They dropped and rose and fought again, then dropped again... and still they fought. Ripping, blasting, tearing through the woods, at last they saw before them clear, open country beyond. Vicious high velocity fire soon made their position untenable, and at nightfall the assaulting elements moved slightly back to prepare the night's defenses.

All night the Battalion aid men, working hard, carried rations and water to the men on the line, carried the wounded to the rear. Decimated beyond recognition (52 % casualties), the Battalion reformed that night as a single group.

On the following day the Division attacked once more. Weakened as it was, there was no stopping it now. Like a tightly wound clock that wouldn't stop no matter how the parts were beaten and bent, the 90^th struck and continued to strike until the cream of the enemy's armies, the mighty and invincible parachutists who had scourged the nations of Europe, hesitated, cracked, broke and ran.

At the same time the 357^th, striking in strength, overwhelmed the defenders of Beau-Coudray and advanced virtually unopposed to the south. All along the Division front the enemy withdrew. The Mahlman Line was broken.

Four days later the 90^th reached its assigned objectives. For thirteen days, without relief, they had battered themselves against a determined foe. And now they dropped wearily to the earth, and slept.

With the VIII Corps on the right and VII Corps on the left, a new offensive was planned, an offensive designed to push out of the narrow neck of the Normandy peninsula and into the plains of France. The 90^th's mission in the scheme of things was to drive south along the Périers / Saint-Sauveur-Lendelin road.

During the brief lull preceding the battle the 90^th surveyed its positions and studied the terrain to be taken. Directly in its path and immediately in front was an obstacle, formidable and heavily defended. If the division was to make progress in the coming offensive that obstacle must first be surmounted. The decision was made and plans were perfected to eliminate the enemy stronghold... the Island.

The Island was so called because of the surrounding terrain features. Bounded on the north by the River Sèves and on all other sides by treacherous swamps and bogs, it was shaped like a deflated football approximately three kilometers in length and one kilometer in width. The only path of approach was across the Sèves, and the only path to the Sèves was open terrain too well observed by the strongly entrenched enemy.

- 15 -

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