Prelude to Breakout

The German resistance had thus far frustrated all Allied attempts to break out of the Cotentin peninsula. Eisenhower now tried shifting the pressure from the British sector in the east to the American sector in the west. The plan called for a breakthrough across the Canal de Vire …

1944-07-07

A078

The German resistance had thus far frustrated all Allied attempts to break out of the Cotentin peninsula. Eisenhower now tried shifting the pressure from the British sector in the east to the American sector in the west. The plan called for a breakthrough across the Canal de Vire et Taute north of St. Lo. In the XIX Corps sector, the 30th Infantry Division would lead the attack, with its 120th Infantry Regiment making the initial assault across the canal. Although the canal was shallow enough to be forded in some places, its muddy bottom made wading treacherous. Divisional engineers were assigned to aid the assault troops by laying duckboards as footbridges across the narrow canal once the initial troops had begun the attack.

Saint-Jean-de-Daye, 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.

American

German

Scenario Type = Standard