Chapter 21 Breakthrough in Normandy

On the Normandy battlefield in July 1944, both sides fought bitterly.For a whole month, apart from heavy casualties, no major results could be seen.However, the Germans cannot compare with the Allies, and they cannot afford this kind of consumption.The Allies, however, had a steady stream of new reserves coming from behind the front lines. On July 3, the U.S. First Army adjusted its deployment after capturing Cherbourg. They resumed their offensive and broke through southward in an attempt to reach the bottom line of the peninsula.However, due to the limited space, the attacking force cannot maneuver, so the speed of advancement is very slow.On July 8, the Second British Army under the command of General Dempsey advanced to the Gang area, but was stopped by the Germans at the crossing of the Arno River.The Allied forces carried out flank assaults several times in succession, but were repelled one by one by the Germans.On July 18, the Allies launched a massive offensive, the famous operation known as Operation Garling.The Allies dispatched three armored divisions, organized into three echelons, and launched an attack from the landing field on the northeast side of Gang.The attacking forces traversed a channel with a width of five kilometers.Prior to the crossing, a strong aerial attack damaged the rear fortifications in the Gang area.Breaking through the German defenses seemed promising at the time.However, the slow speed of the Allied attack and their hesitation in rounding certain settlements allowed the Germans to quickly cut off their retreat and move tanks and anti-tank guns into the threatened direction.In this way, the opportunity for a breakthrough was finally lost, and the subsequent new assault by the British and Canadian forces could not improve the situation.But the Allies used these actions to attract the enemy's attention, forcing the enemy to leave their elite troops in the Gang area.As a result, seven out of nine German tank divisions were pinned down there.

On the western flank of D-Day, Allied forces under the command of General Bradley were attacking, but it was also slow.In the first three weeks of July, they only covered eight to thirteen kilometers.At this time, General Patton's U.S. Third Army had been transported from England to Normandy, ready to launch a larger offensive. The Allied offensive, known as Operation Cobra, began on July 25.The force participating in this offensive was six divisions at the beginning.Their offensive front was about six and a half kilometers.Before the offensive began, aerial bombardment was carried out more intensely than in the Garin operation.The entire ground was covered with potholes, which instead helped the German garrison weakened by the bombing, allowing them to use the pothole terrain to block the US attack.In the first two days of the battle, the U.S. Army only advanced eight kilometers, but finally expanded the breakthrough, increased the speed of the attack, and advanced towards the southwest corner of the peninsula.On July 31, the Allies made a decisive breakthrough.The breakthrough was successful because the British Second Army suddenly adjusted its deployment.The day before the breakthrough they moved from the sector east of the Orne to the central sector south of the Bayeux, and made an assault on the German defensive positions in the Caumont area.While the Germans were busy mobilizing forces from the Gam area to strengthen this threatened direction, the Americans took advantage of this opportunity to break through the German defenses near Avranches on the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula.

After Patton's tank troops entered the breakthrough, they first rushed due south, then turned to attack west, and soon occupied most of the Brittany peninsula.Then they turned around and attacked eastward, sweeping across the area north of the Loire, pointing straight at Le Mans and Chatelet.The landing field on the Ketentin Peninsula was originally not very large, with a width of only 110 kilometers, but this time it expanded rapidly, reaching 650 kilometers.In such a huge space, it is of course impossible for the Germans to station full troops.This made it impossible for them to put up effective resistance to the Allied attack; the Allied forces could systematically bypass the road junctions on which the Germans attempted to organize resistance.

