The Battle for Western Europe, Fall 1944: An Operational Assessment

1 Culmination

1 1 Culmination I have used one principle in these operations . . . and this is to fill the “unforgiving minute with sixty seconds of distance run.” That is the whole art of war, and when you get to be a general remember it. . . . I have never given a damn what the enemy was going to do or where he was. What I have known is what I intended to do and then have done it. By acting in this manner I have always gotten to the place he expected me to come about three days before he got there. George Patton, letter to his son, 21 Aug. 1944 On 6 June 1944, forever “D-Day,” five Allied divisions stormed the Normandy beaches. Seven weeks of frustrating fighting in the Bocage, the hedgerow country, followed. Territorial gains were smaller than planned, and casualties were staggering. The opposing armies deadlocked. To break the impasse, U.S. First Army brilliantly executed a penetration attack—Cobra—on 25 July. (See map 1.1.) Omar Bradley, the First Army commander, envisioned a major air strike to create a hole in a narrow section of the front and then positioned concentrated American ground power, echeloned in depth, to rip that hole open. On the day before the attack, Dwight Eisenhower, supreme allied commander—“Ike”—cabled Bradley: “My high hopes and best wishes ride with you on your attack today . . . [conditions thus] allowing you to pursue every advantage with an ardor verging on recklessness and with all of your troops.”1 Subsequently he signaled, “We will crush him [the enemy].”2 Bradley entrusted Major General “Lightning Joe” Collins and his VII Corps with executing the breakout. VII Corps, brought to the size of a mini-army with three infantry and two armored divisions, made the main effort. After an incredible air bombardment that included most of Eighth Air Force’s heavy bombers, American infantry moved forward. Bombing 2 · The Battle for Western Europe, Fall 1944 and shelling had disintegrated Panzer Lehr. In some sectors Americans advanced against little opposition except wreckage and bomb craters. In others Germans shuffled into the breach put up fierce resistance. Initial infantry advances were slow as GIs picked their way between broken limbs, deafened and dumbfounded German survivors, and bomb craters. Would this be another of a string of failed attempts to break free of seemingly unmovable German defenses that had hemmed in the Allies for the last seven weeks? Constant Allied grinding had worn the Germans down. Earlier attacks (such as Goodwood) ordered by British General Bernard Montgomery, overall land commander, and executed by Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey’s British Second Army, while unsuccessful at creating a breakout, had pulled most German armored reserves over to the British sector. German defenses before VII Corps lacked depth. Although a clear breakout had not occurred by early morning of the second day, Collins smelled German defenses melting. Without hesitation, he gambled and committed his exploitation force, 2nd Armored Division (2AD) and 1st Infantry Division (1ID) specially motorized for this role, to push through. The initial Cobra plan envisioned a penetration of German lines, then a left hook to cut off Germans opposing the rest of First Army. The exploitation force was to consolidate on a line between Coutances and Caumont, well inside of Normandy.3 This would have created a sack less than 25 kilometers Map 1.1. Normandy Breakout 0 20 40 80 mi FIFTH PZ ARMY PZ GP EBERBACH LXXXI CORPS FIRST ARMY SEVENTH ARMY FIFTH PZ ARMY PZ GP EBERBACH LXXXI CORPS FIRST ARMY SEVENTH ARMY Seine T o u q u e s D i v e s O r n e V i r e S a r t h e M a y e n n e Loire Seine T o u q u e s D i v e s O r n e S a r t h e M a y e n n e Loire Dreux Evreux Vimoutiers Lisieux Sées Coutances Alançon Garrouges Moyenne Domfront Caen Laval Le Mans Châteaudun Vitre Rennes Fougères Mortain To Angers Chartres Orléans Paris Falaise Trun Chambois Argentan Flers Tinchebray Vire N V I I V I I V X V V I I I VIII XV XX X X X I X VIII V Allied front, Jul 24 Allied front, Jul 31 Allied front,Aug 16 U.S. advance (XV Corps) Dreux Evreux Rouen Rouen Vimoutiers Lisieux Sées Coutances St. Lo Alan...