Army of the West: The Weekly Reports of German Army Group B from Normandy to the West Wall

260 Pages·2007·10.83 MB·English

by  James A. Wood

ARMY
OF THE WEST
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ARMY
OF THE WEST
The Weekly Reports of German Army
Group B from Normandy to the West Wall
Edited by James A. Wood
STACKPOLE
BOOKS
Copyright © 2007 by Laurier Centre for Military,
Strategic and Disarmament Studies
Published by
STACKPOLE BOOKS
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Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
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All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any
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Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
All photos are courtesy of the Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies, except where
otherwise noted Maps by Lyle Wood
Cover design by Tracy Patterson
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Army of the West : the weekly reports of German Army Group B from
Normandy to the west wall / edited by James A. Wood. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Stackpole Military History Series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-3404-2
ISBN-10: 0-8117-3404-8
1. Germany. Heeresgruppe B—History. 2. World War, 1939–1945— Regimental histories—Germany. 3.
World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns— Western Front. I. Wood, James A., 1978– D757.1.A74 2007
940.54'1343—dc22
2007019666
eISBN 9780811741439
Table of Contents

Introduction vi

1.Preparations for the Invasion and the Atlantic Wall, May 15–June 5, 1944 1
2.From the Normandy Landings to the Surrender of Cherbourg, June 6– 49
July 2, 1944
3.The Fall of Caen to the July 20 Assassination Plot, July 3–July 23, 1944 91
4.Operation COBRA and the Mortain Counteroffensive, July 24–August 7, 147
1944
5.Encirclement in the Falaise Pocket, August 8–August 21, 1944 169
6.Withdrawal across the Seine and the Miracle in the West, August 22– 195
October 11, 1944

Appendix 1: German Commander Biographies 233
Appendix 2: German Army Order of Battle 245
Appendix 3: Chronology of Army Group B from Normandy to the West 246
Wall
Works Cited 257
Index 259
Introduction
I
n May 1944, the headquarters of the German Seventh and Fifteenth Armies
and the command staff of the Northern Military District in Holland received
messages from Lieutenant General Hans Speidel at Army Group B headquarters
in La Roche–Guyon. As Field Marshal Rommel’s chief of staff, Speidel was
writing to request a weekly situation report from his subordinate army
commands, to be received at headquarters by noon on Sunday of each week.
These accounts would then be compiled into a single combined report for the
Army Group and submitted to the German Armed Forces High Command
(Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW).
These weekly situation reports provided to Army Group B headquarters were
to follow a set format (see below) and provide a general estimate of the situation,
followed by detailed reports on a variety of subjects. These details were to
include the progress of defensive construction in the coastal areas, where work
on the Atlantic Wall was moving ahead at an accelerated pace in preparation for
the impending Allied invasion. Army commanders were also requested to report
enemy air and sea operations in the region, noting any damage or casualties
inflicted by Allied aircraft in bombing or strafing raids. Finally, reports were to
provide an assessment of civilian attitudes in the occupied territories, noting any
incidents of sabotage or resistance that might have occurred.
Reports completed prior to the Allied invasion of June 6 emphasize the
progress of defensive construction along the coast and in the interior. Following
the landings in Normandy, the reports provide a glimpse of the fighting from the
German perspective and capture the frustrations of German commanders as they
struggled to stem the Allied advance. As their requests for reinforcements were
consistently ignored or denied by higher headquarters, reports from the
Normandy front increasingly betray a growing sense of hopelessness on the part
of German commanders. Citing Allied air superiority and the seemingly
unlimited amounts of ammunition available to the enemy, they elaborated on the
difficulty of the situation and urged a withdrawal to more defensible positions
east of the Seine.
As the campaign wore on, the standard format of the early reports broke
down as a succession of German commanders was appointed to the command of
Army Group B. Prior to the invasion, Rommel’s reports were often accompanied
by requests for greater authority, part of an effort by the “Desert Fox” to secure
command of the panzer divisions that he considered necessary if Germany were
to prevent the Allies from securing a foothold on the continent. These requests
for reinforcements and greater authority continued after the Allied landings,
although it became increasingly clear that Rommel doubted the possibility of
driving the enemy from the bridgehead. In July, Rommel suffered severe injuries
when his car was driven off the road by attacking Allied aircraft. He was
subsequently succeeded in command of Army Group B by Field Marshal
Günther von Kluge.
Von Kluge arrived in Normandy confident of his ability to turn the tide of the
battle and restore the situation, but before long he too became convinced that the
campaign in the west was lost. Falling under suspicion after the failure of the
July 20 attempt to assassinate Hitler, von Kluge felt compelled to present his
reports as a statement of his own commitment to the cause, tempered by an
unspoken admission that all hope for victory was gone. Recalled to Berlin in
August, von Kluge instead chose suicide and was replaced by Field Marshal
Walter Model.
As “Hitler’s fireman,” the man who halted the Red Army’s advance before
the gates of Warsaw, Model, like von Kluge before him, arrived from the Eastern
Front determined to set things right in the west and stop the Allies in their tracks.
Appointed to the command of Army Group B at Hitler’s personal request, Model
enjoyed direct access to the Führer, and this is reflected in his letters. Dropping
all pretense of an orderly situation report, Model’s reports from the front were
informal, direct, and often submitted with the request that they be delivered
directly to the Führer.
The reports included in this collection are divided chronologically into six
chapters. Brief summaries are included in each section to provide the context in
which these reports were written. Also included are brief biographical entries for
several of the key German commanders whose names are referred to in these
reports, from Keitel at OKW down to the various divisional commanders in the
Seventh, Fifteenth, and Fifth Panzer Armies. The original translation of these
weekly situation reports was completed shortly after the surrender of Germany
by Allied authorities working from captured documents. Sections missing from
this translation have been recovered from microfilmed copies of the German
originals. Although these reports have been arranged into tables for ease of use,