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Normandy Hedgerows
Normandy Hedgerows
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII Germany > The ETO  > Normandy Campaign > After D-Day, © 2026 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 31 Dec 2025
Content herein will be moved to other webpages.
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For the seven weeks after D-Day, the Allies slowly fought their way inland, the Americans on the right (west) and the British and other allies on the left (east) of the Allied front. 
Elements of two Allied armies, comprising the 21st Army Group and commanded by British General Bernard Montgomery, landed on D-Day:
  • Omar Bradley's US First Army on Utah and Omaha Beaches and from the air.
  • Miles Dempsey's British Second Army on Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches and from the air.​
The German 7th Army and later the 5th Panzer Army and elements of the 15th Army resisted their advance.

After the June 6 D-Day, thousands of additional personnel, along with many thousand tons of supplies, continued to land each day on the invasion beaches. Two artificial harbors were constructed and eventually the port of Cherbourg became available, but logistics remained a serious issue until the port of Antwerp to the north became operational in late November.
Normandy Campaign Timeline, June - July 1944
  • 6 June - Operation Overlord - Allies D-Day invasion.
  • 7 June - Bayeux captured.
  • 11 June - Carentan captured.
  • 14 June - XIX Corps, First Army goes operational.
  • 14 June - Free French leader Charles DeGaulle visits Bayeux after four years in exile.
  • 15 June - VIII Corps, First Army goes operational.
  • 17 June - First Army cuts off Cotentin Peninsula.
  • 27 June - Cherbourg, the first large port, seized.
  • 30 June - German resistance in Cotentin Peninsula ends.
  • 7 July - Allies bomb Caen and British and Canadians occupy north part of city.
  • 18 July - British and Canadians begin Operation Goodwood, capturing remainder of Caen.
  • 19 July - Artificial Mulberry Harbor A off  Omaha Beach destroyed by storm. Mulberry B off Arromanches heavily used through November.
  • 19 July - St. Lo, by now a destroyed city, seized by U.S. First Army.​
  • 23 July - Canadian First Army goes operational.
  • 25 July - Operation Cobra begins the Normandy breakout.
  • 31 July - XV Corps goes operational.

The US advance was hindered by the bocage country through which they fought. This rural landscape consisted of open fields, mostly pastures, enclosed by ancient hedgerows, often with sunken lanes between the fields. As the German Army retreated hedgerow by hedgerow, US casualties grew.

Meanwhile, British and Canadian forces moved south in largely open country, losing large numbers of tanks in several battles with German armor.
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Normandy Jun-Jul 1944
Normandy, June - July 1944
The Bocage Country
The Bocage Country
Growing the Beachhead - The Advance Through the Hedgerows
Normandy Hedgerow
Normandy Hedgerow
The Rhino Tank
The Rhino, a modified Sherman tank, effective at penetrating hedgerows.
The Battle of St. Lo
St. Lo, the capital of the Manche Department of France's Normandy Region, is an important road center, and thus was importance to the ETO.

During the Battle of St. Lo, from 7 to 19 July 1944, around 3,000 US troops of the First Army's XIX Corps died, along with hundreds of French civilians. St. Lo was destroyed.

XIX Corps consisted of the 29th, 30th, and 35th Infantry Divisions at the time.

Operation Cobra, spearheaded by VII Corps began in the St. Lo area on 25 July 1944.
St. Lo - Summer 1944
St. Lo 1944
The official Normandy Campaign ended on 24 July. Remaining combat in Normandy is summarized in the Liberation > Operation Cobra (the remainder of July) and Liberation > Normanndy, August 1944 webpages.
Sources for Big Pigeon's The ETO > Normandy Campaign > After D-Day webpage:
General Sources:
  • Cross-Channel Attack, by Gordon A. Harrison, 1950, ~495 pp. [CMH #7-4]; see Chapters IX, The V Corps Lodgment & Chapter X, The Capture of Cherbourg.
​Sources for webpage images: (C/O = courtesy of)