Hill 192 - Hedgerow Hell

After landing on June 7th at Omaha beach, the 2nd Division moved inland and was eventually tasked with cutting the St Lo-Bayeux highway in mid-June. This operation was a critical part of enabling the planned 3rd Army breakout south out of Normandy and, hopeftilly, on to Paris! Hill 192 dominated …

1944-06-11

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After landing on June 7th at Omaha beach, the 2nd Division moved inland and was eventually tasked with cutting the St Lo-Bayeux highway in mid-June. This operation was a critical part of enabling the planned 3rd Army breakout south out of Normandy and, hopeftilly, on to Paris! Hill 192 dominated the surrounding country side just east of St. Lo. which was festooned with hedgerows. The hill was defended by the 3rd FJ Division, and it took three attacks to take it, two in June and a third one in July. A note of interest, in addition to having learned their lessons by employing better combined arms tactics in the third attack, the Americans also used the newly designed “Rhino” tank to cut lanes through the hedgerows.

Hill 192, France

The Battle of Saint-Lô is one of the three conflicts in the battle of the hedgerows, 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

American

German