The only danger to this expanding tide would be a German counterattack directed at Avranches, which was a narrow corridor.If the corridor was cut, the attacking troops would not be able to get supplies.According to the order issued by Hitler, the German army did intend to carry out such a counter assault.They mobilized four tank divisions to the area, ready to start operations on the night of 6 August.However, the direction of this counter-assault was chosen by Hitler who spread out the map in the headquarters. It was too direct, and it happened to bump into the shield of the US military's eastern flank and bumped into the cover of the US military.Therefore, Bradley said: If the enemy tank force's attack direction is a few thousand meters further south, then they are likely to break into Avranches on the first day.As soon as the German advance was halted, Allied aviation bombarded them, forcing the Germans to turn and push west.At the same time, the American armored corps was galloping eastward, reaching the German rear.At this time, the left wing of the U.S. Army turned northward and approached Argentan. Its purpose was to cooperate with the First Canadian Army commanded by General Clerar to encircle the two German armies.The First Canadian Army was attacking due south from the Gang area, and its spearhead was directed at Ferrell.Although the Allied forces failed to completely encircle all German troops, they still captured 50,000 prisoners; when the battlefield was cleaned up after the war, the German army left more than 10,000 corpses; The German divisions also suffered heavy losses and were almost defeated.Due to the ever-shrinking space for combat, the aerial bombardment of German troops has become more and more serious. Therefore, the losses suffered by the German army in terms of technical weapons and equipment, especially in tanks, have become increasingly serious, even exceeding the losses in personnel.After the German army suffered heavy losses in the Frell's pocket, it felt seriously insufficient in terms of soldiers, tanks and transport vehicles, so it was powerless to stop the Allied troops from advancing eastward.As a result, the Allied forces quickly crossed the Seine and continued to advance eastward.

What happened afterwards was that every time the Germans escaped from a trap, they fell into another, larger trap.The flank of the German army near the coast was constantly surrounded by the Allied forces, while its rear was threatened by Patton's tank troops.Patton's Army charged hard on the right flank.As they advanced, they deliberately bypassed the enemy's strongholds, so that the main force of the German army was constantly threatened by detours strategically. The Fourth Armored Division of the Patton Army has always served as the vanguard of the first echelon.After crossing the Seine north of Paris, General Ward, the commander of the division, made a report on the actions taken by the division since it broke through the German defenses in the Avranches area. Adhere to the following two basic principles to carry out decisive and resolute combat operations and to take indirect routes.

After the Allies broke through the German defensive positions on the western battlefield, the vast space and rapid action became the two keys to their victory.It is often difficult to win by taking a direct and strong attack, but it is easier to succeed by making extensive detours.Once the Allies had a wide range of freedom to maneuver, the rapidity of their mechanized forces could be used to make full use of their huge superiority in numbers. The Allied forces adopted a wide range of maneuvering tactics, so that the German defense system in France soon faced the crisis of total collapse.Therefore, the landing on August 15, 1944, by the Seventh Army of the United States and France under the command of General Butch on the southern coast of France was really unnecessary.The landing invasion in the south this time can only be regarded as a walk, because since the Normandy landing, the strength of the German army on the south coast of France has been very weak, with only four divisions, and the quality is also very low.After the Allied forces entered the interior of France along the Rhone River in the next step, the main problems faced by the unified command were all about supply, not combat.On August 23, the Allies occupied Marseilles.On the same day, the attacking force also reached Grenoble through the mountains.

On August 19, the underground armed forces of the French Resistance staged an uprising in Paris.Although their situation was dire in the first few days, they turned the tide with Allied help as Allied armor entered Paris on 25 August.At this time, the Patton Army also swept across the northeast of Paris and galloped towards the Marne River. Another important event was the attack of the British Second Army.They crossed the Seine east of Rouen and were expected to encircle the remnants of the German Seventh Army, as the First Canadian Army was still on the offensive west of Rouen.The bulk of the German remnants retreated across the Seine in time, but immediately discovered that the British tank columns had completed a deep roundabout maneuver, cutting off their retreat further to the rear.Dempsey's vanguard column arrived in Amiens on the morning of August 31. They set out from the banks of the Seine and traveled 110 kilometers in only two days and one night (sixty hours).Immediately after they crossed the Somme, they rushed forward again, through Arras and Lille, and soon reached the Belgian border, advancing to the rear of the German Fifteenth Army.There is already the coastal area of ​​the Pas-de-Calais.To the east, Hodge's First U.S. Army had leapt forward, out of the Ilsund region and on to the Belgian border.

