This article is about the Second World War battle for Brest. For other conflicts named the battle of Brest see the disambiguation page. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Numerous actions have been termed the Battle of Brest, Brest being the name of two important fortress towns on opposite sides of Europe. ... Numerous actions have been termed the Battle of Brest, Brest being the name of two important fortress towns on opposite sides of Europe. ...

Battle for Brest
Part of World War II, Battle of Normandy
A US Tank Destroyer in the streets of Brest in September 1944
Date August, 1944 – September, 1944 Location Brittany, France Result Allied victory
Combatants
Allied Powers	Germany
Commanders
Troy H. Middleton US VII Corps Commander	Bernhard-Hermann Ramcke Fortress Brest Commander
Strength
N/A	40,000 - Luftwaffe 2nd Paratroop Division, Heer 266th and 343rd Divisions, other
Casualties
N/A	KIA 1,000+ (est), WIA 4,000, POW 38,000

The Battle for Brest was one of the fiercest battles fought during Operation Cobra, the Allied breakout of Normandy which began on 27 July 1944, during the Battle of Normandy during World War II. Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Norway Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe... Image File history File links Battleforbrest. ... A self-propelled anti-tank gun, or tank destroyer, is a type of armoured fighting vehicle. ... Brest is the name of several cities: City in Belarus: Brest, Belarus, formerly in Russia and the Soviet Union and formerly known as Brest-Litovsk. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Brittany has an expansive coastline Flag of Brittany (Gwenn-ha-du) Historical province of Brittany région of Bretagne, see Bretagne. ... The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis Powers during the Second World War. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany_1933. ... Lieutenant General Troy H. Middleton ( –1976) was a distinguished soldier-educator who served as a corps commander in Europe during World War II and, later, as President of Louisiana State University (LSU). ... Ramcke was born in Janurary 24, 1889 in Schleswig-Holstein (northern Germany). ... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Norway Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe... Combatants United Kingdom Germany Commanders General-Lieutenant Miles Dempsey, British 3rd Infantry Division Generalleutnant Wilhelm Richter, German 716th Static Infantry Division Hans von Luck, German 21st Panzer Division Strength 28,845  ? Casualties 600 Unknown German defense at Ouistreham. ... Combatants Canada Germany Commanders Major-General R.F.L. Keller, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, Lieutenant-General H.D.G. Crerar, 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade Generalleutnant Wilhelm Richter, German 716th Static Infantry Division Strength 15,000 Unknown Casualties 574 dead, 340 wounded Unknown Juno Beach was one of the landing sites... Combatants United Kingdom Germany Commanders Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, British 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division Generalleutnant Wilhelm Richter, German 716th Static Infantry Division Generalleutnant Dietrich Kraiss, German 352nd Static Infantry Division Strength 24,970  ? Casualties 400 altogether Unknown This article is about a World War II invasion. ... Combatants United States Germany Commanders Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S. 29th Infantry Division Generalleutnant Dietrich Kraiss, German 352nd Infantry Division Strength 34,000  ? Casualties 2,400 1,200 The build-up of Omaha Beach: reinforcements of men and equipment moving inland. ... Combatants United States Germany Commanders Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ... Pointe du Hocs location Preinvasion bombing of Pointe du Hoc by 9th Air Force bombers. ... Combatants U.S.A. Germany Commanders Richard Winters Colonel von der Heydte Strength 13 60+ Casualties 4 dead, 2 wounded 15 dead, 12 prisoner, wounded unknown The Brécourt Manor Assault during Operation Chicago of the Normandy Invasion of World War II is often cited as a classic example of... During World War II, Operation Chicago was carried out by the Allies in 1944. ... The Battle of Villers-Bocage (June 13, 1944) was an unusual clash between the British and Germans in northern France during World War II. Michael Wittmann, an SS-Obersturmführer, led a unit of six PzKpfw VI Tiger tanks of the 501st Battalion to secure the N175 road near Villers... Combatants Allied Powers Nazi Germany Commanders J. Lawton Collins Friedrich Dollman Casualties ?? 39,000 captured The Battle of Cherbourg was part of the Battle of Normandy, fought immediately after the successful landings on June 6, 1944. ... Combatants Allied Powers Nazi Germany Commanders Lieutenant General Richard OConnor SS General Paul Hausser Strength 1 armoured division 3 infantry divisions 1 armoured brigade 2 SS Panzer Divisions 5 Panzer battlegroups Casualties British VIII Corps 4,020 12th SS Panzer Regiment 324 25th SS Panzer-Grenadier Regiment 383 26th... Operation Goodwood was an Allied military operation of World War II from July 18 to 20 July 1944 taking place in Normandy some weeks following D-Day. ... During World War II, Operation Atlantic (Allies, 1944) was a Canadian offensive, part of the British great breakout tentative (Operation Goodwood) during the Battle of Normandy, on June 19th. ... During World War II, Operation Spring (Allies, 1944) enabled to secure territory gains around Caen and its surroundings during the Battle of Normandy, after Operation Goodwood. ... Operation Cobra was the codename for the World War II operation planned by United States Army General Omar Bradley to break out from the Normandy area after the previous months D-Day landings. ... During World War II, Operation Bluecoat was an attack by British Second Army south of Caumont, France executed 29 July 1944. ... During World War II, Operation Lüttich was a counterattack launched by German forces on the left flank of the Allied lodgment at Normandy beginning on 7 August 1944. ... During World War II, Operation Totalise ( Allies, 1944) was a ground attack on 7 August 1944 by British, Canadian and Polish forces to breakout from the Normandy beachhead along the Caen-Falaise road. ... Operation Tractable was a military operation commanded by the 2nd Canadian Corps in Normandy in August 1944. ... Combatants Western Allies Nazi Germany Commanders General Bernard Montgomery Lieutenant General Omar Bradley Field Marshal Günther von Kluge Field Marshal Walter Model Strength N/A 150,000 Casualties Canadian 18,500 Polish 2,300 U.S and British N/A Over 10,000 killed 60,000 wounded 50,000... The Liberation of Paris in World War II took place in late August 1944 after the battle of Normandy. ... Operation Cobra was the codename for the World War II operation planned by United States Army General Omar Bradley to break out from the Normandy area after the previous months D-Day landings. ... In general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. ... July 27 is the 208th day (209th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 157 days remaining. ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Norway Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian...

