was due to the 8.8 cm Flak 36, a powerful anti-aircraft weapon used as an anti-tank gun, and the lethal 7.5 cm KwK L/48 gun mounted in the turret of the Panzer IV Ausf. F2 (G) tank. Although the Crusaders were good tanks, its gun was ineffectual at long distance, while the above-mentioned German anti-tank guns could destroy an enemy tank at distances of 1,500 and 2,000 m away.

Below, a 7th Armour Division Crusader tank drives by a burning German Panzer IV.

Below, British American-made M3 medium tank and other armored vehicles during Operation Crusader.

A Humber Mk III reconnaissance car during an exploratory mission before the Operation was launched.

 Below, map of North Africa, showing you the geographical location of Tobruk

Historical video of siege of Tobruk and Operation Crusader

Operation Compass

Operation Compass was the code-name for the British offensive launched against the Italian forces in North Africa during the World War II. Under the command of Major-General Richard O’Connor, the Western Desert Force began Operation Compass on December 8, 1940, against the Italian 10th Army positions in Western Egypt. The main objective of this military operation was to drive the Italians back into Lybia. Commanded by General Italo Gariboldi, they had been on the offensive against the British for several weeks, driving a wedge into British-controlled Egypt, but the Italian invasion had slowly ground to a halt. It was then, when the British Supreme Commander, Archibald Wavell, had ordered the commander British Troops Egypt, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, to devise a limited operation to push the Italians back. Originally, Operation Compass was planned as a five-day raid, but was extended after its initial success.

The British Western Desert Force was composed of the 7th Armored Division and the Indian 4th Division, which was replaced by the Australian 6th Division on December 15, totalling 36,000 troops, 150 artillery pieces, 275 tanks, and 142 aircraft. The Italian 10th Army was consisted of four army corps that amounted to approximately 150,000 soldiers, supported by 400 mechanically-unreliable, lightly-armored tanks.

Preceded by an intense bombing of Italian airfields that destroyed or damaged 29 aircraft on the ground, the Western Desert Force launched the assault against the Italian positions south of Sidi Barrani on December 8, 1940, achieving complete surprise. Supported by artillery, aircraft, and armor, the assault overran the Italian defensive lines within five hours and resulted in the destruction of the Maletti Group and the death of its commander, General Pietro Maletti. During the next three days, the 7th Armored Division and the Indian 4th Division advanced westward, annihilating 237 Italian artillery pieces, 70 tanks, and capturing 38,300 men as they went. Having pushed through Halfaya Pass, they crossed the border and took Fort Capuzzo.

On December 14, 1940, the Australian 6th Division replaced the Indian 4th Division. After heavy fighting, the Australians drove a wedge into Lybia and took Bardia on January 5, 1941. Pushing westward along the coast, they were also able to capture Tobruk on January 22, and Derna on February 3. Because of the Australian offensive, the Italian Supreme Commander, General Rodolfo Graziani made the decision to completely abandon the region of Cyrenaica and ordered the 10th Army to fall back through Beda Fomm. Having heard of the Italian move, O’Connor drafted a new plan to destroy the Italian 10th Army. He let the Australians keep pushing the Italians back along the coast and detached Major General Sir Michael Creagh’s 7th Armored Division with orders to turn inland, cross the desert, and take Beda Fomm before the Italians arrived.

After advancing 50 miles across the desert, the commander of the 7th Armored Division found that the North African rugged terrain was very difficult to cross. Then, he decided to send a smaller force composed of 2,000 men, supported only by light tanks, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Combe. Pushing forward, Combe Force captured Beda Fomm on February 4. Then, Combe proceded to set up defensive positions facing north up the coast, and on February 5, they came under heavy attack. Nevertheless, the Italians repeatedly failed to break through. For two days, Combe’s 2,000 men held off 20,000 Italians supported by 100 tanks. On February 7, 20 Italian tanks temporarily managed to breech the British lines to be defeated by Combe’s field guns later on the day. With the rest of the 7th Armored Division arriving and the Australians pressing from the north, the Italian 10th Army began to surrender to the British.

