Liberation of France

The liberation of France during World War II was represented by the entry of the allied forces to its capital, Paris; event that took place in August 1944; discover the most impressive moments of this relevant event of great historical interest and more.

Liberation of France

The battle that led to the liberation of Paris and therefore most of the French territory began with an uprising by the citizens who formed their resistance, which had the support of many collaborators and supporters abroad.

They were joined by the Third Army of the United States, through its historic Leclerc Division as well as its Infantry Division.

Combining forces in this contest were joined by many exiled Republican Spaniards, with prominent roles; Therefore, the first allied military units to confront the Germans in Paris were made up of former supporters of the Popular Republican Army, headed by Amado Granel.

This notable Spanish soldier of the 20th century stood out not only fighting Nazi Germany during World War II, but also previously participated in the Spanish Civil War, which took place between the years of 1036 and 1939.

Continuing with our theme on the Liberation of France; At that time, Granel was serving as a lieutenant in the French army and was still a former major in the militias of the Popular Republican Army; for which he commanded a mixed brigade.

The strategic situation of Germany in those years was based on the destruction of Parisian bridges and monuments; in addition to following a policy of ruthless porno mistreatment against any type of resistance on the part of the population; seeking by all means to fight in Paris against any man who would not allow them to create their Stalingrad on the Western Front.

The Parisian resistance for its part was led by Henri Rol-Tanguy, a communist chief of the FFI on the island of France; although poorly equipped and without means that would allow adequate radio communication with the outside world.

However, he was motivated to support the popular insurrection and quickly surround the nuclei of the German advance.

After the advance of the allies became known xxx, their supporters sympathized with them; declaring a general strike for August 18, 1944, which led to erecting barricades to hinder the movement of German vehicles, at the same time as consecutive armed clashes.

All this plus movements in charge of the divisions of the army of the United States, was laying the bases of the liberation of France; although the fighting was heavy, German resistance was crushed.

On August 25, 1944, the soldiers of the 2nd DB entered Paris through the Orleans gate; while the troops of La Nueve, made up of 144 Spaniards under the command of Granell with tanks and light vehicles, lent him support to reinforce the members of the French Interior Forces who were defending the city in front of the Paris City Hall.

Victory was achieved despite the fact that Germany still had a large garrison and at that moment “La Marseillesa” began to be heard in all corners of Parias, being sung by all its citizens, while the bells of the churches in the city rang. .

The onslaught of the allied forces gratis porr was backed by different flanks such as the entry of the fourth US infantry division through the Italian gate; while the representatives of the German General Staff were prisoners.

That same August 25, Charles de Gaulle, as head of the provisional government of the French Republic, delivered a transcendental speech on Saint-Dominique street, from which the following paragraph is quoted:

Paris outraged! Shattered Paris! Paris martyred! But Paris has been liberated, liberated by itself, liberated by its people, with the collaboration of the armies of France and porrfilm, with the support and collaboration of the whole of France, of a fighting France, of the only France, of the true France. of eternal France.

Ordering the next day an emotional parade as a victory celebration through the Champs Elysées, the main avenue of Paris.

Lake Balaton Offensive

Learn about interesting aspects of the Lake Balaton offensive, an armed conflict that represents an important Nazi advance undertaken against the Red Army, during the development of World War II; Do not miss it.

Lake Balaton Offensive

This battle that took place between March 6 and 16, 1945, was identified as Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen, which when translated into Spanish, meant “Operation Spring Awakening” although it is popularly known as the Lake Balaton offensive.

In short, it was a military operation commanded by the German defense force called the Wehrmacht against the Red Army on behalf of the Soviet forces fighting on the Eastern Front.

It was undoubtedly one of the last major offensives of the Nazis against the Soviets within all the warlike events that took place during the Second World War.

Development of the Lake Balaton offensive

The events took place through an attack by German troops on March 6, 1945, in the areas surrounding Hungary’s Lake Balaton, through the use of armored divisions and forces from its Eastern Front, which had been supplemented with many tricks transferred from its Western Front.

This attack was planned with great care and in secret by the German high command; but even so he could not deceive the Soviet intelligence service, who was in charge of alerting the troops of his high command.

What led to the Germans being at a disadvantage in terms of the number of soldiers and weapons; which led to the defeat of his forces on March 16, 1945, which made it clear that they had an inevitable weakness before their enemy.

Consequence of the Lake Balaton offensive

The effects of this war on the Red Army were not very serious, despite having many casualties; so at the beginning of April they launched their attack on Vienna; so the Germans withdrew their troops from the soil of Hungary.

At that time the interest of the Nazis was focused on the defense of Vienna and the territory of Lower Austria, which was dominated by them.

Meanwhile the panorama presented to the civil population of Hungary because of these final battles was very precarious; even more so when the Soviet officers and soldiers considered them, for the most part, allies of the German Reich.

It is estimated that of the approximately 700 tanks deployed by the German forces, 30% of them were used as part of the Lake Balaton offensive operation and much of this equipment was abandoned during this withdrawal from Germany.

It is certainly worth mentioning that many of the tanks, equipment in perfect condition and heavy weapons, were left on the shores of this lake, remaining there in the hands of the Red Army; some of them did not get to fire a single shot, being later used as units in charge of the Soviet armored companies.

The victory achieved with the Lake Balaton offensive allowed the Germans to take away several oil wells that they controlled in the town of Nagykanizsa, which contributed to aggravate their difficult military situation; since they had to depend almost completely on synthetic fuel.

In short, this battle in the vicinity of Lake Balaton caused more casualties in the Red Army than in the German; It has historically been considered a major offensive action by the troops of the Nazi unified armed forces identified as the Wehrmacht within the development of the events that were part of the Second World War.