Further to the east, the Patton Army also completed its leap forward, and its scale was even larger.They crossed the region of Champagne, rounded Verdun, headed towards the Moselle, and went out into the region of Metz-Thionville, thus approaching the German frontier.However, due to difficulties in fuel supply, Patton's troops were unable to move on, and his leading tank corps was finally forced to stop due to lack of fuel supply.At this time, the strategic development prospects were improving day by day, and there was great hope, because the Allied forces were only 130 kilometers away from the Rhine.After receiving sufficient fuel supplies, Patton resumed his offensive, but at this time the German resistance also strengthened.For the battle for France, the attack of Patton's army was decisive.It was only because of difficulties in fuel supply that they could not win the whole victory with one surprise attack.The same thing happened later in the battle for Germany.

Overstretched forces will inevitably lead to a standstill.This is a proven strategic law.On this part of the entire front, there was a long pause in the fighting: first, when pointing at the city of Metz, Patton was forced to take a direct attack; later, when fighting for this famous fortress city, he again Having to fight at close quarters completely lost the opportunity to make a detour. During the first days of September 1944, the attack speed of the Allied forces on the left increased.As a result, the Allied Command invested its main force there in an attempt to win as soon as possible.On September 3, the armored tank column of the British army arrived in Brussels, on the 4th, it reached Antwerp, and then quickly entered the Netherlands.Montgomery used such a large-scale maneuver to cut off the retreat of the German troops who were still staying in Normandy and the coast of the Calais at that time. In fact, it cut off the retreat of the basic German group on the western battlefield.At this time, the US First Army also occupied Namur and crossed the Maas River between Dinant and Givat.

At this critical juncture, the front-line commander of the German army on the western battlefield has been replaced by Marshal Mudel.He had a reputation on the Russian front for snatching up reserves out of thin air.This time, he created a miracle on a larger scale.When the Allies invaded France, half a million Germans were taken prisoner.According to common sense, if Mudel wants to defend the German border at this time, he must organize an effective defense on the 800-kilometer front from Switzerland to the North Sea. form a sufficient troop density.Still, the Germans performed a miracle and rebuilt their forces, thus prolonging the war for another eight months.

The difficulties encountered by the Allies in resupply had helped the Germans a great deal.Due to insufficient supplies, the initial strong Allied offensive slowly turned into a series of attacks of gradually weakening strength.In this way, it is possible for the German army to organize the defense hastily and launch a counterattack.The speed of the Allied forces replenishment is getting slower and slower, and it is impossible to make preparations for a new large-scale offensive soon. The Allied difficulties in resupply were partly due to the fact that they had advanced too far, but mainly due to the actions of the Germans.At that time, the German army still had some troops behind the Allied forces and controlled the major ports of France.Therefore, the Allies could neither use Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, and Le Havre, nor the major ports on the Brittany peninsula.The Germans not only held these ports, but also took action, which was a serious obstacle to the Allied offensive.The only good port held by the Allies was Antwerp, but it could not be used because the Germans still held the mouth of the West Scheldt. The Allied forces transported supplies from the base to the front line. When Normandy landed, that is, before breaking through the German defense line, the distance was only 30 kilometers, but now it extends to almost 480 kilometers.This heavy work of transporting supplies was almost invariably performed by automobiles, since the railways in France had been completely destroyed by aerial bombardment.From the perspective of paralyzing the German army's combat operations so that it could not stop the Allied offensive, blowing up the railway is undoubtedly beneficial. However, if the Allied forces want to provide material support for their