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The Normandy American Cemetery
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WWII-Germany
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > The ETO, © 2023 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 16 Jan 2023.
Ground combat in the European Theater of Operations - the ETO - began in Normandy, France on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and ended in Germany on 8 May 1945.
Links to Big Pigeon's WWII-Germany > The ETO submodules: (links to all The ETO webpages follows)
​Preliminary ETO webpages provide contextual material:
  • ETO Overview
  • ETO Orders of Battle 
Deadly fighting in Normandy through mid-August was followed by the quick liberation of most of France and Belgium:
  • The Normandy Campaign, June-July 1944
  • Liberation, July-September 1944
​Then ensued the three-month War of Attrition, which lasted from mid-September to mid-December 1944:
  • The War of Attrition, September-December 1944
  • The Netherlands, 1944
  • The German Rhineland, 1944
  • Lorraine and Alsace in northeastern France, 1944
Germany launched end-of-year counteroffensives in the Ardennes and northern Alsace:​
  • ​Ardennes/The Bulge, December 1944 - January 1945
  • Alsace 1945, January-February 1945
​The early 1945 ETO advance through the German Rhineland reached the west bank of the Rhine River:
  • The Siegfried Line, 1945, January-February 1945​
  • The Advance to the Rhine, 1945, January-March 1945
​ETO forces crossed the Rhine, advanced across Germany to meet Soviet forces, and advanced into southern Germany:
  • ​The Central Europe Campaign, March-May 1945
​Concluding ETO webpages not specific to ground combat:
  • The ETO Air War
  • The ETO Sea War
  • The ETO Communications Zone

Links to all of Big Pigeon's WWII-Germany > The ETO subpages:
​ETO Overview
  • ETO Background
ETO Orders of Battle - links to individual order of battle webpages
  • ETO Unit Subordination
1 - The Normandy Campaign, June-July 1944
  • D-Day, 6 June 1944​
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 6 June 1944
  • The Normandy Campaign, June 1944
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 30 June 1944
  • The Normandy Campaign, July 1944
  • After D-Day, 7 June - 24 July 1944 (will be removed eventually)
2&3 - Liberation, July-September 1944
  • Operation Cobra​​
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 1 August 1944
  • Brittany Liberated
  • Normandy Liberated
  • Northern France & Belgium Liberated
  • Southern France Liberated
5 - The War of Attrition, September-December 1944
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 15 September 1944​
  • The Netherlands, Fall 1944
  • The Rhineland Campaign, Fall 1944
  •      V Corps at the West Wall 
  •      Aachen
  •      Hürtgen Forest (incomplete)
  • ​     Operation Queen (incomplete)
  •      Queen/Hürtgen (incomplete)
  •      The Last 1944 Offensives (incomplete)​
  •  Lorraine/Alsace, Fall 1944
  •      Third Army in Lorraine
  •      Seventh Army in Lorraine
  •      Seventh Army in Alsace​
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 15 December 1944​
 4 - Ardennes/The Bulge, December 1944 - January 1945
  • Before the Bulge
  • The Bulge Begins, 16-20 December
  • The Bulge Grows, 21-25 December
  • Ardennes/The Bulge Order of Battle, 25 December 1944
  • The Bulge Contained, 26 December - 2 January
  • Ardennes - The Bulge Reduced
  • Ardennes - The Bulge Eliminated
4&5 - Alsace 1945, January-February 1945
  • ​​Operation Nordwind
  • The Colmar Pocket
5 - The Siegfried Line, 1945, January-February 1945
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 26 January 1945
  • Operation Blackcock
  • The First US Effort
  • The Roer River Dams
  • VIII Corps, Third Army to Prüm
  • XII Corps, Third Army to Bitburg
  • XX Corps, Third Army to Trier
5 - The Advance to the Rhine, 1945, February-March 1945​
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 1 March 1945
  • Operations Veritable & Grenade
  • Operation Lumberjack
  • Operation Undertone
​6 - The Central Europe Campaign, March-May 1945
  • Crossing the Rhine, March 1945 (almost done)
  • Beyond the Rhine
  • The ETO Order of Battle, 4 April 1945
  • Central Germany Occupied
  • Southern Germany Occupied
  • Germany Surrenders (almost done)
The ETO Air War
The ETO Sea War
The ETO Communications Zone
About the above links to WWII-Germany > The ETO subpages:​
  • Numbers before major webpages correspond with the following official list of ETO campaigns.
  • Some webpages are still incomplete.
​United States Army official list of ETO campaigns with official dates:
  1. Normandy Campaign, 6 June – 24 July 1944 -- Allies land by sea and air and subsequently expand beachhead.
  2. Northern France Campaign, 25 July – 14 September 1944 -- German lines are broken; Germany withdraws from most of France and Belgium.
  3. Southern France Campaign, 5 August – 14 September 1944 -- Germans withdraw from Southern France.
  4. Ardennes-Alsace Campaign, 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 -- German counteroffensives are driven back in the Ardennes and contained in Alsace.
  5. Rhineland Campaign, 15 September 1944 – 21 March 1945 -- Allies advance to Rhine River.
  6. Central Europe Campaign 22 March – 11 (sic) May 1945 -- Allies cross Rhine and advance into Germany; war in Europe ends with Germany's surrender effective 8 May.
European Theater Executive Summary, June 1944 - May 1945
Beginning with D-Day, ground combat in the ETO raged over northern and eastern France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, and western Germany.

European Theater operations consisted of two periods of grinding combat, each followed by a breakout:
  1. War of Attrition in Normandy, 6 June - mid August 1944.
  2. Breakout, liberation of France and Belgium, late August - mid September 1944.
  3. War of Attrition near the German border, September 1944 - March 1945.
  4. Breakout, conquest of western Germany, March - early May 1945.  Meanwhile the Soviet Army advanced westward through eastern Germany.
European Theater Overview
European Theater Overview
The Allied Armies on D-Day, 6 June 1944
The initial Allied forces that landed in Normandy were elements of two armies, comprising the 21 Army Group, under the command of British General Bernard Montgomery.
  • The US First Army commanded by General Omar Bradley.
  • The British Second Army, with a large Canadian contingent, commanded by General Miles Dempsey.
The Allied Armies on VE-Day, 8 May 1945
This map locates the seven front-line armies of the Western Allies at the end of hostilities on Victory in Europe day. Counterclockwise from upper-middle:
British 21st Army Group (Montgomery)
  • Canadian First Army (Crerar)
  • British Second Army (Dempsey)
US 12th Army Group (Bradley)
  • US Ninth Army (Simpson)
  • US First Army (Hodges)
  • US Third Army (Patton)
US 6th Army Group (Devers)
  • US Seventh Army (Patch)
  • French First Army (De Lattre)
The US 15th Army (Gerow), also shown, never saw substantial front-line combat and is seldom mentioned herein.
Victory in Europe
Victory in Europe (from "The Guns at Last Light")
Sources for Big Pigeon's WWII-Germany > The ETO webpage:
Major Sources:
  • None at this time.
Sources for webpage images: (C/O = courtesy of)
  • Normandy American Cemetery, webpage header photo - C/O the American Battle Monuments Commission.​
  • European Theater Overview, map - C/O the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas in Austin, TX.
  • The Victory in Europe map appeared in the the third and final volume of Rick Aktinson's trilogy about United States land operations in the German War.
​Other Sources:
  • https://history.army.mil/html/reference/campaigns.html lists the US Army campaigns in WW II.
  • ​The United States Army official list of ETO campaigns data, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Army_campaigns_during_World_War_II.
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