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Chapter 4 The Normandy Campaign in Close Combat
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But all these technical advances aren’t enough to keep the hedgerow
battle from dragging on too slowly. The Americans need a new combi-
nation of technology, tactics, and techniques to speed their progress.
Breaking the Impasse
When the 29th finds itself stymied in the bocage, General Charles
Gerhardt orders Brigadier-General Norman Cota, a veteran of the
landings in North Africa, to devise new tactics for this hostile terrain.
Cota decides to use small teams composed of a tank equipped with
pipe devices in front to aid in the placement of explosive charges and a
telephone on its rear deck for communication with infantrymen, an
engineer team, an infantry squad, a BAR, and a 60-mm mortar. To
begin the attack, the tank pushes into a hedgerow, then fires white
phosphorus rounds from its main gun into the corners of the opposite
hedgerow to suppress the German heavy machine guns. The tank
then lays down machine gun fire along the base of the hedgerow.
Meanwhile, the mortar team drops high explosive
rounds into the fields behind the German posi-
tions, and smoke rounds to block the enemy’s
view. When the tank opens fire with its machine
gun, the infantry attacks, moving across the field
well away from the hedgerows on either side, and
throwing grenades over the hedgerow to disrupt
defenders on the other side.
When the infantry has advanced far enough to
block the tank’s field of fire, the tank backs away,
and the engineers place and detonate explosives in
the holes the pipes leave in the embankment. The
tank then rolls through the resulting hole, provid-
ing close support for the infantry, while the
infantry suppresses antitank fire. Using this
approach, the Second Battalion of the 116th
Infantry makes better progress than ever in its
push toward Saint-Lô.
The Third Armored Division devises an approach
for larger-scale hedgerow operations, coordinating
the efforts of a tank company and an infantry
company to attack across a front three fields wide.
The attack begins by penetrating the hedgerows of
the two outer fields. When they are taken, the
team moves to breach the hedgerows that border
Phase I Phase II
Phase III Phase IV
Tanks lay down suppressive fire as
infantry moves through hedgerow.
As infantry close on enemy and
mask tank's fire, tank backs away
and engineers emplace charges.
Tank advances to help infantry clear
objectives. Other elements displace for-
ward and prepare to continue the attack.
Demolitions gap hedgerow as
infantry assaults the objective.
Sherman tank
60-mm mortar
Engineer team
Infantrymen
Mortar observer
“Every goddam field in
this hedgerow country is
a battlefield.”
Pfc. Bob Sloane, in
Yank
Hedgerow assualt tactics