OVERLORD TACTICAL FULL

Photo: US National ArchivesĪllies must be ingenious to carry out their actions while being a minimum constrained by the terrain.

OVERLORD TACTICAL FULL

Crossroads or bridges are crossed at full speed and when the effect of surprise does not work, the Germans put a stop to the forces disembarked using best the hedges.Ī Sherman tank with the “Rhinoceros” cutter facilitating the crossing of hedges. The advance, voluntarily accelerated, will be the cause of many losses among the American troops often taken by snipers or German artillery positions. The goal of the Americans being to cut the Cotentin in two to prevent the Germans from supplying and strengthening Cherbourg and its famous deep-water port, the 5th corps of General Collins literally runs through the hedgerow to rally the west coast of The peninsula. Anglo-Canadian soldiers, however, have also encountered this type of vegetation, but less recurrently than for the Americans. This is what the geographers really call the Normandy bocage. To the west, on the other hand, the Cotentin is largely compartmentalized in small orchards or cultivated fields bordered with hedges (also note that at the time, the cultivation of maize does not have the importance that is given to him today in Normandy). It was the Americans who were mostly confronted with this type of fight, because in the Caen region (where Anglo-Canadians have made progress) the terrain is largely composed of vast plains, conducive to armored combat. The end of the war of the beaches gives way directly to the war of the hedges. On 26 June, British soldiers observe downtown Saint-Manvieu. Particularly well maintained, they have an economic role predominant in the region, which has largely disappeared these days. At the time of the Normandy landing, the hedges are on average five meters tall, a smaller height than today. The very nature of the hedges in 1944 is not the same as it is today, physiologically as well as utilitarian. What are the specificities of fighting in the Norman hedgerow? Revealing many tactical and technical lessons for the military still today, the battle of hedges deserves a precise study, which combines areas such as geography, tactics or weaponry.

Virtually two months of deadly and fierce fighting that put men to the test. The hedge warfare, also known as the “bocage”, began as early as the day after D-Day and ended at the end of August 1944, when the Allied troops ended up liberating most part of the present-day Basse-Normandie. After the battle of the beaches, what historians today commonly call the “hedge war” begins with reference to the particular nature of the terrain on which To evolve the belligerent forces. Normandy was the scene of furious fights several weeks after June 6, 1944. Hedgerow warfare during the Battle of Normandy

Overlord tactical