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{{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 a World War II [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] plan for a cross-[[English Channel|Channel]] invasion of Europe, 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 felt a landing in France was premature, and hence impractical. <ref name=Husen1999/><ref name=Mackenzie2014/> This perception was reinforced by the failure of the smaller [[Dieppe Raid]] in August 1942. As a result, Sledgehammer was never carried out, and instead the British proposal for an invasion of [[French North Africa]] took place in November 1942 under the code name [[Operation Torch]].
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