THE BOCAGE BREAKTHROUGH Volume 1, 30 July – 16 August 1944

On 25 July 1944, General Bradley's US First Army launched Operation Cobra from the Saint-Lô sector: the German lines were breached. General Montgomery then mounted an operation to support and protect the American flank, to crack open the Caumont-l'Éventé hinge and prevent German troops from using Mont-Pinçon and the surrounding hills as a defensive base.
The operation was codenamed "Bluecoat". In this first volume, the author presents — for the first time in such detail — the bocage breakthrough in the sector of the British XXX Corps which, although often described as a failure, resulted in the capture of Mont-Pinçon, a height deemed strategically vital since the planning of Overlord. From 9 to 15 August, following the capture of Mont-Pinçon, British units advanced towards the Noireau: this was Operation Blackwater and the liberation of Condé-sur-Noireau.

Cahagnes, Jurques, Amayé-sur-Seulles, Villers-Bocage, Villy-Bocage, Ondefontaine, Monts-en-Bessin, Aunay-sur-Odon, Mont-Pinçon, le Plessis-Grimoult, Saint-Pierre-la-Vieille, Berjou, Condé-sur-Noireau… so many names that symbolise the bitterness of the fighting waged by British units to break through the bocage during the first fifteen days of August 1944. Curator of the Battle of Tilly-sur-Seulles Museum, the author has drawn on numerous photographs, maps and testimonies — largely unpublished — as well as on the unit war diaries.

It presents, day by day and hour by hour, the bocage fighting during Operations Bluecoat and Blackwater, which pitted British soldiers and armour against the Germans in sweltering heat. The fighting took place over difficult terrain and resulted in the destruction of numerous villages. Cahagnes, Villers-Bocage, Aunay-sur-Odon and Condé-sur-Noireau were thus liberated in ruins, and the civilian population paid a heavy price in the battle.