The opening of a second front in Europe is the name of the operation. Second front against Nazi Germany, its allies and satellites in Western Europe in the Second World War

Historians identify five main theaters of World War II (territories where armed forces clashed and armies were stationed), which for convenience are usually called fronts. They should not be confused with the concept of a front, as a military formation of a specific state. Using these definitions, our article will help you understand the formulation of “opening a second front.”

Prerequisites

Since May 1941, there have been virtually no armed clashes in the Western European theater of military operations (Western Front). Active operations moved to the territory of North Africa and the Eastern Front of World War II (Eastern European Theater, Soviet-German Front). Germany sent most of its troops to capture the USSR.

Great Britain was happy with this state of affairs. When the United States, which entered the war (December 1941), insisted on the early start of new military operations in Europe, the British refused. At that time, the Americans could not carry out an offensive on their own.

Continuing to put pressure on England, the United States developed several options for opening a new front in Europe, but they were never implemented.

In November 1943, the first conference of the leaders of the USSR (Stalin), USA (Roosevelt), and Great Britain (Churchill) took place in Tehran. It was the opening of a second European front that became its main issue as part of a joint strategy to fight the Nazi countries. The new front was supposed to lead to a significant defeat of Germany along its western borders, forcing the Germans to move some troops from the Eastern Front.

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The parties could not agree for a long time on the details of the operation in France (“Overlord”), originally scheduled for May 1944. The British agreed to a compromise only after Stalin was ready to leave the meeting.

Rice. 1. Tehran Conference.

Second front

The opening of the second front in World War II is considered to be the largest landing of the Allied armies in Normandy (Northern France) and the advance across French territory.

The start of the Normandy operation (“Overlord”) on the Western Front of World War II was postponed several times and was kept in the strictest secrecy. After well-developed disinformation of the enemy and carrying out preparatory operations On June 6, 1944, American, British, and Canadian soldiers (more than 3 million) landed in Normandy.

Rice. 2. Normandy operation.

By the end of July, Allied forces gained a foothold in northwestern France and, with the support of representatives of the French resistance, launched an offensive that lasted until August 25, 1944 (liberation of Paris).

The emergence of a “second front” in Europe allowed the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition to join forces, liberate Paris, break through the German western front line, and approach the especially fortified western borders of Germany (Siegfried Line).

Problems of opening the Second Front in World War II

1. The problem of opening a Second Front

The problem of opening a Second Front existed from the moment Nazi Germany attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941, and remained one of the most acute in relations between the main participants in the anti-Hitler coalition, members of the “Big Three” - the USSR, the USA and England.

The opening of the Second Front was preceded by a long and complex history. Let's try to briefly trace: why did the Soviet Union persistently strive for its opening? Why did the Second Front become a reality only in the fifth year of the war?

The Soviet leadership raised the question of the early opening of the Second Front in Western Europe to the United States and Great Britain from the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Thus, already in June 1941, British Prime Minister W. Churchill and US President F. D. Roosevelt promised I. Stalin all support in the fight against their common enemy. The leaders of the allied states stated that they were ready to provide assistance to the USSR in everything.

July 18, 1941 I.V. Stalin, in his personal message to W. Churchill, raised the question of opening a Second Front in Europe in Northern France. Its opening was necessary to divert significant forces of Nazi troops from the main Soviet-German front, and would make it possible to quickly defeat the forces of Nazi Germany, as well as reduce losses of the Red Army and the civilian population.

At the same time, each government understood the landing in its own way: the Soviet government believed that the war on the Eastern Front, where Hitler’s leadership concentrated the bulk of its armed forces, created favorable opportunities for intensifying the actions of the Western allies directly on the European continent.

The British government, concerned about its safety, considered the landing as an unjustified waste of manpower and weapons. As Prime Minister W. Churchill wrote in his memoirs about the war: “...England is not yet ready to take such a serious step for a number of reasons. At the landing site, it is necessary to ensure not only supremacy at sea, but also supremacy in the air... The basis for a successful landing of any landing force in the presence of strong enemy resistance should be the presence of a huge armada of specially designed landing craft, primarily self-propelled tank barges. To create this armada, as has been and will be shown, I have long exerted all my efforts. Even a small armada could not be ready before the summer of 1943, and a sufficiently powerful armada, as is now generally accepted, could not be created before 1944. During the period described, the autumn of 1941, we did not have air supremacy over enemy-occupied territory... The landing craft were still being built. We did not even have in England an army as large, as well trained and as well equipped as the one we had to face in France.” Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with US Presidents and British Prime Ministers during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Collection of documents in 2 volumes. T.1. - M.: M-in foreign. Affairs of the USSR, 1973. - P. 113. - [Electronic resource] Access mode: http://library.rsu.edu.ru/archives/7080.

