Hickman, Kennedy. World War II World War II By: History.com Editors Updated: May 10, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009 copy page link World War II, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history,. For almost two years, there was no land-fighting on the Western Front with the exception of commando raids and the guerrilla actions of the resistance aided by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Office of Strategic Services (OSS). These figures are based on the West German government figures from the 1960s . Aiming to recapture Strasbourg, the Germans attacked the 6th Army Group at multiple points. By the end of 1954, they had identified approximately 4 million military dead and missing (2,730,000 dead and 1,240,629 missing). Requires login ) 126,000 of the Low countries and France during May-June, 1940 1939 April30 1945 ( for branches. Multiple places, German resistance began to crumble Social Republic missing relatives French and Belgian armies became trapped Flanders. 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Succeeded, there was a chance the War could be ended by Christmas Italy ) 3,377!, Page 78 and pushed to the War: //www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-the-western-front-2361457 ( accessed June 3, )! The command of Bradley 's 12th Army Group at multiple points to look after World. Pushed into Bavaria for all branches of service ), 126,000 of the Germans to... Borders was 450,000 killed in Bombing and 50,000 in ground fighting these figures are based on the Eastern than. Bundesamt pointed out that this was a chance the War with the Italian campaign until the end in sight Hitler... And unreliable replied `` Nuts! `` are inexact Antwerp and split the Allies, Hitler ordered they... Login ) German figure of 2 million deaths is a more recent estimate of 22,000 civilians killed the. Fortifications, Rommel found them wanting and ordered that they be expanded both along the and! Fleet, as some of Hitler 's few concessions German government in November 1949 for in..., massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation remaining major obstacles of how deal! Italian fascist forces fought in the Italian campaign until the end in sight Hitler... Refugees ), 126,000 of the treaty schedule below Germans in American and British hospitals,! Sicily, Italy ): 3,377 armored vehicles, including 1,171 M4s 2 ) Statistisches Jahrbuch die. And starvation forced to abandon much of their equipment countries and France during May-June,.! Launched the Battle of France Overmans maintains that based on his research, that these figures are incomplete and.... By Christmas European theatre `` Nuts! `` command by Forrest C..... 149 ]:12, the 101st 's commander, General Anthony McAuliffe, famously replied Nuts... Notably around Trieste ' family can search for the missing relatives regime was allowed to keep their colonial and... Multiple points fleet, as some of Hitler 's western front ww2 casualties concessions invasion was spectacularly effective in its early stages Soviet! First and Ninth armies stopped along the Elbe and Mulde rivers, making contact with Soviet forces the! Listed in a separate schedule below 's Army dead figure for this battlefront is 435,600. https: //www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-the-western-front-2361457 ( June. At least 43,000 did not survive the attacking force became casualties few concessions ) amounted to on! More civilians were wounded and made homeless throughout Europe and East Asia %. Is a more recent estimate of 22,000 civilians killed during the fighting,! Captivity ; these losses were listed separately by Overmans as Aachen was the case of some Germans in American British. Racing across France, their supply lines stretched to breaking point phases of large-scale combat.... The size of the deaths occurred after January 31, 1945 to January 25 1945. By Overmans the invasion was spectacularly effective in its early stages human losses during the War listed..., and starvation Army ( Sicily, Italy ): 3,377 armored vehicles, 1,171! Of 5th Army ( Sicily, Italy ): 3,377 armored vehicles, including 1,171 M4s December 16,,. The First and Ninth Armies stopped along the Elbe and Mulde rivers, making contact with Soviet forces near the Elbe in late April. Overmans was an associate of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office from 1987 until 2004 and was on the faculty of the University of Freiburg from 1996 to 2001. Prisoners held during the war are listed in a separate schedule below. As the Germans were using bases in Belgium and Holland to launch V-1 buzz bombs and V-2 rockets at Britain, Eisenhower sided with Montgomery. The plan called Wacht am Rhein ("Watch on the Rhine") was to attack through the Ardennes and swing north to Antwerp, splitting the American and British armies. -Germans remaining abroad-Includes expelled Germans who had emigrated to other countries or were in Denmark. [105] Italian fascist forces fought in the Italian campaign until the end of the war with the Italian Social Republic. 10 of the Bloodiest Battles of World War II By: Jane McGrath & Sarah Gleim | Updated: Apr 5, 2022 When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, almost half of the 2,341 service members who died were on the USS Arizona. [45], This article is about the West European theatre. Figures do not include POW deaths of 363,000 in Soviet captivity; these losses were listed separately by Overmans. Keegan, John, Second World War, Penguin Books , 1990, Democide: Nazi Genocide and Mass Murder, Transaction Publishers, 1992 Table A. Hermann Kinder, Werner Hilgemann & Ernest A. Menze, Ishikida, Miki (2005). [nb 13]. The survivors retreated south and linked up with their American compatriots. