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The battle of Normandy :
Beyond the beachhead
Mulberry Harbours
De Gaulle comes to Bayeux
The battle of the Cotentin and the
fall of Cherbourg
The battle for Caen
The war of the Hedgerows
Operation
"Cobra" : the break-out
The Allied
Thrust
and the Mortain
Counter-Attack
the falaise pocket
the role of the aviation in the
battle of Normandy
the end of the battle of Normandy
Normandy's martyrdom
in exchange for France's freedom
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The Battle of
Normandy lasted nearly three months – far longer than Allied strategists had
anticipated.
The battle to extend the bridgehead was won within ten days
and, after a hard-fought struggle, the port of Cherbourg was captured at the
end of June, but it was then that all their problems started.
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The Bessin
and the Cotentin were only liberated with the greatest of difficulty by the
Americans |
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July was the blackest month for the Allies. The
British and Canadians were kept at bay north of Caen by German armoured
divisions. Only on July 19th was the city entirely liberated. During
this time, the Americans made little headway in the Cotentin Peninsula, bogged
down in the war of the hedgerows and managing to capture Saint-Lô with only the
greatest difficulty on July 18th.
Then, at the end of July, their luck changed. The successful outcome to
Operation Cobra allowed the Americans to smash through the enemy defences and
sweep southwards into Brittany and towards the Loire. |
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The siege of Caen lasted a month |
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At the
beginning of August, the failure of the Mortain counter-attack, ordered by
Hitler, hastened the rout of the German armies, which were now threatened with
encirclement. They were partially wiped out in the Falaise Pocket at the end of
the month, and those soldiers who escaped were left with no choice but to
evacuate the rest of Normandy, cross the Seine and head back to Germany. |
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Tens
of thousands of German soldiers were made prisoner during the final phase of
the battle |
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