Purple Heart Draw

The 2nd Division’s 23rd Inf. Regt. (Tomahawks) makes their third attack against the 3rd FJ Div. which was defending an area that controlled the St. Lo-Bayeux highway, a vital east-west communications route for the German 7th Army in Normandy. Two …

1944-07-07

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The 2nd Division’s 23rd Inf. Regt. (Tomahawks) makes their third attack against the 3rd FJ Div. which was defending an area that controlled the St. Lo-Bayeux highway, a vital east-west communications route for the German 7th Army in Normandy. Two previous attacks in June had failed miserably in the same area; an area subsequently dubbed “Purple Heart Draw” by the G.I.s to memorialize the massive casualties they suffered in June. However, the Americans learned their lessons quickly and, in the interim, trained to fight better tactically in the “Bocage” country.

St. Lo, 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

American

German