Word: argentan
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...opportunity that comes to a commander not more than once in a century," he gloated to a visitor from Washington. "We are about to destroy an entire hostile army." As the Germans plunged westward, Bradley began creating an enormous pincer to encircle them. Patton's tanks raced eastward toward Argentan while the British moved south from Caen toward
Shrinking Salient. Last week Patton's wedge was only 13 miles from the First Army dents in the north. The German position was something like that in the Falaise-Argentan pincers of last summer. Could the Germans get out? It was well to remember that last summer, when the Wehrmacht was less ably commanded than it is now, the Germans who had seemed hopelessly bottled in the Falaise trap were able to extricate five divisions of armor almost intact. If Rundstedt was content with the delay and damage already wrought against his foes in the west, he might...
...breakthrough at Saint-Lô which began the battle of France. For the latter, he had an unheard-of number of heavy bombers laying down a tactical preparation (causing some U.S. casualties), and he had not only regiments but divisions attacking in column. Bradley also designed the Argentan-Falaise pincers, and the scythelike sweeps to the Seine which ruined the German Seventh Army. His rush to the German border was a bid to knock out German resistance once & for all, before his supply lines snapped. He was philosophical about not winning that one: nobody can win them...
...capture of Caen, they were held down and unmercifully pounded by German 88s. Grimly they hung on, giving U.S. Lieut. General Omar Bradley time to take Cherbourg. Grimly, after the surprise U.S. breakthrough at Saint-Lô, they pushed down and held the north arm of the Falaise-Argentan pincer. Only when that was done could the Canadians themselves wheel and cross the Seine...
Some U.S. tank columns zigzagged to set up the final trap against the Seine, but that and the original Argentan-Falaise pocket were now of lesser importance. The 1944 versions of Sheridan's cavalry crunched over the Seine, ground around Paris. They could now prevent formation of any line short of the Rhine...