Battle Zone Normandy: Battle for St-Lo Hardcover - 2004

From the publisher

The name of the town of St-Lo has a powerful resonance for American Normandy veterans. Both the German defenders and the Allies were aware that the town was the strategic key to western Normandy. St-Lo had already been subjected to a massive bombardment campaign before D Day, as it formed the hub of the local road network. Major General Charles H. Gerhardt, commander of US 29th Infantry Division which landed at Omaha on 6 June, was ordered to capture the town by D plus 9 (15 June). The scene was set for a trial of strength between the opposing sides which would decide the fate of the Normandy campaign. the American threat from Carentan, captured on 12 June. By concentrating their defences twelve miles inland, these German forces halted the US advance before St-Lo, despite costly American attacks in the difficult bocage countryside. The town fell to 29th Infantry Division on 18 July, the decimated American attackers finally taking possession of its cratered landscape in which hardly a building remained standing. Over a month later than planned, St-Lo's occupation opened the way for the Allies' advance to the Seine river and victory in Normandy.