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62-828: The LXXXIV Army Corps is most notable as the formation that guarded the landing grounds of the Allied Normandy landings . The LXXXIV Army Corps was formed on 15 May 1942 by renaming Höheres Kommando z. b. V. LX . In turn, the Higher Command z. b. V. LX had been formed on 15 October 1940 in Prague . The initial commander of the LXXXIV was Hans Behlendorff . The corps was subordinate to the 7th Army under Army Group D , and stationed in Saint-Lô in Normandy . Behlendorff

124-618: A broad front in Normandy would permit simultaneous threats against the port of Cherbourg , coastal ports further west in Brittany, and an overland attack towards Paris and eventually into Germany. Normandy was hence chosen as the landing site. The most serious drawback of the Normandy coast—the lack of port facilities—would be overcome through the development of artificial Mulberry harbours . A series of modified tanks, nicknamed Hobart's Funnies , dealt with specific requirements expected for

186-525: A central position around Paris and Rouen and deploying them only when the main Allied beachhead had been identified. He also noted that in the Italian Campaign , the armoured units stationed near the coast had been damaged by naval bombardment. Rommel's opinion was that because of Allied air supremacy, the large-scale movement of tanks would not be possible once the invasion was under way. Hitler made

248-465: A few days. Rommel believed that Germany's best chance was to stop the invasion at the shore. He requested that the mobile reserves, especially tanks, be stationed as close to the coast as possible. Rundstedt, Geyr, and other senior commanders objected. They believed that the invasion could not be stopped on the beaches. Geyr argued for a conventional doctrine: keeping the Panzer formations concentrated in

310-659: A further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and time of day, that meant only a few days each month were deemed suitable. Adolf Hitler placed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an invasion. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt placed Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower in command of Allied forces. The invasion began shortly after midnight on

372-642: A misinformation campaign using fake radio traffic to lead the Germans into expecting an attack on Norway, and Fortitude South, a major deception involving the creation of a fictitious First United States Army Group under Lieutenant General George S. Patton , supposedly located in Kent and Sussex . Fortitude South was intended to deceive the Germans into believing that the main attack would take place at Calais . Genuine radio messages from 21st Army Group were first routed to Kent via landline and then broadcast, to give

434-585: The 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" , had only arrived in France in March–May 1944 for extensive refit after being badly damaged during the Dnieper-Carpathian operation. Seven of the eleven panzer or panzergrenadier divisions stationed in France were not fully operational or only partially mobile in early June 1944. German Supreme commander: Adolf Hitler Allied forces attacking Utah Beach faced

496-570: The Avranches - Falaise line within the first three weeks. Montgomery envisaged a ninety-day battle, lasting until all Allied forces reached the River Seine . Under the overall umbrella of Operation Bodyguard, the Allies conducted several subsidiary operations designed to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the Allied landings. Operation Fortitude included Fortitude North,

558-503: The BBC's French service from London. Several hundred of these messages, which might be snippets of poetry, quotations from literature, or random sentences, were regularly transmitted, masking the few that were significant. In the weeks preceding the landings, lists of messages and their meanings were distributed to resistance groups. An increase in radio activity on 5 June was correctly interpreted by German intelligence to mean that an invasion

620-900: The German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his new allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942, the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a "... full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a second front in Europe in 1942." However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill persuaded US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to postpone

682-743: The Low Countries , with another eighteen stationed in Denmark and Norway. Fifteen divisions were in the process of formation in Germany. Combat losses throughout the war, particularly on the Eastern Front , meant that the Germans no longer had a pool of able young men from which to draw. German soldiers were now on average six years older than their Allied counterparts. Many in the Normandy area were Ostlegionen (eastern legions)—conscripts and volunteers from Russia, Mongolia, and other areas of

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744-518: The Luftwaffe and established air supremacy over western Europe, so Rommel knew he could not expect effective air support. The Luftwaffe could muster only 815 aircraft over Normandy in comparison to the Allies' 9,543. Rommel arranged for booby-trapped stakes known as Rommelspargel ( Rommel's asparagus ) to be installed in meadows and fields to deter airborne landings. German armaments minister Albert Speer notes in his 1969 autobiography that