fast-attacking troops, the destruction of the railway has become a huge problem. A nuisance. In mid-September, in a daring attempt to weaken German resistance, the Allies dropped three airborne divisions on the right side of the German army in the Netherlands, the purpose of which was to launch a new attack on the lower Rhine for the British Second Army Clear the way for the Allies to cross the river there.The airborne troops were dropped in batches behind the German defense line, and the perimeter of the airborne field was about 100 kilometers.After the airborne troops landed, they seized strategic points immediately to ensure that the Allies could cross four water obstacles: one was to cross the Wilhelmmingla Canal in the Eindhoven area; the other was to cross the Maas River near Graf; The regions of Nijmegen and Arnhem forcibly cross the Waal and Reck (both tributaries of the Rhine).Three of these four key points were preempted, and the troops also passed the water obstacle smoothly.As a result of the delay in capturing the third point, the fourth was not captured, because the Germans took countermeasures very aggressively. This setback caused a corresponding delay in the Allied ground attack and the destruction of the 1st Airborne Division in the Arnhem area.However, this adventure was worth it, because it gave the opportunity to flank the German Rhine defense line and gained some strategic benefits.It was a bold move to throw airborne troops so far behind enemy lines.The 1st Airborne Division fought helplessly for ten days on the landing field near Arnhem, but according to the estimates of the Allied leadership, it could last no more than two days.However, since the four points where the airdrops were carried out in sequence were located in a straight line, this clearly exposed the attempt, allowing the enemy to determine the attack direction of the British Second Army, and greatly reducing their chances of victory. After the German army guessed the intention of the British Army Command, it immediately mobilized all its reserves to guard the last target with all its strength, and before the vanguard of the British Second Army arrived, it immediately dispatched all the British airborne troops. Wrecked.The Dutch terrain and fixed lines of attack helped the Germans in stopping the British advance.However, it is also impossible to take broader actions here, and it is difficult to go around a larger circle, so it is impossible to conceal one's intentions and draw the enemy's attention. Battle of the Rhine After the failure of the adventure in the Arnhem area, the hope of an early victory was also shattered.The Allied forces had no choice but to temporarily switch to the defensive position and reassemble reserves on the German border to prepare for the next large-scale offensive more cautiously.Gathering forces will of course take time.Allied Command, however, created difficulties for itself.Concentrating their forces, they did not first use them to clear the mouth of the West Scheldt, so as to open a new route for the supply of troops, but to use them in the area of ​​​​Aachen, where they wanted to break through the German defenses.However, the US military's attack on Aachen was too direct, and it turned out to be ineffective. During September/October 1944, the fighting of the rest of the Allied forces on the Western Front was entirely limited to the activities of small groups of troops.The Germans continued to strengthen their defenses.They drove to the front-line reserve team one after another, including fresh troops drawn from other places, newly formed troops, and some soldiers who had just escaped from France.Although Germany is far behind in terms of material quantity, the speed at which they assemble their troops and weapons is actually faster than that of the Allied forces.It was not until early November that the Allies finally drove out the German troops at the mouth of the Scheldt. In mid-November, the Allies launched a general offensive across the entire Western battlefield.The force used this time is a total of six army groups.The results were disappointing, with heavy casualties and little gain.If you continue to attack, it is very likely that your troops will be wasted in vain.Regarding the implementation method of this offensive operation, the opinions of the American and British military authorities are not consistent.The British army advocated concentrating all their strength on one point, while the Americans wanted to divide their forces on a broad front to make