Schmidt, Huertgen Forest, Germany • November 2, 1944 On September 19, 1944, elements of Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges’ First U.S. Army entered the 10‑mile/16‑km-wide, 20‑mile/32‑km-long Huertgen Forest (German, Hürtgenwald) southeast of the ancient city Aachen, the first major and westernmost city in Nazi Germany to have fallen to the Anglo-American-Canadian armies. Before the outbreak of World…
Paris, France • August 25, 1944 On this date Nazi Germany’s Paris garrison surrendered the French capital to elements of French Maj. Gen. Jacques Philippe Leclerc’s 2nd Armored Division. A little more than 4 years before, the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) goose-stepped into Paris on June 14, 1940, a month after mounting simultaneous attacks on neighboring Netherlands, Belgium,…
Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy, France • July 14, 1944 On this date, Bastille Day in France, the U.S. Army laid to rest Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., at the U.S. cemetery in Sainte-Mère-Église a few miles/kilometers west of Utah Beach in Normandy. The 56‑year-old Roosevelt had died of a heart attack less than 2 days before at Méautis, a village…
Southwick House near Portsmouth, England • June 5, 1944 Weather conditions over France’s Normandy beaches on invasion day, D-Day, tentatively set for this date, June 5, 1944, had to be as ideal as possible before Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower would issue the “go” signal for the largest sea, air, and land invasion ever executed….