806-508: The Normandy landings by the western Allies. The forces of the 352nd Infantry Division ( Dietrich Kraiss ), headquartered at Le Molay-Littry , and of the 716th Infantry Division ( Wilhelm Richter ), headquartered at Caen , were closest to the Allied landing sites. The forces available to the corps on invasion day were the: Of these, the 243rd, 319th, 709th and 716th were bodenständig (static), i.e. insufficiently equipped with motorized vehicles and intended for non-mobile operations. Only

868-603: The landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War . Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day (after the mililtary term ), it is the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France , and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of

930-536: The 352nd Division did not carry the designation bodenständig , and was the only formidable fighting force under control of LXXXIV Army Corps. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the 319th Infantry Division was guarding the Channel Islands and would be unavailable for the fighting in Normandy. The 21st Panzer Division , although not directly subordinate to the LXXXIV Army Corps,

992-575: The 7th Army on the left German flank north of Coutances . The LXXXIV Army Corps stood opposite the, from left to right from the German perspective, VIII U.S. Corps , VII U.S. Corps , XIX U.S. Corps and V U.S. Corps . The Allied breakout from Normandy began on 25 July, when the 3rd U.S. Army , which became the Twelfth United States Army Group beginning 1 August, broke the positions of the LXXXIV Army Corps and penetrated

1054-686: The 7th Army to capture Beaumont-sur-Sarthe by 10 August while the VII U.S. Corps pinned down the Germans at Javron. Having captured Beaumont, the XV and XX U.S. Corps could advance effectively unhindered into the territory southeast of the German positions. The XV corps captured Carrouges , Alençon and Mortagne-au-Perche and attacked Argentan by 16 August, whereas the XX Corps, with the XII U.S. Corps on its right starting on 13 August, reached Chartres by 16 August,

1116-467: The Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected. With the Pas-de-Calais being the closest point in continental Europe to Britain, the Germans considered it to be the most likely initial landing zone, so it was the most heavily fortified region. But it offered few opportunities for expansion, as the area is bounded by numerous rivers and canals, whereas, landings on

1178-463: The Allied victory on the Western Front . Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception , codenamed Operation Bodyguard , to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on the day selected for D-Day was not ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours;

1240-407: The Allies to land at high tide so that the infantry would spend less time exposed on the beach, he ordered many of these obstacles to be placed at the high water mark . Tangles of barbed wire, booby traps , and the removal of ground cover made the approach hazardous for infantry. On Rommel's order, the number of mines along the coast was tripled. The Allied air offensive over Germany had crippled

1302-522: The Atlantic coast, from Spain to Norway, to protect against an expected Allied invasion. He envisioned 15,000 emplacements manned by 300,000 troops, but shortages, particularly of concrete and manpower, meant that most of the strongpoints were never built. As it was expected to be the site of the invasion, the Pas de Calais was heavily defended. In the Normandy area, the best fortifications were concentrated at

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1364-674: The Atlantic meant German meteorologists had less information than the Allies on incoming weather patterns. As the Luftwaffe meteorological centre in Paris was predicting two weeks of stormy weather, many Wehrmacht commanders left their posts to attend war games in Rennes , and men in many units were given leave. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel returned to Germany for his wife's birthday and to petition Hitler for additional Panzer divisions. Germany had at its disposal fifty divisions in France and

1426-680: The Cotentin Peninsula and eventually capture the port facilities at Cherbourg . The British at Sword and Gold Beaches and the Canadians at Juno Beach would protect the US flank and attempt to establish airfields near Caen on the first day. (A sixth beach, code-named "Band", was considered to the east of the Orne). A secure lodgement would be established with all invading forces linked together, with an attempt to hold all territory north of

1488-654: The German defeat in Normandy and thus saw him removed in favor of Elfeldt. By 5 August, the LXXXIV Army Corps had been forced back to Barenton and Le Teilleul , where it now stood on the left flank of the XLVII Panzer Corps . Now, the Allied forces began to bypass the German forces in the south to create the Falaise Pocket . The XV U.S. Corps and XX U.S. Corps outflanked the LXXXI Army Corps near Javron-les-Chapelles and marched south of

1550-598: The German high command, concerned about the susceptibility of the airports and port facilities along the North Sea coast, held a conference on 6–8 June 1944 to discuss reinforcing defences in that area. Speer wrote: In Germany itself we scarcely had any troop units at our disposal. If the airports at Hamburg and Bremen could be taken by parachute units and the ports of these cities seized by small forces, invasion armies debarking from ships would, I feared, meet no resistance and would be occupying Berlin and all of Germany within