Operation Torch

Operation Torch was the WW2 military offensive by which the Allied forces landed on the coast of North Africa, at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers. It was launched on November 8, 1942. The importance of this military campaign was that it opened a second front against the Axis Powers and it would put American troops in combat situation against the German and Italians for the first time. Until Operation Overlord was carried out in 1944, it was the largest amphibious operation in history. The American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander of this expeditionary force.

The two main objectives of Operation Torch was the capture of key ports and air bases to prevent the reinforcement of Axis troops with war materiel and units from Europe. The other objective was to encircle and defeat the Vichy French Army, which was under the German command, before facing off the Germans and Italians. Meanwhile, the men of British 8th Army were fighting against the German Afrika Korps, under Rommel at the Second Battle of El Alamein.

The American landing troops were organized around the Western Task Force (33,000 men), under George Patton. At all three landing sites, the Vichy French forces put up a stiff resistance. At the beginning, their commander, the Vichy Premier Admiral Jean Francois Darlan, refused to sign an armistice. At all three landing beaches, the Anglo-American troops came under ferocious attack, especially at Casablanca. However, the naval and air bombing of parts of the city forced Jean Francois Darlan to sign an armistice on November 11.

At Algiers, two British warships had been struck by coastal artillery fire. Thus, they were able to land only 250 men from the 600-men contingent, whose mission was to secure port facilities to make the beach landing easier. Meanwhile, the third landing site, Oran, had fallen after two days of fierce fighting. Here the British lost 300 men killed in action and more than 100 wounded.

Below, American troops landing on a beach near Casablanca during Operation Torch.

Fall Gelb (Case Yellow)

Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) was a military operation by which Germany attacked France through the Ardennes forest, in May 1940, during World War II. The Ardennes region is located in northeastern France and southern Belgium. The armored divisions of Army Group A, under Gerd von Rundstedt, formed the spearhead of the invasion force, advancing in the direction of the town of Sedan and Bastogne as they had to cross the Meuse River. This military operation was conceived by Erich von Manstein and it was called the Manstein Plan.

In order for Fall Gelb to succeed, it had to be a surprise assault. Thus, Army Group A attack would be preceded by a diversionary invasion of Netherlands and Belgium to draw and lure most of the British BEF and French Army divisions. This secondary attack would be carried out by Army Group B, under Fedor von Bock. Thus, the Battle of France began on May 10, 1940, when the Luftwaffe's 7th Fallschirmjäger Division attacked and seized the Belgian Fort of Eben-Emael, while Army Group B's 18th Army pushed into Holland, with mechanized infantry divisions, through the north. By May 14, General Heinz Guderian's XIX Armor Corps (Army Group A) had reached the Sedan and crossed the Meuse.

To completely defeat France, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) would be followed by a third German invasion of France, which would take place south of the Ardennes region on June 5, 1940. This offensive from the south was called Fall Rot (Case Red) and it would be carried out by Army Group C, under Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, directly attacking and also bypassing the Maginot Line, through the Vosges Mountains in Alsace. On the other side of this heavily fortified line, the French territory was defended by the French 3rd Army. As a result of Fall Gelb and Fall Rot, France was forced to sign the Armistice at Compiegne on June 22, 1940.

German Forces

For the invasion of France, Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group A was composed of 45 divisions organized around three armies and one Panzer group; the 4th Army, led by Günther von Kluge; the 12th Army, under Wilhelm List; and the 16th Army, commanded by Ernst Busch; led by von Kleist, the Panzer Gruppe consisted of three Corps: the XIX, the XIV, and the XLI Corps.

Fedor von Bock's Army Group B was made up of the 6th Army, led by Walther von Reichenau, and the 18th Army, under Georg von Küchler.

Wehrmacht troops in action during Fall Gelb (Video)

 

Below, map of northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands, showing the lines of attack by the different German units during Fall Gelb (Case Yellow).

