With the 15,000 strong panzer unit “Das Reich” in the southern French town of Toulouse, the allied invasion faced little opposition from the German army based in Normandy as they had been thinly spread throughout the northern regions of France as there invasion plans were known, but the precise landing area had been successfully kept from the Nazi spies in England.
“Das Reich” were hot to trot and began the two day journey towards Normandy and certain victory as the allies would not be able to advance into France fast enough to join up with the other units and supplies.
Here the agents of the special operations executive, the office of strategic service and the French resistance fighters had to work fast to stop the advance of this rested army who were up for a fight against the allied invasion.
The messages had been sent out regarding the imminent d-day invasion and like a coiled spring they went into action, knowing that they were the key to the success of d-day, the agents all had their own part to play, some would act as spies, locating the positions and strengths of the “Das Reich” as they made their way from Toulouse to Normandy, the main job was that of sabotage, bridges, rail tracks and roads were blown up and destroyed, meaning that the “Das Reich” would have to travel by road, however this action against the Nazis came at a very high price, the frustrated tank commanders destroyed many small town and villages in revenge for the French resistance part in the sabotage.
In fact the 400 mile journey which would have taken just two days for the tanks and men to leave Toulouse and engage the allies in Normandy actually took over two weeks, by which time the allies had been reinforced, rearmed and manage to regroup which gave them the upper hand and a massive foot hold in Northern France.
It is fair to say that if it had not been for the heroic actions of the agents, the outcome of the war would have been a different story. As we now know the Germans were working on inter continental ballistic missiles and were also trying to formulate a method of creating an atomic bomb, these two put together with the extra time gained by halting the invasion of France would have given the Nazis a superior weapon before everyone else and ultimately they would have won the war and become the only world super power. This single action of halting the panzer unit “Das Reich” was probably one of the most important single actions of the war and thus bringing the war to an earlier end.
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