1612-456: The German left. The Allied troops reached Countaces by 28 July, Granville and Avranches by 31 July and advanced over Pontaubault into Brittany beginning on 1 August. The LXXXIV Army Corps was hindered in its operational capabilities by the Allied bombing campaign against the French railways. At the beginning of the Allied operation, less than two days of fuel were available for the forces of

1674-557: The Germans the impression that most of the Allied troops were stationed there. Patton was stationed in England until 6 July, thus continuing to deceive the Germans into believing a second attack would take place at Calais. Many of the German radar stations on the French coast were destroyed in preparation for the landings. In addition, on the night before the invasion, a small group of Special Air Service operators deployed dummy paratroopers over Le Havre and Isigny . These dummies led

1736-468: The Germans to believe that an additional airborne landing had occurred. On that same night, in Operation Taxable , No. 617 Squadron RAF dropped strips of "window", metal foil that caused a radar return which was mistakenly interpreted by German radar operators as a naval convoy near Le Havre. The illusion was bolstered by a group of small vessels towing barrage balloons . A similar deception

1798-472: The Hill: Germany's Generals, their Rise and Fall, with their own Account of Military Events, 1939-1945. Delhi: Army Publishers. pp. 351–352. Choltitz was replaced as corps commander by Otto Elfeldt on 30 July. Elfeldt later gave testimony about his time as commander of the LXXXIV Army Corps to British historian B. H. Liddell Hart . Günther von Kluge , commander of Army Group D , blamed Choltitz for

1860-746: The Italian mainland in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a major victory at the Battle of Stalingrad . The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of available landing craft, most of which were already committed in

1922-753: The London-based État-major des Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur ( French Forces of the Interior ), the British Special Operations Executive orchestrated a campaign of sabotage to be implemented by the French Resistance . The Allies developed four plans for the Resistance to execute on D-Day and the following days: The resistance was alerted to carry out these tasks by messages personnels transmitted by

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1984-721: The Mediterranean and Pacific . At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the long-delayed second front in May 1944. The Allies considered four sites for the landings: Brittany , the Cotentin Peninsula , Normandy, and the Pas-de-Calais . As Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off

2046-759: The Normandy Campaign such as mine clearing, demolishing bunkers, and mobile bridging. The Allies planned to launch the invasion on 1 May 1944. The initial draft of the plan was accepted at the Quebec Conference in August 1943. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force . General Bernard Montgomery was named commander of the 21st Army Group , which comprised all land forces involved in

2108-416: The Normandy coast could be a possible landing point for the invasion, so he ordered the construction of extensive defensive works along that shore. In addition to concrete gun emplacements at strategic points along the coast, he ordered wooden stakes, metal tripods, mines, and large anti-tank obstacles to be placed on the beaches to delay the approach of landing craft and impede the movement of tanks. Expecting

2170-674: The Soviet Union. They were provided mainly with unreliable captured equipment and lacked motorised transport. Many German units were under strength. In early 1944, the German Western Front ( OB West ) was significantly weakened by personnel and materiel transfers to the Eastern Front. During the Soviet Dnieper–Carpathian offensive (24 December 1943 – 17 April 1944), the German High Command

2232-539: The airborne divisions. Commander, Second Army : Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey Overall, the Second Army contingent consisted of 83,115 men, 61,715 of them British. The British and Commonwealth air and naval support units included a large number of personnel from Allied nations, including several RAF squadrons manned almost exclusively by overseas air crew. For example, the Australian contribution to

2294-412: The amphibious invasion and establishment of a secure foothold, was codenamed Operation Neptune. To gain the air superiority needed to ensure a successful invasion, the Allies undertook a bombing campaign (codenamed Operation Pointblank ) that targeted German aircraft production, fuel supplies, and airfields. Elaborate deceptions, codenamed Operation Bodyguard , were undertaken in the months leading up to

2356-576: The area of the LXXXIV Army Corps had been operational. Shortly after midnight on 6 June 1944, Allied airborne landings began at the Orne river and on the Cotentin peninsula . The LXXXIV Army Corps was subsequently put to high alert to react to the ongoing Allied invasion. Because of its position within the German Atlantic Wall , the LXXXIV Army Corps was the first formation to respond to