Dieppe Raid

The 1942 Dieppe Raid was a WW2 Allied amphibious assault on the French port of Dieppe, which was in German hands. This city port is located on the coast of northeastern France, on the English Channel. Operation Jubilee, as it was called, was conducted on August 19, 1942, by a mixed Allied force. The objective of this raid was to capture the port of Dieppe, and then destroy all the gun emplacements, communication and commando posts, and other military installations. Having achieved their mission, these men had to return back to England safely.

Designated Units for the Attack

For this mission, the British commanders selected the Canadian 4th and 6th Infantry Brigade, the Canadian 14th Tank Battalion, the British No. 4 and No. 3 Royal Marine Commando, and a 50-man unit of the US Army Rangers. They were under the command of Canadian General J.H. Roberts. The Canadian units belonged the 2nd Division. To provide fire support umbrella to the amphibious troops, 70 squadrons of fighter aircraft and light bombers of the Royal Air Force were employed.

Result

The Dieppe Raid was a total failure. The 30 Churchill tanks of the 14th Tank Battalion got bogged down in the soft wet sand on the beach as only a few tanks were able to make their way into town. The men of the No. 3 Commando were unable to achieve their objective, which was the German artillery battery at Berneval, located to the east of Dieppe. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the No. 4 Commando managed to destroy only six howitzers of the Varengeville battery.

Allied losses during Operation Jubilee were very high as 907 men got killed in action and 514 got wounded, while 1,480 men were taken prisoners. Attempting to take a well-defended port was impossible. However, it was an opportunity to test military equipment and to gain experience. The lessons of Dieppe were learned and taken into account when the Allied commanders planned Operation Overlord in 1944.

Below, a diagram of the Allied military units involved in the Dieppe Raid.

Allied Landing at Salerno

The Allied landing at Salerno was carried out under the codename 'Operation Avalanche'. This WW2 amphibious invasion of mainland Italy was conducted by the 5th Army, under General Mark Wayne Clark, on September 9, 1943. The battle-hardened units of the German 10th Army, under von Vietinghoff, put up stubborn resistance, launching vicious counterattacks. Therefore, it took the Allied forces more than a week to fully secure a permanent beachhead on September 18. Meanwhile, the British 8th Army, led by Montgomery had already landed on the beaches of Calabria, in the toe of the Italian boot, through Operation Baytown, which took place on September 3.

Opposing Forces

The Allied 5th Army had been created on January 4, 1943, being composed of the US VI Corps, under General Lucas, and the British X Corps, led by General McCreery. This Allied landing force consisted of about 90,000 men, including infantry and armored divisions.

The Germans had deployed about 70,000 men near Salerno. They all belonged to the Wehrmacht's 10th Army, under the command of Heinrich von Vietinghoff. It included the XIV and the LXXVI Panzer Korps and contained several Panzer divisions.

Summary

Operation Avalanche began in the early hours of September 9, when three battalions of US Army's Rangers went ashore at Maiori, near Salerno. These men met little resistance. Nevertheless, the soldiers of the US 36th Infantry Division encountered fierce and accurate enemy fire from the very moment the set foot on the beach near Paestum. Meanwhile, the British X Corps units (46th and 56th Div.) landed on the shores of Montecorvino, with their main goal being the local airfield. British Commandos went ashore at Salerno proper. Royal Navy warships provided constant fire support with their heavy-caliber naval guns.

During the Allied landings at Salerno, the 5th Army's troops were almost driven back into the sea as the German 29th Panzergrenadier Division (LXXVI Korps) opened fire on them from nearby hills. German reinforcement constantly attacked the US 36th and 45th Divisions, which were thinly deployed along their perimeters. The Germans nearly broke through their lines at several points. However, naval gun fire, artillery, ground attack aircraft, and airborne reinforcement managed to stop the Germans. Thus, further counterattacks proved to be unsuccessful. The Allied units of the British 8th Army advancing from the south forced the 10th Army's units to withdraw and fall back northwards, to the Gustav Line.

