WW2 Battles

Bir Hakeim, Free French Forces ( Colonial and Foreign Legionaries among them ) held Rommel's Afrikakorps supported by Italian motorized divisions for days in the Libyan desert, thus allowing the Britsh to reinforce El-Alamein for the upcoming battle.
The Free French, led by the Division General Pierre Koenig, were ordered to defend the south of the British line of defense, they took position on an old dry well ( With virtually no natural barrier, only the desert ), and finished the fortifications the British started in the area, making huge excavation work to dig trenches and hide men and equipment, they used old WW1 era anti air canons to destroy German and Italian vehicles, and fought stubbornly until ordered to retreat by the British. Rommel described in his notes how his engineers couldn't properly advance to remove mines and were under constant French fire and had to fall back. Churchill, De Gaulle and even Hitler praised the fighting spirit of the French troops at Bir Hakeim.

>A grain of sand had curbed the Axis advance, which reached Al-Alamein only after the arrival of the rested British divisions: this grain of sand was Bir Hakeim.

1944 Battle of Dukla pass.
Slovaks rebelled against Nazis and bargained with Soviets to secure the other side of the pass by the time Red Army gets there. Needless to say, they got BTFO and Germans were free to mine the shit out of entire valley and plop down machinegun nests like potatoes wherever they could.
Absolutely unknown to the wider world, but one of the bloodiests battles in WWII, shit was crazy, they fought over single hill for 10 days and took turns having it like 20 times.
When Red Army finally got through the pass, only to run into a fucking Panzer Division, they had an actual mini-Kursk there in a place that's literally called Valley of Death to this day. All in all around 140,000 died on both sides in a month of fighting over a spit of land that didn't even belong to either of them, in case some retard inevitably pulls Stalingrad of Battle of Berlin to compare it to.

>Hitler didn't want to kill the British
>Just bombed their boats
Hitler and German high command were paranoid about a miraculous turn around somehow defeating them in France, so the job was left to Goring which he fucked up like every other campaign he got involved with. The whole mercy thing is a meme made after the fact to excuse the pathetic result of letting the BEF escape unscathed

>Hitler didn't want to kill the British, he wanted them to surrender and not kill them all.

Hitler wanted to knock the UK out of the war by destroying its army
Ideally, this would mean reaching the Brits before they could run away and capture them en mass
But since the French rearguard didnt allow the German army to reach Brits in time, they resorted to bombing the shit out of them with warplanes while they tried to evacuate

This would make an awesome film if it was left untouched by Hollywood and instead filmed and produced by French filmmakers and actors.

Any major battles in Africa?

Why weren't the Luftwaffe focused on Dunkirk before the mass evacuation, while both armies were at a stalemate? In highschool we were taught about the evacuation, and about the fishermen and tug boats, while leaving a large part of the military movements out. So you'll have to inform me about the most notable events of the evacuation.

This would be even better :

>During this invasion, 9 French soldiers were tasked to defend the Saint-Louis bridge and not to let the enemy cross it. These 9 soldiers fought heroically against 5000 Italians, they resisted for a week (June 18 to 28) and were able to kill and wound 700 Italians in this battle called the Battle of the St. Louis Bridge

Thanks dude, I'll look this up in more detail later

Pretty much any battle involving the French is looked upon, but they did some insane shit.
>Monte Cassino is a French victory

Holy shit, that's incredible, did any of the men survive the war if you know? Did any give interviews?

Hitler wanted to take Paris first, so Goering told Hitler that he could stop the evacuation while Manstein (I think) could take Paris

>the battle against starvation

It was a sub-set in the battle of Gazala. It didn't buy time for anything, although it did stall Rommel's desert flanking maneuver. Ultimately, not enough though.

Their story is pretty sad

>Hold at 9 against 5,000 for 10 days to protect your South-Eastern border from Italians
>In the meantime, your country has lost to Germany in the North
>Be forced by armistice terms to surrender to the Italians who couldnt beat you
>Spend the rest of the war as PoW in some German labor camp

I remember watching a documentary when I was younger, and one of the few things I remember was Monte cassino was a mountain with a church on top that German soldiers were holding along with a defensive line defending the mountain, if I'm wrong feel free to correct and inform me.

Urgent need of reorganization, they thought the BEF was totally fucked and they didn't need to rush

Yeah and the Americans + British failed to take it until General Juin, a Free French commander designed a plan aiming zt flanking the mountain using his morrocan colonial troops, the plan succeeded and soon after the Poles were able to take the church ( Or what remained of it ) becaude of Juin's plan. His troops acted fast and with a stubborn determination, pretty much climbing a mountain with their equipment. French troops were the first to reach Rome but had to let the Americans enter first because of prestige.

Weren't there only a couple of Luftwaffe pilots strafing the massing of British soldiers?

