Brittany 1944 by Steven J. Zaloga & Darren Tan

Author:Steven J. Zaloga & Darren Tan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472827388
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-12-20T05:00:00+00:00

An M1 “Black Dragon” 240mm howitzer of the 269th Field Artillery Battalion fires on Cézembre on September 2, 1944 shortly before the garrison’s surrender.

THE AVRANCHES COUNTER-ATTACK FAILS

After the weak counter-attack to re-capture the Pontaubault Bridge near Avranches had failed, the OB West commander, Gunter von Kluge, began to take steps to prepare a much larger counter-offensive. Hitler saw this an opportunity to counter the success of the Operation Cobra breakthrough in Normandy with the secondary benefit of cutting off Patton’s Third US Army. This grandiose plan was codenamed Lüttich (Liege). The attack force consisted of the several Panzer divisions that had been resisting the British attacks south of Caen. They were pulled out of the line and replaced by infantry divisions in the first week of August. The objective was to push across the front of the First US Army to reach Avranches. The Panzer counter-offensive started around midnight on August 6–7 and first made contact with elements of the 30th Infantry Division around the town of Mortain. The Ultra signals intelligence system had learned of the plans hours before the attack, and the 30th Infantry Division was ordered to hunker down for an attack. The German units made only modest gains against the entrenched infantry, and clear skies that day permitted a massive wave of Allied fighter bomber attacks that paralyzed the German advance.

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