Below, map of the Allied landings at Salerno and Calabria by the 5th and 8th Army respectively.

 

 

American GIs of the US 5th Army landing on the beaches of Salerno, Italy.

Allied landing at Anzio

The Allied landing at Anzio during WW2 received the codename of Operation Shingle. It was part of Allied Italian Campaign. It began on January 22, 1944, when the United States forces came ashore on the Italian coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The purpose of this Allied invasion was to outflank the strong German defenses of the Gustav Line, thus breaking the stalemate between the opposing forces there and relieving the pressure on Monte Cassino. Nevertheless, Operation Shingle would soon get bogged down as the Germans would put up a ferocious resistance to the Anglo-American advance.

Forces Involved

The American invasion of Italy at Anzio was carried out by the VI Corps, 5th Army, under Lt. General John Porter Lucas. The VI Corps was composed of the US 3rd Infantry Division, led by JW O'Daniel, the 6615 US Ranger Force, the 504 US Para Infantry Rgt, the British 1st Infantry Division, under Rondald Penney, the 46th Royal Tank Battalion, and two battalions of British Commandos. On the other hand, the defending forces of the Wehrmacht numbered 40,000 men, who belonged to the German 14th Army, under Eberhard von Mackensen.

Summary

The units of the VI Corps landed at Anzio on January 22, 1944. By January 30, they had managed to secure the beachhead. However, when they were ready to advance north, the US Rangers were decimated in a gory ambush at Cisterna as the British 2nd Battalion was annihilated at Campoleone. In February, the Germans launched fierce counterattacks, which came close to completely breach the Allied lines as they punched holes in them. Nevertheless, intense Allied naval gunfire, artillery shelling, and aircraft raids brought the German attacks to a halt.

It was May 20, yet the VI Corps units were still stranded on their beachhead at Anzio. They had to wait for the Allied II Corps forces, who had broken through the Gustave Line at Cassino, for them to be able to break out of the beachhead on May 26, when they linked up with the II Corps spearhead's units. This massive military reinforcement provided by the II Corps forced the German 14th Army's divisions to fall back northwards towards Rome. At the end of the battle for Anzio, the Allies had lost around 23,000 men killed in action and wounded.

Below, maps of the Allied landing at Anzio on January 22, 1944, and the British advance through the Gustave Line.

Allied Invasion of Sicily

The Allied invasion of Sicily was executed through Operation Husky. It began on July 10, 1943, ending on August 17, 1943. It was carried out by the British 8th Army, under Bernard Montgomery, and the US 7th Army, led by General George Patton. It preceded Operation Baytown, which was the British invasion of mainland Italy, which would take place on September 3, 1943, during World War II.

Summary of the Campaign

On July 10, 1943, Montgomery's 8th Army divisions landed at Syracuse, on the shores of the southern tip of the island. Meanwhile, Patton's 7th Army forces landed on the beaches near Gela, in the southwestern coastline. The British 8th Army units made the main thrust into the island, fighting against 300,000 German and Italian troops that had been deployed on the island. Once they were able to establish their beachheads, the American 7th Army pushed eastwards and northwards, outflanking strong German positions.

From the very beginning, the Allied forces faced stiff resistance put up by the Wehrmacht divisions deployed on Sicily. As Montgomery's 8th Army forces advanced northwards towards Messina, the US 7th Army division had breached the Axis' defensive lines in the center of the island, reaching the northern shores in about three weeks. It was then that the German High Command decided to evacuate their forces and ship them to mainland Italy, saving them for the fierce fighting that would come ahead to prevent the Allies from reaching Rome.

The assembled Allied combat forces that had invaded Sicily totaled 180,000 infantry troops, which were supported by 600 tanks, 4,000 light armored vehicles, and 1,850 artillery pieces. British and US Navy battleships and cruisers had provided fire support for the landing troops.

Below, units of the British 8th Army go ashore in southern Sicily.