a breakthrough.Later, the American point of view prevailed.After the attack failed, the British would of course criticize the American authorities as the result of spreading their forces across a wide front.If you analyze the combat situation carefully, you will clearly see that the basic cause of the failure is not the dispersion of forces, but the obviousness of the attempt.Although the entire offensive was carried out on a wide front, due to the simultaneous use of the forces of six army groups, the offensive area within each army's offensive zone was not too wide, and the troops were still concentrated.However, the direction of attack they chose had long been anticipated by the German army.As a rule, their assaults were directed at the natural gateway to Germany.In addition, the area where the main assault is carried out is a plain area, and in winter, it often becomes a flood country, which will inevitably affect the combat operations of the troops. In mid-December, the Germans suddenly launched a counter-offensive, which surprised the Allies.They managed to hold back the Allied advance, slowing it to a crawl, and they hadn't used their fast reserves yet.When the assault force of the U.S. troops gradually weakened, so that it was impossible to break through the German defense line, the situation became increasingly obvious, and the danger of the German army's powerful counterattack was increasing.The Allies should have seen this danger long ago, because the Germans withdrew most of their tank divisions from the front line during the temporary calm of October and replenished them with new tanks.It was only because of their eagerness to win that the Allied forces completely ignored the possibility of the German army launching a counter-assault. As a result, they were taken advantage of by the German army, which shocked them greatly. Whether it is a large-scale counter-offensive or a limited-purpose counter-assault, the best time should be when the attacker has used all his strength but has not yet achieved victory.At this time, due to the long-term fighting, the enemy's troops must be physically and mentally exhausted, and it is impossible for the commander to control too many reserves to resist the counterattack.If this counterattack comes from an unexpected direction, it will be even more powerless. The German High Command also had a completely different view on the choice of terrain.This is to their advantage.The battlefield they chose for the counterattack was the Ardennes area with rolling hills and dense forests.This is a region recognized as treacherous and difficult to navigate, so that, in the opinion of the orthodox, no large-scale attack can be carried out there.At the same time, the dense forests in the Ardennes area also ensured the concealment and concentration of troops; the terrain there was higher and the soil was harder, which was also conducive to the maneuvering of tanks.All these favorable conditions guaranteed the Germans hope of victory. For the Germans, the main danger would be rapid interference by Allied air forces.Model made a general comment on this issue: Enemy No. 1 is the opponent's air force.They have an absolute advantage and can use fighter-bomber attacks and carpet bombing to destroy our tanks and artillery, destroy our rear, and make troop movements almost impossible.Therefore, the German army has been choosing the timing of its counterattack based on weather forecasts, and they are waiting for the arrival of bad weather.Sure enough, in the first three days of the German counteroffensive, it was drizzling and the Allied planes could not take off to fight.In this way, the bad weather turned into a favorable factor for the German army.The Germans certainly had great hopes for this counteroffensive, and wanted to achieve as great an effect as possible.Although the principal they have is limited this time, the bet they place is really huge.They themselves knew very well that this was a desperate game and had to take risks, so they played the last trump card.The main grouping of the German army consisted of the 5th and 6th Tank Armies, using all the tanks that could be collected. From the point of view of offensive operations, the greatest weakness of the Ardennes region is that the mountains are high and the valleys are deep and intersecting each other, so that the roads passing through these valleys form many defiles and passes.At these points, the path of the tank's advance could easily be blocked.The German High Command should have guarded