Ellwood's Notebook D-Day+14

Following D-Day, American forces became locked in a war of attrition with the desperate Germans, who, after being dazed by the initial Allied invasion, were becoming more organized every day.

Bocage is extraordinarily thick, and difficult to penetrate.

Bocage patchwork from the air. Notice how
lanes between rows are not visible.

Apart from the ferocious opposition, GIs were bogged down in the Normandy hedgerow country, which is known locally as ‘The Bocage.’ These high medieval hedges, bordering sunken lanes, were a defender’s delight and a death trap for the attacking forces.

Sunken lane between hedge row

Within the bocage, Germans were able to conceal their deadly MG42 machine gun nests in positions of interlocking fire, which covered the patchwork of meadows between the hedgerows.

Germans with hidden 88

Allied Armor struggled to penetrate these fortifications and fell prey to attack from panzerfausts and the deadly 88mm German artillery pieces.

Dead livestock and the bodies of fallen soldiers from both sides littered the fields, and conditions became miserable.

All Allied hopes of a swift cross country dash were evaporating as the Germans made the liberators pay for every inch of ground.

Ellwood discusses the notorious German 88mm artillery piece

Between the 18th and the 21st of June, a massive storm raged in the English Channel. The storm destroyed the Mulberry harbors off Omaha Beach, which had been hastily assembled and not anchored correctly to the sea bed. These artificial harbors had enabled a steady but limited supply of ammunition and equipment to reach the hapless young GIs.

Mulberry harbor destruction

The rapid capture of a deep water port took on an added importance!


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