Battle of the Hedgerows and Operation Cobra

The Invasion of Europe by the Allied forces started on D-Day (June 6, 1944) with days of hard fighting once the forces landed. D-Day was just the beginning of seven weeks of hard fighting in Northern France. Once the forces moved in from the beach of Normandy, the Battle of the Hedgerows started and culminated with Operation Cobra in midsummer 1944. As with all plans, things don’t always go as expected and there are always things that are unseen that have to be dealt with. The lessons that were hard learned during those seven weeks would continue to be taught into modern times.

When the initial wave of Allied forces landed in Normandy, they were some of the first soldiers to encounter the hedgerows. These masses of foliage, fruit trees, vegetables, and brambles formed the edges of pastures, orchards, and fields of the farmers in the area, and wreaked havoc for the soldiers, mainly the American forces. The culmination of the hedgerow battles was at the town of St. Lo.

The buildup to St. Lo started at D-Day, with captured points from the beaches into the town. The objective of the American forces after D-Day was to sever the peninsula into two pieces, which with the hedgerows present, was a harder task than the planners realized. As the forces pushed through towns inland from the beaches, the crossroads at St. Lo was important to hold.

The hedges, up to 15 feet high in places, were a natural place for the Germans to stash munitions, soldiers, and machinery. The Germans would place heavy machine guns at the corners of the fields to pin down any Allied forces out in the open, while lighter machine guns would be on the flanks to inflict damage to those seeking cover. This caused most of the main fighting to happen at crossroads and in the open areas of bridges. General Bradley had a plan for a strong offensive to keep Germans from getting any of their forces concentrated in the area.

As part of Bradley’s plan, the VIII Corps of the First Army would move out of Coutances towards St. Lo on July 3, but the terrain didn’t allow for a fast and broad attack. They were forced to engage one division at a time but were ultimately stopped cold by German forces, primarily their 88mm guns, along with tanks and other heavy guns. With the loss of nearly 40% of the engaged VIII Corps, Bradley rethought his plan. Another attempt to break out of the hedges happened with more devastating losses on July 4, and the men on the ground went unaided thanks in part to heavy cloud cover.

The next day, the fighting continued with American forces barely making it a mile down the road towards their objective. The slow stalemate lasted until the early morning hours of July 7, when American forces from the 30^th Division crossed the Vire River and Taute-Vire Canal in 32 assault boats. With wave after wave of American soldiers crossing, the forces overwhelmed German forces, and by that evening, Americans had secured St. Jean.

With the influx of men taking St. Jean, Bradley was able to redistribute forces and push toward St. Lo. In response, German Tank Commander Rommel, pulled his 2^nd Panzer Division from Caen and redeployed it to the Vire-Taute region to shore up its defenses of the important crossroad town. Over the course of the next few days, different Panzer divisions were able to skirt the Allied lines and capture (at least for a time) command posts. But, thanks to better weather and the seemingly endless supply of Sherman tanks from the 3^rd Armored Division, the American forces were able to repel the German attacks.

On the morning of July 11, 1944, the focused push to St. Lo finally occurred. With the German forces holding key high positions around the city which provided easy vantage points to view the movements of the American forces, it was realized that the Americans needed to hold those positions before they could secure the city. Over the next week, American forces fought German positions on the hills and in the hedgerows around the town, with heavy loss of life. By the morning of July 17, the decision to take the town no matter what was made. They advanced through German lines and fought through the town block by block. By July 18, the German command saw what was coming in the town and requested permission to quit St. Lo and regroup elsewhere. It would take another week for the city to be completely in American hands. Thus, ending the battle for St. Lo.

On July 25, General Eisenhower launched Operation Cobra, the plan to drop several thousand tons of bombs in a small location in an effort to cut the German lines north of St. Lo. Originally planned by General Bradley, the Operation hit snags with weather and infrastructure delays for fuel and munitions. In an effort that included 1,500 B-17 and B-24 bombers, more than 3,000 tons of munitions were dropped before noon, in addition to 1,000 more bombs and napalm dropped in one of the most devastated air attacks of World War II.

Unfortunately for planners, many that were killed in the bomb drops were American soldiers, with over 100 reported killed and nearly 500 injured. According to reports, the original plan was for the bombs to run parallel to American lines and push out toward the German lines. However, the bombs landed perpendicular to some American positions, causing many unwarranted casualties, much against what General Bradley was trying to accomplish.

Luckily, the bombing did have the desired effect on German morale and defensives and left the German line fractured. The day after the attack, the German 7^th Army reported seven breaks in their lines in the area and had an estimated 1,000 casualties and several destroyed command posts. With the breaks present in the line, more than 100,000 American soldiers poured through the lines and were able to turn on the German left flank and capture several important bridges in the area. With those bridges in American hands, Patton’s Army was able to engage in the fighting on August 1 and further help liberate the area from German control.

All in all, Operation Cobra was seen as a success, even with the large number of casualties associated with it. With the influx of American GIs, the forces were able to move out of the hedgerows of Normandy and push east following the Germans out of France. In hindsight, the American planners did not anticipate as much resistance as they received from the German forces in the area, even after the harsh fighting of D-Day. If it hadn’t been for the bombings, who knows how long the German defenses would have held up and how many more American lives would have been lost in the Battle of the Hedgerows. Everything’s 20-20 in hindsight, right?