Allied offensive on the Western Front (1944-1945)

Map of northwestern France before the Allied offensive in 1944. American planes taking off.

Allied aircraft bomb German defensive positions on the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944. Officers on the bridge of a British naval ship.

Allied ships fire on the coast.

Allied aircraft attack German fortifications.

Ships of the Anglo-American fleet on the sea surface (top).

Allied warships fire.

British naval gunners fire from a deck gun.

Naval artillery fire.

Faces of American soldiers.

Landing craft move toward the Normandy coast.

Allied troops landing on one of the beaches.

Infantry advances along the coast.

Combat operations during the landing of Anglo-American units on the beach.

American soldiers in the battle for the beachhead.

Armored vehicles landing on the captured part of the coast, an observation balloon hangs in the sky.

Allied troops landing in one of the captured ports.

Transporting equipment to the shore.

Panorama of the port.

A column of trucks leaves the water for the shore.

Allied troops moving along the road.

American bombers in flight.

Bomb explosions on the ground (above).

A burning plane.

View of a German airfield during an assault, planes catching fire.

Assault on a moving echelon and railroad tracks (above).

Captured German soldiers are escorted.

Sending German prisoners of war to ships near the shore.

Faces of American landing force soldiers before the landing.

A US Marine unit moves along the shore.

Views and panoramas of captured German coastal fortifications.

Views of the terrain pockmarked with craters from aerial bombs.

Reports in German newspapers about the Allied landing on June 6, 1944. Map of the northwest coast of France.

Airplanes in flight.

Signals from soldiers at night.

Night explosion at sea.

A German rangefinder operator conducts surveillance.

The Allied fleet at sea (panorama).

An observer with binoculars on one of the coastal fortifications.

German coastal artillery fires at the Allied fleet, the ships fire back.

Loading and firing a German heavy gun.

An Allied warship is hit.

Coastal artillery guns fire.

View of one of the reinforced concrete fortifications.

An observer with binoculars at an observation slit.

Anti-personnel obstacles in the surf zone.

German coastal and land artillery fires at the Allies, machine-gun crews in battle.

German infantry fights defensively.

Defeating the enemy with flamethrowers, clouds of smoke.

The face of a SS soldier.

German soldiers inspect landing craft and transports abandoned by the Allies.

Panorama of the coast with anti-personnel obstacles.

The face of a German soldier.

German self-propelled guns move to the front line.

German self-propelled artillery fires at the Anglo-Americans.

German infantry fights to repel an Allied offensive on one of the sections of the front.

A German assault group launches a counterattack.

Captured British soldiers.

A German observer with binoculars.

German anti-aircraft gun crews working to repel an air raid.

An anti-aircraft battery fires, bombers fly.

Bombs explode beyond the city outskirts.

An anti-aircraft gun on a railway platform.

Faces of German soldiers watching the repulse of an Allied air raid.

Rapid-fire anti-aircraft gun firing.

Bombers fly.

Bombs explode near one of the buildings.

German fighters fly.

A German soldier with a rangefinder.

A burning plane falls.

Buildings collapse under bombs.

Smoke from bomb explosions.

German air defense units repel Allied air raids.

American soldiers eat from mess tins during a rest stop.

An American jeep with a machine gun drives along the street of a German city past destroyed houses during the advance into Germany in April 1945. An American tank takes up a position between destroyed houses.

Views of Heidelberg.

American soldiers on the streets of the city.

A sculpture of a Nazi eagle.

A view of one of the old buildings in the city.

American soldiers distributing humanitarian aid, boxes of humanitarian aid are thrown out of the windows of a building, people catch them.

People are sorting out the humanitarian aid, pulling bags out of the mud.

German women are fighting over a box of humanitarian aid.

People are carrying away boxes of humanitarian aid.

Freed prisoners of war run out of the open gates of the camp to meet their liberators.

Freed prisoners of war are rocking American soldiers.

Faces of freed prisoners of war.

Faces of freed women and girls.

Women show the Americans their bandaged hands and camp numbers on their hands.

A captured German officer joins the ranks of captured Nazi functionaries.

Faces of the prisoners.

American soldiers lead captured Nazis into a barracks.

Cargo barges on the banks of one of the canals.

A view of the destroyed metal structures of a bridge.

A tugboat washed ashore.

A British military signalman conducts radio communications on the move using a backpack radio.

Allied combat equipment is concentrated before the beginning of the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945 (panorama).

American and British soldiers near a tank on the road during the Rhineland operation.

Faces of soldiers greeting each other, sleeve insignia of units.

Soldiers in the arch of one of the castles.

View of part of the building.

A sentry on duty under the arch.

Panorama of the castle tower (top to bottom).

American tanks are standing on the road.

A multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) on tracks moves out to a firing position.

Loading rockets, bringing ammunition to its final state.

Installing fuses.

Installing rockets in guides.

A salvo from an American MLRS. American troops on a captured railway bridge near the city of Remagen on March 24, 1945. Armored vehicles moving across the bridge.

A view of one of the destroyed quarters of the city.

Troops moving across the bridge.

A tank drives onto the bridge, passes a post of the 9th US Army, a sign with the army number on the bridge structure.