Thunder-Clap, known generally as Operation Thunderclap, was the broad goal of American soldiers to capture central England and northern Wales in 1953. The operation involved up to 120,000 American soldiers, aerial support, naval blockades and bombardments and took almost nine months to complete, despite the comparatively small distances being travelled. The general plan involved securing the notoriously violent, rural parts of northern Wales by early summer and then split the American soldiers into two groups to assault Manchester and divert EWA resources to defending that city, while also working to assault Birmingham from the north to complement Operation Serpent, which would attack the city from the south and the well-established bases of American support and supplies in and around Bris