Having assessed the military situation in the world at that time, the British Prime Minister could not give a positive answer to Stalin’s call to open a second front in Europe in 1941. However, in June 1941, in the first days of the Great Patriotic War, three conversations between the British Ambassador to the USSR R. Cripps and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov. As a result of the work they did, on July 12, the “Agreement between the governments of the USSR and Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany” was signed. This “Agreement” became the first document on mutual assistance between the Soviet Union and England, which testified to the interest of both parties in establishing allied relations. Subsequently, the Soviet government repeatedly referred to this “Agreement”, trying to induce the British side to agree to the opening of a second front in Europe. After the failure of Hitler's attack on Moscow, the British government began to more realistically assess the place of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition. Recognizing decisive role Soviet Union in the war with Nazi Germany, W. Churchill wrote to J.V. Stalin on February 11, 1942: “There are no words to express the admiration that we all experience from the continuing brilliant successes of your army in the fight against the German invader. And I cannot resist sending a word of gratitude and congratulations on everything that Russia is doing for the common cause.” Second world war in the memoirs of Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Cordall Hall, William Leahy, Dwight Eisenhower / Comp. E. Ya. Troyanovskaya. - M.: Education, 1990. - P. 49. - [Electronic resource] Access mode: http://library.rsu.edu.ru/archives/7080

In January 1942, at a conference in Washington, 26 states signed the Declaration of Participation in the War against Germany, but only three powers were capable of waging war on the proper scale: the Soviet Union, the United States and England. However, the Allies, pursuing their interests, including not excluding the possibility of the destruction of the USSR by Nazi Germany, deliberately delayed the opening of the Second Front, as well as the mutual exhaustion of the USSR and Germany and the creation of conditions for the establishment of their world domination, in every possible way delayed the opening of the Second Front.

By the summer of 1942, the Nazi command concentrated significant forces on the Eastern Front, which significantly complicated the military situation for the Red Army, which at that time suffered a number of major defeats from superior enemy forces. At the same time, the timely opening of hostilities in the West could significantly speed up the defeat of the fascist bloc and shorten the duration of the entire Second World War.

In June 1942, People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. During his visit to Washington, Molotov nevertheless received a promise from F. Roosevelt regarding the creation of a Second Front in Europe in 1942, due to pressure on him from the progressive American public. The British government formally supported these promises, although after this W. Churchill continued to persistently persuade the American president to abandon the outbreak of hostilities in Europe and replace them with an allied landing in French West Africa. Arguing this position to the Soviet leadership, W. Churchill stated that the opening of the Second Front in Europe runs counter to the already adopted plans for the Allied landing in North Africa in October of this year. However, at the same time, he was still forced to promise that the Allies were still planning the start of large-scale military operations in western Europe for the spring of the following year, 1943.

The position of the Western allies on the issue of opening a second front was based on the principle of a thorough analysis of possible options for solving this problem. This principle was consistent with the political and strategic environment. Firstly, Nazi Germany was the most dangerous competitor of the British and American monopolies. They tried to get rid of this competitor first. Secondly, Hitler's Germany was the center link fascist bloc. The defeat of this center decisively determined the defeat of the entire opposing coalition. Taking this into account, the Allies understood that the opening of a second front should be decisive factor in solving the above problems. And the most important thing for the allies is not to make a mistake with the choice of place and time.

But, despite repeated promises, in the spring of 1943 the Second Front in northern France was never opened. The Soviet leadership expressed dissatisfaction with this fact of non-compliance by the allies with the agreements. Instead, the leadership of the United States and England approved a plan for the landing of allied troops in Sicily and southern Italy in order to implement the so-called “Balkan option” hatched by W. Churchill. In accordance with this plan, the command of the Anglo-American troops planned to enter the countries of southeastern Europe before the Red Army troops in order to cut off its path to the Balkans and Central Europe. In November 1942, the Anglo-American command landed troops in North Africa, in July 1943 - in Sicily, and then in Southern Italy.

In May 1943, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill, at a meeting in Washington, again agreed to postpone the opening of the Second Front until May of the following year, 1944. This decision was confirmed at the Anglo-American Conference in Quebec (Canada) in August 1943. Justifying their refusal to open a Second Front in Europe, Roosevelt and Churchill cited military-technical reasons. Roosevelt spoke about the lack of transoceanic transport to transport troops to England. Churchill unwittingly refuted Roosevelt, saying in a conversation with Molotov on June 9 that “the limiting point in such an operation is not the large ships that are used for convoys, but flat landing craft.” Orlov A.S. Behind the scenes of the Second Front / A.S. Orlov. - M.: Veche, 2011. -76 p. - P. 14. Churchill did not dare to directly oppose the American opinion he knew about the advisability of invading France in May 1944. But he formulated three main conditions, without which, as he argued, this operation was impossible:

1) significantly reduce the power of German fighter aircraft in Northwestern Europe before the start of the offensive;

2) start the operation only if there are no more than 12 mobile Wehrmacht divisions in Northern France and the Germans cannot form another 15 divisions in the next two months;

3) to ensure supply across the English Channel, have at least two floating harbors at the beginning of the operation.

These conditions pushed the idea of ​​opening the Second Front on schedule - the American leadership came to the conclusion that it was necessary to take strategic planning of upcoming operations into their own hands.

“Taking into account the experience of 1942, when decisions agreed upon in April were canceled in July,” wrote the famous American historian K.R. Sherwood, -- American chiefs of staff feared that the Quebec Conference would end with a new revision of the already made decision in favor of a sabotage, "eccentric operation" in the area Mediterranean Sea against the “soft underbelly” of Europe” (as Churchill called the Balkans). Right there. - P. 15.

