| Thrusting forward quickly, the 357th and the
358th Regiments forced their crossings of the Merderet with the
towns of Amfreville and Pont-L'Abbé as the immediate objectives. But the
enemy was prepared. For four years they had anticipated landings in France,
and for four years they had perfected their defenses, building a wall of
steel to repel the might of the invaders. This, then was the test... an
irresistible force versus an immovable object. The hedgerows of Normandy were designed by the French to conserve the soil and to prevent erosion. But the Germans utilized them for other purposes. The hedgerows of France made ideal lines of defense. You could place a strong force of Wehrmacht defenders behind one row and cover the approaches with murderous fire from small arms. At each end of the row properly emplaced machine guns could sweep the fields before them with deadly crossfire. And suppose, somehow, the Americans succeeded in neutralizing the defenses of row number 1. In that case, row number 2 would go into action with mortars zeroed in on the fields, mortars that burst without warning, spreading fragments and death like a Scythe. And to round it off neatly, row number 3 was well defended with 88's and other artillery of assorted calibres with all possible targets within range duly noted and accurately plotted. It was an ingenious plan of defense, simple and effective. If the attacking troops succeeded in taking one row of hedges, there were miles of addition rows upon which the Germans could fall back. Advances, if they were made at all, would be costly ; so costly, in fact, that the Americans would lose heart and eventually retire to the shores of England smarting under the bloodiest defeat in military history. The German plan was a good one. The men of the 90th Division, pushing forward inch by inch and yard by yard, clinging desperately to whatever gains they could win, lashing at their enemy with guns and knives and stones and fists and sheer unadulterated guts, can testify to that. The German plan was a good one, but it had one flaw. It didn't work. The Americans had no intention of returning to England. Their course led straight through the hedgerows, out across the plains of France, across the Rhineland and to a meeting with the Russians in Hitler's own backyard. To describe the individual feats of heroism performed by members of the 90th Division during the campaign would serve no useful purpose, for many would be unintentionally slighted, and these pages would be swollen to mammoth dimensions if justice were to be done. The hedgerows slowed the 90th's attack, but each day saw new gains scored. Slowly but surely, from row to row, the veteran units of the mighty Wehrmacht fell back before the inexperienced troops with the T-O patch on their sleeves. |
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