Battle for Brest

Part of Operation Overlord, Battle of Normandy

A US M18 Hellcat of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion in the streets of Brest in September 1944

Date	7 August – 19 September 1944
Location	Brittany, France
Result	Allied victory

Belligerents

United States

United Kingdom

Germany

Commanders and leaders

Troy H. Middleton

Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke (POW)

Strength

VIII Corps

79th Armoured Division (elements)

2nd Fallschirmjäger-Division
266. Infanterie-Division
344. Infanterie-Division

Casualties and losses

4,000 [1]

KIA 1,000+ (est)
WIA 4,000
POW Entire remaining force

VIII Corps

The Battle for Brest was one of the fiercest battles fought on the Western Front during World War II. Part of the Allied plan for the invasion of mainland Europe called for the capture of port facilities, in order to ensure the timely delivery of the enormous amount of war required to supply the invading Allied forces. It was estimated that the 37 Allied divisions to be on the continent by September 1944 would need 26,000 tons of supplies each day. The main port the Allied forces hoped to seize and put into their service was Brest, in northwestern France.

Early in the war, after the Fall of France in 1940, the United States and the United Kingdom began planning an eventual "Invasion of Western Europe" to be put into effect when and if the United States joined the war. American and Canadian troops would be moved from North America to England (as long as the United Kingdom was still in the war) until an Allied invasion could be mounted to the continent.

A major issue was of course how to supply the invasion army with the tens of thousands of tons of materiel it would need after it landed. The capture of ports in the European Atlantic coast was a necessity, and the most suitable ones were clear invasion objectives. The capture of these port facilities was deemed crucial, because the lack of supplies would easily strand an invading army. For the initial phase of the battle, large artificial ports (Mulberry Harbors) would be erected by the beaches, but they had limited tonnage unloading capabilities, and were considered just as a contingency until real ports could be captured and put into service.

Suitable ports could be found along the northern coast of France, across the English Channel which would be crossed by the invading armies, in particular the port of Brest in Brittany, for a long time the main French Fleet harbor in the Atlantic coast and the westernmost port in France. The Allied strategists even considered it possible that, after its capture, supplies could arrive directly from the US to Brest, bypassing England and reaching the Allied Armies moving east, towards Germany, much faster.

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Wikipedia