A British infantry squad picked their way through the rubble in Catania, Sicily.

Operation Mouette

Operation Mouette was a military offensive conducted by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, in 1953, in Southern Vietnam, during the French Indochina War. Launched on October 15, 1953, the ojectives of Operation Mouette was to search for the location of the Viet Minh 320th Division, which was operating in the area of Phu Nho Quan, south of the Red River Delta, and destroy it.

Once a French military camp had been established in the area, several units were sent to fight the Viet-Minh forces. To carry out Operation Mouette, seven Mobile Groups (Groupes Mobiles), reinforced by an airborne unit, were deployed with river and amphibious units, under the command of French Colonel Christian de Castries.

Mouette was a accomplished successfully as approximately 1,000 enemy troops had been killed, and 2,500 wounded, by the time the French forces ended the campaign on November 7, 1953. Around 185 Viet Minh soldiers had been captured along with a substantial quantity of enemy weapons and ammunition. In the same month and year, the French would carry out Operation Castor to secure the valley of Dien Bien Phu.

Operation Camargue

Operation Camargue was a large military operation carried out by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps and the Vietnamese National Army against the China-backed Viet Minh forces during the French Indochina War. It took place in central Vietnam, Indochina, between July 28 and August 10, 1953. It is fair to say that the Viet Minh fought for the independence of Indochina and the cultural identity of their people.

Operation Camargue was designed and launched by the French General Henri Navarre. Its objective was to rid the critical Road One, and the area around it, of the clandestine guerrilla units of the communist Viet Minh, which had been harrassing and ambushing French troops for a long time.  A French armored regiment, airborne units and amphibious troops, which landed on the coast of central Annam, took part in this operation.

Operation Camargue was initiated on the early morning of July 28, 1953, when the first amphibious units landed on the beaches of Annam Province, central Vietnam, and reached the first objectives, an inland canal, without major incident. A secondary phase of mopping-up operations began in a group of small villages where French armored forces suffered a series of ambushes. Reinforced by paratroopers, the French and their Vietnamese allies tightened a net around the defending Viet Minh, but unexpected delays in the movement of French forces left gaps through which most of the Viet Minh guerillas, and many of the arms caches the operation was expected to seize, escaped. For the French, this validated the claim that it was impossible to operate tight ensnaring operations in Vietnam’s jungle, due to the slow movement of their troops, and a foreknowledge by the enemy, which was difficult to prevent. From then on, the French focused on creating strong fortified positions, against which Viet Minh General Giap could pit his forces, culminating in Operation Castor and the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

Operation Camargue ended in August 1953, when the French forces withdrew from Annam. It had not been a successful campaign, for they could not annihilate the Viet Minh units and capture both the expected number of prisoners and arm caches. Once the French had left, Viet Minh Regiment 95 re-infiltrated Road One and resumed ambushes of French convoys, retrieving weapons caches missed by the French forces. Regiment 95 occupied the area for the remainder of the First Indochina War and were still operating there as late as 1962 against the South Vietnamese Army during the Second Indochina, or Vietnam War.

Below, map of the Annam and Cochinchina, two provinces of French Indochina. Road One is runs parallel to the coast.

Below, Viet Minh guerrilla fighters

 

Operation Fischreiher

Operation Fischreiher was a WW2 German military campaign, which was launched on June 28, 1942, to conquer the region of the Volga River, and to capture the city of Stalingrad. It was assigned to Army Group B, under Maximilian von Weichs, who had to lead his forces eastwards, in a straight direction. It was one of the two military operations into which Fall Blau (Case Blue) was divided; the other was Operation Edelweiss, which was the military campaign carried out by Army Group A to invade and secure the Caucasus region and the Baku oil fields. Thus, Operation Fischreiher’s main objectives was to secure the northern flank of Operation Edelweiss and to conquer both sides of the Volga River.

