Bingham Must Hold

The afternoon of 15 July, the US 116th lnfantry Regt. launched an attack along the Martinville Ridge east of St. Ló. As nightfall approached, the 116th was ordered to halt and consolidate its gains for the day. By the time …

1944-07-17

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The afternoon of 15 July, the US 116th lnfantry Regt. launched an attack along the Martinville Ridge east of St. Ló. As nightfall approached, the 116th was ordered to halt and consolidate its gains for the day. By the time Maj. Bingham's 2nd Bn. received the order, over half of it had advanced one half mile beyond the support of the 1st and 3rd battalions. Maj. Bingham's 2nd Bn. sat astride the St. Ló-Bayeux highway just east of the village of La Madeleine and was ordered to hold position. During that night, elements of the 9th Fallschirmjáger Regt. quickly cut off Bingham's men. Bingham and his battalion remained isolated for two days, suffering under intense artillery barrages and sporadic small arms fire. On 17 July a renewed assault by 3rd Bn., 116th Inf. managed to break through to the 2nd Bn. The combined 2nd and 3rd Battalions were to launch an immediate attack on St. Ló but, before they could do so, elements of the 9th Fallschirmjáger Regt. with artillery support launched its own assault against the Americans.

La Madeleine, France

The Battle of Saint-Lô is one of the three conflicts in the Battle of the Hedgerows, which took place between July 7–19, 1944, just before Operation Cobra. Saint-Lô had fallen to Germany in 1940, and, after the Invasion of Normandy, the Americans targeted the city, as it served as a strategic crossroads. American bombardments caused heavy damage and a high number of casualties, which resulted in the martyr city being called "The Capital of Ruins", popularized in a report by Samuel Beckett.

Wikipedia: Battle of Saint-Lô

German

Americans