2418-445: The corps. On 28 July, the LXXXIV Army Corps was ordered by Paul Hausser , now in command of the 7th Army, to retreat southeast to strengthen the German frontline. As a result, there were even fewer German forces on the southern flank to oppose the advancing American forces. "It was on the 28th July [1944], so far as I remember, that orders came for me to go at once to Field-Marshal von Kluge's headquarters. On arrival he told me that I

2480-459: The expanded operation meant that the invasion had to be delayed to June. Eventually, thirty-nine Allied divisions would be committed to the Battle of Normandy: twenty-two American, twelve British, three Canadian, one Polish, and one French, totalling over a million troops. Operation Overlord was the name assigned to the establishment of a large-scale lodgement on the continent. The first phase,

2542-516: The final decision, which was to leave three Panzer divisions under Geyr's command and give Rommel operational control of three more as reserves. Hitler took personal control of four divisions as strategic reserves, not to be used without his direct orders. Commander, SHAEF: General Dwight D. Eisenhower Commander, 21st Army Group: General Bernard Montgomery Commander, First Army : Lieutenant General Omar Bradley The First Army contingent totalled approximately 73,000 men, including 15,600 from

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2604-439: The five landing sites on the first day, but Carentan , Saint-Lô , and Bayeux remained in German hands. Caen , a major objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not connected until 12 June. German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. After

2666-519: The following German units stationed on the Cotentin Peninsula: Americans assaulting Omaha Beach faced the following troops: Allied forces at Gold and Juno faced the following elements of the 352nd Infantry Division: Allied forces attacking Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches faced the following German units: Alarmed by the raids on St Nazaire and Dieppe in 1942, Hitler had ordered the construction of fortifications all along

2728-457: The invasion to prevent the Germans from learning the timing and location of the invasion. The landings were to be preceded by airborne operations near Caen on the eastern flank to secure the Orne River bridges and north of Carentan on the western flank. The Americans, assigned to land at Utah Beach and Omaha Beach, were to attempt to capture Carentan and Saint-Lô the first day, then cut off

2790-508: The invasion would have required recalling men and ships already in position to cross the English Channel and would have increased the chance that the invasion plans would be detected. After much discussion with the other senior commanders, Eisenhower decided that the invasion should go ahead on 6 June. A major storm battered the Normandy coast from 19 to 22 June, which would have made the beach landings impossible. Allied control of

2852-454: The invasion. On 31 December 1943, Eisenhower and Montgomery first saw the plan, which proposed amphibious landings by three divisions with two more divisions in support. The two generals insisted that the scale of the initial invasion be expanded to five divisions, with airborne descents by three additional divisions, to allow operations on a wider front and to hasten the capture of Cherbourg. The need to acquire or produce extra landing craft for

2914-645: The landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods , and barbed wire, making the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous. The highest number of casualties was at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting , and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialised tanks. The Allies were able to establish beachheads at each of

2976-537: The landings for shortly before dawn, midway between low and high tide, with the tide coming in. This would improve the visibility of obstacles on the beach while minimising the amount of time the men would be exposed in the open. Eisenhower had tentatively selected 5 June as the date for the assault. However, on 4 June, conditions were unsuitable for a landing: high winds and heavy seas made it impossible to launch landing craft, and low clouds would prevent aircraft from finding their targets. The weather forecast that reported

3038-457: The morning of 6 June with extensive aerial and naval bombardment as well as an airborne assault —the landing of 24,000 American , British, and Canadian airborne troops . The early morning aerial assault was soon followed by Allied amphibious landings on the coast of France c.   06:30. The target 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah , Omaha , Gold , Juno , and Sword . Strong winds blew

3100-466: The northeast, from Elbeuf over Les Andelys to Versailles by 25 August. The Allied Liberation of Paris was completed on that day. The LXXXIV Army Corps did however not escape from the Falaise Pocket. Otto Elfeldt was taken prisoner on 29 August. Starting in September 1944, the LXXXIV Army Corps was marked as status unknown (German: Verbleib unbekannt ) in German documents. The corps

3162-435: The operation included a regular Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadron, nine Article XV squadrons , and hundreds of personnel posted to RAF units and RN warships. The RAF supplied two-thirds of the aircraft involved in the invasion. [REDACTED] 79th Armoured Division : Major General Percy Hobart provided specialised armoured vehicles which supported the landings on all beaches in Second Army's sector. Through

