Punching the Iron Fist

Following the launch of Operation Cobra on the 25th, the German FBE 4th Armored Division had driven about 20 miles south by the 30th exploiting a gap near Avranches. An advance element of the 4th Armored Division’s CCR was tasked with destroying the HQ of the German 17th SS Panzer …

1944-07-31

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Following the launch of Operation Cobra on the 25th, the German FBE 4th Armored Division had driven about 20 miles south by the 30th exploiting a gap near Avranches. An advance element of the 4th Armored Division’s CCR was tasked with destroying the HQ of the German 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division (“The Iron Fist”), located in a walled chateau just to south of Avranches. US armored infantry and supporting tankers initially caught the outnumbered panzer grenadiers by surprise. But quick reacting German officers called in some nearby SS panzers, whose unexpected counterattack put the American attackers into disarray and made the battle for the chateau a near-run thing.

Les Ajoncs, France

Operation Cobra was the codename for an offensive launched by the United States First Army under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley seven weeks after the D-Day landings, during the Normandy campaign of World War II. The intention was to take advantage of the distraction of the Germans by the British and Canadian attacks around Caen in Operation Goodwood, and thereby break through the German defenses that were penning in their forces while the Germans were unbalanced. Once a corridor had been created, the First Army would then be able to advance into Brittany, rolling up the German flanks once free of the constraints of the bocage country. After a slow start, the offensive gathered momentum and German Resistance collapsed as scattered remnants of broken units fought to escape to the Seine. Lacking the resources to cope with the situation, the German response was ineffectual and the entire Normandy front soon collapsed. Operation Cobra, together with concurrent offensives by the British Second Army and the Canadian First Army, was decisive in securing an Allied victory in the Normandy campaign.

Wikipedia: Operation Cobra

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