The Battle of the Hedgerows Ends July 18, 1944
Today in History July 18- The Battle of the Hedgerows Ends with a Family Connection While most people are familiar with D-Day June 6,1944, many myself included, don’t know much about what happened next. From July 11th to July 18th the US and German forces fought for control over the city of St. Lô. St. Lô was key to the US Army’s breaking out of Normandy into the French hinterland. Because the US forces had to fight their way through fortified hedgerows that separated field, the battles became the Battle of the Hedgerows. From HistoryNet. On the morning of July 11, 1944, the 116th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, advanced toward Martinville Ridge, two miles east of St. Lô. The German defenders were deployed in ideal positions along a sunken road fortified with barbwire and mines…. ….Captain Charles Cawthon, 2nd Battalion executive officer, recalled the horror: “A pall of smoke was over the fields, holding in it the sweet, sickening stench of high explosives, which we had come to associate with death. The attacking riflemen, visibly shrunk in numbers, crouched behind the farthermost hedgerow while volumes of artillery, mortar, tank and machine gun fire flailed the fields beyond.”….. The Armies battled among the natural hedgerows that bordered and separated fields in the region. By July 17th the Americans troops had reached Hill 122 and were ready to advance on St Lo. From HistoryNet …Gerhardt ordered all nine of his rifle battalions to advance on St. Lô. “This is a…
