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upon its use and went to gather his crew. By the
time he had returned, the enemy had shot both
spires off the church.
St-U>, as the Americans found it, was a shell of
the former town, a place of gaunt walls and
sprawling heaps of crumbled masonry. The
twisted shapes of vehicles lay among piles of
rubble. It was as though the whole bitter Normandy
campaign had been summed up in this one
spot. What had not been bombed out by American
air attacks was blasted and rent by artillery,
and the destruction was not ended. The enemy
shells that came hurtling into St-U> during 18-19
Ju ly smashed tile ruins into further chaos and made
it a deadly place for Task Force C. Even German
planes made one of tlleir rare appearances on '9
July, five of them strafing and bombing over
tile CPo
On the same evening a party of six Germans, attempting
to escape thIOugh St-Lo by one of tile
bridges on the western edge of town, engaged in a
fire fight with seven Americans outposting that
area. Face to face and only a few feet apart, the
two groups shot it out in the street until four of the
Germans had been killed, one wounded, and the
remaining one captured, while three Americans
were killed and one wounded. Incidents like this
were the result of rapid advance which had cut off
a few German rear guards; the main battle line had
moved farther south.
ACTION IN ST-LO, along the same road seen in picture opposite.
Here, holes have been blown in walls which are still ;1ltact in
the ear/ier photograph (under the word "Restau-" on Ulall at left).
Bodies of American soldiers lie near the immobilized tank destroyer.
Shell cases fired by a TD litter the sidelvolk. The June suggests
that the TV tuas caught by enemy artillery (or antitank) fire coming
from the right, and that the second TD at the etld of thc street,
has taken position to fire. Company B, BOld T ank D estroyer Battalion,
lost its captain and two "0'/-10'$ in such fighting, /8-19 luly.