Moving Toward St. Lo

While the First Army and the 300th Engineers were slowly moving south toward St. Lo, the Third Army, under the leadership of Lt. General George S. Patton, was moving north and west to cross the Vire River and also on to St. Lo. The Germans had destroyed all bridges in the region while barely holding on to St. Lo and the surrounding area. With the crossing of the Vire River by the Third Army on July 7, the Germans were now pressed from all sides.

On July 11, the First Army began its assault on St. Lo along a ten-mile front. St. Lo, with a peacetime population of 11,000, was located on low ground at a loop in the Vire River. It was surrounded by hills and main transportation arteries traversed it in every direction making it a vital supply and troop crossroads in the German war machine.

The attack was slow-moving and was supported by artillery and air attacks on the city. German forces held on and the fighting for every foot of ground was brutal and costly. During the 12 days from July 4 to 15, ammunition expenditure was greater than at any other period during the first two months of the European campaign.

The complete fall of St. Lo came on July 17-18. The American First and Third Armies found a shell of the former town of St. Lo. Almost no building or structure was untouched by the fierce fighting. In its place, they found gaunt walls, crumbled masonry and twisted vehicles buried in the rubble. It was as if the entire Normandy Campaign had been summed up in this one town. Enemy shells continued to hit St. Lo for several days and German planes made one last attempt to regain control by bombing the town on July 19.

Operation Cobra was a mission by Allied forces to break through German lines immediately after the total destruction of St. Lo. General Omar Bradley called for some 3000 Allied planes to blast through an opening by carpet bombing a three and a half by one mile rectangle outside St. Lo.

The area to be bombed was marked by red smoke but the wind blew it over American lines. Twenty-five of the men of the 30th Infantry were killed and 131 wounded by the Allied bombs. On the second day of the massive bombing, again the red smoke drifted toward American lines. This time 111 American infantry were killed and nearly 500 wounded. The 300th lost two men from Co. C - Pvt. Kenneth Costeel and PFC Eugene W. Hutchison. Five or six others of the 300th were injured.

Although Operation Cobra was the worst American friendly-fire incident in the entire war, it severely damaged the German forces, equipment and moral. The bombings were followed by fifty thousand artillery shells. It was only two days later that the First Army broke through the German lines and began to cover ground at a much faster pace toward Germany.

By the end of July, Allied forces had made slow progress driving the Germans back. They were less than half way across France by July 24 (D-Day plus 48 days). The original objective was to be at this same position five days after D-Day. To this point, Allied forces had suffered 122,000 casualties while the Germans estimated losses at 117,000.

Patton's Third Army was now openly operational. His role in France had been kept secret for some time as his supposed presence in England continued the hoax of another pending Allied landing near Calais, France. A 12th Army Group was formed with General Omar Bradley in command. The First Army (including the 300th Engineers) was under the command of Lt. General Courtney Hodges. Although Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower was in overall command in Europe, the First Army at that time was under the operational control of British General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery.

By the time the 300th moved through the city of St. Lo around August 6, the city lay in ruins from the heavy bombing and fierce battles. Although sustaining heavy damage, the only building left standing was the Cathedral of Notre-Dame with its tall spires rising above the smoking rubble.

Don Ross described his experiences in France:

July 12, 1944 [France] - The fields are all lined by hedgerows, with a drainage ditch on either side, most important roads are paved. They [the Germans] sure are a bunch of stubborn buzzards. They had poles and every kind of obstacle imaginable stuck out in the open fields to prevent our planes from landing. There is a load of souvenirs lying around. The old M1 is never move than an arm's distance away at any time. When I sleep it comes right to bed with me. In almost every field there are a few cows or horses, what are left. A lot of them were killed and lying dead in the fields. There was also a hell of a load of damn good Germans or what was left of them - I mean dead. There's about 10 cows in the field now and one of the boys was riding them a while back.

July 31, 1944 [France] - Contrary to public opinion, I don't sleep in a foxhole, got a whole damn trailer to myself and I've made a little home and office out of it. When the guns start a roaring at night the damn thing waltzes around the field. If the stuff gets to coming too close, I just hit the ditch. Usually don't hear it until it gets right on top of us as our engines are running all the time.