The ruins of Saint-Lô
“. . . officers who have received the best peacetime training available find themselves surprised and confused by the difference between conditions as pictured in map problems and those they encounter in the campaign. . . . In our schools we generally assume that the organizations are well-trained and at full strength, that subordinates are competent, that supply arrangements function, that communications work, that orders are carried out. In war many or all of these conditions may be absent. The veteran knows that this is normal and his mental processes are not paralyzed by it. . . .”
Gen. George C. Marshall,
Infantry in Battle, 1934
mortar and artillery fire. In the north, the 35th Division is fought to a virtual standstill by a sophisticated series of German defenses, and makes a breakthrough only after several days of fighting, by using tank destroyers to blast the fortified hedgerow positions. West of Saint-Lô, the 30th Division has its hands full with brutal counterattacks from Panzer Lehr—an elite armored unit—and the Third Parachute Division.
Over the next few days, the Americans begin to make steady progress against the entrenched German defenders. Supplies begin to reach the embattled U.S. divisions from the newly cleared port of Cherbourg, while the Seventh Army is experiencing acute resupply and reinforcement problems. Two battalions of the 29th make isolated advances on the key town of la Madeleine, near the Martinville Ridge, and when German troops fail to destroy them after cutting them off, other elements of the 29th make a renewed push, supported by artillery and air strikes. By July 17, the 29th has reached
the eastern outskirts of Saint-Lô. The 35th keeps the pressure on the depleted German 352nd, which is gradually giving ground. When a Panzer Lehr counterattack on the advancing 30th Division fails on July 17, the deteriorating situation in the west finally makes the Germans think about withdrawing from the vicinity of Saint-Lô. Fearful of being trapped against the river Vire by the American forces, whose artillery has destroyed many of the river bridges, the bulk of the German defenders pull back to an area south of Saint-Lô, leaving a few pockets of determined resistance in and near the town itself.
On the morning of July 18, a task force of the 29th Division is assembled under Brigadier-General Norman Cota to move into Saint-Lô, which is in ruins after an intense U.S. aerial bombardment. Despite resistance by the Second Paratroop Corps, no reserves remain to support the defending Germans, and the U.S. task force quickly enters the town. The Americans capture a square near the town cemetery that has survived the bombing, then fan out on foot through streets too choked with rubble to allow much vehicle traffic. German artillery positions south of Saint-Lô shell the task force with artillery and mortar fire as it moves through the rubble, but the rapid advance of the U.S. task force has caught the Germans off guard. By 1900 hours on July 18, after a series of hot skirmishes and house-to-house fighting, U.S. troops have secured Saint-Lô. Shelling from the German defensive positions south of the town will continue for several more days, and the Germans even organize a counterattack on June 19, which U.S. troops break up.