And then Juin decided to let his sandniggers rape Italian women as a reward....

I think all 9 survived and were captured by the Italians, they fought on even after France capitulated ( They weren't even aware, it was really an isolated pass )
The Italians let them live out of respect for their stubborn defense

After hearing all these stories of the free French I don't think I'll pull a white flag surrender joke again.

Morrocans are subhumans

Germany lost 150 planes in it, I wouldn't call that "only a couple"

Juin's plan was called Operation Diadem if you wanna look it up

I could be confusing that with another battle.

Reminder that Italy had propaganda posters trying to make this shameful episode pass as glorious for them

There was a battle in 1940 where a single Renault B1 French tank destroyed like 15 German Panzers, in a small town named Stonne I think

I can't read Italian, what does it say ?

That Mario Lalli gloriously died alongside 200 of his fellow countrymen while trying to neutralize 9 Frenchmen

As much shit as Italy deserves and gets, the Folgore Divisions performance in El Alamain was pretty hardcore
>Throughout the day of the 24th the British again attacked the Folgore with the 44th Division and the Free French Brigade, but without success. On the night of 25th the Britishattacked again the 7th Folgore Btn and once again they were repulsed but the Folgore suffered serious losses; the next morning it was the Folgore’s 4th Btn’s turn to be attacked by the 4th Brigade (4/8th Hussars, The Greys, 1st Krcc). The 4th Brigade lost 22 tanks and retreated. By the evening the British had lost 120 tanks and about 1000 men (400 captured). During this battle the Folgore paratroopers, men against steel monsters, managed to destroy the British tanks not only with the few antitank guns that they had, but also by assaulting them on foot with handbombs and "homemade" petrol bottles
>During the night of 26th the British attacked again the Folgore positions attempting to penetrate into the south sector in order to attack the Germans behind their lines. The Green Howards Rgt, the Royal West Kent, the Free French Brigade, the 4/8th Hussars Btn. and the Household Cavalry participated in this attack. Some Folgore machine gun positions were destroyed by the advancing tanks, but the attack was finally stopped by the intense and precise fire of the anti-tank guns.
>The British demanded several times for the Folgore to surrender, using powerful megaphones,: "You’re brave soldiers, surrender and you will have the honor of the arms; continue to fight and you will be destroyed! You have no chance to resist!" And each time, louder and louder, the paratroopers’ answer was their assault yell: "Folgore!!!".

>This small village, consisting of only a handful of farmsteads, was heavily contested during the invasion of France in the Second World War. The village changed hands 17 times over the course of three days of fighting between 15 May and 17 May 1940.

>Operations near the town involved 90,000 German troops and 300 German tanks, opposed by 42,500 French soldiers and 130 French tanks. The Germans lost 26,500 men (wounded and killed) and 24 tanks, while the French lost 7,500 men (wounded and killed) and 33 tanks.

> A single B1bis tank (Lieutenant Bilotte's "Eure") pushed into the town itself, into the German defences, and then withdrew after attacking a German column and destroying two PanzerKampfwagen IV tanks, 11 PanzerKampfwagen IIIs and two PaK 36 anti-tank guns single-handedly.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonne#History

The French did quite a few impressive things in WW2
Unfortunately for them, none of them can top the fact they got conquered in a month...

A month and a HALF, please

Fucking hell, why is there no movie about this ?

>Battle of Dukla pass

Master of defence Heinrici

D-Day probably

WW2 is a time they'd rather forget considering the whole Vichy thing

I think they should move on and celebrate the bravery of their soldiers

They have WW1 for that

Everyone always forgets about Dragoon. I've lost track of how many times I've gone through the following:

>Some alt-his discussion
>What would happen if D-Day failed?
>Well, you know, Dragoon would still give the Americans and British a foothold in Northern Europe.
>What's that?

Not even some bizarre assertion that it wouldn't work, just flat out not knowing it existed.

>All in all around 140,000 died on both sides in a month
Died? No. That's total casualties including wounded, captured, etc

Dragoon was also largely French too, De Tassigny took his objectives a monthbefore the Allies planned

how is defending a fortified position from a zerg rush by people with no equipment better than the other one?

It was 9 vs 5000

Nobody counted the corpses, everything is pulled from papers, Germans only listed KIA's, Russians included every kicked up toe
140,000 combined deaths is a conservative estimate

Battle of Targul Frumos, May 1944

Famous German division Grossdeutschland leaded by von Manteuffel, a veteran from the Afrika Korps with the help of 24. Panzer defends recently recaptured town of Targul Frumos in Romania. It is supported by a detachment from Rumanian Guards on the left flank and a depleted 3. SS Totenkopf (almost no tanks but received numerous recruits from 16. SS) resting in the rear south. Opposing them is the 2nd Ukranian front, a powerful veteran formation with lots of tanks but at the end of its supply line so they are low on fuel and ammo.