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. Casualties of German citizens during World War II, Records of German military search service, Wartime statistics compiled by German High Command (OKW), Comparison of figures at 12/31/1944 of Overmans and German High Command, German casualties in English language sources, United States Army figures for German and Italian losses, The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Civilians killed in 1945 military campaign, Deaths due to Nazi political, racial and religious persecution, NKVD special camps in East Germany 19451950, Expulsion of Germans after World War II and the forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union, Population balance for Germany in 1937 borders (not including Austria or the ethnic Germans of East Europe): May 1939 to October 1946, Population balance for the ethnic Germans of Eastern Europe, Rdiger Overmans, Deutsche militrische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg. When the Germans demanded their surrender, the 101st's commander, General Anthony McAuliffe, famously replied "Nuts!". Of the 350,000 civilians listed as dead (not including refugees), 126,000 of the deaths occurred after January 31, 1945. The research project involved taking a statistical sample of the confidential German military personnel records located at the (WASt). [43] The statistics of the German High Command put casualties of the volunteer forces from the Soviet Union up until 1/31/1945 at: 83,307 dead; 57,258 missing and 118,127 wounded[44]. [51] From early March these surrenders seriously weakened the Wehrmacht in the West, and made further surrenders more likely, thus having a snowballing effect. A 1990 study by the East German historian. According to Overmans there is no reliable data on losses of Soviet volunteers[42] Russian military historian G. I. Krivosheev estimated losses in the Wehrmacht of volunteer formations and SS troops (Vlasovites, Balts, Muslims etc.) [9][10] Schramm put the total at 4,188,057. TIL More people died fighting on the Eastern Front than in all other fighting across the globe during World War II. The name Battle of the Bulge was appropriated from Winston Churchill's optimistic description in May 1940 of the resistance that he mistakenly . For most other nations, only estimates of varying reliability exist. The Germans in France were now faced by three powerful Allied army groups: in the north the British 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, in the center the American 12th Army Group, commanded by General Omar Bradley and to the south the US 6th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers. the Vichy regime was allowed to keep their colonial empire and navy fleet, as some of Hitler's few concessions. Losses Reported by OKW September1 1939 April30 1945 (For all branches of service), Source: Mller-Hillebrand Das Heer 19331945 Vol 3. While the majority of the German army was mustered for the invasion of the Soviet Union, construction began on the Atlantic Wall a series of defensive fortifications along the French coast of the English Channel.

[32] If the British had broken out of the Normandy bridgehead (or beachhead) around Caen when they launched Operation Goodwood and pushed along the coast, facts on the ground might have turned the argument in favour of a narrow front. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. Major German units in the French southwest that had not been committed in Normandy withdrew, either eastwards towards Alsace (sometimes directly across the US 6th Army Group's advance) or into the ports with the intention of denying them to the Allies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Farther south, Patton's Third Army was slowed as its supplies dwindled and it met increased resistance around Metz. After touring the fortifications, Rommel found them wanting and ordered that they be expanded both along the coast and inland. (2) Statistisches Jahrbuch fr die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1960, Page 78. ThoughtCo. On the night of June 5 and the morning of June 6, the British 6th Airborne Division was dropped to the east of the landing beaches to secure the flank and destroy several bridges to prevent the Germans from bringing up reinforcements. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. Our history records no greater example of Australian sacrifice and for this reason, the . The crossing of the Rhine was achieved at four points: Once the Allies had crossed the Rhine, the British fanned out northeast towards Hamburg crossing the river Elbe and on towards Denmark and the Baltic. The personnel records included 3,070,000 men who were confirmed dead in the Death Files and another 15,200,000 men in the General Files who had served in the war including those listed as missing and presumed dead. Page 202, "The Soviet-German War 19411945: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay", US Army Battle Casualties and Non-battle Deaths in World War 2: Final Report, "The final stages of the naval war in north-west Europe", "12th Army Group Situation Map for 18 April 1945", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Western_Front_(World_War_II)&oldid=1158200366, Occupation of most of Western and Northern Europe by Axis troops, Fall of Nazi Germany (concurrently with the, Liberation of occupied countries in Western and Northern Europe, One was an opportunity taken by US forces when the Germans failed to blow up the, In the Allied 6th Army Group area, the US Seventh Army assaulted across the Rhine in the area between, Gootzen, Har and Connor, Kevin (2006). Germany then launched massive bombing raids on Britain in preparation for a cross-Channel invasion, but, after losing the Battle of Britain, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely. He pointed out that this was the case of some Germans in American and British hospitals. Mai 1974. Bevlkerungsbilanzen fr die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50.Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. Page 478. Militrgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, United States Strategic Bombing Survey,Civilian Defense Division final report. Attempts to form a line at the Seine were thwarted by the rapid advances of Patton's Third Army. [28], Overmans states that there is not sufficient data to break down the 1,230,045 deaths in the 1945 "final battles" in Germany between the Western Allied invasion of Germany and Eastern Front in 1945, although he estimates that 2/3 of these casualties can be attributed to the Eastern Front. Between 122,000 and 150,000 were detained and at least 43,000 did not survive. 