Critical Intelligence

By the early hours of 7 August, the German forces had overrun the key roadblock southeast of Mortain and had advanced as far as the town of Romagny In desperate need of current tactical intelligence, the US forces sent an …

1944-08-07

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By the early hours of 7 August, the German forces had overrun the key roadblock southeast of Mortain and had advanced as far as the town of Romagny In desperate need of current tactical intelligence, the US forces sent an intelligence and reconnaissance platoon to assess the situation on the southern flank. As they entered Romagny, they encountered a German advance guard. Both sides sustained casualties, but the US forces took three prisoners and continued fighting for over an hour, until their ammunition ran low. During the fighting, the Americans interrogated their prisoners and immediately passed to the division headquarters any critical information they extracted.

Romagny, France

Operation Lüttich was a codename given to a German counter-attack during the Battle of Normandy, which took place around the American positions near Mortain in northwestern France from 7 August to 13 August 1944. The offensive is also referred to in American and British histories of the Battle of Normandy as the Mortain counterattack. The assault was ordered by Adolf Hitler, to eliminate the gains made by the First United States Army during Operation Cobra and the subsequent weeks, and by reaching the coast in the region of Avranches at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, cut off the units of the Third United States Army which had advanced into Brittany. The main German striking force was the XLVII Panzer Corps, with one and a half SS Panzer Divisions and two Heer Panzer Divisions. Although they made initial gains against the defending U.S. VII Corps, they were soon halted and the Allies inflicted severe losses on the attacking troops, eventually destroying most of the German tanks involved in the attack. Although fighting continued around Mortain for six days, the American forces had regained the initiative within a day of the opening of the German attack.

Wikipedia: Operation Lüttich

German

American