Normandy - Fall of St Lo - 17-18 July 1944

1944-07-17/1944-07-17

The Battle of Saint-Lô is one of the three conflicts in the battle of the hedgerows [fr], which took place between July 7 and 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 (up to 95% of the city was destroyed) 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-Lo