Specific decisions on this issue, at the insistence of the Soviet Union, were made only at the Tehran Conference on October 28 - November 1, 1943, where a meeting of the heads of the “Big Three” - the leaders of the three main states of the anti-Hitler coalition - Franklin Roosevelt, I.V. Stalin and Winston Churchill. Among the main decisions of the conference was determining the date and place of the opening of the Second Front. Disputes flared up regarding the landing site of the Anglo-American troops. Churchill proposed a landing in the Balkans, Stalin - in Northern France, from where the shortest route to the German border opened up. Roosevelt supported Stalin; America was interested in a speedy end to the war in Europe in order to be able to shift the center of gravity of military operations against Japan.

In the end, it was decided to open the second front with a landing operation of Anglo-American troops in northern France no later than May 1944. For his part, Stalin made a statement that at about the same time he would launch a powerful offensive on the Soviet-German front.

The victorious offensive of the Red Army in the summer of 1943 made a great impression on neutral countries, in particular Turkey, Sweden and Portugal. The ruling circles of Turkey were finally convinced that it was dangerous to connect their fate with Germany. The Swedish government in August announced a ban on the transport of German war materials through Sweden. Portugal hastened to transfer its military bases in the Azores to England. The results changed the Allies’ attitude towards the USSR even more Battle of Kursk. The ruling circles of the USA and England were gripped by panic: it became clear that “Soviet troops would be able to independently... defeat fascism and liberate Europe.” And only now, fearing exit Soviet armies to Central and Western Europe ahead of their troops, the Western Allies began active preparations for an invasion of Northern France across the English Channel. Myagkov M.Yu. Second front. Great Patriotic War. Encyclopedia / M.Yu. Myagkov; Rep. ed. ak. A.O. Chubaryan. - M.: Olma-Press, 2010. - 640 p.

Thus, the Tehran conference showed that the Western allies fully realized the primary role of the Soviet Union in the general actions of the anti-Hitler coalition during the years; their leaders, despite ideological and social differences, were still able to agree on a joint fight against fascism. The opening of the Second Front occurred three years after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR.

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The problem of the second front took important place in foreign policy activities and the diplomacy of the USSR's main allies in the anti-Hitler coalition - Great Britain and the USA. It was one of the most difficult and controversial issues inter-allied relations of the war period Jacobsen G.A. 1939-1945. World War II.

The opening of a second front seemed impossible to the Allies not only in 1941, but also in 1942 and 1943 due to strategic threats in other theaters of military operations and the lack of necessary resources in British Isles, which from the very beginning were considered by the Americans as the most preferable base for an invasion of Europe. In the spring and summer of 1942, the allies discussed the issue of joint strategy at numerous conferences. Several plans were developed, and after extensive discussion, it was ultimately decided that the main focus would be on the Allied landings in North-West Africa ("Torch"). This plan was considered by the Allies as a variant of a second front, in no way inferior to the opening of a second front in Europe. The position of the allies on the issue of opening a second front after the US entered the Second

world war // Russian scientific journal. Series: History and political science. 2010. No. 2(15).

Ryazan: April-T Publishing House, 2010.

For the first time, the Big Three met in full force in Tehran from November 28 to December 1, 1943. At the conference, the desire of Roosevelt and Stalin to reach an agreement was clearly outlined. Stalin and Roosevelt reached an understanding regarding the landing in Europe. They considered Northern France the only suitable place for opening a second front. Churchill offered the Balkans as an alternative, but Stalin suspected that Churchill was once again boycotting the second front, met with him alone and only after that calmed down a little. It was agreed that a second front would be opened in Northern France in May 1944. On June 6, 1944, after lengthy preparations, the Allies landed in Normandy.

By May 1944, there were 228 divisions and 23 brigades of Germany and its satellites on the Soviet-German front, and 59 Nazi divisions were stationed in Western Europe. About half of them were reorganized or were in the process of formation. The German air force in the West numbered up to 500 aircraft, but only 90 fighters and 70 bombers were operational.

The figures for the number of German divisions in the West are still insufficient to assess the situation. Behind them were usually very weak formations that had a large shortage of personnel, weapons and transport. An entire division - the 70th - was staffed by soldiers and officers who suffered from stomach diseases. There was a battalion of hard of hearing people, etc. When, through the efforts of Hitler’s commanders in the West, it was possible to create a combat-ready division, an order came from Berlin, as a rule, to transfer it to the Eastern Front. “The Russians,” Rundstedt admitted, “were a threat and disrupted the preparations for operations in France.” Another former Nazi general, Zimmerman, testifies: “It can be said without exaggeration that the Eastern Front persistently pumped out all combat-ready manpower and military equipment from the German armies located in the West. As a result, tactical and organizational measures in the West were reduced to plugging holes. Commanders, troops and military equipment, frankly speaking, have become second-rate. Since 1943, the backbone of the German troops on the Western Front was made up of old men, equipped with outdated weapons.” Finally, writes Guderian, “the heavy, bloody winter battles completely unsettled the main command of the ground forces. There could be no question of preparing forces for the West, where in the spring of 1944 the Allied powers would certainly have landed troops.”

In May, Hitler, purely speculatively, without any reason, pointed to Normandy, the coast of which was defended by the weaker 7th Army. Rundstedt's headquarters could not but agree with the Fuhrer's opinion, but continued to insist that the main invasion should be expected on the English Channel coast, and in Normandy the Anglo-Americans would carry out a diversionary operation. These assessments were based on the Nazis’ exaggerated view of the military capabilities of the Western Allies, which arose as a result of the interdepartmental struggle in German intelligence.