However, when Adolf Hitler learned of this offensive failure, he ordered that the men of the Waffen SS Leibstandarte Division be stripped of their emblematic armbands, since they represented their name with them and they had not defended it as they should have done.

Keys to understand the conflict that generated the Second World War

This warlike conflict has keys to understand the conflict that generated the Second World War and that led to the loss of many lives, destruction of important architectural heritage and many other consequences that still affect the memory of humanity.

Keys to understand the conflict that generated the Second World War

The Second World War causes a notable influence on history, due to the large number of deaths left after the battles and because it is one of the fiercest conflicts experienced to date.

Weapons of mass destruction were used to eradicate the enemies and with this an attempt was made not only against the lives of more than 60 million people, but also to seek to put an end to many races as if it were rather an ethnic, ideological or racial.

This war that lasted for six years, which began on September 1, 1939 and ended in May 1945, after leaving a continent completely worn out both socially and economically, left some keys that allow us to understand the conflict that was generated :

The incidence of the consequences of the First World War

After the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty, once the First World War was over, a territorial readjustment began, generating nationalist movements in charge of many dissatisfied peoples.

Unsuccessful appeasement of London and Paris with Germany

After Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933, he began to transform his country into a dictatorship; which led to the burning of the Reichstag, an act where the communists were accused in order to grant Hitler special powers, where in this way the Treaty of Versailles ended to reunify their territories.

At this time the appeasement of London, Austria and Italy was unsuccessful; generating, on the contrary, economic and political instability; so they let this German remake the map of central Europe, eventually occupying as far as Czechoslovakia, thus creating their Slavic state.

Invasion of Poland and start of World War II

When on September 1, 1939, Poland was invaded by Germany under Hitler, World War II began.

The beginning of the Cold War with its operation Barbarossa

Conflict that takes place when Russia is invaded by Germany and its allies, represented by forces from Italy, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Finland.

Its purpose was that it would be a short war that would end with the arrival of winter; but his plans did not go as planned because it was necessary to support the Italians in conflict with Greece and break the Serbs.

The end of the isolation of the United States and Pearl Harbor

After the First World War ended, the results for the United States were not as expected, to which was added its condition of isolation and economic crisis in 1929.

For this world power, World War II was more of a European conflict until they suffered the attack on their Hawaiian base Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; which triggered his key participation in this war.

The creation of the atomic bomb

A nuclear weapon that was used in bombing and was initially developed by the United States with the support of Great Britain and Canada; under the name of the Manhattan Project.

They were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, two Japanese cities that caused not only the immediate death of many human beings, but also radioactive contamination that remained among the population for a long time. After this tragedy, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.

World War II comes to an end on September 2, 1945; practically leaving the world divided into two antagonistic blocs, one of them under the leadership of the United States and the other under the Soviet Union.

As has been observed throughout the content of this article, the aforementioned historical events have been key to understanding the conflict that generated the Second World War.

The Battle of the Bulge

Know that the Battle of the Bulge was one of the great confrontations fought under drastic winter conditions for almost seven weeks during World War II and that it stood out as a great offensive by the German army, do not miss it.

What was the Battle of the Bulge?

The Battle of the Bulge was an armed conflict launched in the form of an offensive by the Germans from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945 in the midst of World War II.

It was fought within dense forests and mountains belonging to the Ardennes territory of Belgium; specifically in Wallonia and from there comes its name in French “Bataille des Ardennes” having France and Luxembourg as countries that made up the Western Front.

This warlike conflict was also identified within the United States as the “Ardennes counter-offensive” representing in this sense a German surprise thrust that required a great effort by the United States Army forces to be contained.

This German offensive in turn was supported by several strategic operations that were identified as Greif or the use of a false flag, Bodenplatte, through an air attack by the Lufwafle, force in charge and offensive Währung carried out by the troops at the front of his offensive in the Ardennes.

Development of the Battle of the Bulge

On December 16, 1944, when it was 5:30 in the morning, the Germans proceeded to deliver their initial assault by means of a large artillery barrage that lasted approximately an hour and a half, advancing about 130 kilometers over the territory in their hands. of the allied troops.

Immediately, great snow storms began to bury several regions of the Ardennes, which, on the other hand, allowed the Allied air force to remain on the ground without responding to this attack.

However, the weather conditions caused problems for the German army, which undoubtedly hindered their advance. Major traffic jams arose, in addition to fuel shortages to feed their forward units.

This battle was fought by Von Manteuffel’s Panzer Army which attacked at the level of Bastogne and Saint-Vith, road junctions of important strategic importance.

While another offensive was being carried out by Brandenberger’s army pressing towards Luxemburg to secure their southern flank in this way.

Ultimately, the Panzer Army overwhelmed the US troops in charge of defending the Ardennes and captured about seven thousand prisons in just one day.

Although no one on the allied side expected this attack, they were taken by surprise, in addition to the fact that the weather was in terrible conditions and most of their weapons were inaccessible.

The German army had the opportunity to carry out other attacks, such as from the north on the Elsenborn ridges, but the allied attack managed to create a bottleneck to hold back the advance of Dietrich’s Panzer troops, who intended to control many nearby towns such as Rocherath and Krinkelt.

Although the Battle of the Bulge was an armed contest characterized by gaining and losing ground by troops on both sides, it took place for approximately seven weeks, resulting in the loss of many lives.

This is recorded by events such as the massacres carried out by troops under the command of SS Sturmbannführer Werner Pötschke, who for no apparent reason opened fire on their prisoners.

An event that was known within the allied forces; resulting in the massacre of Chenogne that on New Year’s Day in 1945, the American soldiers decided to shoot their prisoners.

Despite the fact that these war operations continued on both sides, the Battle of the Bulge came to an end on January 25, 1945, with which the fate of the Third German Reich and the end of the Second World War would be sentenced.