Despite Allied success in getting ashore in Normandy, the lodgment secured by the beginning of July was much smaller than had been anticipated. Because the British seemed stalled before Caen, Bradley’s First Army initiated on July 3 the offensive that became known as the battle of the hedgerows. The hedgerows are walls, half earth and [...]

Middleton’s 8th Corps, now under the Third Army, turned west from Avranches and entered Brittany. One armored division drove to Rennes and then to Lorient, another armored division drove to Brest, and an infantry division moved to St.-Malo. The entrance of American troops into Brittany chased the Germans into these port cities, as well as [...]

The climactic incident in the Normandy campaign was the liberation of Paris, which occurred almost by accident. In order to avoid a battle that would damage the French capital and inflict casualties on its inhabitants, General Eisenhower intended originally to bypass Paris. Hitler for his part wished to retain the city for the prestige involved, [...]