Busting the Bocage


Book Description




Battle for the Bocage: Normandy 1944


Book Description

This WWII military study examines the combat experiences of three Allied divisions charged with spearheading the invasion of Normandy. To lead the charge into France after the Normandy landings, General Montgomery brought three veteran desert formations back from the Mediterranean. They were the 50th Infantry and 7th Armored divisions, plus 4th Armored Brigade. Their task beyond the beaches was to push south to Villers Bocage with armor on the evening of D-Day in order to disrupt German counter-attacks on the beachhead. Difficulties on 50th Division’s beaches allowed time for German reinforcements to arrive in Normandy. As a result, 4th Armored Brigade was firmly blocked just south of Point 103 after an advance of less than five miles. A major counter-attack by Panzer Lehr failed, as did a renewed British attempt, this time by the vaunted 7th Armored Division, which was halted at Tilly sur Seulles. From here the fighting became a progressively attritional struggle in the hedgerows of the Bocage country south of Bayeux. More units were drawn into the fighting, which steadily extended west. Finally, an opportunity to outflank the German defenses via the Caumont Gap allowed 7th Armored Division to reach Villers Bocage. There then followed what the battalions of 50th Division describe as their ‘most unpleasant period of the war’, in bitter fighting, at often very close quarters, for the ‘next hedgerow’.




Villers-Bocage


Book Description

In this new publication Henri Marie returns to the subject of Villers Bocage with new insights and documentation. A complementary study by a Panzer specialist [Wolfgang Schneider] makes it possible to verify Michael Wittman's real motives in contrast to what German propaganda claimed. This is a controversial yet definitive work on the famous battle between 7th Armoured Division and the s.SS-Pz. Abt. 101, integrating photos from the time with those taken today.




Fighting in Normandy


Book Description

Collected in-depth accounts from Nazi commanders chronicling their efforts to fight back against the Allied invasion at Normandy during World War II. The Allied landings on the Normandy beaches in June 1944 were brilliantly executed but proved to be just the opening phase of a desperately fought battle. The German Army responded to the invasion with as much ferocity and force as it could muster, and turned the struggle into a brutal and prolonged campaign. These in-depth reports by German commanders given the task of turning the tables on the invaders is crucial to a full understanding of the battle for Normandy. The accounts David Isby has selected, all written soon after the war’s close for American military intelligence, cover German attempts to stem the invasion, dramatic defensive battles in the Norman countryside and attempts to implement a series of counterattacks. This vital source material presents the German perspective on the fighting, from regimental to corps level, and graphically illustrates the wealth of problems faced by an army on the very brink of destruction.




The Battle of the Hedgerows


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Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings, was an unqualified success and in the days after the allied invasion of northern France, tens of thousands of troops were landed inland. General Omar Bradley's First Army has superior mobility, plus lavish quantities of stream-crossing and bridging equipment. However, as they headed inland, the Americans had to cope with terrain that largely negated their mobile superiority - the Bocage. The Battle of the Hedgerows is an account of the US First Army over seven gruelling weeks in June and July 1944. The book makes it clear that, although German defenders were outnumbered and out gunned, they had a crucial advantage: hedges. The Bocage is divided in a multitude of earthen-walled enclosures, all of which are surrounded by high, dense hedgerows. All but the most important roads are sunken lanes, with foliage arching over them. Each field and hedgerow was turned into a defensive position by the Germans, and their 88s, machine guns and mortars took a heavy toll of US troops in the fighting. In addition, many of the US soldiers and their commanders were inexperienced, Having never seen combat.Their opponents, on the other hand, the troops of II Parachute Corps, though deficient in air and artillery support, were seasoned veterans, especially the all important NCOs. As the book shows, the fighting consisted of thousands of field-by-field infantry battles that were sometimes disturbingly reminiscent of the western front in World War 1. The Bocage was a soldier's battle in every sense, as US troops embarked on a bloody learning curve to master the skills of close combat riflemen and nearly 150% casualties among its officers during the Period Although it is often perceived that there was an inevitability about the allied victory once D-Day proved successful, the reality of the Normandy campaign - as revealed through the pages of The Battle of the Hedgerows - shows that the ultimate Allied victory was wrought only after stern German defence. As such the book will be of interest to all military historians and those fascinated by the course of World War 2.




