D-Day +28

A swampy approach

As day broke on July 4th 1944, the American armies jumped off on their continued inch-by-inch battle of the hedgerows. The 331st Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division were positioned just South of the small village of Meautis. 

German artillery was stationed behind these trees.

The German 6th paratroop regiment under von der Heydte were waiting for them.

Preceded by a preliminary artillery barrage, and accompanied by a couple of medium tanks, the Americans headed into the swampy ground toward the

farmhouse of Les Ormeaux.

There is a good, first hand description of the battle for Les Ormeaux farm and how it repeatedly changed hands at this site.

On the 331st's left flank, the 330th Regiment would launch their attack down the main Carentan-Perriers road to try to seize the small town of Santeny, located just 9kms south of Carentan. This town was held by the 17th SS panzer grenadiers, aided by panther tanks from the dreaded 2nd SS ‘Das Reich’.

The pharmacy is now a salon.

By evening, the attack on Sainteny had stalled on the outskirts of the village, but a pfc, Tony Vaccaro, a keen photographer, wanted to develop his film. He made his way into the town, which was still under fire, and found a pharmacy. With the butt of his rifle, he broke the window. He climbed in and found the chemicals he needed.

On arriving back at his foxhole, Tony borrowed some helmets from his buddies and set to work developing his film, which he hung on the branch of a tree. “It was a dark night with no moon,” recalled Vaccaro, "and we were still trading artillery with the enemy, but I managed to develop my photographs.”

SS Relics From Sainteny Fighting

The attacks and counterattacks on Sainteny would continue until July 10th, when with the help of the 4th Infantry Division, the town fell to the Americans.






Further West, the 90th Infantry Division were on the outskirts of the village of St Jore. They had been bloodied all the way after crossing the Merderet River and they were about to experience their most ferocious combat to date, the battle for Mont Castre, known as Hill 122, which rises 300 feet above sea level. The Germans who held this hill maintained an unrivaled vantage point, which had to be taken by advancing American forces. Yet again the weary paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne would have to come to the rescue.

German view from the hill of the road leading to Periers (National Archives photo)

Overall, the whole advance was starting to stall. The enemy were still in a position to maneuver despite Allied air supremacy. They had a relatively intact communications system and their supplies were still getting through. The weather had been atrocious with a deluge of rain, which made areas of already marshy ground often impassable. The Germans had also demonstrated their willingness to defend positions regardless of cost.

US National Archives

Poor visibility had hampered Allied aerial patrols. In addition, numerous American tanks were being lost to German attack as they ‘bellied up’ over the hedgerows, presenting their lightly armored underside to enemy panzergrenadiers.


The pressure was mounting on General Bradley to do something bold and decisive, fast!

D-Day + 21

By D-Day + 21, U.S forces were still pinned down in the dreaded bocage with their backs to the sea. Following the destruction of the Mulberry harbors mentioned in the last Notebook post, General Omar Bradley had committed a substantial force to the taking of Cherbourg, the only deep water port on the Cotentin peninsula.

Prior to the advance on Cherbourg, it was necessary to cut the peninsula in two, thus trapping the remnants of the German 77th and 91st Divisions. This job was successfully completed by General Manton Eddy's 9th Division, moving West across Normandy, with no small effort from the weary troopers of the 82nd Airborne. Eddy then turned his forces toward Cherbourg.

The 4th and 79th Divisions, under the overall command of General 'Lightning Joe' Collins (architect of the Cherbourg attack), had fought their way up through perilous hedgerow country and were poised to attack from the Eastern coastline.

Reprint of 1947 Michelin Map (insert)

By June 27th, the three Divisions had linked up

and prized the town from the hands of the stubborn German defenders.

Fort du Roule

View from Fort du Roule over Cherbourg

Commander of the German forces in Cherbourg was General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben. He had ringed the town with formidable defenses, so the casualty rate had been high among US forces.

The town of Cherbourg is overlooked by a 19th century fort, Fort du Roule, a tremendous vantage point, which the Germans had turned into a subterranean defensive fortress, towering over the town below.

Anything that moved in a 360 degree radius around the fort was targeted by withering machine gun and artillery fire.

Two medals of honor were awarded during the U.S. action to take this impregnable enemy strongpoint, one to Corporal John Kelly and the other to Lieutenant Carlos Ogden, both of the 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Division.

Hamburg - east of Cherbourg, National Archives photo

The U.S. Navy played a major role in the capture of Cherbourg. The Germans had placed two massive coastal artillery batteries on the outskirts of the town, one at Querqueville and the other, 'Battery Hamburg,' at Cape Levy, both of which could have turned their guns on the forces advancing into the city.

Using a high risk strategy, Bradley ordered Admiral Kirk to bring his destroyers close in shore and take on these two positions. Kirk gave the job to Admiral Deyo and an array of destroyers and cruisers, including the USS Texas and Arkansas, set about dueling with with the German gun crews. The gun crews' range, at 40,000 yards, was twice that of the Americans. After about five hours, the Navy was running out of evasive maneuvers, and their smoke camouflage had cleared. They became sitting ducks and began to take casualties, finally breaking off the engagement and heading out to sea.

Author and Historian, John C. McManus Ph.D, wrote in his remarkable book, The Americans at Normandy

On the heights that overlooked Cherbourg, General Collins stood, watching the whole spectacle. “It was thrilling and….an awe-inspiring sight. I knew definitely that Cherbourg was ours.” The naval fire had not actually knocked out many of the German guns, but it had kept the crews busy, diverting them from dealing with the greatest threat-the enemy behind them. Collins was so grateful for the Navy’s courageous support that he wrote to Admiral Deyo and told him that the bombardment “did much to engage the enemy’s fire while our troops stormed into Cherbourg from the rear."

