Western Front (World War II)

The Western Front of World War II was a theatre in which Germany invaded most of Western Europe in 1940, and where the western allies liberated most of Western Europe between 1944 and 1945. (The Italian Front is a separate but related front).

Western Front
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
Date 3 September 1939 – 8 May 1945 (1939-09-03 – 1945-05-08)[nb 1] (5 years, 8 months and 5 days) Location Northern and Western Europe Result 1939–1940: Axis victory Occupation of most of Western and Northern Europe by Axis troops End of the French Third Republic and creation of the Vichy regime Strategic stalemate following the Battle of Britain Continuation with the Defense of the Reich and the Battle of the Atlantic Beginning of the North Africa and East Africa campaigns 1944–1945: Allied victory Fall of Nazi Germany (concurrently with the Eastern Front) Fall of the Vichy Regime Liberation of occupied countries in Western and Northern Europe Beginning of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War Territorial changes Partition of Germany (1945)
Belligerents
Allies 1939-1940  France  United Kingdom  Poland  Netherlands  Belgium  Luxembourg  Norway  Denmark (9 April 1940)  Canada Czechoslovakia	Axis 1939-1940  Germany  Italy
1944-1945  United States  United Kingdom  •  Newfoundland[1][2][3]  France  Canada  Poland  Belgium  Luxembourg  Netherlands  Norway Czechoslovakia  Italy	1944-1945  Germany  Italian Social Republic
Commanders and leaders
1939–1940 Maurice Gamelin  Maxime Weygand  John Vereker, Lord Gort William Boyle, Lord Cork Władysław Sikorski Henri Winkelman  Leopold III  Émile Speller  Otto Ruge  William Prior  1944–1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt # Harry S. Truman 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 † Charles de Gaulle Jean de Tassigny Kenneth Stuart Harry Crerar Kazimierz Sosnkowski Stanisław Maczek	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
1939–1940 7,650,000 troops (total)[4] 1944–1945 ~5,412,219 troops (total that served) 4,500,000 troops (total as of Victory in Europe Day)[5]	1939–1940 5,400,000 troops (total)[4] 1944–1945 ~8,000,000 troops (total that served)[6] ~1,900,000 troops (peak)[7]
Casualties and losses
1940 2,121,560[nb 2]–2,260,000[nb 3] casualties, including 73,000 killed and 15,000 missing 1944–1945 164,590–195,576 killed/missing 537,590 wounded 78,680 captured[10][nb 4] (~70% of Allied troops and casualties were Americans)[10] 10,561 tanks destroyed[13][14][15] 909 tank destroyers destroyed[16][14] Total: ~3,000,000 casualties	1940 160,780[nb 5]–163,650 casualties,[nb 6] including 49,000 killed or missing 1944–1945 263,000–655,000 killed[nb 7][nb 8] 400,000+ wounded[21] 4,209,840 captured[nb 9] Total: 5,000,000–5,400,000+ casualties
Civilian casualties: 1,650,000 dead[nb 10]

1940

On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded France and its northern neighbours. France and Britain had militarised the border between France and Germany in case of invasion. Allied forces were trapped at Dunkirk, but most of them would be evacuated back to Britain. Meanwhile, Italy joined the war and invaded the French Alps. German forces took Paris and France fell.

1944 - 1945

On 6 June 1944, allied forces landed at Normandy. They advanced even more in August. On 15 august, allied forces landed in southern France. On 25 August, Paris was liberated. The allies moved into Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands (the overlord and dragoon forces also linked up at this time). In December, Germany decided to do an offensive in Belgium, trapping some Americans, but it failed. In March 1945, the allies crossed the Rhine River and invaded Germany. In April 1945, the western allies linked up with the Soviets and the eastern front, On 8 May, Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe.