BREAKOUT from NORMANDY: General Patton's Operation Cobra

for a fateful period of time history waits waits on tensed men trapped in the mud soaked fields of Normandy until until they are able to break out of that agony of isolation and move toward their destiny changing history's course this is that story it is the story of United States and British and Canadian troops on the 1st of July 1944 were engaged in battle with German forces on the channel coast of France the cross-channel attack beginning on the 6th of June had accomplished the first phase of the invasion the second phase called for the Allies to expand their foothold they needed space to maneuver room to handle the large amounts of men and materiel streaming over from England before they undertook the decisive attack toward the heart of Germany they wanted this area but three weeks after the invasion they had only this tiny beachhead the British here and the Americans here the greatest single disappointment of the invasion had been the inability to take calm which blocked the approaches to the same but the British troops attempting to capture the city had been thwarted the best hope now lay and the ability of the American forces to strike south and then West and take the key ports in the province of Brittany a major impediment to this course of action was the terrain the troops would have to fight through marshy land enclosed into thousands of separate little fields by hedgerows behind every one of which it seemed that Germans were well entrenched and what of these Germans who faced the Allies in the soggy fields of normally they were disheartened certainly by the success of the Allied landings or over the German people were exhausted after five years of war and with the effort of fighting on five fronts but the troops themselves were far from beef they were skillful tough troops seasoned by experience their discipline was shocked their morale was high the Germans had a new weapon the deadly v1 a small pilotless jet aircraft which had begun to fall on England in the middle of June a supersonic v2 even more devastating than the v1 was almost ready for operational use these weapons if the Germans hope of regressing the discouraging situation adult Hitler was himself directing the war believing that eventually the Germans would be able to launch a large-scale offensive which would drive via lies from the continent he planned in the meantime to pin them down in Normandy and prevent them from using their mobile power although some of his commanders now recommended limited withdrawals to make their defensive positions stronger Hitler refused to withdraw for any reason at this time seemed to him to admit defeat so as American forces prepared to strike across the hedgerow lowland where the Germans had erected strong defenses Hitler announced that those defenses would to be held the American attack began in the dawn hours of July 3rd it lasted for 17 rain-soaked agonizing days the soggy hedge Road terrain immobilized the mechanized power of the ground forces slow painful advance was measured in your hedgerow at a time like the steady rain which fell over the entire operation a sense of despair and frustration touched although in practice the last - missile Denton is the battle force and low the Allies wanted Santa low for a number of reasons its prestige value the effect its capture would have on the Germans and as an access to roads leading sub after a week of bitter fighting they got because it was hard as was true in all the hedgerow fighting but the pound was secured and in the process a memorial was created an infantry battalion commander killed before the gates of the city was carried into San lo with the liberators his body was placed on a pile of rubble an impromptu shrine to the qualities of courage and sacrifice that had made the drive to San lo often the triumph belonged to the dead as well as to the living the results of this July offensive were disappointing the greatest game had been only seven miles the need was urgent for a way to break out of the containment of the Normandy situation to get on to flat dry land so that the Army's mobile force could be unleashed General Omar Bradley commander of the American troops had been forming a plan for some time Bradley's plan which was codenamed Cobra was to gather together an overwhelming concentration of ground troops twice as greater forces would normally be used on such a narrow front and combine it with a massive assault from the air by the army air force in war heavy bombers are used primarily for strategic purposes to knock out major long-range targets such as rail heads and manufacturing plants deep in enemy territory they use heavy bombers for tactical reasons that is to help the ground forces obtain an immediate objective was quite risky mainly because of two factors the heavy bombs dropped from the big planes created craters and debris which became serious obstacles to the ground troops and because our own forces would to move far back from the front to escape the damage of the Bombers the time interval between the air bombardment and the ground forces attack on the target was too long it gave the enemy time to recover and marshal his defenses Bradley thought that in this case he could eliminate many of these dangers if not all the risks no plan and war is foolproof but this one was bold and if it worked it would enable the allows to break the stalemate in which they'd become bogged down a Brittany was still the eventual goal the first step toward it would be the line between ku toss and come home between the end of the earlier July offensive and the launching of Cobra there was a lull for about one week for the weary American troops it was a welcome respite a time to relax on July 20th a dramatic event electrified the world and revealed that there was no relaxation inside the enemy can Hitler himself announced that a cabal of high-ranking army officers had tried to assassinate him with a bomb in order to seize political power the abortive coup had little effect on the military situation it revealed no widespread discontent with Nazi rule among the Armed Forces the combat soldier was too busy simply trying to remain alive and the information about the German situation which the Allies wanted as copra neared its jump off date was of a considerably more immediate nature did the enemy have enough reserves available to counter the attack was the Luftwaffe capable of intervene and finally with the Germans employed the v1 or v2 for some other secret weapon these were the questions that haunted the elide camp as it waited to unleash Cobra July 24th was the day scheduled for the attack because the day was heavily overcast however with inadequate visibility for air attack the operation