Operations - Code Names - "A"

Operation Barbarossa

Steve W.

 

many of the operations in Normandy had the name of races. Epsom. Goodwood (That I loathe)
Sapper

 

Bit of licence with this:

Operation Cobra: the Normandy Breakout

Operation Bluecoat: British operation in support of US exploitation of their breakout.


Steve W.

 

Operation BRADDOCK

This operation was personally ordered by Churchill after he read Steinbeck's latest book "The Moon is Down". The book was the fictional account of a snowy, northern country that had been occupied by a harsh enemy. It tells the story of how a small village resists the invader with the help of air-dropped sticks of dynamite from their Allies. The book was also made into a movie.

Churchill ordered the Special Operations Executive to devise a plan to supply the peoples of Occupied Europe with small concealable explosives and weapons which could be air-dropped en masse.

SOE weren’t too keen on the operation, for one reason the time wasn’t right for small acts of sabotage which would bring drastic reprisals. Anyway SOE laboured on with plan, first called operation MOON and then later changed to BRADDOCK.

Two types of weapons were devised. BRADDOCK I consisted of an “attack pack” which contained explosives, time pencils and an ugly single-shot pistol known as the Liberator. The Liberator was built in the US was a few dollars each.

BRADDOCK II consisted of a small plastic capsule containing petroleum gel with a built-in tiny 30 minute time pencil. This small incendiary was intended to be dropped in large quantities across Europe to be used for arson purposes.

Planning of the operation dragged on for years. BRADDOCK I was cancelled and finally BRADDOCK II went ahead on a small scale. It wasn’t intended as a serious sabotage operation but turned in a propaganda operation. Subversive propaganda through the black radio station Soldatensender West and the newspaper Nachrichten für die Truppe was employed to spread rumours that thousands of BRADDOCKs had been dropped across Germany and that foreign workers were using them to burn down factories and the property of Nazi leaders.

Long story here: Black Propaganda - Operation Braddock

 

ALIED

Operation ANIMALS - following MINCEMEAT, to distract German attention from Sicily by suggesting an invasion of Southern Greece

Operation BAYTOWN - Landing in the heel of Italy, September 1943


GERMAN

ACHE - Action to be taken in the Balkans and Italy in the event of an Italian surrender, Sept 1943
ALARICH - Earlier version of ACHE

 

Op AINTREE, attack on Overloon and Venray in the Peel Marshes of Holland Oct 1944. Some of the bloodiest fighting of the war and totally overlooked.

 

Op AINTREE, attack on Overloon and Venray in the Peel Marshes of Holland Oct 1944. Some of the bloodiest fighting of the war and totally overlooked.

Parts of the southern Netherlands were not liberated by Operation Market Garden, which had established a narrow salient between Eindhoven and Nijmegen. In the east of North Brabant and in Limburg, British and American forces in Operation Aintree managed to defeat the remaining German forces west of the Meuse between late September and early December 1944, destroying the German bridgehead between the Meuse and the Peel marshes. During this offensive the only tank battle ever fought on Dutch soil took place at Overloon.

From: Battle of Overloon - Powerset

Took the lives of over 2,500 men.

The Battle of Overloon was a Second World War battle between Allied forces and the German army which took place in and around the village of Overloon in the south-east of the Netherlands between September 30th and October 18th, 1944. The battle, which resulted in an Allied victory, ensued after the Allies launched Operation Aintree. The Allies went on to liberate the town of Venray.

Background

In September 1944, the Allies had launched Operation Market Garden, a major offensive from the Dutch-Belgian border across the south of the Netherlands through Eindhoven and Nijmegen towards the Rhine bridge at Arnhem, with the goal of crossing the Rhine and bypassing the Siegfried Line in preparation for the final drive toward Berlin. However, Airborne Allied forces were defeated at the Rhine bridge in Arhem and the advance stopped south of the Lower Rhine, resulting in a narrow salient that ran from the north of Belgium across the south-east of the Netherlands.
German forces attacked this salient from a bridgehead west of the bend in the river Meuse (known as Maas in Dutch and German) near the city of Venlo. The bridgehead was established by retreating German forces who were reinfored with troops arriving from nearby Germany by crossing the Meuse in Venlo. The western edge of this bridgehead ran through the Peel marshes, a fen area with marshy ground and several canals blocking an Allied advance. The Allies decided to attack the bridgehead from the north, and this meant they had to capture Overloon and Venray, which were on the road towards Venlo.
Operation Aintree (named after Aintree racecourse) had the goal of securing the narrow salient the Allies had established between Eindhoven and Nijmegen during Operation Market Garden and destroying the German bridgehead west of the Meuse, in preparation for the eventual Allied advance into the nearby German Rhineland.

Battle

The battle of Overloon ensued as the Allies in Operation Aintree advanced from nearby positions southwards toward the village of Overloon. After a failed attack on Overloon by the U.S. 7th Armored Division, the British 3rd Infantry Division had to take over. Suffering heavy losses the Allies captured Overloon and moved towards Venray. The advance on Venray resulted in heavy losses, especially around the Loobeek creek, which was swollen due to heavy autumn rains and was mined by the Germans. Casualties were heavy here among the First Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. During the battle, the village of Overloon was completely destroyed. In and around Overloon, some 2500 soldiers died, making it one of the bloodier battles in the Netherlands during the Second World War. It was also the only major tank battle ever fought on Dutch soil. Dozens of tanks, mainly British, were destroyed.

Aftermath

Despite the fact that both Overloon and eventually Venray, were taken by the Allies the planned advance toward the bend of the Meuse near Venlo was initially postponed. This was due to the number of casualties the Allies had sustained and because troops were needed to secure more essential targets: the Scheldt estuary, leading to the vital port of Antwerp and the west of the province of North Brabant, in between Antwerp and the salient that had been established. The offensive was eventually resumed and by early December the German bridgehead west of the Meuse was destroyed.

Remembrance

The battle of Overloon has become known as the second battle of Caen due to its ferocity and also as the forgotten battle, because like the other engagements in the Peel area it is not well known in much of the Netherlands.
The tanks and other armored vehicles which were left on the battlefield have been preserved and in Overloon a museum, which opened in 1946, was erected to commemorate the battle. Today, two museums occupy the original museum grounds, which have been renamed Liberty Park. The National War and Resistance Museum of the Netherlands focusses on the Dutch experience of war and German occupation between 1940 and 1945. The Marshall Museum holds a collection of armored vehicles, weaponry and aircraft from the Second World War, much of it left on the Overloon battlefield, and focuses on the battle of Overloon and other military aspects of the Second World War.
Two memorials have been erected on the battle site. On the banks of the Loobeek creek, where it is crossed by the road between Overloon and Venray, stands the Norfolk monument, dedicated to the First Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. The liberation of Venray was one of their battle honours. There is also another memorial in the museum grounds of Liberty Park.