German Military Components

To carry out Fall Blau, Adolf Hitler had divided Army Group South into Army Group A, led by Wilhelm List, and Army Group B, commanded by von Weichs, in his Directive 41 signed on April 5, 1942. Army Group B was a very powerful military unit; it was composed of the 6th Army, under Friedrichs von Paulus; the 4th Panzer Army, led by Hermann Hoth; the 2nd Army; 4th Romanian Army; 8th Italian Army; and 2nd Hungarian Army.

The Volga Campaign

On June 28, the 4th Panzer Army set in motion Operation Fischreiher, moving eastwards as it was the spearhead of the German advance. When it reached the Don River, this armored unit took part in the Battle of Voronezh, which held up its offensive for a about a week. Meanwhile, the 6th Army also marched eastwards, in a straight line, but a few kilometers to the north and parallel to the 4th Panzer Army ‘s line of advance. The mechanized infantry divisions of the 6th Army was moving fast. However, von Paulus ordered the front line units to slow down their march because they had outstretched the logistic supply lines.

This decision would prove to be fatal, as this drop in the speed and dynamic of the German advance made the 6th Army fail to encircle the Soviet 62nd and 64th Army, which managed to get out of the German pincers maneuver as they made their way into the city of Stalingrad. Once in the city, the Soviet troops would be resupplied with men and ammunition from the other side of the Volga River. Thus, Operation Fischreiher would end up in the Battle of Stalingrad, during which the German 6th Army would be annihilated by February 2, 1943. The German defeat on the Volga would eventually lead to the withdrawal of Army Group A’s forces from the Caucasus region.

Below, German 6th Army’s infantry moving towards Stalingrad.

Map of Case Blue, showing its two sub-operations: Edelweiss and Fischreiher.

Below, the infantry soldiers of the Soviet 62nd Army fighting on the outskirts of Stalingrad on the western shore of the Volga.

Operation Edelweiss

Operation Edelweiss, or Unternehmen Edelweiß in German, was a World War II German operation which was launched on July 25, 1942. Being part of Case Blue, its main objective was to invade and secure the Caucasus region to be able to capture the oil fields of Baku.

Operation Edelweiss had been authorized by Hitler on July 23, 1942. This military campaign of the Wehrmacht would eventually fail because Army Group B’s 6th Army eastward advance (Operation Fischreiher) would grind to a halt as it would be defeated at the Battle for Stalingrad on the Volga, leaving Army Group A’s eastern flank unprotected.

Army Group A, under the command of Wilhelm List, was the main force involved in this German attack on the Caucasus. It included the powerful 1st Panzer Army under Ewald von Kleist, plus part of the Luftwaffe’s Luftflotte 4 (Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen) and the 3rd Romanian Army (General Petre Dumitrescu). One division of Army Group B’s 4th Panzer Army temporarily assisted the Army Group A’s units in the capture of Rostov on the Don. AG A’s southward offensive was supported to the east by Army Group B commanded by Fedor von Bock and by the remaining 4th Air Fleet aircraft (1,000 aircraft in all). The land forces, accompanied by 15,000 oil industry workers, included 167,000 troops, 4,540 guns and 1,130 tanks.

When the Soviet counterattack in the Izyum-Barvenkovsk direction had been neutralized, the German Army Group A quickly attacked towards the Caucasus. After Rostov-on-Don fell to the Germans in late July, 1942, the Panzer divisions of Ewald von Kleist moved across the Caucasian Mountain Range. On their way to the oil fields, the “Edelweiss” division commander, Hubert Lanz, decided to advance through the gorges of the Kuban River basin.

With the outflanking maneuvers, the Caucasian Mountain Range crossed through such passes as Sancharo, Klukhorskiy and Marukhskiy to reach Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Sukhumi and Tbilisi. The units of the 4th German Mountain Division, manned with Tyroleans, were active in this thrust. They succeeded in advancing 30 km toward Sukhumi. To attack from the Kuban region and to cover the “Edelweiss” flank, a vanguard detachment of 150 men commanded by Colonel-General Grott was formed. From the Old Karachay through the Khurzuk aul and the Ullu-kam Gorge the detachment reached the Khotyu-tau Pass, which had not been defended by the Soviet troops. Khotyu-tau gained a new name — “The Pass of General Konrad”.

