Operation Cobra
▶ Explore on the mapOperation Cobra was the American breakout from the Normandy beachhead, launched on 25 July 1944 west of Saint-Lo. After a massive carpet-bombing that pulverised the German front line and also caused American casualties, VII Corps attacked through the gap, and armoured columns drove south and west towards Avranches. The German defences in the sector had been thinned to feed the battle around Caen, and the Americans reached Avranches by the end of July, opening the way into Brittany and the open country beyond. The success transformed the campaign: what had been a slow war of position in the hedgerows became a war of movement. Within days the newly activated Third Army under Patton was driving east and south, and the German front in the west began to collapse. The point recorded here is an approximate location for the battle area. The speed of the advance exceeded expectations, and supply lines were stretched as the armoured columns outran their fuel; the breakout also opened the Brittany ports to attack, though most were found wrecked by the retreating Germans.
Sources
- Wikimedia Commons — Charnwood (SVG, by EyeSerene)
- Wikimedia Commons — Operations Greenwood and Pomegranate, Normandy, July 1944 (EN.svg)
- Wikimedia Commons — Operation Tractable (SVG, by EyeSerene)
- Wikipedia — 352nd Infantry Division (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Falaise pocket (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Normandy landings (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Wikipedia — Operation Overlord (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Related
Reuse this data: open dataset (GeoJSON / CSV, CC BY 4.0)