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3224-524: The port facilities at Cherbourg and Saint-Malo . Rommel was assigned to oversee the construction of further fortifications along the expected invasion front, which stretched from the Netherlands to Cherbourg, and was given command of the newly re-formed Army Group B, which included the 7th Army, the 15th Army , and the forces guarding the Netherlands. Reserves for this group included the 2nd , 21st, and 116th Panzer divisions. Rommel believed that

3286-612: The promised invasion as, even with US help, the Allies did not have adequate forces for such an activity. Instead of an immediate return to France, the western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations , where British troops were already stationed. By mid-1943, the campaign in North Africa had been won. The Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and subsequently invaded

3348-409: The same day that the XII Corps further south took Orléans . By 16 August, the German forces were stuck in a small cauldron between Falaise , Chambois and Argentan, with the LXXXIV Army Corps and its superior 7th Army stuck just east of Flers and Condé-sur-Noireau . A German relief thrust allowed parts of the 7th Army to escape on 20 August, after which the Germans took a new defensive line far to

3410-464: The storms was sent from a weather station on the western coast of Ireland. Group Captain James Stagg of the Royal Air Force (RAF) met Eisenhower on the evening of 4   June. He and his meteorological team predicted that the weather would improve enough for the invasion to proceed on 6 June. The next available dates with the required tidal conditions (but without the desirable full moon) would be two weeks later, from 18 to 20 June. Postponement of

3472-515: Was forced to transfer the entire II SS Panzer Corps from France, consisting of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, as well as the 349th Infantry Division , 507th Heavy Panzer Battalion and the 311th and 322nd StuG Assault Gun Brigades. All told, the German forces stationed in France were deprived of 45,827 troops and 363 tanks, assault guns, and self-propelled anti-tank guns. The 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler" , 9th , 11th , 19th and 116th Panzer divisions, alongside

3534-475: Was formally dissolved on 2 November 1944. II Parachute Corps : 3rd Parachute , 17th SS , 275th Infantry , 352nd Infantry Normandy landings Airborne assault British Sector American Sector Normandy landings American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Logistics Ground campaign American Sector Anglo-Canadian Sector Breakout Air and Sea operations Supporting operations Aftermath The Normandy landings were

3596-493: Was imminent or underway. However, because of the barrage of previous false warnings and misinformation, most units ignored the warning. A 1965 report from the Counter-insurgency Information Analysis Center details the results of the French Resistance's sabotage efforts: "In the southeast, 52 locomotives were destroyed on 6 June and the railway line cut in more than 500 places. Normandy was isolated as of 7 June." Paul Hausser Too Many Requests If you report this error to

3658-424: Was stationed nearby at Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives . On 12 June, corps commander Erich Marcks was killed in action. He was succeeded by Wilhelm Fahrmbacher , who was on 15 June replaced in turn by Dietrich von Choltitz . By 24 July, the Allied landing ground had expanded to include Caen, Balleroy , Saint-Lô and La Haye-du-Puits . The LXXXIV, now supported by and supervising the II Parachute Corps , stood as part of

3720-426: Was succeeded as corps commander by Gustav-Adolf von Zangen on 1 April 1943. Zangen was succeeded as corps commander by Erich Marcks on 1 August 1943. With the Allied invasion imminent, LXXXIV Army Corps reported in late May 1944 that only half of the winter programme had been fulfilled and that many coastal batteries were still left to be installed. By March 1944, between 50 and 80% of the required fortifications in

3782-415: Was to take over command of the 84th Corps from General von Choltitzs. He said he did not agree with the defence policy of the latter, but did not say in what respect. The Corps, he told me, comprised the remnants of seven divisions. He also said that the 116th Panzer Division was to counter-attack westward to relieve the pressure, and would be under my command." Basil Liddell-Hart , The Other Side of

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3844-436: Was undertaken near Boulogne-sur-Mer in the Pas de Calais area by No. 218 Squadron RAF in Operation Glimmer . The invasion planners determined a set of conditions involving the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that would be satisfactory on only a few days in each month. A full moon was desirable, as it would provide illumination for aircraft pilots and have the highest tides . The Allies wanted to schedule

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