Prelude to Breakout

The Germans had frustrated the Allied attempt to breakout of the Normandy peninsula, and Eisenhower now tried shifting pressure from the British sector in the east to the Americans on the west. One location where a breakthrough was to be …

1944-07-07

44

The Germans had frustrated the Allied attempt to breakout of the Normandy peninsula, and Eisenhower now tried shifting pressure from the British sector in the east to the Americans on the west. One location where a breakthrough was to be attempted was between the Tante and Vire Rivers near St. Lo. In the XIX Corps sector, the 30th Division would lead the attack with its 120th Regiment making the initial assault across the canal that joined the two rivers. Although the canal was shallow enough to be forded in some places the muddy bottom made wading treacherous. Divisional engineers were therefore assigned to aid the assault troops by laying duckboards as footbridges across the narrow canal once the initial troops had started their attack.

Vire et Taute Canal, 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

American