was postponed unfortunately the postponement order reached the English air bases too late to hold back all the planes scheduled for the attack from the planes which did not receive the postponement order was not great enough to damage German position seriously but it was sufficient to alert them to the threat of a ground attack for general Bradley an immediate and urgent decision had to be made the prospects were improving for good weather the next day should Cobra be launched even in the face of the possibility that the Americans had now lost the important element of tactical surprise or should it be postponed at least for several days which might then give the Germans a chance to prepare even stronger defenses Bradley's decision Cobra would strike again at 11 o'clock the next day again on the morning of July 25th the planes came one observer called the seemingly endless waves of planes the most imposing aerial parade I've seen since the beginning of this long war oh they dropped more than 4,000 tons of destruction but the tactical effect was not immediately clear did the bomber attack destroy the efficiency of the German troops no one could there general J Lawton Collins seventh Corps commander who was to spearhead the attack had little time to ponder the question for better or for worse Cobra was launched the troops moved out at once their immediate objectives were the towns of Marini and Sanjeev capture of those towns by the infantry would give the Americans control of the roads leading south and Collins would then be able to catapult his mobile armored forces forward it seemed reasonable to assume that if the air bombardment had destroyed the German defenses the infantry troops would be able to reach and secure their objectives without great difficulty to their surprise they met strong resistance at the end of the first day of the attack Morini and sanjeev were still in enemy hands because the entire success of Cobra depended on a seventh chord breakthrough Holland's decided again it would prove to be one of the fateful decisions of the campaign he pondered the possibility and the risks and decided to put his armor into action the gamble paid off in mid-afternoon of the 26th one armored column having tracked the enemy's defenses around the town rolled through San Shi there was no longer any doubt the German line at definitely Finn penetrated the 7th Corps had achieved its racial drama of the breakthrough did not end at the coup Tosca more life the drama lay in the development of the breakthrough into a breakout of major proportions the decision to accomplish this was general friendly he had achieved the limited victory here so Cobra had been a success he could stop now but he sent from their disorganised reaction that a deep wound had been inflicted on the Germans the Americans pressed their attack through rapidly grumbling German defenses by the end of the month United States forces stood at the base of the peninsula at the gates of the problems of Britain and the nightmarish phase of the battle the war of stalemate was old copra and it's exploitation were among the most solid accomplishments of the war let's visit now with the man who more than any other was responsible for this achievement General Omar Bradley general Bradley as you look back on operation Cobra what seems to you to be the real secret of its success I think several factors were very important in contributing to our success first as always the aggressiveness and the fighting spirit of the American soldier second the marvelous teamwork displayed by the combat armies and our Air Force and third if ignitions alertness of my subordinate commanders and their ability to take advantage of the brakes in particularly general Collins bull move this book must be like well like traveling down an old and familiar path to you general Bradley well it is yes but it's more like traveling down the road in the daylight that at the time you had to take it in the dark it's generally familiar but it's always interesting to see the whole picture part of which was hidden before you think the book throws light then on this period of history most effectively it does an excellent job I think of cutting through the dust which that campaign kicked up and letting the readers see what happened and how it happened and why one of these days when the army historians get through with their project they'll have the the what and how and why of the entire war caught between these binders it's about as ambitious of tasks as any group of historians ever undertaken I suppose and quite a valuable one a much better job and has ever been done on any other war you'll be valuable in the sense that we learn from the past that most of all of course despite the fact that the weapons of war are changing the principles of war remain the same officer studying these volumes can learn much about commands and tactics strategy the tyranny of logistics the problems of terrain the importance of reconnaissance there are many lessons to be learned but it's not only the military man who will benefit from these books the war was a big thing in all our lives we've been reading about the revolution in the civil war for a long time to get a clearer picture of ourselves as a nation the Army is giving us the ability to do that now with the greatest war we ever fought in our history thank you very much general Bradley operation Cobra of course is only one action in the crowded and historic two months which break out in pursuit reviews much of the subsequent action was more colorful but Cobra was the key which unlocked the door to those spectacular victories the reaching of a branch signified the culmination of the breakthrough and the point at which our forces split for the Westwood and Eastwood drives and the brake off to the west there was the dash across Brittany where the fort's of semolo and press finally became crises of conflict to the east there was the repulse of the German counter-attack at more tent where the American infantryman withstood the onslaught of fourth German armored division turned back Hitler's attempt to host the alive mobile column the trap realized closed at our Jean Tom and phallus where they virtually destroyed two German Field on the bridey's to the same river lie max by the liberation of pattern and civilized world real were symphony of joy into life the flowers and kisses the song and the wine and finally the triumphant and dramatic pursuit of the retreating Germans beyond the send to the border of the enemy's homeland and de-seed preflop we're a new phase of the war await you

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Keywords: world war 2

Id: 34oR2D1GVU4

Length: 24min 35sec (1475 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2014