World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseOperation Cobra
25-30 Jul

ww2dbaseBy Jul, it was apparent that despite a generally successful campaign in Normandy thus far, Allied progress had been excruciatingly slow. By mid-Jul the front lines were what the Allied high command planned to be five days after a successful landing. The first attempt at a breakout, Operation Goodwood, was a failure; the predominantly British attempt utilized a large armor formation to, unsuccessfully, create a gap. On 25 Jul Omar Bradley launched Operation Cobra, using VII Corps' infantry divisions to create and hold a gap in the German lines while sending three divisions of men through the gap, bring the war beyond the hedgerow country that had frustrated the Allied troops so much. Preceding this massive breakout operation was an even larger air bombardment. American artillery officer Donald Bennett recalled the morning of 25 Jul when the bombing by 1,500 aircraft started:

ww2dbaseA total of 600 tons of bombs was released. The earlier waves of bombs were dropped on top of Germans as planned, but as the smoke and fire blurred boundaries, bombardiers of the final few waves had a tough time figuring out where the Germans were. As a result, some of the bombs landed on top of American units. US Army Lieutenant Charles Scheffel and his unit was among those bracketed by friendly fire.

ww2dbase150 Americans were killed by accident by these bombs. The highest ranking fatality of this massive friendly fire incident was a three-star general of the US Army, "blown out of his slit trench some two miles behind where I had been hole up", recalled Scheffel.

ww2dbaseImmediately after the bombings, the American 4th, 9th, and 30th Infantry Divisions charged into German lines even as smaller bombers and fighters continued to attack German positions further beyond the line. "[T]he few Germans who were encountered were out of their heads with shock", recalled Bennett as his M-7 artillery pieces went in. Indeed, the elite Panzer Lehr Division lost much effectiveness with some of their tanks overturned and two thirds of personnel becoming casualties of the bombing. The advancing infantry divisions gained 12,000 yards on 25 and 26 Jul, supplying the mobile breakthrough to occur on 27 Jul. The American 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Armored Divisions, supported by the 1st Infantry Division, charged through the gap created. The German forces, already ill-equipped due to the Allied air superiority and now struck in daze by the bombardment, fell back 12 miles by the end of 28 Jul. The German troops were now on a general retreat in attempt to regroup. The defeat of the German forces during Operation Cobra cost Germany over 400,000 men and 1,500 tanks and self-propelled guns, while key positions such as Avranches and openings to Brittany were now in Allied hands.

ww2dbaseOperation Lüttich
7 Aug

ww2dbaseOn 7 Aug 1944, Operation Lüttich was launched by German forces, a counterattack with the goal to halt the Allied momentum. While achieving some surprise, Field Marshal von Kluge was not able to break the Allied defense. The southern approaches to Mortain, the German objective, were breached, however at a heavy cost of fourteen tanks. Allied air superiority played an important role in stopping this German counterattack, with American medium bombers bombing German movements and British Typhoon fighters attacking targets on the ground with rockets. "We could do nothing against them", said General von Luttwitz, reporting his frustration in his inability to counter the Allied air raids. Within the day, the German counterattack was foiled. George Patton's troops reclaimed the town of Mortain by the evening.

ww2dbaseBattle of the Falaise Pocket
7-22 Aug

ww2dbaseWith the German counterattack failed and generally on the retreat, Bradley and Bernard Montgomery planned to encircle the region and capture or destroy the broken German units.

ww2dbaseIn the south, General Leclerc's French Second Armored Division took Le Mans on 9 Aug, covering the American XV Corps' move northward the next day. On 12 Aug Alençon was under Allied control, Ecouché the next day, and Argentan on 14 Aug. The Americans were then ordered to halt for a day so to prevent further confusion from the rapid advance. Dwight Eisenhower, who ordered the halt, was criticized for that it allowed thousands of Germans to escape through the incomplete envelopment. Eisenhower insisted that a complete though momentary halt was required in order to prevent mix-ups.

ww2dbaseFrom the north, Canadians and Poles of General Maczek's First Armored Division moved southward against Falaise on 9 Aug under the code name Operation Totalize. They faced heavy resistance from the Germans despite that the earlier German attack at Mortain called for these units' armor. The Germans held on to Falaise (and allowed thousands of Germans to escape back into Germany) until 17 Aug. The Fourth Canadian Armored Division then captured Trun and Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives on 18 and 19 Aug, respectively.

ww2dbaseThe northern and southern forces completely fortified the newly formed pocket on 19 Aug, after they had met up near Chambois. The German forces caught inside the pocket fought fiercely in attempt to break the newly formed Allied lines to the east. On 18 Aug, a German attack at Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives killed 200 Canadian troops at a cost of 3,000 Germans, while on 20 Aug an assault near Mont-Ormel by the II SS Panzer Corps attacked from the east, killing 325 Poles at a high cost of 2,000 men lost. The 150,000 German troops within the Falaise Pocket finally surrendered on 21 Aug 1944. An estimated 100,000 German troops succeeded in escaping back to Germany before the pocket was completed. Among the Allies, the Canadian elements suffered heaviest casualty with 18,000 killed or wounded.

ww2dbaseBefore the Allies closed the pocket, the death and destruction dealt against the German Army was horrifying even though a number of Panzer divisions were able to escape from the envelopment. "The battlefield at Falaise was unquestionably one of the greatest 'killing fields' of any of the war areas", Eisenhower noted in his memoirs. "Forty-eight hours after the closing of the gap I was conducted through it on foot, to encounter scenes that could be described only by Dante. It was literally possible to walk for hundreds of yards at a time, stepping on nothing but dead and decaying flesh." Robert Rogge, who fought with the Canadian Army in Falaise, recalled the destruction:

ww2dbaseEight infantry divisions and two Panzer divisions were captured as German resistance in the pocket died down. The nightmarish narrow escape route was later named the "Corridor of Death" by the Germans who survived it.

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