In the spring of 1944, as a prelude to the invasion, the air forces of the United States and England began operations against targets in France. Allied aviation focused on destroying the railway network. As a result, by the beginning of disembarkation, the traffic index in French railways decreased to 38 (January - February 1944 is taken as 100). Considering that the German troops in France were largely deprived of transport sent to the Soviet-German front, this was an impressive achievement.

During the Soviet offensive on the eastern front, the Allies landed their troops in France. The Anglo-American command prepared two landing operations: the main one on the northern coast of France, in Normandy, called “Overlord” (“Overlord”) and the auxiliary one on the southern coast near Marseille—Operation Anvil (“Anvil”). On June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord began, the largest amphibious operation of World War II. A huge fleet, 6 thousand military, landing and transport ships, delivered 3 allied armies, which included 10 tank divisions, to the shores of Normandy. The landing was covered from the air by 11 thousand aircraft. Together with British and American troops, Canadian troops, Polish military units and French military units took part in the landing. The landing was commanded by Montgomery, who was promoted to field marshal after the victory in North Africa; General leadership of the invasion forces, the total number of which reached 1 million people, was carried out by General Eisenhower.

The adopted plan of operation provided for the landing of naval and airborne troops on the coast of the Bay of the Seine, in the area from the Grand Vey Bank to the mouth of the Orne River, a length of about 80 km, and on the twentieth day to create a bridgehead of 100 km. along the front and 100-110 km in depth. Here it was planned to concentrate forces sufficient to conduct further offensive operations in Northern France. On the first day of the operation, it was planned to land 5 infantry, 3 airborne divisions and several commando and ranger detachments ashore, advance to a depth of 15-20 km and on the sixth day increase the strength of troops on the bridgehead to 16 divisions. The landing area was divided into two zones - western and eastern. In the first of them, American troops were to land, and in the second, Anglo-Canadian troops. The western zone was divided into two parts, the eastern into three. One reinforced infantry division landed on each of them. The main task of the Allied fleet in the operation was to deliver troops to the landing area, to reliably provide cover for the landing force during the transition and during landing from attacks by submarines and enemy surface ships, and to support the advance of troops ashore with artillery fire. The organization of the naval forces assigned to participate in Operation Neptune was subordinated to the task of most reliably ensuring, first of all, the landing of the first echelon of landing troops. For the landing of each division, a separate independent formation was created.

Actions from the sea were to be preceded by the landing of significant forces of airborne troops in the depths of the enemy’s defenses, 10-15 km from the coast. They had to assist the amphibious assault during the landing and capture of the bridgehead, seize road junctions, crossings, bridges and others important objects and thereby prevent enemy reserves from approaching the coast. The primary targets of air attacks were railway network structures, rolling stock, and airfields in France and Belgium. Since the end of March 1944, all aviation units allocated to support Operation Overlord were directly subordinated to the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, General Eisenhower. Practical guide they were carried out by his deputy, Air Chief Marshal A. Tedder. The American-British command, in order to achieve surprise of the landing, during the preparatory period carried out extensive measures to covertly concentrate forces and means in the fight against enemy reconnaissance and misleading him regarding the area and time of the landing.

Since the main forces of the German army were on the Eastern Front, Field Marshal Rundstedt had 58 incomplete divisions stationed in France, Belgium and Holland at his disposal. Some of them were “stationary”, i.e. did not have her own transport. There were only 12 divisions in the immediate vicinity of the Normandy landing site, with only 160 aircraft. Although the German command expected the Allied invasion, it could not determine in advance either the time or place of the landing. On the eve of the landing, the storm continued for several days, Commander Eisenhower was informed of the weather forecast, and he had to postpone the landing by one day because of the storm. The German command believed that in such weather a landing would not be possible at all.

On the night of June 6, simultaneously with the transition of the amphibious assault, allied aviation began to strike artillery batteries, individual resistance centers, headquarters, troop concentrations and enemy rear areas. The aircraft carried out heavy strikes on targets in Calais and Boulogne in order to divert the attention of the German command from the actual direction of the landing. The night before the landing, the airborne troops began being dropped. It involved 1,662 aircraft and 512 gliders from the American Air Force and 733 aircraft and 335 gliders from the British Air Force. Units of the 82nd American Airborne Division landed west of Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

On the morning of June 6, artillery preparation began, which was conducted by 7 battleships, 2 monitors, 24 cruisers, and 74 destroyers. In addition, American and British aircraft carried out massive strikes. As a result, the defense of Nazi troops on the coast was largely suppressed. At 6:30 a.m. in the western zone and an hour later in the eastern zone, the first amphibious assault forces landed on the shore. American troops that landed in the extreme western sector (“Utah”) advanced up to 10 km deep into the coast by the end of June 6. and linked up with the 82nd Airborne Division.

On the first day of the operation, the troops of the United States, England and Canada lost about 2.5 thousand killed. Allied aviation made 10,585 combat sorties and 1,730 transport sorties on that day. Not a single vehicle was lost due to opposition from enemy aircraft, because there was no resistance in the air. “In the narrow English Channel,” recalls General Bradley, “we could not hope to slip through unnoticed. On a clear day, a plane flying at 3,000 meters above Le Havre has excellent views of Southampton. Enemy radar stations were located along the entire French coast of the English Channel, torpedo boats carried out regular patrol duty every night... Never during the war in Europe would Goering have been able to find such tempting targets for bombing.” There were goals, but the Nazis did not have planes - they were on the Soviet-German front.