against this danger by pre-occupying strategic passes with paratroopers.However, since the battle to seize Crete in May 1941, the number of German airborne troops has been greatly reduced, and their technical equipment has been deteriorating. Therefore, in the Battle of Ardennes, they were already Powerless, only a few small groups of paratroopers could be sent to carry out this task. The goal pursued by the German army in this counter-offensive is very ambitious.They tried to take an indirect route, use a roundabout way to rush forward, and finally rushed to Antwerp, cut off the connection between the British army group and the American army and its base, completely isolated the British army, and finally wiped it out.The Fifth Tank Army under the command of Manteuffel is expected to break through the U.S. defense line in the Ardennes area, and then develop an offensive westward. When it reaches a certain depth, it will turn its direction and advance northward, passing through the Maas in the Namur area. River, attacked as far as Antwerp.As the army advances gradually, it should establish a barrier on its left flank to prevent the American army from attacking from the south.The Sixth Tank Army under the command of Zietrich was ordered to attack in the northwest direction, passing through Liege, reaching Antwerp, and establishing a strategic blocking line behind the British army and the American army on the north side of the Maas River. The German counter-offensive progressed rapidly in the first few days, as a result of its suddenness, which shocked the Allies and caused confusion at some points.Manteuffel's Fifth Tank Army made a fairly far-reaching breakthrough.However, after the Allied Air Forces increased pressure on the German rear, the Germans immediately felt the lack of fuel, and thus lost time and favorable opportunities.They never made it to the Meuse, but at several points came directly close to it.The reasons for the failure of the German army were twofold: on the one hand, some of the besieged American troops tenaciously defended certain passes in the Ardennes, preventing the movement of the German army; Commander of the troops, he acted very quickly, and at once moved the reserves southwards, thus preventing the enemy from crossing the Meuse. The next phase of the operation was the concentration of Allied forces to remove the giant wedge through which the Germans had driven their defenses.However, the Germans retreated cleverly and jumped out of the encirclement.From the point of view of the combat situation alone, although this counterattack did not achieve the expected goal, it was still beneficial to the German army, because it had destroyed the Allied offensive preparations and caused them to suffer considerable losses. Not very high.If there was a mistake, it was because Hitler insisted on refusing to retreat in the later stage of the battle, which caused the German army to increase its losses. However, judging from the overall situation of the battle, this counterattack by the German army was a final move for them.In this battle, the German army has consumed more power than they can afford.This heavy loss made it impossible for the Allies to mount a sustained resistance when they resumed their offensive.At the same time, the outcome of this counter-offensive also opened the eyes of the Germans to see that they were powerless to change the military situation and thus lost the last hope of victory.The failure of the counter-offensive was tantamount to declaring the bankruptcy of German military power.From then on, the German authorities could no longer deceive their soldiers and civilians.They have all seen that Germany has reached the end of its rope, and any further fighting will only increase the sacrifices in vain. The final stage From August to the end of 1944, the main battlefield of the Russian army became static and stable, and the battle line stopped in the central part of Poland.The Russians resumed lines of communication in the lands they had occupied in the summer and continued to add troops to the front for further offensives.Until the fall, they attempted to break into East Prussia, but failed to break through the German defenses and thus achieved little success. At the same time, the Russian army completed a far-reaching roundabout maneuver, starting from Romania and Bulgaria, its left flank gradually passed through Hungary and Yugoslavia.This offensive is an operation with long-term goals in terms of grand strategy and military strategy.But