Otterlo is a village in the municipality of Ede of province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe.
Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the German-occupied Netherlands from 17 to 27 September 1944. Its objective was to create a 64 mi (103 km) salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the Nederrijn, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by two sub-operations: seizing nine bridges with combined US and British airborne forces (Market) followed by British land forces swiftly following over the bridges (Garden). British General Bernard Montgomery was the architect of Market Garden.
Operation Dragoon was the code name for the landing operation of the Allied invasion of Provence on 15 August 1944. Although initially designed to be executed in conjunction with Operation Overlord, the Allied landing in Normandy, a lack of available resources led to a cancellation of the second landing. By July 1944 the landing was reconsidered, as the clogged-up ports in Normandy did not have the capacity to adequately supply the Allied forces. Concurrently, the High Command of the French Liberation Army pushed for a revival of the operation that would include large numbers of French troops. As a result, the operation was finally approved in July to be executed in August.
The Polish 1st Armoured Division was an armoured division of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. Created in February 1942 at Duns in Scotland, it was commanded by Major General Stanisław Maczek and at its peak numbered approximately 18,000 soldiers.The division served in the final phases of the Battle of Normandy in August 1944 during Operation Totalize and the Battle of Chambois and then continued to fight throughout the campaign in Northern Europe, mainly as part of the First Canadian Army.
The 14th Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army assigned to the Seventh Army of the Sixth Army Group during World War II. It remains on the permanent roll of the Regular Army as an inactive division, and is eligible for reactivation. The division is officially nicknamed the "Liberators".
The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The Italian front is considered a separate but related theatre. The Western Front's 1944–1945 phase was officially deemed the European Theater by the United States, whereas Italy fell under the Mediterranean Theater along with North Africa. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and June 1940 after their defeat in the Low Countries and the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat, which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in May 1945.
The SS Division Hitlerjugend or 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" was a German armoured division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were from other Waffen-SS divisions.
The Ruhr pocket was a battle of encirclement that took place in April 1945, on the Western Front near the end of World War II in Europe, in the Ruhr Area of Germany. Some 317,000 German troops were taken prisoner along with 24 generals. The Americans suffered 10,000 casualties including 2,000 killed or missing.
The Netherlands entered World War II on May 10, 1940, when invading German forces quickly overran the country. On December 7, 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Netherlands government in exile also declared war on Japan. Operation Market Garden, which started in 1944, liberated the southern and eastern parts of the country, but full liberation did not come until the surrender of Germany on May 5, 1945.
The Battle of the Scheldt in World War II was a series of military operations led by the First Canadian Army, with Polish and British units attached, to open up the shipping route to Antwerp so that its port could be used to supply the Allies in north-west Europe. Under acting command of the First Canadian's Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds, the battle took place in northern Belgium and southwestern Netherlands from 2 October to 8 November 1944.
The French Forces of the Interior were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as France's status changed from that of an occupied nation to one of a nation being liberated by the Allied armies. As regions of France were liberated, the FFI were more formally organized into light infantry units and served as a valuable manpower addition to regular Free French forces. In this role, the FFI units manned less active areas of the front lines, allowing regular French army units to practice economy of force measures and mass their troops in decisive areas of the front. Finally, from October 1944 and with the greater part of France liberated, the FFI units were amalgamated into the French regular forces continuing the fight on the Western Front, thus ending the era of the French irregulars in World War II.
Operation Anger was a military operation to seize the city of Arnhem in April 1945, during the closing stages of the Second World War. It is also known as the Second Battle of Arnhem or the Liberation of Arnhem. The operation was part of the Canadian First Army's liberation of the Netherlands and was led by the 49th British Infantry Division, supported by armour of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, Royal Air Force air strikes and boats of the Royal Navy.
The Battle of Overloon was a battle fought in the Second World War battle between Allied forces and the German Army which took place in and around the village of Overloon in the south-east of the Netherlands between 30 September and 18 October 1944. The battle, which resulted in an Allied victory, ensued after the Allies launched Operation Aintree. The Allies went on to liberate the town of Venray.
Major General Christopher Vokes was a senior Canadian Army officer who fought in World War II. He commanded the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade during the Allied invasion of Sicily. Promoted to major-general, he led the 1st Canadian Infantry Division through several battles in the Italian campaign. This included fierce house-to-house fighting in the Battle of Ortona and the advance north to the Hitler Line. In 1944, he took over command of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division and fought in the Battle of the Hochwald. During the latter stages of this battle he ordered his division to raze the German town of Friesoythe. The division subsequently destroyed around 85–90% of the town and used the rubble to make good the cratered local roads.
The Battle of Labuan was an engagement fought between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces on the island of Labuan off Borneo during June 1945. It formed part of the Australian invasion of North Borneo, and was initiated by the Allied forces as part of a plan to capture the Brunei Bay area and develop it into a base to support future offensives.
The German 148th Reserve Division was a German reserve infantry formation during the Second World War. It was made up of three infantry regiments and an artillery regiment. Initially an occupation force in southern France, serving as a depot for rest and rifitting, it was activated as an infantry division and fought in Italy from 1944 to 1945. Redesignated the 148th Infantry Division in September 1944 to fight the allied invasion during Operation Dragoon, it later fought in the Po River battles, surrendering to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force on April 28, 1945, after being encircled in the Battle of Collecchio, near the city of Fornovo di Taro at Galano.
This is a timeline of events that occurred during 1944 in World War II.
The 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Canadian Army that fought during World War I and World War II. The brigade, along with the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade and the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade, formed the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. The division was formed in late 1915 in France and served on the Western Front until the armistice in November 1918. Later, during World War II, it arrived in the United Kingdom in 1940 and spent three years in garrison duties and training in preparation for the assault landings on Juno Beach in Normandy on 6 June 1944. After fighting in Normandy, the brigade took part in the Battle of the Scheldt. After the war, it served on occupation duties until being disbanded in June 1946.
The razing of Friesoythe was the destruction of the town of Friesoythe in Lower Saxony on 14 April 1945, during the Western Allies' invasion of Germany towards the end of World War II in Europe. The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division attacked the German-held town of Friesoythe, and one of its battalions, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, captured it.
Operation Pheasant, also known as the Liberation of North Brabant, was a major operation to clear German troops from the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands during the fighting on the Western Front in the Second World War. This offensive was conceived as a result of the failure of Operation Market Garden and the allied effort to capture the important port of Antwerp. It was conducted by the allied 21st Army Group between 20 October to 4 November 1944.
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