By June 12, the bridgehead, which had a length of 80 km along the front and 13-18 km in depth, already had 16 allied infantry and 3 tank divisions. Anglo-American troops gained a foothold on the coast, gas pipelines were laid along the bottom of the English Channel, and ports were urgently built. There was a rapid build-up of forces. The immediate task of the American troops was to capture the Cotentin Peninsula with Cherbourg, and the British - to capture the city of Caen.

Hitler's troops located on the Normandy coast offered generally weak resistance, although separate areas, especially in the American landing area, fierce fighting broke out. However, Berlin did not draw timely conclusions, even when it became clear that the Anglo-Americans were landing in large forces in Normandy. Having overestimated the number of troops stationed in the British Isles by almost half, the Nazi leadership still expected the main landing on the coast of Pas-de-Calais. On June 17, Rundstedt and Rommel suggested that Hitler seek a "political solution" by turning to the Western powers. Hitler cut short the commanders, insisting on vigorous counterattacks. But there was no strength for this - as a result of the offensive of the Soviet armies that began on June 23, 1944, the German front in the East was on the verge of complete collapse.

After the landing in Normandy, the American and British commands were busy building up forces for almost two months without taking decisive action against the enemy. By the twentieth of July, the still small bridgehead was filled to capacity with troops and military equipment. The Americans landed 903 thousand people, delivered 177 thousand combat and transport vehicles and 858 thousand tons of cargo, the British, respectively, 663 thousand people, 156 thousand combat and transport vehicles and 744 thousand tons of cargo. In total, the Anglo-American armies in Normandy included 39 divisions. German units equivalent to 16 divisions held the front against them. In terms of the number of divisions, the Western Allies had a superiority over the Germans of 2.5:1, in tanks and self-propelled guns - 4.2:1, in aviation - 13:1. Having such a superiority in forces, on July 25 the Anglo-Americans went on the offensive.

By beginning to transfer reinforcements to the newly opened Western Front, the German command made it easier for the Red Army to launch the largest offensive of all time. Having advanced 400-700 km to the west, Soviet troops almost completely liberated the territory of the USSR, with the exception of Courland, reached the approaches to Warsaw, entered the Balkans, withdrawing Germany’s last remaining allies from the war. And finally, the main thing. The Soviet Union fulfilled the obligation agreed upon with Britain and the United States at the Tehran Conference to facilitate the success of the Allied landings by active, time-coordinated actions on the Soviet-German front. On June 10, Soviet troops launched an offensive on the northern flank of the front, and on June 23, the Belarusian operation began - one of the largest in the Great Patriotic War. As a result of the offensive, deployed on a front of up to 1 thousand km, the Red Army reached the Vistula, completely defeating the German Army Group Center. The fact that by the time of the Normandy landings more than half of the combat-ready German divisions were on the Soviet-German front complements the objective picture of the weight of the Soviet contribution to the success of the outstanding landing operation carried out by our allies in the Second World War. As the Red Army approached the borders of Romania, dictator Antonescu, like Mussolini, was arrested. On August 24, an anti-fascist uprising began in Bucharest, and then in other cities. On August 31, Soviet troops entered Bucharest. The new Romanian government not only offered a truce to the Allies, but also declared war on Germany. On September 9, an anti-fascist revolution took place in Bulgaria. Immediately after this, Bulgaria declared war on Germany. The government that came to power Fatherland Front, in which the communists played a decisive role, began socialist transformations. Exit Soviet troops on the borders of Yugoslavia and Greece, a significant part of whose territory was liberated by rebel forces, facilitated the defeat of the German occupation forces. In October 1944, as a result of joint operations of Soviet troops and the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, led by I. B. Titus, Belgrade was liberated. Even before this, the remnants of German troops in the Balkans, who were in danger of encirclement, left Greece.

In the six months after the invasion of France, 59 divisions and 13 brigades were transferred to the Soviet-German front, but only 12 divisions and 5 brigades left. During this time, 108 enemy divisions were completely defeated on the Soviet-German front, and 128 divisions suffered heavy losses. The Anglo-Americans defeated about 60 enemy divisions. The summer offensive of the Soviet armies in 1944 far exceeded the scale of the operations simultaneously developing in France. The second front was such not only in name, but also in essence. After the opening of the second front on January 1, 1945, 179 out of 314 divisions fought fiercely on the Soviet-German front, i.e. 57% to total number divisions of the Third Reich. 119 divisions, or 38%, fought on other fronts.

Although the opening of a second front changed the balance of forces, the Soviet-German front of the struggle remained the main one and diverted the overwhelming number of armed forces of Nazi Germany and its allies. After the war, over 250 reports about the time and place of the landing were found in the archives of German intelligence, and only one of them turned out to be correct. Ultimately, the Anglo-Americans had about 50 divisions in the British Isles on the eve of the invasion, of which 37 were intended for landing; the German headquarters listed numbers of 94-98 divisions.

June 6th marked 70 years since the landing of the Western Allies in Normandy (northern France) and the opening of the second front.

The Second Front is a conventional name in the Second World War of 1939-1945. the Western European front, which England and the United States pledged to the USSR to open in the summer of 1942. In the West, this event is considered perhaps the most important in the history of the Second World War. But there are different opinions on this matter in the post-Soviet space.

