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Battle of the Hedgerows - Bradley's First Army in Normandy

$28.95

By Leo Daugherty
Published in 2001 by Ian Allen, UK
Hardcover, 224 Pages
Size - 27.5cm * 20.5cm

Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, was an unqualified success, and in the days after the landings tens of thousands of troops poured ashore and advanced inland. General Omar Bradley's US First Army`s as well prepared for a mobile war, and had lavish quantities of tanks, stream-crossing and bridging equipment, and trucks. However, as they headed inland in Normandy his men encountered terrain that dashed their expectations of a fluid campaign: the bocage. The Battle of the Hedgerows is the story of the campaign of the US First Army over seven slogging weeks in June and July 1944.

Although the German defenders were both outnumbered and outgunned, they had a crucial advantage: hedges. The bocage is divided into into 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 artillery, machine guns and mortars took a heavy toll of US troops in the fighting.

In addition, many of the GIs and their commanders were inexperienced having never seen combat before. Their opponents, on the other hand. the troops of the Seventh Army, though deficient in air and artillery support, were seasoned veterans, especially the NCOs. As The Battle of the Hedgerows shows, the fighting consisted of thousands of field-by-field infantry battles which were sometimes disturbingly reminiscent of the Western Front in World War I.

Illustrated throughout with clear and concise colour maps, black and white photographs and first-hand accounts, The Battle of the Hedgerows is a rivetting account of war at its most basic level where, in a 17-day struggle, the US First Army suffered 40,000 casualties. But at the end it had become a battle-hardened formation.

'Usually we could not get through the hedge without hacking a way through it. This of course took time, and a German machine gun can fire a lot of rounds in a very short time. Sometimes the hedges themselves were not thick, but it still took time for the infantrymen to climb up the bank and scramble over, during which time he was a luscious target, and when he got over the Germans knew exactly where he was.. All in all it was very discouraging to the men who had to go first... anyone who actually fought in the hedgerows realizes that at best the going was necessarily slow, and that a skillful, defending force could cause great delay and heavy losses to an attacking force many times stronger.' - US platoon commander in the Normandy hedgerows, July 1944

* An account of one of the bloodiest months in US military history
* First-hand accounts from veterans of both sides
* Comprehensive US and German orders of battle and casualty figures
* Full-colour maps of the campaign in the Normandy hedgerows
* Organization and equipment details on German and US divisions
* Over 100 photographs of the fighting in the Normandy bocage

Fully Illustrated