Allied siege of La Rochelle

Allied siege of La Rochelle (1944–1945)
Part of World War II
Free French armoured car which participated in the liberation of La Rochelle in 1945. Musée d'Orbigny-Bernon.
Date September 1944 – May 1945 Location La Rochelle Result German surrender
Belligerents
Nazi Germany	Free French  United States  United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Vice-Admiral Ernst Schirlitz	General de Larminat
Strength
22,000

The Allied siege of La Rochelle occurred during the Second World War in 1944–45, when Allied troops invaded France.La Rochelle was an important German base on the Atlantic, especially a major submarine base from where U-boat campaigns were launched. Until the end of the war, La Rochelle was, with other harbours such as Royan or Saint-Nazaire, one of the remaining "Atlantic pockets" occupied by the Germans, which had been bypassed by the main thrust of the Allied invasion. On the North Sea, Dunkirk was similarly bypassed. The city was liberated only at the very end of the war, nine months after the Liberation of Paris, after the general German capitulation on 8 May 1945.

The "pocket" of La Rochelle ("Poche de La Rochelle") was a zone extending to a distance of about 10 kilometers around La Rochelle, reinforced by an anti-tank trench. After the allied landing in Normandy in June 1944, a large number of German troops had regrouped in the area.

The allied siege of the pocket of La Rochelle lasted from September 1944 to May 1945, without heavy bombardment. La Rochelle remained in German hands until the end of the war, much as other Atlantic harbours such as Brest, Saint-Nazaire, Lorient, Gironde-Nord, Gironde-Sud because the main thrust of the war was more concerned with focusing on Germany itself. Just surrounding the city was considered wiser than conducting a frontal attack, as the city would ultimately fall anyway with the end of the war. The German command also wished to keep control of the coastal garrisons and rejected evacuation in order to maintain a threat on Allied shipping in the Atlantic.

In total 39,500 French civilians were under the rule of Vice-Admiral Schirlitz, head of Navy Command West, in La Rochelle during the war. The German garrison numbered 22,000 men. During the siege the Allies still allowed for electricity, wood and some supplies to be delivered in order to alleviate the ordeal of the civilian population inside the walls of the city. The Free French Forces were opposed to such a passive attitude, and desired to take these coastal cities by force, mostly out of considerations of national pride.FFI troops, however, remained unable to capture the city.

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Wikipedia