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{{Short description|Planned World War II military operation}}
{{About|a World War II military operation|the 2012 Somali National Army and AMISOM offensive|Battle of Kismayo (2012)|the 2007 Operation that was part of Operation Marne Torch|Operation Sledgehammer (2007)}}
'''Operation Sledgehammer''' was an [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] plan for a cross-[[English Channel|Channel]] invasion of Europe during [[World War II]], as the first step in helping to reduce pressure on the Soviet [[Red Army]] by establishing a [[Western Front (World War II)|Second Front]]. It was to be executed in 1942 and acted as a contingency alternative to [[Operation Roundup (1942)|Operation Roundup]], the original Allied plan for the invasion of Europe in 1943. Allied forces were to seize the French Atlantic ports of either [[Brest, France|Brest]] or [[Cherbourg-Octeville|Cherbourg]] and areas of the [[Cotentin Peninsula]] during the early autumn of 1942, and amass troops for a breakout in the spring of 1943.
The operation was eagerly pressed for by both the United States military and the Soviet Union, but rejected by the British, who
==History==
=== Background ===
After the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the U.S. [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] pressed for an invasion of [[mainland Europe]] via the English Channel "as soon as possible". In March 1942, in a letter to British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]], U.S. President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] wrote:
{{
On 8 April, General [[George Marshall]] and [[Harry Hopkins]] arrived in Britain to press the case for two possible American plans for a landing in Occupied France, Operation Roundup and Operation Sledgehammer.
===Operation Roundup plan===
[[Operation Roundup (1942)|Roundup]] was the original Allied plan for the invasion of continental Europe. It was to be mounted before April 1943 and executed by 48 divisions, 18 of which would be British.
===Operation Sledgehammer plan===
Sledgehammer was a plan to capture the French seaports of either Brest or Cherbourg during the early autumn of 1942 if Germany or the Soviet Union was at the brink of collapse.<ref>{{cite book|url= http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/sp1943-44/introduction.htm |title=Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare
However, the elements required for such an operation were lacking: air superiority, amphibious warfare equipment, sufficient forces and adequate supply. In spite of this, the Joint Chiefs of Staff considered Sledgehammer to be feasible.
If Sledgehammer had been carried out, the British could have landed only six divisions at most, but the Germans had
The pressure to mount Sledgehammer increased further when Soviet Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] arrived in Britain to press for a Second Front. After trying and failing to persuade Churchill, Molotov travelled on to Washington where he enjoyed a better reception and received more support for his requests. He then returned to London and was convinced that a second front in 1942 was actually part of Anglo-American policy.
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{{Further|List of Allied World War II conferences}}
The British rejected the American proposals. British officials pressed for action in North Africa, which would allow relatively-inexperienced American forces to gain experience in a less risky theatre and the gradual buildup of overwhelming force before Germany was engaged head on.<ref name="Husen1999" /><ref name="Mackenzie2014" /> Churchill pressed for a landing in [[French North Africa]] in 1942. George Marshall suggested instead to Roosevelt for the U.S. to abandon the [[Europe first|Germany-first]] strategy and to take the offensive in the Pacific. Roosevelt "disapproved" the proposal by saying it would do nothing to help Russia.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ward|first1=Geoffrey C.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V73CAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA402|title=The Roosevelts: An Intimate History|last2=Burns|first2=Ken|date=2014|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0385353069|location=|pages=402|chapter=The Common Cause: 1939-1944}}</ref> With Roosevelt's support, [[Operation Torch]], scheduled for later that year, became a compromise allowing the U.S. to engage in the fight against Nazi Germany on a limited scale.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Willmott|first=H.P.|url=https://archive.org/details/june194400will|title=June, 1944|publisher=Blandford Press|year=1984|isbn=0-7137-1446-8|location=Poole, Dorset}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Routledge Handbook of US Military and Diplomatic History|date=2013|publisher=Taylor and Francis|location=Hoboken|isbn=9781135071028|page=135|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VRiYAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA135}}</ref>▼
British officials pressed for action in North Africa, which would allow relatively-inexperienced American forces to gain experience in a less risky theatre and the gradual buildup of overwhelming force before Germany was engaged head on.<ref name="Husen1999">{{cite book|editor-first1=David T. |editor-last1=Zabecki |others=Assistant editors: Carl O. Schuster, Paul J. Rose, William H. Van Husen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYDN-UfehEEC&pg=PA1270|title=World War II in Europe : an encyclopedia|date=1999|publisher=Garland Pub.|isbn=9780824070298|page=1270}}</ref><ref name="Mackenzie2014">{{cite book|last1=Mackenzie|first1=S.P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsUFBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA55|title=The Second World War in Europe: Second Edition|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317864714|pages=54–55}}</ref> At the [[Second Washington Conference]] in June 1942, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill decided to postpone the cross-[[English Channel]] invasion until 1943 and make the first priority the [[North African campaign|opening a second front in North Africa]]. At the Second Claridge Conference in London, July 20–26, Churchill and Roosevelt aid Harry Hopkins agreed to substitute [[Operation Torch]], the invasion of [[French North Africa]], for US reinforcement of the [[Western Desert campaign]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VRiYAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA135|title=Routledge Handbook of US Military and Diplomatic History|date= 2013 |publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-13507102-8 |location = Hoboken |page=135}}</ref>
== See also ==▼
▲
In the interim, a large-scale Canadian-led [[Dieppe Raid |raid on the French coast]] was planned to take some of the pressure off the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Normandy Landings, Operations Overlord and Neptune|url= http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsNormandy.htm |access-date= 2020-11-27|website= Naval History}}</ref>
In November 1942 Eisenhower, now a [[Lieutenant general (United States)|lieutenant general]], told Churchill that no major operation on the Continent could be carried out before 1944.<ref name= "morison">[[Samuel Eliot Morison]], ''The Invasion of France and Germany'', {{ISBN|0-316-58311-1}}, pp 7–17</ref>
▲== See also ==
* [[Diplomatic history of World War II]]
* [[Operation Bolero]]
==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==References==
* {{cite book |last=Matloff |first=Maurice |title=Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943–1944 |series=[[United States Army in World War II]] – The War Department |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Office of the Chief of Military History |year=1959 |url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/001/1-4/CMH_Pub_1-4.pdf |access-date=1 June 2017 |oclc=670082949 }}
* {{cite book |last=Stoler |first=Mark A. |title=The Politics of the Second Front: American Military Planning and Diplomacy in Coalition Warfare, 1941-1943 |series =Contributions in Military History |id=No. 12 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |year=1977 |isbn=0-8371-9438-5 |oclc=3003289 }}
* {{cite book |last=Stoler |first=Mark A. |title=Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and US Strategy in World War II |publisher=UNC Press Books |location= Chapel Hill, North Carolina |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8078-5507-2 |oclc=315731885 }}
* {{cite thesis |last=Strange |first=Joseph L. |title=Cross-Channel Attack, 1942: The British Rejection of Operation Sledgehammer and the Cherbourg Alternative |publisher=University of Maryland |degree=PhD |year=1984 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303317233 |access-date=8 June 2024 |id={{ProQuest|303317233}} |via=ProQuest }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sledgehammer, Operation}}
[[Category:Battles and operations of World War II]]
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