The Germans expect a heavy attack on 1st of May, day of the workers, but nothing happens. May 2nd though all hell breaks loose with a tremendous artillery pounding the PzGrenadier at Cucuteni and PzFüsilier regiment defending Facuti. Manteuffel has concentrated all his armor into one kampfgruppe of sorts and has told frankly to the infantry in the trenches that they would be with out support until late in the afternoon when he decides where the main soviet attack is coming from. The soviets attack relentlessly with Tanks in groups of 40, 50 or 60, the infantry defends itself with panzerfausts, mines and pzschrecks, Facuti is almost taken by the soviet armor, the Füsiliers are overrun, the Grenadiers on the hills are getting mauled pretty bad too, Manteuffel arrives with its panzers (Panthers, Panzer 4 and several assault guns and a handful of Tiger 1) and saves the Grenadiers. Here the Tigers and the new heavy tank IS-2 face eachother with the Germans coming victorious. On the Right flank the 24.Panzer arrives in the nick of time to save the Füsilier Regiment. GD left flank, however, is left open when the Rumanians are forced to retreat (Manteuffel calls them cowards), The 3. SS later reestablishes the line on that sector.

forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=10353 contains a good reconstruction of the battle.

That's pretty interesting user

Svatováclavská rota "last stand"
At the beggining of 1945, Frank called for 20 000 volunteers to create Czech SS Division, he got only 80 of them, company was equiped with 19th century italian rifles and working clothes. They also had no ammo. After the start of Prague uprising, members of Revoluční gardy under command of police private Pertl, commander of SS unit Chalupa ordered his soldiers to create ring defense, burn all documents and surender. One of the his soldiers was a spy, so it did not helped, Chalupa was handed for collaboration and treason and was hanged. Rest of SS soldiers were sentenced to 5-25 years of forced labor.

Sorry, i forgot to flip the pic.
My great-grandfather got wounded here by Kraut mortar.

Of note:

It was the first massive use of the panzerfaust, it was not a new weapon but in here it is said it was given for the first time en-mass to the troops.

First encounter of the IS-2, the Germans wrote detailed accounts of this new tank that could withstand AT fire at distances where one could destroy a T-34 for example. A few where destroyed by flanking shots by Panzer IV though.

Soviet casualties estimated at over 300 tanks, and numerous infantry. Germans lost very few tanks but lost quite a few soldiers.

The Luftwaffe was very active and enjoyed superiority over the Soviets, something rare at this time of the war. They heavily harassed the soviet formations, allowing the panzer and infantry formations to better handle them. The famous german "Stuka" ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel was present in this battle.

von Manteuffel did a presentation of this battle to american officers after the war as how a mobile reserve of tanks can defeat a superior enemy.

Soviet sources do not view this battle as something big, rather like a recon en force. For Germans was a great victory that ultimately had no consequence other than give more time to postpone the inevitable.

>when you've spent too much time on Veeky Forums

Watch the movie, ya goobers.

Show me a decent camrip and I will

Stop getting objective facts wrong and I'll send it to you ;)

But all I said was he's a hack, and he is

Just tell me whether or not the french are in the film and you'll a great old camrip

I haven't seen it, I assume they are, but isn't it told from almost an entirely British perspective so their screen time is secondary to the narrative?

;) sent

did you even watch the movie?

Battle of Lubang Island.
Date: December 26, 1944 to March 9, 1974.
Strength: 1 Japanese soldier VS History.
Casualties: Over 30 dead, countless head of cattle and harvests destroyed.
Result: Japan surrender.

Pay respect to Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/442nd_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)#Lost_Battalion

>The men of Companies I and K of 3rd Battalion had their backs against the wall, but as each one saw another rise to attack, then another also rose. Then every Nisei charged the Germans screaming, and many screaming "Banzai!"[14]:83 Through gunfire, artillery shells, and fragments from trees, and Nisei going down one after another, they charged.

>ywn see german faces when being banzai charged by japanese americans in the bocages of southern france

>Didnt want to kill the British
>Bombs them from the air and sinks many ships, including SS Paris a clearly marked hospital ship
>captured prisoners are beaten, some to death
>80 prisoners flat out murdered at Wormhoudt
>buckets of drinking water left out for marching prisoners deliberately kicked over by guards

Whatvdid they mean by this?

Remember that one time the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Islands? Not many people do and yet one of my favorite WWII units fought in this campaign.