Some experts believe that the opening of a second front had little effect on the course of the war. In their opinion, the Allies deliberately delayed the opening of the second front, and opened it only when they realized that the USSR had launched a large-scale offensive operation along the entire length of the front from the Barents to the Black Sea and alone could liberate all of Europe.

Other experts believe that if the second front did not solve anything, it is not clear why Stalin sought its opening so much and then spoke so enthusiastically about the operation.

There is another point of view: the victory over fascism was common and cannot be divided between the victorious countries.

The history of the opening of the second front by the Allies, the course of the war before and after this event are described in detail in numerous historical documents, in the memoirs of military leaders and participants in heroic battles. I'll just briefly touch on this. greatest period, when irreconcilable countries - the USSR and Great Britain - were able to unite in the fight against a common enemy - fascist Germany...

After Germany attacked the USSR, Churchill became a forced ally of Stalin. It was very difficult for Stalin to agree to create an anti-Hitler coalition with the British Prime Minister Churchill, the organizer of “ crusade"on the young country of the Soviets by the British Expeditionary Force, which occupied Transcaucasia, shooting 26 Baku commissars. But many of those who died were Koba-Stalin’s comrades in the fight against tsarism and knew him well personally. However, the leader of the USSR could only find in England at that moment a real ally in the fight against fascism.

Was it easy for Churchill to sit down at the negotiating table with a dictator whose hands were up to his elbows in blood? After all, dispossession, Stalin’s purges with executions and the Gulag were well known in the West. But the prime minister of the British government saw how fascist aviation was leveling English cities and understood: help and decisive alliance can only be expected from Soviet Russia.

The Japanese attack at the end of 1941 on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor finally brought another ally to Stalin: the United States, led by President Roosevelt. Stalin appointed the disgraced Jew Litvinov as ambassador to the United States and created to help him in February 1942 the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), headed by the great actor, head of the Moscow Jewish Theater Solomon Mikhoels. The members of the JAC were given the task of traveling to the USA, asking for money from rich Jews, but most importantly - influencing the American public opinion to speed up the opening of the second front. After Litvinov signed an agreement with the United States, supplies of military equipment, ammunition, uniforms, medicines, and, importantly, rich food parcels to the USSR became possible. The volume of American supplies under Lend-Lease amounted to more than 11 billion US dollars.

But main task Stalin - to force the West to open a second front. Throughout the year, there were diplomatic negotiations and correspondence between the governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain on the issue of creating an anti-Hitler coalition. On May 26, 1942, in London and June 11 in Washington, agreements on an alliance in the war against Nazi Germany were signed, and an anti-Hitler coalition was created.

Next task foreign policy The USSR was the opening of a second front in Europe by the allies. The absence of a second front allowed the Wehrmacht command to keep its main forces in the East without fear for its Western Front. The Soviet government, based on the difficult situation on the Soviet-German front in 1941-1942, insisted that England and the United States open a second front in 1942 with all perseverance. During Soviet-American negotiations in June 1942, an agreement was reached between the governments of the USSR and the USA on the opening of a second front in Europe in 1942. V. M. Molotov obtained the same consent from the British government. But in fact, England was not going to fulfill its obligations and put forward all sorts of reservations in order to postpone the opening of the second front to 1943. In addition, British Prime Minister W. Churchill did everything possible to persuade US President F. Roosevelt to abandon commitment and concentrate efforts on the landing of Anglo-American troops in North Africa. In a letter to I. Stalin on July 18, and then during negotiations in Moscow in August 1942, W. Churchill announced England’s refusal to open a second front in Europe in 1942. This was also confirmed on behalf of US President F. Roosevelt and the US Ambassador to Moscow A. Harriman, who was present at the negotiations.

The Allies' promise to open a second front was not fulfilled in 1943 either. The delay is interpreted differently by military experts today. According to pro-Soviet experts, this was due to the fact that the Anglo-American coalition was counting on the weakening of the USSR, on the fact that after a grueling war the USSR would lose its importance as a great power. But when Germany suffered its first strategic defeat in World War II near Moscow, views changed dramatically. There were concerns in the West that the Soviet Union might emerge from this war too strong. And if it really turns out to be too strong, it will begin to determine the face of the future Europe. This explains, in many ways, Churchill's resistance to the opening of a second front in 1942. Although there were technical and other prerequisites for inflicting defeat on the Germans precisely in 1942, using the factor of diverting the overwhelming majority of the German armed forces to the East and, essentially, the coastline (2000 km!) of France, Holland, Belgium, and Norway open to invasion , and even Germany itself for the Allied armies. The Nazis then did not have any long-term defensive structures along the Atlantic coast. Moreover, the American military insisted and convinced Roosevelt that a second front was necessary, possible, and its opening would make the war in Europe, in principle, short-lived and force Germany to capitulate. If not in forty-two, then, at the latest, in forty-three. But such calculations did not suit Great Britain and conservative figures, of whom there were plenty on the American Olympus. According to the ideology of Churchill and those who shared this ideology in Washington, it was necessary to “detain these Russian barbarians” as far in the East as possible. If not to break up the Soviet Union, then to weaken it to the limit. First of all, by the hands of the Germans. This is how the task was set.