Part of the Allied plan for the invasion of mainland Europe called for the capture of port facilities, in order to ensure the timely delivery of the enormous amount of war material required to supply the invading Allied forces (ten of thousands of tons a day of food, ammunition, equipment etc). The main port the Allied forces hoped to seize and put into their service was Brest, in nortwestern France. Brest is a city in Brittany, or the Bretagne région, north-west France, sous-préfecture of the Finistère département. ...

The ports issue

Early in the war, after the Fall of France in 1940, the Americans began planning an eventual "Invasion of Western Europe" to be put into effect when and if they joined the war. Troops would be moved from US to England (as long as the United Kingdom was still in the war) until an invasion could be mounted into the continent. A major issue was of course how to supply the invasion army with the tens of thousands of tons of materièl it would need after it landed. The capture of ports in the European Atlantic coast was a necessity, and the most suitable ones were clear invasion objectives. The capture of these port facilities was deemed crucial, because the lack of supplies could be foreseen by the Allies. For the initial phase of the battle, large artificial ports (Mulberry Harbours) would be erected by the beaches, but they had limited tonnage unloading capabilities, and were considered just as a contingency until real ports could be captured and put into service. A Mulberry harbour was a type of temporary harbour developed in World War II to offload cargo on a beach during the Allied invasion of Normandy. ...

Good ports could be found along the northern part of France, in particular the port of Brest in Brittany, traditionally the main French Fleet harbour in the north and the westernmost port in France. The Allied strategists considered possible that, after its capture, supplies could arrive directly from the US to Brest, bypassing England and reaching the Allied Armies moving east, towards Germany, much faster. Brittany has an expansive coastline Flag of Brittany (Gwenn-ha-du) Historical province of Brittany région of Bretagne, see Bretagne. ...

Other ports in the Britanny area included Saint Malo, Lorient, and Saint Nazaire. In Normandy, Cherbourg and Le Havre were the major ports. Operation Sledgehammer, the capture of Cherbourg, had been considered by the Allies, but it was cancelled after the disastrous 1942 Dieppe Raid. Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northern France on the English Channel. ... This article is about The place Lorient in France. ... Location within France Saint-Nazaire (Breton: Sant-Nazer), is a town and commune in the Loire-Atlantique département of France, of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... Cherbourg is a city of Normandy, in northwestern France, in the Manche département, of which it is a sous_préfecture. ... Abbey of Graville, Le Havre. ... During World War II, Operation Sledgehammer was an Allied contingency plan for a limited-objective cross-channel invasion of Europe in response to a German or Soviet collapse in 1942. ... Combatants Canada United Kingdom Germany Commanders Louis Mountbatten J. H. Roberts  ? Strength 6086 1500 Casualties Canada: 907 dead, 2340 captured; United Kingdom: 555+; United States:3+; Germany: 311 dead, 280 missing The Dieppe Raid, also known as The Battle of Dieppe or Operation Jubilee, during World War II, was an...

