"The 30th Division & The Battle of Mortain and..." Topic

… Hill 317 -- Heroism Is Never Out Of Date.

"The Battle Of Mortain and Hill 317 show was a group of determined men can do. Though surrounded and out-numbered, they used everything at their grasps to knock the Germans off long enough to be relieved. This is their story…..

In repelling at Mortain the first large scale German counterattack launched after the Allied invasion of Normandy, two months to the day, brave men, though outnumbered, stood and outfought an enemy who had surrounded part of them, who threatened to isolate the rest of them, and who almost destroyed them all.
Confused fighting at close range, infiltration and counter infiltration, action by small dispersed groups, operating in a battle area rather than along established front lines, the story is not unlike the combat envisioned for the future.
How the American commanders reacted is a story of courage, of the unabashed assumption of risks, and of confidence in the ability of the American fighting man, in short, an inspiring example of command.
And for those who are curious about "the other side of the hill", it may be of interest to learn of an attack, that in its essentials, was the prototype of the Ardennes counter offensive launched by Hitler's forces four months later.
The German situation on 1 August 1944 was desperate. General Bradley had parlayed his American troops from a limited breakthrough operation, into a wide open, fast moving end run that outflanked the German defensive lines in Normandy, for a distance of thirty miles. From Avranches, Patton's Third Army swung south and west into Brittany, while First Army's Lt. Gen. C.H. Hodges, pivoted eastward on the first stage of a projected advance toward the Seine River…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Great book on Mortain, Victory at Mortain: Stopping Hitler's Panzer Copunteroffensive, pub by KU Press, written by Mark J. Reardon, 2002. Also useful website of the 30th division.

I have it!.

Amicalement
Armand