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Operation Lüttich was a codename given to a German counter-attack during the Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain from 7 August to 13 August 1944. (''Lüttich'' is the German name for the city of Liège in Belgium, where the Germans had won a victory in the early days of August 1914 during World War I.) The offensive is also referred to in American and British histories of the Battle of Normandy as the Mortain counter-offensive. The assault was ordered by Adolf Hitler, to eliminate the gains made by the First United States Army during Operation Cobra and the subsequent weeks, and by reaching the coast in the region of Avranches at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, cut off the units of the Third United States Army which had advanced into Brittany. The main German striking force was the XLVII Panzer Corps, with one and a half SS Panzer Divisions and two ''Wehrmacht'' Panzer Divisions. Although they made initial gains against the defending U.S. VII Corps, they were soon halted and Allied aircraft inflicted severe losses on the attacking troops, eventually destroying nearly half of the German tanks involved in the attack.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Operation Lüttich )〕 Although fighting continued around Mortain for six days, the American forces had regained the initiative within a day of the opening of the German attack. As the German commanders on the spot had warned Hitler in vain, there was little chance of the attack succeeding, and the concentration of their armoured reserves at the western end of the front in Normandy soon led to disaster, as they were outflanked to their south and the front to their east collapsed, resulting in many of the German troops in Normandy being trapped in the Falaise Pocket. ==Background== On 25 July 1944, following six weeks of attritional warfare along a stalemated front, American forces under General Omar Bradley mounted an attack code-named Operation Cobra, which broke through the German defenses near Saint-Lô.〔Van der Vat, p.163〕 Almost the entire western half of the German front in Normandy collapsed, and on 1 August, American forces captured Avranches.〔 With the capture of this town at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, and an intact bridge at Pontaubault nearby, the American forces had "turned the corner"; the German front could no longer be anchored against the sea at its western end and American forces could advance west and south into Brittany.〔〔D'Este, p.409〕 The Third United States Army, commanded by Lieutenant General George Patton, was activated the same day.〔D'Este, p.408〕 Despite German air attacks against the bridge at Pontaubault, Patton pushed no less than seven divisions across it during the next three days, and units of his army began advancing almost unopposed towards the Brittany ports.〔Wilmot, p.399〕 Beginning on 30 July, the British Second Army mounted a supporting attack (code-named Operation Bluecoat) on the eastern flank of the American armies. Much of the German armored reserves being rushed west to halt the American breakthrough were diverted to face this new threat.〔 Meanwhile, the U.S. continued its attacks to widen the corridor around Avranches. Although the Germans held the vital road junction of Vire, the U.S. VII Corps under Lieutenant General J. Lawton Collins captured Mortain, east of Avranches, on 3 August. The next day, although the U.S. VIII Corps continued to advance west through Brittany toward the ports of Brest and Lorient, Bradley ordered Patton to drive eastward with the main body of the U.S. Third Army, around the open German flank and into the German rear areas.〔Wilmot, p.400〕 The U.S. XV Corps advanced no less than during the next three days, and by 7 August they were approaching Le Mans, formerly the location of the headquarters of the German 7th Army, and still an important logistic center. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Lüttich」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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