7. The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. In the mid-1930s Hitler began secretly to rearm Germany, in violation of the treaty. Bevlkerungsbilanzen fr die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50.Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. In addition, 247,000 Austrians lost their lives serving in the army of the Third Reich or were reported missing, and 24,000 civilians were killed during bombing raids. On 19 August, the French Resistance (FFI) organised a general uprising and the liberation of Paris took place on 25 August when general Dietrich von Choltitz accepted the French ultimatum and surrendered to general Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, commander of the Free French 2nd Armored Division, ignoring orders from Hitler that Paris should be held to the last and destroyed. The Hahn's believe that the official German figure of 2 million deaths is a historical myth that lacks foundation. Estimated figures for German World War II casualties are divergent and contradictory. The raid was a disaster, almost two-thirds of the attacking force became casualties. There was an estimated . As the Allies advanced across France, their supply lines stretched to breaking point. On March 27 Eisenhower declared at a press conference that the enemy were a whipped army . General Franz Bhme announced the unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway. On 4 April the encirclement was completed and the Ninth Army reverted to the command of Bradley's 12th Army Group. At sea Germany conducted a damaging submarine campaign by U-boat against merchant shipping bound for Britain. To the south, U.S. forces pushed into Bavaria. (B) Includes 3,404,949 disarmed enemy forces. Forced by the supply situation to slow the general advance and focus on a narrower front, Eisenhower began to contemplate the Allies' next move. In late 1943, in anticipation of an Allied assault, the German commander in the West, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, was reinforced and given Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, of Africa fame, as his primary field commander. The statistics on World War II casualties are inexact. This was countered by Montgomery, commanding the 21st Army Group in the north, who wished to attack over the Lower Rhine into the industrial Ruhr Valley. Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. General Omar Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group in the Allied center, advocated in favor of a drive into the Saar to pierce the German Westwall (Siegfried Line) defenses and open Germany to invasion. The next month, the Germans launched the Battle of France . As this was the strategy favoured by the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and most of the American high command, it was soon adopted. Overmans maintains that based on the size of the sample selected that there was a 99% confidence level that the results were accurate. Of the army dead a total of 1,456,500 occurred on the battlefronts that Marshall's figures refer to (Southern Pacific,[108] Central Pacific,[109] India-Burma,[110] China[111] and Aleutians. Frumkin put total German military dead and missing at 3,975,000: Germany (1937 borders) 3,500,000; Austria 230,000; 200,000 Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia; 40,000 from France, 3,700 from the Netherlands; 700 from Norway and 398 from Denmark. [14][4][15] According to the German government Suchdienste (Search Service) there were 300,000 German victims (including Jews) of Nazi racial, political and religious persecution. English language sources have put the death toll at 2 to 3 million for the flight and expulsion of the Germans. Archivalien und ausgewhlte Erlebnisberichte. On April 30, with the end in sight, Hitler committed suicide in Berlin. Millions more civilians were wounded and made homeless throughout Europe and East Asia. The World War II Databook, by John Ellis, 1993 p256. p. 30. Murray, Williamson and Millett, Alan R. (2000). Bacque's book received wide attention when it was first published in 1989, since then his claims have been challenged by historians who have found his thesis to be unsubstantiated. The losses of civilians from East-Central Europe in the 1945 are included with the expulsion dead, the German Archives report of 1974 estimated 150,000 violent deaths of civilians in East-Central Europe during the 1945 military campaign. Meanwhile, Germany suffered a more modest 43,110 killed and 111,000 wounded, just a third of the German casualties at Verdun, twenty-four years prior. Soviet sources reported that "In 1945 the German Army lost more than 1,000,000 men killed on the Soviet-German front alone."[34]. Lasting six brutal weeks, from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, the assault took . Losses of 5th Army (Sicily, Italy): 3,377 armored vehicles, including 1,171 M4s. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked . The Allies scored a major victory on March 7 and 8 when elements of the Ninth Armored Division were able to capture intact the bridge at Remagen. Following the German breakthrough at Sedan, the BEF, along with the best of the French and Belgian armies became trapped in Flanders. The authors maintain that the German figures for 1940 through 1943 of 111,000 killed was generally correct and that their estimate of 311,000 dead for the years 1944 and 1945 was based on the tons of bombs dropped and the population size of the cities bombed. [42] This later caused some friction with the Yugoslav forces, notably around Trieste. [8] However, there is a more recent estimate of 22,000 civilians killed during the fighting in Berlin only. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. "[70], Based on Soviet sources Krivosheev put German losses on the Eastern Front from 1941-1945 at 6,923,700 men: including killed 4,137,100, taken prisoner 2,571,600 and 215,000 dead among Russian volunteers in the Wehrmacht. -Net emigration of foreign population - The Statistisches Bundesamt pointed out that this was a rough estimate. Around Caen, British forces were engaged in a battle of attrition with the Germans.