its development is relatively slow.This is because the Red Army has to establish a control system in the countries it passes through, and it is also affected by traffic congestion. The transportation network in this theater is underdeveloped.As the roundabout maneuver advances, a concentrated attack against a common goal is naturally formed strategically.In order to deal with this threat from the flank and prevent the Russian attack from the side door, the German army had to mobilize a large number of troops, which seriously affected its defensive forces on the two main battlefields, east and west. In mid-January 1945, Konev's troops launched a large-scale offensive from their bridgehead position on the Vistula River in the Sandomier region of southern Poland.After he broke through the enemy's defenses and threatened the German Army Group Center from the flank, the armies commanded by Zhukov also began to rush forward from the garrison field near Warsaw.Although it was winter, the rate of advance of the Russian armaments during the first week of the offensive was still almost equal to that of the summer offensive. The terrain behind the lines, that is, in western Poland, was mostly open and flat.This is bad for defenders.The Germans had already experienced this when they launched their offensive in 1939.Here nature favors the assailant, and still more so when they are superior in numbers and able to maneuver over large spaces.Now, in order to resist the offensive of the Russian army, the German army has to defend here by itself. Not only is it short of troops, but it also lacks mobility. In the second week of the offensive, the Russian army maintained the original speed of advance, and the number of prisoners continued to increase.This situation shows that the delay of the German High Command in organizing the retreat led to this consequence.After that, the German side began to evacuate the peaceful residents of several large towns within the border to the hinterland, which again marked the speed and power of the Russian offensive, indicating that the original plan of the German High Command had failed.They finally had to give up the middle position they were planning to defend to the death and prepare to retreat to the national border. Konev's armies, advancing westward on the broad front between Cracow and Lodz, crossed the western border of Poland and entered Silesia.On January 19, the cities of Krakow and Lodz were captured.The city of Lodz, however, was taken by Zhukov's troops in a roundabout way.On January 23, Konev's troops reached the banks of the Oder River, opened a 65-kilometer front near Breslau (now Wroclaw), and seized the opportunity to cross this water barrier. several ferries.In this rapid offensive, Konev captured the important industrial areas of Upper Silesia, thereby dealing a major blow to German wartime production.However, the German army still stubbornly held on to the Oder River and limited the expansion of the Russian bridgehead position on the opposite bank. On the right flank of the Russian army, Rokossovsky's armies launched an offensive from the banks of the Narew River northeast of Warsaw, all the way to East Prussia.After they broke through the western border of East Prussia, they marched westward rapidly, passing through the famous ancient battlefield of Tellenburg (where a large number of Russian troops were wiped out in 1914). It went out to the Baltic Sea coast east of Danzig (now Gdansk).In this way, most of the German troops stationed in East Prussia were cut off their retreat, and were then encircled in the Koenigsberg area. At the same time, Zhukov's troops in the central part of the Russian army attacked northwestward, pointing at the two important transportation centers of Torun and Poznan.He rounded these two important cities and moved swiftly towards the German border, leaving them behind as isolated islands in the midst of a raging tide.On January 29, Russian troops crossed the German border.Subsequently, Zhukov continued to advance towards the Oder River.At this point the river is much further west than in Silesia.The goal Zhukov is pursuing is already obvious, and that is the city of Berlin, which is 80 kilometers away from the other side of the Oder River.Therefore, Zhukov naturally faced strong resistance from the German army.On January 31, although Zhukov's tank corps had already reached the banks of the Oder in the Koschin area, it took a considerable time afterwards to bring the troops to the banks on the broad front.Later, they