Periers ... Coutances ... Avranches

The night was uneventful, but on Sunday, July 30, the Battery's halftracks moved forward to take up their first firing positions, defending a field artillery bivouac area at Sortosville before moving on the next day to Periers. Periers turned out to be a fresh battlefield, filled with the stench of death. The fields were dotted with bloated dead cows, burned-out tanks, abandoned equipment and dead German soldiers. Most of the dead were temporarily covered with earth but here and there an arm or a leg could be seen protruding from the shallow graves.

Elements of what would soon become the Third Army were exploding into action under the direction of General Patton. Unlike his predecessors who believed that an attack should be led by infantrymen supported by tanks, Patton wanted his armor to lead the way, followed by the infantry. The results of this philosophy would soon be seen, surprising Hitler and the German high command.

The 4th and 6th Armored Divisions led the attack converging on the pivotal coastal city of Avranches. The fantastic speed of the attack and its constantly changing directions threw the Germans completely off base. The 4th Armored roared on through Avranches several miles south and captured intact the bridge over the Seune River at Pontebault. The breakout from Normandy had been achieved. Over this one bridge, Patton tunneled seven divisions in the next 72 hours!

Finally free from the choking hedgerows of the Normandy peninsula, the new Third Army could fan out both east and west. One column led by the 6th Armored headed west for the Atlantic coast while our Battalion headed east as part of Maj. Gen. Wade E. Haislip's XV Corps. The Germans were about to learn a lot about this major unit of Patton's army!

The night was black as ink as we moved through Coutances and down the road to the pivotal road junctions at Avranches. This area had been fiercely contested, and as we turned the corner to head east we could see piles of German dead, stacked almost like cordwood alongside the road.

We stopped a few kilometers down the road and paused while the tanks and infantry cleared away German resistance in front of us. While we were stopped, several Luftwaffe bombers made their appearance overhead as they sought to destroy bridges in our 10-mile wide supply corridor. At 0100 the Battery's guns went into action for the first time. A Junkers JU-88 bomber silhouetted against the moon was hit and sent plunging to the ground. Now the gunners were confident of their skills, any self-doubts and stomach butterflies were gone and the men of the Battery were really ready for action!