On to St. Lo with the VII Corps

Gen. Omar Bradley,
"The Soldier's General"

Gen. Omar Bradley’s plan was to have the VIII Corps move 20 miles down the coast to the cathedral town of Coutances while the VII Corps moved toward St. Lo. With this accomplished, he expected all of his troops to be out of the marshlands and on firm ground where they could launch armor toward Avranches, the entrance to Brittany.

Once again attached to the VII Corps, the 474^th provided its supply line with ack-ack defense and engaged the Luftwaffe in six raids involving nine enemy planes on July 18-19 near St. Jean de Daye. The 474^th received credit for one Cat I and four Cat IIs, with four of them being Me 109s and one a FW 190.

July 15-20 the battalion’s mission was to defend the VII Corps field artillery of the 18^th and 188^th Field Artillery Groups. As the batteries moved toward St. Jean de Daye, they could tell that the 1^st Army was preparing for a big battle, with ordnance depots, hospitals and all manner of supplies spread along either side of the highway. Jack’s battery, A, ended up at La Nicollerie with the 91st Field Artillery.

The buildup they’d seen along the way, they would soon learn, was for a battle referred to as Cobra. Cobra called for a massive air bombardment on a narrow stretch along the Periers-St. Lo highway. Situated near Le Desert, just 3,000 yards way, most of the battalion had front-row seats for the action:

St. Lo

About 9 a.m. some of the men were watching a squadron of P-47s strafe, when they heard a rumble behind them. Turning around they saw three triangular formations of Flying Fortresses, and behind them as far as the eye could see were such formations. They seemed to go all the way back to England, as indeed they did. As the planes droned overhead at 8,000 feet, the men could see the bomb doors open, and then some could see with the naked eye the bombs falling while others watched with field glasses. German shrapnel came up to meet the planes, and the men could hear it whistling down around them as the bombardment went on. It was too entrancing a sight to leave.²⁶ 

The statistics were overwhelming:²⁷

• 1,500 Forts and Liberators led the raid, each carrying 40 to 100 bombs; enough to create 60,000 craters.
• 396 medium and 350 fighter bombs followed with 500-pound general purpose bombs and 260-pound fragmentation bombs.
• Planes bombed the 3.5-mile by 1.5-mile area with 5,000 tons of high-explosive, jellied gasoline and white phosphorous bombs for more than two hours.
• 111 Americans were killed and 490 wounded by “friendly fire” when bombs fell short.

 “I remember that day the American planes dropped the bombs and killed so many American soldiers,” Jack adds. “You never heard such a loud roar when the bombs started down. We didn’t know what to do. We finally ran for a nearby stone farmhouse that was unoccupied, and still we didn’t feel safe.”

From July 28 to July 31, A and B Batteries gave anti-aircraft protection to the 2^nd Armored Command Post, division trains and armored field artillery battalion, and the 62^nd Field Artillery, a 105 outfit. “As the day broke on July 30, hundreds of destroyed vehicles and wagons, innumerable dead horses, and the miscellaneous wreckage of defeat lay scattered over the countryside as the battle of the Cotentin ended,” The Maverick Outfit concludes.²⁸

But it wasn’t over yet. A and B Batteries reverted to battalion control. Some of the men dug in the half-tracks while others prepared foxholes, when just at twilight a lone German plane flew low over the battleground.

As soon as darkness arrived, a second German plane appeared and dropped a series of beautiful flares, which were misleading by their beauty because they always preceded an air raid. Sure enough, within minutes the air was filled with the rumble of many German bombers, and seconds later the dreaded whistle of falling bombs filled the air to be followed by the crash and roar of the explosions. It was like a Fourth of July celebration at the fairgrounds at home, what with the pretty flares and the noise of the explosions, except that everyone had to fight a feeling of panic and desire to get up and run, just run and run and run. But there was no place to run to, except to the nearest foxhole or, if this was filled, to find a little fold in the field. Some panicked and jumped out of the foxhole and ran across the field to a bridge abutment which was made of concrete and afforded more protection. But one couldn’t run as far as he would have liked to, because it was raining death. Most were content to clutch the dirt and didn’t care if several others were on top of him. They didn’t seem heavy…For an hour a dozen bombers combed the area. Through a minor miracle the road cleared of traffic just before the bombing began, and although it was pockmarked by anti-personnel bombs, none of the convoy troops was struck, although A Battery suffered several casualties…And strangely enough, with all their efforts, the Germans missed the bridges.²⁹  

The Three Faces of Jack: Cocky, Determined, Pensive

Although The Maverick Outfit gives the date as July 31, Jack’s Army discharge papers say July 29, and the diary of Dr. Louis Small, who checked the wound the next day, says July 28, this seems to be the same scene Jack describes when he explains how he was wounded. “It was sometime during these events that we were bombed and strafed by enemy planes at night. I was standing behind the half-track while two other fellows were firing at the planes. The Germans had dropped flares, and at times you could catch a reflection on the plane’s body. The enemy dropped several series of anti-personnel bombs, and a small piece of metal made a razor-like cut on my left hand—very superficial. When the medic came around in the morning, he treated it and put me in for a Purple Heart.

“We drove through the area several days later at maybe five miles per hour,” Jack continues, “but the dust hadn’t settled. There were huge craters, wrecked enemy tanks and plenty of junk. A complete elite Panzer division was destroyed. Stories were told of enemy troops walking around without weapons or helmets, wondering where they were.”

From July 20 through Aug. 25, the 474^th’s gun crews engaged the enemy in 11 raids involving 46 planes. Claims were submitted for the destruction of 11 and the possible destruction of six. Officially, the outfit received credit for 5.5 Cat Is and six Cat IIs. While with the 2^nd Armored Division, A and B Batteries had two raids involving seven aircraft, destroying two for sure and two others possibly.³⁰