Operation Eclipse

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Operation Eclipse was the plan of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) for the occupation of Germany during World War II . It emerged from a series of earlier plans ( Rankin and Talisman ) that began in 1943 under the auspices of the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC).

Emergence

Plans for an early end to the war in Europe due to a sudden collapse of the German resistance first emerged in 1943 under the leadership of COSSAC, the designated chief of staff of the Allied Commander in Chief for the planned invasion of the continent, Frederick Morgan . Morgan had several planning options to work on at the time: on the one hand, deception operations that were supposed to minimize the pressure on the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, on the other hand, the actual invasion plan, from which Operation Overlord ultimately emerged, and finally, plans for an immediate landing on the continent should the German resistance suddenly end. He therefore ordered the planning for Operation Rankin to begin on May 22, 1943 .

Operation Rankin

The plan for Operation Rankin was based on the premise that, similar to 1918, a situation would arise in which the resistance of the opposing forces would suddenly collapse. The planning suffered from a complete lack of political directives from the participating governments, as there was still no agreement between them, especially with Moscow, on the post-war order and this was still being debated between London and Washington. Furthermore, COSSAC did not yet have a staff for civil affairs, and it was not even clear within the Roosevelt administration to what extent military agencies should be involved in civil affairs at all. Last but not least, the planners had no historical model of a similar operation to orientate themselves on. Still, a preliminary plan was finalized in time for the Quadrant Conference , held in Québec in August 1943 .

This plan envisaged occupying strategic spaces as quickly as possible that would allow the demand for unconditional surrender to be enforced. There were also plans to rehabilitate the liberated countries. The British were to occupy the northern region (the Netherlands, Denmark, the Ruhr area and north-west Germany), the Americans the southern region (Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Rhineland south of Düsseldorf). The main task of the troops was to be the disarming of the opposing armed forces, but the need to establish a military administration was also recognized. Roosevelt and Churchill approved the plan in Quebec and instructed COSSAC to proceed with the planning.

In the further course of the planning, three different case studies were taken as a basis:

  • A: Rapid collapse of Germany, which allowed Overlord to be carried out early
  • B: Withdrawal of the German army to the pre-war borders
  • C: unconditional surrender

Rankin-C was considered the most likely case and the planning for this was intensified accordingly. The preliminary plan for Rankin-C was completed at the end of October 1943 and no longer only envisaged the occupation of strategic areas, but the complete occupation of Germany. An occupying army of 25 divisions was deemed necessary for this. The plan did not go into detail on important issues, so it remained open how to deal with the disarmed enemy soldiers, as well as with the police and paramilitary formations. The question of a military government was not discussed, nor was the repatriation of Allied prisoners of war and displaced persons .

As D-Day approached , these questions became even more urgent, so that in April 1944 the SHAEF alone was working on 72 studies on post-war issues. After the successful landing in Normandy, these were combined in July 1944 under the new code name Talisman .

Operation Talisman / Eclipse

Operation Talisman envisaged the main tasks of the Allied military after the end of the conflict:

  • Disarm the enemy forces,
  • Takeover of war material,
  • Control of disarmed enemy soldiers,
  • Care for Allied prisoners of war,
  • Enforcement of the directives of the occupying powers,
  • Denazification through counter intelligence operations .

Further tasks were added over time. The occupying army was enlarged to 39 2/3 divisions. After the Second Québec Conference in September 1944, the zones of occupation established there were incorporated into the plans. A revised Talisman Outline Plan was issued in October 1944. After a warning of a compromise of the alias Talisman was received by the SHAEF, the alias was changed to Eclipse in November 1944 .

The plan for Operation Eclipse , first issued on November 10, 1944, consisted of the Appreciation and Outline Plan and a total of 19 memoranda, eight of which were issued with the Appreciation and Outline Plan and the rest were added in the period up to the German surrender. Of the three Allied Army Groups, two, the 21st (UK) Army Group and the 12th (US) Army Group, were earmarked for the occupation, while the 6th (US) Army Group was to be disbanded after the surrender. These army groups developed their own operational plans for Eclipse based on the SHAEF directives .

Eclipse should start when either the total surrender had been signed or the majority of the German armed forces had surrendered or had been captured. Eclipse was effectively implemented in the liberated areas before the end of the fighting. Originally, the Eclipse plan also contained an operation to take Berlin by airborne troops, but this became obsolete after the Battle of Berlin fought by the Red Army .

See also

literature

  • Major Kenneth O. McCreedy: Planning the Peace: Operation Eclipse and the Occupation of Germany. School of Advanced Military Studies, 1995.
  • Earl F. Ziemke: The US Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944-1946. Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington DC 1990 ( online version ).

Web links