Operation Edelweiss starting point on the Krasnodar-Pyatigorsk-Maikop line was reached on August 10, 1942. On August 16 the battalion commanded by von Hirschfeld made a feint and reached the Kadar Gorge. On August 21 a Nazi flag was installed on Mount Elbrus, the highest point of the Caucasus.

Below, Map of Operation Case Blue and Edelweiss, showing the directions of the German advances

1st Panzer Army’s armored vehicles of Army Group A advancing towards the Caucasus

 

Operation Uranus

Operation Uranus was the Soviet Army's massive military pincers movement which successfully surrounded and defeated the Wehrmacht's 6th Army, in the city of Stalingrad, during World War II. Under the overall command of Georgy Zhukov, it was launched on November 19, 1942, with the encirclement successfully being finished a few days later, on November 23.

The German 6th Army was under Friedrich Paulus and belonged to Army Group B. At the end of Case Blue, not only the German forces got trapped between the jaws of the Soviet's pincers but also two Romanian armies, which had been deployed in that sector of the Eastern Front. This is how the Germans lost the Battle of Stalingrad.

Summary

The Soviets had decided to set in motion Operation Uranus when the German 6th Army moved into Stalingrad in pursuit of the Russian 62nd and 64th Army that had just escaped a German encirclement maneuver. The reason for Friedrich von Paulus failing to encircle the Red Army's forces was to due to the fact that the 6th Army's vanguard had slowed down their march as they had outstretched their logistic supply lines. There was also a lack of coordination with the Wehrmacht's 4th Panzer Army; both forces belonged to Army Group B.

The two Soviet Army Groups that carried out the main two encirclement spearheads were the Southwest Front, which had concentrated all their forces to the north of Stalingrad, and the Stalingrad Front, which had deployed their units to the south on the shore of the Volga River. The former constituted the northern jaw of the pincers, while the latter was the southern jaw, respectively. Meanwhile, the Don Front's armies, deployed between these two Army Groups, carried out only secondary punches westwards into German-held territory.

To defeat the Germans and Romanians trapped in this encirclement, the Soviets employed about 850 tanks, most of them T-34s, 14,000 field artillery pieces, and about 1.2 million men. After vicious fighting, punching through the Romanian and German lines, the spearheads of the Southwest Front's 5th Tank Army and the Stalingrad Front's 51st and 57th Army managed to link up the arms of the encirclement at Kalach.

Below, Russian troops and T-34 tanks heading towards Kalach to close the jaws of the pincers.

Below, map of the Volga River and Stalingrad, showing the positions of the three Russian Fronts and the directions of the attacks.

Operation Bagration

Operation Bagration was the 1944 massive Soviet attack on the German positions at the center of the Eastern Front defensive lines. Under the command of Konstantin Rokossovsky, it was successfully carried out by four Soviet Fronts from June 23 to August 29, 1944, during WW2. This military campaign consisted of a series of four offensives, with the last two ones depending on the success of the first two. If the Battle of Kursk had been a decisive battle that definitely turned the tide of the war, the 1944 powerful Russian assault on the German lines was the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.

Opposing Forces

The 1st Baltic Front, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Belorussian Fronts were the Soviet units designated to carry out Bagration. They were commanded by Konstantin Rokossosky. Meanwhile, Army Group Center’s 9th Army, 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, and 2nd Army had been deployed in the sector that was to be attacked by the Russians. These German forces were led by General Ernst Busch.

Below, map showing the positions of the Soviet Fronts on June 23, at the beginning of Bagration

Summary

On June 10, before Operation Bagration began, the Red Army’s Leningrad and Karelian Fronts had launched a diversionary attack on the Finnish positions near the Baltic sea. The main objectives of this offensive was to lure the Wehrmacht forces away from a salient and, at the same time, to force the Finnish Army into surrender. This offensive launched before Bagration would lead to an armistice which put Finland out of the war.

