Royan pocket

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Coordinates: 45°41′53″N 1°14′35″W / 45.698°N 1.243°W / 45.698; -1.243
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Royan Pocket
Part of the
447th Bomb Group helped raze the nearby city of Royan.
Date12 September 1944 - 17/20 April 1945
Location
Royan and Pointe de Grave, Charente-Maritime
, France
Result Allied victory. City completely destroyed.
Belligerents
 Germany  France
 United States
Commanders and leaders
Nazi Germany Hartwig Pohlmann
Nazi Germany Hans Michahelles		 Provisional Government of the French Republic Edgard de Larminat
Provisional Government of the French Republic Henri Adeline
Provisional Government of the French Republic Jean de Milleret
Units involved
USAAF
Strength
8,000-9,000 men[1] France :
73000 men[1]

United States :
Aerial support
Casualties and losses
circa 1,000 killed
800 wounded
8,000 taken prisoner[1]		 364 killed
1,560 wounded
13 missing
(attack from 13 until 20 april)[1]
1,500 civilians killed

The Royan pocket (

occupied France
. It became important to the German High Command that these pockets be held to deny port facilities to the advancing Allies.

Description

Known to the Germans as the Festungen Girondemündung Nord und Süd ("fortresses north and south of the Gironde estuary"), the pocket was not restricted to Royan itself, but included also the peninsula of Arvert and the island of Oléron north of the Gironde, and a stretch from Pointe de Grave to Saint-Vivien-de-Médoc and Vensac to its south.[2]

Assault

The Royan pocket was fully invested by the autumn of 1944 and plans were drawn up, codenamed "Operation Independence", to assault and to capture the stronghold, but the plans were delayed by the commencement of the

German offensive in the Ardennes
in December.

The first position to be attacked was the city of

447th Bomb Group,[4] with the result that the city was razed, and 1,500 civilians killed. The historian Howard Zinn, who took part in the operation as a bombardier, later argued that it was militarily unnecessary and a war crime.[5][6]

Altogether, 27,000 artillery shells were fired over Royan, and the city saw one of the first military uses of napalm on 15 April 1945. Dropped by Allied bombers, it made the city "a blazing furnace".[7]

German forces in Royan capitulated on 17 April. The fighting continued on the other side of the Garonne estuary, particularly in the Coubre forest where the bunkers were manned by sailors from the “Tirpitz” battalion. On 20 April Colonel de Milleret's troops, supported by French reconnaissance and bombing aviation, negotiated and obtained the capitulation of the German forces at Pointe de Grave.

After Royan was taken,

Ile d'Oléron was also captured on 30 April in Opération Jupiter,[7] and de Larminat was planning to capture La Rochelle next in Opération Mousquetaire, but the plan was cancelled with the capitulation of Germany. The French regiments that participated in those operations were understrength units incorporating FFI elements: the 50th and 158th Regiments of the French 23rd Infantry Division (known as Division de marche Oléron), in conjunction with the French 2nd Armored Division and other elements.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Pierre Montagnon, Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, 2011.
  2. ^ Rémy Desquesnes, Les poches de résistance allemandes sur le littoral français : août 1944 - mai 1945 (Ouest-France, 2011), p. 38.
  3. ISBN 9780203889985
    .
  4. ^ "447th Bomb Group Association". Archived from the original on 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
  5. ISBN 1-888363-54-1
    .
  6. ISBN 9780252061226
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 9781888363548
    .
  8. ^ "Stone&Stone Second World War Books".

45°41′53″N 1°14′35″W / 45.698°N 1.243°W / 45.698; -1.243

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