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INSIGNIA OF DIVISIONS TAKING PART IN BATTLE OF ST-LO 30th Division 35th Division 29th Division uJ Division 3d Armored Division 124
CONCLUSION A GENERAL OFFICER WRITES as follows of the fighting in July: I doubt if anyone who ever ducked bullets and shells in the hedgerows, waded through the mud on foot, and scrambled over the hedgerows never knowing when he might find himself looking into the muzzle of a German tank gun, will look back on those days with any remembered feeling other th3n of the deadly unrelenting fat igue and danger. Except when the Germans counterattacked, there was so little result to show for so much sufferin g; just a few hedgerows gained, each one just like those already behind and those still to take. There had been nothing glamorous about First Army's painful battle through the hedgerows. With use of air power limited by weather, and the effectiveness of tanks reduced by the terrain, the fighting came down to a matter of tl,e artillery bludgeoning and the infantry pushing through an endless series of defended fields and orchards. In this close country, with so much cover and concealment, there was endless opportunity for superior forces to be tied down by a handful of resolute enemy snipers. In modern warfare, with modern weapons, battles are fought ordinarily at such ranges that opposing forces may seldom see each otller. Here, in Normandy, bitter actions were often fought by units only 50 to 100 yards apart, with tanks and self-propelled guns in the front lines. But, even so, the American and German troops might not see each other in tl,e course of a day's fight--except for the bodies left behind in a withdrawal. Whole squads, as well as individual snipers, could hide in the leafy embankments, and there was opportunity for use of daring tactics, such as might have been used in Indian fighting, by patrols and scouts on either side. A soldier story-not authenticated, but wholly plausiblerelates the experience of an officer who joined a unit up front as replacement, in the course of the battle. After inspection of the outpost line, he came back to the company CP to complain that there was no contact with the enemy; the Germans must have retired. A guttural voice, using cultured English accents, immediately spoke from the hedgerow above the CP dugout: "Evidently the Herr Lieutenant is a recent arrival. lI For most of the American soldiers, it had been a thankless, miserable, disheartening battle. It was, perhaps, particu larly hard on fresh divisions, coming into their first action with the zest and high morale born of long training and of confidence in their unit. Many units were--{)r felt they were-wrecked by the losses that hit them in the course of a 'few days' fighting, wiping out key men, sometimes nearly all company officers in a battalion, or sergeants in a company. The close ties within a unit, built up by long association, were broken irreparably; new officers and new men had to be assimilated in the midst of battle, sometimes on a wholesale scale. Yet the shock was met and surmounted; units that lost 30 percent of strength or more in a week, were kept in line and went on fighting. The losses taken by XIX Corps units in the advance to St-L{, were representative of those suffered by all First Army divisions engaged in the
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ST-LO (7 July -19 July 1944) Americ
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WAR DEPARTMENT Historical Division
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THE JULY OFFENSIVE ST-LO, capital o
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eluded the Viro River and aimed at
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Near! y 15 miles wide at the start,
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XIX CORPS ATTACKS WEST OF THE VIRE
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units and to close quickly with the
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ASSAULT CROSSING SITE on the Vire R
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ing into Normandy in mid-June, the
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12th Paracl!t/te Regime1lt. Germall
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off, the 1St Battalion following at
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3 0
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while the 3d Battalion was hit by a
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of the 3d Battalion were ambushed a
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1(1 Oeser! MAPNO.8 @JORCn •
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yond the Mont-Castre hills, one of
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FIXING DHIOLITIONS to blow a gap th
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corners, and spray the lateral hedg
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attack with two battalions in colum
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The 2d Platoon of Company A attempt
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Army to give it the 14/h Parachute
Page 85: Atter hard fighting, the 2d Battali
Page 89 and 90: On 13 July the claim was made that
Page 91 and 92: 35TH DIVISION, 12-14 JULY "'" MAP N
Page 93: pressed, they could retire easily t
Page 97: from the high ground across both st
Page 100 and 101: geant. In the 120th, the strength o
Page 102: supply problem. But the main ports
Page 107: mingled, and artillery fire was har
Page 110: to enemy movement or maneuver, Gene
Page 115: the battalion that night and return
Page 118 and 119: penetration. General Gerhardt did n
Page 120: manding the 3d Battalion, was given
Page 123 and 124: the regiment was finally ordered to
Page 126 and 127: further was launched. The attack wa
Page 128 and 129: have the honor to announce to the C
Page 130: The I13th Cavalry Group, in corps r
Page 133: clinging to the idea of mailltamtll
Page 137 and 138: of them could be withdrawn from the
Page 140 and 141: ., Hay.-du.PuifS L8$$01 I X FIRST X
Page 142: -1 ....... --- Gr(lll/".$ (11'1' 38
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