Scheldt, battle of the (1944) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Military History
...Allies badly needed a large working port by late 1944 , their logistic tail still stretching back to the artificial port at Arromanches (none of the well-demolished French ports were functioning yet). Montgomery might have concentrated on clearing the Scheldt estuary from Antwerp to the sea, but instead he launched MARKET GARDEN, in the hope of taking a short cut into Germany. The defeat at Arnhem removed any hopes of gaining Rotterdam or Amsterdam as alternative ports and belatedly he ordered Simonds's First Canadian Army to clear the Scheldt. The...
France, Liberation of (1944–45) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to American Military History
...Germans successfully withdrew more than half of their forces from southern France before the Allied armies effected a juncture on 11 September . Dever's army group was then ordered to protect the Allied southern flank during the drive into Germany. Meanwhile, U.S. efforts in clearing the Brittany peninsula to the west came to naught. After a stubborn fight, the Germans finally surrendered Brest on 25 August , but not before destroying nearly all of the port facilities. With the opening of Marseilles in the South, of Cherbourg, and with the imminent capture...
Baltics Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology
...mercenaries in Russian principalities. Military equipment was primitive. Rich nobles owned some armor and good swords, but poor men were armed with little more than clubs, spears, and rocks; almost everyone rode the little ponies that thrived on the rich pastures in the forest clearings and along the major rivers. Although romantics see this as an idyllic situation, warfare was limited only by the lack of incentive to conduct sieges. Life was hardly disturbed by the passage of Viking warriors along the great rivers from the Baltic Sea to Russia and thence on to...
War Art Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History (2 ed.)
...official war artists: Nora Heysen , Stella Bowen and the aforementioned Sybil Craig. Classified as professionals, all women artists received similar pay to the men but only Nora Heysen served in the operational areas, recording the activities of the nurses at the Casualty Clearing Stations in New Guinea. Initially, the war artist appointments were the responsibility of the Department of Information, who administered the program until October 1941 . At this time, control of the program passed to the trustees and director of the AWM (under Colonel John...
Scheldt Estuary, battle for Reference library
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...17 September, it did start attacking the network of gun batteries and other defences sited on Walcheren Island which dominated the mouth of the Scheldt. On 15 September Crerar's 1st Corps was committed to guarding the flank of the Second British Army during MARKET-GARDEN, so responsibility for clearing the banks of the Scheldt devolved on his 2nd Corps. His plans included a landing on Walcheren, once its dykes had been breached by Bomber Command and most of the inland German defences flooded or isolated, and the seizure of the area around Roosendaal and...
Montgomery, Field Marshal Sir Bernard (1887–1976) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...but with the Germans in full retreat he made two errors: he failed to move beyond Antwerp to cut off the German forces which had retreated on to the Beveland peninsula, and he then chose to launch MARKET-GARDEN to gain a bridgehead beyond the lower Rhine at Arnhem instead of clearing the approaches to the Scheldt Estuary. However, it was not Antwerp or MARKET-GARDEN that nearly proved Montgomery's undoing, but his astonishing insouciance. His increasing fame fed an egocentricity that made him incapable of understanding that co-operation was the basis of...
Germany, battle for Reference library
Earl Ziemke
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...but not over concerns from which he could profit. Nazi Germany's fate was sealed. The war was about to become a contest for shares in the victory, and the German capital, symbol of German militarism and expansionism, was regarded as the grand prize ( see Berlin, fall of ). 1. Clearing the Rhineland Though they had fought their first major battles on German soil as early as the previous autumn ( see Aachen and Huertgen Forest ), there was grave doubt that Eisenhower 's armies were credible contenders in a race for Berlin on 28 January, the day they...
raw and synthetic materials Reference library
Richard Overy
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...of Lend-Lease in 1941 and the onset of American rearmament led to an unprecedented degree of collaboration between the empire and the USA in assessing future raw material needs and agreeing to their distribution between the various economies. In May 1942 an Empire Clearing House was set up for materials produced in the British colonies and dominions. In January 1942 a Combined Raw Materials Board was set up to oversee the whole raw material effort of the Allies and to decide on allocation with the USSR as well. Nearly 60% of the Lend-Lease...
Grand Alliance Reference library
Michael Howard
The Oxford Companion to World War II
...its cities in the winter of 1940–1 ( see Blitz ), the UK could do little more than defend the sea lanes across which came the supplies from North America that enabled it to survive. In the Middle East, early successes against the Italians had held out further false hopes of clearing the shores of North Africa and building up an alliance of Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey to contain German expansion in south-east Europe. But here again the speed and decisiveness of German operations in the Balkan and Western Desert campaigns in the spring of 1941 threw...
