Germans retake Munich

In October 1944 the situation in Austria and Southern Germany was becoming grim. The high hopes which had abounded of a quick victory over the axis following the lightning fall of Austria in the summer had all but evaporated, and hard fighting against elite German formations was now forcing the allies back towards italy.

Both sides gave little ground in dogged, attritional fighting. On October 14th the British were attacked in the east by forces moving west along the Danube valley, and were forced to make a fighting withdrawl back to Salzburg. For now the Austrian capital was safe from allied assault.

Meanwhile further west a determined attack by German forces were forcing the allies back near Augsburg. Fighting on their own soil the Germans were highly motivated, and despite stubborn British resistance they reached Munich, by now a ruin, on the 19th October.

Street battles followed with the British making the Germans pay for every city block, but the British could not sustain the casualties the Russians had been able to accept in the battle for Stalingrad. Grudgingly the British infantry gave up the city on the 24th, allowing the Germans to re-occupy their shattered city.

By the end of the month the allies were back in the Austrian mountains, with the Germans too weak to mount an attack in the difficult terrain of the Alps, and the allies exhausted from repeated vicious battles in the foothills further north. Neither side was able to fight a battle of manoeuvre, and the front became locked in stalemate.

Disappointed, Churchill gave in to pressure from the French and Americans, endorsing a US led invasion of France. If nothing else this now met far less resistance thanks to the southern front, though opinions on the southern strategy remained divided.