The Royan pocket (French: Poche de Royan) was one of the Atlantic pockets towards the end of World War II, a isolated position held by German troops left behind as the German army retreated from 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.[1]
Assault
The Royan pocket was fully invested by the autumn of 1944 and plans were drawn up, codenamed "Operation Independence", to assault and capture the stronghold: However these plans were delayed by the commencement of the German offensive in the Ardennes in the December.
The first position to be attacked was the city of Royan, held by 5,500 German troops and inhabited by 3,000 French civilians. The city suffered a strategic bombing on 5 January 1945 by the RAF, but no land assault had been organized to follow up the bombardment, so the front remained static for the next three months. In April 1945 a massive attack by Allied troops under the French General Edgard de Larminat in Operation Vénérable, involving USAAF bombings on the 14th and 15th, bombardment by the fleet of Vice-Admiral Joseph Rue, and land attack by the 10th French Division and the 66th US Division.[2] The French command apparently had advocated that the French harbours should be retaken by military force, rather than awaiting their eventual surrender by the Germans. The city suffered heavy bombardment by 1,000 planes, including those of the USAAF's 447th Bomb Group,[3] with the result that the city was razed, and 1,500 civilians killed, in what has been described by the historian Howard Zinn as a "crime".[4][5]
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, which made the city "a blazing furnace".[6]
After Royan was taken, Ile d'Oléron was also captured in Operation Jupiter,[6] 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 these operations were under-strength 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.[7]
References
- ^ Rémy Desquesnes, Les poches de résistance allemandes sur le littoral français : août 1944 - mai 1945 (Ouest-France, 2011), p. 38.
- ^ Murfett, Malcolm H. (28 October 2008). Naval warfare 1919–45: an operational history of the volatile war at sea. p. 437. ISBN 9780203889985.
- ^ "447th Bomb Group Association". Archived from the original on 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
- ^ Zinn, Howard (1997). The Zinn reader: writings on disobedience and democracy. p. 275ff. ISBN 1-888363-54-1.
- ^ Zinn, Howard (1990). The politics of history: with a new introduction. p. 266. ISBN 9780252061226.
- ^ a b Zinn, Howard (1997). The Zinn reader: writings on disobedience and democracy. pp. 278ff. ISBN 9781888363548.
- ^ "Stone&Stone Second World War Books".