By the 27th, D-Day + 21, twenty thousand Germans surrendered and the Americans had their deep water port, but Bradley's high risk strategy, which had cost so many lives, did not give him the means of unloading the much needed supplies.

German prisoners, National Archives photo

The Germans had completely destroyed the port and all of the unloading facilities. It would be three months before any cargo would cross it’s wharves, by which time the British had taken Antwerp.

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!


Click here for additional posts on the Battle of Normandy.

Ellwood's Notebook D-Day+7

After D-Day, the Germans were starting to re-group. They rushed elite divisions into the battle. In the 101st Airborne sector around Carentan, the  6th Regiment under von der Heydte, who had forced the American paratroopers to fight for every inch of ground, were reinforced by the 17th SS.

Troopers of the 101st Airborne liberate Carentan

In the night of the 12^th and the early hours of the 13^th of June 1944, this combined force tried to re-take Carentan, which was strategically important to both sides. The U.S. forces needed the town as a link up point between forces which had landed on Utah and Omaha beaches, and the Germans desperately needed to drive a wedge between the landing beaches. They attacked at the battle of ‘Bloody Gulch,’ one mile southwest of Carentan. The troopers of the 101st Abn. came under a sustained and vicious attack by an enemy force with mobile assault guns. At a critical point in the battle, just as the German force showed signs of breaking through the American lines, sixty tanks from the 2nd Armored Division supported by infantry of 29th Inf. Div, arrived on the scene and beat off the German attack. The battle was decisive, and from that moment on U.S forces had secured a lodgement area from which they could launch future operations.

This action was immortalized in the HBO series 'Band of Brothers.'

Germans attack towards Carentan, June 13th 1944

Operation Market Garden - Day 4

Day 4

On day 4 of 'Operation Market Garden,' the 101st airborne continued to repulse the German probing attacks up and down their narrow corridor of 'Hell's Highway,' but the real action was taking place in Nijmegen and Arnhem. The British paratroopers were still grimly holding on, but they were massively outgunned and outnumbered and they had taken catastrophic casualties. The relief columns still pinned down in Nijmegen were already 30 hours behind schedule. There was no sign of a breakthrough. A bold plan was required to take the all important bridge.

Gavin meeting British generals

82nd Airborne General, James M. Gavin and a group of British generals met on the south side of the Waal river. They discussed how a simultaneous assault on both ends of the bridge might break the German's grip. Captain T.Moffatt Burris, of I company 504, was present at the meeting. 

 Captain T.Moffatt Burriss explains

Original crossing boat (courtesy Groesbeek museum)

The boats chosen for the crossing were narrow, flimsy, canvas and collapsible.

Original crossing site, Waal River

As the troopers drifted out into the middle of the fast flowing river,  they paddled with their rifle butts as the Germans opened up with everything they had. Many of the little boats were blown clean out of the water. Casualties on the crossing alone amounted to over 50%. After the survivors reached a small sandy area on the far bank, now named 'Little Omaha,'  they had to make a 500 yard dash in the face of withering machine gun and mortar fire.

Open ground on far bank of Waal River.

 While the 504 were making the river crossing, elements of the 505 and 508, with British tanks in support, were attacking from the Southern end. After killing or capturing the German defenders on the far bank, the troopers of the 504 began their fight to the Northern end of the bridge. It was a house to house battle, which took several hours. Finally they fought up the steps of the bridge and overpowered the defenders while continuing to take fire from snipers up in the superstructure.

Steps to Northern end of Nijmegen Bridge.

The actions of the other regiments of the 82nd Airborne at the Southern end had also succeeded and British tanks started to make their dash across.

Heinz Harmel (courtesy Bundesarchiv)

SS Brigadefuhrer, Heinz Harmel, watched as the first tanks started to cross. He wanted to wait until they reached the center before giving the order to detonate. He gave the command and nothing happened! He realized the wires had been cut!

Captain Moffatt Burriss met up with the first tanks across. 

The British stopped for the night, but in the morning when they moved off the Germans had re-grouped and re-supplied. There would be no relief for the British paratroopers at Arnhem. Of the 10,000 British at Arnhem, only 2,000 escaped death or captivity.

Though all American objectives had been achieved, 'Operation Market Garden' had failed. The war would not end by Christmas 1944 and northern Holland would not see liberation until the Spring of 1945.

The Americans on Hell's Highway is the 2nd part of 'The American Road to Victory' trilogy, which has been broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. It is available on DVD priced $ 23.95 or $69.95 for the entire WWII trilogy.

Operation Market Garden - Day 3

Day 3

  

At 06:00 am, U.S paratroopers and British engineers, having worked all through the night, finally waved the British tanks across the bridge at Son. By 07:15 am, the British tanks had reached the midway point of the Highway at Veghel, where some peeled of to support the 501st. At 08:30, the forward British elements were at the Grave Bridge South of Nijmegen, which was still firmly held by the troopers of 504th, 82nd Airborne.

Nijmegen Bridge

The tanks reached Nijmegen soon after and paratroopers and armor battled towards the bridge.

Jan van Hoof

There was hellish street fighting and there paratroopers sustained many casualties.  The SS held a firm grip on the bridge. They had a fine vantage point and could direct accurate fire on the approaching Americans. The Germans had wired the bridge with explosives as a last ditch attempt to stop the advancing Allies. Late in the night on Day 3, a young Dutch patriot, Jan Van Hoof , is reputed to have climbed under the bridge in the dead of night and cut the detonating wires. Jan was caught and executed by the Germans on the morning of the 20th as he lay wounded after a British scout car that he had been traveling on was hit by a German grenade.


The Americans on Hell's Highway  is the 2nd part of 'The American Road to Victory' trilogy, which has been broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. It is available on DVD priced $23.95 or $69.95 for the trilogy.