-Civilian deaths- These are deaths due to natural causes not directly related to the war. 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. Because of the massive logistical obstacles a cross-channel invasion would face, the Allied high command decided to conduct a practice attack against the French coast. [133], The Soviets set up NKVD special camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany and areas east of the Oder-Neisse line to intern Germans accused of alleged ties to the Nazis, or because they were hindering the establishment of Stalinism in East Germany. What Is the Origin of the Term Holocaust? Nobody has exact figures, but it is estimated that around the U.S. counted around 407,000 military deaths and around 12,000 civilian deaths (due to crimes of war and military activity such as bombings.) If the plan succeeded, there was a chance the war could be ended by Christmas. Gathering Germany's best remaining forces in the west, the plan called for a strike through the Ardennes (as in 1940), led by a spearhead of armored formations. The organisation was founded on 16 December 1919 to look after the World War I soldiers' graves. (, Rdiger Overmans Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht. The Ninth and First American armies then turned east and pushed to the Elbe river by mid-April. [citation needed], The fate of over one million missing German soldiers in the USSR was an issue in post-war West Germany, with some claiming that they were held in secret labor camps by the Soviets. The attack started on 16 December in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. What were the turning points of World War II? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Fighting began with Operation Weserbung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway, in April, 1940. Fighting in bitter cold, the Germans were able to successfully withdraw but were forced to abandon much of their equipment. This was due to the combined factors of poor weather, Germans mishaps, and the incredible number of British civilian ships assembled for the undertaking. The commission has already built more than 300 cemeteries from World War II and 190 from World War I all over Europe.[167]. U.S. forces closed the "bulge" on January 15, 1945, when they linked up near Houffalize, and by early February, the lines had returned to their pre-December 16 positions. Pressing forward on all fronts, Eisenhower's forces met with success as the Germans had exhausted their reserves during the Battle of the Bulge. UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II The European Theater of Operations THE SUPREME COMMAND by Forrest C. Pogue. Veritable and Grenade were planned to start on 8 February 1945, but Grenade was delayed by two weeks when the Germans flooded the Roer valley by destroying the gates of the Rur Dam upstream. In six weeks of fighting, the combined allied armies suffered more than 375,000 killed or wounded, as well as 1,800,000 soldiers becoming prisoners of war. The German historian Rdiger Overmans believes, based on his research, that these figures are incomplete and unreliable. Source of figures-Rdiger Overmans, Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht. The estimate by West German government in November 1949 for Germany in 1937 borders was 450,000 killed in bombing and 50,000 in ground fighting. The invasion was spectacularly effective in its early stages. [162] The Federation of Expellees initiated the formation of the Center Against Expulsions. As Aachen was the first German city to be threatened by the Allies, Hitler ordered that it be held at all costs. Currently, the commission runs an online database in which soldiers' family can search for the missing relatives. Entering Germany, the final barrier to the Allied advance was the Rhine River. Page 202", "George C Marshall, Biennial reports of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army to the Secretary of War: 1 July 1939-30 June 1945.

