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 critical time,” he said. “We’re going to throw the book at them.” Major Thomas Howie, newly appointed to command the 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry, was ordered to attack La Madeleine, where troops of the 2nd Battalion had been cut off, and then make a thrust directly into the city.
Prior to the pre-dawn July 17 attack, Howie told his men “to keep going no matter what.” Only two men per platoon were allowed to fire their rifles; the others were ordered to use bayonets and hand grenades. The idea was to achieve total surprise.
The 3rd Battalion jumped off before sunrise and quickly broke through the German line, reaching La Madeleine at first light. The highway into the city was now open.
Howie called his company commanders together to discuss the situation. “We had just finished the meeting,” Captain William Puntenney, Howie’s executive officer, recalled. “The COs had just been dismissed, and before they could get back to their companies, the Germans began dropping a mortar barrage around our ears. Before taking cover in one of our foxholes, Major Howie turned to take one last look to make sure all his men had their heads down. Without warning, one of the shells hit a few yards away. A fragment struck the major in the back and pierced his lung. ‘My God I’m hit,’ he murmured, and I saw he was bleeding at the mouth. As he fell, I caught him. He was dead in two minutes.”
The Final Push Into
Captain Puntenney immediately took command of the battalion and called in artillery and airstrikes on the German positions. As the Blue and Gray reached the outskirts of St. Lô, they were met with heavy German machine gun fire from positions inside a cemetery. In the battle that ensued, American riflemen and tankers exchanged fire with German machine guns and 88s through a labyrinth of gravestones. Because of overwhelming fire superiority, the tide of the battle eventually turned in favor of the Americans, and the Germans pulled out.
The battle for the city turned each block into a miniature battlefield. Positioned in two- and three-story buildings, German snipers fired from the windows, while others tried to make last stands behind piles of rubble.
On July 18, General Meindl began to see the writing on the wall and requested permission to evacuate the city. Mindful that his defenses were too weak to hold the city, theater commander Paul Hausser permitted Meindl to withdraw his men southward, save for a delaying force to hold off the Americans as long as possible. The next morning, after 18 days of hedgerow fighting, St. Lô finally fell.
The Family Connection
As I thought about the results of the Battle of the Hedgerows that ended on this day in history. I thought of my mother’s brother Pfc. James Ashton. I knew he died in the Battle of the Hedgerows. However,, I wasn’t sure about the date of his death. Jimmy died in July 17, 1944!
So if Jimmy wasn’t one of the two men chosen to fire rifles on entering St.Lô he may have entered the city using only a bayonet and hand grenades. I can’t even imagine! Jim you have even become a bigger hero in my eyes.
My mother,needless to say, was devastated by the death of her brother. Jimmy had just turned 19 years old on June 17th. While she had just turned 16 on June 12th.Here’s a photo that was in her photo album… must have been hard to write the inscription.
Links for the Further Exploration of the Battle of the Hedgerows
HistoryNet
Youtube:
Wikipedia:The Battle of St Lô