According to pro-European experts, the allies did not have real possibility open a second front in 1941-1943. And it really took time to train troops, equip and deploy them, as well as transfer the economy to a military footing.

The fact that the Allies did not open a second front for a long time does not mean that they did not fight at all. The United States fought a war in two directions: in the east against Japan, in the west against Italian-German troops in northern Africa. Africa was chosen as the best choice for preparing a springboard for the invasion of Europe through Italy, followed by withdrawal from the war and pulling it to the side of the Allies. It would have been unwise to go across the Channel from England to France until 1944, since the Germans foresaw this and strengthened it coastline. They would simply send the soldiers to certain death. The first experience of landing on a fortified shore in 1942 in Dieppe showed the impossibility of such a procedure with the available forces; the landing party suffered heavy losses without completing its assigned tasks. In 1942, the ground forces for a full-scale invasion simply did not exist. It was necessary to first create this army, then deliver it to England and establish reliable supplies. The British really had nothing to help the USSR in Europe, while the Americans drove Rommel out of Africa, which was captured by the Germans almost to the equator. And it was not easy to cope with Rommel, because to this day he is generally recognized as one of the most outstanding commanders of his time.

On June 6, 1944, American, British and Canadian troops under the command of General Eisenhower began landing in Normandy. This is usually called the “opening of a second front in Europe.” By the end of July, the Allies had occupied a bridgehead about 100 km wide and up to 50 km deep. Overcoming stubborn resistance, the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition from the east and west moved towards the center of Germany. On April 25, 1945, a meeting between Soviet and American troops took place on the Elbe River. On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany was forced to sign an act of unconditional surrender. The most difficult war in human history has ended.

The opening of the second front, according to many, changed the course of the war and, ultimately, the 20th century. It was the opening of a new front in Normandy that was the first attempt to deal a serious blow to the Germans in Europe and brought the end of the war closer. The Allies made a certain contribution to the victory over Hitler; without their participation, the outcome of the war could have been different. The Allies significantly helped the USSR with supplies under Lend-Lease; according to many military experts, there was more benefit from Lend-Lease than from the second front. If there had been no help from the allies, especially in the first years of the war, then the USSR could have lost the war, since after the events of 1941 almost everything that could be used for defense was captured or destroyed, many factories were in a state of evacuation and could cover the needs of the Red Army in weapons, ammunition, food and other equipment. This is what A. I. Mikoyan said about deliveries under Lend-Lease years later: “Now it’s easy to say that Lend-Lease didn’t mean anything. It ceased to be of great importance much later. But in the fall of 1941 we lost everything, and if it weren’t for Lend-Lease, weapons, food, warm clothes for the army and other supplies, the question is how things would have turned out.”

In addition to deliveries under Lend-Lease, the Allies fought in Africa, Italy, France, on the seas, they bombed Germany and caused severe damage to its military infrastructure. The Allied landings in Normandy and the subsequent operation to expand the Overlord beachhead were the largest operations of World War II. Take, for example, the fact that almost 3 million people took part in it from the Allied forces alone. The landing took place on June 6, 1944, and on June 22-23, Operation Bagration began, during which Soviet troops defeated the German Army Group Center within a month. In the interval between the Allied landings and the Soviet offensive, the German command was forced to transfer most of its aircraft, mainly fighter aircraft, to the Western Front. It was from this time that Soviet aviation began to dominate the air on the Eastern Front. And this played no small role in the fact that the offensive of the Soviet troops in 1944 was successful. Of the “ten Stalinist strikes” of 1944, seven occurred after the opening of the second front.

All this certainly happened. However, it is also obvious that the Soviet Union actually made the greatest contribution to victory in the war. The Great Patriotic War lasted 1,418 days, and all this time the Soviet-German front was the main one among all theaters of military operations. The main armed forces belligerents, decisive battles took place, destroyed most tanks and aircraft, suffered the most significant human and material losses.

The states of the anti-Hitler coalition had different tasks during the war, and there were serious disagreements between them, but they managed to overcome all this in order to achieve the then main common goal - the defeat of fascism. And today, 70 years after those events, when the political situation in the world is heating up again, especially after the tragic events that are taking place in Ukraine as a result of the intervention of the Russian Federation, relations between the European Union, the United States and the Russian Federation have deteriorated to the point of open hostility, perhaps it is worth remembering that For the sake of peace and stability on the planet, our ancestors were able to unite, despite all the differences and contradictions between them, and defeated the most terrible enemy of humanity - fascism.

I would like to hope that after the election of the legitimate President of Ukraine, the conflicting parties will be able to show political flexibility and wisdom, finally stop the armed clashes, and sit down to “ round table", will find ways to resolve existing disagreements and contradictions.

Our planet is a grain of sand in the Universe, and the existing world is very fragile, and only together, through mutual respect, understanding and love, we can preserve it for our descendants.

Famil Jamal. First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the NGO "Justice". Odessa

Despite the fact that Great Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, and the United States in 1941, they were in no hurry to open the Second Front so necessary for the USSR. Let us highlight the most popular versions of the reason for the delay of the allies.

Unpreparedness for war

Many experts main reason such a late opening of the Second Front - June 6, 1944 - shows the Allies' unpreparedness for a full-scale war. What, for example, could Great Britain oppose to Germany? As of September 1939, the British army numbered 1 million 270 thousand people, 640 tanks and 1,500 aircraft. In Germany, these figures were much more impressive: 4 million 600 thousand soldiers and officers, 3195 tanks and 4093 aircraft.

