Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Normandy 1944
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Normandy Invasion

Breakout, August 1944 > Operation Cobra
Photograph:U.S. infantrymen get a lift from Sherman tanks during the breakout from Normandy, August 1944.
U.S. infantrymen get a lift from Sherman tanks during the breakout from Normandy, August 1944.
AP
Video:General George S. Patton's Third Army breaking out of Normandy; from The True …
General George S. Patton's Third Army breaking out of Normandy; from The True …
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Map/Interactive:Animated map of the Allied breakout from Normandy, France, July–August 1944. View the attack …
Animated map of the Allied breakout from Normandy, France, July–August 1944. View the attack …
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

By July 25, with most of the German tanks drawn westward by the British Goodwood offensive, the Americans faced a front almost denuded of armour. Reinforcement gave them a clear superiority in tank and infantry divisions, while the Allied Expeditionary Force had the bombardment power to devastate the Germans in their path. Operation Cobra, scheduled for July 25, opened with a devastating air attack (some of which fell on the waiting GIs). Through the gap thus opened, the U.S. First Army sped toward Avranches, taken on July 30. At this point George S. Patton's newly formed Third Army joined in the advance. A massive American spearhead now threatened to drive into Brittany and, by a left turn, to encircle the Germans in Normandy from the rear.

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