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"CONDUCT OF
WAR IN
EUROPE IN
1944 - ALLIED ADVANCE IN
ITALY,
FRANCE, AND BELGIUM -
LIBERATION OF
PARIS, AND ADVANCE INTO
GERMANY."
"
The Big Picture" episode TV-640
The Big Picture
TV Series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_hX5wLdhf_Jwfz5l_3NRAcCYURbOW2Fl
Public domain film from the
US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/
3.0/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
...On
6 June 1944 (known as
D-Day), after three years of
Soviet pressure, the
Western Allies invaded northern
France. After reassigning several
Allied divisions from
Italy, they also attacked southern France. These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the
German Army units in France.
Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the
Free French Forces, both led by
General Charles de Gaulle, on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back
German forces in western
Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern
Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the
Netherlands ended with a failure. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, unsuccessfully trying to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. In Italy the Allied advance also slowed down, when they ran into the last major
German defensive line.
On 22 June, the
Soviets launched a strategic offensive in
Belarus (known as "
Operation Bagration") that resulted in the almost complete destruction of the
German Army Group Centre.
Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from
Western Ukraine and
Eastern Poland. The successful advance of
Soviet troops prompted resistance forces in
Poland to initiate several uprisings. Though, the largest of these in
Warsaw, where German soldiers massacred
200,
000 civilians, as well as a national
Slovak Uprising in the south did not receive Soviet support, and were put down by German forces.
The Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern
Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in
Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.
In September 1944,
Soviet Red Army troops advanced into
Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of the German Army Groups E and F in
Greece,
Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this
point, the Communist-led
Partisans under
Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since
1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and were engaged in delaying efforts against the German forces further south. In northern
Serbia, the
Red Army, with limited support from
Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of
Belgrade on
20 October.
A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied
Hungary that lasted until the fall of
Budapest in
February 1945. In contrast with impressive Soviet victories in the
Balkans, the bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the
Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of
Finland and led to the signing of Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, with a subsequent shift to the Allied side by Finland.
By the start of July,
Commonwealth forces in
Southeast Asia had repelled the
Japanese sieges in
Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the
Chindwin River while the
Chinese captured
Myitkyina. In
China, the Japanese were having greater successes, having finally captured
Changsha in mid-June and the city of
Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they further invaded the province of
Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at
Guilin and
Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of December
.
In the Pacific,
American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944 they began their offensive against the
Mariana and
Palau islands, and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the
Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the
Japanese Prime Minister,
Hideki Tojo, and provided the
United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the
Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the
Filipino island of
Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory during the
Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history...
- published: 01 Aug 2015
- views: 590