World War Two buffs might cite the famous destruction of the German panzer division LEHR on the road south of St Lo on Day 1 of Operation Cobra (July, 1944). The LEHR had been dug in for several days, as the road from St Lo to Avranches was the only practical route out of Western Normandy.
The area of approximately two miles by five miles, where LEHR was estimated to be dug in, was carpet bombed by hundreds of B-17's, B-24's, and B-25's. The destruction of the division was complete, and the few survivors who stumbled out of the target area were observed to have gone mostly insane, deaf, etc., and had to be removed from the theatre.
The operation, however, was far from a total military success. As with the Battle of the Somme in the first war, the terrain south of St Lo was so torn up and churned that the motorized infantry following up advanced more slowly than if they had simply engaged the under-fueled Panzer LEHR and taken the road. Perhaps more incredible: After their defeat in Normandy, the Germans completely rebuilt LEHR, and it was a major force in the Bastogne area in the Battle of the Bulge... |
