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| The Battle for Brittany started in August 1944. Having broken out of the Normandy beachhead,
the Allies targeted Brittany because of its important naval bases at Lorient, St. Nazaire and Brest. Despite a bombing campaign by the RAF, U-boats and surface craft
had continued to use these bases and the Nazis had launched 'Operation Cerberus' from Brest in 1942. With this in mind their capture would end any Allied
concerns about their potential continued use. Also, they would prove extremely useful to the Allies who needed as many ports as possible to land all the
supplies their men needed.
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| Concrete U-boat pens at Brest |
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US Forces sent to liberate Brittany
The Americans were ordered to liberate Brittany. General Middleton's US 8th Corps, with Brest as their major target,
headed east to west across the north of Brittany. At the same time, the US 20th Corps, led by General Walker, marched south to Nantes. Both units were
to link up at Lorient. The Allies had decided that as soon as Brittany had been liberated a new harbour would be built at Quiberon, south-west of Lorient.
They had expected that the German forces would destroy all the harbours in Brittany before the Allies could reach them and that Quiberon, being sheltered
from the Atlantic Ocean, made a perfect place to construct a new harbour.
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| The advance into Brittany should have been relatively easy. German forces were in disarray after D-Day, the Cotentin Peninsula had been taken and
the allies had captured the bridge at Pontaubault which crossed the River Sélune, south of Avranches.
However, arguments between Generals Patton and Bradley about how Brittany should be liberated did not help the Americans. Such disarray was evident
when the US 8th Corps advanced. General Middleton had determined that he should keep up with his men to facilitate communication.
However, Patton insisted that Middleton should stay near his army headquarters, the result of which was that he quickly lost contact with his divisions.
He wrote that communication with his men was "practically nil".
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US Army advance with the French Resistance
The 8th Corps' advance into northern Brittany was rapid. However, this success led to problems.
As well as the communication issue, it became difficult to supply the army as it moved forward.
There was little time to establish supply bases and logistics became ad hoc.
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| German POWs being taken to the 6th Division POW camp |
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The advance of the 8th Corps also caused problems for the French Resistance.
In contrast to the major but invisible role they played at D-Day, the campaign in Brittany was one where
the French Resistance would openly engage the Germans. Albert Eon, a French officer based in London, was flown in
to lead the 20,000-strong resistance 'army' based in Brittany. However, they required modern equipment.
This was dropped in by parachute. However because the Americans had advanced so quickly the equipment was often
dropped in areas already captured by the Americans so that resistance fighters would have to wait for it to be moved up to the front line.
Despite of such issues, the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) had its victories.
FFI troops took control of the Vannes airfield attacking in armoured jeeps brought in by gliders;
150 Frenchmen captured important rail bridges at and near Morlaix. Groups of FFI also openly accompanied the
Americans, their local knowledge proving invaluable to the Americans.
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| The Americans advance was, in part, a result of German plans to defend the ports.
German commander in Brittany, General Fahrmbacher, had ordered all of his troops to fall back to
the heavily defended ports. As a result there were fewer Germans en route than the Americans had expected.
Hitler had ordered the ports as fortresses "to be defended to the last man, to the last cartridge".
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| The 20th Corps reached Nantes on August 6th where they found the port facilities in ruins.
On the same day, US forces arrived at the outskirts of Brest. Reconnaissance showed that the
city was well defended and any attack would need to be a major one. Brest was, as Hitler had instructed, a fortress.
German forces held out until September 18th - 5 weeks after the arrival of the American 6th Armoured Division.
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| The Americans also faced problems at St. Malo on the north coast.
Intelligence from the French Resistance told the Americans that the Germans had 10,000 men protecting the ports.
However, the Americans assumed, in error, that there were only 5,000. In fact, St. Malo was guarded by 12,000 German troops.
To avaoid bloodshed, local officials tried to persuade the German commander at St. Malo, General Andreas von Aulock,
to surrender. He refused.
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| St. Malo and the surrounding area were heavily defended. The Americans encountered intense opposition,
but slowly advanced towards the city's citadel where von Aulock's had his headquarters.
The citadel walls were extremely strong, so-much-so that 1000-pound bombs and armour-piercing shells
were of little use against it. In an attempt to end the fighting, a captured German army chaplain asked von Aulock to surrender
his forces. He refused, saying "a German soldier does not surrender".
In reply the Americans fired two 8-inch artillery guns from just 1,500 meters directly onto the citadel's port holes and vents.
They were preparing to drop napalm onto the citadel when Aulock eventually surrendered with 400 men.
Although beaten, he was "unbearably arrogant" probably because he had succeeded in holding up the
American advance by two weeks, if at the expense of a now-devastated city.
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| The Americans had a similarly difficult task in Brest. Along with the FFI, they
had to overcome in excess of 75 enemy strong-points. It was extremely
time consuming and dangerous work. When German forces finally surrender on September 18th,
American troop numbers had been reduced (killed and wounded) by 10,000.
Brest had been destroyed, as had its harbour. Rather than risk the same outcome at Lorient and St. Nazaire,
the Americans chose to surround the ports for the rest of the war, keeping the Germans where they were.
Their surrender came at the end of the war. The need for a port in Brittany became obsolete when Antwerp was captured in November.
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| 2d Infantry Division under fire, Brest |
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