Hedgerow Hell

Over a month had passed since D-Day and there had not been a breakout from Normandy and its bocage-ridden fields. A key town in attempting a break out was St. Lo. Although military intelligence failed in identifying the defensive qualities …

1944-07-15

BP10

Over a month had passed since D-Day and there had not been a breakout from Normandy and its bocage-ridden fields. A key town in attempting a break out was St. Lo. Although military intelligence failed in identifying the defensive qualities of the bocage, American soldiers were adapting their tactics and making gains in this heady maze of sunken roads and dense/y wooded field lines. The 30th Division was tasked in making headway to St. Lo by assaulting the hedgerows and pushing back the Germans around an important road function at Haut-Vents. German Fallschirmjagers knew an assault was coming, and dug-in to contest any American attempts at break out with fierce resistance. - Dale Holmstrom

Haut-vent, 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

Germany