tried to cross the river by force, but they were repelled by the German army several times in a row. At this time, Konev's troops were attacking northwest along the west bank of the Oder in an attempt to put pressure on the German flank.The German army also relied on the river for defense and formed a diagonal position, so the Russian army's attack there was also blocked by the German army. The law of excessive stretching of forces (as a result of the great lengthening of the lines of communication) now comes into play again.As a result, the Russian army on the eastern front was stopped, and it was not until the Allied forces launched an offensive on the western front that the entire battle situation was finally decided. At the beginning of February, when the Russian army was fighting on the Oder River, Eisenhower launched a new large-scale offensive on the western front. to the east coast.First, he attacked on the left flank with elements of the British and Canadian First Armies, advancing along the west bank of the Rhine so that the U.S. Ninth and Seventh Armies could flank German forces west of Cologne.However, due to the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes area, the US offensive was delayed.At that time, the weather began to thaw, the ground became soft, and the roads were difficult to pass. The Allied offensive had to be affected to some extent.However, this favored the German defense.The Germans had blown up a dam on the Ruhr River, flooding the river and hampering the advance of the U.S. troops.Because this water barrier had to be overcome to advance, the American offensive was delayed for two weeks.After the U.S. troops crossed the river, they still encountered stubborn resistance from the German army.In this way, by the time the US troops entered the city of Cologne, it was already March 5th.And within this time, the Germans finally withdrew their broken army, with most of its technical equipment, across the Rhine. In order to stop the attack of the Allied left flank, the German army had to use most of its own troops.As a result, the strength of its own left wing was also weakened, which created a good opportunity for the attack of the US First and Third Armies.On the right flank, elements of the U.S. First Army rushed to the banks of the Rhine near Bonn, and one of them, in a surprise attack, seized an intact bridge at Remagen (20 kilometers southeast of Bonn).However, Eisenhower did not immediately take advantage of this chance, because it would have to mobilize various teams and make necessary revisions to the battle plan for the next stage, that is, the stage of decisive significance.但是，雷馬根方向對德軍所造成的威脅，還是對盟軍起了好的作用，因為它吸引住了德軍方面已經感到非常缺乏的預備隊。 美軍第三集團軍在艾弗爾高原地區（這是阿登山在德國境內的延伸部分）突破德軍的防禦以後，盟軍也就隨之佔有了更大的優勢。這一次，也和諾曼第一樣，還是巴頓打頭陣，他的第四裝甲師很快地在科布倫次附近突進到了萊茵河岸。以後，巴頓揮軍向南，經過摩澤爾河下游，進到巴拉提納特地區，然後沿著萊茵河西岸向上游猛進。這樣，他就前進到了德軍的後方，而面對該部敵軍的，正是巴奇指揮的第七集團軍。巴頓的這一打擊，使敵軍無法脫逃，因而捕獲了大量的俘虜，清除了渡越菜茵河的障礙。此後，他便掉轉頭去向東挺進，在毫無阻礙的情況下渡過了萊茵河。巴頓的部隊是在三月二十二日夜間從美因茲和沃爾姆斯之間渡河的。渡河以後，他即勇猛地插進到巴伐利亞北部，迅速擴張戰果。於是，德軍整個防線都脫節了。當時有一種傳說，認為德軍統帥部可能會把部隊撤退到南部山地中，以便憑險死守，但是經過巴頓的這一擊以後，他們也就喪失這種可能性了。 按照預定計劃，三月二十三日夜間，蒙哥馬利集團軍群於荷蘭國界附近在萊茵河的下遊渡過了該河。萊茵河是一個大型的水障礙。當時，部隊是在四個地點分別進行強渡的，第二天早晨，又在敵後空降了二個空降師，其目的是要減輕敵人對橋頭陣地的壓力。這樣，德軍的抵抗開始到處遭到削弱，最後，其整個防禦體系終於全面崩潰。 即令如此，戰爭還是拖了一個多月的時間才告結束。但這並不是因為德軍進行了嚴重的抵抗。當時，只在南北兩端的某些地段還有一些德軍殘部繼續作戰。戰爭所以延長，是因為盟軍在補給方面遇到了困難，他們渡過萊茵河以後，隨著前進距離的增大，補給上的困難就越來越大了，同時，也是因為某種必需考慮的政治原因；此外，還有空中轟炸所造成的障礙，由於狂轟濫炸的結果，法國和德國境內的所有道路都被破壞了，到處充塞著頹垣敗瓦，許多地方變成了廢墟。 戰爭的結局是在盟軍強渡萊茵河以後才最終決定的。不過，在此以前很久，德軍的力量實際上已經用盡了，所以事情的發生只是一個時間問題。 當盟軍從各個方向壓來時，德軍被迫向中央撤退，其綿長的戰線逐漸縮短了，而力量則減少得更快，甚至難以計算比例。其所以如此，原因在於希特勒，正是他堅持採取一種毫無彈性的防禦戰略，以致把德軍的力量消耗乾淨了。希特勒在沒有被勝利衝昏頭腦的時候，是很善於採取進攻方法的，可是到後來，他在採取防禦行動時，卻完全缺乏靈活性。這可以說是一個頗為奇怪的對比。 不妨設想一下，德軍雖然在兵力和物質資源方面早已匱乏到了極點，但是仍然進行了很長時間的抵抗，同時在好幾條戰線上繼續進行戰爭。這實際上要算是一個奇蹟。所以如此，一方面是由於德國人具有非凡的忍耐力，另一方面則是因為同盟國方面所提出的那個無條件投降的要求從大戰略的角度來看，實在是一條非常明顯的直接路線。不過，德國能夠進行長期抵抗這一事實，也足以證明現代防禦所具有的巨大威力。按照一般軍事家的估算，在如此強大攻擊的重壓之下，德軍要想持續抵抗一個星期，似乎都是很成問題的。可是，他們居然苦撐了好幾個月之久。德國人在進行防禦時，只要其兵力能與防禦的寬度和縱深相適應，構成一定的比例，他們是經常能擊退優勢敵人的。這種優勢有時是六：一，有時甚至是十二：一。由此看來，摧毀德軍的並不是敵人，而是空間。 如果德國的敵人能夠及時瞭解這一點，因而及早改用能夠發揮防禦優勢的方法，以來對付德國的侵略，那麼，整個世界可以減少許多浩大的犧牲和破壞，避免很多的悲劇。 很久以前，著名的拳擊師梅斯就根據他多年積累的拳賽經驗，歸納提出了幾句格言：讓敵人先向你進攻，結果他會被自己所打倒。稍晚一些時候，另一名拳擊師麥柯伊在以後教拳的時候，也發表了同樣的見解：引誘你的對方進攻，趁他兩手已經占住而你還有一隻手空著的時候，把他打倒。梅斯的格言是一個真理。這也是我們從非洲、俄國和西歐各個戰場上所可能獲得的最有價值的戰術性教訓。任何有經驗的和有頭腦的指揮官，即使在採取進攻時，他也知道應該如何利用防禦作戰所具有的優勢。 就整個第二次世界大戰的經驗來說，這也是一個最主要的結論。德國人自己促成了自己的失敗。如果他們不是那樣倒行逆施，那麼他們的敵人要想打敗他們，就不免困難得多。德國人對於勝利的問題，採取了一種太直接化了的路線，結果反而使對方獲得了間接路線的利益。德國計畫的破產和它的不斷擴張，幫助盟軍大大縮短了戰爭的時間，不過，如果同盟國方面對於戰爭基本原則的認識在最初時期即徹底一些，不限於只採用傳統的老方法來準備戰爭，那麼，這場戰爭的持續時間和造成的禍害，必能大量地減少。