> Castner chose men skilled at flourishing in the tough conditions of the Alaskan wilderness including the native Aleuts and Eskimos, sourdough prospectors, hunters, trappers and fishermen.
>Their background in survival and hunting made them ideal scouts. Hard and dangerous men, they often had names in keeping with their unit's nickname, such as Bad Whiskey Red, Aleut Pete and Waterbucket Ben.
>Appreciating their unique talents, Col. Castner did not enforce standard military procedures on his unit, who gave themselves the name "Cutthroats" in honor of their irregular status. They were given a great deal of freedom in order to get the job done.

>ywn be an Alaskan frontiersman punishing some Japs in a frozen wasteland

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castner's_Cutthroats

Some Japanese units were simply abandoned in the Aleutian. They just died of cold and starvation...

I know, its a shit way to go, the US Army coming down on you, no more supplies coming in and temps are below freezing, no wonder they decided to just do one last banzai charge at Attu.

Another piece of trivia, first Latino-American, Joe P. Martínez, to be awarded the Medal of Honor in WWII fought and died in the Aleutian Campaign.

Whenever I think of the Aleutian Campaign I can't help but remember this hilarious mess. Comedy gold

>friendly fire indifent left 50 wounded on either side

lol Holy shit, leave the Army alone with a fuckload of ordinance for a day and this is what you get

>this one shitty screenshot is used to berate the Americans

Read my other responses, this was based off research I did like 5 years ago.

Battle of Castle Itter

>Some German army soldiers fight along side Americans and some French POWs including the former prime minister and a tennis player fight a SS division

Wasn't this one of the last battles of ww2?

>tfw die taking Madagascar from French axis scum
>nobody remembers

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outpost_Snipe
I wish the /int/ memes would leave and we could all appreciate skill at arms and bravery for what they're worth regardless of the nationality of those fighting.

They did it so they wouldn't get captured because that's how Japanese conditioned their soldiers.

>Germans bombing the "SS" Paris
Why did they mean by this ?

I just can imagine /k/ and /int/ fight against the /pol/

>Implying this wasn't the most epic battle of the war

Studying the Eastern Front can be really frustrating.
>see brief comment in book about the first capture of a city by the Allies
>google it
>nothing
>google commander
>nothing
>finally find information about commander's commander and confirmation that something or other happened with the units mentioned
>find some more .ru links that try very hard to give me viruses
The commander in question was apparently shot for treason immediately after the city fell a second time and has been basically erased from all Soviet records--he is only mentioned, with lots of praise, by contemporary German reports. At the same time, the massive joint Soviet-German armored exercises were purged from German records and only exist in the musty Soviet ones. Did I mention that virtually every map produced by the Red Army is still considered a state secret? In short, you can only grasp the Eastern Front if you are a Russian officer with high-level security clearance who also speaks fluent German.

I can't believe some dipshit slav intelligence committee has guards squatting on top of the documents I want. I hate these people.

They're probably still relevant due to growing tensions with Europe and NATO

Polish*

sucks that the southern france campaign isnt covered at all, its all about Normandy > Paris > Market Garden > Berlin

Literally one of the first scenes in the movie is a pussy ass bong running through a line of French soldiers who have to stay back and fight as they look down on him in disdain for his nation's betrayal.

It'll be a great day when they give out all the info. At least we got some info released back in the 90's. Problem is you need to know Russian or have it translated.

I feel like Operation Torch is pretty overlooked. The landings themselves were really pretty poorly executed and I'd say the only reason they were successful was the sheer lack of German troops west of Tunisia.

>American and British forces fighting the French
>failed poorly thought out landings such as Operation Reservist
>the crazy story of the SS Contessa

The SS Contessa is like something from a movie

>a cargo and passenger ship that was requisitioned by the USN
>manned with prisoners from a local brig in Virginia
>loaded to the brim with aircraft fuel and ammunition
>sails all the way from Hampton Roads to some fucking river in Morrocco so that they can refuel and resupply carrier launched P-40's

Like wtf lol, it ended up working but still.

>WWII Thread
>French butthurt

Everything in order, carry on.

>FDR seriously thought he could invade France in 1942
what did he mean by this?

Woah, Polish troops finally took the monastery after French troops effectively flanked the mountain, broke the Gustav Line and forced the Germans to retreat... Impressive

>"The enemy is to your left, dipshit."

That he (and many other people besides) severely underestimated how hard it is to do an amphibious attack, even against weak opposition. It's the same thing that simultaneously lead Hitler to think a Sealion was even remotely feasible, and Churchill and the British establishment to be afraid of the possibility.

Kinda sad that they never tried to do Sealion. Biggest comedy gold/wheraboo butthurt possibility ever

The battle for the Hague was basically a small scale Crete in the sense that the Fallschirmjäger were decimated. Landing full aircraft in swampy grassland and not supplying with their fucking primary weapons when jumping is not a good idea. But to be fair the Dutch did ramp up defenses on their airbases because of what happened in Norway.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_The_Hague