The Germans, realizing this, however, began building fortifications around these ports earlier in the war through their TODT Organization, as part of the Atlantic Wall concept. Some of these ports were major U-Boat bases as well, and had bomb-proof concrete sub pens built. These fortifications could not be destroyed easily by air power or naval guns. Organisation Todt Flag Organisation Todt (OT) was a Nazi construction and engineering group during the years of the Third Reich, which enslaved over 1. ... German coast artillery in the Pas-de-Calais area, with laborers at work on casemate. ... U-boat is also a nickname for some diesel locomotives built by GE; see List of GE locomotives October 1939. ...

Prelude

NW France by mid-August, 1944. Patton's Third Army captures Brittany except for its ports and moves east towards Paris

Soon after Normandy was invaded, the Mulberries were towed from England and deployed in the French coast. Unfortunately for the Allies, one of them was destroyed after less than two weeks in a storm. Supplies were then mainly landed directly via the beaches, but this process is not as efficient. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (939x598, 44 KB) Fernando K 14:07, 24 December 2006 (UTC) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (939x598, 44 KB) Fernando K 14:07, 24 December 2006 (UTC) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...

Cherbourg, at the tip of the Contentin Peninsula in Normandy, was captured by the Americans which landed in Utah Beach, but before surrendering the German garrison destroyed its ports facilities. It was so far the only major port in the Allied invasion area. Cherbourg is a city of Normandy, in northwestern France, in the Manche département, of which it is a sous_préfecture. ... Combatants United States Germany Commanders Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. ...

Soon after, the Britanny peninsula was isolated by a north-south breakthrough accomplished by George S. Patton's US Third Army during Operation Cobra, and an army corps was diverted into Britanny to capture Brest and secure the northern flank of the breakthrough. A peninsula in Croatia A peninsula (from the latin words paene insula, almost island) is a geographical landform consisting of an extension of a body of land from a larger body of land, surrounded by water on three sides. ... George Smith Patton Jr. ... The US Third Army was first activated as a formation during the First World War. ...

Wehrmacht troops trapped in Brittany quickly retreated to the fortified ports in the peninsula as US Third Army troops moved in and surrounded them. The old fortress city of Saint Malo was taken by U.S. 83rd Infantry Division ("Ohio"), but its small port facilities were sabotaged by the defenders. It was clear that the Germans would deny the Allies the use of French ports as long as possible, by defending the fortresses built around them and damaging the docks as much as possible. Wehrmacht troops of the Heer (military land forces) marching at a military parade in honour of the 50th birthday of Adolf Hitler, on April 20, 1939. ... Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northern France on the English Channel. ... The 83rd Infantry Division was a unit of the United States Army in World War I and World War II. // Activated: September 1917 Overseas: June 1918 Major Operations: Designated a depot division; supplied over 195,000 officers and enlisted men as replacements in France. ...

Brest was reached by American troops on August 7th, 1944.

The Battle

GI runs in the streets of Brest

Brest was surrounded and eventually stormed by the U.S. VIII Corps. The fight proved extremely difficult, as the German garrison was well entrenched and partially made up of elite Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) forces. Image File history File links Brest44. ... Image File history File links Brest44. ... Fallschirmjäger photo taken from The Hague, Bezuidenhout during the invasion of the Low Countries, morning of May 10, 1940 , often rendered Fallschirmjager in English, is the German word for paratrooper. ... An American Paratrooper using a MC1-B series parachute Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force. ...

Military Hospital Brest France Oct 1944

The German paratroopers lived up to their reputation, as the Allies had experienced previously in battles such as Monte Cassino. Whilst some less capable units surrended quite easily, the Fallschirmjäger defended their ground under considerable odds, heavy shelling, air strikes and American assaults. The Americans had heavy losses for every small advance they made into the city. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1997x3000, 2905 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Battle for Brest ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1997x3000, 2905 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Battle for Brest ... Combatants United States United Kingdom Poland New Zealand India Free France Morocco Brazil and others Nazi Germany Commanders Harold Alexander Albert Kesselring Frido von Senger Strength 105,000 80,000 Casualties 54,000 20,000 The Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle... Fallschirmjäger photo taken from The Hague, Bezuidenhout during the invasion of the Low Countries, morning of May 10, 1940 , often rendered Fallschirmjager in English, is the German word for paratrooper. ...