Fighting the People's War


Book Description

Jonathan Fennell captures for the first time the true wartime experience of the ordinary soldiers from across the empire who made up the British and Commonwealth armies. He analyses why the great battles were won and lost and how the men that fought went on to change the world.




British Armour in the Normandy Campaign


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The popular perception of the performance of British armour in the Normandy campaign of 1944 is one of failure and frustration. Despite overwhelming superiority in numbers, Montgomery's repeated efforts to employ his armour in an offensive manner ended in a disappointing stalemate.




Normandy Crucible


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A military intelligence expert examines the most formative battle of World War II. The Battle of Normandy was the greatest offensive campaign the world had ever seen. Millions of soldiers battling for control of Europe were thrust onto the front lines of a massive war unlike any experienced in history. But the greatest of clashes would prove to be the crucible in which the outcome of World War II would be decided. Author John Prados tells the story of how and why the tactics and battle plans of Normandy proved so formative, and reconstructs the climactic Allied Normandy breakout from both sides of the battle lines.




Normandy


Book Description

Normandy depicts the planning and execution of Operation Overlord in 96 full-color pages. The initial paratrooper assault is shown, as well as the storming of the five D-Day beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. But the story does not end there. Once the Allies got ashore, they had to stay ashore. The Germans made every effort to push them back into the sea. This book depicts the such key events in the Allied liberation of Europe as: 1. Construction of the Mulberry Harbors, two giant artificial harbors built in England and floated across the English Channel so that troops, vehicles, and supplies could be offloaded across the invasion beaches.2. The Capture of Cherbourg, the nearest French port, against a labyrinth of Gennan pillboxes.3. The American fight through the heavy bocage (hedgerow country) to take the vital town of Saint-Lô.4. The British-Canadian struggle for the city of Caen against the “Hitler Youth Division,” made up of 23,000 seventeen- and eighteen-year-old Nazi fanatics.5. The breakout of General Patton’s Third Army and the desperate US 30th Division’s defense of Mortaine.6. The Falaise Pocket, known as the “Killing Ground, ” where the remnants of two German armies were trapped and bombed and shelled into submission. The slaughter was so great that 5,000 Germans were buried in one mass grave. 7. The Liberation of Paris, led by the 2nd Free French Armored Division, which had been fighting for four long years with this goal in mind.




Normandy '44


Book Description

'A superb account of the invasion that deserves immense praise. To convey the human drama of Normandy requires great knowledge and sensitivity. Holland has both in spades' The Times Renowned World War Two historian James Holland presents an entirely new perspective on one of the most important moments in recent history, unflinchingly examining the brutality and violence that characterised the campaign. ______________ D-Day and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed have come to be seen as a defining episode in the Second World War. Its story has been endlessly retold, and yet it remains a narrative burdened by both myth and assumed knowledge. In this reexamined history, James Holland presents a broader overview, one that challenges much of what we think we know about D-Day and the Normandy campaign. The sheer size and scale of the Allies' war machine ultimately dominates the strategic, operational and tactical limitations of the German forces. This was a brutal campaign. In terms of daily casualties, the numbers were worse than for any one battle during the First World War. 'A devastating new account..Holland knows his stuff when it comes to military matters. The reader is in safe hands navigating each aspect of this complex campaign' Daily Mail, Book of the Week _________________ Drawing on unseen archives and testimonies from around the world Introducing a cast of eye-witnesses that includes foot soldiers, tank men, fighter pilots and bomber crews, sailors, civilians, resistance fighters and those directing the action An epic telling that will profoundly recalibrate our understanding of its true place in the tide of human history