German newsreel EUROPA WOCHE 10.44 + US FOOTAGE Assault on Brest, France 8.44

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Episode 253

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Europa Woche Nr 87
24.10.1944

1:22 - Professor Friedrich Bergius in his laboratory
2:27 - Extraction of juice from rowan fruits
3:54 - Infant home in Salamanca
4:54 - Youth roller skating training
5:27 - Road cycling race in Vienna
6:37 - Mountain gymnastics festival of gymnasts from Salzburg
7:55 - Symphony concert in the royal palace of Würzburg
9:32 - Fighting in the southern front area
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11:34 - BONUS: US footage of the assault on Brest, France 8.1944, Reel 3

Operation COBRA, the American breakout from Normandy at the end of July 1944, completely changed the dynamics of the fighting in western Europe. In its aftermath, Allied forces would partially encircle and almost completely destroy German forces in Normandy; and American tanks under General George S. Patton would drive across France to the German border, leading to the liberation of Paris. With all of these dramatic events taking place, few noticed that one of the war’s bloodiest and most important operations was taking place far to the west, at the French port city of Brest.

The success of Operation COBRA was followed in short order by the penetration of American mobile forces into Brittany. Their primary objective was to capture the peninsula’s several important harbor facilities. Although General “Lightning” Joe Collins’s VII Corps had captured Cherbourg a month earlier, the Germans had so thoroughly demolished the port that months would pass before it was again operational. Securing another port, hopefully intact, would do a great deal to reduce the supply bottleneck still running through the Normandy beaches, and hopefully fuel Patton’s tanks. The Germans knew this as well, however, and had done a great deal to fortify and garrison the most important harbors in Brittany—especially Brest.

Paratroop General Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, a wily veteran who had served under General Erwin Rommel in North Africa, commanded the 40,000-man garrison in Brest, which Adolf Hitler had declared a fortress to be defended to the last bullet. Two infantry divisions and one parachute division with associated elements, including ample artillery and machine guns, defended a formidable network of bunkers, pillboxes, emplacements, and trenches, all placed for mutual support. These were arrayed in exterior and interior lines, with the intention of eventually drawing any attackers into the city for house-to-house fighting and heavy casualties. To ensure that the garrison would be able to hold on to the city almost indefinitely, without having to feed civilians, the Germans had forcibly evacuated the population.

When American forces entered Brittany, Patton ordered his 6th Armored Division to rush ahead and capture Brest, hoping that a lightning strike would find the Germans unprepared. This bid failed, as the Americans reached the outer defensive lines on August 7 and found them far too formidable to penetrate. The next two weeks passed slowly as American forces slowly encircled the city and the Germans further improved their defenses. Finally, General Omar Bradley dispatched General Troy Middleton’s VIII Corps, with the 2nd, 8th, and 29th infantry divisions and Ranger detachments to storm the city. After some preliminary attacks, the full assault, backed by artillery and strikes by aircraft using bombs, rockets, and napalm, began on August 26.

American infantrymen found the German defenses incredibly difficult to crack, and the fighting was brutal. Far from lying supine in their defenses, the Germans struck back ferociously wherever possible. Sergeant John McVeigh, a native of Philadelphia and draftee with the 2nd Division’s 23rd Infantry Regiment, fought for three days before his platoon took up positions behind a hedge just after dusk on August 29. Before the Americans had time to dig in, German infantry suddenly counterattacked and came close to overrunning the position. Rallying his men, McVeigh stood up in view of the enemy and directed accurate fire against them. Then, drawing a knife, he charged the attacking Germans, killing one of them before the enemy shot him down. McVeigh’s action gave his men time to reorganize and hold off the enemy attack, and earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor.

Heavy casualties soon forced Middleton to shift from all-out assaults on the German positions to small but intense bite-and-hold operations, in which infantry took out one strongpoint at a time and then held on grimly against German counterattacks. American infantry used flamethrowers, satchel charges, and concentrated small-arms fire to move slowly from point to point.