​​🔗=============>> The WWII Germany > The ETO Submodule <<========​====​🔗
​Overview     ​Background     Normandy     ​Liberation     War of Attrition     Netherlands, 1944
Rhineland, 1944     Lorraine–Alsace, 1944      Ardennes/The Bulge     Siegfried Line, 1945
To the Rhine, 1945     Central Europe     Order of  Battle     Air War     Naval War      Comm. Zone
     ––––––––––––––––––––––– WWII Germany - The ETO ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > The ETO, © 2025 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 17 Jun 2025

Ground combat in World War II's European Theater of Operations - the ETO - involved France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany. 

================= European Theater Executive Summary ================
(See The ETO Overview for a fuller treatment.)

  • The ETO land campaigns in western Europe began on D-Day, 6 June 1944, with a massive cross-channel invasion of German-occupied Europe on France's Normandy coast.
  • Eleven months of ground combat followed as the ETO front lines moved in a generally eastward direction over much western Europe.
  •  Combat ended in the interior of Germany on 8 May 1945 after the suicide of the German leader, Adolf Hitler, and the capture of most of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.
  • Throughout, air, sea and logistical support for this vast operation came from British and American bases in Great Britain.
Western Europe before WWII
Western Europe before WWII
European Theater operations contained two periods of grinding combat, each followed by a breakout:
  • Expanding the beachhead area, 6 June–August 1944.
  • Breakout, liberation of France and Belgium, August–mid September 1944.
  • War of Attrition and German counteroffensives near the German border, September 1944–March 1945.
  • Breakout over the Rhine River, conquest of western and southern Germany, March–8 May 1945.  Meanwhile the Soviet Army advanced westward through eastern Germany.
European Theater Overview
European Theater Overview

================= European Theater Order of Battle ================
(See  The ETO Order of Battle for links to order of battle webpages, identified by the OrBat abbreviation)

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: