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Chapter 4 The Normandy Campaign in Close Combat
65
Chapter 4
The Normandy Campaign
in Close Combat
The Normandy campaign is a six-week series of battles that takes place
in northwestern France. There, soldiers of General Omar Bradley’s First
Army attempt to fight their way from Omaha Beach to Saint-Lô, a
strategic road and rail hub. Saint-Lô is the key to breaking out of the
confining beachhead area. If Bradley’s forces can capture this important
town, they will finally be able to move onto ground that will allow them
to take full advantage of their formidable mechanized and armored
forces in a war of maneuver.
Standing in the way of the Americans and their objective are German
army and paratroop units who have put up fierce opposition to the
invading forces—first on the beaches, then inland through coastal
villages, then at the river Aure, and finally in the hedgerows, marshes,
hills, and draws. After six weeks, 20 miles, and 200,000 casualties, the
two armies face off in the bombed-out rubble of Saint-Lô. An American
victory here will allow the First Army to launch a drive across France
and into Germany. But if the Germans can stop the Americans, they
may be able to keep the
invaders bottled up in
northwestern France,
jeopardizing their precarious
toehold on the European
continent.
“War is the last of all things to
go according to plan.”
Thucydides
Orne River
Drome River
Vire River
Taute River
Douve River
Merderet River
Aure River
Cherbourg
SaintÐL™
Carentan
Cerisy Forest
Caen
Bayeux
Normandy: June 6, 1944
UTAH
OMAHA
GOLD
JUNO
SWOR
D
British Second Army
(Dempsey)
U.S. First Army
(Bradley)