Western Front (World War II)
The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The Italian front is considered a separate but related theatre. The Western Front's 1944–1945 phase was officially deemed the European Theater by the United States, whereas Italy fell under the Mediterranean Theater along with North Africa. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and June 1940 after their defeat in the Low Countries and the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat (supported by a massive strategic air war considered to be an additional front), which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in May 1945 with its invasion.
| Western Front | |||||||||
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| Part of the European theatre of World War II | |||||||||
Clockwise from top left: Rotterdam after the Blitz, German Heinkel He 111 planes during the Battle of Britain, Allied paratroopers during Operation Market Garden, American troops running through Wernberg, Germany, Siege of Bastogne, American troops landing at Omaha Beach during Operation Overlord | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Allies Poland Belgium Netherlands Norway Czechoslovakia Luxembourg Italy (from 1943) |
Axis Vichy France | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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1939–1940 Maurice Gamelin Maxime Weygand John Vereker, Lord Gort William Boyle, Lord Cork Władysław Sikorski Henri Winkelman Leopold III Émile Speller Otto Ruge 1944–1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt # Dwight D. Eisenhower Winston Churchill Bernard Montgomery Arthur Tedder Omar Bradley Jacob L. Devers George S. Patton Courtney Hodges William Simpson Alexander Patch Miles Dempsey Trafford Leigh-Mallory † Bertram Ramsay † Kenneth Stuart Harry Crerar Charles de Gaulle Jean de Tassigny Kazimierz Sosnkowski |
1939–1940 Walter von Brauchitsch Gerd von Rundstedt Erich von Manstein Heinz Guderian Fedor von Bock Wilhelm von Leeb Erich Raeder Nikolaus von Falkenhorst Prince Umberto 1944–1945 Adolf Hitler † Heinrich Himmler † Hermann Göring † Gerd von Rundstedt Karl Dönitz Günther von Kluge † Walter Model † Albert Kesselring Erwin Rommel † Johannes Blaskowitz † Hermann Balck Paul Hausser Benito Mussolini Rodolfo Graziani | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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1939–1940
1944–1945
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1939–1940
1944–1945
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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1940
1944–1945
(~70% of Allied troops and casualties were Americans)
Total:
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1940
1944–1945
Total:
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Civilian casualties: 1,650,000 dead | |||||||||