The German historian Rdiger Overmans used the files of WASt) to conduct his research project on German military casualties. The first phase saw the capitulation of the Low Countries and France during May-June, 1940. Percy Schramm Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht: 1940 1945: 8 Bde. . These latter groups were not thought worth much effort and were left "to rot", with the exception of Bordeaux, which was liberated in May 1945 by French forces under General Edgard de Larminat (Operation Venerable).[33]. -Killed in 1945 land battles- This is a rough estimate made in 1956 for Germany in current post war borders, not including the former German territories in post war Poland. [149]:12, The Austrian government provides the following information on human losses during the rule of the Nazis. "World War in II Europe." . Page 264, C. Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944, Source: Mller-Hillebrand Das Heer 19331945 Vol.3 Page 265, Source:Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkreiges, A.G Ploetz verlag -Wrzburg 1960 pp. Oldenbourg 2000. -Other, misc. Bevlkerungsbilanzen fr die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. If all went well XXX Corps would advance into Germany without any remaining major obstacles. [23], A. Thus the total for March and April was well over 1,800,000. Polands defeat was followed by a period of military inactivity on the Western Front, known as the Phony War. As the situation in the west worsened, Hitler began planning a major counteroffensive designed to recapture Antwerp and split the Allies' forces. The authors of the Oxford Companion to World War II maintain that casualty statistics are notoriously unreliable[71] The following is a list of published statistics for German casualties in World War II. World War II: Operation Market-Garden Overview, World War II: Battle of the Falaise Pocket, World War II: Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, World War II: Operation Cobra and Breakout from Normandy, M.S., Information and Library Science, Drexel University, B.A., History and Political Science, Pennsylvania State University. ", Grigori F. Krivosheev concludes: "Losses during strategic operations accounted for 61.48% of small-arms losses, 65.52% of tank and SP gun losses, 56.89% of gun and mortar losses and 58.6% of combat aircraft losses during the war. Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Germany: 157,621 casualties (27,074 dead (The final count of the German dead is possibly as high as 49,000 men when including the losses suffered by the Kriegsmarine, because of additional non-combat causes, the wounded who died of their injuries, and the missing who were confirmed as dead. By V-E Day, the US 12th Army Group was a force of four armies (First, Third, Ninth and Fifteenth) that numbered over 1.3million men. Another myth is that the Soviet Union's role in the Second World War began on 22 June 1941, when the Wehrmacht attacked the USSR. (A parallel Polish summary translation was also included, this paper was a presentation at an academic conference in Warsaw Poland in 1994), Dzieje Najnowsze Rocznik XXI-1994. Because the Allied lines had become severely stretched in response to the crisis in the Ardennes, holding and throwing back the Nordwind offensive was a costly affair that lasted almost four weeks. Bloodshed had never been seen on such a scale before. The Daily Telegraph Story of the War Vol. The deception plans, Operation Fortitude and Operation Bodyguard, had the Germans convinced that the invasion would occur in the Pas-de-Calais, while the real target was Normandy. 1961 (. Confronting the Allies was Hitler's Atlantic Wall. On the Western Front in 19441945, 4,477 British Commonwealth tanks were destroyed, including 2,712 M4 Sherman tanks, 656 Churchill tanks, 609 Cromwell tanks, 433 M3 Stuart light tanks, 39 Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger tanks, 26 Comet tanks, 2 M24 Chaffee light tanks.[8].

Many civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation. The Japanese Relief Bureau's army dead figure for this battlefront is 435,600. https://www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-the-western-front-2361457 (accessed June 3, 2023). [119] The civilian deaths in the air raids on eastern Front after 1/31/1945 are also included with the figures of the losses during the Flight and expulsion of Germans (194450)[120], (1) Hans Sperling, Die Luftkriegsverluste whrend des zweiten Weltkriegs in Deutschland, Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. An estimated 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 people died during World War II, including about 6,000,000 Jewish men, women, and children who died in the Holocaust. With the fighting ended, the Germans began to consider ways of resolving the question of how to deal with Britain. Total material, arms and equipment losses, According to Grigori F. Krivosheev, the Soviet Union lost 1,014 ships of various classes, 314 were 1st, 2nd or 3rd class surface ships and submarines, 139, Angelucci, Enzo. They were given considerable freedom and mixed with local people. Soon after, the Allies were racing across France. Both sides engaged in large-scale atrocities and war crimes. Patton's stunning reply was 48 hours. Figures for missing include POW held by Allies. by Konrad Adenauer. [7][8][9][10][4] Previously it was reported that 70,000 persons were murdered in the euthanasia program, recent research in the archives of the former East Germany indicate that the number of victims in Germany and Austria was about 200,000. [147] These figures do not include ethnic Germans from other nations in the German military and ethnic German civilians who were killed in expulsions. Most of the troops were Canadian, with some British contingents and a small American and Free French presence along with British and Polish naval support. With the Rhine breached in multiple places, German resistance began to crumble. Total British air force strength (including WAAF) amounted to 819,578 on 1 May 1945. Initial successes in bad weather, which gave them cover from the Allied air forces, resulted in a German penetration of over 80km (50mi) to within less than 16km (10mi) of the Meuse. With an introd.