On June 23, Operation Bagration first offensive, which was the main one, was set in motion. It was conducted by the 1st Baltic Front, moving westward. On the first day, the Russian forces advanced 16 km on a 35-km-wide front. The units of the 1st Baltic Front moved north of the salient of Vitebsk in a northeast-southwest direction. By June 25, the 3rd Belorussian Front had met the 1st Baltic, encircling and trapping one 3rd Panzer Army’s division in Vitebsk. Meanwhile, the 1st Belorussian Front had started their offensive a day before, on June 24; by June 27, this Soviet unit had encircled most of the German 9th Army. However, most of the Germans trapped in Soviet cauldron were saved by a land corridor opened up by Waffen-SS units.

As the Russian forces continued unrelentingly their advance, German units either fell back or were annihilated. The Russians liberated Minsk on July 4, and over the following ten days, about 100,000 German troops got trapped east of this city. About half of them were killed in action and the survivors were taken prisoners and paraded on the streets of Moscow as war trophy. On August 1, the 1st Belorussian Front stopped at the Vistula for refitting as they had been fighting for more than a month.

After 68 days of intense battles, Operation Bagration officially ended on August 29, 1944. All four Fronts of the Red Army had advanced an average of 600 km deep, on an 1,100 km front from north to south. It had been the major Russian advance of the war as the Soviet Union had recovered a huge chunk of her territory and part of Poland.

Below, map of the Vitebsk salient and the encirclement of late June, 1944.

Russian soldiers of the 3rd Belorussian Front on the attack as they advance westwards.

Operation Bagration footage

Operation Castor

Operation Castor was an airborne operation carried out by French paratroopers during the French Indochina War. It took place in the Vietnamese province of Dien Bien Phu, in the north, from November 20 to November 22, 1953. Operation Castor was the largest airborne operation since World War II.

Geographically, Dien Bien Phu was a large valley surrounded by jungle-covered mountains. The objective of Operation Castor was to establish a fortified airbase (outpost) on the bottom of the valley, which is located in the north-west corner of Vietnam. The purpose of this French military outpost was to lure the Viet Minh into fighting a pitched battle. That battle, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, would take place four months later.

Operation Castor was initiated at 10:35 hours on November 20, 1953, when the French 6th and 2nd Colonial Airborne Battalions, commanded by Brigadier General Jean Gilles, dropped over Dien Bien Phu to secure the airstrip, which had been built by the Japanese during the occupation of French Indochina by Japan in World War II.

To carry out this operation, 65 out of the 70 operational C-47 Dakota and all 12 C-119 Flying Boxcar aircraft were employed. On November 21, a second group of paratroopers, spearheaded by the 1st Foreign Airborne Battalion, dropped in, too. With all its objectives achieved, the operation ended on 22 November.

Below, French paratroopers, which included Foreign Legion units, during Operation Castor, securing the area in the valley of Dien Bien Phu

Operation Hirondelle

Operation Hirondelle was the codename for the two-day French airborne operation to destroy the Viet Minh supply depots near Lang Son, during the French Indochina War. It was carried out from July 17, to July 19, 1953, by the paratroopers of the French and Vietnamese National Armies, commanded by General Marcel Bigeard. The 2,000-men French forces successfully attacked and destroyed Viet Minh’s weapons caches hidden in caves near Colonial Routes Four and One. “Hirondelle” is a French word which means “swallow” in English.

After a successful first phase, Operation Hirondelle forces retreated over land through Loc Binh, where other French units had been dropped on July 17 to repair and hold a river crossing for the retreating units; and then to form a rearguard for 20 miles. The entire force rendezvoused with Mobile Group Five, and was then extracted by sea on July 19, thus ending a successful military operation.

Below, a French officer and two local soldiers, as part of the French forces, during Operation Hirondelle