World War II in Photographs
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1944
ABOVE
De Gaulle triumphant. On August 26,
he walked down the Champs Elysées
to huge popular acclaim and went on
to Notre Dame were he stood
unmoved when firing broke out.
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1944
SOUTHERN FRANCE
The French Riviera Landings (Operation Anvil/Dragoon) took place
on August 15, after much Anglo-American debate. Initially conceived
to distract German attention from Normandy, they were not popular
with the British, who favoured concentration in Western France
or a thrust from Italy into Austria. US General Alexander Patch's
7th Army comprised British and French elements and made good
progress once through the crust of beach defence. The operation
proved useful, as southern French ports handled a third of the
1.3 million tons of supplies that reached US forces in October.
RIGHT
Landing craft move supplies
ashore in Southern France.
BELOW
Air interdiction: American B-26
Marauder bombers scoring a direct hit on
the railway bridge over the Rhône at Aries.
342
MARKET GARDEN
Operation Market Garden was a bold plan designed to use the
three divisions of the 1st Allied Airborne Army to take bridges
over the water obstacles in front of Montogomery, and to exploit
with a thrust into the German heartland. Landings by the
US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions secured the southern
crossings, but although 1st British Airborne Division took the
northern end of Arnhem Bridge, ground forces took too long
to reach it and the bulk of the parachutists were killed or captured.
ABOVE
Men of the 1st Airborne Division
on their way to Arnhem, September 17.
RIGHT
Parachutists land among gliders at Wolfheze,
west of Arnhem. This main dropping zone was
too far from British objectives: it took four
hours for paratroops to reach them on foot, by
which time the German defence was hardening.
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1944
LEFT
Paratroops heading for Arnhem are given
welcome refreshment by the Dutch
on September 17. The helmeted figure
looking at the camera is Private W.M Hill
of the mortar platoon, 3rd Parachute
Battalion, carrying part of the 3-inch mortar
and two of its bombs in his jump bag.
BELOW
Elements of two SS panzer divisions were
refitting near Arnhem, but warnings of
their presence had been ignored. These men
of the 4th Polizei-Panzergrenadierdivision
await fresh parachute landings.
344
1944
^EFT
Most of the 1st Airborne Division
was pushed into a perimeter at
Oosterbeek, where this soldier, armed
with a US M-l carbine, defends a house.
BELOW
Paratroops of the US 82nd Airborne
Division unload a wrecked glider near
Nijmegen. The American drops succeeded,
but the British assault proved, as
Lieutenant General Browning had
suspected to be a "bridge too far".
THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
In December Hitler launched a desperate counteroffensive in the
snowy hills of the Ardennes, hoping to cause a crisis in the Allied
command and capture Antwerp. 6th SS Panzer Army attacked
alongside 5th Panzer Army, with 7th Army covering their southern
flank. Bad weather and lack of preparation by the US contributed to
their initial success, but 101st Airborne Division held near Bastogne.
When the weather cleared Allied aircraft wreaked havoc and Patton
hooked into the Bulge from the south. Allied commanders were
indeed ruffled but the blow lacked sufficient weight to do long-term
damage, and Germany could not replace men and tanks lost.
ABOVE
German troops dash past a
burning American vehicle on
the attack's first day, December 16.
1944
BELOW
1st SS Panzer Division advanced in parallel
battle groups, its most aggressive led by SS
Lieutenant Colonel Jochen Peiper. Although
usually identified as Peiper, this is in fact
not him. A signpost points to Malmedy,
where 84 US soldiers were murdered,
for which Peiper was condemned to
death, a sentence later commuted.
347
1944
ABOVE
A recently caught young SS man is
brought in by a patrol of 82nd Airborne
on the northern edge of the bulge.
LEFT
C-47s drop much needed medical supplies
and ammunition to the encircled 101st
Airborne Division in Bastogne, Christmas Day.
OPPOSITE
Some English-speaking Germans dressed in
American uniforms, helped create confusion
behind the Allied lines. Those captured were shot
by firing squad: here military policemen tie a
resolute Günther Billing to the execution stake.
348
1944
VI AND V2S
B-weapons were the British name for the Vergeltungswaffen
(retaliation weapons) developed by the Germans. The V-l flying
bomb was a small pilotless jet aircraft, about 10,000 of which were
launched against England. The V-2 was a ballistic rocket: some
500 were fired at Antwerp and more than 1,000 at England.
These weapons came as a rude shock to the population of
London and the Home Counties, which had came to believe
that German air attacks were now a thing of the past.
ABOVE
V-ls could be shot down or, as we see
here, flipped to destruction by a
Spitfire, which flew alongside and
flipped the flying bomb's wing on its own.
RIGHT
A V-2 undergoing final refuelling
and adjustment of its controls.
The weapons could be launched
from small, easily concealed sites.
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