“Third Army has advanced farther and faster than any army in the history of war.”
- General George S. Patton
The world has descended on Paris for the Summer Olympics that has seen global athletes participate during the goodwill of these games. As Americans are leading the medal count, it was eighty years ago this month that our soldiers fought the Nazis in France. While the German Wehrmacht hurt American forces through the deadly hedgerow fighting that caused massive casualties for both sides, the Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces General Dwight D. Eisenhower expected his armies to push away from Normandy.
With Cherbourg in Americans hands, as more reinforcements and supplies were sent to France, Eisenhower demanded the American military to gain an eastward breakout. The Allies needed to push toward the open country and to make gains toward Germany before the winter months. Once General George S. Patton’s Third Army became operational under the direction of General Omar N. Bradley’s “Operation Cobra,” the Americans desperately wanted to push away from the hedgerows fighting. Bradley planned for a major bombing campaign that began on July 24th, as the American Army Air Force dropped armaments, some fell behind our lines that killed 150 American soldiers. The next day, 1,500 B-17 and B-24 bombers dropped 3,000 tons of bombs and napalm against the enemy. Again, there were 111 killed that included Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, the head of American Army Ground Forces. Eisenhower crossed from England to gage the progress of Operation Cobra, as it took time to ascertain the success of this air operation. It was later learned that the Germans lost 1,000 soldiers, tanks, fortifications and communications were destroyed. The American forces broke through the lines at seven different points, as favorable reports reached Eisenhower that the bombing allowed his armor into the open country.
By August 1st, Patton with the aid of aerial support targeted all German targets that was out in the open. As the Allies controlled the skies, German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s car were attacked and he was severely hurt and pushed out of field service by a Canadian fighter pilot. It took the Third Army two weeks to drive westward to open the Brittany coast to gain additional ports. Patton’s next goal was to drive eastward toward the Seine River and Paris through speed and audacity. If the Germans did not pull out of the Normandy region, they would have been surrounded by the Americans. As Patton maneuvered to gain the destruction of the Germans, Bradley ordered him to halt. He feared a German counterattack that had the chance to overrun the stretched lines of the Third Army. Patton estimated that he certainly would have taken these German forces, but he reorganized his army, and continued eastward.
During these operations, the 101st and 82nd Airborne dropped paratroopers to oppose the Germans, but they complained that Patton’s armor operated so quickly that they moved beyond their landings. The American military nearly destroyed the German Army Group B, as before this breakout in June, they had 50 divisions that were able to fight, by August, the enemy could only rely on 10 divisions. At this point, Patton informed Bradley that he already crossed the Seine River and sought to engage a disorganized enemy who was just trying to survive this American onslaught.
For the first time since June 14th, 1940, the Allies were about to liberate Paris. As the Third Army pushed closer, General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc's Second Armored Division was attached to Patton. Confident of gaining their freedom, French resistance harassed the German military and Vichy government officials, hit enemy fortifications, and French workers went on strike. Eisenhower was unsure how to take this city, as he argued that it would better to surround Paris. He feared that Allied troops would be bogged down through streetto-street fighting that would halt the quick advances of his armies. General Charles De Gaulle pleaded with Eisenhower to reconsider, he was concerned of German reprisals against the resistance and the people, and the chance of French communists taking credit for the liberation of Paris. By August 22nd, Eisenhower approved of American and French forces to take control of this city. Although Hitler ordered the historic landmarks of Paris to be “leveled,” and peace was concluded through the defiance of German General Dietrich von Choltitz.
De Gaulle and the French military marched down the Champs- Élysées. Shortly afterwards, American troops headed in front of cheering French citizens cried as the Nazis were removed from power. During this military operation, 20,000 German forces surrendered or retreated and inside of six weeks since the Normandy landings, Paris was conquered by the Allies. With the southern invasion of “Dragoon” of French territory in the Mediterranean, American soldiers quickly opposed the enemy that was frantically pushed back toward its own border. For a time, Patton was close to being sent home in shame, but Eisenhower decided to retain his fighting services. Eisenhower told this armored figure after the slapping and Knutsford incidents, that he was owed some victories for weathering the storm of criticism that was created by Patton. With the Soviets pushing into Polish territory on the Eastern Front, Patton’s military genius struck fear into the retreating German armies in the West. At this point some eighty years ago, as Americans are athletically competing in Paris, our citizens who are watching these games should understand the ability of our armies to liberate the “City of Light,” from Nazi tyranny some eighty years ago.