From D-Day to V-Day
July 1944
July 3, 1944 - D-Day + 27
“Battle of the Hedgerows”
The First Army used its western flank to launch the main offensive which the history books would later call the “Battle of the Hedgerows”. The US VIII Corps attacked towards La Haye du Puits with its units, the 79th Infantry, 82nd Airborne and 9th Infantry Divisions, in the south along the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula; the rainfall that day held back the attack and made it impossible for air support to be provided. The units’ advance was also restricted by enemy resistance in the rows of hedges. The 82nd Airborne Division conquered Hill 131 northeast of La Haye du Puits.
The legendary hedgerows represented a real problem for the Allies – infantrymen found the hedges difficult to penetrate, and tanks also had major problems getting through the dense rows. In addition, the enemy could hide practically anywhere in the hedges. Sergeant Culin came up with an ingenious invention that allowed the Allies to literally cut through the thickets of roots and branches: he welded the tips of steel “hedgehogs” – which, as the legend has it, had been seized by the Germans on the territory of pre-1938 Czechoslovakia – onto the tank’s front hull.
On the German side, the Army Command in the West changed when Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt was replaced by Field Marshal Günther von Kluge.
On this same day, five Czechoslovak crews from the No. 311 Squadron took off from Predannack Airfield to carry out regular patrols over the English Channel as part of Operation Cork. Czechoslovak fighter pilots were also busy that day, with the No. 313 Squadron sending several aircraft up to patrol between Montdidier and Beauvais.
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