Moreover, when the British Expeditionary Force retreated in 1940, a significant amount of tanks, artillery and ammunition were abandoned at Dunkirk. As Churchill admitted, “in fact, in the whole country there were barely 500 field guns of all types and 200 medium and heavy tanks.”

The condition of the United States Army was even more deplorable. The number of regular troops by 1939 was slightly more than 500 thousand people, with 89 combat divisions, of which only 16 were armored. For comparison: the Wehrmacht army had 170 fully equipped and combat-ready divisions.
However, in a couple of years, both the USA and Great Britain significantly strengthened their military capabilities and in 1942, according to experts, they could already provide real assistance to the USSR, drawing significant forces of the German army from East to West.
When requesting the opening of a Second Front, Stalin counted primarily on the British government, but Churchill repeatedly refused the Soviet leader under various pretexts.

The fight for the Suez Canal

The Middle East continued to be a priority for Great Britain at the height of the war. In British military circles, a landing on the French coast was considered futile, which would only distract the main forces from solving strategic problems.

The situation by the spring of 1941 was such that Great Britain no longer had enough food. Importing food products from the main suppliers - the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Norway, for obvious reasons, turned out to be impossible.
Churchill was well aware of the need to maintain communications with the Near and Middle East, as well as India, which would provide Great Britain with much-needed goods, and therefore he threw all his efforts into protecting the Suez Canal. The German threat to this region was quite great.

Allied disagreements

An important reason for delaying the opening of the Second Front was the differences between the allies. They were observed between Great Britain and the United States, which were solving their geopolitical problems, but to an even greater extent, contradictions emerged between Great Britain and France.
Even before the surrender of France, Churchill visited the country's government, which had evacuated to Tours, trying to inspire the French to continue their resistance. But at the same time, the Prime Minister did not hide his fear that the French navy may fall into the hands of the German army and therefore offered to send it to British ports. There was a decisive refusal from the French government.
On June 16, 1940, Churchill proposed an even more daring project to the government of the Third Republic, which practically meant the merger of Great Britain and France into one state on enslaving conditions for the latter. The French regarded this as an overt desire to take over the country's colonies.
The last step that upset the relationship between the two allies was Operation Catapult, which envisaged the capture by England of the entire available French fleet or its destruction in order to avoid falling to the enemy.

Japanese threat and Moroccan interest

The attack of the Japanese Air Force on the American military base in Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, on the one hand, finally put the United States in the ranks of the allies of the Soviet Union, but on the other hand, it delayed the opening of the Second Front, as it forced the country to concentrate its efforts on the war with Japan. For a whole year, the Pacific theater of operations for American army became the main battle arena.
In November 1942, the United States began implementing the Torch plan to capture Morocco, which at that time was of greatest interest to American military-political circles. It was assumed that the Vichy regime, with which the United States still maintained diplomatic relations, would not resist.
And so it happened. In a matter of days the Americans took possession major cities Morocco, and later united with allies Britain and Free France, continued successful offensive operations in Algeria and Tunisia.

Personal goals

Soviet historiography almost unanimously expressed the opinion that the Anglo-American coalition deliberately delayed the opening of the Second Front, expecting that the USSR, exhausted by the long war, would lose its status as a great power. Churchill, even promising military assistance to the Soviet Union, continued to call it “the sinister Bolshevik state.”
In his message to Stalin, Churchill writes very vaguely that “the chiefs of staff do not see the possibility of doing anything on such a scale that it could bring you even the slightest benefit.” This answer is most likely explained by the fact that the Prime Minister shared the opinion of the military-political circles of Britain, who argued: “the defeat of the USSR by Wehrmacht troops is a matter of a few weeks.”
After the turning point in the war, when a certain status quo was observed on the fronts of the USSR, the Allies were still in no hurry to open a Second Front. They were occupied with completely different thoughts: would the Soviet government agree to a separate peace with Germany? The Allied intelligence report contained the following words: “A state of affairs in which neither side can count on a quick complete victory will, in all likelihood, lead to a Russian-German agreement.”
The wait-and-see attitude of Great Britain and the USA meant one thing: the allies were interested in weakening both Germany and the USSR. Only when the fall of the Third Reich became inevitable did certain shifts emerge in the process of opening the Second Front.

War is big business

Many historians are perplexed by one circumstance: why the German army almost unhinderedly allowed the British landing force to retreat during the so-called “Dunkirk Operation” in May-June 1940. The answer most often sounds like this: “Hitler received instructions not to touch the British.”
Doctor of Political Sciences Vladimir Pavlenko believes that the situation surrounding the entry of the United States and Great Britain into the European arena of war was influenced by big business represented by the Rockefeller financial clan. The tycoon’s main goal is the Eurasian oil market. It was Rockefeller, according to the political scientist, who created the “American-British-German octopus - the Schröder bank in the status of an agent of the Nazi government” that is responsible for the growth of the German military machine.
For the time being, Hitler's Germany was needed by Rockefeller. British and American intelligence services repeatedly reported on the possibility of removing Hitler, but each time received the go-ahead from the leadership. As soon as the end of the Third Reich became obvious, nothing stopped Great Britain and the United States from entering the European theater of operations.