As per their military doctrine, the Americans tried to use their superior artillery firepower and air superiority to overcome the defenders, instead of fighting them hand-to-hand. The result was that Brest was razed to the ground during the battle. Only some old medieval stone-built fortifications were left standing.

The fighting was intense, the troops moving house to house. The fortifications (both the French and German built) proved very difficult to overcome, and heavy barrages were fired by the artillery on both sides.

Luftwaffe General Ramcke, a paratroop veteran of Afrika Korps, surrendered the city on September 19th, 1944 to the Americans after rendering useless the port facilities. These would not be repaired in time to help the war effort as it was hoped. By this time, Paris had already been liberated by the Allied Armies. The Deutsche Luftwaffe or   (German: air force, literally Air Weapon, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... Ramcke was born in Janurary 24, 1889 in Schleswig-Holstein (northern Germany). ... The seal of Afrikakorps The German Afrika Korps (German: Deutsches Afrikakorps, DAK  ) was the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in Libya and Egypt during the North African Campaign of World War II. Since there was little turnover in the units attached to the corps, the term is... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ...

The costly capture of Brest resulted in the decision to only surround the remaining German-occupied ports in France with the exception of those that could be captured from the march, instead of storming them in a set-piece battle, except Le Havre, which was taken by the British 2nd Army in August 1944. Some of these ports surrendered only by May 9th, 1945, one day after VE Day. The British Second Army was extant in both World Wars. ... Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) was May 8, 1945, the date when the Allies during the Second World War formally celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitlers Reich. ...

Aftermath

The whole Overlord campaign developed somewhat differently than originally planned. Patton's US Third Army quick advance allowed the Liberation of Paris earlier than expected, but by September 1944 the supplies were already faltering. Decision was made to favour the British forces under Sir Bernard Law Montgomery by reducing the supplies to other forces, including Patton's. The disastrous Operation Market-Garden launched by Montgomery soon after resulted in the Allies rapid advance to stall and allowed the Germans to reorganize and even to counterattack (Operation Wacht am Rhein). By then, however, the port of Antwerp in Belgium was supplying the Allies. The Liberation of Paris in World War II took place in late August 1944 after the battle of Normandy. ... Bernard Law Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (November 17, 1887 - March 24, 1976) was a British military officer during World War II often referred to as Monty. ... Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation in World War II, which took place in September 1944. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge Combatants United States United Kingdom Nazi Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower George Patton Bernard Montgomery Walther Model Gerd von Rundstedt Adolf Hitler Strength Dec 16 - start of the Battle: about 83,000 men; 242 Sherman tanks, 182... The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady) at the Handschoenmarkt, in the old quarter of Antwerp is the largest cathedral in the Low Countries and home to several triptychs by Baroque painter Rubens. ...

Considerations

If supplies enough could have been delivered through intact French ports to both British and Americans, the Allies could have invaded the industrialized Western part of Germany before the winter of 1944-45, bringing the Third Reich to a collapse. On the other hand, further developments in WWII indicated that the logistics of carrying supplies across France by land was also a great obstacle, due to lack of enough trucks and the destruction of the railroad network. The considerable delay in the invasion of Europe (postponed from 1943 to 1944 due to the lack of LCT's) allowed the Germans extra time to have their coastal defenses, the Atlantic Wall, reinforced. The ports fortifications made the reality the soldiers found around them much different in 1944 than the one the planners foresaw back in 1942, when they believed these ports could be captured relatively intact and used to their purposes. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

"These Are My Credentials"

Some accounts have it that General Ramcke asked the American brigadier general which arrived to accept his surrender to show his credentials. The American general, Charles Draper William Canham, then pointed to his nearby troops and said "These are my credentials". There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

Further reading

• Dobler, Michael 'Closing with the enemy', which contains a study of combat in Brest
• Kuby, E. 'Nur noch rauchende Trümmer' (German - the author was an enlisted soldier in Brest)
• Buchheim, L.G. 'Die Festung' (literary treatment of the author's experiences as a German war reporter during the battle for France)

See also