Brittany 1944: Hitler’s Final Defenses in France

Osprey Campaign #320

by Steven J. Zaloga

One of the prime objectives for the Allies following the D-Day landings was the capture of sufficient ports to supply their armies. The original Overlord plans assumed that ports along the Breton coast would be essential to expansion of the Normandy beach-head. This included the major ports at Brest and on Quiberon Bay.

The newly arrived Third US Army (TUSA) under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton was delegated to take on the Brittany mission. In one of the most rapid mechanized advances of the war, TUSA had the ports of Avranches and Quiberon encircled by the second week of August 1944.

But changing priorities meant that most of TUSA was redeployed, meaning only a single corps was left to take the Breton port cities. The fight would drag into 1945, long after German field armies had been driven from France. Using full color maps and artwork as well as contemporary accounts and photographs, Brittany 1944 is the fascinating story of the siege of Germany's last bastions on the French Atlantic coast.

Genres: Military History

96 pages, Paperback

Published April 17, 2018

About the author

Steven Zaloga is an author and defense analyst known worldwide for his articles and publications on military technology.  He has written over a hundred books on military technology and military history, including “Armored Thunderbolt: The US Army Sherman in World War II”, one of the most highly regarded histories of the Sherman Tank.  His books have been translated into Japanese, German, Polish, Czech, Romanian, and Russian. He was a special correspondent for Jane’s Intelligence Review and is on the executive board of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies and the New York Military Affairs Symposium. From 1987 through 1992, he was the writer/producer for Video Ordnance Inc., preparing their TV series Firepower.  He holds a BA in history from Union College and an MA in history from Columbia University.

Mr. Zaloga is also a noted scale armor modeler and is a host/moderator of the World War II Allied Discussion group at Missing-Lynx.com, a modelling website. He is a frequent contributor to the UK-based modeling magazine Military Modelling. He is a member of the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society.

Reviews

[James Crabtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following the Normandy breakout the U.S. Army was sent racing towards Brittany to seize the German-held ports of Lorent, Saint Nazaire and Brest. This would simultaniously deprive the Kreigsmarine of U-boat bases and provide the Allies with badly-needed supply bases. This book looks at the effort to take on the German Army and Navy, the help provided by the French Resistance in the province and the backwater that the area became following Patton's all-out armored race to the Rhine. Often books about the Normandy Campaign and the Cobra breakout give scant mention of the fight in Brittany... a fight which because of changing priorities allowed the Nazis to maintain a grip on the Channel Islands and several of the ports right up until Germany's surrender in May 1945.

As always, a well-written book well-illustrated with maps, original artwork and photographs. A good addition to anyone's WWII library.